AMA: How do I know if I am a lukewarm Christian? - Pastor Mike Houck | June 21, 2026

Today we are dealing with a question: how do I know if I'm a lukewarm Christian?

It's a great question, and it tells me that the person who asked the question is concerned about their spiritual growth and their spiritual level of maturity.

And it is a wonderful thing to know that there are people who are concerned about that.

The term lukewarm Christian comes to us out of Revelation chapter 3, verses 14 through 22.

Revelation 3:14–22

In chapter 3, you know that Jesus is speaking to the seven churches, and he writes letters to those seven churches about their spiritual condition, the place in which they are.

And he has, for most of the churches, he has a word of commendation and then also has a word of condemnation, saying that this is what you're doing well, and this is where you need to improve.

However, with the church in Laodicea, which we will look at, we see that there is no commendation.

It's just a great concern.

Jesus is gravely concerned about their spiritual condition as being lukewarm.

So we will look at that this morning.

Revelation chapter 3, verse 14 through 22.

Revelation 3:14–22

I know you works.

You are neither hot, cold nor hot.

Would that you were either cold or hot.

So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.

Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

Those whom I love I reprove and discipline.

So be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to eat with him.

I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let's pray.

For it's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

So there's just a couple of observations that I want to give you about this particular passage.

Jesus is comparing them to drinking water.

He says, Because you are neither hot nor cold, but you are lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth.

I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth.

It's very very the language there is very graphic.

And it's he's he's considering them to drinking water.

We have a tendency to think that being hot as a Christian is a very positive thing, and being cold as a Christian is a very negative thing, but that's really not what he is saying here.

He's saying you are neither hot, which is cleansing, therapeutic, sanitary.

We've all seen the old uh television westerns where uh you know there's a woman who is pregnant, and so what do they tell him to do?

Tear up some sheets and boil some hot water, right?

Why do they boil hot water?

Because it's needed for cleansing, it's therapeutic, um, and it's sanitary.

So boil the hot water.

If the water in our drinking system becomes contaminated or there's a problem with it, what do they tell you to do?

They tell you to boil it, bring it to a rolling boil so that it can be consumed.

So neither hot nor cold.

When we think of cold water, we think of refreshingly uh thirst-quenching and satisfying.

And so in this instance, both are fine, cold water or hot water, but lukewarm water is undesirable.

Laodicea, you need to understand, was known for its poor uh water quality.

So what was happening there in Laodicea is that there were these hot springs that would bubble up, these mineral springs.

And the hot springs, the water would mix with the cold springs.

And by the time it got to the village, the cistern, uh, the wells that they would draw their water from, it was lukewarm.

It had a bad smell, and it had a bad taste to it.

And it was known that if you drank the water, and unless you became accustomed to it, uh, visitors would come and they would drink the water, they would consume the water, and the first impulse would be to wretch, just to spew it out, to throw it, uh, to throw it up.

So when Jesus is speaking to this church, they fully understand what it is that he is talking about.

He's saying that your water is bad.

As a church, as a Christian, you have bad water.

And because you are neither hot nor cold, I want to spew you out of my mouth.

Not a very uh not a very affirming statement to them, full of condemnation.

Secondly, we know that Jesus identified the problem as they were rich, they were self-sufficient, and they were without need.

They were rich, they were self-sufficient, and they were without need.

In other words, you might say they were blessed.

They were blessed.

They had everything they wanted.

They had wealth.

As a matter of fact, there was um it is reported that there were some storms or some earthquakes that came through this area, and they these people were so wealthy that they did not need any aid from Rome to rebuild their houses.

That's how wealthy they were.

They were they were just able to do it on their own.

So they were self-sufficient, they didn't need any help.

They were uh they were without need.

If we were to make a comparison, we'd say, well, they were like Americans.

They were like Americans.

We consider ourselves to be blessed to live in this country, to have all that we have.

Amen?

Jesus said it was it's easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into heaven.

It's not that the rich are sinful because they are rich or that they can't go to heaven because they have possessions.

It's just that because of their wealth, because of their prosperity, they have a tendency to look to their own wealth, their own possessions, their own independence, and not to rely on God.

Now, I want to make sure that you understand that there are several wealthy people, several people who are very blessed, who have a wonderful relationship with God.

But it perhaps is a little more difficult than those who are in great need.

Those who are in great need will often look to God, and we see throughout scripture and we see throughout history that it is the poor, it is the brokenhearted, it is the sick, it is the needy who often come to Christ, and it is the rich, the prosperous who say, I don't need God.

And so here in Laodicea, we have this group of people, we have this church, and Paul writes uh to and commends the church earlier on, and in one of his writings and one of his letters, and so we know that they had a relationship with God, that the church grew, but at some point it became self-sufficient.

It prided itself in its wealth, it prided itself in its success, and therefore they grew cold.

You see, this is how they viewed themselves.

We're rich, we have everything we need, God has blessed us.

Therefore, spiritually, we're okay.

We're okay.

And we have a tendency to think that of ourselves sometimes.

As a nation, we have a tendency to look at our military strength and our wealth and our freedoms and think we're okay.

I mean, why wouldn't God want to have us in heaven?

I mean, we're the United States.

We're wonderful people.

We've been blessed.

Be careful that we may not be lukewarm.

So that's how they viewed themselves, but Jesus, in reality, they were wretched, they were pitiable, they were poor, they were blind, and they were naked.

You see, the Laodiceans took pride in their wealth, their clothing, their ISAV, and their status.

So it's interesting when you look into the history of Laodicea, they had some things that were um were specific to them.

For example, they produced a clothing from a certain uh breed of sheep, and the wool was very soft and it was black.

And so um and it was it was very much desired, and so they produced this, and but Jesus kind of gives them a slam, he says, but you're naked.

And then he says, he tells them, and what you ought to do is go buy white garments.

White garments.

Instead of the black, instead of taking pride in your appearance and what you have, what you need is you need white, excuse me, you need white garments.

They also were known for having created an eye salve that would bring healing to eyes, and so they were known for that.

And anyone who had eye trouble uh would seek to go to Laodicea to get some of this salve to put on their eyes because it would it would bring healing to them.

And what does he say to them?

He says to them, but you're blind, yeah.

You you you take great pride in the fact that you have created this eye salve, but in reality you are blind.

And what you need to do is you need to buy spiritual salve for your spiritual blindness.

So they they fully understood when they read this letter, they fully understood what he was driving at.

And and and and in a way, he was kind of sticking it to him a little bit.

He says, Yeah, you think you have all this going for you, but in reality, you're spiritually bankrupt.

You have nothing going for you spiritually.

J.D.

Greer gives us eight signs that you are a lukewarm Christian.

I believe that he drew this from Francis Chan's book, uh, Crazy Love.

Um, but let me share those with you.

The first, lukewarm Christians don't really want to be saved from their sin.

They want to be saved from the penalty of their sin.

How many people do we know, and perhaps you may be one of them, that came to know Jesus.

Why?

Because you don't want to spend eternity in hell.

You don't necessarily see anything wrong with the way you live.

You just know that because you're a sinner, you're going to go to hell.

And so that's what you're looking to take care of.

And and in fact, as a church, we have um we have done that to people.

We talk about the penalty of your sin is death.

It's a separated from uh separation from God for eternity in hell.

And we kind of, which is a reality, but we kind of market it so that, well, if you but if you accept Jesus, you can escape that.

And and we talk about how he saves us from hell, but we leave out the part where he is the Lord of our life, then.

That that now once you give your give your life to Christ, he becomes your Lord, he becomes your guide, he becomes your God.

And so that everything you do needs to come from him, needs to be filtered through his word and what he has to say and his plan for our life.

And we need to focus on that when we when we witness to people and when we preach and when we talk to them, that yeah, um, one of the benefits is that you will not be punished by God sending you to eternity in hell, but God still hates sin.

And so the intent for us as believers is to live a sinless life.

Now we understand that that's completely impossible on our own.

But we ought to grow to where we sin less.

We won't be sinless, but we can sin less.

And if that's not the case for you, then I would wonder if you were actually saved, if you've actually accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Number two, lukewarm Christians are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not do radical things themselves.

In fact, they call radical what Jesus expects his followers to do.

That term came out.

I remember uh a number of years ago, every VBS was radical, you know.

Radical was the new word, you know.

Um before that, or maybe after that, it was extreme.

Everything was extreme, you know.

Um and we have a tendency to think that, you know, well, if I if I go up, if I go witnessing, that's radical.

It's not really radical, it's what we're supposed to do.

You know?

And we love to, I mean, the books, Christian bookstores are full.

Well, there aren't any Christian bookstores anymore, but if you go online, Christian books are full of stories about people who gave it up, gave everything up to follow Christ or went through great hardship.

And and we love reading those stories.

We just don't want it to happen to us.

We love we love hearing stories about someone who um was was wealthy or was really talented, and then because of some certain circumstances in their life, they lost everything, and then God restored them, and we think, wow, that is so wonderful.

I love this story, I just don't want it to happen to me.

I mean, I don't want to get sick to the point of death where God would heal me.

I love reading that about somebody else.

I just don't want it to happen to me.

And so we go through our lives trying to live as peacefully and as calmly and as comfortably as possible.

We don't want to be radical.

Number three, lukewarm Christians equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness.

But Jesus didn't call us to sanitation, he called us to discipleship.

If you are his follower, your life will not be defined only by avoiding sin, but also by entering into his suffering.

Number four, lukewarm Christians rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends.

Like Charles Spurgeon said, you are either a missionary or an imposter.

I'm not gonna go there.

Um I'll leave that stand on its own.

Lukewarm Christians think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven.

We think about our jobs and our careers and our friends and our possessions and our houses, and we think about all of that stuff, and we get all tied up with that kind of thing and that kind of um thoughts and uh seeking after those things when in reality we're on earth for just a short period of time.

And twenty years after you're gone, nobody's gonna remember what you had.

They may not even remember you, really.

So we need to be thinking about where we're gonna spend the most amount of our time, which is in eternity.

Jesus said, store up treasures in heaven.

Don't store them up on earth where they where they're gonna be gone, but store them up in heaven.

Number six, lukewarm Christians love their luxuries and rarely give to the poor in a truly sacrificial way.

Number seven, lukewarm Christians do not live by faith.

Their lives are structured so that they never have to.

David Platt says, if you're not in a place where you feel desperate for the Spirit of God, then there's no way you are on the front lines of the mission.

When we are on the front lines, we feel desperately our need for God's help.

People will talk about I don't feel very close to God.

Go out and share your faith.

Walk the streets of Syracuse or Baldansville or Fulton or Phoenix and confront somebody with the gospel of Jesus Christ, you'll begin to feel a need for God.

You know, uh in some churches, not so much anymore.

We have, you know, that they'll have a Wednesday night prayer service.

And I heard a pastor say one time, you want to you want to uh increase the need for prayer, cancel your prayer meeting, and send everybody out to go witnessing door to door.

They will pray like they've never prayed before.

You know, we we live comfortably.

We're we're we're kind of like the Laodiceans.

We don't really need Need God, because we have everything we need.

And we don't want anything to challenge that.

We don't want anything to uh to break into that.

We just, you know, we we feel like, well, I'm a good Christian if I don't stir up trouble, if nobody's mad at me, if nobody's angry at me, if I preach sermons that everybody loves, then I'm doing okay.

We don't see that in scripture anywhere.

Number eight, lukewarm Christians give God their leftovers, not their first and best.

Stop calling your complacency and apathy a busy schedule or bills or forgetfulness.

Call it what it is, evil.

We don't give God our best.

When I was a youth pastor, one of my great frustrations was people always wanted to give the youth ministry stuff.

So we would get a call from somebody in the church that would say, we just got a brand new living room suit, and so we would like to give all of the couches to the youth ministry.

You can put them in your youth room or whatever.

Well, number one, they were old and wore out.

Number two, they wanted to give them to the church so we would move them for them.

And I would, and I used to think I would love for somebody to call me up and say, you know what?

We decided that we needed new furniture in a house.

So we went and bought it, but you know what we're gonna do?

We're gonna give the new furniture to the church, and we're just gonna hang on to the old stuff for a while.

Never happens.

Never happens.

And we would, when I was a youth pastor, well, one of the one of the things you never want to do is you never want to be a youth pastor with a truck, okay?

Because everybody wanted to give you stuff just because they wanted to get rid of it and they knew you had a truck, and so you would, and we used to, it used to be here, we would come on a Sunday afternoon, and people would just dump stuff on the walk.

We're donating it to the church.

And we would find all kinds of stuff just on the on the walk.

They were donating it to the church.

They're just, no, they're just getting rid of their garbage.

And they're calling it giving it to the church.

In reality, though, how many of us do that?

We we give God our seconds.

Well, I don't want it anymore, so I'm gonna bless God by giving it to Him.

Enough said.

The good news is that if you find yourself in that situation of being lukewarm, that it can be reversed.

There's uh a few passages of Scripture that remind us of that.

As a matter of fact, in Revelation 3.20, Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.

We often use this verse uh in evangelism to uh to share that uh Christ wants to have a relationship with you.

But in reality, he's not talking to non-Christians, he's not talking to people who haven't heard the church, he's talking to the church.

He's talking to the church of Laodicea, and what he's saying is that, yeah, you you know about me, you're friendly with me, but we don't have a relationship because you're inside the door.

And if you have ever seen that picture uh of Jesus standing at the door and knocking, you'll notice that there is no doorknob on the outside of the door.

You have to open it from the inside.

And Jesus is saying, he's saying, I want to have a relationship with you.

So if you would just open the door to me, I'll come in.

And we will fellowship together and we will eat together.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Malachi 3, 7 gives us this promise: return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

And Psalm 139, 23 through 24, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way, a grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Or other translations, see if there be any sin in me.

Have you ever done that?

I mean, we think we're so we're pretty good.

We've got it together.

I mean, God has blessed us.

But lying on your bed at night, say, God, just search me.

Search me.

See if there's anything in me that offends you.

You see, in reality, the church of Laodicea weren't, they weren't asking that question.

They thought, well, because we're blessed, that means we're good with God.

Because we have everything we need, we're good with God.

And they didn't ask that question.

They didn't say, God, is there something in my life that bothers you, that disturbs you?

And I promise you, I promise you, if you ask that question, he's gonna show you.

People say, Well, God doesn't answer my prayers.

Pray that one.

He'll answer it.

He'll answer it.

Psalm 51, this is a great psalm, the psalm of David.

Uh this is after he fell into sin with Bathsheba.

And he and he writes this: this prayer Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

There's three passages of scripture that you can pray and claim.

And God will reveal to you if you are lukewarm, and God will restore you.

He will make you either a refreshing spring or he will make you therapeutic and sanitary and cleansing.

Being lukewarm can be reversed.

Jeremiah 29, 13.

You seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

It shows effort on the part of the believer.

You have to open the door, you have to pray and ask God to search you.

You have to seek him.

He's there.

He's there, and he wants to have a relationship with you.

But he wants you to pursue him as he has pursued you.

Rick Warren, actually, I got that this this week, and I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Um, five ways to stay hungry for God.

Number one, remind yourself of how much God loves you.

He goes on and says, The more you understand how much God loves you, the more you're going to love Him.

The Bible says in Ephesians 3, 18 through 19, may you have the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Second, he says, stop filling up on junk food.

Stop filling up on junk food.

He says, you are a spiritual being with a God-shaped hole in your heart that only God can fill.

And when you try to fill it with salary, status, success, passion, possessions, power, prestige, or anything other than God, it's not going to be fulfilling.

Proverbs 15, 14 says, a wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash.

Number three, make knowing God your number one goal.

He writes, happiness is a byproduct of knowing God.

Jesus says in Matthew 6, 33, seek first God's kingdom and what God wants, and then all your other needs will be met as well.

Number four, get into God's word every day.

The Bible is food for your soul.

Eating just one meal a week won't keep your body healthy.

In the same way, you need to feel, feed on God's word every day.

You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation.

Cry out for His nourishment.

And I don't want you to feel like, you know, I have to sit down and I have to read an entire chapter, I have to read a couple chapters, or I have to read the Bible through in a year, or whatever.

Do you know that a single verse can speak to you?

Just a single verse can speak to you.

Now, I would encourage you to read as much as you are able to.

And I gotta be honest with you, I've I've mentioned it before.

I'm in a in a Bible reading program, mission119.org, and I've been doing that for 70 some weeks.

I think um 94 is the number of weeks.

And then when I'm done, I plan on starting it again.

And I gotta be honest with you, there are sometimes, like right now, uh uh I've been going through these last few weeks through some of the prophets.

Um, and I read that stuff, and I don't feel like I really get a lot out of it.

But every once in a while there's a verse, there's a nugget, there's something that jumps out at me.

I don't understand all of that, but yet it has become such a part of my life now that if I skip it, I feel like I've missed something.

If if if I go, and and I have, I'll be honest with you, I'm I'm human.

I've I've gone, you know, I haven't wanted to read, and then I've gone a couple weeks and I haven't read, and then all of a sudden, I just feel like my life is just there's just something that's not right.

There's there's something out of whack.

And then God will say, Well, you haven't been in my word.

And then I'll start up again where I left off.

There's there's I can't explain it.

It's something supernatural, something spiritual about the discipline of looking into God's word.

And there are literally thousands of aides to help you with that.

There are a number of um devotionals that you can get online, there are a number of pastors that you can follow, like for example, uh one I would recommend, Dr.

David Jeremiah.

He will send you a devotional every day that you can read.

Um, and you will find application in it.

Just a few minutes a day.

And then what will eventually happen is you'll you'll realize that you have a hunger for it.

I need to do this.

I need to do this.

You don't have to sit down and read through a whole book or a whole chapter or whatever.

Just let me let this be the challenge to you.

No matter where you are in your Bible reading regimen, increase it.

Okay?

Just increase it.

So, in other words, if you don't read the Bible at all, then I would read a verse or two a day.

As a matter of fact, you can sign up and have a verse of the day sent to your phone.

And let that be your and you will you will find as you begin to do that and as you make that a part of your life and a habit, that you'll want more of it.

You'll want more of it.

Get into God's word every day.

And then number five, surround yourself with other believers.

Surround yourself with other believers.

In other words, make church a habit.

Make church a habit.

You say, Well, I don't like other Christians.

That's okay.

They probably don't like you.

But when we come together, you know, uh I heard uh someone say once that Christians are like porcupines on a cold night.

They need each other and they needle each other.

And it's true.

We we need their fellowship.

And the reality is that sometimes they tick us off, they rub us the wrong way.

Sometimes that happens so God can show us something about us that needs to change.

Sometimes that happens so that we can go to someone and say, maybe, I don't know if you're aware of this, but you do this and it kind of puts people off.

If you're by yourself all the time, you'll never know.

You'll never know.

And people like to think that they're very self-aware.

The truth is, none of us are self-aware.

We aren't.

There are things about us that bug people.

There are things that we do that have become a habit that aren't all that great.

And so we need to come together with other people so that we can change as iron sharpens iron.

All right, let me close with this.

Spiritual growth or personal growth doesn't happen without effort.

It doesn't happen.

We we think that growth just comes naturally.

It just happens.

You know, the babies grow naturally.

No.

If you don't feed a baby, it doesn't grow.

If you don't nourish a baby, it doesn't grow.

Watch, I I I love spending time with my grandkids, and and I have two that are uh about one year or or less, and I love I just love spending time with them and watching them.

But they are active, they are working.

Neither of them can walk.

Well, every day they're working at it.

Every day they are strengthening their body, they're working at growing.

It doesn't just automatically happen.

And the same is true with us.

We don't just automatically grow.

I know people that will say, they'll make a statement like, Well, I've been a Christian for 30 years.

No, you're a one-year-old Christian who's just repeated the same year for 30 years.

You haven't grown.

You haven't learned anything.

Yeah, you might be older, but you haven't grown.

And as a matter of fact, when it comes to children and it comes to babies, one of the things that happens is that they take them to a doctor, and the doctor will say, Well, for height, you're 75th percentile, for weight, you're 30 percentile, and then, oh, there's a concern, they're underweight, they're tall, but they're thin.

And so we may we begin to make changes and we begin to look at how we're taking care of those babies.

We we we monitor it, monitor it.

We want them to grow.

You are children of God, God wants you to grow.

He doesn't want just a relationship with you where he says, you know what, I really shouldn't let you into heaven, but you did accept me as your Lord and Savior, but you haven't done anything in your whole life.

You haven't done a thing, you haven't grown.

The Bible is full of references that tell us to what?

To grow, to to become like Jesus.

That doesn't happen automatically, you have to work at it.

So let me ask you some questions.

Number one, are you feeding yourself?

What are you feeding on?

Are you reading things and studying things and participating in things that are causing you to grow, that are challenging you?

Number two, are you exercising?

What are you doing with what you're learning?

Babies exercise all the time.

As a matter of fact, there was uh a number of years ago, there was an article that I read about these football players, and the football players were challenged.

They were put together with toddlers, two-year-olds.

And the challenge was that everything that a two-year-old did, they had to do.

Professional athletes, they were exhausted.

They couldn't keep up with the two-year-olds.

Are you exercising?

Are you are you are you taking what you're learning and what you're studying and trying to apply it to your life?

Number three, are you taking risks?

Are you taking risks?

I love people who say, well, I just don't I just don't feel like I'm growing spiritually.

Open up your home to a Bible study and you lead it.

You want to grow, you'll grow.

Nobody grows more than the teacher.

It's true.

The teacher will grow.

You want to grow and sharing your faith?

Then share your faith.

Sitting through another class isn't really going to help you unless you actually begin to do what you've studied.

Are you taking risks?

Are you putting yourself in situations where you need God?

Or are you just taking it easy and and just doing things that you know you can do?

Number four, are you adding value to those around you?

Are you adding value to those around you?

In other words, who are you who are you pouring your life into?

Who are you taking aside and talking to about the things that you've learned?

The lessons that you've learned in life?

Who are you sharing that with?

And number five, are you growing?

And who are you taking with you?

You know, it's Thing for us to grow personally, uh to grow spiritually, for us to acquire knowledge.

But if you're not imparting that to those around you, it's of little use.

We talk about sharing the gospel.

We talk about sharing our testimony, we talk about sharing our experiences.

They are meant to be shared.

I mean, you can have an experience and you could have learned a lot from it.

But there's no compound value to it if you just keep it to yourself.

And the Bible even says that God allows us to go through certain things in life, allows us to have certain experiences, so that what?

So that we can assist others who may be having that experience.

David shared in a sermon recently about how a woman may go through a miscarriage.

And she can share that experience and what she's learned with another woman who may be going through a miscarriage or has gone through a miscarriage.

I can't do that.

I don't know how to do that.

God has allowed you to go through certain things and has allowed you to learn certain things from those experiences.

So what?

So that you can share them with other people.

And maybe by means of sharing those experiences, you can share your faith and you can lead someone to Christ.

One of the great pleasures I have in life right now is sharing my life experiences with younger men.

And you know what?

It's really not that hard.

It's really not that hard.

We think we have to, you know, we have to structure it.

We have to, you know, it has to be organized or whatever.

Not really.

Just be a friend.

Take somebody out for a burger.

Ask them, hey, how's life going?

How are things going?

Invariably they will begin to share things with you.

And if you don't have anything to offer, at least you can pray for them.

Maybe I should say at most you can pray for them.

But quite often you'll find that, oh, you know what, I I I went through that.

And you're able to share your life with them.

And that's it's really rewarding.

But if you aren't growing, you have nothing to share.

Nobody goes to someone who is intellectually or academically lower than them for advice or spiritually.

You don't do that.

You don't go and say, you know what, that that person is just a loser, and I want to know how they did it.

It doesn't happen.

It never happens.

But when someone sees that you have grown, someone sees that you have changed, someone sees that God has done something in your life, then there's something in them that says, you know what, I want to know how they did it.

There's something different about them, and I want to know what it was, what it is.

They have a peace and a joy that I don't have, and I want to know how to get it.

And that's how we're meant to live our life.

We're not meant to be lukewarm.

We're not meant to coast.

We're not meant to just sit back and enjoy the blessings that God has given us and not be challenged.

I don't know if you're a lukewarm Christian or not.

God will tell you that.

But I know his desire is for you to grow.

And his desire is for you to share what you've learned in your growth journey.

His desire isn't for you to just sit in a pew and hear a sermon once a week.

Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and have it mediocre.

No.

I have come that you may have life and have it to the full, to have it abundantly.

So are you lukewarm?

Maybe.

I think there's a lot of people that are that call themselves Christians that are.

But I'm here to tell you this morning that can change.

That can change.

You say, I want to know what God's will is for my life.

I know his will is for you not to be lukewarm.

Amen.

All right, let's pray.

Father God, we thank you for this word.

We pray that we might find application, that we might pray and ask you to search us, that we might return to you, uh, that we might seek you, that we might strive to deepen our relationship with you and to grow in our personal journey with you.

We pray, Father, that each of us would desire that.

That we wouldn't necessarily look around the room and say, well, they need it and they need it and they need it, but that we would just look inward personally and say, I need it.

And we pray, Father, that we would not be found to be lukewarm, but that we would either be refreshing or that we would be uh soothing and calming in our relationship and in our walk with Christ.

For it's in his name we pray.

Amen.