Douglas Campbell's sermon on 'The Lukewarm Church' centers around the message to the church in Laodicea found in Revelation 3:14-22. Campbell highlights the issues of spiritual lukewarmness and complacency, drawing parallels between the historical church of Laodicea and modern-day believers. He emphasizes that Laodicea was a wealthy city that relied on its riches, causing the church to become self-sufficient and spiritually blind. The sermon warns against letting material wealth and comfort lead to a lukewarm faith, which is displeasing to God. Campbell urges individuals to evaluate their spiritual state, seek true zeal for God, and repent from complacency. He underscores the importance of prioritizing God's truth over worldly desires and being zealous in one's faith. The speaker concludes with a call for Christians to open their hearts to Christ, inviting His presence and guidance.

You would turn with me this morning to Revelation chapter 3. Continue. We'll continue on looking at the letters to the churches found in the beginning of the book of Revelation, specifically this morning looking at the letter to the church in Galea Gaesida, which is the last letter that we come to. And though we come to the last letter, we've recapped several times. And so we know that to each church, these were real specific churches, and these were real specific problems that were going on within these churches and this is historical fact that's laid out before us and these letters to the churches but also as it's within the word of God, we understand that these are different stages that all churches find themselves in at one time or another, usually in different stages and different parts.

And so this morning, as we go through these churches, we must ask ourselves, where are we doing well? The different churches were commended and where are we struggling or where are we failing as a church? As we come to the church in Laodicea, though there were other churches, again, that we've heard positive things said about them, there's nothing positive about the church in Laodicea. And so let's read Revelation 3 14 through 22. Does the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation, I know your works, You are neither cold nor hot.

With that you are 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 sad to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I recruit, I recruit in discipline, so be zealous and repent.

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. 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.

Heavenly Father, thank you this morning again as we come to your word. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the truth as we reside in a world who considers truth to be subjective or open to debate. It can be different for every person. Father, we know that's a world of chaos.

Father, we are blessed beyond measure that we can come to your word and we can find real truth. Father, sometimes that truth is glad to hear others would ponder what Christ has done for his church what he has done for his people and laying down his life for his enemy and redeeming them. And Father, you adopting them as children, as your children, those who once were your enemies and shook their fist at you, Father, you redeem them. What a joyous and amazing thing you've done for us. But Father, we also come to words that we don't like to hear, that are hard to hear.

Yet Father, we need to hear, and it's still truth. So Father, this morning, would you draw us to your word? Would you help us to not discount something simply because it goes against what we like or our lifestyle or our culture, but that Father, we would place it where it rightly belongs, at the top. And that we would evaluate ourselves rightly by the truth and not by a culture and not by our neighbors and father in that would you give us the wisdom to draw near Would you enable us and empower us to be zealous for you? Would you help us to repent?

Father, we throw ourselves at your mercy. Father, please. I'm going to put myself at your mercy. Please. Please bring us to repentance.

Help us with the crying of Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Well, again, that's two weeks ago, I I began looking at a great fragment with you in the letter to the church in Philadelphia. And some of us said these letters can be hard.

They can be hard to hear. They aren't positive. This morning as we come to this one, it's of no exception, this isn't positive in the slightest. And though we oftentimes, we even as we think of meeting we we our culture especially and we love dessert and you hear silly things of maybe not that silly. I don't know the story of the guy who wanted to be put in his coffin when he died and have a fork in his hands when they're on them and ask why do you have a fork in your hand and his response was well when I go out to eat somewhere that's fancy And they take away our food at the after we're done eating and I say, save your fork because the really good stuff is coming and you're going to want your fork for your dessert.

And and his response is, well, when I go to heaven, it's it's one of the really good stuff that's it's my dessert and yeah I don't know why I'm there but we love hearing good things we love hearing positive things it's why people oftentimes will keep teachers up around them such as people like Joel Olsteen that will only say positive things. Why it's what our ears want to hear and sometimes it's good for them to hear. But as you all know if you if you decided today that from now on, your your your lifestyle of fueling your body with food is only going to consist of ice cream and desserts, you'll soon find that you will become very very sick. So God doesn't call shepherds to only feed dessert to. He doesn't call them to only feed milk.

He calls them to feed meat, to feed healthy things. Sometimes things that are hard to hear. Sometimes as children and you have no idea what you're missing if you don't like broccoli and asparagus. Because when you get older, you could, at least for me, you really begin to appreciate those things. But they're good for you.

I believe as you mature in Christ, you begin to desire less deserts and more of the good things. So anyway, I give you a big introduction to say this morning as we come to the word of God, it's it's not desert. It can this is this. I struggle to hold back the tears and even as we sing this morning. How hard is this to hear?

And yet it's good for us and so this morning I pray that we would hear and so we'll we'll we'll start at the beginning in verse fourteen. It says and to the angel of the church in Laodicea writing the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. We oftentimes, I know as a young person, and for quite a long time, I said amen after I prayed, and yet I always saw that as, well that's what people do after they pray. And you don't have to raise your hand, but who even knows what it means? And we can do we can do a quick translation and we could say just on the surface it means It is that is as it is said or it's our affirmation that this is this is correct and as we pray together often times We'll all say amen at the end agreed with what was just prayed But in this culture it's even more than that It's almost the you can have the illustration of when when someone would write maybe a king would write a Proclamation to the people and he would write he probably had a scribe or someone write it down But at the end of it the king what he would do oftentimes is he had a ring with a symbol on it and he would he would dip this they would pour wax onto this paper and he would push his brain onto the wax and his symbol would be embossed into this this letter or this proclamation that would be written and it was essentially it was his amen his confirmation his seal that this is as I've said that it is and this text as it says the words of the amen It means that that Christ is the final.

It is what I say. It is the authority. He is the one who speaks truth. He is the only one. God is the only one who who speaks the truth.

He lays it out before him. This is the way I say it is and we We have silly things to illustrate that with lying. We say, well, how come God can't lie? Because if he was going down the road and he pointed at a cow and he said, that's a giraffe, what happens? It turns into a giraffe.

Right? When he speaks, happens. When he speaks, it is true. And so if it wasn't the draft before, it quickly becomes one instantaneously because he is the amen. He is the faithful and true witness.

He knows what is correct. He is truth. What does the scripture say? I am the way, the truth, the truth. He is the truth.

It's not just that he tells the truth, it's that he actually is the truth. He is the true witness. And finally it says the beginning of God's creation Notice what it doesn't say and I think this is intentional because they're battling within the Laodicea Church more bad theology Such bad theology theology than it's heretical this teaching that we see pop up in and other like the Jehovah Witnesses and different people that says, well, Christ is the first creation. So, what what this means is is that what they would say this means is well when God started creating things the first thing that he created was Christ and if I said that to you not only should the hair on your neck stand up but you should probably come up here the elders especially They should come up here and drag me out of here physically if they need me and say you must stop talking Why because it's heretical The father didn't create the son the father is God the son is God What does it say in the beginning with the word? The word was with God and the word was God.

It's not the beginning of God's creation, but he is in the beginning when God created. It's not that God first created Christ, but that Christ was there, God the Son was there in the beginning, that he actually is, Christ is the creator. He actually did the creating. Why? Because he is God.

And we come back to the Trinity. And so oftentimes, and we've been on this much of the past, I don't want to head out too much today, When we begin to mangle or to just scripture twist inside the Trinity, we quickly find ourselves outside of the truth. And if we find ourselves outside of the truth, It doesn't matter if you believe in a man named Jesus He can't save you because he's not the Jesus that we read of in Scripture one last thought that we've thrown out before. If Christ was created, if he isn't God, he can't withstand the wrath of God. He must be an eternal being or he can't even withstand the punishment that you deserve.

And if he can't withstand the punishment you deserve, he wasn't punished for it. If he wasn't punished for it, you are still in your sins. So we see this combating of the Trinity, that Christ is the final authority. God is the only authority. He is the faithful and true witness.

He tells the truth. In the past, you've seen that he sees with this illustration of all those laser beams coming out of his eyes, because he sees directly to the heart. He isn't deceived by your outer surface. He isn't deceived by your smiles and your false religion. He isn't deceived by any of it.

Though you and I can deceive others. We can put on the face. We can put on the suit. We can be good reformed Baptist and we can even behave really well while there are people around. But in that you are not deceiving Christ.

He knows. He knows how you behave at home. He knows how you treat your wife. He knows how you treat your children. He knows if you're discipling them or not.

He knows if you know him He knows if you pray he knows if you desire him He knows if you read his word he knows if you even care to know him He's a deceived by a changing of the surface. He's the true witness. So let's continue on so we can get to the point. Revelation 3, 15-16. I know your works.

You are neither cold nor hot. With that you are either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth Now when you look at the Greek that word spit I think it's probably a little bit weak it also has we can also translate that I will spew you I will vomit you out of your out of my mouth This it's It's a violent release. It's a violent get you out of my mouth. In this text, it's illustrated to the Laodiceans much about who they are.

Because Laodicea, and we'll come to this next verse, Laodicea was a very wealthy city. It was the wealthiest, I think there's three major, big wealthy cities. I think that it was probably the wealthiest of all three of those cities. One thing that, the one problem they had is their water system wasn't adequate for the number of people that lived there. And so when we think of their wealth, and I think of, let me come back to the water.

I think it was around 60 or 70 AD, there was a massive earthquake that laid hold to Laodicea and did much destruction to the city. And Laodicea did something that I've never heard of before. You know what Laodicea did? When the federal, the governor of that area came and offered assistance, Laodicea's response was, we don't need your help. We've got this.

You forgot governor, we're the wealthy people here. We don't need the help of the state or the help of the federal government. Now imagine that. Just a few years ago, and it's probably been several years even now, there was a state as you know, I'm not going to be political in this, but there was a state on the west coast who was having much discussion about potentially seceding from the union because they hated our president so bad. And it was on the news one night And people were saying, well, they're going to be serious about this.

And I'm like, yeah, who cares? Anyway, what was comical about it all was, like a week later, they had the wildfires. And they were applying to the federal government for assistance in helping with these wildfires. Wait, a week ago, you didn't want to, we were so terrible that you didn't want to be a part of us, and now you're wanting help. That wasn't the day they see it.

Now You guys know government well enough. Can you envision that? How our government offers to help and someone says, no, we don't want your filthy money. That's Laodicea. This isn't just the church, this is the town as a whole.

And so Laodicea was very, very wealthy. They envisioned there was no problem they would come against that they couldn't fix on their own. They didn't need outside help. The one problem that the NSC did have though, coming back to the water system, is that the water that they could get wasn't enough or substantial for the number of people that lived there. And so, though they had some cities on both sides of them, one city was supplied in their water by hot springs, and these hot springs, you know, caused them to have good water.

And then on the other side of them, there was a city that was fed by by cold water. I can't remember exactly if it was a spring or or something like that, but they also had good water. Laodicea had not the water that was needed and so they said we can fix this we have money right and so what they did is I think it was around five miles they created an aqueduct system that would have water travel for five miles to their city. And what would happen during this five mile travel? If any of you've ever played in a creek, you'll know that most of the time, creeks are cooler than it is outside.

Especially a spring-fed Creek can be really cold. If you've ever canoed along and got close to where the spring feeds in a creek and you jumped out of your canoe, you'll quickly find that this is really cold water. But if you were to travel that water through an aqueduct system for five miles, what happens to the water, it's not cold anymore. And not only is it not cold anymore, this is an unnatural transportation of the water. And so anytime we typically do anything unnatural with transporting water, we get all kinds of stuff in it, and bugs, and in our culture we get all the chemicals coming out of the things that we make.

Anyway, that was the water in Laodicea. Have you guys ever drank water from a creek? I'm sure somebody has. Pete has. So if you drink water from a spring fed Creek right near the spring, it's usually really good water.

But if you drink water from a creek that's been traveling for a while, is it the tastiest water you've ever tasted, Pete? No, but I'm glad I did it. Right, right. It can really have some taste and not pleasant. And that's what was going on in Laodicea.

It was said that people that would come from nearby cities, they were so used to their water and when they would come to Laodicea and If they got a drink of water, then many people would instantly spit it out of their mouth because it was so disgusting. I took up some rabbit trail there, so let's get back on track. So God's given them an illustration. He's not talking about water. He's talking about their faith.

He's talking about their life in Christ. He says, neither are you cold, cold, actually, and meaning not you're You're not blasting me. You're not you're not teaching the world atheism You're not like you're not outright just assaulting me here But on the other hand, you're not you're not you're not even living for me you're not serving me you're not you're simply just going through the motions because you're either of these two you're you have a form of godliness but lack the power thereof you have a form of religion but but it's but you're not zealous. It's just something you do on Sunday morning. It's just something that you think about from time to time, but there is no zeal.

What does god say? I will spew you out just like everyone spews the water out when they taste it here. There's something about luke warm Christianity. That's disgusting to god. I would ask you this morning, are you zealous for the lord?

Are you zealously seeking after him are you as the Pearsons would say, are you chasing after him with violence? With all of your heart. We say that all the time, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Is that you? Or do you have a form of godliness that's just okay with coming to church on Sunday and moving on about your life?

That form of Christianity is repugnant to the God who saves. Why is it repugnant? Because if God truly saved you, your life is now to glorify Him. It's not to keep on living as you've lived before It's not to keep on putting all of your priorities where the world puts the priorities But it's to glorify God now I Want you to hear this really well. I want you to this this is the Theologians would call this a central interpretive motif which is long words for this is what everything The lens that you should look at everything in life or if you're in Christ It is is this glorifying to God?

It's in its in stark contrast to what it was before you do Christ. What was the lens before you knew Christ? Do I like this Is this going to benefit me? But the real question for those who are truly in Christ does this glorify God Yeah, do I desire him Do I desire for his name to be glorified above all? So, I think that's what happens in the lukewarm and there are many who would say this this church of Laodicea.

It's only a title church. It actually wasn't the church because they believed that there were no believers there because they were all in war. They were doing Christian things. They just weren't in Christ. They just didn't know Christ.

So what has led to this? I think we find that in this very plainly in this next verse. Revelation 3.17 says, 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 believe it was their riches that caught their eye. It was their riches that caused them to not see correctly.

It was their riches that provided for their comfort, for not just their needs, but also for the things that they liked, the things that they had. And this very understanding or this very concept of who they were, the entire city was rich and the church inside that city was rich. It didn't need things. It doesn't point out specific heretical things that they were diving into because it's assumed. It's assumed that they're already far enough down the road that We don't have to mention these things anymore that they are way down the path But they have money Now hear me when the Bible says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to go to heaven.

It says it's extremely difficult, it's not impossible. And I think this is why it's extremely difficult because it changes who you are. It changes the way you think. And this morning, what makes this so hard to digest, what makes this so hard to wrestle with is this. Is that in America, you are rich.

And I am rich. When the Bible speaks of the rich man, it's you. It's not the guy sitting next to you, it's you and the guy sitting next to you and your preacher. We are the rich. And our riches make us think that we need nothing in the in the book Triumph of the Lamb which is a commentary on the book of Revelation It talks about something that I actually hadn't heard before, but it was written on or a PBS show was put on and then a book later was written about it in 1997 and it was a term called affluenza.

It says in the commentary, it says affluenza was coined to describe a late 20th century North American syndrome. And Sikaval something defines it as an array of psychological maladies such as isolation, boredom, passivity, and lack of motivation engendering in adults, teenagers, and children by the possession of great wealth. And it's an unhappy condition of overload, death, anxiety, and a waste resulting from the dog pursuit of more. We find this spoken of a little later in Revelation in 18 verse 3, it says, For all nations have drunk the wine of the passions of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, And the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. And verse seven in chapter 18, it says, and she glorified herself and lived in luxury.

So give her a like measure of torment and mourning. Since in her heart she says, I sit as a queen, I am no widow and mourning I shall never see there's something about being rich that causes us to think that we don't need God and we don't need help. The strangeness that we think is normal in America where we suffer from all these psychological conditions. I can't remember what the, I don't know what the statistics is that I I think it's almost 50% of people are on some side some sort of psychological drug in the richest country in the world you know where that percentage isn't high? In third world countries.

I believe it's our riches that make us sick. We grow accustomed to all kinds of good things. In America, I think we have the record for even the amount of trash we throw away. Why? Because the boxes keep showing up, the stuff keeps showing up.

America has the problem, we even have TV shows of the pack rats that save everything and acquire and acquire and acquire and it's never enough. The only time that you see these people off behind a squirm isn't when someone twists scripture and isn't when theology is mangled, but when their piece of junk that's stored in the back room comes close to a dumpster, they're consumed with stuff. Friends, it's very likely that you and I are consumed with stuff. We turn our TVs on on Black Friday and we see people punching each other in the face. Over $50 off of a big screen TV.

This is America. There was a time in my life where we thought it was better to do this. This is when I was newly married. I said, you know, if we just keep the paper plates stocked, It's way easier. Because who wants to wash a fleet?

We just keep throwing away, we keep buying and throwing away, we keep accumulating and accumulating. There are people, people that I love, that go to a store needing nothing. In fact, in that book that was written, I haven't read much of it, but I read a little bit of it just to see what it was about as I speak about it today. And it tells stories of people who would go to the store and actually say before they go in, they need nothing. And come out with an entire shopping cart full because they found a deal.

It's American consumerism. If you remember right after 9-11, what was one of our chief responses? Politicians, the president came on TV and he said, we have to keep on living. We have to, they struck the Twin Towers, but we have to show them that we won. Go out and spend your money.

Keep spending and that's the answer over and over. Go out there and spend it. What's the answer to the inflation and the economy problems? The problem when the economy starts to tank is because Americans stop spending like they're drunk monkeys with a credit card. Friends that's me.

I don't need 99% of the stuff I have. And to be honest with you, we go to the next best thing we want and we use it for a couple of days and we put it in the back room and then it's on to the next thing we want. All brothers and sisters around the world are hoping they can come up with rice. Trying to survive on a dollar a day. I've got the latest radio.

This is us. I believe one of the great things that has happened to the Church in America is precisely this. Our prosperity has destroyed us. Look at 2 Chronicles 1, 7 through 12. Let's read about the wisest man who ever lived.

It says, in that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ask what I shall give you and Solomon said to god, you have shown great and steadfast love to David my father and have made me king in his place. Oh, lord god, let your word to David, my father be now fulfilled For you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before the people for whom, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great." So God told Solomon to ask God for something and here's this is Solomon's response. It's not God give me a million billion dollars. We would say when we were a kid.

It's God give me wisdom and so God answered Solomon because this was in your heart and you have not asked for possessions Well honored or the life of those who hate you and have not even asked for a long life But have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king wisdom and knowledge are granted to you I will also give you riches possessions and honor such as none of the kings had who were before you and none after you shall have the light. So, god said, not only will I give you wisdom and knowledge, I'm going to give you a prosperity of which no one has had before. So, for all of you who aspire great wealth, Solomon should have been a happy guy, right? He not only had as much wisdom and knowledge more than any other person in the world, but he also now has everything he wants. Isn't that the key to happiness, Americans?

All we have to do is look at Solomon at the end of his life. We look at Ecclesiastes, probably the most depressing book in the Bible, written by Solomon. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me at Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me and whatever my eyes desired I did not keep them from them." So what did he do? He pretended he was American.

He just got whatever he wanted. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all of my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done, and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity. With this word's names, young people, all of it was worthless. It was striving after the land, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

So he says I had everything I wanted. I could get whatever I want. He found pleasure in his toil, pleasure in his work. Because when he worked, he got whatever he wanted. And at the end of it all, he said, it's all meaningless.

It's all a chasing after the wind he further defines in chapter 5 verse 10 he who loves money will not be satisfied with money nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. We see it played out before us. No matter how rich we become, we have to have more. We see it well illustrated in our politicians.

Do you know why they keep scoundreling and keep stealing and manipulating and doing these things even after they have millions of dollars? Do you know why they keep doing it? Because it's never enough. That thirst will never be quenched. And brothers and sisters, if your life is a chasing after fame and money and fortune it will never punch you this is Solomon's deep issue Solomon is extremely depressed because he looks back on his life and he thought he wanted above all, he wanted to be happy and everything he tried didn't work.

And so he gives a solution to this problem. What is the solution to the problem? What's what? What's the problem? It's chasing the wrong thing.

We have lots of fake happiness from chasing the world. Solomon should have been chasing Christ. He should have been chasing God. It's only there that he would find true happiness. And Ecclesiastes 9 through 10 is, so here's Solomon's, the wisest man in the world.

If you think you're wise enough to have tons and tons of money, I would say that idea is not wise. But look what he says. Here's his solution. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life, and your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going.

You chase after the things of the world, you'll find that it's meaningless. So Solomon takes his advice, his own advice. Verse Kings 11, 11, 1 through 8. We find that he starts to marry lots of women, has 700 wives, 300 concubines, begins to serve the gods of his foreign wives that he should have never taken. Brothers and sisters, I don't even know if Solomon's a lieutenant.

Why is this man in the world? I don't know. That's why I ask you. I begin to think where are the pitfalls for us? Specifically, the pitfalls for those who do know theology The pitfalls for reformed Baptists like me And I believe it's the same as partially the same with all of us.

What are you chasing? This morning I had a discussion with a brother a couple of weeks ago. Express my disdain for dressing up. Do you know why I dress up? Because the Bible says that I should be of all things to all men.

I should live appealing to my culture as long as it's not sinful. This is what my culture expects. But many cultures couldn't afford these clothes. This morning, if you can't afford these clothes, you are in no way less in my eyes. In fact, I would rather sit down with people wearing KMO and BIVD overalls because Then I don't have any surface levels, as much surface level stuff to get through.

I just want to know you. What was Solomon's problem? Solomon's problem wasn't that he had stuff, it was that his stuff had him. Do you need this stuff? Are you using money to comfort yourself and to look warmness?

Are you doing as Solomon did? Solomon points out that he worked hard, and we appreciate that. We look into a world who, it seems, that young people, for the most part, don't want to work hard. We appreciate hard work, and rightly so. Many of you, if not all of you work hard for your families and that's commendable unless it gets to the point where you're neglecting what you're supposed to be to give what's not needed.

What's needed, what do I need to do? I don't want to take crazy long. What do I need to do as a man for my family? I need to provide them food, clothes, and shelter. I don't have to provide them cars.

Don't have to provide them the latest clothes. I don't have to provide them name brand clothes. And some of those sometimes those things are okay. But to do these things, so I understand because I grew up, I'm at an age where some of my friends said to me, they said these things and I even agreed with them and I do it to some extent they said I grew up with nothing and so I'm going to work hard so my kids can have the things that I didn't If you think that way this morning, hear me with all of the love I can give you. That is absolute silliness.

Stop it. You're going to create lukewarm kids. Your kids should earn the things that they have. If they do no chores and yet they get all the latest things, you are creating lukewarm children. But if you're working to an extent where you're neglecting the discipling of your family, you're neglecting to spend time with them you're consumed all the time with work work work work work and and as men do and I know that's not what me yet we look back and we say well I said I loved you because look at all the things I gave to you that is silliness stop it Stop working so that you can have an abundance.

Turn your children's eyes to Christ. Turn your wives eyes to Christ. Turn your eyes to Christ. He will be deceived. I look back to, I can't remember who the Puritan was, but he was teaching at a college and it was just a biography they wrote of him and they said that he made for his time, colleges wanted him so bad that they would just keep paying him more and more and more and he made a substantial amount of money at the time, but people looked at him and they said they never saw this played out.

They never saw, and so often we hear about it in our culture too, where someone, they die and they have lots of money, yet they never had. The way they dressed, we thought they were scraping pie. What was interesting about this Puritan theologian who taught, is they would pay him more and more and more and when he died One day he passed away and they started to go through his things. He lived in just a small room and they started to clean it out and figure it all out. And at the end of it, they tallied up and they discovered that At the end of all of this, he had about $5 to his name.

Why? Because he glorified God and not indulging himself, not spending it on every little thing that he wanted, but it all went to the work of God's kingdom. I'm not saying you have to do that but if Christ today told you sell all you have, come follow me. Is that viable? Is that viable?

How many of you live for one because of our riches? Is it good for us? Is it good for us to have bills coming up and we don't have any idea how we're going to pay them? It actually is. Some of the times in my life where I have horrified God in tears.

So I have a big bill coming up and I have no way to pay it. And a guy I did work for three years ago decided that all of a sudden he decided that he was going to pay me. I went to the post office the day that I had to pay the bill. And here's a check. This is good for us brothers and sisters.

So I work long. Revelation 3 18-19, here's the solution. If you're lukewarm, if you find that you're lukewarm today, here's what it says, 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 in shame, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and sad to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

Be zealous for the lord. Desire him more than you desire the latest gadgets. Desire him more than you desire the latest shirt. Desire him more than you desire stuff. Be zealous.

Be the opposite of lukewarm. It's, as a pastor, it's troubling. Many of you, I know some of you know that I don't sleep well I've gotten lots of advice, you know how if Do you want to help me sleep well? Anybody want to help me? He's zealous for the lord.

How will I make me sleep well? Oh, sisters. Doesn't mean to be lukewarm. God says this church, this house, this will be a house of prayer. A year or two ago, I decided I wanted to have a time of prayer before Sunday school.

I regularly, regularly posted it. There was one person that came. About the entire time. It's a flashing sign of a holy formed church. In the American church if a young man gets zealous for the Lord we think he's an exception and he should be a preacher.

It's not the case all the time. He's just being a normal Christian. In America we call him zealous, we call them extremists, we call them on fire. And typically within churches we have swamp roots that become zealous. And then the rest of the church looks at those as, well those are the insiders.

If you're a member of this church, you are an insider. Stop pretending you're not. Be zealous for Christ. Be zealous for your brothers and sisters. Revelation 3, 20 through 22.

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 be with me the one who conquers I will grant him to sit with me on the throne also 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. Brothers and sisters this isn't talking about those pictures that you see where Christ is knocking gently on the door and there's not a doorknob on his side That's just silliness. This is talking to the church. It's saying to the Laodicean Church, if any of you would repent and stop this, you can come and be a part of the real church. You can have fellowship with me.

This is speaking to a church. We we just read just previous that it's Christ who opens the door and it's he who shuts it and nobody else We can't forget about even within the same chapter and apply this where we've forgotten about everything else and just say well God's just gently knocking on my heart hoping I will come to my senses. That's not what this is teaching To be sent into a lukewarm church, will you repent? I'm not saying you have to live on baloney. But in America, we're well beyond that.

Let America work well beyond that. Finally, let me share one last thing. When we get into the cycle of constantly consuming, constantly buying, constantly working. One thing it does to men, especially, is it begins to dull our time with the Lord. It begins to eliminate it.

Paul Washer had a quote that resonated deeply with me just a week or two ago. He said, one of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to make you busy, to make you hurried, to make you noisy, to make you distracted, to fill the people of God and the Church of God with so much noise and activity that there is no room for prayer, There's no room for being alone with God. There's no room for silence. There's no room for meditation. I believe this is what, this is what, when we begin to trust in our riches, and we get into the American lifestyle, working like crazy so we can have more stuff, This is usually what is neglected.

And when this is neglected, we begin to not follow it. When we begin to not follow it, we begin to do silly things like Solomon. When we do silly things like Solomon we find on the path of destruction. I've spoke of this much in our culture. Some of you are already uneasy because that was too much silence.

Is there silence in your life? I'm to a point, some of you already know this, I'm to the point where I'm almost ready to say that I hate cell phones. Why? Because They just make us busy unnecessarily most of the time. I almost don't like regular phones, but I can see they have a place.

Friends, do you work all day and then come home and talk on your phone about work all night? I think you're lacking your family. For what? For more stuff. I hit on this hard because I think though we see that good work is good, but I think because of the culture we often times slingshot into the other ditch.

Now we neglect all the things that, lots of things we should be doing because we're consumed with work. We're consumed with stuff. Does anybody notice phone number 845-4371 is? Pete my man. Nobody knows?

You probably know. Maybe Pete would. That was my grandparents phone number. Brody, do you know what your grandparents phone number is? Do You know why?

Your smart device has made you dumb. I don't know anybody else's phone number. All of you can relate because you used to know lots of people's phone numbers and now you don't. You also can't remember lots of things because you don't need to. Your brain is like your arms.

If you don't exercise them, they don't work very well. Anyway, I'm going off the deep end. How do we get out from under this consumer lifestyle? So it also translates, I was going to hit on this, I'll do it briefly, it also translates into the church. People come and go, they find the church, they leave a church, they come here and they evaluate the church.

I had people, my users come and tell me about a church. And I'll say, hey, I've been going to this new church. I'm like, oh, tell me about it. And they'll tell me about the music. And I'm like, OK, what was the message about?

Well, I'm not sure. Why did you pick that church? Well, their music is good. Oh, you're a consumer. You're an American.

How do we evaluate a church? Am I going to be discipled here? Are they preaching the word of God? Does the Bible hold authority? Doesn't matter what the music sounds like.

Hopefully they try. Hopefully they don't repeat seven words 11 times. Because we're not getting any teaching there, right? Anyway, are you busy? Are you too busy?

One last final comment. When I was a kid we had a phone in our house and when it rang we picked it up. You know why? It might not be there an hour. That translates into Now everyone has cell phones.

If it rains, it has voicemail. You don't have to pick it up. And it's actually good. If you're busy with your family, it's good. If I'm with my wife, I love all of you, but not as much as I love my wife.

So she gets my attention. I'm discipling my children. This is more important than most things in the world. So they get my attention. Just backing up, I'm not trying to rant.

We have to have priorities. So I'd ask you, the things that you do, is it because of the culture, is it because of consumer mindset, or is it because it's glorifying the God? We have three walls. Pete remembers a time where he didn't go to the store and get an orange. We have all kinds of food varieties.

We can go to the Chinese place and eat some amazing... I remember Luke said last week, he said, that's a flavor I've never experienced before. And he did because, like myself, Luke is rich. Is it making us Luke one? Or is it glorifying God?

Why does this to repent? This morning as my toes bleed, I pray that I repent. I pray that we repent. And we go our five gods together. Amen?

Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for my brothers and my sisters. Father, would you take the blinders off of our eyes?

Would you help us to see in truth? Would you help us to not be comforted to the point that we begin to believe that we are sufficient. We can take care of our own problems. Although what that never translated into our sin, we think by our goodness we can somehow solve the problem of being reconciled to a holy God. I will draw us, I pray.

I will glorify you for your blessings. Your blessings will glorify you knowing that it's you who provides. I just glorify you in our reading of the Father at Brian Christy.