Pastor Dan Southern 7/18/04

Centreville Community Church

Title: How to Survive a Slump

Text: Revelation 3:1- 6

Things we have learned so far from the churches in Revelation chapter two:

Ephesus church 2: 1- 7: The importance of maintaining our first love.

Smyrna church 2:8- 11: The Lord really does know

Pergamos church 2:12- 17: The danger of compromise

Thyatira church 2:18- 29: The importance of maintaining balance

Ephesus – The careless church

Smyrna – The crowned church

Pergamos – The compromising church

Thyatira – The corrupt church

Sardis – The comfortable church

“This was an age of spiritual lethargy…. Before the great evangelical movement of the past few hundred years. The date of this period was about 1500 – 1750 A.D.

…..Parnell C. Coward, Revelation: Systematically Studied

Pathway Press

“A slump: to fall suddenly into a bog or water, to fall suddenly in value or activity, a period of low spirits or flagging inspiration”

… New Webster’s Dictionary, Lexicon Publications, Inc.

Psalm 42: 5 Jeremiah 15:10

People who are in a slump experience:

Little or no ambition

They are not advancing forward

There is a sense of abandonment to priorities

An abstention from the emotional or the intellect

No sense of achievement

l. THE COLD REALITY OF THEIR CONDITION Vs 1

A. They had a reputation.

Proverbs 22:1 Ecclesiastes 7:1

1. They had the provision of the Holy Spirit Vs 1

“the number seven demonstrates fullness and completeness”

…..Warren Wiersbe Be Victorious, Victor Books, p. 37

2. They had a pastor held in God’s hand. Vs 1

Revelation 1:20

3. They had programs. Vs 1

Zechariah 4:6

B. The reality

1. They were dead. Vs 1

When you are in a slump you are like a walking dead man.

There is no force to your witness.

There is no feeling to your worship.

There is no fervor in your works.

2. They were in the process of decay. Vs.2

3. They were delinquent. Vs. 2

ll.THE CLEAR REMEDY FOR THEIR CURE.

A. They were told to be watchful.

Watchful literally means: to ___________ ______________/

Mark 14:38

“The word has a mean of vigilance and expectance as contrasted with laxity and indifference”

…… Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words,

Greek Dictionary, Nelson Publishing, p. 1029

1 Corinthians 3:15; 9:27 2 Corinthians 5:10

Hebrew 2:1

B. They were told to work

1. They were told to renew or revive. Vs 2

a. A new vision

b. A new vitality

c. Renewed values

2. They were told to remember. Vs 3

2 Peter 1:13 Philippians 3:13, 14

3. They were told to repent. Vs 3

lll. THE COMFORTING REWARD FOR OUR COOPERATION

Philippians 1:6

A. God’s promise to the remnant

1. Walking with Him

2. White garments

3. Being worthy

B. God’s promise to the repentant

1. Clothed in white garments

2. Citizenship in heaven

3. Confessed before God and His holy angels

ADDITIONAL NOTES