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Dover Assembly of God

10.24.2021 | Revelation - Week 9 - To The Church In Sardis - Part 2

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4790 Carlisle Rd, Dover, PA 17315, USA

Sunday 10:30 AM

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October 24, 2021 Welcome to Dover Assembly! We are so glad you have chosen to attend Dover Assembly this morning. It is not by accident that you are here. We believe that God has allowed you to be here so that you might receive all that He has for you. We pray you are blessed as you allow the Lord to work in your life. THIS WEEK Sunday 9:00 am ~ Coffee & Donut Fellowship 9:30 am ~ Sunday School 10:30 am ~ Worship Service 10:30 am ~ R.O.C.K. Children’s Ministry 1:00 pm ~ Spanish Service Monday 6:30 pm ~ Women’s Bible Study Wednesday 6:30 pm ~ FAMILY NIGHT Thursday 6:30 pm Prayer Night Saturday 6:30 pm Spanish Service UPCOMING EVENTS New Wednesday Night Bible Study We continue our mid-week bible study, discussing the book “Not Safe-Discovering God’s Dangerous Plan for Your Life” by Mark Batterson. Jesus didn’t die to make us safe, he died to make us dangerous. Be sure to join us starting this Wednesday at 6:30 pm. Youth Convention Join us next Sunday as we highlight our teens and their recent trip to Youth convention. Veteran's Day Service We need you to join us on Sunday Nov 7! We have scheduled a special speaker for the Sunday before Veteran’s day. Captain Robert Williams USN (retired) will be our speaker. Captain Williams spent 30 years in the Navy, part of which was serving in the Pentagon before retiring in 2018. Be in prayer for that day and start to invite any veterans or current military personnel that you may know. We want to make this a special day to honor their service and to share the gospel with them. Please Invite, Invite, Invite!! Daylight Saving Time Ends Saturday night Nov. 6, don’t forget, we turn our clocks back one hour. Sunday, Nov. 7 is our Veteran’s service so we want everyone to be on time and excited for what God is going to do. Although, if you don’t change your clocks you will be an hour early! Hmm. . . On second thought. BODY NEWS Shut Ins Continue to pray for those of our church family who are no longer able to join us for worship. ~ Marian T. ~ Olga K ~ Rose K. ~ Cindy D. (Angel’s mom) ~ Beulah S. Pray for Pastor Luis! Pastor Luis is taking his oral citizenship test on Friday Nov. 5. He asked that we pray he is able to do well. Prayer Warriors! Prayer nights continue on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 6:30 pm. Join us as we seek the Lord for Dover Assembly and our own lives! Benevolence It’s that time of year. . . Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. We would like to bless a few of our church family. If you can help, please mark “Benevolence” on your check or envelope! Thank you!

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Oct 24, 2021 - Week 9 - Rev. Jeff Bender

We are finishing up this week with the second part of the letter to the church in Sardis.

A couple of reminders from last time.

Sardis was a wealthy city and a major military city. It was well fortified and was only defeated twice in its history.

Both times were from sneak attacks from unprotected areas.

We have to watch the same sneak attacks in our lives from areas that we may not protect. The enemy will exploit the areas that are unprotected.

We looked at verses 1 & 2. The church was probably a large church that had a great reputation at one time of being a place where God displayed his power.

Now they were living on that reputation without much display of any power.

It reminded me of something that Paul said to Timothy about the last days.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

He then told them to wake up and rekindle the small embers that were still there. That if they didn’t even those little sparks would disappear.

We left off at the last part of verse 3

Remember the theme for all these messages has been: “The men of Issacar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”

We have to understand the times we live in and what we as believers should do.

As we watch the news and hear about what is going on in the world, we have to understand that these might very well be the last days.

And as such we want to be prepared for what happens next. We want to be ready.

Jesus is addressing these 7 churches in order to correct them and have them ready for his return.

Some were good churches needing only a slight correction. Some only needed encouragement to keep on keeping on.

Others were in danger of not being ready at all. In fact they were close to being a dead church.

But God in his infinite mercy doesn’t abandon us or them.

He wants everyone to be prepared so he writes these letters. To make us examine ourselves and see if we need, encouragement, correction or warning.

Because all of these are done with the purpose of bringing us closer to God.

We left off 2 weeks ago with the command to WAKE UP!

Revelation 3:2

It’s getting close for them. Their spirit man is still alive but he’s on life support.

He’s saying to them “I know you still have some of my Holy Spirit living in you, but he’s almost gone, or His influence in you is almost gone. You need to start building it back up."

If we want to be ready, we need to ask ourselves the same question.

Are we still operating in the spirit or do we feel like that part is waning? Is God’s influence in your life alive and vibrant, or is it weak and wanting?

How did God tell them to build it back up?

He says that what they are “doing for God” is not complete. What does that mean?

Partly it means they were going thru the motions in their services, and they were not relying on the power of the Holy Spirit or the anointing of the Holy Spirit to do what only He can.

The things they were doing “for God” were not directed or inspired by God.

They needed to be revived. I think the church today needs to be revived.

If we truly want God to operate in the miraculous, we need to be revived.

John tells then how.

Revelation 3:3

What they received was the apostolic tradition of the gospel. When you were saved, you received the Holy Spirit and you were excited about this new change.

You were on fire.

What they heard was the teachings of the apostles and prophets who brought the gospel to them.

They and we heard about the love that God has for you, how God gave His son to forgive us of our sins. And that meant everything.

Now their job was to remember what it was they received, and heard and now start obeying it.

Which means they weren’t obeying what they were taught and they weren’t allowing the Holy Spirit to operate in their lives.

To obey something usually requires you to follow obey with an action.

Obey and now do it.

Look at the order of the words: Obey it, then repent.

Actions first. . . . then work on the heart attitude.

Don’t wait until you feel like it, start doing what you know to be right, then while you are in that process, the repentance will follow.

What do they have to do? Restore the teachings of the gospel. Restore the truth of the word. Adhere to what the Bible says.

Revelation 3:3

This is not talking about His return, but when he will bring judgment.

“Wait until your dad gets home.” That instilled a fear in us that made us straighten up and fly right, hoping to avoid the belt. If we behaved, it sometimes worked. But if we kept it up, then it was game on.

The thief term represents the times they were defeated by the silent attack from the unprotected areas.

He is saying that “I will come and defeat you just like you were defeated by those who came in thru the back door.”

When you least expect it, when you are not prepared for it and when you think everything is going well.

Hammer is going to fall.

What does that sound like to you?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sardis didn’t know when God’s judgment was coming and we don’t know when the rapture will happen.

So what do we need to do? Wake up and be ready

Now we are at verse 4

Revelation 3:4

God will always have a remnant.

There will always be at least a small minority that we follow the truth.

Now this church was probably big, correct? But he is saying here that out of all those many people there are a just a few who have not fallen away.

To be soiled or wear soiled garments meant being defiled. In pagan rituals, it was forbidden to approach their gods with dirty clothes.

Soiled always means to be polluted by the sinful actions of the world. By mingling pagan and holy things together.

James 1:21

James 1:27

Jude 1:23

We have to constantly watch our lives to be sure that we aren’t being slowly affected by the world.

That we aren’t accepting the world’s standards for what is right, regardless of good they sound.

Revelation 3:4

To walk with the Lord means you have a relationship. Not that you attend church, but you have a one-on-one relationship with the Lord.

Now that relationship should manifest itself in being in church.

Hebrews 10:25

Dressed in white is always symbolic for a life of righteousness and purity.

Revelation 7:9

If you walk with God, you will by default, be righteous.

How are they worthy? Truth is they aren’t. No one is worthy.

They obtain their worthiness from their trust in the Lord. If they have trusted in Jesus and continue to trust in Him, He makes them worthy.

We have talked about persecuted Christians, martyred Christians and Christians who suffer intensely.

This is telling us that these were just plain folks, who weren’t persecuted that we know of, they weren’t martyred or even that they were suffering.

You can still be faithful without persecution, martyrdom, or suffering.

These were everyday believers, attending a church that was out in left field, but that small remnant believed in spite of all that.

I knew a Catholic lady who was a true believer, but stayed in the Catholic church, wanting to effect change from within.

It’s not easy to do, stay in a church for years and not truly believe what they say. More often than not, you’ll have to end up leaving, because it will be very difficult to change an organization.

Revelation 3:5

For someone to overcome, they have to be like those in this church who have not been overcome by the evils in the town and in this church.

Talking to the whole church he says - In other words, Look-this remnant has done it. They were able to stay strong in the Lord in spite of all the negative influences in this church.

So can you.

We live in a world full of negative influences. God will give you the ability to overcome them if you let His word steer you.

It also tells us it is do-able. No one can say that they weren’t able to live pure. It’s a choice-sometimes a hard choice but still a choice.

I couldn’t imagine the negative influence these few must have had from the others.

But they stayed strong.

Revelation 3:5

Again, anyone who is able to keep on winning victories will be righteous.

Revelation 3:5

He says that to each person who is able to overcome all of life’s battles, (with God’s help, by the way, not in ourselves) he will count them as righteous.

Does that mean we are perfect? No.

Does that mean we win every battle? No, it means we go from circumstance to circumstance. Never letting the problems defeat you.

But on the flip side of that, he says that if we don’t succumb to life’s problems, we are righteous, but if we do and allow those things to defeat us to the point where we give up and start living like the world, he will blot our name out.

Why would he say he won’t to those who overcome, unless there is a possibility that he will blot it out to those who don’t overcome?

In ancient cities, the names of it’s citizens were recorded in a register until their death, then they were erased or marked out of the book of the living.

For Christ to say your name will never be blotted, erased or marked out, means even your death will not mark the end of your relationship with Christ.

How do we win these victories? Overcome these things?

1 John 5:3-5

Simple active, trusting and believing faith allows to win the battles.

It is not the promises of the world, but our simple faith that allows us to overcome.

This church ultimately trusted in their reputation and their outward appearances. The overcomers may have had the same outward appearance (material wealth in itself is not sin, many of God’s people were wealthy)

It’s not what they had, but how they viewed what they had in relationship to their God.

God looks on the heart of people and was able to determine the attitudes of the over-comers and those who weren’t.

God is able to do the same for us.

It is not our outward appearances that God looks at, he looks on the attitudes of our hearts.

I want to be sure that my walk (my heart attitude) matches my talk (my outward appearance).

If we live by faith, operate in His word, you will be an overcomer!

Revelation 3:6

John’s last time to say: “Wake Up!”

Are we awake? Are we prepared for Jesus to come back.

His return is imminent. But if we’re to see people come to faith that will require us to wake up.

In other words, to wake up someone is to revive them.

We need revival.

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