Have You Taken Your Spiritual Temperature Lately?
Revelation 3:14-20
The church at Laodicea was one of two churches in the opening chapters of Revelation that were apparently unaware of their spiritual temperature. The other was Ephesus. Laodicea is a picture of a worldly church that has all the trappings of religion but whose heart is clearly filled to the core with the world. They were mediocre Christians slumbering in their materialistic spiritual stupor. You could not tell them apart from anyone else the world outside of their occasional church activities. Ephesus on the other hand was a church that was orthodox in doctrine, tenacious in defending the truth, and devoted to evangelism. Most of us would look at Ephesus and call it a healthy, vibrant church. However it was a church that had lost its fire. They were doing the right things but without realizing that they were just going through the motions and doing those things just because. Both churches were unaware of their spiritual temperature. What about you? Have you taken your spiritual temperature lately? The Amplified Bible renders the first part of 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it.” Let’s take a few minutes to examine ourselves and see what our spiritual temperature is.
I. Examine your Hands
A. Psalm 24:3-4 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.”
B. “What are your hands doing; are they reaching for eternal treasures or are they grabbing for gaudy gadgets?”
C. Psalm 26:6 “I will wash my hands in innocence; So I will go about Your altar, O LORD.”
D. Do you need help today? Lift up your hands to the Lord in supplication and in expectation, and soon you will lift up your hands in jubilation and celebration. Unfortunately, many people fail to keep their hands clean. Their evil hands sometimes do dirty work that hurts you. When that happens, you can trust God to take care of evil hands. Keep your hands clean. Look to God, lift your hands to Him and let His hand work for you. - Warren W. Wiersbe, Biography and Daily Devotional
E. Not only are your hands clean but are they busy doing God’s work, are they being used to be a blessing to others or are they idle?
F. Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.”
G. Proverbs 3:27 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.”
H. Deuteronomy 15:7-8 “" If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, "but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.”
II. Examine your Feet
A. Someone has asked, “Where are your feet going; are they headed for heaven’s shores or are they stuck in earth’s swamps?”
B. Proverbs 4:26 “Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.”
C. You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes.” - Forrest Gump
D. The direction of your feet will determine the direction of your heart. – copied
E. Where are your feet taking you? Before we came to Christ the Bible says we walked “according to the course of this world.” After we come to Christ we are supposed to walk a different path.
F. 1 John 1:6-7 “But if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
G. It is but a short step from walking with the world to living like the world - copied
H. Psalms 119:101 “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word.”
I. Proverbs 6:18 “A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil”
J. Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”
III. Examine your Eyes
A. What are you giving your eyes to? What are you feeding on? What is your spiritual diet? Whatever we watch, listen to, read is what we are feeding on. And based on what we are feeding on is what we become. Understand that what you keep before your eyes will affect you.”
B. What we see, hear, and allow to enter our life will influence our heart. What is in our heart will influence our behavior. What we do is a result of what we have allowed into our lives.
C. Psalm 101:3 “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes”
D. What are you setting before your eyes? What images are you imbedding in your mind? Whose example are you seeking to imitate?
E. Psalms 119:37 “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way.”
F. What is catching your eye, and distracting you from the true beauty of unity with Christ?
G. Psalms 25:15 “Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD”
H. Does it affect you when you see others who have no desire to follow Christ?
I. Psalms 119:136 “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.”
IV. Examine your Ears
A. There are many voices in our society all calling out for us to listen to them. Do you listen to them? Do they shape your life? Are we listening to the voice of the world or the voice of God?
B. The world certainly doesn’t listen to the voice of God?
C. Jeremiah 44:5, 16 'But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods… as for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!”
D. 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
E. To what are you listening? To what kind of music are you listening? What kind of programs? What kind of videos are you looking at and what kind of programs are you listening to? Could Jesus be sitting beside as you look at or listen to the music or programs?
F. Proverbs 8:34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me…”
G. John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me
H. Proverbs 23:12 “Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.”
V. Examine your Mouth
A. One of the most straight-forward statements Jesus ever made was directed to the Pharisee’s. He said in Mark 7:17-24 that it’s not so much what you put in your mouth that makes you unclean as much as what comes out of your mouth that defiles us.”
B. Ecclesiastes 5:6 “Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?”
C. Job 27:4 “My lips will not speak wickedness, Nor my tongue utter deceit”
D. Ephesians 4:29–30 “Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but if something is good for the up-building of a need, let that come out of your mouth) in order that it might give grace to those who hear.”
E. Can it be that the average person spends one-fifth of his or her life talking? That’s what the statistics say. If all of our words were put into print, the result would be this: a single day’s words would fill a 50-page book, while in a year’s time the average person’s words would fill 132 books of 200 pages each! (copied) Would we be surprised if we would read what was written in our books?
F. Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary…”
G. Psalms 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”
H. Psalms 71:8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day.”
VI. Examine your Heart
A. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
B. Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”
C. When Sir Walter Raleigh was led to the block, his executioner asked him if his head lay right. Raleigh answered, "It matters little, my friend, how the head lies, provided the heart is right." Here in the presence of God, here before him through whom are revealed the secrets of all hearts, here before the Cross of mercy and of love, what does your heart speak, how does your heart lie?
D. Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.”
E. Kent Crocket says when he first enrolled in seminary, he found an apartment room next to a railroad crossing. he wondered why the apartment rent was so cheap—and found out the first night. A train came through in the middle of the night, blasting its horn. It didn’t just wake him up, but also nearly gave him a heart attack! Every night when the train came through, it blew the horn. At first I thought about changing apartments, but then I started getting used to the nightly awakenings. I would wake up for a few seconds, then go right back to sleep. Eventually I got where the train horn didn’t even wake me up. I hardened my heart to the train and couldn’t hear it any more. The same hardening process occurs when God speaks to our hearts and we don’t respond. Eventually, we stop hearing His voice because our hearts have become hard.
F. Hebrews 4:7 “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”
G. What are the desires of your heart?
H. Romans 10:1 “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”
I. How’s your heart today?
