Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've become less and less grateful, less dependent on God
because your life is just not that difficult. I'm good,
I got this. There is an abstract link between being affluent, accomplish, brilliant,
high achievement and spiritual lukewarmness. And it's very difficult to
overcome affluence your influences.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Right, it's you that you would be Today Today, Today,
Today with Jeff Fines, pastor, apologist and Bible teacher.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Hi, and welcome to another episode of Today with Jeff Fines. Today,
Pastor Jeff has the final message in his Dirt Road
discipleship series. Let's continue the rest of this message. He's
talking about being genuine disciples. Pastor Jeff is reading from
Revelation three, verse fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Here's the problem. Listen now, lukewarm people are electrified by
the fact that Jesus loves them, but they're not moved
by it. Their heart is not melted by it, and
they're not transformed by it. They know it, they believe it,
but it's not the controlling principle of their lives. Jesus
(01:27):
is in addition to their loves, not the replacement of
their loves. He doesn't have superiority in their lives. Oh,
they believe in him, but he's not the supreme pursuit,
he's not the supreme love. He's not the supreme entity
in their lives. So that lukewarm people are further from
being hot than cold people because they do have a knowledge,
(01:50):
but it's without power. They're impervious to the reality that
they are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and neked. They truly
believe they're in believe they're fully devoted followers of Jesus,
But the truth is they have little to know knowledge
of what it really means to be in a relationship
with God. And when they're told that Christ's followers at
(02:14):
times will have an overwhelming experience with God, they think
that's something to be shun. Their faith is purely intellectual
to them. It is merely an intellectual thing. It's a
moral thing, which in their minds they always get right.
And when Jesus sees proclaim christ followers without zeal, joy,
wonder and passion, with a desire to worship and to
(02:40):
praise God with the community and in their lives, does
he send out his wrath. No, that wouldn't be good.
He simply says, you turn my stomach. You nauseate me,
He gets personal the earl. Now the Christ is why
no stay with me? If luke warmness is the symptom,
(03:00):
what then is the disease? Verse seventeen. For you say,
I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,
Not realizing you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked, I
counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire,
so that you may be rich, in white garments, so
that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your
nakedness may not be seen. And sav to anoint your
eyes so that you may be able to see. So
(03:22):
now now we have the remedy. There's so much, folks,
that we know about Leaadicea, so I've had to cut
a lot of this out. Let me try to summarize
it for you. First of all, we know it was
a textile center. It was also a financial center. They
were so wealthy. When an earthquake occurred in Leodicea, destroying
over a third of the city, Rome offered to come
(03:45):
in and rescue them financially, and Latasia said, no, we
got this. See every other place that's devastated. We go
to Rome because that's where all the money and resources were,
and they would beg Rome to come in and save them.
But Ladicea, even at the offering of being saved, said no,
we're pretty self sufficient here. We build ourselves. Jesus is
bitterly ironic when he says you think you're rich, well clothed, healthy,
(04:08):
and that you can see in reality you're naked, poor, blind.
Now this is difficult, but Jesus says you need help.
You are, first of all, spiritually naked. That's a metaphor
for guilt and shame that is associated with unrighteousness. So basically,
Jesus says you're unclothed in righteousness, which means you're liable
(04:28):
for punishment. Now, this is where it gets hard because
the land is Seans are christ followers, they're the Church,
and yet he says you're not wearing the robe of righteousness. Wow,
can you imagine the theological conversation that can take place
right now? Well, are these not Christians? Believers? They're the Church.
So if they're the Church, are they not automatically clothed
with garments of salvation? That's what the Bible tells us.
(04:49):
What happened? Did they take the garments off? Did they
trade the garments of grace and for self sufficiency? Just
as they told Rome, we got this? Had they told
Jesus we got this? Rather than boasting in the cross
of Jesus Christ and the cross of Jesus only like
the apostle Paul. Were they boasted instead in their spiritual superiority?
Or did they listen now? Or did they equate wealth
(05:12):
with righteousness? Oh man, another sermon? Do you think that
if you're wealthy it's because you're righteous too? He says,
you're in spiritual poverty? And the word here is for
spiritual impotence. In other words, you are so you're in
such bad condition the way you're thinking, and there's nothing
(05:33):
you can do about it. Your train of thought means
that you can't make yourself better the way you're trying
to make yourself better. So you have the Labiaceans grieve
the spirit to such an degree that the fire's gone
out that now when conviction comes they can't see it,
hear it, recognize it. And what put him in that position?
Have they been so impacted by the business and wealth
(05:56):
and self sufficiency of the letacy and culture that they
know listen, they no longer had time for prayer and
worship in Jesus, and as a result, they become blind.
They don't see spiritual realities anymore. But how is that possible?
Is it possible to pursue pleasure to such a degree
that you choke the Gospel out? Well? That sounds like
(06:17):
the parable of the seat and the souler and three
says you're spiritually blind. You don't know the truth about God? Now?
Didn't they used to know the truth about God? But
because of the way they're living, has it been choked
out of their lives? Are they now ignorant? How does
that work? And you don't know you're ignorant. You don't
know that you're blind. Is it possible that you could
have a church full of blind people? Is it possible
(06:39):
that you so focus on you that you lose God?
Is it possible to be religious without being Christian? What
is Jesus saying here? And you know why it's important
right because most the Elogians believe the American Church is
the Church of Landesea, that it's us that there's a
direct link between a link between being wealthy, brilliant, accomplished
(07:03):
and having high achievement and spiritual lukewarmness. That when you
have all your needs bad and your self sufficient, the
reality of God's grace and provision does not grip your
heart anymore. I got this. God Jesus loves you is
not a miracle anymore. It doesn't electrify you, move you
(07:25):
to tears anymore, and it definitely doesn't drive you to
your knees. Because you're not desperate. You don't feel that
you're a miracle of grace. You've become less and less grateful,
less dependent on God because your life is just not
that difficult. I'm good. I got this. There is an
abstract link between being affluent, accomplished, brilliant, high achievement, and
(07:49):
spiritual lukewarmness. And it's very difficult to overcome affluence. You
know what affluence is, right, it's you. But the ninety
five percent of the rest of the world. Oh, you're
the rich. We're the rich which ones? Remember what I
said earlier. I've said this a thousand times. Even our
little cars have houses, they're called garages. Most people in
the world would love to have our garage to live in.
(08:11):
We're the rich ones. Affluent people don't see themselves as
affluent because they compare themselves with everybody else. But the
real problem is this, The bigger problem is that affluency
distracts you because you have the means and availability to
do other things. I should really be changing my language here.
(08:32):
I should stop saying you, and I should start saying we,
because we're all in this man. I fight it. I
wonder how many people right now are watching this message
or listening and have not been to church for a
long long time. And the reason is you have other options?
(08:53):
Do you know? The Bible talks about praise and worship
as a sacrifice. It should host you something to wake
up on a Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon, and it
should cost you your time. It should be something you
freely and willingly give up to go to the House
of the Lord and praise God Hebrews thirteen through Jesus. Therefore,
(09:18):
let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. See,
people in Africa don't have that option. They got no
other option. It's church or home. Is that a bad thing?
I'm not sure it is. Now. Here's the other problem.
In Israel. You have this judge, this warrior. His name
is Jefphath. What a name, A great warrior, great judge,
(09:40):
but it's one of the most horrific stories in the
Old Testament. He's a leader in Israel, and yet he
sacrifices his own daughter to make a vow to God.
Deuteronomy is very clear that God detests human sacrifices. The
problem is Jefhnath has allowed the surrounding culture to infiltrate
his thinking because cultures around him did this kind of
(10:01):
thing all the time. And the more intense youre sacrifice,
the greater you can expect from the gods. Do you
know that when Christians come from other parts of the
world to visit us and where the gospel is growing
like wildfire, they're taken back. Now, they won't say anything
unless you press them. But I press them, and when
you press them, here's what they say. They are appalled
(10:22):
at how comfortable, safe, and affluent we are. They are
appalled by how little we pray and how much of
our money we spend on ourselves, and how we're afraid
to let people let the office know where christ followers
when they're dying, because they're committing and because they're admitting
they're associated with Jesus, and they are shocked by what
(10:43):
entertains us. The truth is, you and I we are
just as accommodating the culture as jep naval Us to his.
We are just as lukewarm, oftentimes as the lad of seeds.
There is a lukewarmness in us, in affluence that is
based on pride and self sufficiency. I guarantee you that
(11:06):
if I heard tomorrow that my little granddaughter was gravely ill,
I would be on my knees tomorrow morning. I guarantee
if I lost my job I didn't know how it's
going to pay my rent, I'd be on my knees
tomorrow morning. But man, when my health is good, when
my job is good, when life is easy, it's hard
for me to get on my knees. Western Christianity is
(11:30):
marked with a lack of z illness for God. We
don't yearn for him. There's no explosion of energy in
his service. There's little to no pursuit of purity, no
passion for sacrifice, no genuine generosity because we're just not desperate. Okay, quickly,
what do we do then? What's the remedy of this disease?
And I gotta move fast he says in verse eighteen,
(11:51):
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 sav to anoint your
eyes so that you may see. So he says, three,
you need three things. We need three things, all of us. Okay, One,
we need a white robe. Now, what's the white robe.
We know what the white robe is, right, it's the
(12:12):
robe we're given when we understand salvation is by grace
through faith. You can't earn your salvation. But we're told
that we are given white robes. In Revelation seven, we're
told when John the Revelator has his vision, he says,
after this, I looked, and there before me was a
great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
trib people in language, standing before the throne and before
(12:32):
the lamb. They were wearing white robes, and they said,
salvation belongs to our God. Salvation belongs to him who
sits on the throne. Into the lamb and Isaiah one, come,
let us settle this matter, says the Lord. Though your
sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow,
though they are red as crimson. They shall be like
woolf So the robe is the The robe is the
robe of salvation that you cannot earn that is given
(12:54):
to you as a gift by God when you make
him the savior and Lord of your life. To do
that means that somewhere along the line you have to listen. Now,
you have to have a Jesus revelation. You have to
at some point see him for who he really is.
And you can go to church all your life and
(13:15):
that never happened, because when it does hit you, when
you really start to understand the grace and the mercy
of God. Don't get me wrong, You're not gonna be perfect.
You were sinners saved by grace. I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that there's an explosion of energy toward Christ.
You've got other pursuits, but your primary pursuit is Jesus,
(13:37):
and you can't earn that salvation when you understand what
Christ is done. The natural byproduct is this incredible gratitude.
And when you have that incredible gratitude, you want to
be around Jesus. You want to hang with the people
of Jesus, and you want to worship in praise and
you want to serve Jesus. That's why I said the
thing I've learned the most in ministry. No matter what
(13:59):
I do, I can never coerce or manipulate you into
loving Jesus. You have to have your own revelation. Everything
is decaying in this world except you and me. The
outside is wasting a way, but we're being renewed every
day on the inside right because not only is Jesus
preparing a place for us, He's preparing us for that place.
But think about it, do we deserve that? Come on,
(14:22):
what do you and I really deserve? What do we
deserve eternal ruin? None of us does the good in here?
We try, but don't we often fail? I mean, if
we're gonna get to Heaven based on how good we
are man, we are in deep trouble, and yet he
gives us the gift of grace. What does Jesus give
us eternal not just life, but eternal life. Here's the problem.
(14:45):
We have forgotten about the beauty of eternal life because
we really don't mind the temporal one. When you live
in affluence, See what's amazing is We in the affluent
West are shocked when things don't go well. But most
of the Christians in the world expect things not to
go well. They expect persecution and struggle. They know this
(15:09):
is a fallen world and they know they can't survive
without Jesus, so they are absolutely dependent dependent upon Him
to deliver and sustain them. And when that happens, Listen,
when you're going through a difficult time and somebody comes
alongside you and walks with you through those difficult times,
what happens is a friendship not developed a respect and intimacy.
(15:34):
You and I don't need God, and as a result,
we don't know God the way that we should. You
and I live in effluency, and all I'm trying to
get you to do is understand that you have a
greater temptation toward luke warmness than christ followers who don't
(15:57):
live in the West. And the first way that you
are going to be able to overcome lukewarmness is go
back and have a Jesus revelation of how wonderful the
gift of grace is. And I can't do that for you.
Some of you need to get on your knees and
just beg God to open your eyes again to what
you have in Christ. And the second way that you
overcome luke warmness is very clear in the text. What
is it suffering? I counsel you to buy from me
(16:19):
gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich.
Jesus is saying this. If you want to get out
of luke warmness into a real transformed life, You're going
to have to walk through some very difficult times with
Me by your side. Some of you're gonna have to
pray God. I'll pray for difficulty. Can I ask you
a question, which one would you choose? An easy life
without intimacy with Jesus and little to no experience of God,
(16:43):
or be a difficult life with deep imptacy intimacy with
Jesus and deep, deep experiences of His presence. And you're
going to say, can I have both? And I'm not
sure you can. Those who have exuded an intimate, deep, existential,
wondrous relationship with Jesus are those who have gone through
of the most difficult seasons and had Jesus come near
and close and walk with them every step of the way.
(17:07):
So I want to ask you three hard questions, and
I'm going to close with three comments. Okay, here's the question.
First of all, let's not forget that people who live
charmed lives are almost always lukewarm. Are you willing to
ask yourself some hard questions? One? Do I value my
relationship with Jesus above all other things? Is Jesus the
(17:31):
most important thing in your life? Two? Am I willing
to reorder my life to live as a disciple, to
pursue a relationship in prayer, to pursue the truth of
His word in scripture, To deny myself the constant pursuit
of fun and entertainment at the cost of being with
God's people in the house of the Lord, offering the
sacrifice of praise, to obey Him with a life that
(17:55):
resistings the contradict purity, seeking instead of those things that
honor and glorify God. Do I value my relationship with
Jesus above every other thing? Am I willing to reorder
my life to live as a disciple? And Three? Am
I willing to seek first the Kingdom of God in
every aspect of my life? His truth concerning my identity, sexuality,
calling his demand of the first fruits of my life,
(18:16):
his insistence that I proclaim His name in difficult places,
his mercy toward those who are less fortunate. And finally,
are you willing to take a different perspective concerning the
trials of your life? No longer to see them as
God abandoning you, but God trying to draw near to
you so that He becomes the most important thing in
(18:37):
your life. Again, do you understand now why Jesus said
in Matthew nineteen it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for someone
who is rich to ender the kingdom of God. And
you always thought the rich people were those other guys. No,
that's you and me. By the way. The third thing
is that if you want to get out of luke warmness,
(18:59):
Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door of knocked
and Revelation three twenty. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I'll come in and meet with him.
Is it interesting we use this verse for evangelism. No,
he's talking to the church. He's saying, if you want
to meet with me, if you want this kind of
intimacy with me, I'm at the door knocking you don't
have to knock on my door. I'm here already. Just
come and meet with me. Oh, be zealous for God.
(19:23):
Be zealous for God. Okay, here's how I'm going to close.
There are three people, three types of people in the
room right now, and we got to do this because
it's the end of the series. The first group of
people in the room you cannot see. You think you can,
but you can't. I don't know who you are, and
I'd never judge to say who is and who isn't.
I'm just simply saying that if you have very little
(19:46):
emotion feeling experience with God, and you've just kind of
being going through the church motions all of your life,
and you come to church and you go home, it's
got a social club to you, but there's no real
passion in your heart to go hard after Christ and
know Christ experience Jesus. Can I tell you you need
to get on your knees and beg God for Jesus
revelation that you may see Him as he really is,
(20:08):
so that those passions and emotions and the controlling thing
of your life is Christ. You heard it today, You
heard it today. There's a second group of people in
the room. And that's those who can see. You can see,
but you've allowed the cares of the world to choke
the Gospel right out of your life. You're too busy
(20:29):
for God because you have the means to be too busy.
You got other things. The reason you can't sit down
on the cous for five minutes in the morning and
pray is your mind is on other things that you
want to do that day. It's that simple. We in
the West we have every we got drive up windows,
we get things delivered to us like that. So we
(20:49):
want to do what we want to do and when
we want to do it. And so when Jesus says,
stop and sit one on want two, I got other
things I need to be doing. And that's because the
cares of the world choking the Gospel right out of
your life. And then there's the third category, those who
definitely see and they're trying, and they're hearing this sermon
(21:11):
as that old passenger Jebb, I hear what you're saying,
and I should do better. I know you're right. Can
I tell you something? Revel in his grace. He's got you.
You're doing fine, You're reordering your life. Good for you.
You'll catch you. You're gonna fall, He'll catch you. But
keep marching on. Everybody in this room needs to make
(21:32):
a decision this weekend. Of Some need to repent for
the first time and come to Christ and say I
need a Jesus revelation because I don't love him like this.
And the reason you don't love him like that is
you haven't really gotten the gospel yet. Men are really
guilty of this because we are not touching Philly. Some
of us aren't. And yeah, I got the gospel thing.
It's good.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I'm gonna go and do the right thing. I'm gonna
man up and be good morally. No, you're not until
you realize you can't. And without the grace and forgiveness
of Jesus, your heart's not going to be melted. Until
your heart's melted, you're not going to walk with him.
Others of you need to rededicate your life that you
can do it. Right now, you can step across the line.
Is the end of the day of Joshua. You know
that you've allowed the cares of the world to choke
(22:13):
the gospel out. This is the time. This is a
decision weekend now you say, Nope, that's hit. I've done
this passag Jeff is right, and I am on a
road that leads not to discipleship, but leads me away
from the Father into luke warmness, where I can no
longer see spiritual things. I repent right now, I am
going to step across the line, and while I have
these other pursuits in my life, I am going to
(22:33):
start pursuing Christ first and foremost in my life. That's
what you do today. And then the third group of
you who've been doing this for a long time, don't
be so hard on yourself. You're never gonna be perfect.
You know you love him, you know you're pursuing him.
You go through up and down seasons, accept and receive
his grace and rejoice and that He's got you and
(22:56):
only those who pursue and go after him. Fine, Father,
thank you for your love for us. Thank you for
this series. And I pray this would be a weekend
where people step across the line and say enough is enough,
that Eternity is in the room right now, that the
Holy Spirit and the truth of the Spirit has fallen
on us, and we get to make a decision of
(23:18):
how we're going to live our lives right here, right now,
and we're going to step across the line and never
look back. I know that we're not going to be perfect.
I know that we're going to blow it again. I
know that we're going to do the wrong thing oftentimes.
But Father, I pray that we would understand the difference
between trying and failing, and not trying and not pursuing
and not going hard after the cause of Christ and
(23:40):
his name. We pray everybody said.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Amen, you've been listening to Today with Jeff Fines. Next
time we'll bring you a new message from past to Jeff.
You can listen to more messages like this. Just search
for Today with Jeff Fines wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
You make me a mond a day and say with
every single friend, I won't bring this out. You, my mond,
You with your mona
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines.
You've become less and less grateful, less dependent on God
because your life is just not that difficult. I'm good,
I got this. There is an abstract link between being affluent, accomplish, brilliant,
high achievement and spiritual lukewarmness. And it's very difficult to
overcome affluence your influences.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Right, it's you that you would be Today Today, Today,
Today with Jeff Fines, pastor, apologist and Bible teacher.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Hi, and welcome to another episode of Today with Jeff Fines. Today,
Pastor Jeff has the final message in his Dirt Road
discipleship series. Let's continue the rest of this message. He's
talking about being genuine disciples. Pastor Jeff is reading from
Revelation three, verse fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Here's the problem. Listen now, lukewarm people are electrified by
the fact that Jesus loves them, but they're not moved
by it. Their heart is not melted by it, and
they're not transformed by it. They know it, they believe it,
but it's not the controlling principle of their lives. Jesus
(01:27):
is in addition to their loves, not the replacement of
their loves. He doesn't have superiority in their lives. Oh,
they believe in him, but he's not the supreme pursuit,
he's not the supreme love. He's not the supreme entity
in their lives. So that lukewarm people are further from
being hot than cold people because they do have a knowledge,
(01:50):
but it's without power. They're impervious to the reality that
they are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and neked. They truly
believe they're in believe they're fully devoted followers of Jesus,
But the truth is they have little to know knowledge
of what it really means to be in a relationship
with God. And when they're told that Christ's followers at
(02:14):
times will have an overwhelming experience with God, they think
that's something to be shun. Their faith is purely intellectual
to them. It is merely an intellectual thing. It's a
moral thing, which in their minds they always get right.
And when Jesus sees proclaim christ followers without zeal, joy,
wonder and passion, with a desire to worship and to
(02:40):
praise God with the community and in their lives, does
he send out his wrath. No, that wouldn't be good.
He simply says, you turn my stomach. You nauseate me,
He gets personal the earl. Now the Christ is why
no stay with me? If luke warmness is the symptom,
(03:00):
what then is the disease? Verse seventeen. For you say,
I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,
Not realizing you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked, I
counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire,
so that you may be rich, in white garments, so
that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your
nakedness may not be seen. And sav to anoint your
eyes so that you may be able to see. So
(03:22):
now now we have the remedy. There's so much, folks,
that we know about Leaadicea, so I've had to cut
a lot of this out. Let me try to summarize
it for you. First of all, we know it was
a textile center. It was also a financial center. They
were so wealthy. When an earthquake occurred in Leodicea, destroying
over a third of the city, Rome offered to come
(03:45):
in and rescue them financially, and Latasia said, no, we
got this. See every other place that's devastated. We go
to Rome because that's where all the money and resources were,
and they would beg Rome to come in and save them.
But Ladicea, even at the offering of being saved, said no,
we're pretty self sufficient here. We build ourselves. Jesus is
bitterly ironic when he says you think you're rich, well clothed, healthy,
(04:08):
and that you can see in reality you're naked, poor, blind.
Now this is difficult, but Jesus says you need help.
You are, first of all, spiritually naked. That's a metaphor
for guilt and shame that is associated with unrighteousness. So basically,
Jesus says you're unclothed in righteousness, which means you're liable
(04:28):
for punishment. Now, this is where it gets hard because
the land is Seans are christ followers, they're the Church,
and yet he says you're not wearing the robe of righteousness. Wow,
can you imagine the theological conversation that can take place
right now? Well, are these not Christians? Believers? They're the Church.
So if they're the Church, are they not automatically clothed
with garments of salvation? That's what the Bible tells us.
(04:49):
What happened? Did they take the garments off? Did they
trade the garments of grace and for self sufficiency? Just
as they told Rome, we got this? Had they told
Jesus we got this? Rather than boasting in the cross
of Jesus Christ and the cross of Jesus only like
the apostle Paul. Were they boasted instead in their spiritual superiority?
Or did they listen now? Or did they equate wealth
(05:12):
with righteousness? Oh man, another sermon? Do you think that
if you're wealthy it's because you're righteous too? He says,
you're in spiritual poverty? And the word here is for
spiritual impotence. In other words, you are so you're in
such bad condition the way you're thinking, and there's nothing
(05:33):
you can do about it. Your train of thought means
that you can't make yourself better the way you're trying
to make yourself better. So you have the Labiaceans grieve
the spirit to such an degree that the fire's gone
out that now when conviction comes they can't see it,
hear it, recognize it. And what put him in that position?
Have they been so impacted by the business and wealth
(05:56):
and self sufficiency of the letacy and culture that they
know listen, they no longer had time for prayer and
worship in Jesus, and as a result, they become blind.
They don't see spiritual realities anymore. But how is that possible?
Is it possible to pursue pleasure to such a degree
that you choke the Gospel out? Well? That sounds like
(06:17):
the parable of the seat and the souler and three
says you're spiritually blind. You don't know the truth about God? Now?
Didn't they used to know the truth about God? But
because of the way they're living, has it been choked
out of their lives? Are they now ignorant? How does
that work? And you don't know you're ignorant. You don't
know that you're blind. Is it possible that you could
have a church full of blind people? Is it possible
(06:39):
that you so focus on you that you lose God?
Is it possible to be religious without being Christian? What
is Jesus saying here? And you know why it's important
right because most the Elogians believe the American Church is
the Church of Landesea, that it's us that there's a
direct link between a link between being wealthy, brilliant, accomplished
(07:03):
and having high achievement and spiritual lukewarmness. That when you
have all your needs bad and your self sufficient, the
reality of God's grace and provision does not grip your
heart anymore. I got this. God Jesus loves you is
not a miracle anymore. It doesn't electrify you, move you
(07:25):
to tears anymore, and it definitely doesn't drive you to
your knees. Because you're not desperate. You don't feel that
you're a miracle of grace. You've become less and less grateful,
less dependent on God because your life is just not
that difficult. I'm good. I got this. There is an
abstract link between being affluent, accomplished, brilliant, high achievement, and
(07:49):
spiritual lukewarmness. And it's very difficult to overcome affluence. You
know what affluence is, right, it's you. But the ninety
five percent of the rest of the world. Oh, you're
the rich. We're the rich which ones? Remember what I
said earlier. I've said this a thousand times. Even our
little cars have houses, they're called garages. Most people in
the world would love to have our garage to live in.
(08:11):
We're the rich ones. Affluent people don't see themselves as
affluent because they compare themselves with everybody else. But the
real problem is this, The bigger problem is that affluency
distracts you because you have the means and availability to
do other things. I should really be changing my language here.
(08:32):
I should stop saying you, and I should start saying we,
because we're all in this man. I fight it. I
wonder how many people right now are watching this message
or listening and have not been to church for a
long long time. And the reason is you have other options?
(08:53):
Do you know? The Bible talks about praise and worship
as a sacrifice. It should host you something to wake
up on a Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon, and it
should cost you your time. It should be something you
freely and willingly give up to go to the House
of the Lord and praise God Hebrews thirteen through Jesus. Therefore,
(09:18):
let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. See,
people in Africa don't have that option. They got no
other option. It's church or home. Is that a bad thing?
I'm not sure it is. Now. Here's the other problem.
In Israel. You have this judge, this warrior. His name
is Jefphath. What a name, A great warrior, great judge,
(09:40):
but it's one of the most horrific stories in the
Old Testament. He's a leader in Israel, and yet he
sacrifices his own daughter to make a vow to God.
Deuteronomy is very clear that God detests human sacrifices. The
problem is Jefhnath has allowed the surrounding culture to infiltrate
his thinking because cultures around him did this kind of
(10:01):
thing all the time. And the more intense youre sacrifice,
the greater you can expect from the gods. Do you
know that when Christians come from other parts of the
world to visit us and where the gospel is growing
like wildfire, they're taken back. Now, they won't say anything
unless you press them. But I press them, and when
you press them, here's what they say. They are appalled
(10:22):
at how comfortable, safe, and affluent we are. They are
appalled by how little we pray and how much of
our money we spend on ourselves, and how we're afraid
to let people let the office know where christ followers
when they're dying, because they're committing and because they're admitting
they're associated with Jesus, and they are shocked by what
(10:43):
entertains us. The truth is, you and I we are
just as accommodating the culture as jep naval Us to his.
We are just as lukewarm, oftentimes as the lad of seeds.
There is a lukewarmness in us, in affluence that is
based on pride and self sufficiency. I guarantee you that
(11:06):
if I heard tomorrow that my little granddaughter was gravely ill,
I would be on my knees tomorrow morning. I guarantee
if I lost my job I didn't know how it's
going to pay my rent, I'd be on my knees
tomorrow morning. But man, when my health is good, when
my job is good, when life is easy, it's hard
for me to get on my knees. Western Christianity is
(11:30):
marked with a lack of z illness for God. We
don't yearn for him. There's no explosion of energy in
his service. There's little to no pursuit of purity, no
passion for sacrifice, no genuine generosity because we're just not desperate. Okay, quickly,
what do we do then? What's the remedy of this disease?
And I gotta move fast he says in verse eighteen,
(11:51):
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 sav to anoint your
eyes so that you may see. So he says, three,
you need three things. We need three things, all of us. Okay, One,
we need a white robe. Now, what's the white robe.
We know what the white robe is, right, it's the
(12:12):
robe we're given when we understand salvation is by grace
through faith. You can't earn your salvation. But we're told
that we are given white robes. In Revelation seven, we're
told when John the Revelator has his vision, he says,
after this, I looked, and there before me was a
great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
trib people in language, standing before the throne and before
(12:32):
the lamb. They were wearing white robes, and they said,
salvation belongs to our God. Salvation belongs to him who
sits on the throne. Into the lamb and Isaiah one, come,
let us settle this matter, says the Lord. Though your
sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow,
though they are red as crimson. They shall be like
woolf So the robe is the The robe is the
robe of salvation that you cannot earn that is given
(12:54):
to you as a gift by God when you make
him the savior and Lord of your life. To do
that means that somewhere along the line you have to listen. Now,
you have to have a Jesus revelation. You have to
at some point see him for who he really is.
And you can go to church all your life and
(13:15):
that never happened, because when it does hit you, when
you really start to understand the grace and the mercy
of God. Don't get me wrong, You're not gonna be perfect.
You were sinners saved by grace. I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that there's an explosion of energy toward Christ.
You've got other pursuits, but your primary pursuit is Jesus,
(13:37):
and you can't earn that salvation when you understand what
Christ is done. The natural byproduct is this incredible gratitude.
And when you have that incredible gratitude, you want to
be around Jesus. You want to hang with the people
of Jesus, and you want to worship in praise and
you want to serve Jesus. That's why I said the
thing I've learned the most in ministry. No matter what
(13:59):
I do, I can never coerce or manipulate you into
loving Jesus. You have to have your own revelation. Everything
is decaying in this world except you and me. The
outside is wasting a way, but we're being renewed every
day on the inside right because not only is Jesus
preparing a place for us, He's preparing us for that place.
But think about it, do we deserve that? Come on,
(14:22):
what do you and I really deserve? What do we
deserve eternal ruin? None of us does the good in here?
We try, but don't we often fail? I mean, if
we're gonna get to Heaven based on how good we
are man, we are in deep trouble, and yet he
gives us the gift of grace. What does Jesus give
us eternal not just life, but eternal life. Here's the problem.
(14:45):
We have forgotten about the beauty of eternal life because
we really don't mind the temporal one. When you live
in affluence, See what's amazing is We in the affluent
West are shocked when things don't go well. But most
of the Christians in the world expect things not to
go well. They expect persecution and struggle. They know this
(15:09):
is a fallen world and they know they can't survive
without Jesus, so they are absolutely dependent dependent upon Him
to deliver and sustain them. And when that happens, Listen,
when you're going through a difficult time and somebody comes
alongside you and walks with you through those difficult times,
what happens is a friendship not developed a respect and intimacy.
(15:34):
You and I don't need God, and as a result,
we don't know God the way that we should. You
and I live in effluency, and all I'm trying to
get you to do is understand that you have a
greater temptation toward luke warmness than christ followers who don't
(15:57):
live in the West. And the first way that you
are going to be able to overcome lukewarmness is go
back and have a Jesus revelation of how wonderful the
gift of grace is. And I can't do that for you.
Some of you need to get on your knees and
just beg God to open your eyes again to what
you have in Christ. And the second way that you
overcome luke warmness is very clear in the text. What
is it suffering? I counsel you to buy from me
(16:19):
gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich.
Jesus is saying this. If you want to get out
of luke warmness into a real transformed life, You're going
to have to walk through some very difficult times with
Me by your side. Some of you're gonna have to
pray God. I'll pray for difficulty. Can I ask you
a question, which one would you choose? An easy life
without intimacy with Jesus and little to no experience of God,
(16:43):
or be a difficult life with deep imptacy intimacy with
Jesus and deep, deep experiences of His presence. And you're
going to say, can I have both? And I'm not
sure you can. Those who have exuded an intimate, deep, existential,
wondrous relationship with Jesus are those who have gone through
of the most difficult seasons and had Jesus come near
and close and walk with them every step of the way.
(17:07):
So I want to ask you three hard questions, and
I'm going to close with three comments. Okay, here's the question.
First of all, let's not forget that people who live
charmed lives are almost always lukewarm. Are you willing to
ask yourself some hard questions? One? Do I value my
relationship with Jesus above all other things? Is Jesus the
(17:31):
most important thing in your life? Two? Am I willing
to reorder my life to live as a disciple, to
pursue a relationship in prayer, to pursue the truth of
His word in scripture, To deny myself the constant pursuit
of fun and entertainment at the cost of being with
God's people in the house of the Lord, offering the
sacrifice of praise, to obey Him with a life that
(17:55):
resistings the contradict purity, seeking instead of those things that
honor and glorify God. Do I value my relationship with
Jesus above every other thing? Am I willing to reorder
my life to live as a disciple? And Three? Am
I willing to seek first the Kingdom of God in
every aspect of my life? His truth concerning my identity, sexuality,
calling his demand of the first fruits of my life,
(18:16):
his insistence that I proclaim His name in difficult places,
his mercy toward those who are less fortunate. And finally,
are you willing to take a different perspective concerning the
trials of your life? No longer to see them as
God abandoning you, but God trying to draw near to
you so that He becomes the most important thing in
(18:37):
your life. Again, do you understand now why Jesus said
in Matthew nineteen it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for someone
who is rich to ender the kingdom of God. And
you always thought the rich people were those other guys. No,
that's you and me. By the way. The third thing
is that if you want to get out of luke warmness,
(18:59):
Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door of knocked
and Revelation three twenty. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I'll come in and meet with him.
Is it interesting we use this verse for evangelism. No,
he's talking to the church. He's saying, if you want
to meet with me, if you want this kind of
intimacy with me, I'm at the door knocking you don't
have to knock on my door. I'm here already. Just
come and meet with me. Oh, be zealous for God.
(19:23):
Be zealous for God. Okay, here's how I'm going to close.
There are three people, three types of people in the
room right now, and we got to do this because
it's the end of the series. The first group of
people in the room you cannot see. You think you can,
but you can't. I don't know who you are, and
I'd never judge to say who is and who isn't.
I'm just simply saying that if you have very little
(19:46):
emotion feeling experience with God, and you've just kind of
being going through the church motions all of your life,
and you come to church and you go home, it's
got a social club to you, but there's no real
passion in your heart to go hard after Christ and
know Christ experience Jesus. Can I tell you you need
to get on your knees and beg God for Jesus
revelation that you may see Him as he really is,
(20:08):
so that those passions and emotions and the controlling thing
of your life is Christ. You heard it today, You
heard it today. There's a second group of people in
the room. And that's those who can see. You can see,
but you've allowed the cares of the world to choke
the Gospel right out of your life. You're too busy
(20:29):
for God because you have the means to be too busy.
You got other things. The reason you can't sit down
on the cous for five minutes in the morning and
pray is your mind is on other things that you
want to do that day. It's that simple. We in
the West we have every we got drive up windows,
we get things delivered to us like that. So we
(20:49):
want to do what we want to do and when
we want to do it. And so when Jesus says,
stop and sit one on want two, I got other
things I need to be doing. And that's because the
cares of the world choking the Gospel right out of
your life. And then there's the third category, those who
definitely see and they're trying, and they're hearing this sermon
(21:11):
as that old passenger Jebb, I hear what you're saying,
and I should do better. I know you're right. Can
I tell you something? Revel in his grace. He's got you.
You're doing fine, You're reordering your life. Good for you.
You'll catch you. You're gonna fall, He'll catch you. But
keep marching on. Everybody in this room needs to make
(21:32):
a decision this weekend. Of Some need to repent for
the first time and come to Christ and say I
need a Jesus revelation because I don't love him like this.
And the reason you don't love him like that is
you haven't really gotten the gospel yet. Men are really
guilty of this because we are not touching Philly. Some
of us aren't. And yeah, I got the gospel thing.
It's good.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I'm gonna go and do the right thing. I'm gonna
man up and be good morally. No, you're not until
you realize you can't. And without the grace and forgiveness
of Jesus, your heart's not going to be melted. Until
your heart's melted, you're not going to walk with him.
Others of you need to rededicate your life that you
can do it. Right now, you can step across the line.
Is the end of the day of Joshua. You know
that you've allowed the cares of the world to choke
(22:13):
the gospel out. This is the time. This is a
decision weekend now you say, Nope, that's hit. I've done
this passag Jeff is right, and I am on a
road that leads not to discipleship, but leads me away
from the Father into luke warmness, where I can no
longer see spiritual things. I repent right now, I am
going to step across the line, and while I have
these other pursuits in my life, I am going to
(22:33):
start pursuing Christ first and foremost in my life. That's
what you do today. And then the third group of
you who've been doing this for a long time, don't
be so hard on yourself. You're never gonna be perfect.
You know you love him, you know you're pursuing him.
You go through up and down seasons, accept and receive
his grace and rejoice and that He's got you and
(22:56):
only those who pursue and go after him. Fine, Father,
thank you for your love for us. Thank you for
this series. And I pray this would be a weekend
where people step across the line and say enough is enough,
that Eternity is in the room right now, that the
Holy Spirit and the truth of the Spirit has fallen
on us, and we get to make a decision of
(23:18):
how we're going to live our lives right here, right now,
and we're going to step across the line and never
look back. I know that we're not going to be perfect.
I know that we're going to blow it again. I
know that we're going to do the wrong thing oftentimes.
But Father, I pray that we would understand the difference
between trying and failing, and not trying and not pursuing
and not going hard after the cause of Christ and
(23:40):
his name. We pray everybody said.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Amen, you've been listening to Today with Jeff Fines. Next
time we'll bring you a new message from past to Jeff.
You can listen to more messages like this. Just search
for Today with Jeff Fines wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
You make me a mond a day and say with
every single friend, I won't bring this out. You, my mond,
You with your mona
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines.
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