It's Time - Christ Our Riches

CHRIST OUR RICHES – REVELATION 3:14-22

Riches - What does it really mean to be rich? To win the National Lottery? Would you like to find riches that last for ever? He that has ears let him hear what the Spirit is saying tonight!

Laodicea - A letter to the church in Laodicea – a 50 year old church where the good ground had become the thorny ground  - the good seed choked by “life’s worries, riches and pleasures” (Luke  8:15)

 Background -  a wealthy city famous for clothing, eye ointment, banking – they needed nothing. They were self-sufficient.

Jesus verdict on the church – its true spiritual condition. V17.

• Lukewarm – like the lukewarm water that ran into the city from the hills
• Poor, wretched, blind and naked – in a dreadful spiritual condition
• Deceived and deluded - no realisation of their need for Christ – thought all was well. The spirit of the city had taken over the church.

 Material wealth and physical pleasures have been a rival to God since the Garden of Eden -  don’t make God’s gifts into an idol that replaces God.

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It's Time - Christ Our Righteousness

 CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS – Acts 9:1-25

• I am converted
• I am sure I am converted
• I do not know the date, place or time I was converted

What is the true meaning of conversion? We discover the answer by looking at the most famous conversion in history – Saul on the Damascus Road

Conversion – the word in the New Testament simply means to turn e.g. 1^st Thessalonians 1:9-10 – you turned from idols to serve the living and true God.

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It's Time - Christ Our Restorer

CHRIST OUR RESTORER – LUKE 24:13-35

Just like a river can be dammed up, so the flow of spiritual and emotional life in us can get blocked by an accumulation of debris. Some of the blockages can become barriers between between us and God. How are your emotions?

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It's Time - Christ Our Reconciliation

CHRIST OUR RECONCILIATION – MATTHEW 18:21-35

V35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from the heart.”   We cannot be in the right with God if we  are not also seeking to be in right relationship with others. Inseparable.

 Life is a whole and its parts are inseparable - Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.1^st John 4:19-21

Biblical teaching

• Obadiah – Edom condemned for its centuries-old undying hatred of Israel
• Isaiah 58 – their prayers not heard because of their unjust relationships
• Amos 5:21ff – their worship unbearable to God because of their greed, and oppression of the poor, the absence of righteousness and justice
• Matthew 5:24 – if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
• Ephesians 4:30-31 – do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you are sealed for the day of redemption

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It's Time - Christ Our Refuge

CHRIST OUR REFUGE Luke 7:1-10, Matthew 15:21-28

What is a true, living and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?  Observe  these two stories where Jesus says the two people have ‘great faith’. 

FAITH – ITS CENTRAL IMPORTANCE

• Ephesians 2:8- by grace you are saved through faith
• Hebrews 12:5 – without faith it is impossible to please God

The purpose of this talk  -  to help us  see if we are in the faith and if not, then take steps to finding true faith in Jesus

• Some may discern that up until now what they have regarded as true is in fact not true faith at all
• Others with a very timid or even somewhat hidden faith may have that faith affirmed, nurtured and fanned into flame

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It's Time - Christ Our Everlasting Reward

CHRIST OUR EVERLASTING REWARD – REVELATION 22

This wonderful chapter does two things – it tells us what kind of future is coming and urges us to get ready.

The time has come – we have listened and learned;  it is time to leave behind the City of Destruction and set out on the pilgrim path to the New Jerusalem.

It’s time because you have to choose whose side you are on in the great battle of the universe -  are you a follower of the Lamb or a  captive of the great dragon? A citizen of the doomed city of Babylon ( symbol of the world) or a citizen of the New Jerusalem ( a symbol of the church)?

vs 1-5  - a word of revelation -  – respond because there is a new world coming

A world of indescribable life, beauty, joy and fulfilment – and lasting forever! One day God will make all things new!

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