Pastor Edgar Mayer; Living Grace Community Lutheran Church; Message on Revelations 3:14-22; Date: 30 March 08

For more sermons and other writings check out pastor’s homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar

Another Form Of Lukewarmness

Two weeks ago (16 March 08) I did something new and in my message submitted to you two prophetic words which God seems to have spoken over our congregation. The words did not originate with me and they did not all come from the same person at the same time but there has been a process of confirmation from various sources which makes one suspect that the words are true. [Test them for yourself and you may read up on the previous message on the homepage.] The most succinct summary of the two prophetic words are in the Bible passage of Revelations 3:14-22 which God impressed on one of our members at a prayer meeting on the 1^st of February. I read from the Bible – Jesus said to the church of Laodicea (and now also Living Grace): “ … I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth … “ That’s the first prophetic word and it contains a warning of impeding judgement – “I am about to spit you out of my mouth” – but then the reading continues with more positive promises – Jesus also says: “ … Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me … “ This is promising revival – now.

Ever since these words were spoken over our congregation, I have been thinking about them. Are they true and what do they mean? What are we supposed to do now? Even before these words were given, we could already see that Living Grace was coming into a new season of church life. In fact the first twelve weeks of this year have been exhausting in their massive refurbishing of ministries and accelerating change.

For instance, the youth ministry was put on a new footing with a new monthly Sunday evening service and more intense small groups for leadership growth. There is also a budding strategic partnership with the On The Edge church. The worship bands have cast a more intentional vision for pursuing the presence of God. There is a move toward combining our two worship services into one and at the same time elevating our prayer meeting. The Jesus For Kids club became Dangerzone. The boarders are back in worship with us and then our staffing situation is in complete makeover mode. Both Kirsty Humphrey and Letoya Coates are pregnant. Tatjana Mayer cut back from three days to two. We have employed Kristine Myatt as an administrative assistant and have before us a proposal to call David Challenor. Jaron Wilson is our new youth intern and Andrew Sharp – in a similar capacity – does field-work in our congregation.

Thus, even before the two prophetic words were spoken over our church, we could already see that somehow we were coming into a new season. Something was happening. However, with the addition of the two prophetic words what does this all mean in more concrete terms? Jesus said (and says to us): “ … because you are lukewarm … I am about to spit you out of my mouth … [but at the same time promises] Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me … “

My feeling is that these words – which are in agreement with our sense of a new season coming – challenge us to get with God’s program now or miss out.

There have been years of preparation. For instance, this is what I preached in August 2003: For two and a half years the church of Brownsville prayed together every Sunday night. John was waiting for a greater filling with the Holy Spirit but again on Father's Day 1995 he felt so dry, still grieving the death of his mother, that he on the spur of the moment asked an evangelist to preach for him. The evangelist, his name was Steve, preached and then was really excited about the altar call. He kept telling the congregation: "Folks, God is going to move this morning. God is going to move this morning."

John mumbled under his breath: "Yeah, sure, Steve. I've heard this before." They had been praying for two and a half years that God would bring revival, but John wondered if God really would. Certainly not that day when John was so worn down and discouraged.

By the time Steve called the people to come about 1000 came forward. Suddenly John felt a wind blow through his legs, just like in the second chapter of the book of Acts. A strong breeze went through his legs and suddenly both his ankled flipped over so that he could hardly stand. He thought: "That's weird! O God," he prayed: "What in the world is happening?" He stood on the side of his ankles, unable to get his footing. He literally could not straighten up his feet.

Just then Steve prayed for a woman who fell to the floor under the power of the Spirit. John tried to lift up his legs to step over her but he could not. Finally, he had to aks a friend to come over and help him. He lifted his legs by pulling on his trousers and helped him walk back up the platform, step by step. John took the microphone and shouted: "Folks, this is it. The Lord is here. Get in, get in." He realized God had indeed come, that he had answered their prayers for revival.

Steve walked by at that point, waved his hand in John's direction and simply said: "More, Lord." John hit the marble floor. John writes in his book: "Now, I'm as critical as the next person when it comes to thing like this. I have seen it all and just don't think I can be fooled. So when I hit that floor and it felt like I weighed 10,000 pounds, I knew something supernatural was happening. God was visiting us ... "

After this Father's Day there were church services every night of the week. In a six month period over 10,000 commitments to Jesus Christ have been recorded.

For the last 6–7 years we have heard – again and again – testimonies like that and we have tested them against the Bible and we have wrestled with the implications and we have slowly adapted our thinking – for the last 6–7 years we have been on this journey – with the result that now – today – almost none of us here doubts the Bible truth and validity of such testimonies. We have been patiently transitioning from unbelievers – from doubting or even getting offended at the supernatural workings of God – to believers.

Last Sunday – just imagine – I dared to preach on the dead being raised in various parts of the Christian world according to Jesus’ command – Matthew 10:7-9 – I read from the Bible: “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead … drive out demons … ” I dared to preach and suggest that at least some Christians in the world are still living out this Bible command today with the result that there are dead people coming back to life. And when I preached this message, I knew that it would be okay. There would be no offended backlash. We have come a long long way.

Yet – and this is almost bizarre and certainly not pleasing to God – at the same time – as a church body – we are not really embracing this for ourselves. On the one hand we no longer doubt the reality of God, spiritual gifts such the speaking in tongues, the prophetic gift, signs and miracles, the manifest presence of God, impartations of love and glory, faith that can move mountains but on the other hand we are not quite willing to take the plunge and pursue this for ourselves with all of our might. When it threatens to come too close, there is still fear, uncertainty and uneasiness – in many of us. What is it going to look like?

Two weeks ago – when I first submitted the two prophetic words over Living Grace and we went into a time of repentance – there was a newer member of Living Grace sitting in the congregation and she thought that the service was wonderful – the preaching, the prayers. Therefore she simply couldn’t understand why God didn’t move. Why wasn’t there more of God? It’s not as if nothing happened. There were conviction, tears and a stirring of hearts but not the fuller manifestation of God’s glory and presence as this newer member would have expected.

Later on she was burdened to pray for Living Grace and she asked God why he didn’t move when his people were crying out to him. The word that came was “stubborness”. She then asked: “What do you mean, God? How are they stubborn?” The word that came was: “A deliberate refusal of God’s power.” “A deliberate refusal of God’s power.”

Another prayer person in our congregation, who had shared this testimony with me, also agreed with the assessment. We still seem to struggle with the idea of allowing God free reign to do among us what he wants. We still refuse God too much. Now this brings me to the question which I have been asked repeatedly over the last few weeks: “Pastor, where is this all going? What will we be turning into?”

Well – what does it look like when God intensifies his presence among us and we respond with passion rather than lukewarmness? If I may share my heart: What I would like personally more than anything else – more than signs and wonders and miracles or anything else – is a greater revelation and experience of his love for me – of his love for you. I want to fall in love with God more. I desire more intimacy with God. I want the Bible passage of Ephesians 3:16-19 to become true for me – and for you. I read from the Bible (and you know the passage): “ … out of his glorious riches, Father God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit … that you … may have power, together with all other Christians [original: the saints], to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

With revival – the coming of God’s manifest presence – comes power to grasp how much we are loved and to know this love and to experience this love and to be satisfied in this love and to be joyful in that love and thus be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. The promise exceeds all expectations that we may have. Even Jesus – when he was filled with the Spirit – when the manifest presence of God came upon him – he heard a voice from heaven telling him – Luke 3:23: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” This was important even for Jesus. The Spirit made him grasp how much he was loved. And we want the same and we are promised the same.

Does this answer the question as to what our services are going to look like? Maybe not and I myself don’t have have any fixed ideas except to say that we need to let God be in charge. And this is where I suspect the uneasiness is coming from. Deep down we know that many a time we only allow God to operate in the narrow confinements of our religious comfort zones. And this is another form of lukewarmness.

Especially church people suffer from a religious conditioning toward lukewarmness. For instance – and this is a rather telling example – have a look how the Bible story of Luke 18:35-43 has been taken up in traditional church worship. The Bible story goes like this. I quote: “As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked, what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ He called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He replied: ‘Lord, I want to see.’ Jesus said: ‘Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God … “

Now you may not know but the words of the blind man – “have mercy on me” – have found their place in the traditional form of Sunday worship. From childhood onwards I have been singing these words in Lutheran worship and they go like this (encourage someone to sing): “Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.“ When I was a child, we used to sing these same words in the Greek language – the language of the Bible – and therefore it became even more dignified and ceremonial and contained: “Kyrie eleison.”

Yet, how far is this removed from the kind of worship of the blind man who cried out with raw emotion and desperation: “Jesus, have mercy on me.” For years when I was in church I was not real. I may have admired the intellectual appropriateness of this part of the worship order but never really connected with any feelings of desperation in my own heart. The blind man called out to Jesus which made the others rebuke him and tell him to be quiet. Yet – so the Bible reading – he shouted all the more: “Jesus, have mercy on me.”

Therefore, what seems to have happened to many of us is the following. We think and we say that what we sing in worship are the words of the blind man but in reality we have become like those that rebuked him and told him to be quiet before Jesus. Most of us are no longer comfortable with any real calling out – any real desperation expressed – in worship. And – to come back to our point – this is another form of lukewarmness. We are not real.

Maybe the direction which our services will be taking is that we reconnect with who we really are: our desperations, our hopes, our joys, etc. The other day a woman from our congregation said that not everyone has the personality type to call out in worship. Some are just more reserved than others. And that is true to some extent and no one is asked to be anything that they are not. There is freedom. But on the other hand the same woman admitted that even in the privacy of her own home she became so desperate at one stage (about a particular issue in her life) that she screamed out her desperation to God. This is also what Jesus himself did – Hebrews 5:7: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears … “

Would this be getting too intense for us? Is this a bad direction for our congregation? When the blind man was healed and received his eye-sight from Jesus, he began praising God. Do we think that this was any less noisy than his desperate cries for mercy? Are the gifts of God so small that our emotions are not touched? No – when revival comes, we get new eyes, a new heart, a new hope, new revelations of the depths of God’s riches and therefore there will be a joyful noise – real passion – not lukewarmness.

This goes deeper still. According to the Bible what we say and what we do in worship is more than a question of style. Releasing faith in words – speaking words, shouting words, singing words – releases power. God himself created the world by speaking the world into existence and – this is not insignificant – the people of Israel were commanded to shout in order to conquer the city of Jericho. I read from the Bible – Joshua 6:5 – God said: “[On the seventh day] … have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse … “ Sometimes it may be that we need to allow God the freedom of commanding us to shout because it takes faith to shout. It takes passion to shout. It takes obedience to shout. And in our particular case – filling our lungs with air and letting out a shout in worship – may shake off and break the strangling constraints of tradition and fear and pride on our emotions – freeing us to be real with God.

Listen to God’s own example – Psalm 29:3-9: “ … the God of glory thunders, … The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon … The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; … The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. [And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’] … ” There are times when even God raises his voice and we are his children.

The Bible tells the story of a desperate king – Jeroboam – who faced an overwhelming enemy army. He came to the prophet Elisha for advice and he said – 2 Kings 13 – I read from the Bible: “ … ‘Get a bow and some arrows,’ and the king did so. ‘Take the bow in your hands … open the east window … and shoot.’ … The king did so and Elisha said: ‘The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!’ Elisha declared: ‘You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.’ Then he said: ‘Take the arrows … strike the ground.’ The king struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, ‘You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.’”

This is a strange story but it is again about our version of lukewarmness. King Jeroboam was not asked to shout in worship but he was asked to act on his faith by shooting an arrow and then striking the ground with more arrows. He did so but only three times. Why only three times? He must have felt foolish. This was not really dignified behaviour for a king. Yet, God had a different opinion. He didn’t mind wounding the king’s pride. He wanted obedience. He wanted passion. He wanted to release his power by a passionate act of faith – whether it be striking the ground repeatedly with arrows or (maybe in our case at some stage) shouting out aloud. We need to be free in our response to God.

In any case the Bible also says – Psalm 47:1: “ … shout to God with cries of joy.” Psalm 66:1: “Shout with joy to God, all the earth.” Psalm 95:1: “ … let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.” Isaiah 54:1: “ … burst into song, shout for joy … “

Please do not misunderstand what I am saying. I don’t know exactly what our services will look like – God may be coming in a gentle whisper or an earthquake, tears of repentance or shouts of joy – I don’t know but I know that now is the time to make a choice. Are we willing to welcome Jesus? Are we willing to get real and allow God the freedom to do what he wants – in us and through us? For the last 6–7 years we have heard testimony after testimony of what God is doing in other churches and in other parts of the world and we have reacquainted ourselves with the Bible and we are believing the Bible. Bible accounts such as 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 are true and can be experienced even today. I quote these two verses to you: “ … [they] joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord … they raised their voices in praise to the Lord … Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” Yes – when God’s glory comes, we may no longer be able to move in this chapel building. Are we ready for this? Would this be okay with us? What’s more – without any lukewarmness – are we actively inviting and welcoming this?

At the beginning of this year I had planned to do what we have done the previous seven years, that is: slowly and gently chip away at our unbelief and discomfort with the things of God. I did not feel under pressure to do anything different. However, now these two prophetic words have come – with plenty of confirmations – and I do believe the words and if you believe them also, then we all agree that the time of slowly transitioning a congregation has passed. After seven years we are in a different season now.

Jesus said to the church in Laodicea (and says to us) – Revelations 3:14-22: “ … because you are lukewarm … I am about to spit you out of my mouth … “ This means that the time for judgement is about now. Jesus is about to spit out the lukewarm church now but at the same time – now – there is the promise of revival. Jesus continues in the same Bible passage with these words (and he speaks them to us with love) – Revelations 3:14-22: “ … Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me … “

Therefore, please don’t hide behind excuses or anger or anything else. After all of these years now is the time that Jesus wants your response. Will you get real – will you take the plunge – will you overcome your fear – and allow him to come in? Amen.