“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered 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 Seven Churches – Reliance in Christ Alone

1. The Lie of Self Reliance

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.”

As with each of the six previous churches, Jesus begins His address to them by affirming who it is that is speaking. It is always He who is speaking, yet each declaration allows us to appreciate a given set of attributes of God, and to understand how they apply to the specific church that’s being addressed, as well as to Christians as a whole, ourselves included. As Jesus speaks to the seventh church – broken and lukewarm Laodicea – He presents His authority almost systematically, in an order that accents His absolute power and timelessness. First He states that He is the Amen – this word, which we’ve discussed before, has moved from Hebrew, to Greek, to Latin, to a whole host of other languages, including English, while remaining almost exactly the same. When we say this at the end of our prayers, or as when we see it here in John’s introduction in Revelation 1:5–7,

“… To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

We can understand this as, “so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled.” I’ve also read this as simply, “let it be.” However it can also be used to begin a statement or teaching – the many times in the gospel accounts that we see Jesus begin with, “Truly, truly I say to you,” He’s literally saying, “Amen, amen.” For Jesus to be the Amen reminds us that He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and that His Truth is perfect, holy, and absolute. That He is the faithful and true witness again points to His eternality, yet also gives us the depth of His knowledge and insight into the passage of the time that He’s created. John 1:1–3 tells us,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

God was His own witness when time began and creation came into existence. He is fully outside of time, and yet He is not removed from time in an alienated or unknowing way. If we take a few excerpts from the end of Job when God addresses Job and speaks to His own nature, insight, and authority, we can understand this even better. In Job 38:4–7 God says,

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

In Job 38:12–13 He says,

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?”

In Job 38:25–27,

“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?”

Job 38:31–33 He says,

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?           Can you establish their rule on the earth?”

And in Job 38:39–41 God says,

“Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket? Who provides for the raven its prey,   when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?”

There is much, much more, but just looking at these sections from the beginning of God’s response to His servant Job helps us see the scope of God’s power and knowledge. From the beginning of creation, to sustaining time itself, to the patterns of the weather and condition of the land, to the movements of the stars above, to the welfare of the animals, seen and unseen that occupy His creation – His hand is upon all these things, they all exist under His eye. God has done all this and more, and God has witnessed all that He Himself has done and attests to it through His Word, which is manifest in the person of Jesus Christ. Finally, we see Jesus call Himself, “the beginning of God’s creation.” Some will read this, twist it, and teach heresy from it, stating that Jesus is claiming to be a created being, however this isn’t at all what’s being said, and would be in direct contradiction with what He has already claimed and shown of Himself. Jesus was not created, because Jesus is one with the Father – He’s God, and entirely eternal, which again, we saw in the opening of John’s gospel. Jesus is the beginning of God’s creation because He is God, who is the beginning of all creation, who is the eternal author of life and all existence as we know it, and beyond what we may know. We can also gain greater clarity on this as far as Jesus being the beginning of God’s creation by looking at Paul’s words about Jesus in Colossians 1:15–20,

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

This speaks to Christ’s unequivocal authority, but also points out His singular significance as “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead…” I’ve heard it pointed out before that while Lazarus, who was dead for four days when Jesus resurrected him from the grave, was truly raised to life again, he was only raised back to the life he had before. His flesh was still sin stained – he was made alive again, but he also died again. Jesus is not a created being, He is the beginning of all creation, and also the beginning of new, perfected life. As He said to John in Revelation 1:17–18

“…Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

In just the few opening words to Laodicea, Jesus’ description of Himself, the identifiers He gives of who is speaking to this church give us a scope we can’t fully wrap our minds around. This is God – eternal, holy, creation-speaking, reality-sustaining, all-knowing, all-loving, perfect Father, righteous Judge, who sees, and hears, and comprehends all from the highest high, to the lowest low, who was and is and is to come – God. This is who is speaking, and when we understand (to the best of our ability), the point of supreme authority from which Jesus speaks, we can begin to understand the extreme tragedy of Laodicea. We can examine our own lives, and see the fatal error we’ve likely made. Proverbs 9:10 tells us,

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

When we begin to glimpse the enormity of who God is, we can begin to appreciate the depth of our folly in ever thinking we could rely on ourselves for anything.

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

From the standpoint of the church, we can imagine that this may be similar to what threatens the other churches who are stumbling or outright failing. Ephesus, the very first church we saw who lost their first love, is at risk of having their lampstand removed, and no longer being a church at all. Pergamum, steadfast under persecution, is not ridding themselves of the false teachers among them, and is threatened with Christ coming to remove these blasphemers, warring against them with the sword of His mouth. Thyatira, growing in their works, also have some among them who have been compromised by the corruption of their society. These will be thrown into great tribulation and face destruction unless they repent – a set of circumstances that calls us back to Jesus’ words in the upper room in John 15:5–6,

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

Sardis is dead – operating off their reputation as a functioning, living church, they are only an imitation, sleeping through their faith. Jesus warns them that if they continue as they are, He will come against them, and that in their slumber they will be caught completely unaware, unless they repent. But there’s a particular degree of violence in the set of consequences given to Laodicea. “I will spit you out of my mouth.” The word used for “spit” is “emeō,” which literally translates as, “to vomit forth.” This isn’t delicately removing a bite of food that wasn’t to your liking, this is violently expelling that which has disgusted you. The disgust with the lukewarm would have been deeply relatable for Laodicea. Despite being a prominent city, they had a water problem, and having no springs within the city, their water was piped in through aqueducts. After arriving from its source, the water was lukewarm, but also very mineral-heavy, which led to significant buildup in the aqueducts. If you’ve ever seen limescale in your shower, just imagine drinking tepid water that has flowed miles through stone pipes that are lined with inches thick deposits of the same, whitish buildup that you had to scrub out of your tub. It’s not hard to appreciate how nauseating and insufferable drinking this would become – which gives us some perspective on just how awful it is to be lukewarm in the eyes of God. This is a terrible position to be in, and while there is no sin that is good or permissible, Laodicea is arguably in the worst position of any of the seven churches – and as we read on, we see that rather than be swayed by some outside false teaching, they’ve done this to themselves.

“For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Scripture is uncompromisingly clear as to how feeble and lacking our human sufficiency in the flesh truly is. One is when Jesus addresses the crowd in Luke 12:15–21,

“And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ And he told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.’”

This is underpinned by Jesus’ words after counseling the people to lay up their treasure in heaven, saying in Matthew 6:21,

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This concept is also expanded upon in what James writes in James 4:13–17,

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

This is what makes our attempted self-reliance so abominably wicked, so disgustingly vile – we are taking what is utterly worthless, and putting that before God. When we look to our own strength for assurance, we buy into the Satanic lie that what God has said is not true, and that we in ourselves are enough – and in doing so we are foolish beyond belief. Egypt, Babylon, Rome – all vast kingdoms, powerful dynasties, and world powers in their day – all lifted up, and swept aside through the passage of time under the mighty hand of God. If even empires that endured for centuries cannot rest on their own physical security, if the vast universe itself was made, is sustained, and will come to an end by God Himself, then how, how I ask can we look at our own hands, to the strength of our own arm, or the resilience of our walls and think ourselves secure? How can we look upon what is so temporal, what is such fleeting mist, and think there is a single moment that we are not desperately, fearfully dependent on the merciful, loving, wrathful, almighty God who made us and all creation? I have lived that life, I’ve walked that path. I’ve been in the place where I tirelessly, obsessively built upon myself, so that in mind and body I would be ready for whatever may come. I have not so much thought to myself, but acted out that I was self-sufficient, that I was saving God for the big things, that I was blessed to be strong enough to handle the day to day – and I was disgusting. I was wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked, I was addicted to my sin. It is impossible to be on fire for God, to burn hot with the Spirit, when your perceived self-sufficiency keeps you from seeing the wild, desperate need you have for the Living God in every single moment of your existence. When we partake of the lie that we in ourselves are enough for anything we fail to acknowledge God as the One we must have for everything, and we drift in the hopeless direction of the lukewarm – in the disgusting path of sinners who have exchanged the truth of God for the lie that we can somehow do anything for ourselves, that we are not fully reliant on Him to open our eyes each day – as though our next breath, as though each heartbeat were not dependent on His mercy. We may look at this condition and see something that is only good for being cast away and burned, something to be vomited forth and rejected – and without repentance, this is what will surely come. But as we read on, we see, as with Sardis, this great, unimaginably merciful path forward afforded to the church at Laodicea, and afforded to all of us who have failed so spectacularly in this way – the path of the Truth, of rejecting the lie, the path of repentance that is offered through Christ and Christ alone.

2. The Correction of Reliance in Christ

“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”

Through my life, I’ve been blessed to see more altar calls at the conclusion of a church service than I can count. Many times, they coincided with an invitation to pray what is commonly called, “the sinner’s prayer.” This may be worded a number of different ways, but the core of it remains the same. In it, you acknowledge that you are a sinner, that there is no way for you to make yourself right before holy God, and that you surrender your life to Christ, trusting fully in His redemption. In many ways, you simply accept the truth of Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 14:6,

“… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There isn’t a middle ground – no one has ever genuinely prayed the sinner’s prayer as, “Dear God, I’m pretty good on my own, but I think I’ll be better off with you included.” But sometimes, as we grow in familiarity with our faith while not gaining spiritual depth, this is what our confession comes to look like. God stops being the foundation of our everything, and instead becomes a very important and highly prized accessory. We completely lose sight of what Paul wrote in Philippians 3:7–9,

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—”

In this state, we may look at ourselves, and in our material comfort, think as the Laodiceans did, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” but this is the trap of perceived security in temporal, fading flesh. We don’t need what we have, we don’t need what the world has, but we desperately need what Christ has. When we move from crumbling earthly things, there is correction that takes place. Everything that Jesus tells the church at Laodicea that they need, gold refined by fire, white garments, and eye salve are all based around things they already had in a material sense, but we’re greatly lacking spiritually. They were a center of banking and money exchange, but Jesus specifies that they need gold from Him – not just any gold, but gold that has been refined by fire, purified, tested and purged of impurities through the flames. Paul writes in Romans 5:3–5,

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

And James says in James 1:2–4,

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Eternal rewards don’t come from friendship with the world – as James also says in James 4:4,

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Eternal rewards come from God alone – and this imperishable gift comes through trial, through testing, through tempering and refining, and we are shaped and corrected, not complacent or lukewarm, but clinging with great zeal to the one, shining, golden gospel of Jesus Christ. Laodicea was also known for its clothing produced from the wool of black sheep – but these luxurious black garments that they had come to prize aren’t what they needed, and again, correction is given. Jesus told the church at Sardis in Revelation 3:5,

“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments…”

And He now counsels Laodicea that they need the same attire that can come only from Him. In Revelation 7:9–10 John records,

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

Like Sardis, Laodicea is called from their current state toward repentance and belonging with the vast throng of those who have been redeemed in Christ. Finally, Laodicea was known as a hub of medicine, and were renowned for producing eye salve. Based on the region, it’s theorized that the salve would have contained zinc, something that can be found in some eye creams and ointments today, so there’s a very real chance that this may have truly helped some conditions. But Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:22–24,

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

“Money,” is not a mistranslation, but it has a somewhat broader meaning than simply referring to currency, as it can apply to general wealth, treasure, or possessions. The eye that is fixed on these things is not fixed on God, and so rather than a lamp that fills the body with Truth and Light, it leads to an amplification of darkness and obscurity. Laodicea was a prosperous city, but the banking, manufacturing, and medicine that brought them such certainty was far, far insufficient in the face of eternity, and they face a guiding correction as Jesus counsels them that they may understand their lack, and what they truly, desperately need.

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

From the time of their departure from Egypt, Israel demonstrates a tragic cycle throughout the Old Testament. In short, they are brought low, they turn to God, and they are lifted up despite their mean state, by Him. In their prosperity, they turn from God, worshiping idols and looking on their perceived self-sufficiency. In their sin, God strikes them, and either by plague, famine, or enemy nations, they are brought low – and the cycle repeats. Again, and again, and again we see this play out. Ezekiel 16 is a brutal and convicting chapter to read, as God outlines Israel’s origin, how He took them from nothing, raised them to glory, and they betrayed His covenant with them, and showed exceedingly profound depravity among the nations. After outlining all her various whorings, the idol worship, the child sacrifices, the giving of gifts and alliances for power with pagan nations, conduct so vile that Sodom and Samaria are called lesser by comparison – God says in Ezekiel 16:59–63,

“For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD.”

What we have to remember is that there’s a direct correlation between the people of Israel and the people of the Church. Israel is called the bride of God, we as the church are the bride of Christ. Israel was the recipient of the original covenant, we are under the new covenant of the blood of Jesus. Just as Israel acted in obedience and rebellion, we who make up the church are not immune to stumbling in the face of our flesh, but what we see is Christ’s willingness to correct us, to reprove and discipline, that we may repent and He may restore us. This isn’t a pleasant thing to endure, but it is without question a good thing to endure. Jesus tells the churches at Ephesus and Pergamum that if they do not turn and repent, then He will come against them. Thyatira similarly is told that the false prophetess Jezebel and her “children” will face judgement and death, and that those who do not repent of following her will face great tribulation. But Laodicea doesn’t seem to be given an, “if you don’t repent,” before Jesus says that He will spit them from His mouth. They are neither hot nor cold, they are lukewarm and disgusting, and so they will be vomited forth – they will see and understand the truth that what they cling to and are comforted by in their flesh is nothing, and that what Christ offers is everything. If they will inherit the riches of God, be clothed in the white robes of Christ, and look upon the Truth with eyes full of Light, then they may be filled with zeal, repent of their sin, and be restored to a right relationship with holy God.

3. The Invitation of Reliance in Christ

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

There is no hope in self-reliance, there is all hope in reliance in Christ. What we see here is an invitation to turn from foolish worldly pursuits, to abandon the lukewarm complacency that ends in death and receive the invitation of Life. Jesus says in John 10:1–5, 14-16,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”… “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Jesus knocks, He asks – He doesn’t stand, far and remote and wait for us to approach, but seeks us. He tells the disciples in John 14:15–18,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

To answer the call, to open the door, is to be in spiritual fellowship with the Living God now, and to hold the promise of eternity in His presence. But there is also another side to this – it is an invitation after all, a request that the door be opened, that Christ would enter and that we would know Him. Only a fool would reject Truth, only a fool would deny Christ – and yet the world is filled with lost and dying fools, so assured by what is offered in the flesh, that they have no eye, or ear, or heart for that which is eternal. Romans 1:18–25 speaks of these, saying,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:7–11,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

If you seek God, you will find Him. Not God as you imagine Him, not as a being who exists to serve you, not as a backup plan as you sort through your life on your own, but rather the One who is the center, who is the beginning and the end and holds all of space and time in His mighty hand. If you seek the world, you will be given the world, if you glorify and rely on self, then you will be filled with the wicked brokenness that is all you’re capable of. The invitation is simple – it’s beautiful, and merciful, and gracious beyond our comprehension, but it cannot be accepted by a lukewarm heart. Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:19–21,

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

When the Light of God shines in our hearts, when we are filled with His Spirit, and are delivered to conquer our flesh and this fallen world which seeks to enslave and kill us, then we persevere in Truth. We are made righteous, raised up, and seated alongside our Lord and Master. To be lukewarm is horrible, it’s pitiable, and disgusting, but Jesus offers hope. If we will only hear His voice, answer His call, and repent, acknowledging our desperate need and seeking His face with burning zeal, then we may know a restoration the likes of which we can hardly imagine.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQHy8eREXI