GOD • GAME PLAN Part 4
January 23, 2011 • Chris Goins • a2 Church
Here are the extended notes from Sunday's message at a2 Church (January 23, 2011). I've also included additional material that we didn't cover during the message, but that might assist you as you utilize the material in your personal study. Links have also been included to some of the support sources... You can download the audio of the message by visiting a2's website by clicking here or via iTunes. God's best to you.
GOD • GAME PLAN Part 4
“Everybody ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on purpose.” ~ Craig Groeschel, Chazown
Revelation 3:14-16 (NLT), Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen
NOTES: “Amen” is a Hebrew word that means “trustworthy” or “true.” It carries with it the idea of finality…
Revelation 3:14-16 (NLT), Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation:
NOTES: The word “beginning” means “first cause” or “origin.” It doesn’t mean that Jesus is God’s first creation… It means that Jesus is the one who began God’s creation… He’s the Alpha and Omega… He’s the beginning and the end… He is the author (initiator) and the finisher of our faith…
Jesus is ultimate and final truth, and He is about to SPEAK TRUTH to the church at Laodicea…
BACKGROUND ON LAODICEA: Here’s the back-story on the church Laodicea… Laodicea was an extremely wealthy city… Financially, the church Laodicea was set… It was on a roll… The numbers on its graph chart were up and to the right…
Laodicea was located at the crossroads of three main highways… It was a major destination for trade…
It was a financial and banking center… In fact, it was the most famous banking center in that part of the world…
It was a fashion center… It was famous for a soft, black wool that was manufactured in the city…
It was even a medical center… A medical school was located in the city that exported a famous powder that was used for eye salve…
NOTES: The church at Laodicea appeared to have everything… It felt smug, superior and self-sufficient… But Jesus shows up and says, “Okay guys… You pride yourself in your fashion, intellect, innovation and wealth, but the truth is I’m responsible for everything you have…”
Then Jesus lowers the boom…
Revelation 3:15 (NLT), “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”
NOTES: Hot and cold are good… Lukewarm is bad… The church at Laodicea was a lukewarm church…
We like hot coffee, hot chocolate, hot tea, and hot apple cider! We like cold water, cold iced tea, cold Diet Pepsi, and cold Diet Root Beer… I’ve never heard anyone order “lukewarm” anything…
Revelation 3:15 (MSG), “I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! 16 You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit.”
IMPORTANT: Laodicea was about six miles east of Colosse… Paul wrote Colossians and asked that they share the letter he wrote to them with the church at Laodicea (Colossians 4:16). That was in A.D. 61
The book of Revelation was written in about A.D. 95… Over the last thirty years church at Laodicea had went South in a big way…
When it comes to your relationship with God people fall into one of three categories…
Taking Your Spiritual Temperature:
Getting Real About Your Relationship With God
• Am I hot? Am I passionate and growing in my relationship with God?
NOTES: If you’re hot, you’re thriving, growing and passionate when it comes to your relationship with God!
Salvation itself is the transformation from “cold” to “hot.” There is nothing as cold as DEATH, but the life of God brings warmth and renewal…
QUESTION: Are you hot when it comes to the things of God? Are you passionate? Are you on fire?
• Am I cold? Do I even know God?
“Cold” refers to people who don’t yet know God… They’re totally “cold” to the things of Christ… They’re not hypocrites… They’re not religious… They’re just blatant about being cold, irreligious, lost and unsaved…
A person who is “cold” is easier to reach with the gospel than a person who is lukewarm, because at least their coldness awakens them to the chill of being lost…
On the other hand, if you don’t think you’re lost, you won’t hope that someone finds you…
According to Jesus, “cold” is not the worst place for you too be… Because in a moment of time, you can come to know God personally…
QUESTION: Are you cold and not connected with God at all?
• Am I lukewarm? Am I comfortable, complacent, apathetic and drifting when it comes to my relationship with God?
NOTES: Lukewarm people claim to know Christ… They go to church (at least occasionally). They’re religious… They can recite a few Scriptures… But they’re not IN LOVE WITH JESUS… They’re self-righteous… Sometimes they’re even moral rule-keepers…
NOTES: It’s interesting that several of the commentaries I read on this passage mentioned the fact that one of the weaknesses of the city of Laodicea was that it didn’t have it’s own water supply… It was dependent upon water from one of two places…
One of the closest cities away was Hierapolis, and this city was famous for it’s hot springs that many people believed had medicinal qualities about it…
On the other hand, Colosse was also relatively close, and it was famous for the cold water that came down from the mountains…
A pretty sophisticated aqueduct system transported water to the city of Laodicea… But because the water had to travel a few miles via aqueduct to reach the city, but the time it got there it was foul, dirty and lukewarm… It wasn’t HOT like the water in the hot springs of Hierapolis that could relax and restore, and it was COLD like the mountain water in Colosse… The water was pretty much USELESS…
Illustration:
In his book, What Did You Expect?, author Paul Tripp writes about how marriages drift… While Tripp is speaking specifically of a marriage, his description can also be applied to your relationship with God…
“Things don’t go bad in a marriage in an instant. The character of a marriage is not formed in one grand moment. Things in a marriage go bad progressively. Things become sweet and beautiful progressively. The development and deepening of the love in a marriage happens by things that are done daily; this is also true with the sad deterioration of a marriage. The problem is that we simply don’t pay attention, and because of this we allow ourselves to think, desire, say, and do things that we shouldn’t.” ~ Paul Tripp, What Did You Expect, page 58.
Unfortunately, I think “lukewarm” describes a lot of what we see in our churches in 2011… I’m not the only one… Author John Stott writes the following:
“Perhaps none of the seven letters is more appropriate to the twentieth century church than this. It describes vividly the respectable, sentimental, nominal, skin-deep religiosity which is so widespread among us today. Our Christianity is flabby and anemic. We appear to have taken a lukewarm bath…” ~ John Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church, 1980, page 116, quoted by John MacArthur, Commentary on Revelation, page 137.
EXAMPLE: (Luke 7:36-50 NLT)
All three categories or stages of a person's spiritual life get demonstrated in a story that shows up in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke Mark and John.
Luke 7:36-37 (NLT), One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.
NOTES: A few years ago I read that this perfume was equivalent in today’s cost to about $3,000.00 an ounce. This probably represented this girl’s life and her entire future. It was all she had managed to save.
Luke 7:38-40 (NLT), Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.
NOTES: Kneeling at the feet of Jesus the woman began to kiss Jesus’ feet and wipe those feet with her hair. This was an expression of overflowing love. It was the natural response to the forgiveness, mercy and love that she had received. It was an act of pure passion and unmitigated devotion…
Immediately, the voices of reason filled the room… Simon immediately thinks about the woman’s reputation… According to Matthew 26, some of the disciples got indignant and felt like the whole scene was a little over the top… “How dare you waste such expensive perfume! You could have sold the perfume for a fortune…”
Luke 7:39-40 (NLT) When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”
40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.
THOUGHT: It interesting that when this story gets told in Matthew 26:6, Simon is described as a “man who had leprosy…” Evidently, Jesus had healed this dude!
But it didn’t take Simon 30+ years to drift… During the short time span of Jesus’ earthly ministry Simon had already become lukewarm…
A guy who had once received GRACE is now hung up on stuff like protocol, rules, law instead of just being blown away by JESUS…
So Jesus decides to tell him a story…
Luke 7:41-50 (NLT), Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”
43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.”
“That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.
47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
NOTES: Again, all three categories of spiritual life get walked out in this story… The woman had been COLD to the things of God, but transformed by the grace of God and was now HOT, ALIVE and PASSIONATE in here devotion to God…
Simon, a guy who had received extravagant grace had somehow drifted and become lukewarm…
Illustration:
Author Max Lucado describes what happened to Simon and what has happened to a lot of us…
“I [have come] face to face with one of the underground’s slyest agents — the agent of familiarity. His commission from the black room is clear, and it’s fatal. Take nothing from your victim; just cause Him to take everything for granted.
He had been on my trail for years and I never knew it, but I know it now. I have come to recognize his tactics and detect his presence and I’m doing my best to keep him out. His aim is deadly. His goal is nothing less than to take what is most precious to us and make it appear as most common. To say that this agent of familiarity breeds contempt is to let him off easy. Contempt is just one of his offspring.
He also sires broken hearts, wasted hours and an insatiable desire for more. He’s an expert at robbing the sparkle and replacing it with the drab. He invented the yawn. He put the hum in the humdrum. His strategy is deceptive.
He won’t steal your salvation. He will just make you forget what it is like to be lost. You will grow up accustomed to prayer and thereby, not pray. Worship will become commonplace and study will be optional. While the passing of time, he will infiltrate your heart with boredom and cover the cross with dust so that you will be safely out of the reach of change.
Nor will he steal your home from you. He will do something far worse. He will paint it with a coat of “drabness.”
He’ll replace evening gown with bathrobes, nights on the town with evenings in the recliner, and romance with routine… He’ll scatter the dust of yesterday over the wedding pictures in the hallway until they become a memory of another couple in another time.
He won’t take your children; he will just make you too busy to notice them. His whispers to procrastinate are seductive. There is always, next summer to coach the team, next month to go to the lake, and next week to teach Johnny how to pray. He will make you forget that the faces around your table will soon be at tables of their own. Hence, books will go unread, games will go unplayed, hearts will go unnurtured, and opportunities will be ignored. All because the poison of the ordinary has deadened your senses to the magic of the moment." ~ Max Lucado, God Came Near
QUESTION: Are you lukewarm when it comes to your relationship with God? Have you allowed yourself to drift? Are you complacent, indifferent or comfortable?
NOTES: Make no mistake about, God longs for us to be HOT… To remain passionate…
Romans 12:11 (AMP), Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord.
What A “Lukewarm” Life Looks Like:
1. Passion for God starts to fade.
Apathy isn’t a state of mind; it is a state of heart. Just look at the word…
It’s formed from the prefix “a” which means, “without” and the root “pathos” which means passion. Apathy means “without love” or “no love.”
Illustration:
C. S. Lewis is the author of The Screwtape Letters. In the book, the devil briefs his protégé and nephew Wormwood on the techniques of tempting people. The goal, Satan counsels his nephew, is not wickedness, but indifference.
“I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with the people who do not care.” ~ C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
2. We inevitably search for substitutes (idolatry).
NOTES: Human beings are worshippers. We are going to give our devotion to something or someone. We might channel our devotion into hobbies as eternally insignificant as weight lifting, quilting, football or ugly dolls.
We might even channel our devotion into our children or a special group of friends. Some people choose to channel their devotion into a romantic interest or spouse.
But our greatest passion and deepest devotion was intended to be reserved for God.
“Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God, it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God.” ~ Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, page 171.
Here’s an abbreviated list of some of the idols we come up with:
• money
• success
• being smart
• being attractive
• relationships
• pleasure
• church
• work
Jeremiah 2:13 (NLT), For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!
Romans 1:23 (NLT), And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1:23 (MSG), They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
Tim Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods lists at least four ways we can identify the idols that have started to dominate our life…
• Look at your imagination or what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention.
What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Maybe it’s your career… Do you develop potential scenarios about career advancement?
Maybe it’s material stuff… Maybe you daydream about your dream home…
Maybe it’s a particular person… Maybe you drift into thoughts of, “If I could only have him or her…life would be perfect…”
• Look at how you spend your money.
Jesus said, “Where you treasure is, there is your heart also” (Matthew 6:21).
Where do you spend your money? Other than non-discretionary items like shelter and basic food items, where do you spend the majority of your dough?
• What is your real, daily functional Savior?
Maybe you go to church… Maybe you even know a lot of Bible trivia… Maybe you even serve from time to time, But what are you really living for, what is your real – not your professed – god?
Keller writes that a good way to discern where you are on this issue is to look at how you respond to unanswered prayers and frustrated hopes… If you ask for something that you don’t get, are you a little sad and disappointed, but basically say to yourself, “Hey, life goes on… It’s not over…” Or do you explode in anger like Jonah and pray to die…
If so, whatever you were praying or hoping for is probably your functional savior?
• Look at your most uncontrollable emotions.
If you’re constantly angry, what’s driving that anger? Is there something too important to me? Is there something I’ve got to have at all costs?
Keller says we ought to do the same thing with emotions like fear, despair or guilt… We ought to ask ourselves, “Am I so scared because something in my life is being threatened that I think is a necessity when it’s not?”
Keller writes, “…when you ‘pull your emotions up by the roots,’ as it were, you will often find your idols clinging to them.”
John Ortberg says that we need to ask ourselves some questions like:
• Which of those items do you most fear losing and feel like life might not be worth living if you lost?
• Which of those items gives you a sense of identity?
• Which of those items do you look to, to make you feel secure?
• Which of those items do most of your efforts revolve around?
The answer to these questions will probably help reveal your primary rival god…
3. We become experts at self-deception.
Revelation 3:17 (NLT), You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
The lukewarm are spiritually self-satisfied…
Notice the contrast in Verse 17, “You say…” over against Jesus' assessment: “And you don’t realize…”
4. We eventually make God sick.
THOUGHT: Some churches make Jesus weep… Some churches make Jesus laugh… Some churches tick Jesus off… But the church at Laodicea made Jesus SICK…
THOUGHT: I don’t think I could think of more startling or gross image… Jesus is starting to put the cup to His lips… He hopes to taste a pleasing drink… What he gets is lukewarm coffee that’s so stale and disgusting it ends up on the ground…
Revelation 3:16 (Holman / NET), …because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth.
Revelation 3:16 (MSG), You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit.
A Game Plan for Re-igniting Your Relationship with God:
1. Get real with yourself and with God. Repent!
Revelation 3:17-19 (NLT), You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. 18 So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. 19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
Revelation 3:19 (ESV), Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
The word “repent” is metanoia and it means to do a 180… It means to turn around 180 degrees away from SIN and back to God…
Re-igniting your relationship with God begins with REPENTANCE…
2. Focus on your relationship with God, not a list of rules you need to keep, behaviors you need to eliminate or bunch of stuff you need to do.
Revelation 3:20 (NLT), Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
THOUGHT: It’s interesting that what Jesus is after, is what we crave and long for… He’s after RELATIONSHIP…
As John Piper has said, “Christ did not die to redeem a bride who would keep him on the porch while she watched television in the den. His will for the church is that we open the door, all the doors of our life.”
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee…” ~ St. Augustine
James 4:8a (ESV), Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you…
QUESTION: How do you best “connect with God”?
Some Spiritual Graces That Can
Enhance Your Relationship With God:
__ Read and Reflect on the Bible
__ Study and Memorize the Bible
__ Prayer
__ Worship
__ Servanthood
__ Be Still and Silent
__ Fellowship
__ Fasting
“The disciplines take cognitive knowledge and make it a life-shaping reality in our hearts and imaginations. Spiritual disciplines are basically forms of worship, and it is worship that is the final way to replace the idols of your heart.” ~ Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, page 175.
Matthew 22:35-38 (NLT), One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.”
3. Persevere! Don’t ever stop paying attention.
Revelation 3:21 (NLT), Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. 22 Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
Hebrews 2:1 (ESV), Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
“The devil wants people to fear the high cost of discipleship. But in reality, the cost of non-discipleship is much higher. Dallas Willard explains:
‘Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10).’
The question is not, What will I have to give up to follow Jesus, but rather, What will I never get to experience is I choose not to follow Jesus?” ~ James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Life, page 31.
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