Mike Bickle addresses the church of Sardis, emphasizing the danger of having a reputation for being alive while being spiritually dead. He highlights the need for the church to remember their past revival experiences and to cultivate a vibrant prayer life to avoid losing their spiritual vitality. Bickle calls for repentance and a return to the heart of God, warning that failure to do so may lead to loss of reward and recognition in the age to come. He reassures that Jesus, who holds the seven spirits, is ready to empower them to overcome and regain their spiritual fervor.

Revelation chapter 3, just have your Bible right there ready, in case you want to look at it, maybe a different translation. Father, we ask you in the name of Jesus right now that you would release a spirit of inspiration. God, I ask you for a spirit of impartation. You would stir us up and give us grace to follow through. In Jesus' name, Amen. We're in the middle of a series on Jesus' prophetic letters, his prophetic messages to the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation, because these messages were not only spoken for the church in that generation, but they were spoken to prepare the church for the unique events that would happen in the rest of the book of Revelation. The reason the Lord spoke these words in Revelation 2 and 3 was he understood the big picture, that when the events unfolded from chapter 6 all the way through to the end, to chapter 19 in terms of the earthly, the heavy events, that he gave the specific things the church would need to be able to be prepared for the great revival and the great trouble called the tribulation that's coming, that the church will be victorious and the church will operate in the power of God. But he was speaking prophetically to the very issues that the church would need in that hour of history to be ready. That is not in any way to minimize the value of what was in his heart for the church in that generation and also the church for 2,000 years of church history. But we don't want to lose sight of the fact that I believe that mostly what was in his heart was the church in which there would be more people, more believers on the earth than any time in history. As a matter of fact, there would be more people on the earth than all the believers added up in history and that's the generation that Jesus was targeting when he gave this message to John to give to the leaders of the church of his day. He says here in chapter 3 verse 1, the church of Sardis, to the angel, which means messenger, as we've covered each of the sessions, it can be either a heavenly messenger, an angel, or an earthly messenger, it's the same word. And I believe it's clearly an earthly messenger. He's talking to the apostolic leader of the church of Sardis. And he says, go tell that leader this, or write and give him this message. And then now the Lord introduces himself, as he does in each of the seven letters, in a particular specific way that would be necessary for them to enter in and become overcomers in the way that he's challenging them uniquely in that church. And this is the two facets of his personality and his ministry that he highlights because he knew this is what the church of Sardis would need. He presented himself as the one who has the seven spirits of God and the one that has the seven stars in his hand. We'll look at that in a few moments. The problem with the church of Sardis was they lacked the grace to follow through in terms of spiritual vigor at the heart level. They had experienced revival. They had tasted revival. They remembered revival. But they could not press in and follow through on this issue of holding fast to what they had in their early days and of watching or cultivating a life in God is what Jesus talks to them in just a moment. He says this, I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive. And that was because of what happened to them and the great revival that broke out in Acts 19 and 20. When all of Asia heard the word of God, Sardis was touched in a special way. They had a reputation throughout all of Asia for their spiritual vigor and vitality because at one time, in the early days, it was true. But they were living on the past memory. It was not a false reputation. It was in that hour, but some 40 years earlier, they really were leaders in the revival. They were still alive. But a few generations could come and go, and ministries can continue to live on the reputation of what happened a couple decades ago. He says you have a name, you have a reputation, you're alive because you really were alive. But now you're dead. You're not laying a hold of the grace to follow through, to break through at the heart level, and I want you to, I'm here to help you. I'm here to call you to follow through on this. Verse 2, He gives specifically what He's calling them. It's quite simple. Be watchful. Develop your prayer life. Develop your heart, connect with God. That's what be watchful means in one sentence. There's a few more details that I would add on the idea of watchfulness, but that's what it means in its core meaning. And strengthen the things that were deposited back in the old days when the revival first broke out. That was about 40 years ago. Strengthen the things that were deposited in that season. These things are about ready to die. They used to be mighty. You were well known for them. Jesus said, I've not found your works perfect before God, or you could put the word complete or mature. Verse 3, He calls them just like He did the church at Ephesus. These are the two churches He calls to remember. He goes, remember what you received from God. He's talking about the great revival, the great outpouring of the Spirit that happened in Asia that hit Ephesus and went to all of Asia. He told the church of Ephesus the same thing and the church of Sardis. Remember. Remember how you experienced me back when the revival broke out and the way you were dedicated to me. Hold fast. Hold fast to what we had yesterday and the past and repent and line yourself up according to the way you used to live before me. Therefore, if you will not watch, in other words, if you will not develop this prayer life and this heart connect, He says, I'm going to come upon you. I'm going to come to you as a church, as a thief. And you will not know what hour that I will come upon you. I'm going to come suddenly. I'm going to come unexpectedly. You're going to suffer loss when I come because if I come and don't find you prepared, you'll find that I will bring you into a season of discipline. You don't know the hour that I'll come upon you. Now he goes on in verse 4. And this is a correction to them. He goes, you have a few names in Sardis that have not defiled their garments. And the idea is you only have a few and you were at the very center of the revival some years ago and you only have a few that have been following through. That's the idea. Only a few of you have stayed steady, who have not defiled their garments. And they shall walk with me in white because they're worthy. Verse 5. Now he's going to give three promises to the overcomers. To he who overcomes, number one, he shall be clothed in white garments. Number two, he that overcomes, I will not blot his name from the book of life. Number three, to the one that overcomes, I will confess his name before my God and the angels. And then he gives the exhortation, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. In other words, pay close attention because what I just told you has meaning that you won't get at a superficial reading. Jesus says this seven times in the book of Revelation. And he said this seven times, he that has an ear, let him hear in the Gospels. Seven times in the Gospels, seven times in the book of Revelation. He's the only one who gave this teaching and he repeated it 14 times. And it means pay attention because what you're hearing has deeper meaning than meets the eye and you won't catch it at a superficial reading or a casual glance at this. And it means it will take a special help by the Holy Spirit to hear what I'm saying. But you can if you'll pay attention. But you will need help. Whenever those seven times in the Gospels and the seven times in the book of Revelation, whenever the Lord says, he that has an ear, let him hear, it's saying I'll give you help to understand it, but you're gonna have to be intentional about it and you have to understand you won't get it, casually or on the run or just an occasional glance at this passage. This is a passage you wanna look at carefully. Now, these three promises we'll look at in a few moments, they are not synonymous with being born again. A lot of commentators, as you read their commentaries, they'll say, well, these are promises that every born again person. No, Jesus was not offering an empty promise. He wasn't offering a promise to them that they already had. He was offering the church a promise like he did all seven. If they would enter in, they would press in and mature in these issues that he put before them. And the key to understanding the promises in the seven letters is to, the first thing is to understand in the context of that letter what overcoming meant in the context of that letter. And in this letter, it meant watching and remembering and holding fast the values and the vision they had back in the early revival. He says, if you do that, he's not saying you'll be born again. He says, I'll give you a reward. This is a special reward. They're already born again. It's not an empty promise. He's not promising that which they have anyway, regardless whether they break through on these points that he's exhorting them and correcting them on. Because if they would die that day, the believers, they would have still gone to heaven, but they would not have broken through in those areas that he called them to. So don't let anybody reduce these promises to that which every believer has automatically. It's an empty promise Jesus is offering them with no real condition. He's just mixing up his words if everybody is guaranteed this already. These promises are meant to motivate us. And as you see, we'll see in a few moments, we have years to hear it means much more than just our general entrance into the city. Roman number one, the primary message. This church is known for its past revival or its experiences in the past revival and it's known for its past devotion. They had a reputation of being alive because they really were alive. They were one of the primary areas touched. They had a special work of God that happened when the great revival broke out, which was the most powerful revival in the book of Acts, the one in Ephesians, I mean, in Acts 19 and 20, where the spirit of God broke out in Ephesus. Look at it, Acts 19, verse 9 and 10, Paul reasoned daily in the school of Tyrannus and he continued for two years and all who lived in Asia, that is Asia minor, they heard the word of God. The word of God broke out in all of Asia minor, which is modern day Turkey. And it was a revival that far surpassed in terms of its numerical impact, far surpassed what happened in Jerusalem in Acts 2 or in Antioch in Acts 11. This was the greatest revival in the New Testament. The church of Sardis was in the wake of that revival. They were dynamically touched by it. Now, notice what Paul says in Acts 20 when he's leaving the elders. He'd been there three years. He's two years at the school, but a total of three years in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus is just down the way from Sardis. He told the elders here in Acts 20, he says, take heed to yourself. He says, I know by the spirit of prophecy, some of you are going to get off course. He's talking to the eldership, the leadership of the church, of the mighty revival center of Ephesus. He says in verse 29, I mean, what a horrible prophecy. He's telling the shepherds, I mean, the leaders. He's leaving him. He goes, I've been with you three years. Here's what I know. Thus says the Lord, after I depart, savage wolves from among you. He goes, verse 30, from among yourselves, some of you will rise up and speak perverse things. You will draw men after yourself after I leave in the years that will unfold. They were all saying, not me, Lord, not me, no, Lord. And he gave them, interesting, the same exhortation that Jesus gave the church of Sardis, which is the same area. I mean, it's all right there in Asia Minor. Therefore, watch. Therefore, watch. Develop your heart. Connect with God. Remember that for the three years that I've been with you, I have faithfully spoken you the word of God. Remember what I have told you. That's the very thing Jesus tells the church of Sardis. Remember what you received. And he would surely be including what Paul taught you 40 years ago. Now, this was 40 years ago, approximately. Now, imagine the 20-year-old born in revival. They're now 60. They're now 60 years old. They've seen a lot. But now they're spiritually dead, and they're living in the memory of the fire of God in the past. And I'm not just talking about the fire of God in fiery meetings. I'm talking about in the way they encountered God at the heart level as individuals, the way they had a vibrant spirit. They'd lost it. Because you can have a vibrant spirit as an individual, even if there is not a spirit of revival on your city. But in Sardis and in all of Asia, they had a vibrant spirit as individuals, and they had a revival spirit on the city as well, the whole area. Paragraph B. Now, the church of Sardis is unique in this regard. It's like Laodicea. They had no external enemies. Of the seven churches, several of them, they were, Jesus commented on the persecution, they did not have the external enemies that some of the other churches did. Because even 10 and 20 miles away in the ancient world was sometimes like in another land. In the ancient world, you know, some of the things happening in one city did not happen in the other. They did not have the internal enemies either. Like Pergamos and Thyatira, they had teachers publicly promoting immorality. They had none of that. The problem that Sardis had was the same one that Laodicea had. Their enemy was self-imposed. It was not internal. I mean, it was not the teachers. It was not external, the persecutors of the Roman Empire or the people hostile against Christianity. It's just they couldn't get a hold of it, of their heart and follow through with God. Self-imposed. They failed to remember. They remembered how powerful Jesus touched them back in the revival when they were in their 20s. Now they're in their 60s. They had failed to respond in the way they did when they first got converted. And they failed to lay hold of the reality of how alive they really could be in their spirit. He said, I want you to remember this. Remember how alive you were for a decade or two or obviously different ones. It was different timeframes. He goes, there's only a few of you that have held the course for 40 years. He's not saying that only a few of you will go to heaven when you die. He's saying only a few of you have stayed steady the whole time. Only a few of you have not soiled their garments. Roman numeral two. Now, first, before Roman numeral two, this church of Sardis, like the one of Laodicea, is so applicable to the church in the West. I mean, it is really like, ouch, as I was preparing this. You know, all of them have a big, glorious ouch. Like, ouch, yes. Yes, Lord, let's do this. But the church of Sardis and the church of Laodicea later on in chapter of Revelation three are the two really clear descriptions of what's going on in the church in the Western world. Roman numeral two. Now, Jesus introduces himself in a very specific way as the one who has the seven spirits and the one who is holding the seven stars. Interesting, that's the same introduction he gave the church of Ephesus back in Revelation two, verses one to seven. He goes, I'm the one that holds the seven stars. Of the seven churches, he only told two of them that. He told them both to remember how God touched them back in the revival. Because I think that Sardis was parallel to Ephesus at the center of this revival, and they had a unique leadership. That is what seems apparent to me. They're well known for being spiritually alive and being powerful. Now, holding the seven stars, we find out it means the seven stars are the leaders of the seven churches. And when he says, I hold the seven stars, he's telling the church, I'm holding your apostolic leader in my hand. That doesn't mean only the apostolic leader, but as a type of the Lord's commitment to the leadership in that church. Why is it important that the leaders in the church know that the Lord would hold them in his hand, that the Lord desires to be near them and dear to them? Because they're dear to him. The Lord has not given up on them. He's holding them in his hand. And as the leaders go in the body of Christ, so the people go, as a rule. There's always some exceptions to that. There's always a few fiery guys that are going when the leaders are dead, and there's always a few that are dead when the leaders are on fire. But normally, history tells us that the people live in the same level of spirituality that their leadership does. There's a dynamic connection between what they hear in the word of God and the way they live. And the kind of people they want to hear in the word of God. They choose the ones that touch the vision that's in their heart. And the Lord knows that if the leaders are stirred up, the people will get stirred up as a rule. So whether you're leading 10, 100, or 1,000, he's telling them, I have you in my hand. I've not forgotten you. I've not let go of you. We're connected. I'm with you. You have a future if you want it. Now, he tells this to Sardis and Ephesus, two of the churches that he told to wake up. The other one he told to wake up was Laodicea. But he said, I'm holding you. I'm not giving up on you. It's still time. I'm near you. I'm connected to you. I want you connected to me at the heart level. My hand is on you. I haven't lifted my hand off of you at all. And then when he describes himself as the one that has the seven spirits, that's an obvious reference to Isaiah 11, the famous passage on the seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's the seven facets of the Holy Spirit. It will take all seven facets of the Holy Spirit's ministry for them to live and sustain a heart that's alive in the Holy Spirit. So when Jesus offers himself as the one who holds the seven spirits, he says, I am giving you the Holy Spirit. And he says, I want you to know this. You need all seven facets of this at the heart level for you to wake up spiritually and stay awake. Now, some will hear that, and they'll just kind of move on and forget it. Beloved, these seven spirits to a church that is having a struggle to follow through is an essential answer. And the fact that Jesus is holding the stars, the leaders, he's not given up on them. He's not let go of them. His hand is still on them. The hand of the Lord is still in their midst. Let's go to top of page two. Now he's going to give them correction. He says, I know your works. You have a name that you're alive, and you've the reputation. Again, it wasn't a false reputation. It's just a past one. They really were alive. They're just not now. They're living still in the afterglow of the revival that hit them 40 years ago. And it's not like the revival hit 40 years ago and lifted. I mean, it continued for some time. Nobody knows. But for some lengthy season, there was a remarkable work of God breaking out in Asia. I believe the Lord's going to return and visit the church in Turkey in a really special way. I believe there's special promises for the church in the area of Turkey, which is this area in the ancient world. He says, I know your works. You have a name. You were alive, but you're dead. He didn't say they're unsaved. That's not what he's talking about. He means spiritually you're dull. He's not calling them hopeless hypocrites. He goes, your heart isn't moving. Much of the church in the West is dead. Does it mean that they don't care about Jesus? Their heart doesn't move by the word? Their heart's not moved in the place of prayer? They have a real struggle at the heart connect with the Lord. The culture has inundated the church in the West, and it's so normal to be dead, and so many are dead. Does it mean they're not born again? But they don't live in a conscious inspiration of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis or a near-daily basis. I don't want to lift the standard so high nobody can live in it. But to be alive doesn't just mean they're born again. He's talking to a born-again community. He says you're not living with a conscious sense of connection and inspiration as part of your lifestyle. I don't mean every minute of every day. That's not what I'm saying. But it's within the reach of a believer to live in an ongoing regular sense of inspiration at the heart level. That's what it means to be alive. So don't write these off as like, you know, there's not like they're not born again and it's a cult group. No, no. No, they were at the center of the revival. He says I've not found your works perfect before God. Let's look at paragraph C. Now when he says that your works are not perfect before God, you think, well, that's a pretty high standard. Well, the word perfect would be the word mature or complete. And what the Lord requires in Matthew 5, verse 48, the Sermon on the Mount, He requires this of you. You just have to define it the right way. He requires that you walk perfect. And what it means to walk perfect, it's not talking about in the absolute sense of never failing or never making a mistake. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about setting your heart to obey all the light the Holy Spirit gives you in whatever season of life you're in. A new believer has a little bit of light, a little bit of understanding what they're supposed to do, but the Lord says the little you have, I require you to seek to obey all of it. And a mature believer has more light, but the standard is the same. The light is different. One has more light than the others, but the requirement from heaven is the same, to seek to obey all they know is in the will of God for them in that season. The standard is equal to a brand new believer to a mature apostle. Obey the light you have. Seek to. Seek to. Even the mature apostles will still stumble, but they seek to. It's the preoccupation of their life to obey that light. The measure of light is different, but the standard of what the Lord requires to have a vibrant heart is the same. And there's so many that are so accustomed to grieving the Spirit with their words, grieving the Spirit the way they spend their time, the way they spend their money, disconnecting with the Spirit, the things they look at. They're so accustomed to it, they can't even feel any of the inspiration of what Jesus is calling them to. He says, I require. I require that you live in the light I give you. And you're not. You're not walking perfect. There's areas you're not contending to obey in that you know you're supposed to. I tell you, the Lord has great mercy if you are contending, reaching to obey in every area, falling short, but you're reaching for it, you're pressing, you're preoccupied to get a break through that area. Then I tell you, you are walking perfect in the light you have, in the way of which the Lord means it in this passage. He gives this requirement to a believer that's one day old. They may only know three things to do, but they have to go for them. They may fail, but they have to keep reaching for them. That's why new believers often have a more vibrant spirit than believers that are older. It's not because, well, I had the fire, and now I don't. It's because they were obeying all the light they had, and as they got older and got more light, they failed to continue to obey all the light they had. Some look and say, I remember when I was a new believer and it was just so fiery. That's because there was no area in your life that you would be at peace about just ignoring the Holy Spirit's leadership in. I tell you, He cares about our words. He cares massively about what we do with our words and what we do with our time, our money. He really cares. The preacher may not care. He may let you off the hook, but the Holy Spirit doesn't, and He wants us to live in a sense of inspiration, of feeling alive. I don't mean we're going to feel like in a bubble, alive all day, every day, and never, ever have a bad spot, but feeling inspiration should be the rule, not the exception. Feeling dead, moments, times of deadness is meant to be the exception, not the rule of a believer's life. And the Lord's offering this to them. He goes, I want you to get a hold of this. Roman numeral five. Now He says, here's what I'm going to tell you how to get a hold of it. Be watchful. Develop your heart, connect with the Lord. Strengthen the things that remain. That's the next thing. Strengthen the things that remain. In other words, the things that remain from the revival, the vision, the values, the mandates, the assignments, don't let them go. Strengthen them. Let's begin the process, because being watchful is a process. You don't just start with a, you know, living, you know, grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit for 10 years, then the next day, all of a sudden you're feeling inspired. It's a process to develop a watchful spirit. It takes time to strengthen the things that remain. When a person is physically sick, they don't go one day and take vitamins, and the next day they feel great. You know, they work out one day and take vitamins. What they might feel is sick and sore. They overdo it. Then He goes, I want you, number three, verse three, which is the third exhortation. I want you to remember. Remember the great revival. Remember how dedicated you were. Remember how I touched you. Remember how alive you were. I want you to remember. The way you received from me initially. Then He's going to tell them the fourth thing. Hold fast. Hold fast. In other words, it's going to take some stick-to-itiveness. It's going to take some follow-through in the mundane. There is an element we must hold fast, whether we feel it or not. That's what hold fast means. Hold fast doesn't mean go with the flow. It's easy to go with the flow. Hold fast means you're holding when the wind is pushing you in the other direction. You're hanging on the pulse, so to speak, and all the forces around you are pushing you away from that path. You're holding fast. You're not feeling the inspiration. Even a lot of people around you, they're not pressing in. The Lord says, don't worry about them. You hold fast. Keep doing the main and plain things I've told you to do. Not the exotic things. The main and plain things. Humility. Time in the Word. Faithfulness with your speech. We don't slander. We don't complain. We don't accuse. And when we do, we repent. I mean, I do those things. But when I do them, I know it's not okay. And I say, Lord, I want the spirit of life on my spirit. I do not want to get crosswise with you. I know you're really nice. I know I'm going to heaven anyway. But I want to feel your presence. I want to feel alive. He says, you can't just ramble off of anything you want to say anytime you want to say it. I own you. Your money. Your sexuality. Your speech. Your schedule. It has to be reaching to be under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And we hold fast. We stay steady in humility and servanthood. We stay steady when nobody around us is appreciating it and it doesn't seem to be feeling that good or going that good. That's what holding fast means. He says, now, in order to do these, the fifth thing, you've got to repent. You've got to change your vision. Now, to repent isn't just to repent of one issue in your life. To repent means change the big picture of what you're living for. What are you living for? Well, I'm in the church, and I want my ministry to be a little better, and I'd like a few more friends, a little bit more money, a little bit nicer, easier time. The Lord says, lift your vision higher. Lock into my heart and into eternity. Get a vision to be great before me and for me to give you all that I've ordained for you in the age to come. Lock into something bigger than things being more comfortable right now relationally, financially, or spiritually. To repent means to change your mind, but in this context, go higher than just having things a little easier physically, financially, and spiritually. A lot of folks, if things get easier at that level, they settle down. He wants us to lock in to having a vision for our life in the kingdom that reaches into the age to come. That's why all seven letters, he gave them definitive promises that they were to anchor their heart into for the age to come, and he's going to give them to them right here in verse 5. He wants them anchored in those promises. Acts says, if you don't do it, I'm going to come to you like a thief, and you're not going to know the hour that I'm coming. Paragraph 8, now, when Jesus comes like a thief, it's a proverbial expression. It means two things. He's coming unexpectedly, number one. Number two, you will suffer loss that could have been avoided. That's what the proverbial expression, he uses it. Five different authors in the New Testament, writers, Jesus and four of the apostles, use the idea of the Lord's coming as a thief. He will come unexpected to many, and they will suffer loss that could have been avoided. That's critical to the definition of a thief. Now, Jesus is not the thief. The devil is, John 10.10. Jesus didn't say, I am a thief. He said, my coming will have the net result of a thief entering in and stealing your inheritance. And it won't be because I took it from you. It's because I do not change. I require faithfulness. And when I come, if you're not faithful, you will be the one responsible for the loss. I am not the thief taking it from you. I am the holy God of love who cannot change. And when I come to inspect you, when I come near you, I demand agreement with my heart. And if you don't, you're the one that caused the loss to take place. Paragraph B, we can stop a thief. I mean, in the general sense, you know, there's that one thief that won't be stopped, but I'm talking about the general sense. You can stop a thief by the simplicity of watching. You know, the guy's breaking into neighborhoods. Again, I'm not talking about the, you know, the guy that's drug infested, demonized, and can't make sense of anything, that he's coming through a brick wall. I'm not talking about that kind of thief. I'm talking about the general thief. He sees the light on, the guy in the house, he's going to go to another house. It's just that simple. Jesus is saying a thief is averted by the simplicity of paying attention. That's all it takes. For most thieves in all of history will simply not go to the house if they know the lights are on and people are there. He goes, it's that easy. Paragraph C. Now, Jesus is talking about coming to us. Now, He comes to us in three ways. I don't have this on the notes. He comes to us at the second coming. We all know that. That's not what He's talking about here. He wasn't saying, I will come to you suddenly at the second coming. The eschatological, historical coming at the end of the age. That's not what He was talking about in this passage. That's the first thing we think about. Secondly, He comes to us suddenly when we die physically. Most people don't know the day they're going to die. And if they're not paying attention, they will suffer loss in the age to come because of the level of disobedience and unfaithfulness in their heart in the season before they died. So He comes in that sense, in the physical sense. I mean, our physical death. And then He comes to churches and people. Now, this is what He's talking about actually right here. Strategic times, the Lord will visit people. He will visit marketplace assignments. He will visit families. He will visit churches, ministries. He will come strategically with the purpose to promote or demote. And you don't know. He doesn't come every day, every week. It's every several years. There's no timing. I don't know. But I'm talking about the sort of thing that might happen a couple times in a decade. When it's a season where the Lord draws near, He draws near to your life or your situation with the design to promote or demote. He comes to give a season of increase in the grace of God, which doesn't always mean more numbers and more money. That's not what increase always means. It could be an increase even of our heart connect with God or He comes at that season and He says, I came and I checked you out. And He does this all through history. It's a very biblical concept. You don't hear about it much, but it's a very important biblical concept. The Lord looks at individuals and ministries and His people that He's given assignments to to promote them or demote them in a particular season. And He says, you don't know when that is. But when I come and I find you faithful, I will give increase. If I find you unfaithful, you will suffer the loss because of your own faithfulness. I will have come unexpectedly and it resulted in you suffering loss that you need not have suffered if you simply would have watched. So I don't know. I've been in ministry 30 years, full-time ministry. I go, Lord, He's come a number of times. Lord, is this next summer, is next year a season where you're drawing near? And that divine evaluation, that strategic evaluation, and of course the Lord knows all things at all times, but there are times when He intervenes into our affairs in these governmental ways to give increase or decrease. And I'm going, okay, Lord, is 2008 one of those years? And the Lord might say, I'm not telling you. Well, Lord, I mean, am I a couple years away from the, you know, from that critical moment? Maybe. Might be a couple days away. Oh, man. Well, I better get with it. There you go. There you go. Because if you don't, my coming will be to you as a thief because you will have suffered loss, but I'm not the thief that made it happen. The thief that made it happen was your unresponsive heart. I came like a thief, but the real thief was your unresponsive heart. Yes, the devil's involved in all that, but still at the end of the day, we hold the key. So in paragraph D, he tells him, be watchful. Develop a lifestyle of encounter. It didn't say be anointed when you're watchful. You can't make that happen. You can only show up and position yourself. You can't make the spirit move on you. My point being, when you don't feel a thing, you're still doing your part. That's the point I'm making. The Lord didn't tell me be anointed in prayer. He said, pray. He said, sometimes you'll be anointed, sometimes you won't. But in my book, the pay's the same. I'm going to give you, I'm gonna give you what I give you unrelated to what you feel while you're doing it. The Lord could say to all of us. So I don't like to overly gauge how great the prayer time was, private or corporate, because some of the most boring prayer times, the Lord's not moved by that. He's moved by other things. He's moved by humility. Isaiah 62, I mean 66 verse 2. He says, to this one will I look, to the one that's contrite, trembles at my word. I'll draw near to that one. I mean, I look at some of the times God intervened in history, the word of God. Surprising intervention, surprising intervention. I mean, the one I think most about is in Acts 10 when Cornelius, here's this guy, this Roman guy, this soldier. He's not born again, so he doesn't have the Holy Spirit. Doesn't have a Bible, probably, because the Greeks and Gentiles didn't have one. He doesn't have any good worship tapes. Has no Starbucks coffee, has nothing. He's got five guys in a prayer room. I mean, just imagine these old Roman guys. No Holy Spirit, no Bible, no prophetic music. Great prayer meeting, I bet. And he said the angel appeared, gave him the shock of his life in Acts chapter 10. And he goes, I remember all of your prayers. Cornelius goes, you're kidding. I can picture him going, because I could see myself in that, going, you're kidding. You counted those? I remember them. They are a memorial to heaven. You're kidding. No Holy Spirit on the prayer meetings, no prophetic music, no Bible, no prophets, just a bunch of Roman soldiers sitting around, four of them or five of them in a hut. You're like, oh, what a horrible prayer meeting. I've been to a bunch of those. I'm losing my inner healing just remembering them. But the angel appeared and said to him, I remembered all of them, the shock of his life. Anyway, enough on that. I could talk forever. You could talk forever on the need to watch. We all know what it means. We got to do it. Let's go to page three, Roman numeral six. Well, let's go to paragraph E first. How do you strengthen things as a leader? Whether you're in the home, whether you're in the marketplace, whether you're in any kind of ministry, here's how you strengthen it. It's real simple. I mean, it's costly, but it's not confusing. You say it. You say it all the time. You say the values all the time. Then you model them. A leader that says the values that does not do the values, doesn't work. People don't do what the leaders do. They do what the leaders do recently. They only do what the leaders have been doing recently. So that if they were to strengthen their prayer ministry, they need to call the people to it regularly. They need to do it, and they need to enforce publicly. I'm not talking about a heavy-handed thing. That's not what I'm talking about, although sometimes it's important to be strong. In other words, there are consequences. I'm not talking about public rebukes. That's not what I mean by that. But there are consequences at various levels of family life, business life, church life, where if a person at a certain level does not follow through, they don't get the privilege of authority in that position. In other words, they're removed, and that's a public statement, even if you don't make it public. You have to enforce what your values are. And the others see it and go, whoa, this is serious here. I will not have leaders at IHOP that won't come to the prayer meeting regularly. I've had a number of leaders in the eight years, nine years now that I've asked to not be leading. I went to them privately. Nobody knows the story, but they weren't leading. I said, I'm not going to have leaders who won't do this. And some of the other leaders went, this is kind of serious, isn't it? I go, there's no possible way we can do what we're called to do if we don't do these three things. We've got to say it all the time. The leaders got to model it, and you've got to make changes in the leaders who won't. That's what I mean by enforcing publicly. You've got to make changes. It's true at the family level. It's true at the business level. That's how you strengthen that which you have. It's very simple. It's just costly. He tells them to remember. He's talking about the great Asian revival. He's telling them to hold fast to the dedication they had back in Acts 19 and 20, those early days, because all of Asia was being touched by the word of God. Now we're going to look at, just for a moment, at the three promises. I've got a few more notes than we'll cover. He gives them three basic promises. Verse 5. The one who overcomes will be clothed in white garments. The one that overcomes will not blot his name out from the book of life. And the one who overcomes will confess his name before the Father. And the first thing I'm going to tell you, again, these are not automatic benefits to every born-again believer. It's an empty promise. If it is, Jesus does not mean what he says or say what he means if it's already guaranteed whether they overcome or not. He's talking to born-again believers who were not overcoming in the context of remembering, watching, and holding fast. That's what he's talking about in context. Okay, let's go to paragraph B. They're going to walk in white. Now to walk in white, the whole realm of garments in the age to come is really real. It's a fascinating study. We've got a few minutes so we can't go into it. But there's eight times in the book of Revelation garments are referred to referring to the age to come. You and I will have garments on in the age to come that will all differ from one another just like they do in this age. There's all levels of society, many different countries, and there's different garments depicting status, stature, knowledge, honor, lack of honor. The wardrobe in a prison is different than a wardrobe in a palace. Clothing says so many things and in the age to come clothing will say this. Now where people lose their way with this is the fact that we know we're going to get white robes. We will get white robes. But don't think that billions of people for billions of years all wear the same white shirt forever. You know, sometimes just for fun, I'll ask someone, what do you think about the garments going to be like? What do you mean? Well, what do you mean? What do I mean? I said it clear. What do you think? Because they've never thought about it. You know, you mean the white shirt thing? Yeah. So billions of people get to wear for billions of years the same white shirt. That's it. Look at the number of flowers, the texture, the colors, the fragrance. Look at the number of fish at the bottom of the sea that you can see, you know, on the documentary channels. These strange looking fish. The creative God, He didn't somehow stall out and make us wear the same white shirt forever. Like, oh, I forgot. I was so into what they were going to eat, I forgot what are they going to wear. Oh, no. I got stuck on the white shirt thing. No. No. Not remotely. Number one, the white, not every time, but a number of times, it's the word for bright. It's levels of glory. Let's look at... First, let's look at C before I get into that. Because these garments are not the gift of righteousness, the robe of righteousness garments that everybody has. This is not what... They're talking about this... The type of garments a president or a king will use, a ruler will use or wear are so different in every occasion, whether they're in a state occasion, whether in their family occasion, whether they're going to a wedding, whether it's a military event, whether... There's every possible different diversity depending on the context. You will have many, many garments in the age to come. This may shock you, but maybe more than you have now. I don't know. My guess is you might have a lot more than you have now because of all the diversity of the interactions and all the different stratas of God's purposes in His kingdom. And our garments are dynamically affected by our faithfulness right here. That's what he says. Repent. Get a bigger vision than just having immediate comfort physically, spiritually, financially. What do I mean by spiritually? Just feeling a little bit better, you know, in your church context. Just feel a little bit better. Feel a little bit, you know... We got to have a bigger vision than that for our life. Paragraph C. He makes it clear that the garments we wear will be a reflection of our righteous acts on the earth. Now notice, the garments in Revelation 19 to the bride, they're not white. They're clean and bright. Now some translations will use the word white for bright, but it's talking about the degree of... I mean, it's talking about the glory of God. Every one of us will have a different degree of glory in our brightness, in our garments. Paragraph D. Look at the Old Testament garments that God created, that God designed for the priesthood. Look what it says right there in Exodus 28. Now this is the Lord's word. The Lord came up with this idea, not Moses. The Lord gave this to Moses. He goes, Make the holy garments for the priests and make them for glory and make them for beauty. This is God's idea. And the garments of the Old Testament priesthood are merely... I mean, they give us a mere token of insight into the garments we're going to have in the age to come. Beloved, the garments you will have will be for glory. They will communicate the glory of God, your garments will, at various levels. And they will be for beauty. God did not forget glory and beauty and significant meaning in garments. Look at Zechariah 6 when the high priest was going to have an elaborate crown. There will be so many different types of crowns. Some imagine they will all look the same and everybody will have one. They'll all have white shirts and the same crown. No! Get rid of that idea. There'll be more diversity in the age to come among the people of God than there is right now. Because we'll have the creativity and endless amount of resource. And we'll have a clean spirit. You know, if people could get a really clean spirit, they would get out of comparison and they would get into a true creative flow with God's heart and not just trying to outdo the next guy, whatever the style is, high or low. Just outdo high or outdo low. We get into a clean spirit then we get into a whole different creative spirit. When we're not comparing ourselves to outdo the other group. Page 4. The garments differed in color. Paragraph G. The white speaks of brightness. Look at this passage. 1 Corinthians 15. There's one glory of the sun, one glory of the star. As one star differs from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection. As one star, billions of stars, not one star is the same, there will not be one of you that will be the same in eternity in the glory. You will differ in glory as every star does from one another. Your garments will be radiant. And the white garments he's talking about, he's not talking about the white robe here. He's not talking about the automatic robe everybody gets, which is, by the way, a robe of light. It's garments with light in it. They'll all have different levels, but our garments are far more than the robe. When you look at the high priest, they were about 12 or 13 different facets of the garments of the high priest, not just a robe. A robe was only one of about 10 or 15 facets. Yes, we will probably all have a robe that has the glory of God like a diamond in it, all the various degrees, but our garments will be far diverse from one another than that. And the Lord will link them to, in Sardis' situation, to the way they obeyed the call to be watchful. Look at this in Matthew chapter 7. When Jesus was in the mount of transfiguration, his garments were white as light. Psalm 104 verse 2. God wears garments of light. The angels had linen that was bright linen, many colors undoubtedly, but it's bright. Paragraph K. I have the different colors that are associated with the throne of God, just a few of them. Jasper, Sardis, Sardius, Emerald, Sapphire, many colors around the throne and the being of God. You will all have different colors in your garments and crowns and thrones. Those that have crowns and those that have thrones and not everybody, by any means, will have a crown and a throne in the age to come. They'll all have garments, but they'll have very different levels of them. Let's go to the top of page 5. Roman numeral 7. So, the garments. The Lord tells the church at Sardis, he goes, you press in and break through and you overcome and you see it to an end, it will affect your garments for sure. The brightness of your garments, not just the purity of them, but the purity of them opens the door to the array of glory that will be in our garments of all the light and all the colors, etc., etc. Some people will think that our garments will only be white. Never does the Bible say that. The Bible makes it very clear just the opposite. It won't just be one robe or one shirt. It won't be just white. That's not the God of infinite creativity or the God that's made himself clear in the Bible. Okay, let's go to the next two just real quick. He says, I will not blot your name from the book. Now, he is not talking right now about losing their salvation. That's not the point. He's giving them a promise. Right? That is a promise, not a threat. He's saying, if you overcome, he's giving them promises, not warnings right here. All the promises of all seven letters are all positive promises. This is a positive reality. What has happened, what has happened is the way they've been living, they've already lost the honor of their dedication from the former years. Their garments are already spoiled and defiled. He's saying, if you break through and repent, that which is about to be forgotten will not be forgotten in terms of your dedication on the earth. He's saying, you're so close to it being erased. Not them going to hell. That's not what he's talking about. He's saying, I will remember them, but I'm close to not remembering them. Now that, remembering them in the sense of reward, God has perfect knowledge, so he remembers everything. But he doesn't have, remember it with consequence that's negative. And so when the Lord, in the scripture, number one, the principle that we're operating on, he's talking here, I'll say this first before I talk about the principle, he's operating about not losing the honor that's associated with their name. A person's name in the scripture before God has to do with their character and their testimony of their life. Their name isn't just, you know, their first and last name. When it says you have a good name, it doesn't mean your name rhymes or it's kind of a popular name. That's not what it means. It means it's a reflection of your character over a long period of time. Not just one act. Not just kind of one heroic act. You know, over 70 years of your life, you did one heroic thing. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the sum total of how God evaluates our life. Paragraph B, now in the ancient world, they would have the registrar, the city would, and they would record just like they do today, very similar to today actually. They would record the taxes. They would record the noble deeds, you know, the Olympic victories, the military victories. They would put those in the records of the city or the criminal records, very similar to today. There's records good and bad on lots of people. So they were understanding that. What the Lord's promising this church that has lost their fire and they're about to lose their reward. He's promising them they won't if they'll press in. He says a few of you are doing okay, but the vast majority of you are on the verge of losing all that you gained in those early days. Now that's such a new idea to many people because they don't have, they don't think much about heaven. They don't think much about the age to come. They haven't studied eternal rewards. The idea that they would ever lose anything is just a strange idea. Let me tell you, I don't have time to go into it. I'm already over time. It is clearly a biblical truth that's clearly a New Testament truth. We will lose things in the age to come as born-again believers if we don't press into obedience to the end. That's absolute fact. You know, I don't have the verses there I should have. 1 Corinthians 3.15 Paul talks about the people that suffer loss of reward, but they're saved as though by fire. They're saved, but they've suffered the loss of reward. 1 Corinthians 3.15 Revelations 3.11 I don't have this one here either. He tells the church in Philadelphia, don't let anybody steal your crown. Don't go with wrong values and let your crown be stolen in the age to come. He's not talking about them losing their salvation. He's talking about them losing the reward by responding to people that were motivating them to drop, lower their standards. Beloved, you hear some false teaching on grace and you lower your standards oppressing God. You allowed that guy to steal your crown from you. Revelation 3.11 2 John 2, verse 8 John says, don't lose that which you have worked for. And that's what he's talking about right here. The church of Sardis is about to lose their name, their record, their remembrance with consequences of reward is what it means by remembrance. God didn't forget it. Technically, it's like that. God said, oh, I can't remember it. That's not what it means. It means he doesn't remember with consequence. Now what's going to happen is that when we stand before the Lord, we've been faithful for years, the Lord Jesus is going to tell your story before the fathers and the angels. That's what it means by confessing you. It doesn't mean confess your name one time. Mike Bickle passed, come through. Whoa, hey, I got a question. Move on. Come on. The lion's behind you. Move on. I said your name. We got billions of years to go. Hey, I said your name. That's not what's going on here. For the Lord to confess your name doesn't mean he says it once and you get in the city. I mean, surely that's an important point, but that's not at all what he's talking about here. He's talking about the Lord will be before the father and the angels and they will tell the story of your name. You know, they'll, Julie Meyer, the Lord will say, Julie, father, let me tell you about Julie. The father already knows. But Jesus loves telling it. The father loves hearing it. The angels are going, hallelujah. And Julie's going, Oh, wow. I can't believe you remembered that. This is real. The vision of the son telling your story, not once. And then, you know, saying, hey, see you again in a billion years. I'm talking about your story will be told by the Lord himself. I mean, as a leader over a bunch of young people, I love whether it's 10 people at a staff meeting or sometimes they're all staff meetings. I love to highlight one of the guys or gals that are dedicated and I like to brag on them, not just to bless them. It's cool that it blesses them. I love it. I love the feeling of it. I love to honor them. And the people are hearing it, love it. And the Lord loves it. And the guy or gal loves it. It's just win, win, win, win, win. The Lord loves it when his people are honored. And Jesus saying, you press through, you break through. I will tell the story of your unique dedication. I will tell of the pain you press through on that nobody else knows about. I myself will affirm you in the staff meeting before the Father and the angels many times, not once. Beloved, these are awesome, awesome promises for the people that will break through. And to repent means to get the big picture vision, to anchor our hope and our heart onto those things, not if the, you know, someone's going to give you a little bit more money or open a door, give a little bit more honor or make things a little bit easier right now. That is not the essence of our life vision. A lot of folks, that's all they live is at that level. You know, if a big ministry opens a door for them and they get to go on a big platform, it happened like, you haven't got anything. That's nothing compared to Revelation 3, 5. I mean, it may or may not show up in the Lord's testimony about you. I don't know, but I just care. At the end of the day, I want the Lord to tell the Father with feeling and insight the exploits, not necessarily outwardly, some outwardly, of my heart obedience that nobody else even saw. That's what this means. Now look at, we're coming to an end here, but look at paragraph E. Well, no, I got to slip in D. Look at that verse. It's so good. Look at D. Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord listened. The Lord heard them. A book of remembrance was written before the Lord for the people who fear Him and meditate on His name. God is writing in His book things about this meeting right now. But He's telling me through His Word, Mike, I'm excited the way you pressed my people to move into my heart. Father, you should have seen Him. It was fantastic. The Father says, I did see Him. So, you know, I don't have to be theologically correct right now. Father, my heart was moved the way He magnified me. They'll talk about it. I'll be going like, wow, I mean, by the grace of God, this is what we all want. He writes in a book when we talk to one another publicly, privately, prayer one-on-one. You're helping somebody out of the way. You're serving in a back room. It doesn't matter. When we talk, He writes. And He remembers. Now, here's the paragraph E. Here's the very important thing that is so often ignored is that a person that lives righteous for years, that draws back from their dedication at the end, though not to the degree I'm talking about where they've lost their salvation, but they've drawn back from the dedication of former days, they lose their reward of those former days. That's what He's telling the church of Sardis. Look here in Ezekiel 3. When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, which is sin, his righteousness shall not be remembered by the Lord. The Lord, if a guy walks hard for 10 years, 20 years, like the Sardis church did, and at the end, they're drawing back, the Lord says, you will relate to me in the condition of which you came to me. That's how I will reward you. I'll love you. You'll be in the city, but I will give you the rewards, and the testimony will be according to the way you walked with me at the end, because that was what you chose. That was your final choice. Look at Ezekiel 18. When a righteous man turns away from the Lord, commits iniquity, all the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered in the former days. Ezekiel 33, I say to the righteous who trust in his own righteousness, that doesn't mean he trusts in it for salvation. That's not what he's talking about. He trusts in it. He says, I've been dedicated for 20 years. I can go on a little vacation from righteousness for a season. He's trusting that his righteousness will be stored up and cancel out his rebellion. That's what that means by trusted righteousness. It's not talking about trusting to get saved. He's counting on the last two or three decades of faithfulness to carry him through in the next decade of lack of faithfulness. And the Lord says, tell that guy it will not be remembered. It's canceled out. His name, not his, we're not talking about right now in Revelation 3, their name being blotted out of the book. We're talking about the record of their character and their exploits will not be remembered because the church of Sardis was right there on the line for that being done with them. Been years, except for a very few, that had pressed into the Lord. Amen. Well, one more thing. This is, I just want to tell you about page six without going into it. It's the, I want you to know it's there. Worship team, come up. And that's the seven ministries of the Holy Spirit. I want to leave that because that's how Jesus presented himself as the one who has the seven spirits. He's telling Sardis, I will revive you in these seven ways, but you need all seven of them. He came as the one who was offering the seven ministries of the Holy Spirit. Beloved, we, the church is in a Sardis condition. We will not get revived apart from these seven ministries touching us. So I just wanted to point that out to you. Let's see.