Resilient – A Revelation Daily Devotional – Day 11
Cedar Creek Church August 7, 2025

Day 11 – August 7

Read or listen to the audio version of the Bible Reading and Daily Devotional.

Read Revelation 3:1-6

The Letter to Sardis
1 “Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God. 3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come    like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.    4But you have a few people    in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy.
5 “In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.   
6 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says    to the churches.

Today, we read the shortest of the edicts in Revelation. There’s no exchanging of pleasantries here; Jesus gets right down to it. His description of this church is that it is dead. Ouch!

Here is what is interesting about this description: this church was the largest of the seven included in the book of Revelation. Their services were well-attended, and according to one commentator, they are “fabulously wealthy.”

Wait a second, Jesus, surely you have leveled the accusation of “dead” at the wrong body of believers here. This one is killing it! Except they weren’t. The mission of the church is always anchored to the Great Commission found in Matthew 28. The church exists to make disciples of Jesus—to teach them, or perhaps better put, to help them become learners of all that Jesus taught and did.

This edict gets even more interesting due to the fact that the church at Sardis is the first of the churches examined that is not experiencing any level of persecution. Their town and culture are fine with them. Why? Because this church is simply a gathering nearly identical to the culture around it, but under some comfy banner of Christianity. They are asleep.

What similarities does this ring with faith in America? How about your faith?

Like a late-night drive on a lonely highway, it is much easier to drift toward sleep than it is to fight to stay awake. Jesus’s call to Sardis, and to our church, is to wake up, to align our desires with the guidance of the Spirit, to keep the power of the Spirit as our leading light, and to continuously return to Him in repentance.

These commands are the coffee that keeps a believer awake. It starts by recognizing that perhaps Satan’s most effective tool is to lull us to sleep to the things of God. “Sin is no big deal. Spiritual discipline is not necessary. Scroll on your phone. Laugh at that joke. Watch that show.” All lullabies ushering in spiritual deadness.

But we are to be a Holy Spirit-guided people, zealous for life, and life abundant at that. We are continually awakened by a repentant heart that leads to a greater understanding of grace, which fuels our desire to follow Him. As this pursuit bubbles over into joy, our lives become marked by evangelistic zeal that seeks to welcome brothers and sisters and disciple them to find what we have found. We are no longer dead, but alive to the power of the Spirit, and awakened to our part of His mission on the earth.

Pray: Lord, wake me up out of my spiritual slumber. Show me where sin has crept in and anchored itself in my life. Give me a passion for a joyful pursuit of holiness and the desire to disciple others that it creates.