Introduction
It’s summer. When that sun is blazing, it’s hot.
That’s one reason we added meeting here in the pavilion as an additional way for worship. To get out of the heat.
It’s hot.
At times it’s sizzling hot. So hot that you can fry an egg on the asphalt, as my Grandpa would always say.
Are you hot? Or not?
There’s an app for your phone called Hot or Not. It started as a website in 2000, and has grown greatly over the years into the app that’s available today as a meet other people app. The point of the app is for users to rate how pretty or attractive the photos are of people.
It’s a superficial way of judging people.
God, this morning, wants to know if we are hot or not, but not in outward appearance. God wants to know about our hearts. God wants to know about the state of our souls. Are we hot or not?
We have been reminded in our studies so far that God is
• Our preserver,
• Our protector,
• Our provider, and
• Our passion.
We were God’s passion. That led God to send His Son to our world, to die for our sins, to conquer death, and give us the opportunity to spend eternity with God.
God wants to be our passion. God wants our all.
Sadly, we are often too wishy washy.
And that will not cut it when it comes to our relationship with God. That will not cut it in our service to Him.
Made popular by Aaron Tippin’s song way back in the 1990’s, “You’ve Got to Stand for Something”, it really is true that you have got to stand for something or you will fall for anything.
That was exactly the message for the church at Laodicea.
Let’s read from Revelation 3 this morning, starting with verse 14:
14 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation:
15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18 So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. 21 Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne.
22 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 3, NLT)
We are today much like the church in Laodicea. We’ve become comfortable. We’ve settled in in our relationship with God. We’ve truthfully become lazy.
Nothing get’s our engines running anymore. Nothing grabs our passion. Nothing gets us all fired up.
I think it happens over time. It’s not something that happens immediately.
1. It starts with us rejecting God as our provider.
We think that we can provide for ourselves.
Which maybe we can. For somethings.
But when it comes to the important things, we cannot do it.
In a familiar passage in the letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes these words:
1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2, NLT, emphasis mine)
In the richness of His love, He has provided — has given — us the gift of salvation — the gift of the riches of His inheritance — the gift of the incredible wealth of His grace.
When we reject God’s provisions, we go around thinking how rich we are. We boast of our riches, our wealth, our status. After all, look at all of the things we have. Look at all of the things I’ve worked so hard for. Look at all of my possessions, my fame, my power.
In reality, we are poor, blind and naked. Just like the church in Laodicea.
We have become ignorant of our actual conditions.
We are spiritually destitute and don’t even know it. We are blinded by the material things of this world and completely ignorant of the sin, the complacency, the lackadaisical way we approach life.
We think we’re living high on the hog, when really we are in the pig pen of life, wallowing in the mud, eating the scraps of food thrown out for the pigs, just like the Prodigal Son after blowing all of his money.
Our hearts are blinded.
Our hearts are distracted by the shiny new things that Satan shows us.
Jesus reminds us in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6, starting with verse 19, that we should not
19 … “store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
22 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.” (Matthew 6, NLT)
God provides the treasure we need — and it’s an amazing inheritance reserved for us in Heaven.
Yes we may be rich here, we may have more widgets and toys than our neighbor, but if that’s our treasure, we are ignorant of our true situation. That’s what God was telling the church in Laodicea.
Open our eyes, we should pray, so that we can see the abundant riches that is our inheritance.
Ignorance Of One's Inheritance
By SermonCentral
From a sermon by Stephen Sheane, Feeding 5000, 4/30/2010
Copied from Sermon Central
It’s like the story of a Michigan factory worker, who was earning less than ten thousand dollars a year. Turns out, he was an unknowing heir to a half-million dollars. When located by an investigator some years after his benefactor’s death, the worker explained that he had neither returned home nor kept in touch with his family for 24 years. The investigator who located him estimates there is about 40 billion dollars in inheritances lying unclaimed in the US alone.
Like the factory worker, are we as a Christian unaware of our status as "an heir of God through Christ"?
Do we fail to receive the gifts our Father offers — the release from the stranglehold of sin and suffocation of guilt, power in the Holy Spirit to experience the abundant life, and the joy of fellowship with the Father and his other children?
Like the prodigal factory worker, do we live in ignorance of our inheritance and at a spiritual poverty level because you have moved away and fail to keep in touch with our Father or his family?
Maybe it’s time to reconnect.
It’s time to accept the provisions that only God can give.
2. We also reject God’s protection.
It’s humbling to realize that we cannot completely protect ourselves from the entire world and the arrows of the devil.
It’s humbling to acknowledge that there are things going on around us that are outside of our comprehension.
We think that we can put up barricades, walls, fences, whatever you want to call them, to protect ourselves from the world.
We want to be independent — not reliant upon anyone for our protection.
We are independent to a fault though.
Independence quickly becomes pride. And, as Solomon so wisely said,
18 Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the
lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud.
(Proverbs 16, NKJV)
We have to be willing to accept the protection that God gives us.
God gives us the tools and the weapons to fight the attacks of the devil.
God gives us what we need to survive in this world.
God gives us what we need to stay safe.
And God stepped in to protect us when it was time for the punishment for the sins that befall us each day.
The Whipping
By SermonCentral
Copied from Sermon Central
There’s an old story about a school with a class of students that no teacher had been able to handle. Two or three teachers had been run off from this school in one year by the unruly students. A young man, just out of college, heard about the class and applied to the school.
The principal asked the young man, "Do you know what you are asking for? No one else has been able to handle these students. You are just asking for a terrible beating. After a few moments of silent prayer, the young man looked at the principal and said, "Sir, with your consent I accept the challenge. Just give me a trial basis."
The next morning the young man stood before the class. He said to the class, "Class, I came here today to conduct school. But I realize I can’t do it by myself. I must have your help.
One big boy, they called Big Tom, in the back of the room whispered to his buddies, "I won’t need any help. I can lick that little bird all by myself."
The young teacher told the class that if they were to have school, there would have to be some rules to go by. But he also added that he would allow the students to make up the rules and that he would list them on the blackboard.
This was certainly different, the students thought. One young man suggested "NO STEALING." Another one shouted "BE ON TIME FOR CLASS." Pretty soon they had 10 rules listed on the board.
The teacher then asked the class what the punishment should be for breaking these rules. "Rules are no good unless they are enforced", he said. Someone in the class suggested that if the rules were broken, they should receive 10 licks with a rod across their back with their coat off. The teacher thought that this was pretty harsh, so he asked the class if they would stand by this punishment. The class agreed.
Everything went along pretty good for two or three days. Then Big Tom came in one day very upset. He declared that someone had stolen his lunch. After talking with the students, they came to the conclusion that little Timmy had stolen Big Tom’s lunch. Someone had seen little Timmy with Big Tom’s lunch.
The teacher called little Timmy up to the front of the room. Little Timmy admitted he had taken Big Tom’s lunch. So the teacher asked him, "Do you know the punishment?” Little Timmy nodded that he did.
"You must remove your coat," the teacher instructed. The little fellow had come with a great big coat on. Little Timmy said to the teacher, "I am guilty and I am willing to take my punishment, but please don’t make me take off my coat.”
The teacher reminded little Timmy of the rules and punishments and again told him he must remove his coat and take his punishment like a man.
The little fellow started to unbutton that old coat. As he did so, the teacher saw he did not have a shirt on under the coat. And even worse, he saw a frail and bony frame hidden beneath that coat. The teacher asked little Timmy why he had come to school without a shirt on. Little Timmy replied, "My daddy’s dead and my mother is very poor. I don’t have but one shirt, and my mother is washing it today. I wore my big brother’s coat so that I could keep warm."
That young teacher stood and looked at the frail back with the spine protruding against the skin, and his ribs sticking out. He wondered how he could lay a rod on that little back and without even a shirt on. Still, he knew he must enforce the punishment or the children would not obey the rules. So he drew back to strike little Timmy.
Just then Big Tom stood up and came down the aisle. He asked, "Is there anything that says that I can’t take little Timmy’s whipping for him?" The teacher thought about it and agreed. With that Big Tom ripped his coat off and stooped and stood over little Timmy at the desk. Hesitatingly the teacher began to lay the rod on that big back. But for some strange reason after only five licks that old rod just broke in half.
The young teacher buried his face in his hands and began to sob. He heard a commotion and looked up to find not even one dry eye in the room. Little Timmy had turned and grabbed Big Tom around the neck apologizing to him for stealing his lunch.
Little Timmy begged Big Tom to forgive him. He told Big Tom that he would love him till the day he died for taking his whipping for him.
Jesus took our whipping — the cruel consequence for our sins — when He gave His own life on the cross.
Aren’t you glad that Jesus took our whipping for us? That He shed His precious blood on Calvary so that you and I can have eternal life in Glory with Him? We are unworthy of the price He paid for us, but aren’t you glad He loves us that much?
Why would we refuse that protection? Why would we reject the salvation that He gives?
Because we forget. We get comfortable. We become lukewarm.
1. It boils down to this: we are just not passionate about God anymore.
Oh we were the day we gave our lives to God.
You couldn’t keep us from shouting it from the mountaintops.
You couldn’t help but let the world know.
But time passes. And we forget. We get comfortable. We settle in.
We lose the passion — the fire — the drive.
We become lukewarm. Just muddling our way through life.
One of my favorite set of commercials growing up featured the great Cincinnati Red Johnny Bench.
He played his entire career in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 through 1983. He was the leader of the Reds team known as the Big Red Machine that dominated the National League in the mid-1970s, winning six division titles, four National League pennants and two World Series championships.
A fourteen-time All-Star and a two-time National League Most Valuable Player, Johnny Bench excelled on offense as well as on defense, twice leading the National League in home runs and three times in runs batted in.
At the time of his retirement in 1983, he held the major league record for most home runs hit by a catcher. He is also the only catcher in history to lead the league in home runs.
On defense, Bench was a ten-time Gold Glove Award winner who skillfully handled pitching staffs and possessed a strong, accurate throwing arm. He caught 100 or more games for 13 consecutive seasons.
In 1986, he was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
In 1989, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
ESPN has called him the greatest catcher in baseball history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Bench
It’s because of his defensive prowess that Krylon spray paint scooped him up like a ball thrown in the dirt for their spokesman back in the early 1980s. Remember those commercials: Krylon spray paint gives you No Runs, No Drips, and No Errors. And it dries in just 12 minutes.
It was a play on words — No runs, no hits, no errors — words that a defensive baseball player would be proud of — not allowing any runs, any hits, and having no errors.
But what if those words were used to describe our lives?
No Runs, No Hits, No Errors
By SermonCentral
(From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Take a Risk, 5/25/2012)
Copied from Sermon Central
In one little Midwestern town, one time, there lived a woman named Nancy Jones. Miss Jones had the distinction of being the oldest resident in town. So when she died, the editor of the local paper wanted to print a little article remembering this dear old lady, except he couldn't think of anything to say when he sat down to write the article. Miss Jones had never done anything terribly wrong. She had never spent a night in jail or had ever been drunk. On the other hand, she had never done anything significant.
With this still on his mind, the editor went down to the local café, and there, ran into the local funeral director. He too was having the same trouble. He wanted to put something on Miss Jones' tombstone besides "Miss Nancy Jones, born such-and-such a date and died such-and-such a date," but he couldn't think of anything to write either.
The editor decided to go back to his office and assign the job of writing up a small article for both the paper and the tombstone to the first reporter he saw. When he got to the office, he ran into the sports editor, who got the assignment. So somewhere in some little community in the Midwest there is a tombstone which reads:
Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones,
For her life held no terrors.
She lived an old maid. She died an old maid.
No hits, no runs, no errors. (C. C. Mitchell, Let's Live!)
I'm afraid to say, "That's the way many Christians live their lives." They've never done anything terribly wrong, but they never accomplish anything significant for the Lord.
We’ve become indifferent. Wishy washy. God no longer excites us. We’re just dragging ourselves through our lives, no hits, no runs, no errors.
We have become lukewarm. Neither for God or against Him.
We have no passion for the One whose passion for us cost Him everything.
Conclusion
But that’s not what God wants for us.
That’s not the life that God wants us to live — rejecting His riches and inheritance — rejecting His protection and salvation — being indifferent toward Him.
God wants us to be on fire. God wants us to be hot for Him!
Like the church at Laodicea, we need to wake up — come alive — turn things around.
Remember what God told them:
So be diligent and turn from your indifference. (Revelation 3:19b, NLT)
Being lukewarm does nothing but separate us even further from God.
Being lukewarm keeps us from having a meaningful and beneficial relationship with God.
Being lukewarm will keep us from inheriting eternal life in Heaven with God.
We need a revival.
When Israel strayed time and time again, when Israel became indifferent, God was always there, waiting for them to come back.
The prophet Joel shares God’s message:
12 That is why the Lord says,
“Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and
mourning.
13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing
love.
He is eager to relent and not punish.
(Joel 2, NLT)
What if we had a revival?
Revival — If?
Shared By Tony Abram
Written By R.G. Lee
Copied from Sermon Central
If all the sleeping folk will wake up,
If all the lukewarm folk will fire up,
If all the dishonest folk will confess up,
If all the disgruntled folk will cheer up,
If all the depressed folk will cheer up,
If all the estranged folk will make up,
If all the gossipers will shut up,
If all true soldiers will stand up,
If all the dry bones will shake up,
If all the church members will pray up...
Then we can have a revival!
We need to pray as the Psalmist did:
1 Lord, you poured out blessings on your
land!
You restored the fortunes of Israel.
2 You forgave the guilt of your people—
yes, you covered all their sins….
3 You held back your fury.
You kept back your blazing anger.
4 Now restore us again, O God of our
salvation.
Put aside your anger against us once
more.
5 Will you be angry with us always?
Will you prolong your wrath to all
generations?
6 Won’t you revive us again,
so your people can rejoice in you?
7 Show us your unfailing love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
(Psalm 85, NLT)
Revive us again.
We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy
love,
For Jesus who died and is now gone
above.
Revive us again.
We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of
light,
Who has shown us our Savior and
scattered our night.
All glory and praise to the Lamb that was
slain,
Who has borne all our sins and has
cleansed every stain.
Revive us again — fill each heart with Thy
love;
May each soul be rekindled with fire
from above.
Hallelujah, Thine the glory!
Hallelujah, Amen!
Hallelujah, Thine the glory!
Revive us again.
May that be our prayer this morning. May we no longer be lukewarm. Are you hot or not?
Let’s all find our passion for God this morning. Let’s set the world on fire for God today!
