Lukewarm Hearts and Empty Hands: Are We Trying to Reignite a Fire God Must Light?

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
It's been my favorite series, I think, of the year, just going through and trying to have a more full and complete understanding of what's happening in Scripture, connect some of the dots of specifically the Old Testament and how it ties into the New Testament.
[00:00:15] And I'm kind of sad to see it go.
[00:00:17] We preached the whole Bible in eight weeks.
[00:00:19] That's what happened.
[00:00:20] Tell your friends about it.
[00:00:23] We did not preach the whole Bible in eight weeks, but we helped connect a lot of the points together.
[00:00:28] And today we're closing up in the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
[00:00:33] Come on, anyone excited to open up some Revelation?
[00:00:36] You guys are always asking for Revelation.
[00:00:38] I think it's a test for me.
[00:00:39] Let's see what you really know, Pastor.
[00:00:43] Not that you know what's going on in Revelation either, so I could pretty much say anything, I think.
[00:00:51] But I wanna give us an understanding of the rest of the New Testament, because we really only did two weeks on the New Testament.
[00:00:56] Last week, we had Pastor Sergei and Pastor Natasha join us from Israel, and sometimes they watch online, so you might be watching online.
[00:01:04] Thank you again for joining us.
[00:01:05] We really enjoyed having you here.
[00:01:07] Can we just thank them one more time for joining us?
[00:01:11] And they actually wanted to continue with our series.
[00:01:14] They didn't want to stop and do their own thing.
[00:01:16] And so they talked about the Gospels.
[00:01:19] And the first four books of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
[00:01:24] Those are four eyewitness accounts of the same story, or four historical accounts of the same story, and that is the life of Jesus.
[00:01:32] So you'll see a lot of overlap on the stories.
[00:01:35] That makes sense.
[00:01:35] That was different people's accounts of what it was like to follow and see
[00:01:41] Jesus at Work.
[00:01:44] The next book you got is Acts.
[00:01:46] And Acts is the book that really is the beginning of the formation of the church.
[00:01:51] So what we see today as far as organized gathering together, believers walking together, we see that in Acts.
[00:02:01] And that's really the end of the chronological Bible.
[00:02:04] We don't get a whole lot more as far as historical events in the Bible after Acts.
[00:02:10] because after that you get from Romans to Jude 21 books so I know we're skipping we're skipping all those books 21 books that were really focused around leadership in the church around around structuring the church around they were letters basically from leaders to the church encouraging them building them up this is where the church begins to face a lot of persecution and I'm talking
[00:02:38] you know not not like light persecution not like they won't let me pray where I want to pray like they were killing people for their belief in the gospel and especially for spreading the gospel and the Roman Empire quickly became enemies of the Christian faith and you see that kind of on display in these in these letters
[00:02:59] written to different churches and what we know historically is the Roman Empire really stood against the Christian faith at one point which if you go back in time and you had to bet on it I mean this you would have been betting between who's gonna who's gonna stand 12 guys who lost their leaders the disciples who are now carrying the Christian faith or the Roman Empire you would have bet the house on it and you would have been wrong
[00:03:29] Really, it's one of the greatest evidences of the truth that Jesus was dead and resurrected because he empowered these guys to go out and preach the gospel with boldness even though they were martyred and hunted for their faith and yet the movement spread even under the face of persecution.
[00:03:51] And then we get to Revelation, which is a vision that John has.
[00:03:56] And Revelation's different than really any other book we have in Scripture, because it is a vision from God to John.
[00:04:04] John was one of the 12 disciples.
[00:04:06] He was the only disciple that we think wasn't actually killed for his faith.
[00:04:12] he was responsible for watching mary after jesus's death jesus entrusts john john is widely considered jesus's best friend of the twelve this was his closest confidant and so they did at one point try to hunt john they actually threw him
[00:04:29] In a cauldron of oil there are later writings that that talk about this that he was thrown in a cauldron of boiling oil these writings aren't even in the bible this is just in the history books um in writings afterwards and he survived that so the empire was like well what do we do with with him now and so they shipped him off to an island patmos where he would write down this is really something he wrote down towards the end of his life he would write down
[00:04:55] and that's what we call the book of Revelation.
[00:05:02] And we are fascinated by this book because it is kind of giving a detailed account of what the end of the world will look like.
[00:05:12] And we're fascinated by this because 39% of people, the most recent polls and studies they have are 2022, and 39% of people, that's not even Christians, just 39% of people in general, think we are somewhere in the end times.
[00:05:28] Meaning about 40% of people are saying,
[00:05:30] I don't think we got that much longer left.
[00:05:32] We're almost done here.
[00:05:33] We've about used up everything we got here on this planet.
[00:05:38] And that's in 2022.
[00:05:39] I can't even imagine what that number is now.
[00:05:42] And we're fascinated by this.
[00:05:43] In fact, last week, this wasn't even planned.
[00:05:46] We were always gonna talk about Revelation this week.
[00:05:49] Last week, you might have seen in South Africa, a well-known influential pastor said that he had a vision
[00:05:57] that the rapture was going to happen.
[00:05:59] Jesus told him in a vision that the rapture is happening either the 23rd or 24th.
[00:06:05] I don't know if like Jesus still hadn't decided which day he wanted to come or if, I'm not sure.
[00:06:10] Get back to you on that.
[00:06:12] Did you see this on social media?
[00:06:15] And so people were going crazy with it, you know?
[00:06:18] I mean, people were convinced the rapture is happening.
[00:06:21] It went beyond Africa as well.
[00:06:24] And so people did what, I mean, this happens about every five years, honestly.
[00:06:29] Really, every like two.
[00:06:30] Somebody comes out.
[00:06:31] and has some sort of reason that they know while nobody else knows that the rapture is going to happen.
[00:06:38] The rapture, this event where right before the end times the Christian will be taken up into heaven to become part of the kingdom of God and the rest of us will be here, the rest of humankind will be here
[00:06:48] to fend for itself in the end of the world and so people did what people always do they went they went crazy they started selling their stuff they started getting rid of their stuff there's a now famous uh little viral clip of a pastor recording his own car being towed and being like jokes on them i'm not gonna need that um which is unfortunate for that guy i hope he got his car back um
[00:07:14] you know my favorite one is the giving away of pets that's always hilarious to me you know like because what a backhanded compliment to your neighbor you like knock on your neighbor's door you're like look i don't know if you heard the rapture's coming i'm gonna be going i think you're still here actually but i do trust you to take care of toby for me so thank you for that i mean what a weird thing to do to somebody so
[00:07:45] You know, they get done, both the days come and go, nothing happens, and of course there's the same thing, there's the apology tour, and oh, miscalculations, I'll get back to you when the next one's happening, you know.
[00:08:00] It's fascinating.
[00:08:02] But there's a couple things, because we're not going to get into all of Revelation.
[00:08:05] There's so much going on in Revelation.
[00:08:07] I would encourage you, if you've never read Revelation, to check out this book.
[00:08:10] It's the last book in your Bible.
[00:08:13] And there's so many interesting things going on here.
[00:08:17] and some things if you are gonna check it out that I want you to understand.
[00:08:20] First off, scripture is really clear all throughout.
[00:08:24] Like this is a thing Jesus said, this is a thing said over and over again.
[00:08:27] No one is gonna know when this happens.
[00:08:31] Let me just say this again, because we've done this a lot of times.
[00:08:37] No one, all right?
[00:08:39] No one.
[00:08:40] There's no indication that God's going to give a special message just to one person before to say, hey, give everyone a heads up and then live stream it, which was a thing.
[00:08:50] They were live streaming this.
[00:08:51] That had to be so awkward.
[00:08:53] Like, we're going to go ahead and sign off now.
[00:08:55] I mean, what do you say at the end of that?
[00:08:58] My bad.
[00:08:59] You know, my dad hated when I said that when I was getting... My bad.
[00:09:01] That's on me.
[00:09:02] Sorry about that.
[00:09:04] No one is gonna know.
[00:09:05] That's the first thing you have to understand.
[00:09:06] It's really clear.
[00:09:08] It is meant to be a mystery to us.
[00:09:11] The second thing you have to understand if you do open up Revelation, when you get into the meat of this dream that John had, this vision that John had, you have to understand it is symbolic.
[00:09:22] Okay?
[00:09:23] Meaning, sometimes people are thinking like, those creatures are actually gonna exist.
[00:09:27] These six wing, you know, 12 eyes, all these things are gonna actually exist.
[00:09:32] And in every other dream in the Old Testament, it's symbolic of something deeper than that.
[00:09:38] This is why there are so many arguments.
[00:09:40] This is why I really, there's no point in me trying to preach an interpretation of this dream, because it would just be a guess.
[00:09:47] There are people who've spent their entire lives who are way smarter than me, who have studied this, and they don't even agree on what each thing is actually symbolizing.
[00:10:00] It's all theory.
[00:10:01] It's all conversation, which is fascinating.
[00:10:03] It's interesting.
[00:10:04] I'm not saying it's bad.
[00:10:05] It's just you have to understand
[00:10:07] It's theory.
[00:10:09] People are trying to figure out the symbolism behind what's happening in the book of Revelation.
[00:10:15] And so you will have people look at the same passage in Scripture, the same point in Revelation, and one person will say, well, that was World War II.
[00:10:22] And someone else will say, well, that actually represents the media.
[00:10:24] And someone else will say, well, that actually represents a world leader.
[00:10:27] No, that represents Lady Gaga.
[00:10:29] I mean, they're all guessing, right?
[00:10:32] And they're based on...
[00:10:34] Educated guesses, I'm not saying they're just like throwing stuff out there, but nobody really knows with any certainty exactly what this is gonna look like.
[00:10:44] This is the fascinating thing about the book of Revelation.
[00:10:46] It's the one place in scripture where we get this prophecy and this dream with no interpretation.
[00:10:52] God speaks in dreams many times through scripture, but typically we get a clear interpretation.
[00:10:58] For instance,
[00:10:59] In the Old Testament, at one point, there's a dream that is had by a king about seven fat cows who are happy and eating, and then all of a sudden, they're attacked by seven thin, frail, weak cows and consumed by the frail, thin cows.
[00:11:15] And later, Joseph interprets that dream and says what it means is it's seven years of great times.
[00:11:23] The seven cows represent years, actually, so it's seven years of great times of
[00:11:29] The plentiful harvest is going to be followed by seven years of famine.
[00:11:35] And so now we look at that and we go, oh, that totally makes sense.
[00:11:37] But if you just saw that scene on your television, you'd be like, what kind of sick child horror story show is this, right?
[00:11:47] Like seven thin cows just attacking and mauling seven fat cows.
[00:11:53] But it makes sense because we get the full interpretation.
[00:11:55] Revelation, we never get a full interpretation.
[00:11:58] That's why it's so fascinating.
[00:11:59] And it points to the fact that we serve a God who is still mysterious to us.
[00:12:04] Can I get an amen?
[00:12:06] And that can drive you nuts and that's okay.
[00:12:10] You can want to know everything that God knows.
[00:12:12] I don't think you're gonna get there though.
[00:12:14] I'm gonna be honest with you.
[00:12:15] And it's okay for God to still be a God of mystery.
[00:12:20] The last thing I wanna point out about Revelation as we get into it is I'm not really sure it's actually meant to be a book that scares us.
[00:12:29] As much as it has become that for many people, a book of fear, a book where I've heard people, I'm gearing up, gearing up for Revelation with my shotguns.
[00:12:39] Like, I don't think that's going to help you that much.
[00:12:43] But it's not meant to be this book of fear, but a book of genuine warning of the inevitable end of the world.
[00:12:53] Look at this, Revelation 1.1, John starts with the revelation, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that, hold on to this phrase, the things that must soon take place.
[00:13:09] Saying it's inevitable, these things must take place.
[00:13:14] He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.
[00:13:19] You know, we're gonna hone in on this idea.
[00:13:22] John's saying this is a revelation from Jesus Christ on the things that must soon take place.
[00:13:30] You know, the end of the world reminds me of a children's birthday party.
[00:13:34] Stay with me.
[00:13:38] When...
[00:13:41] I promise we're gonna get there, I promise.
[00:13:43] This is gonna be fun.
[00:13:45] When we get ready for a birthday party at the Kran's house, we go all in.
[00:13:49] And by we, I mean my wife.
[00:13:50] My wife is a fantastic mom.
[00:13:53] She goes all out.
[00:13:54] We don't just do a cake and take the kids somewhere and drop them off.
[00:13:59] We redecorate the whole house.
[00:14:02] We create a whole theme.
[00:14:03] Think like movies at the Cove, but at the Kran's household, all right?
[00:14:06] We go all in on it and so like for instance this last recent birthday they wanted a Mario birthday party.
[00:14:14] Mario was big and so we had we had question mark boxes hanging from our ceiling and I created a piranha plant
[00:14:24] We had a maze that they had to, you know, travel around.
[00:14:27] We created all these games that were Mario themed and we had the tablecloths and the signs and Mario balloons and a balloon drop and a Mario pinata and my wife baked a
[00:14:39] A bowser shell cake with mini bowser shell cupcakes.
[00:14:45] It was all out.
[00:14:47] It always goes the same way.
[00:14:49] My wife and I, we don't set up the house until the kids go to bed so that when they wake up in the morning it's like a whole new land.
[00:14:56] We stay up till like midnight, 12, 31 in the morning.
[00:15:00] I stay up even later because I'm a procrastinator on my tasks.
[00:15:05] And so my wife always goes to bed before me and the last thing she always does, she looks at it all and she always asks the same question, is it enough?
[00:15:13] I always say, it looks like Mario threw up in here, you know?
[00:15:15] I mean, it's so much, it's so much stuff, you know?
[00:15:21] And she goes up and the kids come down in the morning and it's like a magical world that we've created for them.
[00:15:27] They're like, look at that, look at that, look at that!
[00:15:29] You know, they're so excited about everything.
[00:15:31] We're like, touch nothing until the other kids get here, right?
[00:15:34] Like, just go sit in the corner until the party, you know?
[00:15:39] And then the kids get here and 12 to 15 beautiful gremlins enter into my house and destroy everything in the house, you know?
[00:15:47] You already know what's gonna, I mean, you know they're gonna tear up everything we've worked for for hours.
[00:15:54] They're just gonna come in and completely destroy.
[00:15:57] They tear up the signs and the signs are hanging crooked and they jump up and they knock the boxes down and they tear right through the obstacle course that I had set up and destroy it.
[00:16:08] they they shred the tablecloth and the older brother that we didn't really invite of one of our kids friends comes and destroys the pinata like instantly you know and and you got a half-eaten bowser cake in the corner that's like i don't did anyone use a fork on that thing at all you know i mean it's just like it's just just you know and everyone leaves then right and you look back at your house and it is
[00:16:33] A disaster, right?
[00:16:35] And you spent all this time cleaning it and getting ready for it, but that's okay, because that's what was supposed to happen at the end of the party.
[00:16:43] Can I get an amen?
[00:16:45] It was inevitable.
[00:16:46] I had no illusions that it was going to look the same at the end of the party, right?
[00:16:51] In fact, if you gave me a piece of paper and a pen and said, write down what you think your house will look like at the end of this day, I could have written down with shocking accuracy what this was all going to look like at the end of the day.
[00:17:04] So understand this.
[00:17:05] Revelation is God's pen and paper to what the end of the birthday party will look like.
[00:17:13] Come on, that was pretty good, right?
[00:17:14] Thank you.
[00:17:18] It's not something to live in fear of.
[00:17:21] It's an inevitable part that God says.
[00:17:24] And you know, I think this, while I understand why it causes fear, everything we invest in is in this world.
[00:17:30] Revelation is meant to remind us and actually maybe even get you to a place of comfort.
[00:17:37] The idea that all these things we pour everything into and we think my life will never be good unless I have the right amount in the bank or unless I have the right job or unless I have the right home or all these things that we pour ourselves into will not last and it will not matter.
[00:17:57] When you read Revelation, you can't help but think about all the things I'm so worried about all the time are gonna mean nothing one day.
[00:18:08] And so this letter, what we're gonna focus on is the message that John had first to the churches.
[00:18:15] He had a vision from God of what to communicate to the churches to prepare their hearts for this inevitable end of the party, the end of the world.
[00:18:25] And so look at this, John,
[00:18:27] Speaks to one of the churches he writes to is Laodicea.
[00:18:31] And that's who we're gonna be focusing in on.
[00:18:33] If you go to Revelation chapter three, starting in verse 14, to the angel of the church in Laodicea writes, I know your works.
[00:18:41] You're neither cold nor hot.
[00:18:44] I wish you were either cold or hot.
[00:18:47] So because you are lukewarm, neither hot or cold, are you picking up the theme here?
[00:18:52] He's making it really clear.
[00:18:53] I will spit you out of my mouth this is this idea that that when we're either hot nor cold this is extremely dissatisfying to God unpleasing to God now just interesting side note this is this would be a very
[00:19:11] Appropriate message to the city of Laodicea because they didn't have a freshwater spring at their city.
[00:19:19] They were one of these cities that actually were bringing in their hot and their cold water from other places through an aqueduct system, meaning they had a lukewarm water problem.
[00:19:31] That was an issue, right?
[00:19:32] Because it's hard to keep water hot back then, transporting it, right?
[00:19:36] Or even traveling it through pipes.
[00:19:38] They had a...
[00:19:41] Lukewarm water situation.
[00:19:42] It was very hard for them to get their hands on hot water springs or cold water.
[00:19:47] So, I mean, if they read this, they would be like, too soon, you know, not cool, right?
[00:19:51] But a couple of things about this idea of a lukewarm drink, because it's about drinking this lukewarm water.
[00:19:59] Couple things.
[00:20:01] One, when you look at two drinks, one's hot, one's cold, maybe one's lukewarm, it's really hard to tell the difference between those drinks simply by sight.
[00:20:11] You might get a little steam, but outside that, it's really hard to actually tell the difference between these drinks simply on sight.
[00:20:18] It's not until you taste the drink that you know whether it's hot, cold, or lukewarm.
[00:20:23] Have you ever drank something thinking it's going to be hot
[00:20:27] and it's lukewarm like a cup of coffee that you thought was hot and you're like, hmm, that's been sitting out a couple days.
[00:20:31] I don't even know if the cream in this is good anymore.
[00:20:33] I know all about this.
[00:20:36] I've got three kids.
[00:20:36] I haven't finished a hot cup of coffee in my home in eight years.
[00:20:39] Can I get an amen?
[00:20:41] It just doesn't happen anymore.
[00:20:43] Or a soda that you were hoping was cold, the can felt maybe a little cold, but then you take a sip and you're like, no, that's a lukewarm soda.
[00:20:50] There's nothing worse than that.
[00:20:52] It's just disappointing.
[00:20:55] And the idea is this, that look, on the outside, you can look hot.
[00:21:01] You can look cold.
[00:21:02] You can look like you're on fire for the Lord.
[00:21:05] You can look like you've got it going on and everyone, you're the example.
[00:21:10] You can fool your parents, you can fool your friends, you can fool your neighbors, you can fool your pastor.
[00:21:17] Let me just be honest, I'm not that smart.
[00:21:18] You could fool me into thinking that, oh man, they really got it together.
[00:21:22] You can't fool God.
[00:21:25] And this theme is all throughout scripture that we might be doing all the right things even with the wrong intentions on our heart.
[00:21:35] God sees the heart.
[00:21:37] And so God sees, you know, I know whether you're really hot or cold or lukewarm.
[00:21:44] And look, that's not a threat.
[00:21:45] I'm not saying that to threaten you, but this was a very real dream that the Lord gave us.
[00:21:54] To say, you know, just so we're on the same page, you can fool everyone else.
[00:22:00] You're not going to fool me.
[00:22:02] I know whether you're lukewarm or not.
[00:22:05] I know whether you're really hot.
[00:22:07] I know whether you're really cold.
[00:22:08] I know when you're lukewarm.
[00:22:12] He knows whether we're really on fire for him or not.
[00:22:16] You know, the second thing, the second observation around this idea of lukewarm, how does something become lukewarm?
[00:22:22] Well, simply put,
[00:22:24] It's left out until it starts to become room temperature, right?
[00:22:27] So in our everyday life, you can pour a hot cup of coffee or pour something over ice, and you leave it out on the counter, and with time, it will just adapt to whatever the temperature of the room is, and it'll begin to become lukewarm.
[00:22:41] And that's the same thing for us.
[00:22:43] You know, it's easy to say,
[00:22:45] but when we surround ourselves with the same culture the same shows the same stuff we're listening to the same things hanging around the the same people worried about the same things as the rest of the world we will gradually become even if you really were on fire at one point you ever had that happen this is why when you go on like a mission trip or something you know you're like i'm on fire and then you come back and it's like you kind of just gradually go back to the way things were
[00:23:15] You know what I'm saying?
[00:23:16] You ever had one of those mountaintop God experiences?
[00:23:19] Maybe it wasn't on the mission field, maybe just God showed up and somebody went, we're like, this is amazing!
[00:23:24] But it wasn't long before you started worrying about all the same things you were always worried about, right?
[00:23:29] And this is the tricky thing I think for Christians because have you heard this idea before that we are called to be in the world but not of the world?
[00:23:37] Have you heard this?
[00:23:38] Can I get some nods if you've heard this saying before?
[00:23:41] That Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world.
[00:23:44] So which is it?
[00:23:45] Because you're telling me that if you're gonna be on fire for the Lord and then you're in the world, you're gonna slowly become more and more like the world.
[00:23:53] And the reality is we don't even realize we're becoming lukewarm.
[00:23:59] What I want to ask you today is when was the last time you were just on fire for the Lord?
[00:24:03] You know what I'm talking about?
[00:24:05] Just so hungry for God's Word.
[00:24:08] So hungry to see God work in your life.
[00:24:11] So hungry to do the work that God's put in front of you.
[00:24:14] When's the last time you were just on fire for the Lord?
[00:24:17] Because we can become lukewarm really easily because we get focused on all the same stuff and just trying to kind of be a good person while we go about our everyday life and think that's it.
[00:24:29] But that's not on fire for the Lord.
[00:24:32] It's easy to compare ourselves in this world today.
[00:24:35] You ever look on social media and you're like, I'm doing pretty good.
[00:24:39] Compared to all those crazies out there, I'm doing really good.
[00:24:43] They're way worse than me.
[00:24:44] Or you look across the street, you're like, crazy neighbor Spence.
[00:24:46] You're like, I'm crushing it compared to Spence.
[00:24:49] I've got my life together.
[00:24:52] But can I just tell you, being a little warmer than culture does not make you on fire for the Lord.
[00:24:58] Those are different things.
[00:25:00] And so we get comfortable
[00:25:03] We get comfortable, just, you know, I know God's real, that's good, right?
[00:25:06] That's something.
[00:25:08] But we become so lukewarm so quickly.
[00:25:12] So how do you get the fire back?
[00:25:14] Well, let me just tell you, church, you're responsible for getting the fire back in your life, all right?
[00:25:19] Nobody else can do it for you.
[00:25:22] Maybe you come here going, entertain me, preacher man, get me on fire, let's go!
[00:25:25] That's not my job.
[00:25:29] You're responsible for your own fire.
[00:25:31] You're responsible for your own passion.
[00:25:32] You're responsible for the things that you pursue.
[00:25:34] There's a couple things you can do to get that fire going again.
[00:25:37] I mean, one of the easy things is get God's word open, get your prayer life active, get some worship music on.
[00:25:44] Worship does something in our soul.
[00:25:45] Can I get an amen?
[00:25:47] I mean, I don't know what it is.
[00:25:48] I'm not even a big music guy, but I can't deny when you put worship on, it does something.
[00:25:55] Or simply put, you need a
[00:25:58] Some relationships in your life, right?
[00:26:00] We're supposed to be in the world, I'm not gonna deny that, but you need some relationships in your life that are fire givers, you know, that heat you up, that warm you up, that get you going, you know?
[00:26:11] You need those people in your life that they're not just casual Christians, they're not just, oh yeah, I also believe in Jesus, that you talk about spiritual things, that you open God's word with.
[00:26:20] You need a Yeti cup in your life, can I get an amen?
[00:26:23] I hate that I just said that, but you lake people love Yeti cups, I know that.
[00:26:29] You know?
[00:26:30] Because what's a Yeti cup do?
[00:26:31] It still leaves you in the environment, but it does put some other things around you to keep you warmed up, to keep you in temperature.
[00:26:43] Can I just encourage you?
[00:26:46] Get in a life group if you're not in a life group.
[00:26:48] Can I just encourage you?
[00:26:49] It's great to have Christian friends, but do you actually talk about God's word with your friends?
[00:26:55] Do you actually talk about what God's doing in your life?
[00:26:58] Or do you just watch the game together?
[00:27:00] Or watch your favorite shows together?
[00:27:01] Or talk about the same things?
[00:27:03] It's not enough just to like, oh yeah, I got a Christian friend.
[00:27:06] That's great.
[00:27:08] But you need people that fire you up.
[00:27:10] Can I just tell you, I get lukewarm sometimes.
[00:27:12] Let me just be honest with you.
[00:27:14] There are times I get caught up in all the same things.
[00:27:16] As anyone else would, get worried about all the same things, make life about the budget or the kids or all the things that I feel like we need to get done.
[00:27:25] And I can step back and I just realize I'm just kind of lukewarm.
[00:27:31] And what fires me up is getting around a new believer and opening scripture with a new believer.
[00:27:36] Can I just tell you that?
[00:27:37] I love that.
[00:27:39] Getting around someone who's passionate, who's excited, and just reading the Bible together.
[00:27:43] We're praying together.
[00:27:44] We're hearing what God's doing in somebody else's life.
[00:27:47] Have you ever had that happen before?
[00:27:49] You're just kind of going through it spiritually, and then you hear what God's doing in somebody else's life, and you're just like, I'm fired up right now.
[00:27:55] You know, I want to be around that.
[00:27:58] Can I just encourage you?
[00:27:59] You're responsible for this.
[00:28:02] For putting yourself in environments that keep you fired up, because you do have to go into work.
[00:28:08] You do have to go into the schools.
[00:28:10] You do have to go live this everyday life, but you need to stay fired up, stay excited about what God's doing, about the good news of the gospel.
[00:28:21] Big part of that is the people you put yourself around, you know?
[00:28:24] Sometimes you need those people that charge you up.
[00:28:28] Look at this.
[00:28:29] He calls this out really directly, and I think this is like a message straight to us as a church.
[00:28:34] But you say, I'm rich, I've prospered, and I need nothing.
[00:28:39] John says, look, this city, you guys are doing great.
[00:28:42] You guys are a blessed city.
[00:28:44] You are taken care of in so many ways, but you don't even realize that you're wretched and pitiful and poor and blind and naked.
[00:28:54] This language sounds so extreme and mean from this angel who's speaking to John, but I guess he gets to do that.
[00:29:02] He's an angel.
[00:29:04] But what he's saying is, look, I get it, you think you have everything, you think you're all set, you feel good, you feel like you're provided for, you feel like you have enough to get by on, but you don't even realize how desperate you are.
[00:29:20] Think about what he's really saying here, because I think it will speak to many of us here today.
[00:29:26] I know you feel like everything's good.
[00:29:28] I know you feel like, you know, hey, I got everything under control.
[00:29:32] We're hitting all the boxes.
[00:29:34] We're moving forward.
[00:29:35] Things are moving along just fine.
[00:29:37] But you're spiritually starving.
[00:29:41] You're so hungry.
[00:29:44] You don't even realize how hungry you are.
[00:29:49] You know, sometimes we think if God would just
[00:29:53] Give me what I need, then it would be so easy to worship Him.
[00:29:56] You ever thought that before?
[00:29:57] If God would just give me what I wanted, it would be so easy to worship Him and walk with Him.
[00:30:03] But historically, we've seen that's not really true.
[00:30:05] One concept for you to either jot down if you're a note taker, or just think on this week.
[00:30:12] Worldly abundance, it doesn't lead to faithfulness.
[00:30:16] It actually leads to spiritual apathy.
[00:30:20] When we have more than we need, when we're so taken care of and have everything together, our response to that is not actually usually like, okay, now I'll be obedient to God.
[00:30:33] It actually typically leads to, I'm good.
[00:30:35] I don't need anything else.
[00:30:37] It leads to apathy.
[00:30:40] Look at it.
[00:30:41] I love this about Scripture, because this is Revelation, and this has been the whole story of Israel all along.
[00:30:45] If you've been following along this series, have you seen this pattern yet in Israel?
[00:30:49] That every time God blesses them, takes care of them, goes above and beyond to protect them, they get bored with Him.
[00:30:57] They go, I'm good now.
[00:30:59] They do their own thing.
[00:31:01] Look at, this is in Deuteronomy.
[00:31:03] This is before they're even in the promised land yet.
[00:31:06] They're on their way there.
[00:31:06] They're getting ready, and he's saying, you're gonna be able to eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land that he's given you.
[00:31:15] But look at this, but take care, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes.
[00:31:22] which I commanded you today and that's exactly what would go on to happen you know this has always been a problem and yet God's grace keeps poking through yet God's grace keeps showing up that every time God blesses Israel and provides for Israel and gives Israel everything they could even want or desire they kind of just drift away from him
[00:31:50] And this is a true concept of humanity, you know?
[00:31:54] That so often the things that bless us actually lead us away from the things that actually gave us that blessing in the first place.
[00:32:06] Let me explain it to you.
[00:32:07] Let me move outside of spiritual matters.
[00:32:09] Let's just talk about this country, America, right?
[00:32:12] You know, I think society today is fascinating because really it's like the first time in society you haven't had to like work just to stay alive, right?
[00:32:22] Like it wasn't long ago, like 200 years ago, if you just like didn't work, you just starved to death and died, you know?
[00:32:27] Or were eaten by bears.
[00:32:29] Like one of those things would happen if you just didn't work, right?
[00:32:32] And so it's only recently that it's like we have such abundance, right?
[00:32:36] We have so much food and we have so much access to water
[00:32:43] We have the internet, and we don't have to work.
[00:32:47] Nobody's working anymore, you know?
[00:32:49] I mean, I'm not gonna make this political, but I just feel like an old man when I get on TikTok, you know, because I'm never on TikTok.
[00:32:56] And I go there, and I'm like, all these people, all they do is complain about their jobs all day, you know?
[00:32:59] Like, man, isn't that your job?
[00:33:01] Like, it's your job, you know?
[00:33:03] Just do your job.
[00:33:04] It's no big deal.
[00:33:06] But I mean, that's where we're at.
[00:33:07] We're like, we're not thankful.
[00:33:09] We're just, we're over it, you know?
[00:33:14] It's like, there was so long
[00:33:18] In the history of mankind, we were working for a better tomorrow.
[00:33:21] We were trying to build something for the future, for a life that we couldn't even imagine.
[00:33:27] And now tomorrow is here and we have everything we could need.
[00:33:31] We have screens and every video game and access to everything around the world.
[00:33:36] And does it drive us to go back to that keep working hard and unity and moving forward?
[00:33:43] No, of course not.
[00:33:44] In fact,
[00:33:45] We find something to be negative about, don't we?
[00:33:50] We find something to complain about.
[00:33:53] We've rebelled against our former selves.
[00:33:57] I mean, even in like the simplest terms, we don't have to worry about bears anymore, but we go camping looking to get eaten by bears.
[00:34:03] Isn't it crazy?
[00:34:04] I mean, our life is so good right now.
[00:34:09] But the very things we're blessed with
[00:34:14] Ultimately begin to destroy us.
[00:34:17] And so, have you ever played the why God game?
[00:34:21] I know you have, right?
[00:34:23] The why God game.
[00:34:24] You know, God, I don't, if you, even just in the simple things, maybe you're not even about your own life, but just even reading scripture, you might go, well, why God?
[00:34:32] Why did you let Israel go through all that suffering?
[00:34:35] You know, why didn't you just protect him from everything?
[00:34:38] You know, I know you came through for him a lot of times, but why did they have to go through any of it?
[00:34:43] Or why, God, why did you allow your believers to be persecuted?
[00:34:47] The very people that follow Jesus would be killed for their faith.
[00:34:50] God, why'd you allow that?
[00:34:52] Or maybe in your own life, God, why haven't you fixed my partner?
[00:34:58] Why haven't you fixed my kids yet, God?
[00:35:01] Or God, why have you allowed me to go through this illness?
[00:35:06] You know, can I just be real?
[00:35:07] That's a tough one.
[00:35:09] Why, if God is able, why has He allowed me to have to go through some of these struggles that I'm going through?
[00:35:21] I don't have the answer to that.
[00:35:22] I'm going to be honest with you.
[00:35:23] I don't know why God chooses to heal sometimes and doesn't other times.
[00:35:27] I can't pinpoint exactly why He does it certain times and not others.
[00:35:32] But here's what I do know.
[00:35:35] We're probably looking at it from the wrong lens because we're so focused on
[00:35:38] Well, if I were God, I would do it this way, and thank goodness I'm not God.
[00:35:44] Amen?
[00:35:46] You know,
[00:35:48] As a pastor, I get to hear about people in their God breakthrough moments.
[00:35:53] People will come and tell me about these moments in their life where they're just like, wow, God's really speaking to me, or I feel so connected to God right now.
[00:36:01] I sense His presence.
[00:36:02] I've heard about this before, but it's crazy.
[00:36:06] It's happening to me.
[00:36:07] I never thought it would happen to me.
[00:36:08] You ever had one of those moments before?
[00:36:10] And here's what I've found.
[00:36:12] those moments don't happen for people because you know everything's just been great in my life the last 10 years and you know now i'm realizing how great god is you know it's rarely that that's the time i'm not saying never but rarely is it like i've gotten everything i've wanted all along the way and god just keeps giving me more i ask for something he just gives it to me it's amazing let me know if that's you i'd like you to pray for a few things for me
[00:36:39] But what I hear over and over again, the story I hear over and over again is, I was going through cancer, or I am going through cancer, and I have no idea what's gonna happen next, but I've never sensed the presence of God like I do right now.
[00:36:57] You know what I'm talking about?
[00:37:00] I'm going through loss in my family and I've never sensed the love of God or experienced the love of God or heard the voice of God so clearly or we're going through this financial crisis and we're not even sure where it's all gonna end but I'm so confident
[00:37:17] that God's with me right now.
[00:37:18] It's incredible.
[00:37:19] I don't even know how to explain it.
[00:37:22] Or my marriage fell apart.
[00:37:24] I don't even know what happened, but I've never sensed God's nearness the way I'm experiencing it right now.
[00:37:31] It's in the challenges.
[00:37:35] It's in the struggles.
[00:37:36] And here's the truth.
[00:37:38] It's not that God draws near and then pulls away all the time.
[00:37:43] That's not what's happening.
[00:37:45] It's that our eyes get fixed on God when we have no other answers.
[00:37:50] When I can't fix the problem myself, my money does nothing for me.
[00:37:55] My influence does nothing for me.
[00:37:58] My resources can't fix this problem.
[00:38:00] And we look for God and we see that God is so near in those situations.
[00:38:07] And so can I just encourage you?
[00:38:08] You don't have to be afraid.
[00:38:10] I know someone here today is facing some things that strike fear in you.
[00:38:15] You don't have to be afraid.
[00:38:17] This is a moment.
[00:38:19] where you can lean into God and it's gonna set you on fire in a way you've never been before.
[00:38:27] Instead of just focusing on, well, I wish God would do it this way or I wish God would fix this problem.
[00:38:31] Know this, this is a moment where you can turn to God and experience Him in a way you've never experienced Him before.
[00:38:42] And experience His goodness and His, you've heard about it your whole life, it's great.
[00:38:47] This is a moment for you to lean into Him and experiencing it for you.
[00:38:53] You don't have to be afraid.
[00:38:54] This life is not forever.
[00:38:55] No matter what happens, this life isn't forever.
[00:38:57] This world won't last forever.
[00:38:58] We all know it.
[00:38:59] And a day is coming.
[00:39:01] And I want to encourage you.
[00:39:02] We don't have to be afraid of the idea that this life isn't forever because
[00:39:08] The vision John had, he clearly says it.
[00:39:11] Check this out right here.
[00:39:12] I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
[00:39:20] It's coming.
[00:39:21] He's coming.
[00:39:23] He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
[00:39:29] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
[00:39:33] That day is coming.
[00:39:35] There shall be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away, and He who was seated on the throne will say, Behold, I am making all things new, Church.
[00:39:56] You don't have to be afraid.
[00:39:57] That's not the point of the letter.
[00:40:00] So you'd have the confidence.
[00:40:01] This is the beauty of it.
[00:40:04] All the scripture, if you read through all of scripture, points to this one idea that the world is so broken.
[00:40:12] And there's this perfect God who's trying to work in this world and trying to help us and trying to lead us and trying to guide us and trying to help us trust him.
[00:40:20] and it's still broken and it's like how does a perfect God work in an imperfect world it's really messy and complicated and hard and there's challenging things in there and all that is totally true but then it closes with this there is a day coming that none of this will be here anymore and that's a good thing there's a day coming where there will be no more tears
[00:40:46] There will be no more grief.
[00:40:48] And Jesus says, I will make all things new.
[00:40:55] You don't have to be afraid, church.
[00:40:57] But I want to encourage you today to be on fire for that day.
[00:41:01] It could be any day.
[00:41:03] This is not prophecy.
[00:41:04] I'm not saying it's going to happen this day.
[00:41:07] Could be October 1st.
[00:41:08] That's like three days away.
[00:41:09] Someone's like, that's my birthday.
[00:41:10] Why'd you do that?
[00:41:11] I'm like, you'd love it.
[00:41:11] You'd love it!
[00:41:16] It could be any day.
[00:41:17] We live like it'll just never happen.
[00:41:19] We live so worried about this world.
[00:41:21] Would you be on fire for the Lord again?
[00:41:23] Take that responsibility for yourself.
[00:41:26] Gotta get worship on.
[00:41:27] Gotta get around other believers.
[00:41:29] Gotta get fired up again.
[00:41:31] There's a day coming and it will be a good day.
[00:41:35] Let me pray for us today.
[00:41:36] Father God, we thank you so much for sending your son Jesus to walk among us that we might see you in the flesh.
[00:41:45] What an amazing gift you've given us.
[00:41:47] And God, you remind us that a day is coming.
[00:41:55] Maybe you haven't really let that sink into your heart before.
[00:42:00] Would you just acknowledge right now, God, I hear you.
[00:42:04] The day is coming.
[00:42:06] This life's not forever.
[00:42:09] We're not guaranteed even tomorrow.
[00:42:13] And so, God, we thank you that you are coming back and that you will make all things new, that you will wipe away every tear, and you will take away all of our grievances, all of our pain,
[00:42:29] And God, we will get to be in your presence.
[00:42:31] What a good day that will be.
[00:42:34] And so Father, I'm praying for
[00:42:37] Just a fire in me.
[00:42:39] You know, would you just acknowledge, God, I've lost a little bit of that fire.
[00:42:41] Would you just acknowledge that to him if that's you today?
[00:42:44] God, I just acknowledge I've lost the fire.
[00:42:47] I've gotten complacent.
[00:42:48] I've gotten comfortable.
[00:42:49] I feel like I've had enough.
[00:42:50] And so I've just lost a little bit of that fire.
[00:42:52] I've become lukewarm in some areas of life.
[00:42:55] And you can fool everybody else.
[00:42:56] You don't fool God.
[00:42:57] He already knows.
[00:42:58] So you don't have to, you're not breaking news to him right now.
[00:43:04] God, I'm sorry that I've lost a little bit of the passion.
[00:43:10] So God, I ask that you'd reveal to me any place in my heart, any place in my mind that's blocking me from having a passion for you.
[00:43:21] Anything in my life that is
[00:43:23] and it's just not of you or that maybe is even a blessing from you that I've built up and put above you God reveal those things to my heart reveal those things to my mind that they might be removed from me so I can just be focused on the Holy Spirit on your very presence with me and focused on I'm just I'm just living for you and doing the work you've put in front of me and being just passionate about following you
[00:43:48] God renewing us making us a new spirit you're making all things new would you do that in my life right now God might be something blocking that from happening would you just God reveal it to me remove it from me if that's if that's something i can't do on my own show me how to remove it i want to honor you with every part of my life i want to be on fire for you with every part of my life you're here today and
[00:44:17] You've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
[00:44:22] He's coming back.
[00:44:24] He doesn't want you to live in fear of that.
[00:44:28] He is coming back.
[00:44:29] A day is coming.
[00:44:30] This life is not forever.
[00:44:31] This world is not forever.
[00:44:33] We know that.
[00:44:37] But I want you to know God has made a way that you would be a part of His Kingdom for all eternity.
[00:44:43] He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins and as Jesus hung on the cross He said, it is finished.
[00:44:53] Why?
[00:44:53] Because He took the weight of my sin and your sin on the cross and He died with that sin.
[00:45:01] Meaning, you are no longer separated from your Father.
[00:45:06] What Jesus has done has removed the sin from your life, that you are perfect in the eyes of God.
[00:45:12] You will be a perfect being in the kingdom of heaven, not because you are actually perfect, but because Jesus Christ has removed sin from your life.
[00:45:21] and so would you just acknowledge to him right now thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins thank you for being my Lord and my Savior and God I give you the rest of my life I want to follow you I want to know you I want to walk with you thank you for Jesus thank you for saving me God I ask you to be the Lord and the leader of my life
[00:45:48] We'll send you the Holy Spirit, God's very presence, to help you figure out how to walk with Him.
[00:45:53] You'll experience conviction in moments that you know don't honor Him.
[00:45:57] Lean into that.
[00:46:00] Father God, thank you so much.
[00:46:03] I pray that we would be on fire for you everywhere we go.
[00:46:06] That in a cold world, the light of Jesus, the warmth of Jesus, would shine brightly.
[00:46:11] We love you and we come to you in the name of Jesus.
[00:46:14] Amen.