2011-04-10 (am) Revelation 3.15-16; Romans 12.

11 Feed the Fire (GEMS Sunday)

There once was a girl who moved to a new school. She told everyone that she was a great basketball player. When basketball season began, everyone looked forward to seeing how good a player she was. The very first practice came and she surprised everyone! She ran out onto the court with the other girls, the coach blew her whistle, and she just stood there. The rest of the girls began passing the ball around, but she just stood there looking at her feet. Someone called her name and tossed her the ball. But she didnt even move! The ball hit her and bounced away. She took a couple of steps after the ball, but gave up. She just stood there, hardly moving, not saying anything, and not trying. One of the girls went up to the new girl and said, Hey! I thought you said you were a great basketball player. Why arent you doing anything? GEMS, congregation, that new girl was suffering. No, it wasnt because she was new. It wasnt because she lied. She was suffering from apathy. She wasnt excited about playing. She lacked passion. She just wanted to be on the team without trying, without doing anything. In that way, she was like the Christians in Laodicea. Jesus Christ crafted seven letters to seven churches and he asked the apostle John to write them down. To the church in Laodicea, Jesus said, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I

wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarmneither hot nor coldI am about to spit you out of my mouth. The Christians in Laodicea ware lukewarm, just like the city water. In Collosse, the water was extremely cold and refreshing, it tasted great, and after a vigorous basketball game under the hot sun, it really hit the spot. In Hierapolis, the water was very hot! They had hot springs like at Miette. After a vigorous basketball game, even one played under the hot sun, sitting in the hot, soothing water, eased muscle pain and made you feel 100 times better. But in Laodicea, the water travelled via aqueduct from Hierapolis. By the time the water reached the city, it was no longer warm, by then it was cooled off, it stank, it tasted bad. Jesus said that the Christians were just like the water. They were neither hot nor cold. They were neither soothing and helpful, nor cold and refreshing. Their culture influenced them. They were content to just go with the flow, not ruffle any feathers, and not stand out. They didnt help anyone; they just stood around doing nothing, not sharing Christ, not giving comfort, not being a good influence at all. Christians everywhere (Edson is no different), are in danger of becoming lukewarm Christians. A lukewarm attitude can creep in at anytime! So, we need to be careful. We need to turn to Christ and receive from him a passionate fire. Christ provides the flame of passionate Christianity.

But like any fire, the fire of a passionate Christian needs fuel to keep it going. Have you ever gone camping and built a nice, warm, roaring fire? What happens if you stop putting more wood on it? Eventually it dies down, the heat doesnt radiate as far, and it sheds less light. If no one puts wood on it, it will eventually die out. Question #1 What would you do for God if you knew you could not fail? If there were plenty of resources available you knew you could not fail, what would you do? If you had no fear of failure, would you just stand on the basketball court doing nothing? If you believed that you could make a real difference for your team, what would you do? Youd be excited to play, right? Youd pass the ball, youd run around, youd dribble with confidence, youd jump, youd block, youd take shots from impossible angles. If youre confident, youll be active. Do you know that you can be confident in God? Did you know that God created you to be born into your family, to have the various gifts and abilities that you have for the very best service you can give to him? Did you know that God wants you to be a passionate, active Christian? What do you think this would look like? Passionate Christians make life better for others. Passionate Christians stop something from happening when they know that its not right. Passionate Christians make things that are lukewarm either hot and soothing, or cold and refreshing. Passionate Christians are people of any age. Very young children can passionately serve Christ, very old Christians can too!

Like Laodicea, our culture is very self-centred. Many people in our culture think only about themselves, they live for their own pleasure. John Piper, pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, says, If all you aspire to is to have a nice home, nice car, nice family, then you will have wasted your life! God created you for more! Dont waste your life! Question #Two. Whats stopping you? Whats stopping you from doing for God what you want to do? With Gods fire in you, having put your confidence in Christ, trusting him to have saved you from your sin, trusting him to work in you through the Holy Spirit, whats stopping you? You cannot fail! With God, all things are possible! God has already given you all his kingdom resources. You cannot fail to make the impact he has in mind for you. What we struggle with though, is the life-threatening condition called lukewarmness! We can become lukewarm Christians, satisfied with mediocrity, satisfied with standing around doing nothing. Not contributing, not helping, and not even getting in the way. Lukewarm Christians are useless! What really made Christ angry was not that they were lukewarm, but that they didnt care about being lukewarm. Just as the water of Laodicea was so gross that people could hardly drink it, Christian apathy makes Christ want to vomit! He wants to vomit, to spit out of his mouth lukewarm Christians. This is serious stuff! It is interesting that the greatest threat to our zeal as Christians is not necessarily sinful things, sinful desires. It is all the good things, things that want to be first place in
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our lives, but only God deserves first place! Some things that are good, but that can take too much control, are technology, Facebook, TV, console and PC games, sports, hobbies, keeping up with the joneses, having a beautiful home, keeping everything neat and tidy, etc. Jesus warns us the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke... (Mk. 4.19). Yes, even the good things can rob us from having a passionate Christian outlook. Sometimes, getting everything we want, having everything makes us lazy and content, content in a bad way. Christian author Francis Chan, in his book, Crazy Love, identifies 17 signs of lukewarmness in our culture. This lukewarmness has permeated the church too. Heres five: 1. Lukewarm people care more about whats popular than whats right...they care more about what people at church think about their actions, than whether or not their heart is right. (Lk. 6:26; Rev.3.1) 2. Lukewarm people gauge their own morality or goodness against the secular world, not against Jesus. (Lk. 18.11-12). This is really important. If we compare ourselves to others, if I think, Im not as bad as Hitler, or Ghaddafi, or a murderer. I might feel pretty good about myself. But if I compare my life to Jesus life, Im the worst sinner ever!

3. Lukewarm people love others, but not as much as they love themselves. Their love for others is usually only focussed on those who love them in return. (Matt. 5.43-47; Lk. 14.12-14) 4. Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but theres a limit to how much time, money and energy theyre willing to give. (Lk. 18.21-15). 5. Lukewarm people are more focussed on life on earth than eternity in heaven. (Phil. 3.18-20) Aware of the threat of lukewarmness, there are steps we can take to be passionate, either cool and refreshing, or hot and soothing. Thankful to God for what hes done for us, we desire to live our lives in a way that makes a difference. One day, we will give an account to God for the lives weve lived. We will receive rewards for the service we give to God. No, not that our efforts give us eternal life, but having eternal life from faith in Christs death and resurrection, we give service to God. We can counter culture, we can feed our passion, we can feed the flames and we can demonstrate our love with five spiritual disciplines. To help us remember, these disciplines spell passion> 1. P stands for Pray Constantly. Paul tells us to not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Phil. 4.6) 2. A stands for and

3. S stands for Study Gods Word. Gods Word teaches us, but it also sets us apart, it builds passion in us. 4. S stands for Serve Others Peter tells us that we should use whatever gift we have received to serve others, faithfully administering Gods grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4.10) 5. I stands for Interact with Gods People, the author of the letter to the Hebrews says, Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another... (Heb. 10.25). 6. O stands for Open Up and Talk about God. Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me (Ps. 66.16). 7. N is Notice God in the Ordinary. Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in mans behalf (Ps. 66.5). These disciplines will help us to maintain and develop our passion for God. Following them, we will hit our target: Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord (Rom. 12.11). Are you ready? GEMS, are you feeding the fire! Will you follow the five spiritual disciplines in order to keep feeding the fire? Will you heed the call to never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord? How about the rest of us? Can we step up? Yes, we can! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! Amen.