Revelation 3:15-16

Revelation 3:15-16

I was recently contacted by a pulpit committee that was interested in my ministry. I met with Chairman of the Disenchanted, Bro Tepid. He described his church; First Lukewarm Church of the Apathetic. “Nothing too boring, nothing too exciting. We want it to fit into our American Culture Christianity. No songs too slow, no songs too fast. Nothing from the ancient songs and nothing after the 70’s.” Nothing ever challenging. We want encouragement and comfort.”

He sang to me the Churches Theme Song.

“Sitting on the premises of Christ our friend.

Through eternal ages let the service end.

Glutted to the highest we will moan and sing.

Sitting on the premises and dead.

He proudly described the Church as irresolute and uncommitted. He introduced to me the other committee members; Bobby Bored, Connie Cool. He described the great teachings the women received who participated in the Church’s The Women’s Indifference Society. There seemed to be great growth in one class; The Mellow Sunday School Class. They were excited about an upcoming event; The Men’s Worldly and Wise Conference. An upcoming revival was going to be led by The Reverend Marvin Mundane. Now let me ask you, does that seem to be a church we would want to be a part of? No. Yet, this is the case for many churches. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Lukewarmness, not quite hot, not quite cold. Somewhere in the middle, this is the theme of the next two verses, as the Lord is addressing the church of the Laodiceans. A congregation that just went through the motions, without heart.

“I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot:”

· A little girl came home from Sunday School, and her mother asked her to recite the text she was suppose to have learned about, the verse in Matthew 22:14 “Many are called but few are chosen.” The little girl’s recitation came out a little different though, she said “Many are cold and a few are frozen!” Well, that couldn’t be a more perfect example of how many are in the church.

· Here was a congregation that just didn’t care. A group of people that had literally set the cruise control and were just at church, instead of being the church.

· You know we are here in the south and one of the things that many of us enjoy is a glass of tea. Now the majority of us probably drink our tea cold, you know we love our ice tea. And then there are some who like to drink their tea hot, those herbal teas. But you know, I don’t know many people if any who like to drink their tea at room temperature. We want it hot or cold.

· These people in this church, didn’t have a drive to serve, they were just there. And Jesus was taking their temperature. Here was a congregation that was sick. And the Lord knows it, and he tells them of this fact.

“I would thou wert cold or hot.”

· The Lord now tells them how he feels about them. What his desire is for them. That they either be cold or hot.

· We must remember, there is no in-between when it comes to our relationship with Christ. You cannot have your foot on both sides of the fence. There needs to be a decision on our part. Are we for Christ or are we not?

· This church was a compromised church that had been acclimated to the world it was living in. They had compromised the faith and now were lukewarm in their spiritual temperature with Christ.

· Have you ever been around someone that just couldn’t decide on something? They stand there and go back and forth on something, and never come to a decision. Its frustrating, right? Well, here was a congregation that had come to that point in essence. They couldn’t decide if they were going to be the church, or just a group that met.

· It is sad, but this in the spiritual condition of a lot of people today. They cannot decide if they are a Christian or not. Are they on fire for God, or are they cold to the Lord? And basically, they have come to the point, that they are satisfied with not deciding, and they say, I’m comfortable be right here in the middle.

“So then because thou are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

· Well, people may not want to decide on how they stand for the Lord, but the Lord will decide. In a very pointed verse, the Lord says he will spue them out of his mouth.

· Just like something that is distasteful to our palette, the Lord spits out this church, because they were not the called out church.

· This dangerous condition that the Laodiceans were faced with, is like a virus. If we are careless, and do not take precautions, we will fall victim to it as well.

· We should never become so high-minded that we are immune to be like this church. It is a congregation that was oblivious to it, but the Lord knew. And the Lord will not let anything be a part of him, that is not decided on him.