Grace to you and peace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I wonder how many of you would say there are times in your life when you feel closer to God then others? There are times when you read His Word, and it is like He is talking directly to you. There are times when you pray and you just know God hears your prayer, and you see Him respond.

There are other times when it’s just not like that. You still show up for church but you’ve maybe lost some of the passion. You know God is present but the feeling has diminished. I wonder how many of you have felt closer to God at some time in life than do now?

I want to show you something really emotional in the Bible. This was written about 2,600 years ago. These words, in Psalm 42, are something to which maybe you can relate. You can feel the author’s emotion as he describes:

I will remember these things
as I pour out my soul…

You can almost feel the heaviness as he recalls how he used to be so close to God. He continues:

How I used to walk with the crowd
and lead it in a procession to God’s house. I sang songs of joy and thanksgiving while crowds of people celebrated a festival.¹

You can almost feel it, and maybe some of you can relate to it. Maybe you haven’t even stopped to think about it but now that you do, you’re thinking why was I closer to God then and why don’t I feel so close to Him now? Maybe, for some listening on-line, you haven’t stopped in at church for a while. You may feel like you had it but you lost it. I want to help you see how to get it back. Or if you’ve feel you’ve never had it, how to get it.

Some might not really know what I’m talking about. You think, “I’ve never had it.” I want to help you get it. I think this message could change your life. As we start, would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, we ask that in Your presence, and by the power of Your Word, You would draw us close, to know You intimately, and to serve You faithfully. Help us to get it, to know it, to experience it, to share it, to give it freely, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I remember the day it first hit me. I was in third grade. I was alone in the classroom because I was not going to be present for the Children’s Christmas Program. I got to stay in the classroom while the others went to practice. The teacher Mrs. Seabald had been a missionary in her younger life. She had trinkets and postcards from various places in Asia. I was going through the postcards when it hit me.

I saw the people from those far off lands and my little eight year old mind thought, “Who will tell them about Jesus?” I recall my faith growing a lot during those times. Mrs. Seabald was very influential in really anchoring and growing that little boy’s faith. Over the years I’ve had various times when God felt closer, and other times when He felt more distant, but for me that is when it really started.

I grew up. Moved a few times… I ended up at a church that was about to see some amazing growth. It went from about 500 a week to over 2,600 in weekly attendance. It was that kind of church where you can feel it when you walk in the door. It was just different. It wasn’t the size, or the growth, that caused that feeling. It was the faith of the people. They believed in Jesus. They trusted God. It was in the air. You could feel it.

Very honestly it is the same feeling of “it” that I feel walking into this place. That’s why I tell those visiting us on-line, if you haven’t been here, if you can, get here because being here is so different then being on-line, or on the phone. When you’re here you feel it.

Now I know Zion has gone through times when you didn’t feel it. After Covid all churches were in a slump. You had the exact same building, with the exact same worship, with the exact same: teaching, doctrine and confession, but the results weren’t exactly the same. You might have thought it was strange. You came back to church and some of you probably felt this place didn’t have it anymore. You might have asked, “How can we get it back?”

I want to look at Revelation 3. {You might want to open your Bibles there. Page 1220 in the Pew Bibles.} Jesus is speaking to seven churches. In chapter three He is speaking to a church in the city of Sardis. They thought they had it, but they didn’t. They had lost it. I’ll give you a little background on Sardis. It was the capital city in the Lydian {lie-DEE-an} empire in Asia Minor, which is modern western Turkey. They had gold, they were known for their particularly excellent wool, and they were known for their fruit trees.

The city was known for its fruit but the church wasn’t. They looked alive on the outside but Jesus said they were actually dead. I want to read to you what Jesus said about these people. Starting in verse one of chapter three, He said:

I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of My God.

Remember then, what you received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.²

Jesus said, “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are not anymore…” and that’s where a lot of people are, or feel, today. Outwardly there’s a lot of spiritual busyness, but inwardly there may be some spiritual detachment. It’s what I might call Kind-of-Christianity. Many people in churches today have enough Jesus to fake it, to play the part, to blend in, but not enough of Jesus to change their: life, heart and soul. They think they have it, but they really don’t. This is what the people in Sardis were like.

Sardis was a Greek city. It had what was known as an Acropolis. It’s a fortress on top of a mountain. Sardis had this castle or fortress on top of this big mountain, surrounded by a river which made it kind of like a mote. So in its day Sardis was thought to be impenetrable, except it wasn’t.

In 549 BC, one of the guards who was up on top of the castle dropped his helmet over the wall. He decided to climb over the castle wall and scale down the side of about a 1700 foot mountain to the bottom, pick up his helmet and climb all the way back up. Mission accomplished.

The only problem was the enemies, the Midian soldiers saw him do it and thought, “Oh, so you can actually climb that wall.” Shortly after, in the middle of the night, a group of Midian soldiers scaled the wall, opened the gate and the army ran in and defeated the people in Sardis because they had become complacent, they had become comfortable, they’d let their guard down.

They had it. Then they lost it. They became complacent. They were distracted. They were asleep. That’s why Jesus said:

Wake up!
Strengthen what remains
and is about to die.

That’s my message to some today, it might be time to wake up. Maybe there was a time when you had it. You felt you were so close to God and now you don’t feel as close. If you feel like that, know you’re in good company.

There are times in my life when I feel I have it. I’m on fire with it and I’ve got to let everyone know about the awesome thing we have in Jesus. There have also been times in my life when I realized I felt like I lost it. I didn’t see it coming because it didn’t happen overnight. There was a slow drift.

I know this happens to pastors often. They find themselves praying more, publicly than privately. They read the Bible, but mostly only to preach to others, not to feed themselves. It is not hard to fall into a workaholic place where you’re a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Jesus.

I bet some of you can relate to that. You feel you had it and you lost it. You got distracted. You got busy and your heart drifted. What do you do when you feel you’re not as close to God as you once were? I want to show you three things in Revelations 3 will help you get it back, (or if you’ve never had it, I believe it’ll help you get it.)

The first thing I want to encourage you to do is “remember it.” In Revelation 3:3 Jesus said:

Remember what you received and heard. Keep it and repent.

Remember it. In the Greek language the word there means to remember and keep remembering. It means bring it to mind over and over again. Jesus is repeating the words taught in Deuteronomy 6:7-9. He is encouraging us to follow Psalm 77:

I will remember the deeds of the Lord.
Yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will ponder all Your work,
and meditate on Your mighty deeds.³

These things should be constantly in our thoughts. We should remember, and keep in the front of our mind, God’s mighty deeds. Consider where you might be without God’s grace. Remember where you came from. Remember what He brought you out of. Remember those times when you felt lost or hopeless and you thought you had no way out. Remember when you cried out to God and He answered your prayer and showed up. We all need to remember it.

The second thing is “finish it.” Don’t just remember, but finish. Jesus says in Revelation 3:

Wake up, and strengthen what remains
and is about to die,
for I have not found your works complete in the sight of My God.⁴

If you had it and you lost it, and you wonder where it went, maybe it’s because you didn’t do it, when God told you to. There was something He led you to do. He prompted you to give it and you didn’t. He led you to confess it and you didn’t. He prompted you to share it and you didn’t. He told you to entrust it to Him and you’d continue to try to control it.

Finish it. If you lost it, remember it, finish it and then the third thing is “hold it.” Hold it close. Jesus said:

Remember what you received and heard. Hold it, and repent.⁵

Never take God’s Word for granted. Hold it fast, hold it close, all the time. Like when you go to the ATM on a windy day. You push that button and those twenties come out, and you hold on to it because you hold what’s important to you. Hold on to God like that. When you draw near to Him, He draws near to you.⁶ Hold it close.

In Revelation Jesus is talking to the church in the town of Sardis. They look like they had it, but they didn’t. The Bible says many of them were spiritually dead. …but guess what? There were a few that had it, and it’s amazing what God can do with just a few. It is recorded there:

Yet you have still a few in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the Book of Life. I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.⁷

God can do a lot with a few. Sometimes it just takes one. It took one young shepherd named David to take down a giant. It took one brave woman named Esther to stand strong when everyone else caved in. I don’t know about your world. I don’t know about your story, but you may be the one. What if you’re the one that shows up with it, and gives it away to someone who needs it.

You may be the one who knows Jesus and shares Him and helps others know the One who loves them most. When you step out some may laugh. They may not understand, but you may be the one that continues to care about them, serve them and reach out with a Truth too good to deny.

If you had it and you lost it, God wants you to get it back. Remember the Psalm at the beginning of our service today? He said, “I remember how it used to be.” I used to be close to God. I used to go eagerly to the house of God. Remember how it used to be? Then he says:

Why are you discouraged my soul?
Why are you so restless?
Put your hope in God,
because I will still praise Him.
He is my Savior and my God.⁸

He says, “I will trust Him with everything in me. I will worship Him. I will choose to praise Him again.” Jesus said, and He says it to some of you:

I will never blot your name out of the Book of Life. I will confess your name before My Father and before His angels.⁹

Wake up. Wake up in your job. Wake up in your family. Wake your money up. Wake your up in your faith. Wake your friends up. Wake your heart up. Wake up your time in God’s Word. Wake up your passion. Dig into the goodness of God.

Who is He? What is He? What has He called you to do? You’ve been chosen. You have been called. You have been set apart.¹⁰ His grace is not wasted on you.¹¹ He loves you.¹² He chose you.¹³ He redeemed you.¹⁴ He equipped you.¹⁵ He filled you with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.¹⁶

Wake up! The world can be a crazy place, but we’re better than that. We’ve got a calling to proclaim the name of Jesus. We serve a heavenly King. We are the redeemed.¹⁷ We are the light of the world.¹⁸ Remember what God has done. Finish what He called you to do. Hold onto it with all of your might. Remember it. Finish it. Hold it. You are the Church.

For those of you who would say, “I’ve been closer to God than I am right now,” now is the time to:

Seek the Lord while He may be found;
call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the Lord
that He may have compassion on him,
and to our God,
for He will abundantly pardon.¹⁹

When you’ve been forgiven and spiritually healed.
When you call on His name.
When He hears your prayers.
When He forgives all of your sins.

You are never, ever the same. He makes you brand new.²⁰ As head into a new school year, and as things settle back into the regular routine as Summer starts closing down and Fall sets in. As we start up all the education opportunities here at Zion, let’s work at filling ourselves and the generation to follow us with these things.

I n Jesus’ name. Amen.

=======

NOTES