Revelation 3:2 Wake up, and strengthen and reaffirm what remains of your faithful commitment to Me, which is about to die; for I have not found any of your deeds completed in the sight of My God or meeting His requirements.

      The only thing worth saving is what God says is worth saving. When God points out something that He deems worthy, we must put our hearts into what is precious to Him. God wants to save the human race, and this eternal plan is worth our effort because Jesus gave His life for God the Father’s plan of salvation. If the Lord visited your church assembly, what would He pronounce as dead, and what would He deem as worth saving? Rev. 3:2a Wake up, and strengthen and reaffirm what remains of your faithful commitment to Me. The church of Sardis had a reputation among the churches of being alive, yet had no idea they were dead. Even though they were active in all the church’s activities, they created dead programs for the parishioners.

      Being the pastor to whom John’s revelatory letter was written must have been an eye-opening moment for him and the elders of that church in Sardis. He might have said, “What? We have been going to all the conferences and participating in all the Get Them Saved schemes, and now we find out it was a waste of time and resources.” Hag. 1:9 You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while everyone of you runs to his own house. The work in the body of Christ is truly a waste of time and resources if we create humanistic programs of religious activity that have an appearance of presenting God’s voice on earth. God is not against the church meeting the needs of the people, but not at the expense of doing what God expressly said to do for the salvation of souls.

      The grace of the Lord is endless, and He encouraged the pastor of Sardis to strengthen what remains and what is alive in Christ. Yes, the Lord can turn a disaster into a victory, but there needs to be a corresponding action of repentance and an immediate turnaround of attitudes and volition to do what the Lord is asking. Rev. 3:6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The good news that comes from the Lord’s willingness to save what remains is that we are part of what is worth saving. We, the souls of the earth, and what remains of our lives, are what our Heavenly Father wants to save to Himself. Yes, we are worth it to God, which is why He sent Jesus to be the sacrifice to bring us home to God the Father. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave the only begotten Son, so that everyone believing in Him should not perish, but should have eternal life.

      The judgment that is being pronounced upon the church of Sardis is the same work that Jesus is doing in our hearts. He wants to get rid of what is dead and dying in our lives and save what is alive in Him. From God’s point of view, we are worth saving. Sometimes it is hard for us to believe that God wants us near Him, because we know our shortcomings, and believing we are worth saving can be difficult for some. Guilt, shame, and self-condemnation can cloud people’s thoughts. The struggle to believe we are worth saving can be a strenuous battle for those who find self-condemnation an easier choice. The truth is that while we were sinners and in that lost state, God loved us. Rom. 5:8 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. From the first sin in the Garden of Eden, God has been trying to prove to us that we, His creation, are worth saving.

      The church of Sardis needed to save something of Godly worth. God is saying to this pastor and assembly that they are in a dead zone as far as their self-righteousness is concerned. Rev. 3:2b For I have not found any of your deeds completed in the sight of My God or meeting His requirements. The Lord’s admonition is to pick up what remains of God’s righteousness and reestablish faithfulness within the gift of salvation that God has given them through Christ. This message is the same today. Take what is God-given and do something of worth with it, and bring about the Kingdom of God to this earth, for this is God’s will for His people. Phil 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

      There seems to be a consensus among historians that the church of Sardis obeyed the letter’s instructions it had received, as evidenced by the church’s subsequent thriving for some time. However, like the other six churches that also received letters from the Apostle John, Sardis also faded away from history within two hundred years. Hopefully, the members who did receive John’s letter changed their direction and attitude towards doing church, so to speak. God wants us to save what is from Him and in Him. This is the message for our time, where many secular ideas have leaked into many church assemblies and are leaving people wanting something of worth in their faith. May we all strengthen what we have in Christ and bring it to our heavenly Father for refinement and cleaning for His purpose. Heb. 6:3 And this we will do if God permits.