Conference 2026 July 1st-6th

Laurelville Church Center

Mount Pleasant, PA

Register for Conference, Children’s Conference, or YCON and make your reservations for lodging, and meals.

"Jesus and the CGBCI"

PASTOR IKE GRAHAM

The Living Dead

Revelation 3:1-6

The building in which the people met was a large, ornate stone cathedral. It had high walls, an acoustically beautiful auditorium and lovely stained-glass windows. There was one very large problem – it was dead. The pastor got up on a Sunday morning to preach and proclaimed, “This church is dead! This evening, we will hold the funeral!” That evening, those who had been there in the morning along with many others gathered to see what was going to happen. At the front of the auditorium was a casket. After the pastor pronounced the church dead, he opened the lid of the casket and invited everyone to come and view the body. As people filed past the casket, they looked inside and there was a mirror. They could see themselves!

The church in Sardis was like an exploding star 30 light years away from earth. Five years after the explosion, the light could still be seen. So it was with the church in Sardis. After spiritual life was absent, only its reputation remained. It was like stuffed animals in a natural habitat. They looked good, but they weren’t alive; there was very little spiritual reality. You probably know of churches like this. The scaffolding is there: worship, prayer, hymns, ordinances, gifts. No doubt all of those things were part of the church of Sardis. Believers met on the Lord’s Day, they observed communion, so far as we know; they honored the Scriptures as they had heard them, and surely honored the words of our Lord as they knew them, they sang hymns, and they gave gifts. They gave of their substance, but the things that they did were things that did not reach reality. In other words, they worshipped, but their worship did not reach heaven. They prayed. Their prayer did not effectively reach heaven. How does that happen to a church? How can a church decline in spiritual vitality and end up nearly spiritually dead? Can it be revived? Is there any hope at all? Jesus says, “Wake up!” (v. 2), “strengthen the things that remain” (v. 2), “Remember therefore what you have received and heard and keep it” (v. 3), “and repent” (v. 3). Are you spiritually asleep? How is the world affecting you and your church? Do you review what you have heard, take it to heart, and pass it on to your brothers and sisters? We have received a great spiritual inheritance; wouldn’t you agree? Is there a need to change our minds and our actions regarding those great biblical truths in order to strengthen ourselves and those around us? That is one of the purposes of Conference. It is a call to remember what we have received and heard and keep it.

Join us in July of this year to participate in the instructions which we have received from Jesus Himself.

We meet for His glory and for the good of His people. Lord willing, see you there!

1