It’s good to be back from vacation.
Several people have asked how our time away was, and I guess you could sum it up in one word:
HOT!
As I thought about that this week, I wondered if there were a thermometer to measure our spiritual intensity, how hot would you and I be?
The Bible word for being hot is zeal (literally translated “to boil”).
If 1 is cold and 10 is hot, what number describes your relationship with Jesus Christ?
If you are 5 and below, then you are lukewarm.
Jesus, David, and the heroes of faith were eaten up with zeal for the Lord. They were earnest and zealous for the God, having a fervent mind, an indignantce towards the devil, a warmth towards one another, and an energetic pursuit of the things of God.
John Wesley said, “If you’ll get on fire, people will come and watch you burn.” When I read that, my first thought was a picture in one of my college textbooks of a Buddhist monk who had set himself on fire in the street as a protest. That picture will forever be burnt onto my mind. Are you and I willing to be so sold out for God that our acts of loving kindness burn a permanent image on the minds of others?
When we have that zeal within us, we’ll find that we are so grieved for those who lacks the good things of God in their life that we have to act and share with them. The Bible says those who don’t have a zeal for God are poor, wretched, naked, blind. . . Have you ever seen a picture of a homeless person? There are people who are very well off physically, but spiritually, the are that homeless person. There are many people in churches this morning who have every outward appearance of zeal, but inwardly are starving for something.
In Revelation 3, John writes (beginning in verse 14): 14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
What does this have to say to us today? First, we all fall into one of three categories: cold, hot, or lukewarm (v. 15). Second, the lukewarm person is not easy to spot. They have the outward appearance of a Christian. They say of themselves “I’m rich, I don’t need anything. I’m satisfied.” That sounds a lot like the mantra of today’s American.
Now the Devil comes to deceive us in 2 ways. If we are cold, he tells us that we will never amount to anything. That forms within us a defeatist attitude. We begin to say over ourselves, “ I am a worthless little person. I can not get ahead. I know I will fail.” This type of attitude will keep us from fulfilling the potential that God sees in us. If we are lukewarm, the devil whispers in our ear, “everything is fine, you can take it easy. You have arrived.” The lukewarm Christian looks at those in the world and says to him or herself, “I’m not so bad. I’m better than they are.” Be wary of that voice, for God’s voice will never tell you that you’re better than someone else.
For someone who is lukewarm, God offers the following advice:
1. Buy gold of God that has been tried by fire. I heard the same thing on the radio this week. Buy gold. What does that mean. There are so many things in our lives that have no lasting value. The story is told about Dr. Dobson when he had heart surgery. He honestly thought he was going to die as he lay on that table. And he said at that moment, it did not matter how many books he had written, how many academic and professional awards he had won, how much money and possessions he had amassed. In that moment where he faced the prospect of his life ending there were only three things that mattered: who he loved, who loved him, and what he had done for Christ. 1 Corinthians 13 says in the end of it all only these three remain: faith, hope, and love. To buy gold means to infuse your life with those things that have an eternal value. Scripture reading, quality time with family, time spent in praise and worship as you draw closer to Christ. How much time today will you whittle away with trivial pursuits that have no lasting value? Buy Gold.
2. Get white raiment. This speaks of the blood of Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus. I looked hard for a picture for the power point this week. It’s hard to find a picture of a person wearing white. Most of those I found had a cigarette in their hand, needed more clothes, or had something spilled on their white clothes. As I thought about it, those very problems plague us as well. We can’t trust our own works to justify us, for our doubtful habits continue to ruin the picture; nor can we trust the law to justify us, for our goodness under the law never quite covers enough of us. In both instances, our sinful nature tends to stain our righteousness before we get very far. Only the holiness of Jesus that he gives to us through the cleansing of the blood can make us spotless before God. When God looks at us, he doesn’t see us, but he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is like a great big robe that covers us.
3. Get some Eyesalve. If I were to update this, I would say, we need to get glasses to correct our vision. We need to see as God sees, to have vision for lost souls in our area. We need to refocus our vision off of ourselves and look for what God is calling us to do around us. During his ministry, Jesus healed a blind man. (see Mark 8:22-26) He spit in the man’s eyes and laid hands on him then he said, “Do you see anything?” The man replied, “I see people as trees that are walking.” This scripture illustrates the problem with our vision, and it is two-fold. First, we tend to focus only on ourselves, unable to see beyond our needs and wants to consider others. After an encounter with Christ, however, the man could see others, just not as they were. One commentator says of this passage that we often treat people as trees. We look to see what good they can be to us. When I served at Stafford, the trustees had three trees taken out. They were pretty scrawny trees, giving no shade. They were fruit trees, but they remained fruitless. So they were cut down. Too often, we look at other people that way. We ask ourselves what the person can do for us. We fail to realize that every person is of sacred worth to God, regardless of their past, their present, or their future. If we saw the lost as Christ sees them, then we could not help but improve our witness to those who are lost, for they are priceless to God.
The passage concludes with two pretty amazing verses. In verse 19, the Spirit tells John that God doesn’t bring this rebuke because he’s mad at us, but because he loves us. He just wants to see us be everything he’s made us to be. So in the next verse, he extends an invitation to us. If you are lukewarm, Christ is standing at the door to your heart this morning. He says to us, “Open the door, and I will come in and live within you. And you can live in me.”
HOW HOT ARE YOU THIS MORNING? Are you full of zeal for God? If not, then I invite you to come and ask God for gold, for white clothes, and for better vision. He loves you this morning and wants to see you full of zeal for him.
