To Encourage You

Revelation 3:15-19 “I know your works: you are neither 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.”

Is your church a nice place?  Is it a place where you feel good as soon as you enter its doors?  Is it a place where nice singing is heard, and nice sermons are preached, and people are nice to each other?  Is it a place that you enter feeling good and where you leave feeling even better?  Is it a place where nothing ever really changes along these lines, where you are comfortable and where you know what to expect? If it is, it might be a place exactly like the church described in Revelation 3 above.

Jesus called this church “lukewarm,” and one that He was about to spit out of His mouth.  It made Him want to vomit. Can you imagine Jesus saying something like that about a church? Well, He did, and His words to that church were meant to be heard by all churches in the ages to come. 

Jesus expects the church to be a place of great zeal – of passionate love and a fiery spirit consumed with Him and all the things for which He is zealous.  He came to save the world and He was so passionate about this that He was willing to give His life for it.  So is that the attitude of your church?  Do you pray with fervency to reach the lost? Are you known as a place that loves people and that tells others about the gospel? Does your pastor preach against sin, which is an affront to a holy God, and do you sense a conviction of sin in your own life when he speaks?  Do you know there are things that you need to change in your life because of the things in the Word that he is speaking about and reminding you of?  Are you telling others about Jesus? Is the message of salvation on the tip of your tongue, and are you “always ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15)?  If not, then why not? 

Jesus spoke to the Laodicean church in no uncertain terms in Revelation 3.  He wanted to shake them out of their self-satisfaction and move their hearts to the place where His is – zealous for God and not satisfied until we are consumed with fulfilling His will for our lives.   If that’s where we are and if that truly describes the place where we meet to worship, then “nice” may not describe us but in the end, that is probably a very good thing.  And if that doesn’t describe the place where we worship, then maybe we need to ask, what is the point of being there?