Lukewarm Christianity

Transcript (Auto-generated)

So I want to begin with the game this morning morning cuz technically it's still school holidays for another couple of hours so what we're going to do the kids and the youth will all know this we've done it before in fact they might have a head start for some of it we're going to play a game called this or that if you're a little bit older it's a little bit like would you rather okay and usually what I'd do is I'd get You' all lined up in the middle and you'd go to the side that you choose but I'm conscious of space and time so we're not going to do that okay instead everyone throw your hands up brilliant that work this is this okay everyone throw hands down and that's that okay so this and that okay if you agree with the statement number one then you will gone out if you agree with statement number one what you're going to do there we go is throw your hand up if you're lean with option b hand down okay that means everyone has to play okay because even if if you go Dylan this is silly I don't want to play I'm just I'm opting out hands are down your hands are down you're still playing okay there there's no in between so number one this or that do we all have it yeah okay dog or cat I'm a dog person yeah look look around the room see see who the opponents are there's a little bit of hesitation some some people are like oh I I like both of them you can't do this this is still hands up so you're dog okay there there's no in between one or the other okay second one indoors or Outdoors my hands are standing down I love the outdoors yeah look I've got some company Church camp here we go all right next one sweet or savory Sweet Tooth yeah yeah all right what's the next one pool or beach look around these people probably don't like sand in their um feet or next one board games or video games yeah hands got to go up okay okay board games or video games what's the next one city or country my hands are down yeah okay good mix good mix next one okay shoes or sandals there's there's no qualifying things of I'm going to the shop I'm going to the beach if you could only have one pair of Footwear for the rest of your life shoes or sandals I'm going shoes alrighty book or movie where where are we books I'm waiting for the Bible to be turned into a movie I don't like reading so I could be waiting a little while next one driver or passenger when you're in the car yeah everyone with your hand up you're like me we don't make good passengers do we all right next oh back on summer or winter sum of you are like where's Spring I I want that middle option okay hot tea or iced tea the other one disappears from existence alt together hot tea or iced tea okay cool now this last one this is the important one okay and you don't have to put your hand up in fact I'm going to encourage you not to okay I want you to take this one to reflect in yourself to to see where you see can we have the next slide Christian or non-Christian see as we went through that game it was a game I hope that was fun for you it was fun for me hands down if you want um but as we went through that there were some that were really easy okay I don't like cats so hand out for dogs straight away but there was some where it was a little bit more difficult I saw some hands like this we kind of wanted a third option like summer winter oh what about spring that's that's better but we couldn't do that we had to choose one and when it comes to this question Christian or non-Christian there is no third option there's no sitting on the fence when it comes to Christianity we either accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior we invite him into our hearts or we don't it's it's that simple we we either either do or we don't and so this morning we're going to unpack we're going to look at a danger which arises within the church within Society of attempting to sit in a middle area a middle option that doesn't exist if you've got your Bibles with you I'll invite you to open up to Revelation 3: 14 to 22 as you're doing that I'll give you a little bit of back ground as as we read this this is the seventh warning of seven so the last warning that Jesus reveals to John to give to the church it's and it's recorded in Revelation it's recorded in Revelation and so I want to do a disclaimer this morning it was originally written to seven churches seven particular churches with These Warnings but it's worth our consideration this morning because these are Universal warnings it's not just for this church in this time in this place it's for each of us as we are the church and so we're going to look at that but before we do let's read Revelation 34-22 it says and to the angel of the church in Lea right the words of the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of God's creation I know your works you are neither cold nor hot would that you were either cold or hot so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth for you say that I am rich I have prospered and I need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pable poor blind and naked I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sve to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me the one who conquers I will grant him to sit with me on my Throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches let's pray heavenly father as we come to read from your word this morning Lord we pray that by your Holy Spirit you would speak to each and every one of us Lord God reveal to us what it is that you want to say through this passage father God we pray that you would give us ears that are open to hearing and hearts that are ready to respond to you we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ amen as I said this is the last of seven warnings to seven churches I'd love to go through all of them but I don't want to keep you here till tonight so we're just going to stick with one and this one was written to the church in leoa and so it's helpful for us to get an understanding of of what is this church what is this place what do we know about the city of leoda we know that it was an important wealthy City and that it was home to a very famous medical school we know that there was a significant Jewish population there and we know that there was a church there because this warning is to the church in that City what else do we know we know that this city was a center for Caesar worship and also a center for worship of esos I never get that right look it up watch some videos esos that's what we're going with the healing God in fact that famous Medical that I mentioned it was attached to this Temple to the god of healing and so if we deduct all the research suggests that the city here prided themselves on three things three things made them who they were that was wealth they had Financial wealth an extensive textile industry put simply clothing and a popular ey Salve which was exported around the world that is medicine so they had riches they had clothing they had medicine going to turn this back on now and so if we understand this background what is Jesus warning the church in Laria about and what's he warning us about today quite simply he's warning us not to be luke war in fact verses 15 to 16 say this I know your works you are neither cold nor hot would that you were either cold or hot so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth let's define some things I'm sure you're probably wondering what the kettle's here for we all heard that boiling didn't we can we agree that's hot yeah I'm not going to start it again but let's pretend that that flame is just going the whole time through the sermon okay and this is just whistling and the whole time icy water cold are we making the connection hot and cold yeah let's say and I took some of that that's still cold I took some of that and we'll just let that sit for a moment we've now got three options hot cold unal and I want to attach some things to these ideas okay when we're talking about hot this morning we're talking about Christians okay those who have accepted Jesus into their lives those who love Jesus who have a living relationship with their lord and savior okay in this illustration let's pretend that Jesus is the flame okay the only reason this Kettle is hot is because of the relationship between the kettle and the flame okay so hot would be a Christian in relationship with Jesus and that means that this cold water this icy cold water let's attribute non-christians to this okay those who don't believe in Jesus but love the world they they live in the world that that's their dream okay the ice is gone it's not very hot this is lukewarm okay I just dip my fingers in there it's a pretty good temperature okay in fact it's comfortable if I had a bar filled with that it would be quite enjoyable okay it's it's a comfortable temperature but it's that middle cup that lukewarm cup that Jesus is warning us about the morning and you might be going well Dylan you've got three options here but didn't we just say there was Christian or non-Christian you either believe or you don't and so we've got to determine where this cup fits because if there's only two options Christian or non-Christian where does this sit in the mix we've got two extremes what is that and I want to just preface this morning we're going to build on it that that lukewarm cup that sits in the non-Christian side it sits in the non non-Christian side but let's let's pull this apart why is this warning coming to the church in ladia why is it there let's read verses 17 to 18 it says for I for you say you say the church in this city that that I am rich I have prospered and I need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pable for poor blind and naked I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sve to anoint your eyes so that you may see in this part of scripture we see how is this church describing themselves we heard about the three things that they were known for but here they are described as Rich prosperous and in need of nothing of course they were they they lived in a city where there was great wealth they lived in a city known for their development of cloth and textile they lived in a city that was a advanced in medicine we've got all this good stuff we don't need any help but there's a disconnect because when Jesus describes them he says you're poor naked and blind how does Jesus say to a church in this rich city that they're poor how does he say to this this church in this city where there's lots of clothing that hey you're naked and how does he say to this this church that's in a city so advanced in medicine that you're sick you're blind in fact that ointment that you give for people's eyes you need some yourselves there's a disconnect at some point this church lost focus of Jesus at some point they turn to the good things that were in this city and put their faith their trust and their hope in these Earth Earthly things rather than in Jesus and so instead of making their Christian faith and instead of making the church and Christianity about walking in relationship with Jesus they reduced Christianity to a religion they reduced it to we don't need God for all this stuff we're self-sufficient but I'll go to church once a month and I'll fulfill my duty I'll be involved in this and and I'll make sure I do this I don't actually need God but but I'll keep up appearances we're still a church we look like we're thriving but we're leaning on all these resources we we'll just throw the god word in there occasionally it's scary that as we start to unpack that I don't know about you but we can see similarities within the churches in our contemporary day and age it's an alarming figure but Church attendance is now considered to be m monthly how does that work how can we have a vibrant relationship with God if we're not meeting together and so let's come back to this illustration what good is the water being hot what makes this distinct well hot water kills germs right if if I if I needed to clean something rather than cold water I'd probably use hot water can we agree with that yeah but not only that so so it has an impact when hot water meets the germs it has an impact it does something but it can also be a little bit uncomfortable I'm not going to but let's say I took the lid off that and put my finger in there it would burn right it would not be very comfortable a bath full of that hot water would not be comfortable but it would make an impact and so I want to suggest that if this represents us as Christians then each of us we should be making an impact as well and if we're making an impact if we're growing in our relationship with Jesus then that means that there's going to be times when we're uncomfortable see part part of the growing process is God's going to draw us out of our comfort zone I don't know whether you know this but I am an introvert I don't like public speaking here I am preaching and I'm getting more and more comfortable with it as I do it but I laughed at God the first time that this sort of came up hey start to preach it was out of my comfort zone but if we're hot then we're going to have an impact and we're going to be stretched things may not always be comfortable let's look at the cold water is there anything hot about this water no it's still got icy the thing is this water isn't even pretending to be hot okay it's not pretending to be hot it's not pretending to be something it's not and so very truly there's people out there who will hear about Jesus and go I don't want anything to do with that they won't even pretend about this whole Christianity thing why would I go to church I don't believe in Jesus they're cold but they're not pretending the luke warm water wouldn't want to drink that it's kind of gross the luk warm water it's comfortable I could put that in a bath and be happy but it's indifferent see the lukewarm water is a deceptive attempt to please both the world and Jesus and so it's trying to go I still want to be in the world I still want to do all these things of my fleshly desire but that Jesus stuff sounds right as long as it doesn't affect me I'll take a little bit of this and a little bit of that but if Christian and non-Christian are the only two options if there's no fence sitting when it comes to Christianity then the lukewarm Christianity is deception it's the deceptive thought that actually I'm better off than I actually am it's the deceptive thought that even while I'm not a Christian oh I can gain some of the promise and some of the good stuff from God I can do that I don't have to give my full life to God I don't have to be in relationship with Jesus I I don't have to be growing I'll just take the good stuff and bring it back over here and and Life's good it pretends to be both and fails at both and so why is this deception so dangerous because lukewarm Christianity while it can be comfortable is not good for anything it still falls into that non-Christian side so often we can think that when we become a Christian that Satan's plot Satan's plan is to just upheave our lives and actually take us out of relationship with Jesus and dunk Us in the freezing Waters we he he wants us to go from this to this but the promise of Jesus is that once we accept him he will never leave us nor forsake us and so if you're sitting here this morning and you're a Christian don't worry about the lukewarm water that falls on this side if you're still struggling with who Jesus is if you haven't fully accepted Jesus into your heart if you haven't given him control of everything there's something to consider there but more likely than not Satan being the deceiver being crafty is going to be a little bit more slly see it would make waves if the Christian was able to go there but Jesus says I am with you and so what happens what's the danger for us here as Christians this morning Satan doesn't worry about the ice gold they don't believe in Jesus they're not doing anything who cares Satan loves the lukewarm because they think they're saved but they haven't actually accepted Jesus into their life they come to church and they go yeah yeah that was great but I'm still going to live my own life my own way and I don't actually need that Jesus dude behind closed doors Satan's concerned with the hot because if we're hot if we're in relationship with Jesus if we're making an impact if we're stepping out of our comfort zone to be grown by God then we're going to come out evangelize and be involved in Ministry be walking with Jesus and we're going to share the good news with some of these people and because they're not pretending to be anything that they're not they're going to go wow there's a warmth in this world that I never knew existed there's a warm that I kind of want to grab a hold of and so Satan doesn't want that happening because he's not worried about these guys and so what did he do I want to suggest that if you're a Christian here this morning we need to be vigilant okay Satan doesn't want to take us from hot to cold he doesn't want to convert US in an instant from Christian to atheist he doesn't want us to change our confession of faith in Jesus to a confession of denial he's craftier than that Satan's attacks can be slow and gradual a constant chipping away a slight pulling off maybe if we're sitting here we're really on fire for God maybe it's just uh oh I can distract you just move you this way a little bit and once you're comfortable there I'll just move you this way a little bit so you're half on the flame and half off the flame then I'll just move you this way a little bit oh you forgot to spend time with Jesus today whoopsies and then I'll just move you this way oh it's been a week since you read your Bible or went to church or did anything like that whoopsies and he pulls you a little bit further and further away as we're going to see the promise of Jesus is he'll never leave us nor forsake us but he will remind us and call us to come back to him but see when we're here we're not lukewarm but we aren't hot we're cooling off and so we have less of an impact in what we do but not All Is Lost regardless of where you're sitting there let's read Revelation 39-22 this is the promise of Jesus he highlights this danger and he says Those whom I love I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and eat with him and he will be with me Jesus is saying I'm knocking at the door if you hear my voice I'm going to come in we can restore relationship between you and I the fire is there I'm not going to start it again but as Christians this is how we're meant to be in relationship with Jesus who keeps us hot and his promise there is even if Satan gradually pulls you this way I'm still with you I'll highlight it for you be zealous and repent regardless of whether you're here or here come back turn to me repent draw back close into relationship with me his promise to this side the not Christian is I'm here at the door I'm knocking I'm not going to kick the door down though I could I'm just going to knock and if you open the door if you invite me into your life if you accept me as your lord and savior then I'm going to take you whether you've been pretending for a long time or whether you straight up have denied me I'm going to make you warm we're going to be in relationship I'm going to make you hot and useful and so as we draw this to a bit of a close I want to highlight three Biblical characters that fit into these descriptions okay we have to ask ourselves here this morning how our spiritual temperature is sitting are we on fire for God are are we in close relationship with him are we ready to step outside our comfort zone as he calls us to to get involved in that thing that I was kind of scared to do cuz Dylan asked me but I've been feeling God's prompting on am am I scared to do that or are you somewhere here do we need to come back to Jesus to dig into that relationship that that is ours are we here wondering who Jesus is I don't believe in God yet his promise is the same he's knocking be zealous repent draw close to me be in relationship with me when we think about the cold water the non-Christian the thief on the cross next to Jesus comes to mind here was Jesus being crucified and the thief to his side he wasn't a Christian didn't pretend to be he knew where he stood and yet as he hung next to Jesus he felt the warmth of Jesus he recognized because he wasn't trying to deceive himself because he wasn't pretending to be something he wasn't he knew where he sat he knew that he wasn't a follower of Jesus and in that moment next to Jesus he cried out said take me with you he invited Jesus in and asked him for relationship we have the thief on the other side who went the opposite way but he knew where he stood when we come over to the hot we can think of John the disciple of Jesus who received this Revelation the disciple who was hot towards Jesus enjoyed relationship with Jesus both physically and after Jesus ascended to Heaven he was on fire ready to do what Jesus called him to do and as we look at the lukewarm Judas comes to mind see Judas was Luke he was a false Christian and thus a non-Christian see Judas was lukewarm he followed Jesus enough to be considered a disciple he was with Jesus a lot of days of his life went to Synagogue Church he followed Jesus enough to be considered a disciple and yet didn't give his heart to Jesus in fullness when push came to shove even though he had followed Jesus around he went I like the things of this world more see the danger in lukewarmness is this verse 14 because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spitch you out of my mouth if you Haven an accepted Jesus into your life if you can't say with full confidence that I'm a Christian if you're there wondering hey I come to church and do all the churchy stuff aren't I a Christian can I encourage you to consider where you see because this lukewarm cup it doesn't fall in the Christian if we're hot if we're truly in relationship with Jesus then we'll make an impact as he leads us as he grows us and that is going to lead us to step out of our comfort zones at times as I Was preparing for this throughout the week a quote stood out to me I'm going to finish with it so deep down there is no no one more miserable than the lukewarm Christians they have too much of the world to be happy in Jesus but too much of Jesus to be happy in the world and so church this week consider this or that Christian or non-Christian hot or cold maybe you're hot but you're not as hot as you could be maybe you've wandered away from that relationship with God his promise is the same Those whom I love and reprove I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he will be with me would you pray with me Heavenly Father we thank you for your word for this warning Lord God I pray that for each and every one of us here or joining us online Lord would you help us to carve out some time even now as we enter a time of response to do business with you to consider truly am I a Christian or not have I accepted Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior am I hot or am I cold Lord God if there's anyone here struggling with that lukewarmness would you help them to discern which side they are on Lord God that whether they be in the non-crushing camp whether they be cold that they might feel your war and that they would answer the call all of your knock from their hearts Lord give them the courage to come and speak to me or a Christian friend one of the pastors or the team here and Lord for those of us who are Christians in the room would you help us to take temperature of where we're at with you Lord would you help us to draw near in our relationship with you to stay hot to be led by you and willing to step out of our comfort zone as you lead us Lord would you help us to make the impact that you call us to as we journey in relationship with you we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.