Mike Bickle addresses the church of Laodicea, emphasizing the dangers of spiritual pride and lukewarmness. He highlights how the church, despite its wealth and self-sufficiency, is spiritually blind and unaware of its true condition, which leads to a lack of desperation for God. Bickle urges believers to zealously repent and seek true spiritual richness through a deeper relationship with Christ, who stands at the door of their hearts, inviting them to dine with Him. He reassures that no one is beyond redemption if they heed the call to open their hearts to Him. The sermon serves as a wake-up call for the modern church to recognize its need for genuine spiritual awakening.

Father, we come before you in the name of Jesus. And we ask you to release your blessing. Even now, as we hear the word of God, I ask you for the impartation of your heart. And we thank you in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, we're continuing in a 12-part series on the seven churches in the book of Revelation, the seven churches in Asia Minor, because these seven churches, the message that Jesus gave to them, specifically is meant to prepare the church in the generation that the Lord returns for the unique series of events that are released as portrayed in the book of Revelation. And so, though these messages had very specific application to the churches 2,000 years ago, they have a full application to the church in the generation that's going to see the events of the book of Revelation, the positive and the negative ones, and the generation that sees these events released, the promises, the warnings, the insight to these seven churches, specifically meant to prepare the church. Let's go ahead and read Revelation 3, verse 14 to 22. To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, write this. These things says the amen. Now, this is Jesus, obviously, giving three different titles concerning Himself. These things says the amen, the faithful and true witness, and the beginning of the creation of God. Verse 15, I know your works, that they are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot, so then, because you are lukewarm, and you are neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say in your heart, I am rich, I have become wealthy, talking as a church, and of course, this is the individual confession as well as of believers in the church at Laodicea. Because you say I have need of nothing, in other words, because they were not desperate to encounter the Lord and to go forward in the Lord, but they were content as to where they were spiritually. Because you don't know that in truth, you are wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, you're blind and naked. He says in verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me. Now, he's gonna give Him three words of advice. Buy from me gold, that is gold refined in the fire, and the purpose is so that you would be spiritually rich. Number two, buy from me white garments, and the purpose that you would be clothed and the shame of your nakedness would not be revealed. And number three, anoint your eyes with eye salve. And the purpose of that is that you would be able to see or receive greater revelation. Verse 19, lest they misunderstand what is in his heart because of this rebuke and because of this chastening or this discipline, he goes, know this, that as many as I love, I rebuke. He goes, I'm only rebuking you because I love you. Beloved, we're in trouble when the Lord doesn't rebuke us anymore. As long as the Lord is speaking correction, that means we still have a future and He still is interested in our recovery. But when the Lord ceases to talk about the issues that are contrary to His word in our life, then we're in trouble. As many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten. Therefore, in other words, because I really do love you and because your future is still within reach, therefore be zealous and repent. Now to be zealous is the opposite of lukewarm. He says, make some radical changes in your life and do them with full energy and repent. Be zealous and repent. Now He offers promises to them here in verse 20 and 21. Behold, I stand at the door, and He's talking about the door of their heart and the door of the church in the corporate sense and the door of their heart in the individual sense, and I'm knocking. He says, I'm pleading, I'm inviting, I'm urging you to allow me to have entrance. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, speaking the door of the heart, I will come into him and I will dine with this person and he with me. And to the one who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne in the way that I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Okay, Roman numeral one, the primary message of this prophetic word to the church in the city of Laodicea, of course, is very appropriate to the church today in the Western world. Jesus is promising this prestigious, wealthy church. He's promising them deep fellowship with his heart. When he says, I will dine with you, that is language. I mean, he's literally going to dine with us in the age to come in the physical sense, in the resurrection, but he's using the word dine in the spiritual and physical sense. And in this age, it's spiritual that he will be near us in deep fellowship. So he's promising deep fellowship, but he's promising a position in his eternal kingdom. And he's promising them gold, garments, and deep revelation of his heart and of his word. It's interesting that the church that has the greatest rebuke and the most compromise, he's giving the greatest promises. And there's a message in this, that no one has gone too far if they will hear what the Spirit's saying and open their heart. Now, interesting that in the church before the Laodiceans in the Philadelphia, the church to the Philadelphians, chapter three, verse seven and eight, Jesus presents himself as the one with the keys that can open doors that nobody can shut and can shut doors that nobody can open. However, in the next church, he makes the one exception, the only door he cannot open and will not open is the door of our heart. He says, I can open all the doors, but because of the way I've chosen to run my eternal kingdom, I cannot because I will not violate your free will because the kingdom of God is run on the basis of voluntary love, voluntary partnership with him. He can open any door, but the one door he refuses to open that he waits for us to open is the door of our heart. Now, Jesus in paragraph eight, he offers this prestigious church, the wealthy church, deep fellowship, eternal position in the government of his kingdom, gold garments and revelation. However, the only way they can receive this is if they zealously repent of lukewarmness. Now, when somebody does that, that is a miracle. I've been in ministry now over 30 years, and it is a miracle. I've seen it, but I don't see it very often, where somebody has been in the kingdom for a while, and they get familiar with the things of the Lord, and they get entrenched in a mindset. They remember when they were on fire the first couple of years, when everything seemed new, but now they've been in the kingdom five, 10, 15, 20 years, and I don't see it often, but it happens occasionally, and it is miraculous work of the Holy Spirit when a person repents, or even better than that, an entire ministry repents in a zealous way. I don't mean for a weekend or for the summer, but they repent with zeal. See, there's no stone that they leave unturned until they connect with God. There's one thing to repent for a moment under the influence of a inspiring weekend or conference, and it's another thing to repent with zeal. Jesus said, if you repent with zeal, these promises are still within your reach, but it will take radical changes of your mindset and your time and your goals, but if you do it, I will give you gold. I will give you garments. I will give you increased revelation. He's talking about this age and the age to come. They all have application now and then. Now, the problem the Laodiceans had was their spiritual blindness. They couldn't see that they had a problem, which is really the essence of pride, that the way that things were seemed good enough. Even though God was pleading with them and beckoning them to change, they were content. It seemed that things were good enough. That's the essence of pride. They didn't have to take drastic steps to respond to God on his terms because they were gonna come to God, continue on their own terms, even as believers. Now, one of the main problems that they had, and it's very prevalent in the church in America, is they misinterpreted why they had financial blessing. Now, lest you think I'm picking on the wealthy in America, I'm not, because I'm gonna address the problems of wealth, but don't think of multimillionaires from a global perspective and a historical perspective. Even the poor in America are wealthy from a historical point of view. I mean, many poor, not all the poor, there are exceptions in our nation, most of them still eat on a daily basis. They have heat, they have some form of transportation, things like this on a global scale and a historic scale, the majority of the human race could not say that. And so even those that are real simple in the Western world are among the wealthy from the larger point of view. Now, one of the problems that this wealthy church had, and of course in the West, particularly in America, there's so many large influential wealthy churches, is that they misinterpreted the reason God gave them financial wealth. Now, in Deuteronomy 8.18, the Lord says, I mean, through Moses, remember the Lord, it is He who gives you the power to make wealth, to get wealth, so that He can establish His covenant, which He swore to you. Now, most people are familiar with this basic idea. So there's a lot of emphasis in the body of Christ in America on the legitimate biblical promises of wealth. But the problem is, is that when our wealth grows faster than our heart does, negative dynamics take place that are very serious. We must not, paragraph C, allow financial prosperity to hinder our heart prosperity and our eternal treasure, our heavenly treasure. Now, that's a nice statement to make, but mostly this principle is neglected. People will usually take wealth anytime that it's available. And the idea that they should draw back on opportunities because their heart will be injured in God, or they will be forced to neglect some of their spiritual relationship, just the sheer weight of managing increase, whether it's increase in influence, increase in finance, increase in popularity, the managing of increase, most people can't do well, or they don't do well, let's put it that way. Now, the Lord offers a way to do it well, but most people, when increase comes, I've seen it for 30 years in ministry, when somebody's ministry goes from little to big, more times than not, five years later, they look back, they've lost their vitality with the Lord. They haven't been able to manage increase. And that's what happened to the Laodiceans. The increase of their external blessing was bigger than the increase of their spiritual life. And so they lost out. It's a really serious loss. It seems noble to say these sorts of things. People go, well, that's really neat, but it's not really that practical. Beloved, we need to say no to increase when increase gets in the way of the increase of our relationship with the Lord. It's real. It's not just a hypothetical situation. It's real in many people's lives. It's unthinkable to people to actually say no to increase. Opportunity, we have a lot of ministries here at IHOP that are growing and flourishing, a lot of open doors, and some really have the wisdom to say no to some open doors and others can't bear the idea of missing an opportunity to get bigger. And we don't wanna forget why it is that God prospers us, whether in economics or in influence and in favor, He prospers us for His own purposes to establish His covenant. Now, John, of course, who wrote the book of Revelation also wrote this, 3 John 2, I pray that you would prosper in all things and be in health as your soul prospers. It's not enough to prosper in all things externally. Our soul must prosper. We must be growing in spiritual vitality with a vibrant heart, or the very increase will end up as seen as a great hindrance in our life in the big picture. Paragraph D, one more point on finances because it's such an important part of the Laodicean problem and the problem happening in the church in America. It is more difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said it, the ultimate psychologist, the ultimate, the man with the greatest insight into the processes of the human heart. He said, I wanna tell you something, I'll tell you for sure. It's not impossible, but if you're rich, whether in finances or in influence or in favor, it will be more difficult to experience the kingdom. Now, the answer isn't to automatically cast it aside. The answer is to diligently, with honest heart, ask what the Holy Spirit is saying each step of the way. Jesus said in Matthew 19, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom. Now, don't think of rich in money only, think of rich in influence, rich in favor. Not impossible by any means, it's just hard. Long as you know it's hard, half the battle is won right there. By being aware that God-given increase brings with it spiritual difficulty. I wanna say it again, God-given increase brings with it spiritual difficulty. It's hard to enter, meaning to experience the kingdom, and that difficulty doesn't stop after you're born again. I find that the more my ministry increases in size and influence, the more difficult it is to stay focused and connected to the Lord. I've seen that over the years, and a few times over the 30 years, I've lost my way in the wake of increase. You know, and some time goes by, some months or longer, and it becomes clear to me, and I've had to make real radical changes to make sure I have time to cultivate my life with the Lord, because your life in God will not automatically grow. It must be cultivated intentionally, intentionally. And in that intentional cultivating, it takes time. It takes time to have a vibrant heart. I remember one pastor told me years ago, he said, when I hear you talk, it's almost like you make a relationship by how much time you spend with the Lord to how tender your heart is with the Lord. I said, absolutely, there's a relationship. It's not the only point. I go, there's an absolute corollary to the time we spend with God to the growth of our heart. And the part that was shocking to me is that that principle was shocking to him. He goes, I've never thought such a thought. I had to bridle my tongue. No, really, I just had to, I said, you've never thought such a thought, never, that there was a correlation to how much time I spend with God to how tender my heart is in the Spirit. Now, we don't have to lose our way with riches. Again, I'm not talking about just money, but I am talking about money, talking about influence, talking about favor. We don't have to lose our way, but most do. Just the truth of history is most do. And they become more spiritually shallow and they don't know it. Top of page two, just a short introduction to the church at Laodicea. Paragraph A, it was a wealthy city. It was a center of banking, manufacturing, and medicine. One of the famous things it was famous for was its medical school. And the medical school there had developed a treatment, a special treatment, to cure specific eye diseases. And that's what Jesus refers to when he talks about ISAF. They all knew about the ISAF. The ISAF was an eye treatment, a cream. They put on their eyes when they had a certain disease. Jesus is saying, treat your spiritual eyes in the way that your city is treating their physical eyes. Roman numeral three. Three. Now, Jesus is going to give three descriptions of his heart and of his ministry to them. Each of these three descriptions just tells us how he feels about us, gives us insight, and what he will do for us if we call on him to do it. And these descriptions in each of these seven letters are specifically related to the challenges to compromise that each of the churches had, as well as these three, the descriptions, correlate with the promise that he gave them. And so, as we are challenged with the compromise of the Laodiceans, and we are zealous to have the promises of the Laodiceans, we wanna really understand by the Holy Spirit these three dimensions of Jesus's heart and of his ministry towards us. First, he calls himself the Amen. Secondly, he calls himself the faithful and true witness. He's a witness before God. He's God's witness. He's a faithful, true one. And third, so first he's an Amen, second, he's a witness, and third, he's the beginning of the creation of God. Paragraph B, the Amen. Again, this is gonna help us overcome the compromise of the Laodiceans and enter into the promises that he gives the Laodiceans, both of them. The Amen means that which is true, most of you are aware of that, or that which is promised or established. And he calls himself the Amen of God for several reasons. Number one, because his promises are true, but it's more than that, it's more than that. Paragraph one, the Amen was pronounced by the congregation or by an individual whenever the person or the congregation agreed with the promises of an oath and the negative consequences of breaking the promises of that oath or breaking the oath. So when a person said Amen, they said, I agree with the promises and I agree with the conditions. And I am willing to accept the consequences negatively because I'm binding myself to the consequences, positive ones as well. So when they said Amen, they were saying, I am in full agreement. And when Jesus names himself the Amen of God, he's saying, as a man, I lived in perfect agreement with my father. I didn't just believe the promises that he had for me. From my heart, I lived in agreement with the promises, the conditions, and the consequences if the conditions were not kept. And when Jesus offers himself to us as the Amen of God, he's saying, you've got to come to me on my terms and not just agree with my promises, but agree with the conditions. So I am the Amen of God. The Amen doesn't only mean the good is true, the Amen means the bad is true as well. All the promises of God are yes and Amen, but so are the judgments of God, unless there's repentance, because God cannot break his word. He cannot violate his character in any way. So when the Lord reveals himself to me as the Amen, he's saying, Mike, I want you to agree with me in the way I agreed with my father when I walked on the earth. He says, paragraph C, he's more than the Amen of God, he's the faithful and true witness. He speaks what's reliable and he speaks what's truthful. Now, this is particularly important to the Laodiceans because he's going to tell them the truth positively and negatively, and both of them are extreme. He is going to give them promises so high, so seemingly too good to be true, that he says, before I even tell you the promises, I wanna tell you, I am a faithful witness. Yes, in the resurrection, I will dine with you. I will have meals with you and unhindered fellowship for real, I will do this. And the believer says, really? And he says, really? And I will give you a position in my eternal government, position of authority. Now, all believers do not have a position of authority in Jesus's government. All believers have a role in the kingdom, but the vast majority will not have positions of authority in the kingdom. There's real specific requirements of faithfulness. Does it matter what your gifting is? You can have very little training and very seemingly minimal gifting, yet you can have a high position of authority and involvement in the kingdom of the age to come based strictly on faithfulness. The judgment seat of Christ, I call it the great equalizer. Does it matter who you know or what your giftings are in this age? If you say yes, with diligence and zeal, you will have that position in the age to come. Now, why do we want a greater position with the Lord in the age to come? Because we wanna work closely with Him. We wanna be with Him where He is. We wanna be doing what He's doing. I wanna be involved in government in the age to come of the kingdom because He is. And because it's important to Him what happens in the government. I wanna talk to Him, I wanna be close to Him. I wanna do the things that are highest on His heart. That involves the government of His kingdom. So He offers them these great promises. And then He adds to it, I will give you gold even in the age to come. I will give you garments even in the age to come. And I will give you the spirit of revelation in this age and the age to come. He says, I'm a true witness. I'm not exaggerating any of this. You can count on all of this. No matter what it costs you to obey me, if you do it, you will find out I was a faithful witness to the promises. I didn't exaggerate any of them. But as truthful as He is in the positive, He is equally truthful in the negative. There's no flattery, there's no exaggeration in His word to His people because He loves us. Jesus speaks with a perfect speech. In our context, we would call it a bridled tongue. He doesn't add to the promises, He doesn't flatter, He doesn't reduce, He doesn't exaggerate in any way. Paragraph D, He goes on to call Himself the beginning of the creation of God. Now, the word beginning throws off people. A lot of the cult groups through history will use this phrase, and several like it, thinking that Jesus was maybe the first one created or at least He is created. Jesus is uncreated like the Father and the Spirit. There was never a time Jesus did not exist. He is forever the uncreated God. He's fully man from the incarnation on. And being the beginning of the creation of God doesn't mean the beginning in terms of time, it means the beginning in terms, He is first in terms of the cause of the creation of God. Before creation, He was the first cause that brought it into being as God. And as a man, He is the first in authority over the creation of God as the son of David. Because He lived obedient as a man, God the Father is giving Him authority over all creation and it's His as a man. So He is the beginning of the source or the cause of creation, and He is the beginning or the first place in authority over all creation. That's what He's telling them. Now, why is He mentioning this to them at this time? Several reasons. Number one, the Laodiceans were very impressed with their financial opportunities and their prosperity. And Jesus was in essence saying, look who's talking to you. I have more money than all the Roman Empire. Look who, I am the beginning. I'm number one, I am the source of creation itself. How much more? The money you're impressed with. He goes, I can give you favor beyond anything that you can get, Laodicea, and I have the power to give you a place in my throne because I have the first position of authority over all. He's trying to awaken them to pay more attention to Him than they are to their opportunities. That sounds obvious, but it's so common for a businessman or a businesswoman or a ministry that has a little increase going to be so enraptured in their increase, so preoccupied with it. And Jesus said, I am the beginning. I am the first in authority over all creation. Come to me, I have the power to set you in the place that I've called you, far beyond anything you can touch right now in this age. That's what He's saying to them. Top of page three. The affirmations for faithfulness. In the seven churches, five churches were affirmed. Two of them, Laodicea and Sardis, were the only ones that were not affirmed. Now He's gonna give the correction for their compromise. It says in verse 15 and 16, 17. I know your works, that they are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were cold or hot, but because you're spiritually lukewarm, you're passive. To be lukewarm means to be passive in their relationship with the Lord. So He says, you're neither hot nor cold. I will vomit you out of my mouth. That's an interesting concept because He makes it clear to them. He's only correcting them because He loves them so dearly. So this doesn't mean He despises them. That's not what He's talking about. If He despised them, He wouldn't be correcting them. He says in verse 17, because you say, I am rich and I have become wealthy and I have need of nothing, you don't know, and He describes them in five ways. Now He's speaking as the faithful witness. Now, mostly you're not gonna find someone in the body of Christ who loves you who will talk this straight to you. It's rare to have somebody speak with tenderness, but this kind of clarity with tenderness. So if you have that person in your life, bless them, don't get rid of them because Jesus is speaking in tender love, but with precision because if they don't see it now, they will have to come face to face with it at the judgment seat of Christ. I've said through the years, Lord, shock me now, don't shock me then, shock me now, and that's what He's doing to the Laodiceans, but this is the sort of thing the Holy Spirit would say to somebody who's listening. He's not saying that I despise you. Matter of fact, in verse 19, He goes, I love you. I have plans for you. Matter of fact, I'm inviting you to rule in my kingdom with me and to dine with me. I really like you. I wanna have dinners with you, many of them. Paragraph A, He says, you're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or you were hot. Now to be hot is to be fervent. It's the word fervent. From Romans 12, Paul the apostle says that we should be fervent in spirit. I think it's Romans 12, verse 10 or 11. And to be hot is the same word fervent. He goes, I wish you were fervent. If you were not fervent, I would actually rather that you would be cold. And some commentators will use the cold as a, cold is refreshing and hot is on fire. I think, I don't think that's what it means. Although I understand that concept. I think He's saying, I wish you were fervent, but I actually would rather you be cold because if you're cold, at least you know you're in trouble. But a person that's lukewarm is in trouble, but they're very difficult to reach. When a person is under the pain of a cold heart, I mean, it's nothing's moving. They can't feel His presence at all. And they have no sense of connection with God, whether believer or unbeliever. I know a lot of believers like this. They become desperate. They have ears to hear. They're paying attention because of the pain of the coldness. And though Jesus doesn't want anybody cold, there's a better chance of them repenting in the great need and the burden of spiritual coldness. They're easier to convert when they know they're in trouble. Much of the church in our nation is lukewarm. I believe this is the clearest prophetic word for the church in America. It's wealthy and lukewarm and pretty confident that they're doing well. It's a disaster. I wanna say that strong. The church in our nation is in serious, serious position before God right now. And the church is getting bigger and richer and more confident and has less insight than any time possibly in America's history. And the Lord loves the church in America. And if we love the church in America, we want to not flatter the church. We don't wanna rail the church, but we wanna speak tenderly but honestly. He says in paragraph B, because you are lukewarm, I wanna vomit you out of my mouth. Now, what this doesn't mean, he's not saying I despise you. It's very opposite because in verse 19, he loves them. Verse 20, he wants to have many dinners with them, deep fellowship. And verse 21, he wants to share his government with them forever. So it's not that he despises them. He hasn't lost interest in them at all. What he's saying is my heart is sick. When somebody vomits, they're sick. He goes, my heart's sick, my stomach's sick. When I look at you, it hurts me because I see what you're lacking in relationship with me. And I see what you could have with me. And it actually hurts my heart. It hurts my stomach. When I look at you, it hurts me. That's what he's saying. He's not saying I despise you. It pains me, but I'm not gonna let go. That's number one. But there's a second dimension that is pointed out here. There's a warning. One is a statement of his emotion of pain because he wants them so bad, but there's a point in time when he will bring the discipline to a whole nother level. And the phrase he uses is I'll vomit you out of my mouth. Now in paragraph C, this is a clear reference to Leviticus 18, Leviticus chapter 18. When it talks about, it uses this picture figurative language. Look, I'll just read it, Leviticus 18, verse 25. For the land is defiled. Therefore, I will visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land will vomit its inhabitants out. Now that's obviously not literal. It's a figurative, it's a word picture. You shall therefore keep my commandments or my statutes lest the land vomit you out when you defile it. Now what this is talking about in this figurative language is that the land was the place and the position of blessing and favor, and Israel was vomited out of the land. Deuteronomy 18 actually came to pass when they were taken to Babylonian captivity in 587 BC. They were taken as slaves, as prisoners out of the land in order to wake the nation up. So they were removed from the place of blessing to wake them up, not because the covenant with them was over, but to wake them up to assure the covenant promises would eventually come to pass. And so the language is that the land, the place of favor, the place of blessing, there was an expulsion out of the land. It's the idea. They were driven out of the land, out of the place of blessing. Now this is the main place in the scripture where this language is used. So Jesus is actually warning them. He's revealing the pain he feels towards them because they have so much potential because of his love for them. But he goes, I will vomit you out. In other words, I will remove you from the place of blessing if that's the only way I can wake you up. Like the land vomited its inhabitants, which of course was the nation of Israel, in order to wake them up, in order that the covenant would eventually be fulfilled. That was the purpose of it. It wasn't to cast them off. It was to wake them up. And so Jesus is saying this clearly in reference. There's an ominous tone to this. When he's quoting Leviticus 18, it's like this is really serious. I'm in pain and I am gonna wake you up even if it causes you pain because I'm in pain about our relationship. Paragraph D, you say you're rich and you're wealthy. Now he's talking about financially. He says, okay, you are rich. My blessing, it's been my hand that's been upon you. And that's the confusing part. It really is the favor of God. But it's the favor of God in order to awaken love, grateful love in them, not to make them too busy for God. How many ministries have we seen over the years? Any number of us. God's favors on them. They have influence and increase. The very influence and increase causes them to lose their walk with God. Happens all the time. He says, you say that I have need of nothing. He goes, you ought to be desperate. You ought to be more focused on crying out to God and rending your heart and filling your heart with the word and waiting before me, but you don't see any great need. That this is their arrogance. They just went on to try to manage their increase so it would keep increasing, their external increase. And their hearts were getting smaller, smarter, smaller, but it did not trouble them. That is the epitome of arrogance before God, that it's good enough to do it my way even though God is beckoning me through his word to do it in another way. They were intoxicated, paragraph F. They were not desperate. They were intoxicated with their blessing. Now, paragraph H at the end, many people say I need more of Jesus. I rarely meet a believer who wouldn't say that. I haven't met too many believers that say I have need of nothing. If you meet him, particularly in a charismatic type context, oh, I gotta have more of God, more of the spirit, more of God, more of the spirit. But their time and their money say something different, the way they spend time and money. I mean, it's real normal for everyone to say I need more of Jesus. Anything, anything, Lord. We say, Lord, we need more of you, and the Lord answers back, oh, I want more of you. More, Lord, and the Lord says, more, Mike. Mike, I want more of you. It's true. More, Lord, I want more of you. And he says, I want more of you as well. Very common for, it's cliche-ish. I mean, it's the culture of the prophetic church to cry out for more of God, I mean, to have language for it. But the way we spend time and money says something opposite of the truth of a lifestyle seeking more. Top of page four. He goes, you don't know, and he gives them five descriptions. These are tender, they really are. The reason they're tender, because they're true, they're the real analysis to this city that was famous for its medical school. He is giving them a diagnosis that will cure them. He goes, you're wretched. That would mean calloused and spiritually dulled. You're wretched. Now, wretched seems like such a horrible word. Nobody would ever use it of themselves. But a lot of people would say, my heart is unmoved. I don't feel God's presence in the word. I'm spiritually dulled. Just go all the way and say, I'm wretched. That's what that means. It is what it means. He goes, you're spiritually dull and calloused at the heart level. My word doesn't move you. Maybe like it used to, or maybe it hasn't in a long time. You're miserable. Miserable means physically sick. You're spiritually sick. Now, the way you can, I mean, one of the signs of a person who's in the intensive care unit, someone who's really miserable, talk about this means sick, they have no appetite. And one of the signs of recovery when somebody is from a real critical illness is they regain their appetite. So many believers have almost no appetite for the word or the prayer or God's presence. I'm talking about in their personal life. They can go to meetings as long as the music's good. I mean, the music will keep them going. But I'm talking about just them and God. They have almost no appetite, but, I mean, that's, I appreciate that and have mercy on that, but they don't think of themselves as miserable as sick. They think of it as normal because they're so accustomed to it. So they're calloused, they're unmoved. They don't have appetite for the word. A lot of folks would say, like, that's kind of me. Well, that's wretched and miserable. It's what that is. Huh, I thought I was doing pretty good. You know, my friends say I'm on fire. Well, your friends don't get to vote at the judgment seat of Christ. I'm for real. Where I'm going and where you're going, nobody else gets to vote except for the Lord. He says you're poor, you're spiritually deficient, you're not strong. And not just are you deficient spiritually, you're weak, poor and weak would be the same idea. In the age to come, you have not accumulated any eternal treasure. You're poor, literally poor in the sense of treasure in the age to come. You don't have anything acquired for the age to come. You're poor, you're weak. You're blind, you lack revelation of God and of yourself, your own condition. And you're naked. What he's saying is you don't have garments because there's so little understanding about spiritual garments in the age to come. Now, we all have the gift of righteousness. Every born again believer has the gift of righteousness. However, the gift of righteousness, the robe of righteousness is foundational to every believer. You will have many garments in the age to come. I say this is kind of a bit of a joke, but it gives a good word picture. A lot of folks think that, you know, there's going to be several billion believers all with the same white T-shirt for billions of years. That's all they're going to have. Billions of people with one white T-shirt each for billions of years. God did the city in marvelous jewels and splendor and color, and the food is awesome, and all the assignments, but he forgot the clothing thing. Everyone has a white gown, period. That's it, for billions of years. It's just wrong. You will have many, many dimensions. And many, if you want to say, types of clothing for every different situation in the eternal city, and everyone's clothing will be different. And a lot of people's clothing, they will lack the rewards because the gift of righteousness is a free gift, and it will shout and speak of their spiritual passivity and their selfishness in this age. They'll wear it, and it will be, Jesus is saying, Jesus is saying this several times in the book of Revelation. He goes, you want to avoid the shame of that reality. Now, you have confidence with God that he loves you, but your garments will proclaim widely your spiritual shallowness and selfishness in this age. He goes, you don't want to not have clothing in the age to come that depicts your spiritual vitality in this age. That's something that most believers never think about, but it's repeated quite a few times in the Bible. Let's go to the next section, Romans rule six. Now he says, I counsel you in three things. Get gold, get gold, refine by fire. The point is that you'd be rich, and all three of these exhortations, gold garments and ice have, all three of them have an application in this age, and all three of them have an application in the age to come. Get gold that you'd be rich. Now we're rich spiritually in this age by having a vibrant heart, but we're rich in the age to come with real gold in terms of our crowns, our garments, our dwellings. There's real treasure in the age to come that you really, really will care about. People say, no, I'm just happy with Jesus. That's good enough. Well, Jesus is the one advising us to get gold. Some think that maybe Jesus got a little bit off here. Actually, I mean that. I've talked to believers through the years and about eternal rewards. They go, I don't really into that. I go, so Jesus was a little misguided, right? Jesus didn't grasp how pure your motivations were, so he added a defiling motivation to you because Lord, it's good enough just to have you. And the Lord says, well, maybe you're gonna want this. In other words, to cast off eternal rewards as irrelevant or secondary is to say that Jesus was a little misguided in pressing the point. And of course, he wasn't. This is Jesus saying, I really advise you to get gold. You really want it. There's gold in this age. That would be character or heart transformation. And it's gold in the age to come for billions of years. He goes, the purpose of gold is to be rich. That's the point of it. I unashamedly wanna be great in God's sight in the age to come, and I want to be rich in heaven. I want treasure related to my heart responses in this age. I decided many years ago to cast aside religious false humility that said Jesus missed it when he pressed us to do this. I'm agreeing with him. He knows what he's talking about. He went on, he said, I secondly advise you to get garments. Now the word white, in some translations is bright. And as we'll see in a minute in Revelation 19, it is the word bright. And there's many different colors in our garments, but they're dazzling and they're bright and they're in the glory of God. And the reason you want white garments, he's talking to born again believers here who have the gift of righteousness. He's not talking to unbelievers. He's not telling people to earn their salvation. He's talking to people that have the gift of salvation that's already done, it's settled. He's talking about rewards. And the reason you want these garments is that you may be clothed with them, that you would wear the expressions of your intimacy in your relationship with the Lord, and your nearness to him and your position with him so that the shame of not having these clothing, these garments would not be revealed, would not be shown forth. And then the third thing he says, I advise you to anoint your eyes. Now in Laodicea, it was a physical process. They took this cream, so to speak, this powder mixed together in liquid. They'd put it on their eyes. They did natural things to heal their eyes. When he says anoint your eyes, not only the Holy Spirit could anoint our eyes and the spiritual sin of opening the eyes of our heart, Ephesians 117, only the Holy Spirit could open the eyes of our heart, but the anointing of the eyes means put the ointment on your eyes. In other words, take the steps that are necessary to get spiritual vision. To anoint your eyes means to put the ointment on them. And that was a natural thing they did in that city when the eyes were diseased. In our context, sit at the feet of Jesus. Take time, go through the natural processes that position you to gain revelation of the Lord. That's what it means to anoint your eyes. The word anoint throws people off because anoint always means the Holy Spirit. He's just meaning put the cream on your eyes. It's what he's really saying because believers and unbelievers, they would anoint themselves with oil. They'd anoint themselves with perfumes and all kinds of things. Apply the ointment is what he's saying. Are you anointing your eyes? Are you doing the natural steps in your schedule and at your heart? Are you putting the cream on your eyes? Are you putting yourself in a position to receive revelation from the Lord? Oh, Lord, here I am. If you want me, give me revelation. I'm real busy. You know where I'm at if you want me. The Lord says it doesn't work that way. You know where I'm at if you want me. You sit before me. And in that way, you're anointing, you're putting the natural cream on your eyes, so to speak. Then he goes on to say, as many as I love, I rebuke. And Jason, now it's interesting that the word love here in verse 19 is the word philio. You know, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Now we all know about agape love, the unconditional love, the God's kind of love. This is philio love. This is the affectionate love, the enjoyment. God never says to unbelievers, he never uses the word philio to unbelievers. You know, God so loved the world. That's agape. But here he's telling these compromising, spiritually passive believers, I philio you. I have affection for you. This isn't just the distant love of God for an unbeliever that I'm gonna chase you down. And if you say no, you do end up in the lake of fire. This is an affectionate relational love. He goes, I love you. That's why I'm rebuking you. Now I want you to repent zealously. I want you to do radical things, radical, be zealous. Don't repent a little bit, make massive changes. And the way you carry your heart, what you do with your time, what you do with your money, what you do with your words, make radical changes, not little baby steps. Be zealous, repent with zeal, be fervent. Let's go on to, let me see, top of page six. We'll just end with this. And he gives the two promises, Roman numeral seven. The two promises for the overcomers. They'll dine with me. That means that we will have, of course, you know, in the ancient world, to dine with somebody was a lot more than, you know, like, quote, having a coffee with somebody. It was a covenantal meal. It was a statement of permanent, deep friendship where they would open their heart with one another. He's saying, I will open my heart with you. We will open our hearts and covenant ourself together as friends is what he's saying. In essence, that's the language he's using. Now the Lord's, of course, covenant with every born again believer, but he's talking about in friendship language here. He goes, I want friendship with you. Laodiceans, I'm not, you're making my stomach sick and my heart sick. And if I have to vomit you out of the place of blessing to wake you up, I will because I love you because I want deep friendship with you. And then verse 21, I want to share my throne with you. And the way that I sit on my father's throne, I want you to sit with me on my throne. Now there's two thrones here in verse 21. There's the father's throne in heaven and there's Jesus's throne on the earth. That's what he's talking about. They're talking about Jesus's throne as the son of David. His millennial throne is what he's talking about. Jesus is on the throne next to the father right now as the son of David, as a man. Now, I mean, Jesus is fully God. He's the uncreated God. Jesus is as uncreated and as much God as the father and the spirit are. But the throne that Jesus is sitting on is a throne that he inherited because of his obedience as a man, the throne of David. That's the throne he's on the earth that he's going to share with us. The government of the earth as a human being. He says, I stand at the door, I knock. I knock. I mean, this is so powerful. He says, I knock. He goes, I won't give up. I won't draw back. The Lord is knocking. This may be the 50th time you've heard a cry, let go of what you're doing and press in. The Lord says, I'm gonna keep knocking because I love you. I'm not giving up on you. He's knocking, he's knocking, he's knocking. Keep knocking, keep knocking. He goes, I won't open the door of your heart. You must open it. But it says here in paragraph A, if anyone hears my voice, I don't care what kind of bondage you're in. I don't care what kind of compromise the last week or the last 10 years, anyone that opens the door, I'll come in. And this whole thing will, all these promises will be set into motion. Amen and amen. Let's stand.