Meh Part Two

Meh,and then wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

Revelation 3:15 NLT I know all the things you do - that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water I will spit you out of my mouth! You say I am rich; I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. And you don't even realize that you wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. The first thing that you need to know is that GOD KNOWS ALL THE THINGS YOU DO. There is a quote from Abraham Lincoln - You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. Which basically states that eventually your actions will catch up with you …time is running out…you may have dodged a few bullets but it's all just a matter of time. It's like playing a game of Jenga… eventually the one piece will be pulled out that will cause the whole tower to fall. And whereas you can fool a lot of the people for a long, long, time – you cannot ever fool God even once. He KNOWS!!! There is no dark of night dark enough that His eyes cannot see. There is no whisper quiet enough that He cannot hear. But people either try to forget that - out of fear that He knows so much or because they don't believe that He is that personally invested in their daily lives to care that much about them.  Let me set you straight on that one … God sent His one and only Son to die on a cross for you – whatever could make you think that He then wouldn't pay attention to you afterwards? You matter to God. You may have had people in your lives that haven't been there for you – they haven't been there to show you day in and day out that you matter to them; but God is. He sees your hurts; he sees your pain AND scarily enough like in the church of Laodicea…HE sees your mehs! Revelation 3:15 NLT I know all the things you do - that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water I will spit you out of my mouth! You say I am rich; I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. And you don't even realize that you wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

God won't spit us out of His mouth when we serve Him with passion and intensity; hotly following after Him, and He also won't spit us out of His mouth when we haven't yet followed Him – it's only after we take that hotness and then grow cold that He finds us so nauseating. He's sickened by BACKSLIDERS!

There are a few reasons why they do this; people decide that they have no need of God; that over time they think they have it all figured out and that they can make it on their own and are in control of their own destiny. They begin to think; "what could God possibly give me that they don't already have?" Or people just go chameleon, (a chameleon adapts and changes color to blend in with the surroundings) these people just fade into the background.

This world tells us that it's cool to be meh… that we should act like we don't care too much; and to try not to look like we put any work at all in how good we look….because we are thought of as odd when we are a little bit too enthusiastic.

Sociologist Tony Campolo makes the statement that "we are caught up at a particular stage in our lives in which we're not only materialistic but worse than that we're becoming dead as people. We don't sing, dance or even commit sin with much enthusiasm." Just dull, dreary, lukewarm - meh. How does it happen in our faith? I say it happens by one of two things… pride thinking you don't need God or deception thinking that you can manage Him.

 James 1:22 The Message don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are and what they look like.  

People begin to merely listen to the word but not do what it says. We come to church or CYM more out of habit than anything else. But we don't allow it to actually change us into the people that God wants us to become. And I think it happens slowly over time….just how an ice cold glass of water becomes lukewarm and a hot cup of coffee goes room temperature over time. This church at Laodicea had grown lukewarm over time too.

Hypocrisy: the practice of professing beliefs, feelings or virtues that we don't really have. Pretending to be something you're not, or possess something that you don't have.

Long ago, there was a King who always wanted the latest and greatest for his royal wardrobe. One day, a couple of brave cheaters came to his kingdom bragging about this new material they discovered. They said it had magical powers: that if anyone was wise and had fine taste in clothing; the material would shine with unbelievable beauty. But to anyone who was ignorant about fashion, foolish or incompetent, the material would be completely invisible. The king was overjoyed! He could look good and show off his wisdom at the same time, so he put the men to work making him a new suit. Finally, the day came when it was time for the king to put on his new suit and parade around in front of the entire city for everyone to see. The whole town had heard about this magic fabric and wanted to see it for themselves, if they were wise enough to see it… of course…In the king's chambers, the designers came in, pretending to dress the king. They pretended to adjust his collar, as if the fabric were really there. They pretended to double check their measurements and straighten out his royal cape, but deep down inside everyone including the king, knew there was really nothing there.
And although the King was entirely un-covered, everyone just pretended to admire his new outfit. So here's the king, naked as a blue jay, frolicking around the city center while nobody dared to laugh or say a word out of fear that they would be labeled unwise. As he paraded naked through the city center, everyone pretended to see the beautiful new suit. Except for one little boy who turned to his mom and said, "The King isn't wearing any clothes," but she just shushed him and pretended along with all the others to believe, because no one wanted to admit they had anything lacking.

People in the church do this all the time: they continue to pretend that their nakedness isn't there either and it leads them to their destruction. The church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation pretended everything was all good. They thought they were successful, rich and lacking nothing but Jesus had news for them; that although successful by outward appearances, they were actually critically wounded.

They were neither hot nor cold. They were just meh; they didn't care if they were growing closer to God. They were just going through the motions because everyone who was around them was doing the same.

Truth is that you are either growing or dying when it comes to your faith. There is no in between. You are NEVER afforded the opportunity to stay put.

The scripture shows us some of the reasons for their demise.

You say I am rich; I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. And you don't even realize that you wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

They said they were rich.
Rich in what? Never confuse money with the blessings of God. There are a lot of poor millionaires in this world. The bible tells us instead to store up our treasures in Heaven.

They assumed because they lacked for nothing, that they were on the right track. How sad it is when a church or a Christian measures his own spiritual state by the comfort of his life or worse yet their meh friends. Just because things are going well – we cannot look at our lives and think we are in God's will. If that were the case; where would that leave Paul? Paul was shipwrecked, snake bit, flogged, beaten robbed, blinded, imprisoned and starved and yet he wrote a large portion of the New Testament.

God tells them you think you are rich; have everything and don't need a thing

But your true condition is that you are  Wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

Wretched, because they weren't even able to see themselves as they truly were –not unlike this King in the story. They were in a deplorable state of distress and misfortune but they didn't even recognize it. They were headed to hell and they didn't even see it coming.

Miserable , because they weren't able to recognize it  inside of  themselves that they were actually very uncomfortable and unhappy.

Blind because they were unaware of how they appeared before Christ.

 

 Pitiful, because they were not what they thought they were. They inspired him to feel contempt and pity when He looked upon them. 

Naked, because they depended upon themselves and not on Christ, they were not clothed in His righteousness. That comes when we accept His free gift of salvation. Sin drags us down, kills our motivation, separates us from God and makes us Luke warm in our walk with God.

Isaiah 61:10 The Message says…He dressed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo and a bride a jeweled tiara.

Outright hatred of God and self deception have the exact same outcome…an eternity spent away from God.

Christ would have us either be a hot cup of coffee on a cold winter morning, or an ice cold drink on a hot summer day. But when we are lukewarm, or room temperature, we just aren't that appealing to Him or others.

Meh is the state of being moderate - inferior in quality: just so so…ordinary.

The Laodicea church was the same way that many churches are today…
They seem to be successful, they have people showing up every week to hear a message that they can count on to be pretty anemic where their friends won't be offended (if they ever asked them to join them in the first place) and they look at church as a place where they can be entertained, fed and sent on their way to feel good about themselves for another week.

But that's not enough…God tells us that mindset is our undoing.

Rev 3:18-19 The Message. I advise you to buy gold from me, gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. And also buy white garments so you will not be shamed by your nakedness. And buy ointment for your eyes so that you will be able to see. I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference.