This sermon delves into the dangers of deception in the last days, emphasizing the prevalence of deception and the need to guard against it. It explores the characteristics of the Lukewarm Church, highlighting the importance of discernment, holiness, and true discipleship. The speaker warns against being lured into deception by false signs and wonders, stressing the significance of knowing and aligning with the character of God to avoid falling into lukewarmness and hidden sin.

Okay, Matthew 24 of course is all about the last days and it's phenomenal how much of the last days focuses on the problem of deception. So if we're in Matthew 24 verse 3, we see that Jesus, it says, and as he sat upon the Mount of disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be? What should be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world or the end of the age? Straight away we read in verse 4, Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no man deceives you. So the first word out of his mouth, the first sentence was about deception. Soon as they asked him a question, what is the sign of the end of the age and of your coming? Okay, and in verse 5 he says, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. What does I am Christ mean in the Greek? It actually literally means this, I am the anointed one, but you know Christ, the word Christ means anointed one, did you know that? So in the Greek, every time Jesus has been called the Christ, he's been called the anointed one. The thing about the modern deceptions, a lot of them, is men arriving, they say with a new anointing. They say we're bringing a new anointing, if you come to our meetings, we will impart the new anointing to you. Amen? That's a lot of what's going on in a lot of the huge meetings that are happening. Do I have a problem with that? Yes, because it used to be the only anointing I want is to be more full of the Holy Spirit of God. That's the anointing everybody was concerned about, and those were the days that I liked. Why? Because I want to see people full of the Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit of God, and that will do everything inside of me that I need. Amen? And so I don't really enjoy these guys with these big plans of being an anointed one, or having a new anointing to impart, especially when we start seeing some of the weird stuff that goes on. Okay, so we're still in Matthew 24, down in verse 24 of this chapter, Jesus warns again, for there shall arise false Christs, false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, inasmuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect. Why is this such a concerning passage? It's because, you know, you think about those words very elect, and what is being spoken of, literally those who've been chosen from the foundations of the world, right? That's why the very elect is actually a phrase that's not often used in Scripture, because what is it referring to? People that have been chosen by God, the very elect from the foundations of the world, okay? Very rarely used, and Jesus is saying, if it was possible, even these ones would be deceived, which is an incredible statement when we think about that. Even if it was possible, these ones would be deceived, and, you know, you look at something like that and you say, well, how can we survive this? How can we go through the last days and not be vulnerable to this? What is there that we can do? What kind of people will make it through this period of time? And we're going to be kind of looking at that and thinking about that today. So, one thing that we definitely know, just from this passage alone, these passages here, deception is a hallmark of the last days, and it is to be absolutely guarded against. In fact, that's why Jesus is making these warnings. But when we go to most churches today, I can't remember hearing sermons on deception. I don't know about you, but when I, you know, I've been brought up in the church all my life. Baptists, Pentecostal, charismatic churches. My family took me for years and years and years to all different churches. I can't remember sermons on deception or how to discern or how, you know, how to guard your heart against deception. I just can't remember hearing sermons on that, and yet here we go. We're in the last days. Many believe it, and they'll tell you, yes, yes, we're in the last days, but where are the teachings? Where is the warning to beware of deception if it's going to be such a problem? Let's turn over to 1st Timothy, chapter 4, and here's a kind of similar warning. 1st Timothy 4, verse 1. Now the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. So what is a seducing spirit? This is a spirit that has the ability to sneak up on you and grab hold of you in a subtle way, not a way that's going to alarm you. A seducing spirit knows how to flatter its way in. It knows how to grab hold of you even without you really knowing it's happening. Amen? A seducing spirit is something that you're not going to see it coming unless you're aware, unless you're prayed up, unless you're close to God. One of the things that has struck me more and more as I've been teaching on this subject is the link between lukewarmness and deception. There's no, it's not just a coincidence that we talk about the days of the lukewarm church and we talk about days of deception. Why? Because those two things go together so well. A lukewarm church is susceptible to deception in ways that, you know, a healthy church is not. Why? Because those people, if you look at our day, which I believe is the lukewarm church age, if I look at our time that we live in and I say what are the hallmarks of our time, people love to have their ears tickled in preaching. They want more entertainment. There's a selfishness about so much of the preaching and even a lot of the worship and so much that is done is done by self. Why is it people like that who are not hot or cold but they're somewhere in the middle, they're lukewarm, why is a church like that so susceptible to deception? Because deception is like the spirit here. It's a seducing spirit. It will flatter selfish people. It can worm its way in amongst people that are kind of lukewarm and love entertainment because all that that spirit has to do is tickle the ears, right? Bible says this about the last days, it says, they will gather to themselves teachers having itching ears. They will gather to themselves teachers having itching ears. So why would you gather teachers? I look around the world right now and I see that a hundred years ago they would welcome repentance preaching. Now the handful of us that would call ourselves repentance preachers, we're an endangered species because the church so gathers to itself those preachers that are able to tickle the ears and make everything sound good and promise you blessings and promise you riches and you know the prosperity guys have meetings of thousands and thousands of people and everybody's feeling blessed and uplifted but I want to come in there and say, listen uplifted people, are you really clean before God today? Have you really dealt with your sin today? Because it doesn't matter how good your music is and your sound system is, it doesn't matter how entertained you are, it doesn't matter how blessed you think you are, if you are lukewarm, if you have not dealt with your sin, if you're really not serious with God and laying down your life, if you are just kind of operating in that twilight zone and you're happy, you're susceptible. This is the last days, laodicean church and deception is the hallmark of the last days because Christians like that are easy to deceive, easy to deceive. Why? Because they're fixed on the wrong things, their eyes and their heart is fixed on the wrong things. Being comfortable and materialistic and allowing the things of this world to take our eyes and to take our attention makes us prone to deception. Those things all go together so it's no coincidence to me that we find a lukewarm church and it runs so easily to hear all these big preachers and there's such nonsense being preached, you know? And especially concerning to me has always been, not just what's being preached, what is being imparted, the spirit that is moving in these, in these meetings. That's the thing that's concerning. Okay, turn over to one of my, please turn over to one of my favorite scriptures, Isaiah chapter 6. What is the best way to combat deception? How do I make myself more discerning? If the people around me are going after something, how do I know? How am I supposed to tell? This is an important question, obviously. Isaiah chapter 6 is a brilliant, is an insight into the character of God and I want to put to you that the character of God and knowing his true character starts to give us discernment so that we're sharp enough to see when something doesn't line up with his character, okay? Because that's what deception is about. Deception will come along pretending and even sounding Christian, okay? Some people I've even heard say this, that if you're in a church, you're safe from deception. Deceptions won't come into the church. So if you're seeing things go on in a church that you think might be off, don't say, I don't worry about that. My view of that is, that's a ridiculous notion, okay? You're not going to deceive the very elect unless you are coming in pretending to be absolutely Christian, okay? Jesus said, many will come in my name. They will come in with a Bible in their hand, they will be looking good, sounding good, maybe 97% of their doctrine is true and they might be imparting a spirit that initially looks like the power of God. So everybody's sitting there going, wow, this is great, fantastic, we'll have to support this ministry. But those with discernment are sitting back going, there's something wrong here. I'm not going to go forward and let this guy pray for me or lay hands on me, there's something wrong. That person with discernment, I would suggest to you, the ultimate way of knowing and really discerning what is a God is to know the character of God. Because God moves according to his character. You know, the Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit for a reason. He's God's spirit of holiness. The things God does have a character of holiness about them. When you see things that are ugly or sick, like they literally look that way to you, ugly or sick, I put it to you, that does not seem like God to me. When I first started seeing the movement that I was most concerned about, which has been going out in the charismatic churches, I count myself a charismatic Christian. What does that mean? I mean, someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit, who speaks in tongues, who believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, like healing and word of knowledge and prophecy and so on. I actively promote those gifts. And I preach all the time to people the tremendous power that changed my life. And one day, when I got filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues for the first time. That happened to me when I was 17 years old. And the powerful transformation that occurred was so dramatic. You wouldn't have even known I was the same person. That was just overnight change. So I promote and actively encourage all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So therefore I would count myself, for that reason, a charismatic. And I've been involved in the charismatic movement for over 30 years. But these days, it's becoming less easy to call myself one of those guys. Because so much of the stuff that is getting preached in that movement is just spiritual junk. It's shallow, it's entertainment oriented, it's hype driven, it's just nothing I want a part of. Why? Because it didn't used to be that way. It used to be that when you got filled with the Holy Spirit, you were filled with the love of God. And you were just on fire for God and you're praying for people and witnessing to everybody and just full of God's love and grace and power, right? That's what's supposed to happen. But when a movement gets invaded by very dubious and very, I would say weird and extremely disturbing signs and wonders, I have to question and I have to go back and say, OK, I've studied all the great revivals. Does it line up with those? And I say, no, it doesn't line up with those. I say, I've studied all the great preachers and revivals. Do these preachers seem similar to those guys? I say, no, they're certainly not similar to those guys. John Wesley and Charles Finney and George Whitefield and John Edwards. There's just no comparison. These guys were holiness preachers, repentance preachers, just like Jesus was. Jesus was a repentance preacher. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. OK? So it's already failing the test. But of course, the crucial test is, does it look like the book of Acts revival? No, it doesn't look like the Bible. To me, it's weird. A lot of it's ugly. It feels off. When I compare it with what the main test is this, the real holy character of God. When I look at something, I say it doesn't fit with the character of God that I know. And I've been walking in with them these many years and looking at every true move of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't line up. And that's why I started writing articles and books. And people around the world would get in touch with me and say, Andrew. Some would be saying, Andrew, we rebuke you. How dare you say this? You know, we've got the biggest Christian leaders that are behind these movements. Who do you think you are? And other people would be saying, thank you so much for writing that. Because I was in one of those meetings. And I got caught up in that stuff. And I got prayed for. And I had to renounce a whole lot of things. And all this weird stuff started happening to me. And I didn't know how to get rid of it. And I had to have prayer. So I had both sides writing to me all this stuff. And for years and years it went on. Because this movement now has been going for over 20 years. In many charismatic churches. And so we get back to this, which is Isaiah chapter 6. Why we see the character of God particularly in this passage is because it's one of the few times we see into the throne room of God. So I'm often quoting this verse. So Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. So we're singing to the throne room of God. Above us stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. So it's talking about these holy angels, the seraphims. And I often point out to people and I say, look, these angels are living in the presence of God. But look what they're doing with their wings. He is not using all six of his wings to fly. In fact, he can't bear or bring himself to do that. There he is over the throne of God. He must be a very, very pure and holy angel, right? But he's over the throne of God, but he's not using his six wings to fly. He's covering his face with two of his wings. He's covering his feet with two of his wings. And he's only using two of his wings to fly. Why is he doing that? He cannot bear to uncover his face before such a holy God. That's why he's doing that. We find it in the next verse here. Verse three. Why is this such an insight into the character of God? It's because when you're God, you can choose what is cried out over you. And he could have had anything cried out by those angels. He could have said to the angels, I want you to cry out, merciful, merciful is God. That would be true, wouldn't it? Merciful, merciful is God. That would be a great thing to cry out. But no, they are commanded and set crying this over his throne. That he is holy, holy, holy. What does that technically mean? Set apart, set apart, set apart. What does he set apart from? All uncleanness. God is set apart utterly from all that is unclean. Okay? This is his character. God's character is dominated, you could say, by his sense of holiness. And that's what he wants cried out over his throne. And in fact, they cry it out for thousands of years. Because John, who wrote the book of Revelation, goes into the throne room at the end of the New Testament. Hundreds and hundreds of years later. While the angels are still crying out, holy, holy, holy. Lord God almighty. You see, this is such a characteristic of Jesus. Such a characteristic of all God's dealings with man. And if we lose a hold of that. You know, so a lot of these deceptions that were coming in. Were kind of like, oh, God just wants to have a big party. And he wants us all to loosen up. And he wants these like weird manifestations where everybody is getting drunk. They would say drunk in the spirit. And they would say, everybody would just be reeling around laughing and carrying on. And convulsing on the floor and so on. And they would say, yeah, this is God. And I looked at it from the very first day that it started happening. And I looked at it and I said, I don't think that's God. It doesn't seem like God to me. When God does pour out his Holy Spirit to people. Become filled with the joy of God. Yes, of course. I myself, I got filled with the love of God. That was the overwhelming sensation of God filling my life. I was filled with the love of God. That's what struck me. But also, the holiness of God. What happens to a truly spirit-filled person? They start loving righteousness. They start loving being clean before God. They start loving getting rid of anything that is dark or unclean out of their lives. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is inside of them. And they start wanting to become more holy. Closer and closer to God. That's what happens with a real spirit-filled person. Amen. It's obvious that that will happen. When the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, it empowered him in the sense that suddenly his ministry of miracles and all of those things began to happen. Same with the disciples. Their miracle ministry comes about. Why are they wanting a miracle ministry? Just to reach people with the message of God. It's not for its own sake. We don't have signs and wonders in the Bible for their own sake. We don't focus on signs and wonders. We don't live our life by the latest strange experience that we can have. We don't believe guys. We're not supposed to believe guys who go up and claim to have met angels and come back down and give us a message from the angel. Unless we know that this man is sound in his doctrine through and through, why don't we trust these things automatically? Because the Bible says this in the New Testament, that Lucifer or Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Amen. You know, the Mormon church was started by a guy called Joseph Smith who saw the angel Moroni. So he says, Moroni, the angel, told him, write these words down in a book. And a new religion started, the Mormon church. So they had signs and wonders, but they were false. They were lying signs and wonders. What is a lying sign and wonder? It leads you astray. If you follow, you know, we're supposed to have, in real Christianity, what are signs and wonders for? They're to confirm the true word. Amen. So Jesus says, go everywhere, preach the gospel. He says, there'll be miracles and healings to confirm the true word. Okay? That's supposed to happen. What happens with a lying sign and wonder? Very simple. It confirms a false word. It will take you down a trail that is wrong. And it'll take you there. And in fact, a lot of the people over the last 20 years, as I've observed that movement entering the church, and we're talking millions and millions of people, I've found that it makes them further and further and further out of liable spiritual. It slowly propels them into more and more new age stuff all the time. So how do we guard ourselves? What can we do? Apart from we have to know the character of God. Obviously, we have to be a people of prayer. We have to be a people that look around us and say, even though the rest of my friends, if they were to run headlong into something that seems wrong to me, I have to be a person that loves truth so much that I will not follow unless I really believe it's God. You know, that's the hardest thing on earth to do. You think of if all your Christian friends suddenly start loving a certain preacher that's doing signs and miracles, and it seems like it might be really true, and everybody's flocking in, but your heart is telling you something's wrong, really wrong, seriously wrong. You listen to the guy, and you go, yeah, it kind of sounds good, but there's something wrong. You talk to your friends. They just ignore you. They want to run after this person. How much courage does it take to stand up in that situation and say, you know what, I'm just not going there. I'm refusing to go along with this. Though I lose all my friends, though family members hate me, though people speak against me, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. The character of God or the truth of God, there's something wrong here at the core of what's happening. I'm not going. I'm not going to be part of it. But you know the courage that it takes to do that is tremendous. And when this thing first came in, a friend of mine calls it invasion of the body snatchers. If you've ever seen an old movie called Invasion of the Body Snatchers, what it is is everybody's slowly becoming an alien. All your friends are becoming an alien, and this lady's running around town or this man is running around town warning everybody, and nobody will listen to him. And it felt like that. My friend says it felt just like that. And all of his contacts, many of his ministry friends, many of his Christians he'd known for years were getting into this stuff, and he said, You know what? This is just off. It's so obvious. It's so clear. Can't you see? And I was there in New Zealand at the time this thing just invaded like a massive wave, and if you stood in the face of it, you were going to feel like a fool, an absolute fool. And so it can be overwhelming. I believe the last days it's full of this, full of this. It has to be because the Bible warns us about it over and over again. So how do we stand up in a time like that? First of all, we have to be a lover of truth. Amen? We have to be a lover of God. We can't be scared of the working of the Holy Spirit. So God does do unusual things, doesn't he? You know, when Moses saw the burning bush, don't you think that's an unusual sign? I think that's unusual. There's a bush that is burning, and Moses is saying, Oh, this bush is not burning out. It's just burning and burning and burning. It's just, I have to go and see what that is. So God does do unusual things, but you notice there's nothing out of keeping with God's character there, is there? God actually speaks to them in a holy way. He actually says to them, take off your shoes. The very ground you're walking on is holy ground before me. Remember that? It's a holy ground. So Moses cannot even approach without taking an attitude of God's holiness. Right? What do we see with every angel encounter right through the Bible? We see that people want to fall on their faces. They see an angel from God. They don't just laugh and carry on and have a big party time. There's none of that. They're instantly going, Oh, my goodness, the holiness of God. Why? Because the angel is carrying in his person the very presence of God. He's just coming from the presence of God, and he carries it still upon him. Okay? So you notice every time throughout Scripture people see an angel that's come from God, what do they do? They fall on their face. Amen? We don't see that in a lot of these angel encounters. You know, you hear guys these days, it's like an everyday occurrence. They say, Oh, yeah, I saw this angel. I saw that angel that said this to me. And I say, Yeah, but where's the holiness of God? Where's the conviction and the power of meeting with a being that's been in the very presence of God? I'm not saying it doesn't carry the hallmarks of that. So these are important things. Just turn with me to Revelation chapter 3. This is our second to last verse today. Revelation chapter 3 is aimed at the Lukewarm Church. And we looked at this last time I was here. Actually, when I came over last time, I spoke about the Lukewarm Church. I just want us to notice something. Because as I said before, Lukewarmness in the church and deception go hand in hand. There's not a coincidence that they're happening together at the end of time, at the end of the age. Okay? So, Revelation 3 verse 16 says this. Jesus is speaking. He says, So, what does the Lukewarm Church think of itself? Lukewarm Church thinks it is doing well. In fact, it thinks it is prospering. You know, we've got all these huge conferences. We've got the best teaching DVDs. We've got Bible bookshops. We've got the best worship teams and the best sound systems and the best of everything. And the modern church looks around and it sees the crowded pews with people who love entertainment. And it says, We are doing well. We're doing well. What does God say? What does Jesus say about the Lukewarm Church? You are poor and miserable and blind and naked. Can you see the vast difference between the two? What they think of themselves and what Jesus thinks of them spiritually. They're just absolutely miserable. And yet, they're not going to move. They're not going to change anything. Why? It's working. They say, why would we change something that's working? We can get more people this way. In fact, the better we entertain them, we find the bigger the crowds get. But none of that is Christianity, is it? Christianity is all about not how much I want to be entertained. It's literally about me laying my life down and becoming a literal disciple of Jesus. A disciple of Jesus. And he said, unless you will take up your cross and follow me, you're not worthy of me. That's the criteria for being a true follower of Christ. And the thing is, when you're entertaining, so busy entertaining everybody, that message completely goes out the window. It's totally lost. It's hard to actually preach on the cross when you're so busy tickling people's ears. It's a struggle to try and match them. In fact, you just can't. So you end up, your preaching becomes entertaining. And everything, the whole thing is all about appealing to people's natural ear tickling. Right? That's what's going on. And the Lutheran Church is full of that. The Lutheran Church thinks it's doing great. Jesus says that poor and miserable, blind and naked. He says in verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me gold, trident of fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed. And the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And he said, anoint your eyes with eye salve so that you may see. I spoke on this last one last year. And why? Because this is the most significant thing about the Lutheran Church. They are blind. The Lutheran Church is blind. It cannot see that it is sitting in this comfort zone that has lulled it off to sleep. The most dangerous thing you can be is to be not just in trouble, but blind to it. That makes it 50 times worse. So a lukewarm person, a person that has been lulled slowly to sleep, or maybe the seducing spirits, which we know are very crafty and careful, and eventually they get their way by how about manipulation and sneaking in and grabbing people unawares. That seducing type of spirit. Those are absolutely having a field day amongst the lukewarm church. The lukewarm church is more open to this than any other kind of church, I believe. Why? They're blind. They can't even see that spiritually they're desperately rich. They can't see it. They say, no, that's fine. We're doing well. We're comfortable. We have the material things. You know, our middle class in the Western world is the richest middle class that's ever existed in history. The Romans themselves, if they could see the way that we live, the chariots that we drive, the hot and cold running water, the refrigerators, the televisions, the entertainment systems, they would be aghast. They would say, even our king himself cannot afford what you have. That's what they would say. They would say, we would swap our palace in an instant for what you have. We don't realize that's rich. We don't realize we're rich and increased with goods and that needed nothing. We don't see how rich we are. But those very comforts, if we're not extremely careful, can literally lull us back into this drowsy state where we are lukewarm and prone to deception. We've become the very people in the last days that are so easy to deceive by flattery, by engineers. So, the way that we avoid deception in the last days, number one, we cannot be of the lukewarm church. We cannot be. If our friends are, it doesn't matter, we cannot be judging ourselves by the state of our friends. And Christian friends, we have to say, I'm not going to judge myself by that level of Christianity. I'm going to look in the Bible and see what a disciple of Christ is, and I'm going to be thanks. Amen? Crucially important, because if a lukewarm person, a lukewarm Christian comes to Jesus, what does he say? I'm about to spew you out of my mouth. That's what Jesus says to the lukewarm church. None of us want that. Amen? So, here we are in a lukewarm environment. You know, we're in a country, Australia not only started rich, and is rich, and New Zealand is the same. Did you realize Australia, a world record, it's gone 25 years without a recession. Did you know that? Australia, one of the few countries in the world, almost one of the only countries in the world, it's gone 25 years without a recession. What does that say to me? It says, Australia is doing fantastically well. I noticed it when I first came back here, after being in Europe, you know, America. I thought, man, Australia is doing so amazingly. They're like the richest country in the world. That's how it appeared to me back in, I guess, 2011. Started coming back here again. New Zealand, only a tiny bit behind. Very close. Try and catch up all the time. Right? So, we're living in some of the most comfortable environments on earth. And if we don't really focus on Jesus, that beautiful comfort can lull us, and lull us, and lull us, until we are half asleep. And we're in this lukewarm state. OK, there's one last scripture I want to look at. Matthew chapter 7 is another old favourite of mine. It applies directly to what we'll talk about in this secret reception. Matthew 7, verse 20. And this is a frightening passage, I think. Matthew 7, verse 21, actually. Not everyone that says to be Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. OK, so in other words, Jesus is saying, it's not good enough to just call me Lord, Lord. I actually have to be your Lord. Right? And then he says in verse 22, many will say to me in that day. What day is he talking about? The day of judgement. The day when we appear. OK, before him. They will say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in your name cast out demons. And in your name done many wonderful works. Then will I profess unto them, says Jesus, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. So what is happening in this scripture, we're talking about people who think they're Christians. In fact, they have all the hallmarks of Christians. These people obviously go to church. More than that, they show that they're the spirit filled type Christians that are into casting out demons and prophesying and doing many wonderful works. And they say to Jesus, surely you know and recognize us, Jesus, because we are the kind of followers, you know, that surely belong in here. We belong in the kingdom of heaven. We should be with you. We should have eternal life with you. And they're so shocked when Jesus is saying, I don't even know you people. I don't know who you are. Why doesn't he know them? He says, because you work iniquity. They have iniquity in their hearts and maybe even in their ministry. What they're, you know, what they're passing on. There may be levels of deception. He doesn't say that. What he says is iniquity, sin. Hidden sin. Habitual sin. These things cause Jesus not to recognize you as one of his own. And this is something that the Lukewarm Church will just slide right into. What? The Lukewarm Church is a comfortable church. The Lukewarm Church believes that it's fine to be involved in little bits and pieces of sin around the place. You know, nobody's going to condemn you here, brother. And that kind of thing. I don't believe in us condemning others. You know what I believe in? Being so convicted of God in ourselves that we hate sin. Amen. That if iniquity is found in us, we will be the ones so desperate to get right with God and clean before Jesus. Amen. That nobody out there really has to tell us, oh, you better repent, you better repent, you better repent. No. We should be the ones so in love with God, so much hotter than Lukewarm, that we just so desire closeness with Jesus. We love to be clean. We love walking in righteousness. We're full of the Holy Spirit, and therefore we love holiness. Amen. So this should never be true of a person like that. A true person that's not Lukewarm, they won't let them get into this. Because what is this guy doing? He's trying to say, well, I've done these things like prophecy and casting out demons, therefore I must be okay. Right? And Jesus is saying, no, sorry. It wasn't about that. Those are kind of outward things. And they're good things if they're done from the right heart. I love seeing people casting out demons. I love seeing healings and miracles. Bring it on. Bring it on. More and more. But I want to see the reality that it's coming from. Clean hearts. A pure word. A real gospel. A real disciple of Jesus. Not this other garbage. Amen? Simple stuff. All right. Please stand with me. Let's pray together. What I really want to pray about this morning, and I'd like you to, if you agree with me, just be raising your hands to heaven with me as I pray this prayer for us all. But I'm going to be praying that we would truly and deeply know God. That his character would be imprinted on us more and more. That we really, really would know him. And that we would not ever fall into Lukewarmness. But that we would always be part and real disciples of Jesus. So, Father, I just pray for all of us as we raise our hands before you, God. We're saying, Father, we raise our hands this morning to you saying, make us real disciples of Jesus. Real disciples. Let us never become lukewarm, Father. In fact, we repent of any lukewarmness that is trying to enter our lives, Father. This being such a comfortable nation, Father, we know that we live in a prosperous place. Let those things not drag us down into mediocrity, Father. Make us hot Christians of God. Let our hearts be full of devotion for you. Real love for you, Father God. We'll go to the ends of the earth for you, Father. We want to be real disciples of Jesus. Father, I pray that you'll imprint upon us your character, your holiness of God. That you'll speak powerfully to us about who you are. That you'll show us and reveal your holy character to us in a way that makes us hunger after holiness, Father. Pour your spirit upon us today. Make us a new people. We repent of anything that's holding us back from totally serving you with all our hearts, Father God. Please pour your spirit upon us and change us and cleanse us of all. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen.