How Do I Tell If I Am Lukewarm?
Chapters
0:00:41 What Is Lukewarmness
6:4 How Do You Get the Wealth of Christ
8:54 How Do You Buy Gold When You'Re Broke
00:00:00.000 | Welcome back everybody. Well, what is
00:00:06.400 | lukewarmness and what barometer would we use to gauge whether or not we are lukewarm ourselves?
00:00:13.320 | Pastor John offered a clear definition and a gauge for us to use in his sermon on
00:00:19.880 | Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 to 22, a text that includes Jesus's words to the church in Laodicea
00:00:27.320 | where he says they are "lukewarm and neither hot nor cold."
00:00:33.640 | And then of course Jesus threatens to spit them from his mouth in Revelation 3.16
00:00:39.480 | It's a haunting text. So what is
00:00:42.840 | Lukewarmness? Here's Pastor John to explain in a sermon he preached way back in 1983
00:00:49.120 | The essence of lukewarmness is the sentence. I don't need it. I
00:00:55.160 | Need nothing. I
00:00:57.160 | Have enough of Jesus. I walked the aisle one day and he came into my heart and I have him I don't need anything
00:01:02.280 | The lukewarm are spiritually self-satisfied
00:01:08.680 | To find out whether you are among that number now
00:01:13.120 | Don't look in your head and ask whether you think that you're a sinner because you all do you've been well taught
00:01:23.360 | The way to tell whether you are among the number of the spiritually self-satisfied is to look at your
00:01:31.120 | prayer life
00:01:33.760 | There's the barometer
00:01:36.240 | To tell whether we are in the bondage to spiritual self-satisfaction
00:01:40.120 | The question is how frequently how earnestly how?
00:01:46.880 | expectantly how
00:01:49.480 | Extendedly do you strive with God to have a deeper knowledge with Christ?
00:01:55.560 | greater earnestness in prayer
00:01:58.120 | more boldness in witness
00:02:00.480 | Sweeter joy in the Holy Spirit. Do you long for deeper sorrow for sin warmer compassion for the lost?
00:02:08.240 | More divine power to love are you going after God in your prayer life?
00:02:13.440 | hard every day often long and if not, that's the barometer of
00:02:20.200 | Whether you're spiritually self-satisfied
00:02:22.800 | Not what you think about yourself in your head
00:02:26.680 | Does the coolness and the perfunctory nests of your prayer life?
00:02:33.360 | stack up to exhibit a
00:02:36.320 | That you are spiritually
00:02:39.000 | Satisfied and
00:02:43.000 | therefore
00:02:44.320 | lukewarm and therefore on the verge of being
00:02:47.880 | spit out of his mouth
00:02:50.400 | Now Jesus has a word to you and to me
00:02:54.720 | If we think we need nothing at the beginning of 1983 if there's no sense of desperation in our hearts
00:03:02.440 | for change
00:03:05.000 | People who think that it's a bit mellow dramatic a little overdoing it a little bit
00:03:11.760 | to
00:03:13.320 | Have an all-night
00:03:14.960 | Prayer meeting and Friday as though there were some
00:03:18.360 | Volcano about to come down upon us
00:03:21.280 | Well, there is in verse 14 and 15 a volcano about to come down on lukewarm people
00:03:28.440 | here's what Jesus word of
00:03:31.280 | Assessment is you are in fact wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked
00:03:39.600 | Now remember that's Jesus talking. I didn't choose those words for sermonic effect
00:03:44.640 | Those are the words of Jesus. That's the way he looks down through that ceiling upon churchgoers
00:03:50.360 | Who don't have any passion for change in?
00:03:54.560 | your life
00:03:57.000 | Who are quite content to go on day in and day out with two minutes with the Lord?
00:04:00.960 | And such churchgoers if they don't begin to do something to change will eventually be spit out of his mouth now
00:04:08.000 | That's the threat and that's the indictment here comes in verse 18 the council
00:04:13.480 | counseling is big business today and
00:04:16.240 | Many of you with me are involved in it and I just want to say in passing
00:04:22.280 | Don't just read books about counseling study the master counselor
00:04:27.740 | See that word counsel there in verse 18. This is counseling at its best
00:04:33.320 | fret
00:04:35.800 | promise
00:04:37.080 | We're gonna see the sweetest promise you ever heard before we're done. But before he gets there
00:04:42.120 | The awful threat here comes the council the word in between what are they to do?
00:04:46.820 | Therefore I counsel you buy from me gold refined by fire that you may be rich
00:04:53.600 | White garments to clothe you keep your shame your nakedness from being seen and salve to anoint your eyes that
00:05:01.920 | You may see
00:05:04.640 | Christ's will for the church is not to spit it out
00:05:07.760 | His will for the church is that our poverty be replaced with wealth
00:05:12.080 | That our nakedness and shame be clothed with robes of righteousness and obedience
00:05:16.120 | And that our blindness be healed so that we see like God sees and assess everything
00:05:23.320 | the way he does
00:05:25.640 | There's only one place where we can get that gold those garments and that medicine and that's Jesus himself
00:05:32.440 | And that's why he says buy
00:05:34.440 | from me
00:05:36.640 | gold
00:05:38.320 | now
00:05:39.520 | How do you buy gold when you're broke?
00:05:41.520 | He just said you are poor
00:05:45.600 | blind
00:05:47.800 | naked
00:05:49.080 | miserable wretched
00:05:51.080 | not only
00:05:53.080 | poor
00:05:54.720 | Not only broke but blind you can't do any work. You can't earn any money when you're blind
00:06:00.280 | And not only blind naked you can't even go out of your closet
00:06:04.200 | How do you get the wealth of Christ?
00:06:07.760 | robes of righteousness and obedience and power to love
00:06:12.600 | Sav to make us wise with the wisdom of God when you can't even go out of your closet
00:06:19.360 | The answer is in verse 20 you don't go out of your closet you open the door and let Jesus in
00:06:28.720 | Behold I stand at the door and knock
00:06:31.880 | if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and eat with him and
00:06:39.920 | He with me
00:06:42.200 | now that verse
00:06:44.200 | Can be applied with
00:06:47.160 | Legitimacy to
00:06:50.840 | unbelievers
00:06:52.080 | But that's not its meaning here
00:06:54.880 | I want to drive that home that verse is addressed to Luke warm
00:06:59.960 | Christians who think they have Christ
00:07:04.160 | Sufficiently and he's just out there knocking on the door of the Christians heart
00:07:10.680 | It's addressed to Luke warm Christians who think they don't need any more of Christ. We've got his riches. We've got his garments
00:07:18.120 | We've got his medicine and he says you don't you're poor blind miserable
00:07:21.000 | naked and pitiable
00:07:24.680 | People who keep the door shut on the most inner room of their lives
00:07:28.480 | People who want to keep the Lord on the porch and deal with him like a salesman
00:07:33.320 | You might want to buy the thing, but you don't want him to come in
00:07:37.480 | Mixed up in the deep places of your life
00:07:41.800 | Christ did not die to purify a bride
00:07:47.400 | Who would keep him on the porch while she watches TV and then?
00:07:53.120 | His will for the church is that we open the door all
00:07:57.600 | the doors of
00:08:00.720 | Our lives he wants to join you
00:08:03.640 | This is that sweet promise
00:08:06.160 | He wants to join you in the dining room of your life light a candle spread the table
00:08:13.120 | Sit down with you
00:08:15.440 | Talk for an hour
00:08:17.760 | Just try to imagine the favorite meal you've ever enjoyed with the nearest and dearest friend you've ever had
00:08:24.080 | That's the experience Jesus wants with everybody in this room, and he's knocking right now and asking for it
00:08:31.920 | Wouldn't you take the time for me, please an hour?
00:08:35.240 | So that I can eat with you and you with me and when Jesus Christ
00:08:41.360 | Comes into the room he brings with him all the gold all the garments and all the medicine in the world
00:08:49.440 | To have Jesus is to have everything
00:08:53.480 | So how do you buy gold when you're broke?
00:08:56.720 | You pray
00:08:59.880 | You start opening all the doors of the deep recesses of your life
00:09:03.920 | and you appeal to him to come into every single sphere and
00:09:08.440 | Be at home and sup with you and you with him I
00:09:11.760 | Just confess very personally there is an intimate communion and fellowship with Jesus
00:09:18.000 | I crave in 1983 this sermon is a sermon for me. I'm not I'm not damning you I
00:09:25.280 | Preach the way I do because I want so bad
00:09:29.040 | to have the fullness of Jesus Christ
00:09:33.440 | more than I've known him before and I want us to share it as a
00:09:37.480 | congregation and
00:09:40.600 | When he comes and dwells in the innermost room of our affections. There's gonna be power
00:09:47.080 | Power to love
00:09:50.560 | That's what we all want more than anything
00:09:52.440 | I said on New Year's Eve power to overcome all the crummy desires that pull us around by the nose and
00:10:00.320 | Floored it over us when Jesus comes in and has dinner with you by candlelight
00:10:05.200 | You've got power to overcome all the allurements of the world
00:10:10.040 | powerful excerpt from Pastor John sermon on Revelation 3
00:10:13.800 | 14 to 22 titled how to buy gold when you're broke
00:10:18.680 | I love that title how to buy gold when you're broke you appreciate it on January 2nd
00:10:24.120 | 1983 you can find the entire message right now free of charge at desiring God org
00:10:30.200 | This is a clip I like it's the one I found while listening to Piper sermons
00:10:34.840 | And if you have a favorite sermon clip from Pastor John's ministry send it to me
00:10:39.200 | I'd love to hear it as well
00:10:40.120 | give me the title of the sermon and the time stamps from the audio of when the clip begins and ends and
00:10:45.960 | tell me why it's impacted you give me your name the closest city to you and
00:10:50.480 | Email me all of that information at ask Pastor John at desiring God org
00:10:55.840 | That's an email address ask Pastor John at desiring God org and put the word clip in the subject line
00:11:01.640 | If you would please don't make it easy for me to find them and maybe we can share it here on the podcast with everybody
00:11:07.320 | else
00:11:08.480 | Next up a question from a listener who was offered a cash bonus by his boss
00:11:12.360 | But should the straight-up offer of a cash bonus be a good motivator for our labors
00:11:18.800 | Can the desire for more money in this case a bonus?
00:11:22.480 | Be desirous in a virtuous way or is this simply the love of money? How can we tell the difference?
00:11:29.000 | It's a really good question and it's up next time on Friday. I'm your host Tony Reinke and we will see you then
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