February 8.
A Faded Reputation

Revelation 3:1

I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

I know thy works. This church had a name for being a working, living church. This was the Who Church and the What’s What Church. This was the church that everybody in the community talked about. If people were moving to Sardis, they would be told to move their letter to the First Church of Sardis. This was the church that was going on. Sardis was a great city at one time. It was a wealthy city an aristocratic type of town, famous for its wool, used to make carpets. Also a wealth of gold ran down the stream in the valley of the area of Sardis. It was a well-fortified city built on a hill making it difficult for enemies to destroy. The church had an even greater name than the city. The church had a reputation. Oh what joy it must to have been for this church to have grown to the point that it had a reputation. One of the best choirs that could ever sing, a group of deacons that was second to none, Christian Education Board, Ushers were well uniformed; the Mission group were out on their job; it had a name. It had a department for the young folk; for the youth; for the young adult; for the married; for the single group. This church was together; it had whatever anybody was looking for in a church. It had a name that it lived, but Jesus said it was dead.

It had a reputation, but it was a deceiving church. It’s dangerous to pretend to be something that you’re not. We cannot be pretending practitioner of the faith. We have to walk our talk and live the life we sing about in our songs. We re deceiving ourselves when we shout on Sunday and raise hell on Monday, when we walk around in our saintly outfit, but have hell on the inside. That may be why we can’t get some folk to follow us to church, because we brag about our holiness, but they see the hellishness.