Awakened to the Cross – Part 3

Welcome to Living in the Light with Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz. Thank you God.

Here's Anne. And I had given up the fight. So he shined his light of truth into my heart and showed me that I was prayerless. And I had other people praying for me. I have a prayer team in my office, a prayer team for myself. This was before the office prayer team was established. But I was substituting their prayers for my own.

And Jesus said, you can't do that. It's good to have people pray for you, Anne. But that's no substitute for you spending time in prayer with me. The principle is that God is not impressed with our reputation, is He? We can have a reputation.

Other people can be impressed, but He's not. And the promise is in verse 5, He who overcomes will be dressed in white. In other words, we'll have a relationship with His Father that He will acknowledge and other people will see. And I think when you spend time in prayer and you spend time in His Word, you're developing that love relationship that even other people can sense about you.

And they know you know God in an intimate way. So as the light of truth shines into your hearts, does it reveal a prayer? How is your prayer life? When you spend time in prayer, you know, every day you spend time in prayer, but can you carve out a retreat time? Maybe it's just once a week. Maybe it's three days a week.

Whatever it is, but just be creative. But make sure you're spending time in prayer. That's where the power is.

You have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. A church at Sardis did not. There's no church there today. Church at Philadelphia, these are the words of Him who is holy and true, holds the key of David. What He opens, no one can shut. What He shuts, no one can open.

He holds the keys not just to heaven and hell, but I believe He holds the keys to the doors of opportunity for us right here and now. And I'm not going to go into this. He called me into ministry from this passage, but I don't want to take too long in this passage. I will tell you just in case there's somebody here like I was because He said, I know your deeds and I had wanted to start a Bible class and the door was shut and I was not allowed to do it.

And I was traveling in the car. My mother-in-law was in the back seat and she was reading out loud to nobody this passage. My mother-in-law was fabulous and I said, Grandma, pass me the Bible. And she passed it up to me and I read this and I said, you know, do you think this could be God speaking to me? It's the first time, one of the very first times I heard His voice coming out of the page. And He said, Ann, I know your deeds. You know what He knew? I hadn't done anything.

I had three children, five, three, and ten months old. I was busy. I was tired. Ann, I know your deeds and you haven't done much of anything. But He says, I've placed before you an open door that no one can shut. And I said, Lord, the door has been shut. He said, if I open it, nobody can shut it. And He says, I know you have a little strength and I love that about Him because every young mother knows all you have is a little strength, right? And He wasn't saying, Ann, you can do this if you try. You're stronger than you think. You have more gifting and more ability.

He was just saying, I know you only have a little strength. But you've kept my word. You've not denied my name. And because of my family and some other things, I've always been identified with Him and I've never backed down.

Not that I can remember. I've taken a stand for Him. So He says, I will open a door for you to walk through. The door was opened for me to teach a Bible class. And I walked through it. I had 500 women who sat in front of me.

My children didn't listen to me, you know, and now I've got 500 people sitting there with their eyes like this. I was so scared that I would go in the back in the bathroom and get physically sick before coming out into the pulpit. But I was more afraid to say no to my Lord who had opened a door and told me to walk through it.

So after teaching every week for 12 years, I never missed a class. After 12 years, He called me out very clearly from Acts 22 and Deuteronomy 1. I won't go into that, but He told me it was time for me to leave the class and go out to an itinerant ministry. And I said, Lord, I can't do that. And He said, Ann, I know, but I can. And I said, Lord, I'm weak. And He said, Ann, I know that too, but I'm strong. And I said, Lord, I'm totally inadequate. And He said, Ann, I know, but I'm sufficient. Walk through the door.

And so He says, hold on to what you have in verse 11. And I said, Lord, I know what I don't have. I don't have time. I don't have energy. I don't have strength. I don't have money. I have no education. You know, I've only been to the 12th grade, never been to college, never been to Bible school, never been to seminary. I'll just tell you that in case that's an encouragement to somebody. Or maybe, I don't know if it is or not, but that's my testimony. And so I said, I know what I don't have.

What do I have? And He said, Ann, you have my words and you have me. Walk through the open door. And so I just say, yes, sir.

Throwing up as I went. But I can't tell you how faithful God has been. And had I refused to walk through the open door, had I said, Lord, I just want to see what your plan for my life might have been like out of curiosity, but you know I really don't want to do that and I can't do that and I'd settle for something like this that's more comfortable and what I would have missed. And I walk through the open door because, not because I want to be in ministry. Do you know that? I want to know Him. And He's out there.

And I want to be with Him. So if He was leading me out of my Bible class, I know He stayed in the Bible class and I turned it over to somebody else and it never missed a beat and then it multiplied. We have ten classes now in our city that size and oh, God has blessed that ministry.

Bible City Fellowship. But He's poured out His blessing on that. But for me, He was no longer there. And if I had said no, I'm too afraid, I would have missed what He has done in my life.

So I don't know how we would describe the church at Philadelphia, but for me, I felt like there was a timidness. When He said, Ann, you only, and He didn't find anything in this church to correct, but I felt like there was a tendency when somebody is inadequate, when you only have a little strength, your tendency is to say, I can't do that. So I don't know if He's opened it.

What door of opportunity has He opened for you? And you're saying, I can't do that. I'm not trained, I'm not equipped, I don't have the money, I don't have the personnel, but you know in your heart He's opened a door for you.

Then I don't think it's an option. If He's your Lord, and that's what I had to come down to, bottom line, if He's my Lord, He's either Lord of all or He's not Lord at all. And so if He opens a door and tells you to walk through, you have no option but to say, yes, Lord. And if you don't, it affects everything in your Christian life. You can no longer walk by faith, you can no longer take Him at His word. So, what's the principle? Very precious. God is attracted to weakness.

Did you know that? God can use somebody who's wholly dependent on Him. So for somebody like me, that's easy.

Somebody like you, if you're gifted and trained and capable, it's a little bit harder. Because there's so much that you think you can do. So sometimes He just has to knock you down, doesn't He?

To teach you that you're dependent on Him. Without me, Jesus said, you can't do anything of eternal significance. That's the principle I think that God is attracted to our weakness. The promise, Him who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.

Somebody who's strongly rooted in the presence of God. And, you know, the way I feel like He's fulfilled that for me. People look at me and listen to me, they have no idea how weak I am. How scared I am. How timid I am. They just see the strength of God in my life.

And that's Him keeping His promise to me if I would just walk through the open door. Do you have ears to hear? Is there somebody here who feels timid?

Somebody here who's been saying, you can't do something? Somebody here who feels inadequate and insufficient and weak and scared to walk through the open door? Then it's time to repent. Return to the cross and tell God you're sorry. That if He's opened the door, you'll hang on to what you have.

And you'll walk through the door on your knees. Church of Philadelphia had ears to hear. There's still a Christian church in that city today. Last church is one that's very familiar.

The church at Laodicea, we'll just touch on it. These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, ruler of God's creation. What he says is so.

They're not going to believe it. I know your deeds, you're neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other. You're lukewarm. I'm about to spit you out of my mouth.

And, you know, while he was just saying they were totally useless. You know, you can use an ice cold drink. I love my coffee extra hot. But lukewarm just makes you, you know, it doesn't satisfy, it doesn't refresh. And he's saying you're useless to me.

So what was making them lukewarm? Ah, you say I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and I don't need a thing. Pridefulness. That's what he saw in the church at Laodicea. But they didn't realize that they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire.

I won't take the time to apply all that. Just look at verse 19. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. You know, when he convicts us of our sin and that sense of guilt comes in. That's evidence of his love for you. He doesn't want you to continue on that mediocre complacent apathetic lifestyle and the blockage that's causing damage to your spiritual health.

Keeping the flow of his spirit from coming through so that you have the powerful ministry that he means for you to have. Those whom I love, he says, I rebuke and discipline. So if you're feeling convicted over something, I don't know what it might be, but he loves you. And he loves me.

And he loves me too much to let me just go on with that blockage. So he pinpoints it and then verse 20. This is not a verse used evangelistically. This is a verse used for the church. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and him with me. The church at Laodicea had locked Jesus out. Whoa. Filled with pride. They had a program, they had activities, they had money, they had people coming. Wonderful choir, people dressed good, you know, people talking about them all over that area and Jesus wasn't even on the inside of the church. And I think what he was telling them, maybe it was used evangelistic, you need to be born again. Religion is no substitute for a personal relationship with God. You must be born again, Jesus said.

That's the principle. The promise. To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down with my father. Oh, we can reign with him, rule with him so the way up is down. Coming back to the foot of the cross and acknowledging that we're sinners.

And the ground is level at the foot of the cross, isn't it? No room for pride, self-righteousness, condemnation either of ourselves or somebody else. We just come and thank God for the death and the blood of Jesus that cleanses us of all of our sin and every sin.

Past, present, future. Little ones, mediums, big ones, I mean they're all the same but we categorize them, you know, and just ask him to cleanse us with his blood. So dare I ask, is there somebody here who's in leadership? Pastor, ministry leader and you've never been born again. Because of pride, you just thought that was for them. That it didn't mean you. And that your works and what you've done and come to the church awakening conference and you enter into the music and you can quote the scriptures and you can pray the prayers and that's all a facade.

And right now you know it. It's time to wake up and come to the cross and repent and be like a little child and say in you there is no good thing. All of your righteousness, best things you do is like filthy rags in God's sight. Ask him to cleanse you, to forgive you, to come into your heart.

He will, but you have to ask. Church at Laodicea had a major blockage of pride. They had no ears to hear what the spirit was saying.

There's no church in Laodicea, just rocks in the middle of a rubble field. So just wonder if the Lord has pinpointed a blockage in your life. Is there something that he has pointed out to you that needs to be confessed, needs to be corrected? And it could be any one of these.

The busyness of the Ephesian church, the fearfulness of the Smyrna church, the political correctness of Pergamum, the sinfulness of Thyatira, the prayerlessness of Sardis, timidness of Philadelphia, pridefulness of Laodicea. But maybe it's something else and let me just take a minute to tell you several years ago I'd set aside time to prepare messages. I had ten days to prepare about nine sessions I was going to be taking at an intense seminar. And so the first day I opened up my Bible, I took out my pen, my pad, and I was going to do my first study and I got nowhere. So I said, God, you know, I've got to get this done. I've got to have all these messages and these workshops and I need to get this done and nothing. So I thought, you know, you just need a good night's sleep like Elijah. Go to sleep, get something to eat, get up in the morning, you'll feel better.

And the next morning I got up, pulled out my Bible, my pen, my pad, just nothing. God, don't you know my time frame, I've just got now nine days and now I'm panicked and now I'm just losing time here and we've just got to get after it and silence. Finally he seemed to whisper to my heart, Ann, I don't want to talk about your messages, I want to talk about you. And I said, God, I don't want to talk about me, we'll do that later right now. I've got to talk about these messages and you know how He is.

Yes, you can't budge him. So finally I got on my knees and I said, okay, what do you want to talk about? And he began to reveal a sin in my life that I had no idea was there. Every passage I turned to in scripture, it popped up off the page and there was another sin and another sin and another sin and another sin and it was triggered. I was reading a book. So I read it through the first time, I thought, woo, thank goodness I don't see any of those sins in my life, you know. The second time I maybe saw two or three. The third time I saw every sin in my life in one way or the other.

And I wrote down some of them and then I wrote down some of yours and I mixed them up so you won't know which is which, okay. In gratitude, what blessing or answer to prayer have I neglected to thank God for? Neglective Bible reading, how many days have I gone without opening my Bible?

How many days have I read it but I can't remember what I've read? And I haven't allowed the Lord to feed me. Unbelief, what has God said that I doubt? Prayerlessness, how often are my prayers just spiritual chatter offered without fervent or focused faith?

And Anne, remember, this one was mine, daydreaming is not prayer. Hypocrisy, do you call yourself a Christian but don't act like one? Are you pretending to be anything that you're not? Pride, are you impressed with your own reputation and accomplishments? Are you offended and resentful when somebody else receives attention? Envy, who seems more popular, powerful, recognizable than you, more successful in ministry? Have you felt jealous? Slender, what have you said to make others think less of someone? Lying, when have you implied something that's not the whole truth?

Critical spirit, when have you found fault with someone because he or she doesn't measure up to your standards? And the list could go on. Anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, vengefulness, so much sin in the camp. You remember Achan in Joshua 7, after the children of Israel had defeated Jericho and they went to Ai and they were defeated and Joshua goes throughout the camp, finds one man who had sinned, he took something God said he couldn't have, he buried it down deep in his tent.

Joshua had to take that one man, take him outside the camp, put him to death before they could go back and have victory. And I think in the church today there's so much sin in the camp that the church is living in defeat. And I think it starts with you and me as God's people. We need to repent of our sin. And as he has shined the light of his truth into your heart and into your life, you have the courage, it takes courage, doesn't it?

Can I just put it in the way we talk in North Carolina? It takes guts. Just to look at your life the way God sees it.

But you're not as good as you think. There's sin buried down deep and maybe it's a deep bitterness and unforgiveness. Maybe it's something like an abortion, adultery. I don't know.

I could stand up here and guess all day, you know. God knows what it is and so do you. And you think nobody knows and maybe nobody knows but you know what, it's a blockage. Maybe, and this is one I've struggled with, maybe you need to forgive yourself. Maybe you've done something. Maybe you weren't the parent you wish that you were. Maybe you weren't the husband or the wife. Maybe your spouse wouldn't have walked out if you'd just been the kind of Christian helpmate you should have been. Maybe you've abused somebody.

Maybe, I don't know, whatever. Have you done something and as the light of God's truth comes into your life every time you come into a meeting like this you feel guilty all over again. Maybe it's time you forgave yourself. And you know if God says I forgive you, and he does. You come to the cross, he says I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you. It doesn't matter what it is, I forgive you. And if you say God thank you, but I can't forgive myself, what you're saying is that your standards are higher than his. That you're more righteous than he is. If God says I forgive you, you just say God thank you, I don't deserve it, but I receive it.

So what's the blockage? Would you bring it to the cross? I believe it's time to wake up to the cross and bring your sin to the cross. Confess it, name it, don't play games with the labels, you know, don't switch the labels.

Just call it what it is. Ask for cleansing. Let the flow of his spirit might be unhindered in your life. That he would fill you with himself until you overflow and you go out into your area and the spirit of God flows into you and through you to your people and to your area and maybe God would grant us that last great awakening.

Now here's Ann with this final word. Do you have ears to hear what the spirit is saying? And what is he saying? It's time for God's people who are called by God's name to humble themselves, pray, seek his face and turn from their wicked ways. It's time to be courageous and look deep within our own hearts. Ask God to reveal to you what he sees. He may encourage you. When he does, receive it and thank him. But I also know if you're like me, he may convict you of sin.

When he does, stop giving excuses or defending yourself or rationalizing your behavior. Just repent. In Joel 2, 12 to 13, God told his people to return to him with all their hearts, to rend their hearts, not their garments. God is tired of superficial regret and remorse that doesn't lead to a changed life. To rend your heart means you're going to not only confess your sin, but be so deeply grieved and broken by it that you weep as you turn away from it.

Stop it. Our God is gracious and compassionate. He is slow to anger and abounding in love. He will hear your prayer, forgive your sin, and I pray he will heal our land by granting us one more great awakening. Living in the Light is a weekly study in God's Word with teacher and author Ann Graham Lotz. Learn to listen to his voice. Then start making the choice to keep on going and believing and trusting who God is. Go to AnnGrahamLotz.org. Take advantage of the many helpful free resources to get you started. Join us again for Living in the Light.