The Remedy for a Cold Heart

Connect

Deer hunting with dad and fire going out

Keeping a fire going requires intentionality. Left to themselves they eventually go out. We have to add fuel to it.

Keeping our spiritual fires lit is similar. Without fuel, they go out as well. Other forces work against keeping our fires lit:

Life isn’t going like we want.

It doesn’t feel like we are getting ahead.

God isn’t answering our prayers.

A family member hurts us.

Friends disappoint us.

Our football team stinks.

Our struggles, our disappointments, our let-downs have the potential to dampen the fire of our faith. We become cold toward God and others. How do we keep ourselves burning for God in spite of these realities? I think the answer is found in our final Sabbath practice: worship. Worship guards us from the dangerous effects of spiritual apathy. To say it positively, worship keeps our spiritual fires lit.

Text

The text I want to look at this morning is Romans 12:1. But before we get there it’s important that we see what comes before. Paul spent the first eleven chapters of his letter describing what God has done through Jesus. How he has saved us solely on the basis of faith in him. How he has united both Jews and Gentiles into one new family called the church. The revelation of the hidden mystery that this was God’s plan all along, that the Jewish people were chosen, not to be the only recipients of God’s favor, but so that through them his favor could come to all. And this is all fulfilled in Jesus! And so Paul breaks into a song of praise:

Romans 11:33–36 (NRSV)

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Paul, overcome with this vision of what God has done, worships. This is really the only proper response to God. This song of praise ignites the fire that we hear in the next verse:

Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

This verse is dense with meaning. I’m not going to unpack it all because I don’t want this message to be merely academic. Yes, I know I do that! But for those who like to take notes, here are several applications I think you can make from this text about worship:

Worship produces a heart of gratitude.

Worship fosters an encounter with the living God.

Worship connects us with our spiritual family.

Worship creates space for interior transformation.

Worships fulfills our obligation of service as God’s called out people.

This is all true. All good reasons to worship. But I think the most important reason we should worship is what I’ve already mention: Worship guards us from the dangerous effects of spiritual apathy.

The truth is that the church has become apathetic. Christian have become apathetic. Apathetic toward God. Apathetic towards people. This is the great danger of our time. Jesus warned that this would happen. In his teaching about what would happen in the end, he says:

Matthew 24:10–12 “Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.”

Many are asking if this latest flare up of violence in Israel is a sign of the end. I don’t think so. The apostle Peter made it clear that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the sign that the end had come. We’ve been living in the end times for 2,000 years. The real sign that we are living in the end is found in Jesus’ words.

Many are falling away. Only 20% of Christians attend church weekly. 40% might come once a month. ‌16% of those who consider themselves Christians never attend at all.

Believers are turning on one another. In the last 5 years there has been war in the church over who should be president, whether we should take a COVID vaccine, and if we should wear masks. We got suckered into the politicization of these issues, and the effects is that we began regarding brothers and sisters with different opinions as the enemy.

False prophets with no spiritual accountability litter the internet making claims that are unsubstantiated, either so vague as to not be testable, or flat out wrong - yet they are never held accountable. Again, causing many believers to fall away from the church because of wackos.

The result of all of this, Jesus said, is that the love of many would grow cold. Love of God. Love of neighbor. Love for the things of God. Love for God that propels us outward to share the gospel, and to serve the least and the lost. The fire of the church in America is burning low.

This is why we desperately need to return to worship. This is what is at the heart of Paul’s appeal. I appeal - I exhort, I urge, I beg - that you present your whole self to God as your spiritual - or better, reasonable - worship. In light of all God has done for you, worship. Stoke the fire. Worship can save our soul from the grip of apathy.

Sabbath is a day to stop, to rest, to delight. But it is also a holy time for worship. For being gathered as God’s people to celebrate and delight in God - together.

A few years before I became the pastor here, the former pastor preached a sermon called “Margin”. The point of his sermon was that we were too busy and over-committed. If life were a sheet of paper, we were writing in the margins - a composition no-no. His appeal was that we begin to take margin. In many ways, this is the same appeal I’ve tried to make in re-capturing the practice of Sabbath.

Well, the message was taken to heart. Now people stayed at the lake through Sunday instead of coming home so they could be at church. We stayed home from church to catch up on housework or yard work. We stayed home from church because we had burned the candle at both ends on Saturday and we were tired. Or, we just got a better offer. Whatever the reason, we began to take margin with gusto.

The only problem is we took the wrong margin. We cut out and devalued what should have remained holy. Eugene Peterson said that we turned Sunday into a “bastard Sabbath”. A day for leisure, but not sabbath rest. A day for delight, but not real worship. Sunday just became another day to do as we pleased. Please understand that I am not saying we should have a legalistic, you-are-going-to-hell-if-you-don’t-go-to-church mentality. I miss a Sunday here and there myself. They problem is when it becomes a lifestyle. When this becomes the solution to an over-taxed schedule, we lose an essential safeguard against a spirit of apathy. And our fire slowly winks out.

Gospel

Jesus had a message to the believers at Laodicea in Revelation that should sound the warning bells in the Church in America. Like us, they were at risk of losing their passion, of letting their fire die. Jesus said they were becoming lukewarm. There’s an old Vineyard song called Light the Fire Again based on that passage:

Don't let our love grow cold | I'm calling out light the fire again Don't let our vision die | I'm calling out light the fire again

You know my heart my deeds | I'm calling out light the fire again I need Your discipline | I'm calling out light the fire again

I am here to buy gold refined in the fire Naked and poor | Wretched and blind I come Clothe me in white | So I won't be ashamed Lord light the fire again

The cool thing about a fire is that, as long as there are a few coals left, it can be re-kindled. Add some fuel, blow across it, and pretty soon flames begin to appear.

Worship fuels our fire. That, along with the breath of the Holy Spirit, can re-ignite our passion for God.

Jesus’ message to the church at Laodicea was ultimately positive. It’s one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. Revelation 3:20 “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”

While this is used to invite people to Jesus, it was actually spoken to people who were already Christians, but who had become lukewarm in their faith. Jesus promises that, if we will ask, he will come in to fellowship with us, to restore us, and to re-ignite us.

So how’s your fire? Are you a roaring campfire or smoldering coals? The good news is that God’s Spirit is here to re-ignite you. Worship the Lord, publicly and privately, corporately and individually. Honor him, praise him, bow to him, lift your hands. Like Paul, let your heart be warmed as you are overcome with who God is and what he has done for you. Give yourself fully in whole-person service to the Lord. He is standing by awaiting your invitation, and he will blow over those coals and return them to a full blaze. Apathy has no chance to grip our lives when we are gripped by the glory of God.

Perhaps you are awakening to God for the first time. Becoming aware of something essential that is missing in your life. I’d love to explore that with you. (next steps slide)

As we close this series, this is my prayer. I pray that we would enter into Sabbath, experiencing the joy and delight, and giving ourselves to worship. May the Lord light our fire again.