I, I'm a little bit concerned for where we are during this season, all right? Um, and, and, and here's why. Uh, here's why. Um, number one, we have had, we have had thousands upon thousands of our brothers and sisters that have died to give us the right to vote, to give us the right to have an opinion and to give us a right to put our mark down on paper. But during these last couple of months, what I have heard, and this has been a pretty, pretty big statement from a lot of people, is this, I'm just so sick of all of it, I'm just gonna sit out. L- let me just pastorally just talk to the family for a minute. Can I do that? Um, now before you think, oh great, here goes the pastor, he's gonna get political. I'm not. I'm not gonna do that.
All right? But what I do wanna do is just point out a couple things as Christ followers that I think you need to know. Number one, you need to vote. You need to vote, all right? You need to vote, all right? Couple reasons for that. Like I just said, man, we have had thousands upon thousands that have given you the right to do it. And secondly, if you don't do it, you no longer have a right to say anything, right? You need to vote. Secondly, let me say this, you need to vote with a biblical worldview in mind first. A biblical worldview in mind first. What does that mean? That means that if you are a follower of Jesus, that means that you're a citizen of another kingdom first, and that's the kingdom of God. And therefore, we have a responsibility to vote as citizens of God's kingdom.
All right? As citizens of God's kingdom, that means, that means that biblical imperatives overrule secondary strategies. Now let that sink in for a minute, all right? Man, you trying to tell me who to vote for? No, that's not what I'm telling you. But what I am telling you is this, biblical imperatives always outweigh strategy. Always. So Matt, what does that mean? That means this. That means that we can have differences. We can have great coffees. We can have great hangouts on the back porch and we can disagree on so many things as Americans. That's all right. We can do that together. And it's awesome that what God has put together in this little experiment called the US, right? We can disagree on a marginal tax rate. We can disagree on foreign policy. We can disagree on a lot of situations of what aid looks like going out of this place or coming into this place.
We can disagree on all of those things. But there are things, believers, listen to me, there are things that we should always agree on based on our citizenship and God's kingdom, such as the sanctity of human life, such as protecting the unborn children that God has given us, such as the definition of marriage, such as gender and ideologies that come across what God has created us to be to try to make us into something else, such as what it looks like to stand in the freedom of religion. So here's what I wanna say, all right? Pastorally speaking, I wanna say do your homework. Do your homework. Vote kingdom-minded, do your homework, strategy second, do your homework. And you say," Man, where in the world would I even find stuff to do my homework in that? "Listen, in your worship guide today, we didn't put some partisan deal.
Like I said, we don't worship either one of them animals, right? We worship the lamb, right? What I'm gonna say is on your worship guide today, there is some, there's some references in there that you can take over these next two weeks and you can dive through them, you can look through them and you can pray and see where your heart needs to go. Speaking of prayer, number one, you need to vote. Number two, you need to vote with biblical worldview first. And number three, you need to pray for our leaders. Pray for every candidate, no matter which side of the aisle that they're on. In fact, Paul says it like this in one Timothy two. He says, verse one," I urge then first of all that petitions and prayers and intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority that we may live a peaceful and quiet life and all goodness and holiness.
And this is good and pleases God our savior, "watch this," who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. "In fact, let's just do that now. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we know that we are stepping into one of the most contested times that we have in this country. But God, we just ask for your grace, your leadership, your peace and your guidance in our lives as we look to those men and women that stand as representatives of us to point to you Jesus. And it's in your name we pray. Amen and amen. All right Lord, we've done it. Now you can get rid of all the ads. All the people said. Amen. There it is. Allright. There it is. Hey, if you got a copy of scripture today, turn with me to Revelation chapter three. All right? Revelation chapter three.
And as you're finding that, I wanna ask you a pretty unusual question that I promise has a point, all right? And I'm not just trying to be childish in this, all right? I want you to raise your hand if this is you. How many of you would say that you have a weak stomach? You have a weak stomach. How many of you that's out there? Anybody out there? All right. All right. Couple of you. There's way more than that. You're just lying. All right. You just don't wanna raise your hand. Okay? Here, here's the coolest part about that. God has given us as human beings this ability to when something that doesn't agree with us goes into our bodies, you know where this is going, right? You and I have this ability for that such thing to leave our bodies rapidly. Ever been there before?
That's the best way, that's the best kind of sensitive way I can put that, right? God has given us this ability when something goes in that shouldn't be in, right? That doesn't belong in to not stay there very long, all right? Most of the time it comes in a very unfortunate time, right? A very unfortunate time. Maybe you've been out of the country, maybe you've been at a party where it took everybody down. Listen, God has given us that ability when something doesn't agree with us for it to leave, to actually get rid of it. There's another way that this happens though that just kind of comes from just random times. How many of you would just say that, man, my time is not necessarily when I eat something, but man, when I get nervous, maybe something like that happens to you. Some of you, if I were to ask you to come up here and stand beside me and give a 10 minute testimony, it would be over for you, right?
Some of you, it's first day of school. Some of you it's pregame. Any pre-gamers out there that it just happened to you a lot then? Some of you, it's at the least little smell of something foul. Uh, how many of you that, that you have that kind of reflex in you, right? I will have to say that my wife, Melissa, right, she has the fastest gag reflex of anyone in this entire planet, all right? It's a gift. There have been so many jokes and so many things over the years and it's awesome. Look, I say this. I say this, number one, because I pride myself in having a very strong stomach until I had kids and then it was all out the window, right? But I say this because here's the deal. When something is so offensive that it makes us lose it, we should probably pay attention to it.
We should probably know what that is. But then we take it up another notch. When something is so offensive that it makes Jesus that way, we should really dial into. You say, man, I don't see where this is going. Okay. Revelation chapter three, because in Revelation chapter three, what Jesus does is he actually describes what makes him want to lose it, what makes him want to cast it out of him to vomit it. And you would think that it's maybe Christians lying or Christians killing people or, or people murdering people or Christians that don't go to church or people that get to church late or people that leave during the invitation. I don't know. You would think that it was during any of those things, but it's not.
What Jesus says is what makes him wanna lose it is lukewarm Christians. Got a little quiet in here because that's not what you're expecting, right? See, most of us look at all those things that are outside in the world as those things that are super, super offensive to God. And listen, they are. But what Jesus leans into in Revelation chapter three is he gets a group of us together, church people, right? And he speaks into them and says, "Hey, listen, listen, listen. Let me tell you what makes me just wanna spit you out of my mouth." And, and he says it's actually lukewarm Christians that makes him wanna live that way. Now, now we know that a, that, that actually the word, even the wording there, lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron, right? I mean, it really is, for those of you Matthew, but let me explain to you what a oxymoron is.
It's actually two words that are put together that don't belong together. You know what I'm talking about? Kinda like jumbo shrimp or crash landing or adorable cat. I mean, any, uh, I mean, those, none of those words really go together, right? But Jesus describes the oxymoron here as, as a lukewarm Christian. And Jesus leans in, in Revelation chapter three to this church that has fallen into this trap, this church, they've turned to this lifestyle. Now remember in Revelation two, in Revelation three, Jesus is speaking into seven different churches, like any of these seven churches of Asia to our modern day Turkey. But this church today, this church of Leodacia that we're gonna read about in just a second is the only church that he has nothing good to say about. He'd like to be a part of that church, right? But I wanna show you some things about this church and about us that we should probably pay attention to if it makes Jesus feel this way.
Revelation chapter two, I'm gonna start in verse 14 and I wanna see this warning that Jesus gives us about what it looks like to live a lukewarm Christian life. Revelation 3:14, we're just gonna read the scripture, kinda point out a couple things. F those of you know takers, calm down. It's gonna be a little while. All right? It's gonna be a little while. Here it is. Revelation 3:14, it says this, "To the angel of the church in Leodacia, right." Now let me give you some context here because this word angel here literally means the representative or, or it could mean the, the, the leader or the pastor of the church. It also can mean on this side, the literal angel that God has kind of put as a protection of the church that needs to communicate that regardless of what he's saying, Hey, to the leadership, you need to hear this.
And the city that he attaches to it is the city of Leodicea. Now that doesn't mean anything to us because we don't live in modern day Turkey and we didn't live back in the first century, but Leodacia was one of the most notable cities on the whole planet during this time. It sat in the saddle between these two massive mountain ranges and Leodacia was a super, super, super city that was a light to all the cities around it. Let me kind of give you a couple things about the city just so you'll kind of feel this. A couple of years before this was written, this whole city had burned to the ground totally. And this rich family in the Roman Empire got together and said, Hey, listen, we're not only going to rebuild the city and pay for it to be rebuilt, but they rebuilt it with an opulence that no other city in the whole region had.
So think Dubai or Buran. Everything is new. Everything is rich. Everything is the best of the best in the city of Leodacia. Also, on top of that, Leodacia was an important textile center for the whole Roman Empire, not just for this little area. I'm talking for everywhere. People from all over, the aristocrats, the rich, the government officials would come into Leodacia for a purpose to buy this black wool. There was this mutant strain of sheep that was all black that you could only get in Leodacia. And if you had that and you wore that, it was like you were part of the who's who of all the Roman Empire. It was extremely expensive to the people, but extremely lucrative to the city. On top of that, it was a medical center for all of the Roman Empire. So you're seeing where this is going. These people would come in to be treated with this eye treatment, this salve or this cream that they developed from the hot springs that flowed down out of the mountains that actually the minerals in them did something to people's eyes and would heal people almost on the spot.
So literally, think about this city. It had all the riches. It had all the medical care. It was brand new. People flocked to it. They wanted to be there. But on top of that, we're seeing here that there's a church there. There's a church there. And actually this church is a pretty interesting, has a pretty interesting start. It was started out of the church of Colosse, one of Paul's founding churches. And Paul loved this church as well. In fact, Paul references this church four different times in the book of Colossians. Colossians 4:16, Paul says this about it. He says, after this letter, he's talking to the Colossians about the letter he wrote them. He said, after this letter or your letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Layaduseans and that you in turn read the letter from the Leah de Sceans.
Isn't that such a cool little statement right there? Because it's telling us that Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians. We have it in the New Testament. We can read it, right? He also wrote this letter to the Layaduseans to which you're like, "Well, Matt, where's that letter? I don't know. All right, we don't have it. We don't know where it is. Ask Paul in heaven one day what it says, right?" I say all of that and build that kind of background for you to say this, "This church looks a lot like our church. This church looks a lot like our area. This city looks a lot like our area. This is a real group of people. It's a real church. This church has a whole lot of things going on. People wanted to live there, wanted to be there, wanted their kids to be a part of there.
It was a great medical center. It reminds us a lot of the strongness of our little community here. People have what they want, had what they needed. They had all that they ever wanted. And as a result of that though, watch the warning. Here's the connection. Watch what's said to them. Revelation 3:14, watch what Jesus says. Says to the angel of the church of Leodesia right, these are the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. Now I'm not sure you made the connection there, but the amen here is Jesus speaking of himself and he's saying," Hey, these are my words. "If you notice the amen is capitalized. Jesus is saying," These are my words. "The literal word amen means complete end of the story. You can't dispute it. It's not just some little word that we throw on the end of our prayers.
Jesus looks at the city and goes," Hey, listen, I need you to hear something and I need you to hear it from me. And this is not an opinion. It's not something you can just throw to the side. I'm giving it to you as the creator of the universe, as the one that has always been in the universe, always ruled the universe and will always be in the universe. You should probably listen. "Keep going. Watch what Jesus says. He says," I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. "So that because you are lukewarm, let me tie in the first part of the message, neither hot or cold," I am about to spit you out of my mouth. "Listen to you. Listen. If Jesus says there's something that makes him literally want to vomit, we should probably look at it.
But I want you to see what's happening here, because this is way bigger than just some metaphor. This is way bigger than just some language that Jesus just throws out. And I want you to see this idea of neither hot or cold, because listen believers, I feel like it's so easy for us to slip into the middle of these two things. Let me explain it to you like this. I got a map I want to show you here just to kind of walk through it with you. The city of Laodicea, like I said earlier, from the northeast of the city of Laodicea, if you're looking at the map of this, and it's gonna come up on the screen, if you'll look at it, from the northeast of Laodicea, there was a, there was a place called Hiriopolis that was literally in the mountains of Hereopolis.
And that is where this rich mineral water, this hot boiling springs water, it would flow down from the mountains and it would flow into Laodicea. They figured out a way to put these clay pipes underground and pipe this hot water all the way to the edge of town. And it was a healing water. It was a mineral water. Kind of think, think Roosevelt in Warm Springs, if you would, right? That's what it was like. But then to the southeast of Laodicea, there was the mountains of Colossae. They were a different style of mountain. They were a rock faced mountain that was sheer cliffs. They were way taller than the Hiriopolis mountains. There were snow covered all year long, but at certain times of year especially, the snow would begin to melt and these rushing rivers of cold mountain water would flow down from the mountains and flow into Laodicea, all right?
That's what you're seeing. The hot from the north, there was healing. The cold from the south would come in that they used for drinking water, for bathing water and refreshment. And both of these things flowed into the town of Leodosia. And this is what Jesus is doing. He's pulling back. He's looking at exactly where there are and he's saying literally, you got hot coming from the south, you got cold coming from the north to vastly different rivers, opposite sides of the city. And both of them were so useful for the people and actually made the town one of the most desirable places to be. But the problem was, is when they met each other outside of town, there was a basin, there was a pool that the waters from the north, the waters from the south, they would all flow into this pool right outside of town and it would cause this tepid water to grow this nasty algae and it became actually super dangerous for human beings.
So I want you to see what's happening here. This little pool outside was no longer distinct and it became so dangerous you couldn't even get close to it. So notice though, I missed this when I was a kid. Hot is good. Cold is good, right? We're seeing both those. When I was a kid, it was always like, be red hot for Jesus. Don't be cold, right? No. Jesus is saying be distinct. That's what he's saying. Be healing, be useful for my kingdom. But in the middle brings no distinction. So Jesus uses this language and he describes these believers at Leodacia as being lukewarm. In other words, you have no passion, you have no distinction, you've just literally become like all the other surroundings around you. And Jesus says you're not characterized by either and you've just molded to your environment. You claim to be from me, right?
You claim to be mine, but you've just become everything around you. And I want you to see what Jesus says next though, because it's so important because he shows us why these people became like everything else. Jesus says the reason you're lukewarm, look at verse 17, he says this, he says, you say I'm rich and I've acquired wealth and I do not need a thing. So Jesus says you're lukewarm, you're lukewarm because you just say that I'm, I'm rich. I've acquired wealth. I don't, I don't need anything else. Now look, that's dangerous words to the ones that cre- created and controls the world, but I need you to feel something here. It's not just about being rich. I mean, nowhere in the Bible does it say it's a sin to be rich. It's about control. That's what Jesus is saying here. It's about a need for who God is, is what he's saying here.
And it's about a trust factor of not anything that is on my own, but it's all on God. That's what he's saying here. You see, these people, the problem with this, not that they're rich, it was the problem that they had become so dependent on their selves that they had molded into something God had never created them to be. They were no longer useful and they thought that they could do everything on their own.
The self-sufficiency that was in the city had steeped into the church was the problem. L- l- listen, church, this is a, this is a huge fear of mine as your leader. And let me tell you why, because I'm gonna tell you, we got some of the most talented people on the planet in this church. We have some of the most gracious people in the church. We have some of the, the most giving people in the church. We have some of the most nicest people. We have some of the most connected people in the church. But listen, all that is on us. My question is how were we being used in the kingdom? How were we living a distinct life? He said they had turned to themselves and not to God. They thought that they could do everything on their own because they had it all.
Now look, they would have not said that out loud. I mean, come on, they were better than that, but it's how they lived. In fact, watch what Jesus says. Verse 17. Let me read it to you again. It says this, "You say that I'm rich and I've acquired wealth and do not need a thing, but..." Oh, Jesus, watch this. But Jesus says this, "But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." L- l- listen to me, church, that, that's probably the harshest warning that Jesus gave anyone in the New Testament other than the Pharisees. And I want you to notice something, both of those groups of people were religious people. Look, look at the, look at, look at the warnings right here though. The first two, the wretched and pitiful, those are just kind of general statements, but then, but then, and this is why I spent so much time on the first part of the message describing the city.
Look at the last three descriptors. Watch what Jesus does. Watch how close to home Jesus hits them. And what did Jesus call them? He called them not only wretched and pitiful, but what did he call them? He called them poor. He called them poor. But by earthly standards, this was probably one of the, if not the richest city in the whole region. He's calling them poor. You could just see them kind of bowing up a little bit. They're like, "I ain't poor. You're poor, right? I mean, you're that, Jesus." He not only called them poor, then he called them blind. He called them blind, which is such a shot at them. Why? Because they were known all over the Roman Empire for their eye cream that people came to them to be healed by. They came to have their eyes open, but Jesus looked at them and said, "You don't even know it, but you're the blind ones." And look at the last one, even though they had the best wool, remember?
They had this best, this black wool that they sold to all the rich. In God's eyes, Jesus says, "Not only do you not have wool, you, you, it's like you're naked. It's like you haven't been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. It's like you got everything over here, but you got nothing to show for it." Church, a right view of self and a right covering of our lives. It means more than anything else is what Jesus is saying that we depend upon. But watch what he says in verse 18. He keeps going with them. So Jesus says this, "I counsel you to buy gold for me refined by the fire." That word buy gold for me is a literal term, a marketplace term. Jesus is really saying, "Hey, I encourage you to get what I offer you. I encourage you to have what I want to give you." That he's speaking transactionally.
"I counsel you to buy gold for me that's refined in the fire. In other words, only that I can offer so that you become rich. "And watch what he says. "And white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful neckedness and salve," Jesus says, "to put on your eyes so that you can see." Jesus says, "Listen, I, you need to see this. There's a supply that's from heaven that satisfies. There's a garment that covers. There's treasures that give meaning, but Jesus says they only come from me." You can chase after the rest of the stuff if you want to. He says, "Listen, I'm the one that offers the purity. I'm the one that offers the covering. I'm the one that offers the forgiveness. I'm the one that offers the grace. I'm the one that can give you life and your spiritual eyes need to be open and you need to be clothed with the white robe of righteousness from who I am." Are you seeing this?
Jesus, he's pointing to these people who, in their minds, they, they know that God is there. They didn't like proclaim, man, I hate God. I wanna walk away from God. No. They thought that they had it together, but they thought they had it together by what they had to offer and not what Jesus had to offer.
But watch what Jesus does next because he, he doesn't just rebuke them and walk away from them. Watch what Jesus says, because Jesus offers them something that no earthly medicine can offer. No, no earthly cover can offer. Watch what Jesus says in verse 20, one of the most famous verses in all the book of revelation. Jesus says this. He says, "Here I am. I stand at the door and knock." Now leave that verse up because I want you to, I want you to, I want you to just picture this in your mind just for a minute. It's almost like it's on a stained glass, right? I want you to picture this in your mind because this causes the question, what in the world is Jesus doing outside the church? You ever thought about that right here? If Jesus is speaking to a church, because that is the primary context here, if Jesus is speaking to believers, because that is the primary context here, what in the world is Jesus doing on the outside of their lives having to knock on their doors?
He's on the outside or even worse, are these people and are we, are we so self-sufficient that we don't even realize that Jesus is not in our lives right now? He's on the outside of the door just knocking. I'm right here. I'm right here. Just let me in. Let me read the verse again and say, watch what it says, here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. That's the verse right there, right? He'll do it. I'll come in and I'll eat with that person and they with me. Now, growing up, I always though this was just like the best salvation message ever. Jesus is knocking on your heart. Give your life to Jesus. That's a great secondary application. But the primary application is for you and me, for those of us that know Jesus, that Jesus is literally saying, let me, let me control, let me cover, let me give you life, let me give you what you don't have.
Let me give you eternity, but I'm standing here and I'm just waiting on you to give me control. Now listen, believers, these, the, this church was not a hypocritical church, all right? So don't think, well, they're nothing like me. This was not a hypocrit - critical church. No. The hypocrite is somebody that says one thing and does another, right? This church was very consistent. The problem was they just didn't feel desperate for God. They were just like, eh, it's just what we do. They weren't hot or cold, right? And Jesus says the most negative thing he can. It's not that Jesus said, Hey, I'm mad at you or I'm disappointing you. He says, no, literally, I want to eject you out of my mouth, Jesus says. But have you ever though about why lukewarmness is such a big deal? L- let me give you two things for your notes that just maybe this week can jar your mind on when you're thinking about this whole idea of lukewarmness.
Because what is it that makes Jesus talk this strongly? Let me give you two principles. Number one, lukewarmness is disrespectful to the grace that God has given. Have you ever though about that? You ever though about the fact that the creator of the universe left heaven, took on flesh, lived a life that I couldn't live, died the death that I deserved to die, to give me the opportunity to know him, to worship him, to spend the rest of my life with him? But yet, on this side, I just figured out that, hey, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna give my life to him and I'm gonna go live how I wanna live. It doesn't work that way. It's disrespectful to the grace that he's given us. You do realize that there's only two responses in the New Testament to grace. It's either worship or mockery. There's nothing in between.
But somehow we, as the Leodesian church and we as the American church, we have figured out how to live both and call it American Christianity.
Number two, lukewarmness actually proclaims a lie to the world about who Jesus is. It proclaims a lie. Why? Do you, do you realize that the number one cause of atheism on this planet, listen to me, it's not education. It's not politics. It's not cultural drift. The number one cause of atheism on this planet are people that claim to know God but don't live distinct lives for them. You say," I don't know if I'm feeling that. "No, it is. You know why? Because the rest of the world looks at us and says," Why would I want to be that?
"Listen, our lives are designed for every single piece of it to scream that he is Lord and I am not. He is king and I bow down to him and my life belongs to him. So listen, when we live, when we act, when we think, when we go, like everybody else, it never points to Jesus. It actually pulls Jesus down. It pulls his image down in front of other people. And as a result of that, what we do is we not only pull Jesus down, but we live like the rest of the world. Our goal is literally to proclaim that we are the kings and he's not. And we default to pointing to ourselves. Listen, we can't be a people that just live this flat line spiritual life and expect God to move in our lives. It doesn't work that way. So you say," Man, that's pretty, that's pretty rough, rough language to this church of Laodicea.
"Yeah, I get it. But on the other side, it's probably one of the most loving things that Jesus could have ever said to this group of people because they didn't know what they were doing. You say," Man, I, I, I get this for the laid of sea in church, but I don't, I don't, I don't think that that's my life. And I don't think that that's kind of how I live. And I don't think that that's kind of how I walk. I mean, I, I, I get that. So, so here's what I wanna do with the rest of the time I got. I wanna get as practical as I can today in 2026. And I wanna give you five quick kinda litmus tests for your life that you can answer this week to yourself. Am I living a life that is hot or cold or am I living a life that is just pooled into nothingness?
Am I living the lukewarm life? Let me give you five traits of a lukewarm Christian. Maybe you can compare yourself to them. Number one, lukewarm Christians crave acceptance by people more than God. They crave acceptance by people more than God. What does that mean? That means that they're much more concerned with people's acceptance than God's acceptance. That's what it means, right? That's what it means. So that means that they would rather be seen by culture as something and then just say sorry to God later on. And, and it means that, that we take our cues from social norms rather than biblical imperatives. It means we take our cues from what is gonna get us ahead from the group of people around us rather than how we honor God with everything in our lives. And, and look, listen, the thinking here is that there's no... I mean, the, the thinking of this idea is not that we don't have any thoughts of God, it's just that we think of ourselves first.
They crave acceptance by people more than God. Here' number two. This probably not you, but maybe this one, maybe number two is what you deal with. Lukewarm believers, they rationalize their sin. They rationalize their sin. Man, what, what, what does rationalize their sin mean? It, it means this. It means they look out at the world, they look out at culture and they go, well, at least I'm not that. Oh, you ever been there before? Boy, I have. I, I'll just confess. I've been there before. When I've been struggling over something or maybe something's been creeping into my life, I've looked at it and I was like, well, at least I'm not a murderer, right? They rationalize their sin. They say things like, well, it's, it's not that big of a deal. And, and here's where the problem in that thinking is, is that, that they don't really hate sin.
They just don't wanna be looked at as a bad person.
Oh, church, listen, following Jesus is not what kind of minimum sacrifice can I give to get by. Following Jesus is saying, Jesus, all of me is all of yours. Use me. I mean, what if we treated our, our, our, our spouses like that, right? What's the minimum amount of sacrifice I can give just so Melissa will like me, right? It doesn't work. In, in fact, Francis Chan said it like this. I love this. He says, lukewarm Christians r - don't really wanna be saved from their sin, only from the penalty of their sin. And that's wrong. Well, maybe that one's not you. Let me give you number three. Lukewarm Chhristians turn to God only when they need something.
They turn to God only when they need something. What does that mean? That means that when the bottom falls out, that means when the relationship dies, when the family divorces, when the failed class, when the relationship busts, when they get caught doing whatever, it's only in that tragic situation that they finally get their head up a little bit and go," God, help me. "To which, listen, I'm not down in the fact that we do need to do that in those situations. But what I am saying is this, if the only time that you're calling on God, trusting God and needing God in your life is when you get in trouble, that's a transactional genie relationship, not a Lordship relationship. That's how they live. Here's number four. I like this one. Lukewarm Christians just act like the rest of the world.
They, I mean, they wouldn't, they wouldn't look at God and say they hate him. They wouldn't look at God and say you're not there. They wouldn't look at God and say, get away from me, but they just don't live like God has called them to live. Remember the lukewarm water in Laodicea? It wasn't that, that hot water that flowed. It wasn't that cold water to flow. It just had no distinction. I mean, their thoughts were the same as everybody else's thoughs. It means their, their, their entertainment was the same as everybody else. Their relationships were the same as everybody else. Their principles were the same as everybody else. The morality was the same as everybody else. They sounded just like the rest of the world. There was nothing that made them distinct. Let me, let me ask you, what makes you distinct?
Here's number five, if none of those caught you yet. Number five, lukewarm believers, they rarely share their faith in Jesus. They rarely share their faith in Jesus. Why? It's not that they hate Jesus. It's just Jesus is really not a big thought to them. It's not that they despise who God is. It's just God is not at the forefront of their lives. It's not the thing that comes up with them. It's not the thing that's on the front of, I have to do this today. It's not the, hey, you changed me so much. I have to talk about them. I have to talk about them. They consider themselves a Christian. They just don't want other people to feel uncomfortable. Do you realize that most people, they don't share the gospel really and truly just because their lives haven't been transformed to the point that they go," I just have to tell what he's done in me.
"Man, I hope you're seeing this this morning. This is a little bit of a different kind of message, but I hope you're seeing this because this is what makes Jesus just go listen. You better listen. And I can just feel you're like," Matt, you're pretty passionate about this. "Can I, can I tell you why I'm so passionate about this? Two reasons. Number one, because for 30 years as a pastor, I've watched this in people's lives, particularly in our country. Good people, right? That's good people. I've watched it at funerals. I've watched it in culture of people that, that say they love God, but what difference is it really making in them? Can I tell you the second reason I'm so passionate about this? Because even as a professional Christian myself, because that's really kind of what I am. It's kind of weird, right? I get paid to do this, right?
I've had some massive seasons of my life that if I was truthful with you, would be some of the most lukewarm seasons ever. I mean, I wasn't out there murdering people, but I'm just not sure Jesus was king like he should have been. I, I, I mean, I wasn't out there just in this grotesque public sin, no, but I'm just not sure that I was walking with him with the passion that I should have been. My, my time in the word was just kind of minuscule at best. Maybe my, my time in the world was only to preach and not for me. My time with people was about what could they do for me and not what could God do for them. My time and just kind of being a person of integrity was just kind of like," Al just keep my mouth shut.
"And here's the deal. I can, I kind of feel like most of us have probably had a season like this. I think we've all been there. I mean, it's no coincidence that Leo Decio was probably the richest, most self-sufficient church, probably had the best worship band, the funniest pastor of everybody, right? But Jesus, it's the only church he has nothing good to say about. They walked on their own power and Jesus called them out for it. Not out of anger, but out of hey, turn to me. In fact, let me finish it up by reading these verses over us one more time. Look at this. Watch what Jesus says to him at the end and I'm done. Revolution 3:19 through 22 says this to, to those whom I love, Jesus says, I rebuke and discipline. Now that's strong words for us to hear, right? But it's the same reason you yell at your kid when they're running into traffic, right?
You love them. You want them away from danger. You know that that's not gonna end well. To those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Watch what he says. So be earnest and repent. Repent means to change, to turn away. Jesus says, here I am. I, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. I will eat with that person and they with me. Verse 21, to the one who is victorious. In other words, to the one who does repent, to the one who realizes where they are, to the one who realizes who I am, to the one who calls out to me. Jesus is not saying this out of anger. He's not saying this out of just this absolute spite. He's saying it as an invitation for us to be pulled out of the pool, right?
To be pulled into his plan, to be pulled into his power. He says to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to what? To sit with me on the throne just as I was victorious and sat down with my father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
Man, let me ask as we close, is Jesus knocking? Believer, is he knocking? You might have walked in here today and didn't even realize he was on the outside. Now you do. What does he say? He just says repent. Turn from wherever you were and turn to the one that wants to give you the spiritual eyes, that wants to give you life, that wants to clothe you with this robe of righteousness, that wants to offer you kingdom riches. He says, come on to me and let's do this together. Listen, he's not angry. He's honest. He's not mad. He's making an offer and he's rebuking and thank God he does. Why? Because left to our own, we will always walk away from who God is. What's it gonna take today for you to say, Here I am, Lord Jesus? I'm yours.