Are we Lukewarm?

Sunday night I concluded the sermon series from the Seven Churches in the Book of Revelation. The final church is the Church at Laodicea, the lukewarm church. In the sermon, I asked: Is this us? Are we Lukewarm?

Yesterday, I received this e-mail from a wonderful Centralite, I thought I would share some insights and excerpts from it...


Dear Pastor,

I don’t want to be a lukewarm Christian. I do not want the Creator of the Universe, my Lord and Savior, to look at me and want to throw up. I say He is first in my life and I love him and want to serve Him. But I am always consumed with myself and my family. I live a good "Christian" life. I don’t smoke, drink, cuss, cheat; steal or lie and I go to church several times weekly and hang out with other Christians. However, I do not think that is really what God intended for us to view as Christian.

I think God wants us to know our neighbors, to pray for them…to know them well enough to pray for them. I think He wants us to talk with our co-workers about the hurt and pain in their lives and point them to our precious Lord. I think He wants us to serve the poor and needy to humble ourselves and become like a servant and to really see and know all of His children. I think He wants us to take care of His earth that He gave us, to recycle and pick up trash and stop polluting and not waste as much. I think He wants us to talk to Him and most importantly to LISTEN to Him. I think He wants us to know His word so well that we can easily share our faith with others and be able to answer questions. I am so sick of the excuses I tell myself to justify not doing what I have listed above....

I am concerned about our church. As I was thinking about all of this last night after the service I wondered how many of us are lukewarm.... Pastor, how many sermons do we have to hear to get it? ...Most of us don’t really understand that God intended more for us than a nice sermon each week and no other thought of Him or his people in between times.

Thank you for bringing the word, I needed to hear it and I need to change.

To that I say: Amen!