Problems = Opportunity

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BIBLE STUDY TONIGHT (1/18) | 6:30 PM | SANCTUARY LIVESTREAM: asburytulsa.online.church

Parents, I LOVE having elementary and especially middle and high school students at Bible study. Bring ‘em!

 
 
 

REVELATION 3:1-6

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 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. 3 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. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus 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. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

 
 

Unlike some of the other churches Jesus addresses in Revelation, the church in Sardis appears to have been relatively well-off and accepted in that city. Unfortunately, they were also (almost) spiritually dead.

That’s the way it so often is in this world, isn’t it? Wealth and comfort make us think (erroneously) that we are self-sufficient, that we don’t need God. And that way lies spiritual death.

I mean that literally—I think Hell is made up of folks who are too proud to admit that they need God’s mercy.

Problems and poverty and persecution can bring out the best in us, though no one actually wants those things in his or her life. Still, problems can cause us to turn to God and admit that we can’t make it on our own.

Today, when you face a problem, consider it an opportunity to humbly ask for God’s help.

P.S. We will see later in Revelation chapters 17-18 that one of the ways Babylon has corrupted people is through wealth. What we see in the letters to the seven churches is that the churches are facing internally the same sins and temptations that the external world is also facing. Things are still the same today.