Turn Up The Heat

Turn up the Heat

I was thinking the other day about the way people think of God and I received a message which is quite strong. I say that it is quite strong because we all have an idea or concept of how God is. We all have the concept that He is willing to forgive us, and that He always has His arms wide open to receive us. This is a great truth, He is willing to forgive us, He does have His arms wide open to receive us, but there is also a side of God that many of us try to ignore or perhaps we are not aware of. This is the reason why I bring you this message today that many if not all will consider it to be very strong. I don't want anyone here to feel offended, I don't want anyone here to feel bad, but I do want all of us here to know that when we say that we serve God, we are talking about something that is very serious. Let's now look in the Word of God to see what I’m talking about.

Revelation 3:14-22 - He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

This letter here to the church in Laodicea is the strongest of all the letters that our Lord wrote to all the churches. Here we see that Christ had nothing good to say about them. The reason as to why He wrote such a strong letter is because as we can interpret in verse 16 instead of them getting closer to God, they were moving away from Him. They were on a path which was not pleasing to God therefore we see that He says: “…I will spue thee out of my mouth.” To have a better understanding of the significance of this letter, let’s stop here for a minute and learn about this church. Laodicea was the principal city in Phrygia and it was a very prosperous and rich city. This city was centered in the three most important roads of that era. It was an enormously rich city because it had the three major industries of that time. This city was the financial and banking center. The producer of clothing and it was the location of a prestigious medical school well renown for its production of eyesalve. With this in mind let’s now continue examining this letter and let’s examine how it applies to us today.

This letter does not only serve to warn the church of Laodicea, but it can be applied to every congregation, to all churches in the body of Christ in the present time. This letter is a very stern warning that all of us must maintain very much in mind.

Let’s think about this that the Lord is telling us when He said: “I would thou wert cold or hot.” I’m sure that many of us like coffee, tea, or similar things that are normally drank hot. I am also sure that many of us here also like things like sodas, lemonade or similar refreshments that are drank cold. I know that by now you are asking yourself: “what does this have to do with the scriptures?” But I tell you that it has a lot to do with them. I say that it has a lot to do with them because just like I know that we all like and enjoy these things, I am quite sure that we don’t like these same things if they were lukewarm. Coffee does not taste as good when it is warm, and refreshments don’t refresh unless they are cold, correct?