Robert Morris - Restart Your Relationship
Alright, so we are concluding our series called "The Seven Churches of Revelation" this weekend. This will be the last church, the seventh church. It's the church at Laodicea. And you probably know what most Bible titles would title it would be "The Lukewarm Church". I'm giving the message, "Restart your Relationship". "Restart Your Relationship". We talked about on the first one how to restore your first love, and now we're talking about restart your relationship, alright? So, let me read it to you and then I'll share some things. You're going to hear some things that you probably have never heard about the lukewarm church because of what we call a contextual exegesis. In other words, drawing the meaning out of the scripture from the context, the geographical context, the time context, things like that, alright?
So, Revelation 3, Verse 14. "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen,'" And that amen, by the way, means truth. Doesn't mean, "So be it". I don't know which preacher started that, but he should have learned his Greek before he said that. But it means truth, so, "These things says the Truth". "...the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 'I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.'" Let me just say one thing about the church at Laodicea, here. This is the only church that he didn't tell them anything they were doing good, so just thank God you don't go to the church of the Laodiceans, alright? "'I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.'" Now, this is a big deal because we've misunderstood this completely. "'I could wish,'" in other words, my wish is, "...you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth".
And the Greek word here is vomit, not spit, as some versions say. It is vomit. "'I will vomit you out of My mouth.'" And I'm going to talk to you later about what that means. It's not the Christians are rejecting them at all. I will explain. "'Because you say, 'I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing', and do not know that you are wretched, miserable...'" Now, watch these three, 'cause we'll take our three points from these and then three things later that conclude, that coincide with these. "'...poor, blind, and naked'" Poor, blind, and naked. "'I counsel you to buy from Me gold...'" Remember, he said, "You're poor". But, I counsel you to buy gold refined in the fire, "...that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed,'" He told them they were naked. "'...that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.'" Remember, he told them they were blind. "'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.'"
So, he is still saying this. He's telling them, listen, if I didn't love you, I wouldn't even write you a letter. But I'm doing this not because your sins haven't been forgiven, because your sins have been forgiven. I'm doing this because you're hurting yourself. That's the reason I'm rebuking you right now, or correcting you. "'Therefore, be zealous and repent.'" Change your mind. And then here's the very famous verse that also most of the time is misapplied. "'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him,'" I want you to...we'll come back to the word dine. It's where we get our word dinner. And the old King James says, "Sup with him". It's where we get our word supper. If you live in the north, the evening meal is called dinner. If you live in the south, it's called supper. I don't know if you all ever noticed that. Alright, so anyway, I've learned to say dinner 'cause I grew up saying, "When's supper"?
Alright, here we go. I don't preach twice anymore, but if I did, I'd make a note that that wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be. Alright, here we go. Okay, verse 21. "'To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.'" Here's the line, the verse that's in all seven churches. "'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'" Alright. They said, he said, you say that you're rich, that you're wealthy, and have need of nothing. Okay, that's a lie. They needed something that none of the other churches needed. Water. They had no wells. They had no mountainous runoff. They had no springs. They had to build an aqueduct, and then later, clay pipes, which you can see today the remains of that, from two cities that were close by, Hierapolis and Colossae.
Let me show you a map to show you just kind of where Laodicea was. Laodicea was about six miles south of Hierapolis and about 10 miles west of Colossae. Does anyone, does the word Colossae reminds you of any things? Colossians. Paul wrote an epistle to the Colossians. Did you know he also wrote an epistle to the Laodiceans? Paul did, but we don't have that one. That one didn't make it into the Bible. He might've been mad or something. I don't know when he wrote it. But Colossians 4, Verse 16 says, "Now, when this epistle is read among you," And the word epistle just means letter. "...see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea". So, there's a verse maybe you've never even seen in the Bible. Alright, so they built an aqueduct from Hierapolis and then they did later lead pipes or clay pipes. Pardon me, clay pipes, they were fielded. They had problems with lead line. But they had clay pipes from Colossae. Hierapolis was famous for something. It was famous for hot springs. People went there to bathe in the hot baths. Colossae was famous for something, also. It was famous for cool springs, cool wells. It was famous for fresh, cold water. They build this aqueduct from Hierapolis with hot water. But by the time the hot water got to Laodicea, what do you think it was? Lukewarm.
So, they built clay pipes, underground pipes from Colossae with cold water. But by the time it got there, guess what it was? Lukewarm. Laodicea was famous for lukewarm water. He said, "I wish you were cold or hot". By the way, they were also famous because the water, by the time it got there, had such sediment and such lime in it that they were literally famous for this. If you drink the water from Laodicea, it will make you vomit. They were famous for that. Have you ever, I don't know if you've ever been to a city. It doesn't happen much anymore, but didn't have a good, doesn't have a good water filtration system or maybe a well, and it has sulfur in it and it smells like rotten eggs, and you can't even stand the smell of it? And it doesn't make you want to spit it out. It makes you gag, right? Makes you want to vomit.
So Jesus is simply using an analogy that they can understand. And the analogy he uses is probably misunderstood by 99.9% of Christians, in my opinion, because, again, of this thing called contextual exegesis. Because Jesus says, Jesus says, "I wish you were cold or hot". He puts cold equal with hot, but we don't interpret that passage this way. We think hot means committed, on-fire believers and cold means uncommitted unbelievers, and lukewarm means not-on-fire believers. They're believers, 'cause he's writing to a church, but they're not on fire. Okay, he would have never made the statement, "I wish you were cold," if cold meant unbelievers, because unbelievers are separated for all eternity from God, and even lukewarm Christians, if they're true believers, go to heaven and are with God for all eternity. He wouldn't have said, "I wish you were separated from me for all eternity rather than be a lukewarm Christian". He wasn't commenting on the degree of their faith. That's not what he was talking about.
Think about this. Think about drinks, just for a minute. First of all, hot water. Most of you like hot baths, not lukewarm baths, right? Most of you, okay. For bathing, hot water is better. But just think about drinks for a minute. I personally don't drink coffee. My parents didn't drink coffee. I've never drank coffee. I just don't, I just never have, okay? But I have a lot of friends that do. And we'll be in meetings and they'll say, "Listen, can we take a break because I need to reheat my coffee". They don't like lukewarm coffee. Anyone understand this? Okay. I like hot chocolate though, in the winter. I don't like lukewarm hot chocolate, I like hot chocolate. Everyone got it? But I tell you, even though I don't drink coffee, let me tell you what I do drink. Iced tea. I like iced tea. But let me tell you something I don't like. Lukewarm tea. And they have to heat tea to get the tea out of the tea bags, right? And then they stick the glass of ice under the freshly heated boiling tea. Does this bother anyone else? And they fill it up, and when they bring it to you, it's got two or three ice cubes still in it, and it's lukewarm.
So, when I order iced tea at a restaurant, I actually order, "And I'd like an extra glass of ice". See, I was looking. Anyone ever do that order? Yes! Cold drinks are not bad. You want your drinks hot or cold. Is everyone following me? This has nothing to do with their commitment to God. Let me tell you what it has to do with. It has to do with how they make God taste to unbelievers. He said, I wish you were either hot for the cold days, or I wish you were either cold for the hot days. I wish that when someone took a drink of you, that they would say, "Mmm, that is so good on a cold day," because you're hot, or, "That is so refreshing on a hot day," because you're cold. But because you're lukewarm, and we're going to get to this in a minute, because you're full of sediment in your life, you don't have pure water, you make people want to vomit and you are a bad witness for me. That's what he's talking about here. I will, thanks. One of my brothers said, "Preach, pastor, preach," so I just, I'm going to. Psalm 34, Verse 8. "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good". How's God going to taste except through other believers?
Okay, now, he told them you're poor, blind and naked, right? Would you like to know what Laodicea was famous for? They had the largest bank of all seven cities. As a matter of fact, they had a banking center. They were wealthy. By the way, their wealth came from gold. He said, "I counsel you to buy gold". We'll get to that in a minute. But they were famous for banking and being wealthy. They were the wealthiest of the seven cities. Jesus said, "You're poor". They also had the largest medical center of all seven cities and the largest medical school attached to it. And would you like to know what they were famous for in their medical school? Ophthalmology. He said, "You're blind". They also, this is so incredible. They also had the largest clothing manufacturing business because they had very fertile fields close and they had what was very rare in those days, black wool. And he said, because of that, and so they bragged about the clothes that they could make. And he said, "You're naked".
By the way, most cities only had white wool. They had black wool. If you only have white wool, you can only make one color clothing. But if you have, and I'd like for you to just see, yes, I am talking about ethnicity, now. If you have black and white, you can make all sorts of beautiful colors. All sorts of beautiful colors. So, they were famous for banking. Jesus said, "You're poor". They were famous for eye remedies. Jesus said, "You're blind". They were famous for clothing. Jesus said, "You're naked". I'd like to ask you a question. Do you think Jesus knows everything about everything? Absolutely, he does. So, here he's writing to the church at Laodicea. Now, I just need to address one other thing. He said, "Buy from me". "I counsel you to buy". You also need to take, when we say contextual exegesis, not just the passage, but I've told you before, it has to be congruent with all of Scripture. They would have known, as Jewish believers, Isaiah 55. Isaiah has more messianic verses in it than any verse in the Bible, more messianic promises than any Scripture, any book in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 55 says this, Verse 1. "Come, all you who are thirsty," Here was a city that didn't have its own water source. "...come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat"! How are you going to buy without money? "...buy wine and milk without money and without cost". Okay, everything from Jesus is free. But why would he, Jesus himself, say, "Buy it"? Let me tell you why. Because it does cost something. It costs him his blood, but it costs you faith. You have to believe, you have to put your faith in Jesus, alright? He's talking about spiritual wealth, spiritual health, and spiritual garments. So those are our three points. So number one: Spiritual Wealth. Revelation 3:18, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich". Rich spiritually. He's not talking about material wealth, but they understood gold, because again, most of their deposits were in gold. They had some of the largest gold mines in Laodicea or close to Laodicea. But remember, I told you that it costs faith.
Watch 1 Peter 1:7. "...that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire..." your faith. He said, "I counsel you to buy gold refined by the fire". In other words, the way your faith grows is to go through testing. That's not good news, but that's the truth. "...may be found to praise, honor, and glory..." watch this, "...at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." Did you know that for hundreds of years, the Book of Revelation was not called the Book of Revelation in church history? It was called the first five words of the book. You can look it up, Revelation 1:1, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what the book was called, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. And here's what he says. Your faith, your faith, even though it's going to be tested, is going to prove to praise, honor, and glorify the revelation of Jesus Christ. I'm just telling you this book fits together perfectly, perfectly. And then right on down in 1 Peter 1:18, "...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things," We already talked about things that perish in Chapter 7. "...like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct..."
In other words, you didn't have a target. "...received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot". Psalm 119:72, "Truth from your mouth means more to me than striking it rich in a gold mine". Okay, so, how can you restart your relationship with Jesus? Take your mind off of worldly things. Set your mind back on heavenly things. Do you know what happens to many of us? We begin to follow God and God begins to put our life back together. And pretty soon we get a better job and we can live in a better neighborhood and we are blessed with some material things. And pretty soon, our heart begins to go toward those material things just like the church at Laodicea. And what he's saying is, "You need to buy gold from me". "You need to get your heart fixed back on, the words of my mouth are more precious than gold". The blood of the Lamb that redeemed you is more precious than gold.
Now, I shared with you a couple weeks ago, well, last week. I'd kind of forgotten it until I said it, but I shared with you an illustration that we all relate to, but it has a little different application, maybe, because I shared how the Lord said, "I'm going to make your name great so I can make my name great". And kind of what it did. So, I'm sharing again something that, again, we can relate to it, but I'm going to share it the way that it happened to me, okay? We can all relate to being blessed financially at some point. Now, some of you say, "I really can't ever relate to that, Pastor Robert". But I really think we can. If you live in America, you're richer than 4/5 of the world, poverty level, by the way. Poverty level in America is richer than 4/5 of the world. But most of us can relate to buying a better house, buying a better car, financially being blessed.
I wrote "The Blessed Life" book. It became an instant bestseller, but we gave all the proceeds away. Most of you know that we gave it all to the church. That book is 20 years old and still brings in $300,000 to $500,000 a year in royalties. It's just one of those things that God just put his touch on. When I wrote the second book, I said, "Lord, do I give this one away"? He said, "No, the rest of the books are to bless your family and build the kingdom". And I actually said to the Lord, 'cause he said, "Are to bless your family and build the kingdom". And I said to him, "Lord, you said that backward". I don't know why I correct him so much. And then he corrects me. He said, "No, I didn't. Because," he said, "You're a giver. You're going to build the kingdom". But that's when he told me, this was almost 20 years ago. He said, "All of your children are going to be in the ministry. And this is part of the blessing I'm going to give you financially is to bless your family".
And we have an extremely close family and we go on vacations every year that Papaw pays for because of the book royalties and the book income, okay? But I'd never, I never wrote a book, I can tell you this before God, I never wrote a book for money. I never did that. I always did it to help people. But the books sold. I wrote 19 books in 19 years, which is stupid, by the way. But 14 of those became bestsellers. Seven of them are perennial bestsellers, which means, like flowers bloom every year, they're on the bestseller list every year since they came out. So, the Lord blessed us tremendously financially, and we were able all of a sudden afford some things that we'd never been able to afford. And I remember the day, saying to the Lord, "I don't have the same passion that I used to for the kingdom, for you. I have a lot of things, but my passion is waning". And I was in a quiet time. And I was just very, it just shocked me because God had blessed me so much. And yet, here I was struggling with being passionate for him.
And so, I remember saying to the Lord, this is where the title came from, "Restart Your Relationship". I said to the Lord: "Could we just start all over"? Could I just restart like I was back in that motel room when I was 19 years old, making $600 bucks a month, and I just wanted you to be the Lord of my life; I just wanted you to fill my thoughts and just be everything to me? Can I just restart? And I felt like the Lord went like this. I felt like he just stuck his hand down and said, "Deal". And something flipped in my mind. This is where the Lord says, "Change your mind". I decided I'm going after God again. I don't care if I ever write another book. I don't care about any... I just need to go after God. I only tell that story because I really believe there are people listening that God's blessed you, and yet you're not as passionate about your relationship with him and the kingdom as you were before he blessed you. And I want to give you hope that you can restart. You can restart your relationship with him. That's number one. Number two: Spiritual Health. Paul said poor, blind and naked. So we talked about poor, this is blind, spiritual health.
Now I also want to say that there are pastors that are called health and wealth preachers. The problem is, I believe, that some of them, and I don't want to try to speak critically, some of them focus too much on physical health and physical wealth, when Scripture says, "If you'll focus on spiritual health and spiritual wealth, all these other things will be added to you". So it's where your focus is. Revelation...He said you're blind, remember? You're blind. Revelation 3:18, "I counsel you to...anoint your eyes," I put just the part of the verse that we're looking at now, "...anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see". That you may see. Isaiah 43:8. This isn't anything new. "Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears". Spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness has been in the Bible for a long time. Jeremiah 5:21, "Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not".
Ezekiel 12:2, "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see, but does not see," in other words, they can't see spiritually. "...and ears to hear, but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house". Okay, so what causes spiritual blindness? Isaiah 42:19, "Who is blind but My servant," or my own people, "or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect"? Alright, here's what causes spiritual blindness, pride. Spiritual blindness is caused by people who won't admit they're wrong. Think about the most blind people, spiritually blind people that were on the earth when Jesus was on the earth. Who were they? The scribes and Pharisees. Think about the people who knew the Bible better than any people on the face of the earth when Jesus on the face of the earth. Who? The scribes and Pharisees. So they read the Bible, but they were spiritually blind. Why were they spiritually blind? Because the Pharisee, this is what Jesus said, the Pharisee prayed like this, "God, I thank you that I'm not like other people".
Spiritual blindness causes pride. By the way, we're talking about poor, we're talking about spiritual health, I mean, spiritual wealth instead of material wealth, spiritual health, instead of physical health and spiritual clothing instead of physical clothing. What is the world telling us to focus on right now? Making money, physical fitness, which I'm not saying there's anything wrong with trying to be fit, but it's how you look, and then what you wear. Can I just say that one more time? How much money you make, how you look physically, how physically fit you are, and what you wear. And Jesus comes along and says, "You know what I'd like for you to be concerned about? How spiritually fit you are, how spiritually wealthy you are, and how spiritually you can see in the Scriptures".
Now I'm going to read this scripture to you later, but I just want to take part of this and talk about spiritual health, all right? "Behold, I stand at the door and knock". You all have heard that scripture? Revelation 3:20. "If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him". Oh, this is such a rich word. And the Jewish people knew exactly what he was talking about. Breakfast was very minimal, it was usually a piece of bread dipped in wine. That was a normal Jewish breakfast. Lunch was normally a snack that was normally also bread or some sort of dried fish, but it was like a snack. But this word dine in the Greek where we get our word dinner, it was the evening meal, it was a long and leisurely meal. It normally lasted three hours. And it was a feast, but it wasn't just a feast, it was a fellowship. This is the word Jesus uses, listen to me, I talk all the time about this Word, this is food. And I talk about that my job is to feed you the Word of God.
Okay, here's the great thing. If you open your heart to Jesus, and by the way, this book was written, this letter, we're talking about Revelation, the letter to the seven churches, this was written to Christians. This is why this verse is misused because we use this verse in evangelism. Jesus stands at the door of your heart and he knocks. Now I'm not saying you can't use that, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying it's not the primary use of the passage. The primary use of the passage is he's saying to Christians. He's saying to Christians, "If you'll open your heart to me, I will come in and I will feed you. And not only will I feed you when you open this book, but I'll sit there with you for hours and fellowship with you and spend time with you". The greatest thing is not what we're learning when we read the Bible, but the greatest thing is who's talking to us when we're reading the Bible, that we're dining with Jesus. And here we are, Christians, and we have more access to the Bible than we've ever had before on more devices than we've ever had, and we never read it.
And again, it's not just the words on the pages, it's who we're eating with. That's what's wonderful. And the third thing is, Spiritual Garments. Spiritual garments, Revelation 3:18, "I counsel you to buy from Me...white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed". Isaiah, again, Isaiah more messianic scriptures than any other book in the Old Testament. Chapter 61:10, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness..." Okay, so it is by grace that God gives us righteousness, which is right standing with God. You won't find probably any preacher that I know of in the world, and there may be hundreds or thousands of them, but that's any stronger on that you're saved by grace through faith alone. I detest anyone that preaches, not anyone, I detest preaching on works as a part of salvation. I detest it. So you're saved by grace, that's righteousness, right standing with God. But what has happened to the preaching on righteous living? Living righteously.
And the church at Laodicea is not the first church that he talked about white garments. And I skipped it because I knew I'd come to it later, but it was the church at Sardis, Revelation 3:4, "You have a few names even in Sardis..." watch, "...who have not defiled their garments;" That word defiled, just so you know, there's other ways you can defile, but the Greek word means sexual, sexually defiled their garments. "...and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments". And Revelation 19:8 is going to tell you something about these linen garments. "And to her..." that's the bride, "...it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright," some say white, some versions, "...for the fine linen..." watch, "...is the righteous acts of the saints". By the blood of Jesus I'm in right standing with God. But if I don't live righteously, it defiles my garments. Doesn't send me to hell. That's through grace. But it defiles my conscience. I don't live with a pure conscience before God. It defiles my passion for Jesus, my passion for my family, my passion for the things of God.
These three things about returning, let me sum it up this way, and that is set your mind on things above, walk in humility, and I just want to say it the way I wrote it, drive sin out of your life. When the internet first came out. I don't remember exactly, but sometime in the early '90s it was right after Al Gore invented it. Sorry, that's not a Democrat joke. Please don't get upset. It's just something humorous that politicians say humorous stuff all the time. Republicans and Democrats say very humorous stuff about all that they've done for us, you know. So, but anyway, right after it came out, some time at that point, someone told me about it, I got on it. I mean, it was a year or so before I got on it, it was a long time before I got a email address. I didn't understand how to work the computer, but anyway, I somehow got on the internet. Back then, this is early '90s, I got saved in '81 so I'd been saved 12 or 13 years at that time, but pornography used to just kind of pop up.
Now some of you remember this, some of you weren't even alive you just grew up with the internet, it was there. But there was a time when we did not have the internet, just so you know, we rode horses to school and chariots and things like that. But when the internet first came out, I can remember the first time something pornographic just popped up, and now they have some sort of filters, but I looked at it, and I liked it. And I had looked at internet before through magazines, but it had been years since I'd looked at any, but I went several weeks looking at it. And what I realized was that it was stealing my passion, my passion for the Lord and my passion for Debbie and my passion for the kingdom. I'm simply saying, if there's sin in your life that's known sin and you know it's sin, you need to restart your relationship with Jesus.
Okay, so let me end the whole series now. Let me end, I'm going to wrap the whole thing up. Revelation 3:22, the very last verse of the whole seven letters. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches". I underlined some words, but I want you to see the word "churches". I began this series not knowing what I'm about to say. I began this series focusing on the plurality of that verse, "churches". In other words, this wasn't just to one church, but all the churches. And since it says, "Let him hear what the Spirit is saying," remember, this is Jesus talking, it's all in red. But because it says what the Spirit is saying, it's talking about the inscripturated process, it's talking about this is going to become part of Scripture, so it's for you, too. The church at Ephesus is for you, too. Ephesians is for you, too. The church to Thessalonica, Thessalonians is for you, too. Are you all following me? The church to Rome, Romans, is for you, too, okay.
So these seven letters are to you, too. So I focused on the plurality of that statement. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches". I want to just show you something. This is going to be so good. I want to show you the singularity of the sentence. Look at it again, Revelation 3:22, "He" that's singular, "who has an ear," singular. It doesn't say, "They who have ears". "He who has an ear, let him hear". Okay, let me show you again this famous verse, this famous verse in the Bible that we talk about, Revelation 3:20, watch this, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone," anyone, I'll come back to that in just a minute. "...hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him..." This is for you, this is personal, singular. "...and dine with him".
I'll meet with him personally, and he with me. And anyone is a compound word, okay? Let me just, some of you think "No, don't talk grammar to us, we don't like it when you talk grammar". but let me just help you, okay? Anyone, a compound word is when you join two words into one. Any is a word. Is there any pie left? That's going to be said sometime this week. And then you might hear this, they'll use the other word. "Yes, there is one piece left". One is a word, and of course then you will say, "I'll take it". So any is a word, and one is a word. If any one person... Is this not good? You don't have to clap, but you better be excited about this. Jesus says, "If just one person will hear My voice and open the door, I'll come in and I'll meet with that one person, and I'll spend time with that one person teaching him the Bible". But we're talking about restart your relationship. There's one thing you have to do, even though I gave us three applications.
Look again at the very first part, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock". Now I want to show you something so amazing about this. We just talked last week that Jesus said, "I have the key of David". Do you remember this? "And I can open any door". The God who can open any door, the God of the universe stands at the door of your heart and knocks. He will not open that door. You have to open the door. And remember, this was written to Christians. Here's my prayer. My prayer is that all of us, every campus, every Gathering, everyone on YouTube, everyone on television, all of us, including me, will restart my relationship with Jesus today, will hear him knocking, and will open that door, and he'll come in and sit down and fellowship with me and teach me this book. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. And I want you to just take a moment, like we do every weekend, and just say, "Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me through this message"?
I took a little more time than I normally do today because I just felt this message was so important to wrap up the whole series. I am really praying, I know there are some people that may have been convicted about pornography a moment ago, I don't want you to feel ashamed. Jesus said, "I'd like to cover you with My garments to cover the shame of your nakedness". He doesn't want you to live in shame. Some of you may have been convicted of pride, of not walking in humility. Some of you may have been convicted about being focused on material wealth and not spiritual wealth, I don't know. I don't know what the Holy Spirit said to you. But I really believe, we as a church, Gateway Church, we need to say, "Lord, I want to restart".
And there's some area for all of us that we need to restart. It's different probably for many of us, but we need to say, "Lord, I want to restart today". I just want you to do that right now, please. And I want you to open the door of your heart, I want you to tell him, "Lord, I'm opening the door. I know you're knocking at my heart and I will open the door and let you come in".
Lord, I want to tell you, thank you for this series. Thank you for the truth of your Word. Thank you for the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. And thank you, Holy Spirit, that no matter how far we've strayed, and we've all strayed, that we can restart because of your grace and because of your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.