LEAVING THE LUKEWARM LIFE

"...be zealous therefore, and repent." - Revelation 3:19

The church of Laodicea closely resembles the American Church today.  On the surface, the Laodicean church seemed impressive.  From all appearances, they seemed to have so many things going right.  However, the Lord reveals to us that their spirituality was superficial at best. 

The church of the Laodiceans failed in three areas: pride, perception and power.  First of all, there was an issue of pride.  Revelation 3:17 reveals a spirit of pride among the Laodiceans:  "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing..."  Notice that THEY said this of themselves.  They were proud of their situation.  Secondly, there was a problem of perception.  They felt that because they were rich, they were spiritually successful.  Sounds familiar, doesn't it?  Actually, if you trace it back, this belief has a pagan origin.  Pagans believed that financial prosperity was a mark of spiritual success.  Finally, there was an absence of power.  They felt that they had "...need of nothing."  They felt self-sufficient.  When the Lord called them lukewarm, it revealed that they lacked spiritual power. 

Doesn't the Laodicean church sound like American Christianity today?  We have impressive church buildings (some resembling small malls), paved parking lots, comfortable seating, professional choirs and orchestras & polished ministers.  We are proud of it all.  Have you noticed that most churches try to promote themselves instead of Jesus?  We suffer from pride.  Also, we suffer from perception.  We, like the Laodiceans, are superficial and spiritually lukewarm.  We compare ministry statistics with other churches...just to see if we are ahead of others.  Many view think that a large crowd, a huge sanctuary and a massive budget prove that they are deeply spiritual.  What deception!  Finally, there is a lack of power.  We talk about power, sing about power and preach about power, but power is noticeably absent from churches these days.  The American church is no longer impacting society.  At the end of the day, we must admit that we are not reaching the masses with the Gospel.  Instead, we are content to have church "as usual."  The American church is powerless.  The American church doesn't even remotely resemble the church in the book of Acts.

What was God's prescription for the Laodicean church?  "...be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19).  Most ministers avoid the subject of repentance. It is an uncomfortable subject.  It is easy to preach about repentance when addressing unbelievers, but I am convinced that believers need to hear about repentance!  Perhaps the reason we're not seeing many sinners repent is because sinners aren't seeing many believers repent.

Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior.  In essence, the Lord was telling the Laodicean church to change their attitude and their actions.  Furthermore, they were told to be zealous in their repentance. 

I feel that we need revival in our churches, yet I know that revival will never come apart from repentance.  Corporately and individually, we need to confess our worldliness, selfishness and sinfulness before our mighty Lord.  We need to seek His face in genuine humility.  We need to be burdened about our sins. 

Repentance involves turning from our independence and cast ourselves before the Lord in total surrender.

We tend to think that lukewarmness is better than coldness.  Yet lukewarm Christianity was revolting to the Lord --- to the extent that He promised the Laodiceans, "I will spew thee out of my mouth." 

Instead of comparing ourselves to other Christians, we need to compare ourselves to the perfect Lamb of God.  Instead of comparing our churches to other churches, we should compare our churches to God's standards.  Instead of selfishly promoting ourselves, we should be proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Instead of worrying about what others think of us, we should boldly share the Gospel and just let the chips fall where they may.

Honestly, American Christianity is more American than Christian. 

God calls us to repent.... today.