Are You Lukewarm? | Ps. Keith Pittman

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All right, all right, celebration Orlando.

How's my church family doing?

You guys doing good?

I love that.

Keep that same energy because what we're preaching about today, we will see.

Um, I'm joking, of course.

Um, I'm so glad you're here.

If I haven't had an opportunity to meet you, my name is Keith, my wife Megan and I.

We have the incredible privilege of serving as uh the lead pastors here at Celebration Orlando.

Um, and we're so glad you're here.

In fact, can you help me welcome our online community, those who are in a family lounge, those who are checking us out via podcast?

We're so, so glad um that you're here with us.

And as you heard earlier, we're we're in a series, but concluding our series that we've entitled Summer School.

This is our second year doing uh this series, and and really the heart behind this series was to create a space um where we can just engage in more teaching than preaching.

Now, because I am who I am, preaching comes out regardless of what the subject matter is.

Um, but the goal is for us is to take our time and walk theologically through some profound truths, and so that's why we have our illustrious whiteboard up here that we're going to be utilizing um today.

And we've been making resources available in the context of this series.

So um, if you haven't downloaded our church app yet, download it because not only is there an extended version of our message notes, but also um we've been having something that we call night school on Wednesday nights.

Um, and that's where we've been unpacking other theological truths, but also making notes and having conversations in that space.

So again, if you really want to kind of lean into um our belief systems and just kind of who we are as disciples of Christ, um, we want to make these resources available to us.

Now, if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to join me um in the book of Revelation, chapter number three.

If you're new to the faith, the book of Revelation is literally the last book of the Bible.

Super easy for you to find.

And as you're turning there, I want to give you this context that I would say for me.

We've been in this series over the past three weeks, um, and each week we've been unpacking some really profound truths that have been very um encouraging and inspirational to me as well.

You know, it may be hard to believe, but even as the pastor of this church, I still attend this church.

And so the things that God speaks to us, it speaks to me as well.

And each one of our messages in this series has been speaking to me.

Um, but I can go ahead and say um that this message is already amongst my favorite.

And I want you to hear it, it's not because of the study that went into it, it's not because of the delivery of it, it has nothing to do with that, but because this is the message that as I was writing it, I felt the most challenged because I felt like it was convicting me even as I was writing it in real time.

So my hope is that in the same way that this has challenged me, I hope that it can be inspirational but challenging to you as well.

Because as disciples of Christ, the goal is not for us always to feel good, it is for us to grow in our faith with Christ.

Can I get a good amen to that?

All right, so looking at what the Bible says in Revelation chapter 3, we're gonna read verses 14 through 22.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Here's what the word of the Lord says to us.

Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea.

This is the message from the one who is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation.

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold, and I wish that you were one or the other, but since you are lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

You say I'm rich, I have everything I want, I don't need a thing, and you don't realize that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

This is the words of Jesus.

This is New Testament God.

This is this is the words that are saturated with grace and mercy.

If you're reading this from a literal Bible, you'll notice that these words are in red.

That means these are literally the words of Christ.

And he says, in case you missed it, you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Bars.

And then he says, So I advise you to buy gold from me, gold that will be purified by fire, then you will be rich, and also white garments from me, so that you will not be ashamed by your nakedness, an ointment for your eyes that you will be able to see.

I correct and discipline everyone I love.

So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

Look, I stand at the door and knock.

And if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and I will share, we will share our meal together as friends.

Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my father on his throne.

Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

This passage, depending on where you are, can be very encouraging, very challenging, very convicting, but it's not condemning.

It is meant to lead us into the goodness of God, lead us into a space where we can grow and be people that can produce fruit.

This is a powerful image of Jesus addressing his church because I think sometimes we forget that it's his church.

He's addressing his church and he's establishing the expectations that he has from his church, which is his expectations from us, because we are members of his church.

And so, what I want to do is I want to take some time to unpack this passage and a few others in a way that I hope can inspire us, but quite honestly, I'm hoping that it can challenge us as well.

So if you're taking notes, um our thought for today is centered around this topic.

Am I lukewarm?

Lock the doors.

Don't let them out.

Don't let them out.

We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna stay in here today.

Am I lukewarm?

Let's pray, Lord.

We thank you so much for your faithfulness, we thank you for your goodness, uh, we thank you for your truth, we thank you for your grace, and we thank you for these moments where your truth is um uh revealed to us and and where we are and who we are is brought into light in a way that is meant to inspire us, to convict us, to to challenge us to become more and more like you so that we can be fruitful and accomplish what you have for our lives.

So, Father, I just pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you above all else.

I pray for open ears to hear you above all else, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

You know, Megan and I, we are we are entering into um a transitional season.

For both of us, I will say this for both of us, um, and and she won't mind me saying this.

I know that this could be taboo in certain environments, but both of us, we are turning 50 years old this year.

Come on.

I've said that before, and they're like, oh, I would have never thought she was turning 50.

I'm like, what about me?

They're like, uh that's okay, I'll I'll accept that.

Like, we're we're turning 50 years old this year.

And so I remember when I was younger, just kind of what turning 50 meant.

I remember when my parents turned 50, and so I've realized that it's an opportunity for us that we we want to kind of recalibrate some things in our lives.

We always had envisioned, okay, when we get to be 50, we want to make sure that we're we're healthy.

And so what we plan on doing is kind of looking at the vision of what it means to be 50 years old in our context and trying to match up where we currently are.

And so we're gonna be taking the next month, we take our sabbatical typically once a year.

We're gonna be taking our sabbatical, and we're gonna take some time, and we're gonna rest because as I said, we're turning 50, and God knows we need more rest than we used to.

Um, we're gonna take some time to reflect.

Or we're just gonna kind of meditate and just think about where we are, who we are, what are some of our goals and ambitions, just kind of reflect on the goodness of God, where we are in life, what are some things we want to do.

We're also gonna spend some time recharging, and that's just engaging in things that are fillers for us.

The challenge is what's a filler for me is like sitting at home and chilling and not spending money, and what's a filler for Megan is going out all over the place and spending money.

So there's a discrepancy there that we have to kind of work out.

We'll talk about it with our therapists.

Um and then we want to reset.

We want to reset some things, and that's just kind of looking at the areas of our lives that maybe have gotten out of whack, that maybe haven't been tended to, but we want to reset some of those things, and some of the things that we want to reset is absolutely dealing with our well-being, our health, because health is wealth.

And so, as we began to kind of like venture into this territory, we're like, okay, like I want to be more diligent about our about our health, because the truth of the matter is there's some things we can avoid.

So for me, my mindset is very much this if it's if it's predictable and if it's repeatable, we should have a system for it.

Not be rigid, but here's here let me give you let me give you an example.

Spoiler alert, every day you need to eat.

So watch this.

So when I'm hungry tomorrow, I shouldn't be surprised I'm hungry.

That happens.

So let's have a plan in place on what we're going to eat.

Because if not, then we'll wake up, we'll say we're hungry, we don't have any plan for it.

So what are we gonna do?

We're gonna order Uber Eats, pay$38,000 in order for them to deliver it.

And now the budget's all out of whack.

And so for me, it's like, hey, so let's let's get some systems in place.

Let's have a plan so that we can be better stewards of our resources, but also better stewards of what we're putting in our body, and that also includes movement.

And so I told Megan, I said, hey, this is gonna be a year like we're really gonna lock in and become a lot more active.

We're gonna have a rhythm of going to the gym, not a routine, because routines can become very rigid, and then you're more loyal to the system than you are to recognize in your season, but we want to have good rhythms.

And so I said, What are some things we can do in order to help foster our rhythms towards healthiness?

And so for me, I'm a guy that believes in working smarter, not harder.

If there's something out there that can help me, then I'm gonna typically incorporate that into my rhythm.

And so what I decided to do, there were some guys in our church that were like, hey man, like if you're really trying to take your health to the next level, it was kind of shady the way they said it to me.

It was almost like it was a side deal, like, hey bro, like if you're really trying to get healthy, I gotta put you on this thing that we're doing right now.

I'm like, yo, tell me what it is, and why are we whispering?

Um they say, yo, man, have you heard about whoop?

I'm like, like, whoop, there it is.

They're like, nah, no, no, like I'm talking about the whoop.

I'm like, no.

They're like, bro, you have no idea.

This thing will change your life.

So I'm like, all right, cool.

I'm sold.

So I got one for me, got one for Megan.

Because in my household, here's how things work I can do whatever I want as long as I get Megan one.

That's the goal, that's the rule.

I can say, hey, babe, we need to get a new car.

Where's mine?

Cool, we get a new car.

As long as I get her one, we're good.

So I'm like, babe, I'm getting a new computer.

I need a new computer.

I'm like, you really don't need a new computer, but if you're getting a computer, I'm getting a computer.

I got a new computer and it's sitting under her bed.

Anyway, true story.

Um, so so I'm just saying, so I knew, okay, I'm gonna get her a whoop, I'm gonna get a whoop.

We both got whoops on.

And so I began to wear my whoop.

And and and when you open a box, it literally says, unlock yourself.

The branding is beautiful.

Like, I mean, I didn't realize there were parts of me that were locked away.

But this whoop is gonna help me to unlock and achieve goals that I know they were there.

I put this thing on my wrist, I filled out some information, and now I'm off to the races.

Now I still have my Apple Watch, and and so my Apple Watch is very complimentary, it's very encouraging.

But this past week, I went to the gym for the first time, um, like in the past couple of weeks.

So I went to the gym, and when I went to the gym, bro, I I worked hard.

I was grinding.

By the time I was done, I was drenched.

I walked out, and I can tell you like clockwork, my Apple Watch, Siri said to me, Keith, I am so proud of you.

You worked really, really hard today.

You got your heart rate up.

I like the music you were listening to.

Like, Siri was locked in.

She was good to me.

She's like, You stood up today.

I'm so proud.

You went and drank some.

Like, she was she was so encouraging.

So I'm like, yo, this is amazing.

And then I got this re this little buzz on my hip, and it's like, hey, the Whoop has a report of your workout.

So I pull out my phone, I'm like, all right, let me see what Whoop gotta say.

Because Siri already got me feeling good.

Siri told me I can go have ice cream on my way home from the gym.

Planet Fitness style.

Like, eat a burger while you're there.

So I'm like, all right, cool, cool, cool, cool.

So I open up this Whoop app and it looks at me and it literally says to me, almost verbatim, I see that you did a workout today.

Period.

Next time, work a little bit harder so you can actually see results.

I'm paying for this.

I'm paying for the self-deprecation.

And it was so humbling because on one hand, Siri is telling me you are amazing.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made, you are fine just the way you are, but if you do want to work on some things, I'm gonna celebrate you along the way.

And whoop was like, even your sleep is trash.

You think you're resting, but you ain't really resting.

You didn't hit no rim sleep, you didn't get any deep sleep, you're not even in restorative rest mode, you're just in a sleep debt right now.

Like these are phrases I was completely unfamiliar with, and it was very humbling because in my mind I'm thinking to myself, I am killing the game right now.

I'm active, I'm walking, I'm moving, I'm doing things, and Sirius pumping me up.

You're doing an amazing job, you're incredible, you're wonderful.

And meanwhile, something that is meant to do a deeper intrinsic work, something that is meant to actually evaluate the movements and the quality of my movements, they came in and said, I think you're doing you think you're doing good, but in the words of Kendrick Lamar, it's not enough.

It's not enough.

You're doing a lot of movement, but it's not enough.

Imagine that.

To think that you're having incredible impact, to think that you're doing some incredible thing, to think that you're moving a needle, to think that you're healthy, only to have a voice come in and say, I see a lot of your movements, but it's not enough.

This is what Jesus is doing with his church.

He literally is looking at all the activities and all the movements and all the programs and all the stuff they're doing, all the followers, the fact that it went viral, all this stuff that looks amazing.

And Jesus comes in and he begins to evaluate the condition of his church and he says, I see what you're doing, I see the activities, I see your feed, I see the stuff that you're doing, but I have some critiques for you.

And if I can be honest with you, you're not meeting my standard.

It's very humbling.

And when you read through the book of Revelation, which was written by the Apostle John, he had an attempt made on his life, he was almost boiled alive, but they weren't successful, so they banished him to the island of Patmos.

And while he was there to live out his dying days, Jesus reveals, which is what revelation, Jesus reveals the things that were and things that are to come.

He gets this vision into the future things, and and Jesus begins to unfold his expectations, but also what we can expect when we get on the other side of heaven.

But he spends chapters two and three offering a spiritual audit of the church.

It's seven letters, and I'm not gonna go in deep detail because when I come back from sabbatical, we're gonna do a series on end times and we're gonna unpack a lot of this stuff in greater detail.

But what he says, and I just want to give us a highlight of what these different things are that I think are still very relevant to us, he says to the church of Ephesus, man, I see that you're very orthodox in your belief.

You're very traditional, but you've lost your first love.

To the church in Smyrna, he says, You've been faithful under persecution, and you're gonna be there for a little bit longer.

For the church in Pergamum, he says, Man, you've been faithful in persecution, but you've compromised and you've allowed false teachings to come into my church.

To the church of Diateri, he says, you're growing in your works, you're very active in the community, but you've become so tolerant of immorality.

To the church of Sardis, he says, you have a reputation in your community.

People know you, they follow you, they go everywhere, but actually you're spiritually dead.

To the church of Philadelphia, he says, you're a small church, but you're faithful, and I have no rebuke.

I think there's something to be said about God's love for Philadelphia, Philadelphia Eagles.

It's God's chosen team.

We won the Super Bowl and we're gonna.

I'm not making this up.

You can verify it in the Bible.

It's not saying that about Houston or Kansas City, it's not saying that about any of that.

It's it says that Philadelphia, I find no fault in you.

You've suffered well, and my hand is on you.

That's all I'm saying.

It's in the Bible.

But then we get to the church of Laodicea, where we're gonna spend the rest of our time.

And to give you some context, Laodicea, it's a very wealthy environment.

They're doing very well.

Think of Winter Park meets Windermere, like just affluent.

They're known for their banks, they're known for their medical schools, they're they're known for their garments that they make.

But the problem is they didn't have any local water source.

They were they were literally landlocked.

So water had to be piped in through aqueducts through the two neighboring communities.

One neighboring community was Heropolis, which is where they had hot springs that people would go to for healing and just and just and being cleansed.

And then they also had Colossae, which was our other neighboring community, which was known for their cold springs.

Their water was very crystal and very refreshing.

So by the time the aqueducts would transport these waters into the church that we're talking about in Laodicea, the waters would have lost their original temperatures.

They would have been lukewarm, tempid.

They would have picked up the minerals from the pipes that were there, and they were very nauseating.

It was a known thing that the water inside of that community of Laodicea was terrible.

So Jesus uses this reality as a metaphor to speak to their spiritual condition.

He says, When I look at your faith, when I look at your relationship with me, you're just like your water supply.

It's not hot, which means it's not bringing healing and cleansing, and it's not even cold.

It's not bringing refreshing to anybody, but it's actually lukewarm and it makes me sick.

These are very hard words to hear from our risen Lord and Savior, but he's offering a deep analysis into how do we get to a space where we become lukewarm.

Jesus isn't talking to the unbelievers out there, he's talking to his church.

The text says that he's talking to the angel of the church of Laodicea.

Now there are different theological camps that believe that either that was literally a divine messenger who has the assignment of being over that church, but I kind of land on the other side where I believe he's literally speaking to the leader, the pastor, the elders of that church.

And he's ultimately communicating, you are the one who is responsible for setting the temperature of your community.

And he says that if you don't do this, I am going to remove my lampstand.

In other words, the grace, the favor, the influence that you have in your community, you're going to lose it if you don't have a fervency for me first.

Jesus is critiquing the church and by proxy us and our community as individuals, but also collectively, and he's saying that if you do not change your ways, if you continue to live in this compromised place, that I'm going to remove my favor and your church isn't going to grow, your people aren't going to grow, you're not going to have any influence in your community.

And this is how buildings that used to be beautiful, that would echo out through the bells in the community, have now turned into museums where people don't go anymore.

It's because we've lost our fervency.

Why does this matter?

Because God wants to make sure that no matter what your ideology is, that no matter what your theological matrix is, that no matter what programs, no matter what budget you have, that if you don't care about the things he cares about, he is going to remove his hand from the church.

He is going to remove his favor from your life.

And he's telling us, I want to make sure that you're stoking your flame with things that I actually have a burden for.

And I believe that all of us are on a journey.

And I want to take a few moments to unpack this journey that I believe that all of us are on and continue to be on to give us some perspective so that we can have better insight as to the words of Jesus as he's speaking to his church.

Are y'all with me?

Okay, okay.

So here's the first stage that I believe that many people find themselves in.

That state of being an unbeliever.

I know that it can't be seen, but trust me, it says unbeliever, and I spelled it right too.

Um it says unbeliever.

You can zoom in on the camera and see it, but an unbeliever is simply the starting point that every human being is.

No one, contrary to your grandmom and great-grandmom's positioning, no one is born with a King James Version in the Bible in our hand and holding a lamb.

All of us are born in sin and shaped in iniquity.

We're all born as unbelievers of Christ.

This simply means that I'm living my life apart from Christ.

I'm not in fellowship with him, and I haven't recognized him as my Lord.

We all start there.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, this is how Paul describes it says Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, you live, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers of the unseen world.

Ephesians 2:1–3

He is the spirit that works in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

All of us used to live that way.

This is not something that we judge people for.

All of us used to live that way.

Following the passionate desires and inclinations of our own sinful nature, by our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else.

That means that God's wrath, that God's judgment that was executed on Christ, because Christ took the sins of the world on his shoulder, we will have to face that execution if we're not in Christ.

This is what it means to be an unbeliever.

Paul says it this way.

He says that we are alienated and hostile in our mind to the things of God.

Now, let me be very clear: an unbelieving person is not a terrible person.

What I have found in my own life is that there are many unbelievers that are very nice, very, very nice.

I have neighbors who are incredibly kind people.

They're unbelievers, but they're not terrible people.

They have good morals.

A lot of times we think that Christianity has like the blueprint on what it means to be moral.

So a lot of times we kind of project and judge people, but the fact of the matter is, you could be a person who's not in fellowship with Christ.

You could be nice to people, you can even have a good moral fabric that you work from, but according to the Bible, you are still carnal.

You're living according to your flesh.

At the end of the day, your feelings, your flesh is the standard.

So when you think about the Garden of Eden, and God says, hey, you can either live a life that is based off of how I define how you should live life, the tree of life, or you can live life on your own terms, where you define what's right and wrong on your own terms.

Like you are the metric of what is right and wrong.

That is what it means to be carnal.

I decide what's right, I decide what's wrong.

That's what it means.

And so that's the state of an unbeliever.

The Bible talks about how when we're in that space, we're just unalienated and away from God.

But then there's a second spot that we can find ourselves in, and that is the person who is a seeker.

These are people who are seeking after the things of God.

I want you to consider for a moment, maybe Nicodemus.

The Bible talks about him in the Gospel of John, chapter number three.

I like to call him Nicod Night.

Because he already had a different belief system, and he didn't want his friends to know that he was curious about Jesus.

So he was searching, he was seeking, he was trying to make sense of his present reality.

He's searching.

There's an area of his life that he's saying, okay, I'm looking at my life and I feel unfulfilled.

I'm looking at my life and there's something that is missing.

I'm looking at my life and there's a discrepancy between where I am and there's this inner dwelling and this inner draw towards something so much more.

People who are seeking are typically very open.

Nicodemus, he came to Jesus, like, hey man, like what help me to understand.

What like all these healings that I'm seeing, help me to wrap my mind around it.

And also, like, I'm very curious.

Like, you're saying like somebody has to be born again?

What does that even mean?

This is this is someone who is genuinely curious about what does it mean to be a follower of Christ.

The Bible tells us in Acts chapter 17, verse 27, for his purpose was the nations to seek after God, perhaps feeling their way towards him, they will find him, though he is not far from any of us.

Acts 17:27

That text is telling us that God places us where we are so that we can seek him and find him.

Jeremiah 29, 13 tells us that if we seek the Lord with all of our heart, we will absolutely find him.

Seekers are people who are on the narrow path, inquiring about the things of God, and there's this inner hunger for meaning and truth that draws them and that compels them.

God is drawing them to himself, and this is a space where they're investigating, they're very curious, and they're exploring who Jesus is and what he has to offer.

A seeker is often a person who is approaching the faith kind of like a consumer because they're like looking for what does this mean for me type of mindset.

That's not inherently evil, but it is a perspective of where people may find themselves.

But behind every seeking heart, there's the grace of God that is drawing them in.

There's the mercy of God that is confounding them to letting them know that it is not his desire that anyone should perish, but that all come to repentance.

The beautiful thing is that if a seeker comes to the place where as the book of Acts tells us that their eyes are opened, as Paul's were, they then become a believer.

And here's what it means to be a believer.

A believer is simply a person who acknowledges that Jesus Christ is our risen Savior.

A believer is a person, they're not perfect, they are not sinless, they are still deeply flawed, but there's a person that recognizes, like, hey, I recognize and I receive the gift of salvation because we don't work for it, we don't earn it, but I receive it.

I recognize that on my own, as Paul would describe to the church in Romans, he says that our righteousness is as filthy rags.

So for a person who is an unbeliever, but they're nice and they're good, they may think, hey, I'm a good person, that should be good enough for me to earn my way into heaven.

But according to the Bible standard, Paul said, You can take the good works of every human being that has ever existed, and it will still never satisfy the perfect nature of God.

So Jesus had to stand in that place for.

So the moment that I come to that reality, I become a believer.

And now a new life begins.

Paul tells the church in Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 17, therefore, anyone who is in Christ, he is a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

The old is passed away, and see the new has come.

This is the place where we celebrate.

This is the space where the Bible says there is literally a party in heaven for every sinner that repents because now we have this new identity.

I am now officially a person who is in Christ.

I'm no longer on the outside.

I'm no longer just curious.

I'm now a person that has recognized that Jesus Christ is Lord, and now I am in Christ Jesus.

If you ever want to know who we are in Christ, I want to encourage you to read the book of Ephesians.

That's the theme of the book of Ephesians, is literally to break down who we are and what do we have access to as people who are in Christ.

The scriptures say that we are going from death to life when we become believers.

And two powerful things begin to take place that are under the umbrella of this transformation.

The first one is regeneration, and I hope I spelled that right.

It feels like it's a little longer than it needs to be, but you guys get it.

Um, regeneration, and then we also have the journey of sanctification.

I literally ran out of space, so I just got smaller and smaller as I started writing further.

But regeneration is the Bible says that we were once dead in our sins and trespasses.

That means that there's a part of our spiritually that was dead, it was not alive.

But when we became believers, that part of us came to life.

That's the part of us that becomes born again.

That's our spirit that is now in fellowship and connected with God.

Now, as we begin this process of now being awakened, so to speak, now being spiritually aware, so to speak, we're looking at things through the eyes of the things of God.

Now we go through the journey of sanctification.

And sanctification is really the process, and it's a lifelong process of us becoming more and more like Christ.

This is a thing that none of us ever graduates from.

This is why, no matter how long you've been walking with Christ, there's areas that we continue to be molded in his image.

Paul tells the church in Romans, he says, this is where we become the renewing of our minds.

Our mindsets are being molded.

We're all on this lifelong journey of growth and holiness and obedience.

And it's also in this stage that we have zeal.

Zeal is excitement, zeal is passion, but zeal can also be overwhelming.

I remember when I got radically saved, I was the most fervent.

I think this is connected a little bit to my OCD because I was the type of person that says, hey, whatever I'm doing, I'm gonna do 100%.

So if I'm living in the world, I'm gonna become precise and methodical and masterful at living in the world.

But at the same time, when I've now become a believer, I'm gonna become precise and masterful at living for the things of God.

So I was so full of zeal, so passionate, so exciting.

I was the most amazing, simultaneously terrible person you would ever meet.

Because as I became aware of the things of God, and as I became passionate about God's truth, and it began to animate every area of my life, I would literally skip sleep.

Thank God I didn't have a whoop back then.

Because I would stay up all night reading the Bible, highlighting scriptures, and and and when Megan would wake up, I was like, hey, I read this, I read this, did you know this?

Like I was I was intuitive, I was, it was obsessive to me.

There's nothing wrong with that until you become critical of others.

So now, in all of my zeal and all of my excitement, I was judging everyone.

I was judging Christians who've been walking with God for 50 years because I got a special revelation.

I didn't know anything about context, hermeneutics, I didn't know anything about anything, but I felt like I had an answer for everything.

And then I really had to have a come to Jesus moment when I started using the Bible to justify where I was and literally condemned my wife.

Listen to me, husbands, wives, both of you.

Don't weaponize God's word to justify who you are, where you are, and your unwillingness to change.

But I was great at it.

Megan would come in and be like, Oh, you didn't do the dishes.

I'm like, Well, the Bible says, I would find an answer for everything.

And I she would be say something slick.

I'm like, listen, that sounds like the words of someone who's in rebellion to God.

Like, I mean, it was a lot.

I'm surprised we're still married.

Thank God for his grace.

She knew though, she knew she knew she had the lottery.

We just had to scratch off a little bit longer, but she knew she did alright.

She did alright.

It worked out good for her.

Which is why she has a computer that she doesn't use.

Anyway, so but I was I was so full of zeal, I was so full of excitement.

But the beautiful thing about zeal is you're passionate and you literally believe the Bible for what it says.

Like you're bold and you see things and you want to respond to them.

That's a that's a beautiful space to be, but I've also found that people who are full of zeal, especially in that new believer state, can be very annoying and frustrating to those Christians that have been walking with God for a long time.

And I think sometimes we need that zeal to challenge us because things that we get kind of complacent at, the people that are full with zeal, like, no, but the Bible says we need to step into that space.

And so I think that there is something we should learn.

Maybe this is why Jesus says we need to have a childlike faith, that sense of boldness that we never are supposed to lose.

But moving on, we get to our next category, and our next category is where we become full-on disciples of Christ.

Now, to be very clear, once you are a believer, you are under the umbrella of a disciple.

Like it's all part of the discipleship process.

But I want to make a distinction between a new Christian who was still developing their root system versus a person who is rooted in the things of God and are beginning to produce fruit.

You guys with me?

So there's a distinction.

So when you become a disciple of Christ, that means I am a student of him.

That means that I am now officially his apprentice.

I am I am learning under him.

I have given up every other way of life, and I am now orienting my life around the things of Jesus exclusively.

I'm far from perfect, but I have made a decision, as Paul would say to the church of Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 2 through 24.

Ephesians 4:2–24

It says, that we take off our former life, that is the old self that was that was corrupted by deceitful desires, and we're renewed in the spirit of our minds, and we put on our new self, the one created of God's likeness and righteousness with the purity of truth.

This is what we call the journey of abiding in Christ.

This is what Jesus was saying to his disciples in the Gospel of John, chapter 15, where he says, Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches, and for those who remain or abide in me, you will produce much fruit.

John 15 · chapter mention

When we go from being believers who are establishing our root system, and we're beginning to figure out what it means to be rooted in the things of God, we eventually become disciples where we say, This is my life, that now my walk with God is not an event that takes place on a Sunday, but it's a lifestyle that I live out every day.

That it informs everything that I do.

So now that I'm an apprentice of Him, I'm learning from Him, I'm abiding from Him, and because I'm abiding in Him, I am now beginning to produce fruit.

I am becoming a fruitful believer.

The Bible talks about the fruit of the Spirit.

That's evidence that I am a follower of Christ.

That means that when people have conversations with a disciple, they're not surprised that you're a Christian.

We probably all know people, and this is no shade, no judgment, but we're in church.

We all know people that we spent time with them, we're around them, and then we hear them say something about church, and you're like, I didn't even know that you knew what a Bible was.

I had no clue.

Like, there's no evidence of it.

I'm not here to judge whether you're in fellowship with God or not.

There's no evidence of it.

But typically, when you're finding a disciple of Christ, I see the evidence of your walk with God in your life.

I see the patience, I see this joy.

This is when we become mature in our faith.

This is when our character and good works begin to speak for us.

This is when our faith has matured to a space that we understand that in this world we will have trouble.

But I'm not going anywhere.

It's in this space that I recognize that that trials and tribulations are going to come, but also be able to pull from blessed are those who endure trials and persecution.

This is the space of maturity where you can say, though he slayed me, yet will I trust him.

This is a space where we recognize that we're being pruned and conformed in his image.

It's not always comfortable, but it's recognizing that we trust God through it all.

This is what it means to be a disciple.

And if you are taking notes, this is the spot that we all need to be in.

This is the place, this is our home, and and we work here, we we serve here, we love here.

It should be evident in our lives, the the fruit that we have or the relationship with Christ.

It should be seen in the way that we treat people, the way that we interact with one another.

That's what it means to be a disciple.

But now we flip to the other side.

And when we flip to the other side, we get to our subject matter for today.

Because in Laodicea, Jesus speaks specifically about another designation, and that is being lukewarm.

And what can happen with a disciple is after we've walked with God, and I won't put a time on it, but I would say after we've gotten comfortable in our walk with God, the burdens that we used to have, we don't have anymore.

The passions and the zeal that we used to have, we don't have anymore.

Lukewarm is defined as the soul when it begins to sleepwalk.

It's no longer dialed in, it's no longer focused, it just grifts.

The church in Laodicea, they received the harshest rebuke from Jesus.

Not because of their sin.

Sin is not the issue.

I think that modern-day Christians we obsess over sins and sin, and I get it because sin means we miss the mark.

But we're all on that sanctification journey, and if we're in true fellowship with God, like we repent, we get better, like sin is not the obsession for God.

Indifferences.

And he says to his church, man, like you guys have gotten so indifferent to things that I actually have a burden for.

You you aren't hot or cold, you're just indifferent.

And lukewarm is a dangerous space to get to because it means that we're no longer useful for God.

And Jesus literally says, it's nauseating to watch people proclaim and use my name, and I don't even view them as useful.

You're not effective at all.

You're not helping people, you're not moving the needle forward.

You just have this lukewarm, safe version of faith that doesn't reflect the fiery nature of what it means to be connected to God.

And Jesus says, I know in your mind you think that you are materially rich, but you're spiritually bankrupt.

For Laodicea, as you can see, they had a lot going for themselves.

They were successful, but their success began to numb their need of a savior.

They weren't in outright rebellion, but they were absolutely in self-reliance.

That's what makes lukewarm so dangerous.

Because it feels fine, but we're actually failing.

And what ends up happening with the lukewarm believer, that when we once used to walk in close fellowship with God and we cared about the things that God cared about, and we had a burden for things, and we would look at God's word and we would see certain truths that would just jump off the page, and then we would walk out into society and we would see these things.

Like I remember when we used to live in DC and my youngest son Caleb, we would go out and I would pick him up from school and we would stop and get something to eat.

And when he would see a homeless person, like he would literally be grieved in his soul, just a little 13, 14-year-old, like, Dad, can we can we get him something to eat?

And I'm like, man, I love your heart, son, absolutely.

And then we'll ride another two blocks, Dad, can we get him something to eat?

I'm like, okay, son, my money is fine.

Like, I don't got everything, I can't feed everybody, but we're gonna we're gonna do the best we can.

But it was this moment of when you just see things and you respond to things and you haven't allowed politicians to tell you how whether you should care for things or not.

I I I went there last week and I'm not trying to go there again this week.

But that's an evidence of being lukewarm.

Because now we're we're literally looking at people who are suffering and we're indifferent to it.

We're looking at families being separated and we're just like, well, they probably shouldn't have come here anyway.

I'm not here to talk about the logistics of that.

Yes, deal with what we got to deal with, but to not care about that stuff, that's evidence of being lukewarm and indifferent.

And Jesus is saying, I will spew that out of my mouth.

Because that does not represent my heart or my character for people.

You've grown distant from my heart if you don't care about my people that are made in my image.

The Laodicean church is a picture of a church that is respectable, they have great sentiments, but they've grown comfortable and now they are compromised.

Jesus rebukes them for their spiritual apathy.

Tim Keller puts it this way: he says, A lukewarm Christian has enough moral behavior to soothe the conscious, but not enough spiritual death to transform the heart.

They mistake decency for devotion.

They equate scripture memory with spiritual vitality.

They're busy, but they're not burdened.

2 Timothy, Paul says this to the church, to 2 Timothy, he says this.

They have a form of godliness, there's a form of godliness, but they have no power behind it.

And he literally says to Timothy, avoid these people.

Because when you're lukewarm, it's contagious.

Signs that you may be lukewarm is this spiritual routines without relational intimacy.

We pray out of habit, but not out of hunger.

Our indifference to sin.

Not convicted, just tolerant.

We don't engage the Bible in a way that is meant to be transformational.

Serving without love.

That means that we can be active in church, but detached from our hearts.

Self-righteous.

We compare ourselves to others instead of looking at our relationship with Christ.

We have a nostalgic faith, which means that we are more interested in how we used to serve and how we used to give, and our best days are behind us instead of having a present-tense faith.

I used to serve so much back in the day.

Man, you should have seen me.

What are you doing today?

Oh man, you know.

I'm kind of busy.

I got a lot going on right now.

We have a nostalgic faith.

I'm not talking about seasons, I'm not talking about challenges, that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about a lifestyle of one that used to be surrendered to the things of God and now we're indifferent and distant from it.

Another one would be we're unbothered by the lost.

Evangelism feels like an option, it's not essential.

When new people come to church, you're more frustrated they're in your parking spot or sitting in your seat than you are about seeing people come to life in Christ Jesus.

Churches are empty as a result of generations perpetuating that very idea.

We're disconnected from community and we strive for peace without God's presence.

Christ is at the door, but he's not on the throne of our hearts.

Remember, when Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock, he's not talking to unbelievers, even though we use that evangelistically, and it's a very powerful text.

But he's actually talking to his church.

He's saying, I'm standing outside the doors of my very own church.

Will you let me in?

That means that when you're lukewarm, that Jesus is present, but he's not central.

He's acknowledged, but he's not adorned.

The irony is we can think we're doing just fine.

As Elaodiceans said, I have need of nothing.

Bro, we're good.

Man, we look how many stamps we got on our passport.

That's evidence of God's favor.

Look at what I'm driving right now.

God bless me with it.

And if we're not mistaken, if we're not careful, we will mistake the goodness of God with the approval of God.

Because some things God makes available to us because of our stewardship, because of our hard work, because of favor, or just because we live in a world system that rewards our hard work.

But please don't mistake where you are in the world with your proximity to Christ.

Because those two things are not mutually exclusive.

A person who was lukewarm, they've gotten comfortable with being self reliant and they have no dependency on Christ.

And while they think they're good, Jesus literally says that they're wretched, they're pitiful, poor.

Blind and naked.

They got no wins.

If they had a whoop on, everything is like whoop.

Like it's nothing's good.

It's all bad.

But here's the thing, and I want to just spend a second on this because I really want to wrap up and give us some time to go into worship.

But if we stay in lukewarm too long, we can get into a dangerous space, and that is called being apostate.

I know that that's a term that we're not using all the time, but the definition of a person who is apostate is a person who has fallen away from God altogether.

This is a person that has utterly made a decision that I am rejecting Jesus.

That seems like a pretty, that seems like a pretty provocative progression.

But you don't get there overnight.

And there's a lot of things that need to take place.

But one of the first things that happens is we go into the state of being a backslider.

How many of us old enough to remember back in the old sanctions like, when they're backslidden?

That's a backslitten person right there.

I grew up in a church discipline that if you mix next Sunday, you were already backslidden.

Like you had to like, where was you at last week, Brother Keith?

I had the flu.

Like, you not believe in God for healing?

They're sitting in the camp.

Like, I mean, like we, you guys don't know what we've been through.

We were so soft on them, not we came up in some, we came up in a different generation.

You had to have thick skin.

Like, you know how, like, back when we were younger, again, I'm 50, like when you would go out on the playground, there was none of that soft tar stuff.

Like you just had concrete.

You fell down, you got up, you brushed it off, you run in the house, your mom said, What are you doing in the house?

Get back outside.

Like, we were cut from a different cult.

I'm not here to judge generations, but yo, don't test me.

All right, so let's stay focused, let's stay focused.

We gotta wrap up.

But an apostate is a person that falls away.

And when you're and when you are backslidden, that just simply means you're drifting away from intimacy with God.

That means that I was lukewarm.

That means that even though I'm in fellowship with God, I'm just not walking in proximity to him.

That's that's lukewarm.

I'm indifferent and I'm drifting him.

But when I become a backslider, that means I've all out stopped walking with him.

It doesn't mean that I no longer believe, it just means I'm no longer even trying to keep up with him.

Things that I know are not in alignment with God's will, I can do, and it doesn't even bother me that much anymore.

I'm still believing in him in my heart, but you don't see it in my hand.

I'm not an outright rebellion, but there absolutely is a separation in the way that we do it.

And so Jesus compounds us in Jeremiah 22, return to me, children, and I will heal you from your backsliding.

Come back.

Repentance is the call that he is making.

Think of the prodigal son.

He was in a backslidden state.

He was still his father's son, but he removed himself from his father's fellowship and dealt with the consequence as a result of it.

But he was still in relationship with him.

But then the scary spot is when we become reprobate.

So backslider is the consequence of someone who grows indifferent, distant, and it's easy for us to slip into this space of becoming a backslider.

Where we just drift from God in such a way that we're not even walking in fellowship with him.

The Bible becomes optional.

But the sad thing is when we stay backslidden too long, we become reprobate.

And reprobate is open rebellion to God.

A reprobate is a person whose heart is hardened to God.

That means that the truth can't penetrate.

That means kindness can't penetrate.

The Bible calls it this.

It says that their conscience has been seared with a hot iron.

That means that any nervous system that they had that was even able to respond to the things of God, they've rejected him for so long that God says, Your will be done.

That means they don't even respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit anymore.

It is not easy to end up in a reprobate state.

It is not easy to end up in this spot of apostasy.

So it's important that for us as believers, we don't feel like it's our job to look at the behavior of people and try to categorize them.

Because I know how y'all are.

Y'all will leave church today and y'all be out like, oh, look at that person.

And I said, God bless you, and he said, I don't believe in God.

He's like, oh, reprobate.

Like, that's not what we're supposed to do.

That is not our responsibility.

Our responsibility is to be disciples that continues to abide in Christ and invite people into relationship with him.

That is our responsibility.

But when we get to this side, when we get to a spot where someone is reprobate, that means that they're, and I mean, I'm sure we've seen it, people who are just hostile to the things of God.

They're not struggling with sin, they're resolved in their sin.

They're not backslidden, they're brazen.

They're not wrestling, they're resting.

And the Bible tells us that their conscience has been cut off.

This is a person who says, I want Christ no longer.

And you know what ends up happening?

God stops inviting them.

Think about Pharaoh in the book of Exodus.

If you read that, you'll see that over and over again, Moses came to him like, listen, man, God just said, Let his people go, let his people go.

And after a certain amount of times, the Bible says that his heart was hardened.

And it literally says God hardened his heart.

And that messes with our theology.

But he didn't harden his heart initially.

But because Pharaoh wanted to have the full expression of rejecting God, God said, If you don't want life with me, fine.

And ultimately, what happens at the end of our lives, we are going to receive judgment, and our judgment will be the fullest expression of our decision with Christ.

Here's what I mean by that.

If you are walking in fellowship with God, when we stand before Jesus, he will say, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

You're not perfect, but you're in fellowship with me, and I'm going to give you the fullest expression.

Enter into my rest.

But if we are people who have rejected God, he will say, Your will be done.

You wanted life without me.

Now you will spend eternity without me.

It's the fullest expression of choices that we've already made.

And I don't say that to scare us, but I say that as a reality that Jesus is saying to us, I am calling you into relationship with me.

I'm calling you to be a disciple.

I'm calling you to abide in me.

I'm calling you to experience this fruit that I've made available to you.

Because if you go into this lukewarm space, it is so easy for you to become indifferent, then you become distant, then you start to compromise, and next thing you know, you backslide, and then you have enough pain and setbacks and disappointment till you begin to reject me altogether.

I reject what the Bible says about sexuality and what I reject that.

I re you just begin to reject the things that God's word says.

We just reject it and we we pick and choose what we want to believe in, and God's like, that's a dangerous place to get to.

It's a dangerous place to get to because your heart is becoming hard, and I'm trying to confide you, I'm trying to compel you to a living, loving relationship with me.

But if you continue to reject me, I will give you the fullest expression of that rejection at the end of your life.

Don't go lukewarm.

Stoke the fire with things that matter to God.

So, where are you today?

Because what I truly believe, and I want to ask worship to come out.

We're gonna go into a quick moment of reflection and worship.

I'm gonna ask them to come out and join me now.

But I want to ask this question to us where are you today?

Because something that I've learned about my life is that it's complex and it's nuanced, and it's it's so easy for me to say, yeah, no, I'm I'm not lukewarm.

I'm on fire for the things of God.

But but because of the way that we are as humans and we live compartmentalized, I have found that it's possible for me to be a disciple of Christ when it comes to my relationships with our staff, a disciple of Christ when it comes to our stewardship of our resources, but I could be lukewarm in how I treat my wife.

What I've learned is that it's not like all or nothing, but it just begins to sneak into other areas of our lives.

And so I think that all of us have an opportunity to examine where am I?

Where am I in my relationship with Jesus?

Because the truth is, I could be a disciple when it comes to serving, but downright lukewarm when it comes to generosity.

And I think what Jesus is inviting us to do is to bring ourselves into total alignment with him again.

You can still have your personality, you can still have fun.

You like, I don't know how we bought into this idea that being a follower of Christ meant that you can't have fun.

Bro, I have a lot of fun.

A lot of fun.

But I also understand that God is the one that I orient my entire life around.

And that's what He's inviting us to do.

So maybe you're an unbeliever, maybe you're a new believer, maybe you're a disciple, maybe you're seeking, maybe you're even lukewarm.

But maybe this is an opportunity for us to come back and to recognize that a faith that is not about uh external outcomes, but it's about an internal commitment with my loving Savior who died on the cross and invited me into unbroken fellowship with him, getting to a space where that's good enough.

So as we go into this time of reflection and prayer, why don't we cry out from our hearts and say, God, I don't know what the future holds.

I still got drama in my family, my finances are still jacked up, I still need to find a job, but I still want you because that is the cry of a disciple.

Lord, we thank you.

We thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your faithfulness, and we thank you for these challenges where you invite us to turn and draw close.

So, Lord, I just pray over the next few moments that your Holy Spirit does deep inventory of us and leads us back to you.

In Jesus' name.

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