I know you well—you are neither hot nor cold; I wish you were one or the other! But since you are merely lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth! “You say, ‘I am rich, with everything I want; I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that spiritually you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
My advice to you is to buy pure gold from me, gold purified by fire—only then will you truly be rich. And to purchase from me white garments, clean and pure, so you won’t be naked and ashamed; and to get medicine from me to heal your eyes and give you back your sight. I continually discipline and punish everyone I love; so I must punish you unless you turn from your indifference and become enthusiastic about the things of God. Revelation 3:15-19 TLB
In his commentary on this passage, Guzik writes, “Satan will have us any way he can get us, but he prizes a lukewarm religionist far above a cold-hearted sinner.”
William Newell in his commentary said, “The Laodiceans put their trust in material prosperity, in outward luxury, and in physical health. They felt like they didn’t need anything. The loss of a sense of need, as the drowsiness that besets a freezing man, is fatal.”
On this first post of 2023, I am here to sound the alarm as your pastor and stir ALL of us up this morning to a great awakening.
For almost three years, the enemy has put us into a spiritual unconsciousness that has allowed us to become cold and indifferent in our relationship with God.
We have accepted casual church.
We have accepted casual prayer.
We have accepted casual worship.
We have accepted casual commitment.
We have accepted casual evangelism.
We have accepted casual attendance.
We’ve done all of this and more. Our normal changed. As a result, we have become spiritually sluggish, tired, weary, lazy, slothful, and inactive.
The enemy has rocked us asleep.
The good news is that I feel like I am not the only one that God has been speaking to about this.
The Lord has already been nudging many of you – nudging you to get up and get back to where you once were. He’s prompting us to wake out of our sleep.
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Romans 13:11-14
One of the things I recently started doing is taking the time to unsubscribe from unwanted emails. I can’t even begin to tell you how many distracting, annoying, and unnecessary messages I get in my inbox every day. And the companies do not make unsubscribing easy! They make it the smallest font possible on the bottom of their website and some companies even put the unsubscribe button crunched in-between other text so that it is harder to find. Then, when you finally hit unsubscribe, you have to answer questions about why you want to leave and then confirm you still want to leave.
All that and I am still getting unwanted emails! It is a process, but I am not giving up!
What are you needing to unsubscribe from in this life that has been a distraction to you long enough?
What has made your commitment cold or indifferent with God that needs be shaken?
Where have you become causal in your relationship with God?
What do you need to change this morning?
What do you need to unsubscribe from?
If you have fallen asleep, I am here to wake you up. If you have been dozing off, I am here to shout at you.
Now’s the time to shake ourselves and wake us up from the slumber we’ve been in for the past three years. Now’s the time to recommit some things to the Lord. Now’s the time to unsubscribe from what’s been filling our lives with clutter and distraction.
