lukewarm

“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.’” Revelations 3:14-22

Tonight, Francis Chan spoke at Bayside again, this time on this passage in Revelations. His message served as a reminder of our calling to an eternal purpose. To me, this message seemed to tie in both the retreat message about transforming our lives through seeking what God is doing (much like Brian's kid does with the HS students in his youth group) and what we've been studying in our currently Acacia series on finding purpose in daily living.

Recently, one of the questions from a sunday school study asked what Paul would say if he needed to describe DCCC. When I read passages like the above about the church in Laodicea, I would hope that this wouldn't be what is said about our church. The message cautioned against allowing ourselves to become lukewarm, and invites us to look inwardly to identify if we are or not.

I think the sermon will be posted on the bayside site, and will update this blog-post when the sermon does post.