In the frustrations of work, God is reminding us to look to him. He is saying, look to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are fleeting, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). He is where we will find the fulfillment and glory we seek, and eventually, Jesus will return for his children. At that moment, he will make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

Last week was a rough work week. First, it was exhausting due to its long hours. Second, my health gave me some trouble, and third, I dropped one of the many balls I have been juggling on a project, and now I am cleaning up the pieces. None of these issues were that significant in and of themselves, but they piled up and weighed me down.
My emotional response is what I found to be the most interesting. I found myself under it all instead of on top of it. Once defeat set in, even the minor issues felt daunting. I expected my work to bring me fulfillment, but it offered me frustration.
What I was experiencing was the effect of the curse; the thorns and thistles that accompany every job and make the sweat pour from our brows (Genesis 3:17-19). It was nothing out of the ordinary in a fallen world, but I was reminded that life is not the way it should be, and the fruit of our labor is rarely produced with ease.
It is not only the world that is not as it should be; we, too, are fallen. It was not the curse alone I was dealing with last week.
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There are two main reasons we often neglect the church as believers. The first is that our hearts are elsewhere. We are not that interested in the cause of Christ because we are pursuing something else. We are not concerned about having fellow workers because we are not a fellow worker. The second reason we avoid the church is that it usually involves some people who are divisive and create obstacles. 

No matter how hostile the world may become towards Christians, the Lord always has fellow believers available to us for support. We were never meant to stand alone, and we should be available to encourage other believers as well.
The apostle Paul faced countless persecutions as a Christian. From stonings to beatings to imprisonment, all of this was part of his experience as a minister in a world hostile to Christ. He even wrote some of his epistles while in chains, but he never failed to close his letters with greetings to his friends and fellow workers.
As he closes the letter to the Romans, he greets Prisca and Aquila, who risked their necks for him (Romans 16:3). He always had fellow prisoners and fellow workers. Though Paul was often alone, he was never alone, and neither are we. At this moment, we are surrounded by fellow believers. If we do not realize it, it is because we are not as involved in the local church as we should be.
There are two main reasons we often neglect the church as believers. The first is that our hearts are elsewhere. We are not that interested in the cause of Christ because we are pursuing something else. We are not concerned about having fellow workers because we are not a fellow worker.
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When Jesus said, take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me, he was not inviting us to a life of misery. He was calling us out of ourselves to the most extraordinary life possible: knowing God. There is no greater glory and no greater joy, but we must root our life in his truth, not ourselves or the pleasure of this world. If we aim at anything less than God himself, we have settled for lesser things and will end up with nothing.

There is a commonplace religion that invites its followers to do the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. It is a religion of self-help, and it likes to go to church. We see it in many popular manifestations of cultural “Christianity.” It has a thin veneer of truth but lacks substance. It gives lip service to following Jesus, but its heart is chasing the American dream.
In many cases, it is thankful that Jesus has provided forgiveness, but now that is out of the way, it can get on with more important things. It has rejected the word of God as its authority and has replaced it with self. Putting self on the throne appeals to many because they believe it is how they will find the fulfillment they seek, but instead of nourishing their souls, it only deadens them further.
It does not take much for the man or woman rooted in scripture to see through the façade. It thinks it can find what it wants by being the master of its destiny, so it replaces biblical truth with personal growth tactics. It is looking for happiness, so it replaces preaching with pop psychology. It is looking for glory, so it turns pastors into celebrities and worship leaders into headliners.
It loves to be the hero in every bible story. It is David defeating the giant. It is Joseph overcoming betrayal to see his brothers bow down to him. It is Moses leading the people out of slavery. It is Nehemiah using all of the correct business principles to build the wall and protect Jerusalem. It also loves to sing about itself. It revels in songs about overcoming, victory, and being more than conquerors. It shouts, “I can do all things through Christ,” and “No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” but it replaces the spiritual and eschatological reality of those truths and applies them to worldly success and other earthly longings.
The problem is its followers will never find the satisfaction they seek because it tells them to look for it in themselves and the things of this world. Instead of waiting on the Lord to bring the holy city, adorned like a bride, down to us, it attempts to build its own city with a tower up to heaven. It will never work.
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Through his word, Jesus is calling you back to your first love (Revelation 2:4). He is telling you not to give in to the sins of your culture. Do not fear what you are about to suffer (Revelation 2:10). Wake up and strengthen what remains. 

Remember from where you have fallen (Revelation 2:4). Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die (Revelation 3:2). These two phrases, the first spoken to the church in Ephesus, and the second spoken to the church in Sardis, summarize the condition of our spiritual lives from time to time.
For countless Christians, it is easy to reflect on our Christian life and remember a time when we burned bright for Jesus. A time when we looked forward to getting together with the saints on the Lord’s Day. A time when we could not get enough of God’s word throughout the week. But for many of us, something has changed. Our love for God has grown cold, and what remains feels like it is on life support.
This deadening of our spiritual life can happen in countless ways. Sometimes it is because we have begun to dabble with blatant sin. As we look through the letters to the seven churches, we see that sexual immorality is often a culprit. If it is not that, it is usually because some other earthly temptation has grabbed ahold of us, and we begin to give in (Revelation 2:14). Other times, we may avoid giving in to the sin ourselves, but we grow tired of standing against the culture, and we begin to support the sexual immorality or other indulgences of those who desire them.
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We should never look to riches and power to assess God’s favor in our life. Sometimes they are blessings from his hand, but sometimes God uses them as a curse. Scripture tells us that out of the same lump of clay, God makes vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor (Romans 9:21). He prepares the vessels of wrath for destruction. This destruction shows the vessels of honor the riches of his glory, for they have received mercy (Romans 9:23).

When we read God’s statement in scripture where he says, “For this very purpose I have raised you up,” commonplace religion has conditioned us always to expect the reason to be something positive for the person addressed. Perhaps God raised this person up to save a group of people from genocide, like Esther. Maybe God raised this person up to save a group of people from famine, like Joseph. However, in this passage of scripture, both guesses would be wrong.
In Romans 9:17, Paul tells us that God raised Pharaoh up to destroy him. The exact reason given is that I raised you up “that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” In other words, God increased Pharoah’s earthly wealth and power to enslave the people of God so that God might show how weak worldly wealth and power are against him. God used Pharoah to show his people that their most powerful enemies are nothing against his might.
We should never look to riches and power to assess God’s favor in our life. Sometimes they are blessings from his hand, but sometimes God uses them as a curse. Scripture tells us that out of the same lump of clay, God makes vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor (Romans 9:21). He prepares the vessels of wrath for destruction.
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Their spiritual condition was the exact opposite of their physical reality. They were wealthy and admired in terms of money, but they were poor and pitiable spiritually. They had eye salve, but they were blind. They had fine black wool, but they were naked. And the most famous of all, they had hot and cold water, but they were lukewarm, and God was ready to spew them out of his mouth (Revelation 3:15).

“You have access to a world of knowledge on the phone in your pocket, but you have no wisdom.” Would this be something God would say to many of us in the church today if he were to speak to us in the same way he spoke to the church in Laodicea in the book of Revelation?
In showing Laodicea where they fell short, God used prominent features of their culture. He said in essence, “You have all these wonderful things in your cultural experience, but you are wretched and do not even know it.” Some key features of the culture surrounding the church were springs of hot and cold water, extreme wealth and admiration, and the production of fine black wool and eye salve.
These features of the culture are essential to keep in mind when we read the critique of the church. God says, “You say I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).
Did you catch that? Their spiritual condition was the exact opposite of their physical reality. They were wealthy and admired in terms of money, but they were poor and pitiable spiritually. They had eye salve, but they were blind. They had fine black wool, but they were naked. And the most famous of all, they had hot and cold water, but they were lukewarm, and God was ready to spew them out of his mouth (Revelation 3:15).
Following this pattern of applying the significant features of their culture to point out their spiritual condition, I wonder what God would say to us. Here are a few elements of our culture with possible corresponding critiques.
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As we grow in union with him, if the Lord wills, he might decide to set the broader culture on fire through the Holy Spirit as he has done in the past. However, even if he does not, the remnant will experience revival and be the bright and shining light to the culture around us we are called to be, and the fuse will be ready to ignite any powder the Lord has been preparing.

Throughout history, we see the church expand and contract not only in size but also in terms of its faithfulness to Jesus Christ and his word. Today, in North America, the visible church as a whole seems to be in a time of decline. Many churches are shrinking or closing, and many others are giving into the spirit of the age. They are salt that is losing its saltiness.
A time of decline is never the time for the faithful follower of Jesus Christ to grow fainthearted. Elijah once lamented that the enemies of God had killed the priests and the prophets and that he was the only follower of God remaining. God’s response to him was that there were still 7000 men who had not bowed their knees to Baal. So too, at this time, there is a remnant chosen by grace (Romans 11:2-5).
Now is not the time for us to throw up our hands. It is the time for us to get down on our knees and pray for revival.
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Once the Holy Spirit ministers to the preacher’s heart, the distress is transformed; instead of cautioning him, it now compels him. The fear of the Lord not only causes dread but, as Proverbs tells us, “In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence (Proverbs 14:30).” This assurance in God is where the preacher finds great delight. He now has complete confidence, not in himself, but in the God who laid him prostrate before His holiness, then brought him to his feet by the power of the Spirit and His word. 

No preacher worth his weight enters the pulpit without some distress. There is a heaviness to delivering the word of God that is unlike anything else. Even if the preacher is naturally jovial, the man moved by the Spirit of God will tremble under the gravity of what he is doing.
I do not hold the office of pastor, but I do preach occasionally, and I teach the Bible regularly. Though I do not know the entire burden these pastors carry, I do know, in part, that preaching is often accompanied by a sense of woe that weakens them to their very core.
What causes this? It is the holiness of God. To stand in the pulpit and represent God to His people is a weight and responsibility that can only properly be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. To stand there in the power of the flesh or to trust in our theological knowledge and oratory skills is a sin.
Preaching, when done correctly, almost always begins with anguish. The greatest preachers will always ask, “Who am I to stand and proclaim Your word?” They know they meet the qualifications of pastor or elder as laid out in the scriptures and know God has called them to this, but they also know they need the word of God as much as any person in the congregation. Their sinfulness reminds them their lives depend upon the gospel they declare just as much as anyone to whom they will preach.
This acknowledgment of need is the only foundation for a great sermon. The pastor will often find himself studying the word of God until the passage he is covering begins to feed his soul.
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In scripture, the idea of gnashing teeth does not only mean anguish but also hatred. They will continue to hate God for all eternity, but because they are separated from their creator, they will hate themselves too. Their self-deception will have come to an end. To paraphrase Albert Barnes, nothing more awful can be imagined. Their polluted soul will be fixed as nothing more can be done. At that point, their corrupt heart will always be corrupt, as they will be beyond the possibility of being cleansed from sin for all eternity.

Sin is filth. It is soul pollution. It makes us vile in the eyes of God, and no matter how much pride we take in our sin now, we will one day even be offensive in our own eyes. As sinners, we may do everything we can to maintain our delusion that we are honorable, but every one of us has fallen short of God’s glory. We cannot roll in the mire without eventually being repulsed by our condition.
Other people tend to recognize it in us before we do because we have myriad ways of deceiving ourselves. We find ways to justify our sins by calling them more virtuous titles. Some sins we overlook merely as part of our personalities. Other sins we play off because they are common in our culture. Some even attempt to cover their sin with pretenses of godliness. Yet, in all these things, we defile ourselves, and God is not mocked. His word remains true. The time will come for every living person when they will not be able to ignore their impurity.
For some, it will happen in this life. We will come to a point where we begin to see our condition for what it is.
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If you are a child of God and you are playing with sin, know that he is more concerned about the state of your soul than your reputation or whether you get to keep your job or family. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul (Matthew 16:26)? If we are his child and we do not repent, he will discipline us (Hebrews 12:6-8). As we consider this, if there is any evil way in us, we should lay it at his feet in repentance. 

If we have been nursing secret sin and we have not been exposed, that is because up to this point, God has not decided to reveal it. Nothing we do is unknown to God, and in his omnipotence, he could expose us at any moment if he so chooses. Sin is only as hidden as God allows.
We see a perfect example of this in the life of Gehazi (2 Kings 5). God had used Elisha to heal Naaman of leprosy. In his joy, Naaman offers to give Elisha expensive gifts, but Elisha refuses. Elisha did not want to give the impression that Naaman could buy God’s favor. He also wanted to show that the servants of the true God are not like the pagan priests. Faithful servants of God are not greedy for earthly gain.
Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, was not quite as noble and decided he wanted some of Naaman’s riches, so he went back to Naaman and said, “Elisha changed his mind; we could use some of your gifts.” Having been healed of leprosy, Naaman is more than happy to give him bags of silver and clothing. Gehazi takes his treasures home, puts them in his house, and goes to see Elisha.
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