Favorite Song:"I want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hand..Lay back against You and breathe..feel Your heartbeat..."
Overwhelming moment: Looking over towards Judy during worship and seeing Kenny with Sammy Jo in his arms.
(Pastor Frank's sermon with my perception of what he said along with actual quotes.)
"Living at Room Temperature is a Sin"
When we look at the account of the early church recorded in Acts, we realize that when certain things were lined up, God added daily to the church, those who were being saved.
The methods the church uses today may have changed from the early church, but the message stays the same.
When we look at the story of the 5 foolish virgins and the 5 wise virgins, we see that some asked for more oil than they needed. Who gave them the oil? The groom supplied the oil. Jesus said, "I will take what is mine and give it to you."
If you want to be eternally secure, just keep your hand in His.
( I was looking at the story again this week. The foolish virgins took their lamps but didn't take along extra oil. The wise took extra oil in a separate container, and they also took their lamps. It was time for the bridegroom to come, so they went out to meet him like this. But he was delayed, so they slept. Meanwhile, I think their lamps were burning.
At midnight, the cry went up, "Here comes the Bridegroom. Go meet Him!" So they got up quickly and trimmed their lamps. My Bible notes say that the word for trimmed means 'cosmetic.' It means to beautify, decorate, furnish, embellish, adorn, and put in order. So the bridesmaids trimmed their lamp wicks and filled their lamps up to the top. They wiped off the oil from the outsides of their lamps and shined them up a bit.
That's when those who didn't bring extra oil realized they were in trouble and that's when they wanted to borrow the extra oil from the others. They realized that their lamps were going out. It was not wrong for the wise virgins to deny them the oil. If they gave them their oil, they wouldn't have had enough for themselves. 'Go buy your own oil', they said.
So, the procrastinating virgins actually went out and bought more oil but that made them late and the wedding feast had already started.
The door was closed to them. The groom wouldn't let them in even though they begged.
Jesus was telling the story and He summed it up by saying, "Watch, for you don't know the day or the hour when the Son of Man is coming."
It is important to watch and make sure that your oil supply is sufficient to provide fuel for your lamp to burn longer than you think it might have to.)
If we think we have enough oil, we're done.
Charles Spurgeon, in 1874, said, "If you think you have arrived, you are in the worst condition possible. You are no threat to the enemy because you think you are OK.
The longer we serve the Lord, there is more of a chance for us to become calloused to the things of God. We may stop watching and not even realize that we are missing a good supply of oil.
Scripture-Rev. 3:14-22-Jesus introduced Himself as the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God; (What He tells us is truth and He will be faithful to His truth. ) Usually, Jesus told the story and then the story led into an explanation of who He is. This time He introduced Himself first.
He goes on to say,
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot...I wish you were one or the other...therefore, I will spew you out of my mouth. You say you are rich and wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know how wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked you are....Buy from Me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. I love you. That's why I am rebuking and chastening you. Be serious about this and repent. I am standing, waiting for you at the door and knocking. Do you hear my voice? Then open up and I will come in to you and eat with you and you will eat with me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
The church on Laodicea was a prominent, important church in Turkey, made up of extremely wealthy people. There were many magnificent houses near the temple and it is thought that these belonged to the believers. Blindness was prevalent in the dusty land and the Laodiceans had developed an eye balm to keep people from going blind. It was used around the world.
There was no water source nearby, but 6 miles away, there were hot springs, and water was piped in to their community. If the water was not hot enough, they would spit it out. (Perhaps they should have moved closer to the source, but we don't know the geographical situation.) (My Bible notes also mention that Laodicea was noted for being "a banking center and for the production of a glossy black wool used in clothing and garments. 'The church desperately needed the grace that regenerates, the garments of Christ's righteousness, and Spirit-illumined eyes of the heart.")
He spoke about what they knew.
Gold, garments, eye balm, hot water.
He wanted them to get it.
He wanted them to overcome.
The Lord speaks to us:
Prophetically-
He can reference both the past and the future; He knows our end from our beginning. He says that he'd rather we be cold than lukewarm because then we'd be looking for something hot. If we're hot, we'll be like a fire, looking for more oil to burn.
Practically-
You say that things are going well and that you are rich. But you are wretched; without value. You are so miserable and won't do anything about it. You are poor and have nothing to invest to get more. You are blind and cannot see your way. You are naked; you no longer have an identity.
Powerfully-
the negotiation price is free for us-His blood. 'If you ask, you could buy of me the gold that is tried in the fire.' The measure of your worth is the sum total of what money cannot buy and death cannot take away.
Personally-
He holds us responsible to do what He says. "Buy gold and white garments, anoint your eyes....Open the door to my voice..."
(Buy...anoint...open...He provides what we buy...He provides the healing balm...He provides the knock on the door....We must do the buying, the applying, the opening...)
How do you get to be lukewarm?
How does room temperature become the temperature of our lives?
It takes place one degree at a time.
Sometimes in life, something bothers us. We get offended and troubled.
(We stop buying the best. We let the splinter fester into the size of a beam
in our eye. We have too much going on and we don't hear the knock at the door.)
These cares take the place in our minds and hearts that Jesus should have.
Cast all your care upon Him for He cares for you.
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I read something in 'Celebration of Discipline' by Foster
in the chapter about Worship this week.
"Isaac Pennington says that when people are gathered for genuine worship, "They are like a heap of fresh and burning coals warming one another as a great strength and freshness and vigor of life flows into all." One log by itself cannot burn for very long, but when many logs are put together, even if they are poor logs, they can make quite a fire..."
So I think being with others who are also passionate about Christ is one way to not be lukewarm. You can't be part of a fire and not be hot.
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When I reread the passage in Revelation, I decided to hold this particular thought in my mind for the day: "To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also came and sat down with My Father on His throne."
Sometimes, we avoid something so we can avoid something worse.
In this case, we want to avoid being lukewarm so we won't get spit out.
But what if we focused on overcoming?
What if we held the wonderful promise that He gave us in the forefront of our focus.
" If you overcome, you will get to sit beside me on my throne."
When I was a little girl, I would move over to one side of my bed
and hold out my hand so Jesus could sleep beside me.
Oh, that I would keep the simplicity of my child-like faith
wrapped up in this thought-
"If I make room for Him, He'll make room for me.
He'll scoot over so I can sit beside Him on His throne
and hold His out-stretched hand. "
The thought gives me the courage to overcome.
We can finish this wall.
We can overcome if it means sitting beside Him on His throne.
Maybe overcoming is better than being a cup of hot water.
Maybe overcoming is like using your cup of hot water
to make Jesus a wonderful cup of coffee or tea.
Behold, He stands at the door and knocks...
Dining with Jesus after His faithful rebuke
and forthright invitation
is the best way to repent and come out of lukewarmness.
Dining with Jesus is the best way to gain understanding
of what it means to be an overcomer.
Dining with Jesus is the best way to learn
the etiquette surrounding throne sitting.
Invite Him in.
The coffee's brewing.
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