Spiritual Recovery From Lukewarm Christianity

Chapter 3, verses 14 through 22. Revelation chapter 3, verses 14 through 22, I want to speak on the theme, spiritual recovery from lukewarm Christianity. Revelation chapter 3, we'll begin with verse 14.

And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also over came and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. What if the greatest problem in this room is not the sin we can see, but a Christ we can no longer feel.

This evening I want to speak to you about spiritual recovery. We call it revival. When a man is physically ill his strength is depleted.

He can no longer work with the same vitality, function as he normally does. But when he is revived, he doesn't become something new. He recovers what he lost.

And the same is true spiritually. Revival is not about becoming a different kind of Christian. It's returning to the life once known but has been lost.

And that's what the text holds out tonight. This is not an evangelistic text. It's not written to sinners.

It's written to a church. A church whom he loved very much because he said, those whom I love I chasten and rebuke. And so I say to you tonight, you may be revived.

And so the question is, if that's being true, what keeps you from it? What keeps you from being revived here this evening? I can tell you it's not ignorance. It's not inabilities. None of those things.

It is this. Our desire is too weak. That's the issue.

Yes, I know, you want God. But please listen, you don't want Him enough. Otherwise, the text has to come to pass.

God's Word cannot be denied. You will be revived. And when it comes down to it, you are where you are because you're content to live as you are, a lukewarm Christian.

It's not God's fault. It's not a lack of the Spirit of God in you. It's because we so easily get content with being where we are with God.

And then there's the problem of confusion about the sovereignty of God when we discuss the subject of revival. Look at the text. There are things only God can do in this text.

But then on the other hand, there are only things that you can do in this text as well. God revives, but He does not revive the unwilling. There's always a preparation.

It's inconceivable to think that God would pour out the Spirit of the Lord upon the Laodicean church without heart preparation. There were things that they too had to do. And beloved, there's always a heart preparation for a move of God.

You must come to see your true condition. And that's all I pray I'm able to do tonight, that I can hold up the mirror and each one of us will see where we are in our relationship with God tonight through this very text. What you need, it's very simple, not complex, what you need for a healthy heart is an aching, an aching heart.

This is the great blessing of the Christian life. A new heart that pants like the deer after Christ. A heart that yearns for Him.

And the moment that heart doesn't yearn, it knows it. It goes into panic. It goes into sorrow.

And it goes into a searching mode. I must find Him. Is that your heart tonight? Please, you don't need to answer for my sake, but for your own.

Is that your heart? Is it aching for Christ tonight, sir? If not, your heart's not healthy. It can't be. It's impossible for it to be, because this is the heart that God gave you when He saved you.

A revived Christian is not only one who merely knows God, he's one who feels his need of God deeply. I've been saved almost 40 years now, will be by the end of this year. And it's one of the most surprising things that I have, that I have to sadly confess to you, is that I'm not where I should be.

And when I began to be, when I began the Christian life, I would have assumed that my knowledge of Him, my relationship with Him, would be much closer. And I'd be further along in my sanctification. And I have to confess to you, that is my grief tonight.

I'm preaching from one who knows the aching heart, to one who knows a heart content. And I'm telling you that God in His mercy will not be content to let you stay there. Praise be to God.

He's always been the lover that pursued, and He's always pursued me when I was not pursuing Him. So here's the tragedy. Many of us have lost that ache and we're simply content with it.

How do you know you need revival tonight? Real simple. When you think you need it the least. That's when you need it the most.

I want us to look at the text. The text gives us symptoms of needing revival. Don't look over the symptoms and not apply them to you.

And diagnose your own condition. The first is found here in verse 17. You do not know your true condition.

I want you to notice certain words in the 17th verse. He says, you say, I am rich. He says, I have need of nothing.

And then he says, and do not know. Do you see those phrases there? I'm rich, have need of nothing, and do not know. This is the essence of spiritual decline.

You're wrong about yourself and you don't know it. Most of us would say I'm backslid and I know it because I've fallen into sin. I may have even fallen into scandalous sin.

Therefore I know I'm not right with God. But beloved, you were long not right with God and your heart was discontent with Christ long before you opened into public sin, came into public sin. The Laodicean was a materially rich city and the Christians there must have also prospered in the wealth of the city.

And it was their wealth that blinded them according to Christ. Materialism doesn't distract. It deceives.

It convinces you that because something feels sufficient, well it is sufficient. Because you have the wherewithal, you have the resources, therefore the need is taken care of. But that's not true either.

That is the deception of possessions. Many years ago when I was pastoring full-time before I became a full-time evangelist, I had come across a Nigerian brother by the name of Solomon Oualibi. I had heard of this man before.

He was a man of God and a man of faith actually. Brother Solomon went to be with the Lord just about five years ago and he agreed to come to our church and speak. And before the services began we were in our office and there were things I wanted to know about this man and his walk with God.

For example, just for a little context for you may I tell you one of the most marvelous stories that he would often share. Many years ago when Muslims were just starting to infiltrate Nigeria before the problem became as it is today, the Muslims came to his home. Here was a man born in Africa, came to America, was prepared in theological training, went back home and began to plant churches planted.

Many churches started a Bible school and trained many pastors and they came to his door one day and said, if you don't leave we will kill you. He went outside to the city where there was nothing but dry shifting desert sand and he planted a little sapling, a little green sapling and he prayed, Lord if this sapling thrives I'll stay, but if it dies I'll leave. Of course he kind of he was kind of hedging his bets.

Here he is planting a tree in the middle of a desert. He went back the next day and it's still living quite as green as it was the day before. He went back the next day, the next day, next week.

He told me as he was sitting there in my office 30 years later it's still there growing and he stayed. He was a great man of faith and as we were discussing the matter of American Christianity I asked him how he found it and he said well frankly there's much problems here in your country and many of the churches but with a ray of hope and a twinkle in his eye he said I'm quite hopeful because some of my heroes are American pastors. They are some of the greatest men of God I know.

I was shocked actually. I didn't expect this answer and so I queried further. Well brother Solomon you live in a country where any day the Muslims could come and slaughter your family right in front of your own eyes and then kill you.

Yes brother Michael but I can see my enemy you can't see yours. Then he explained the spirit of materialism is an invisible enemy more deadly than any man with a sword or a gun. It slowly takes root until it has captured you and you don't know you've been taken captive.

He said then he said this this great man of faith he said if I had to live in America my soul would shrivel up. I could my faith could not handle it and so these men that I know I consider them some of the greatest men of God I know. Friends how many of us because of our resources we need God so little and we're deceived.

We don't even know as Jesus said to this earth you're naked and you don't even know. You think you're clothed in rich garments but you're absolutely standing there in all of your shamedness. You all have heard of Jim Elliott Elizabeth Elliott.

Seventy years ago in January was the anniversary of Jim Elliott and the four other missionaries that were martyred there in Ecuador trying to reach a very vicious and savage tribe of Indians. After their martyrdom Elizabeth Elliott and her daughter actually found a way and did it. They actually lived among the tribesmen and they preached the gospel and many were converted including the man that actually killed her husband and one day in having a conversation with him she couldn't help herself she just had to inquire.

You see all he had around his waist was a string that's all he had on and so she asked sir why do you wear that string to which he replied what do you want us to do go naked what's the point he thought he was properly dressed and he did not know that he was naked beloved do you really know your state tonight are you afraid to even face it and confront it there's a second evidence or a symptom here you've become unusable to God and it's here I need to tread very carefully and I want to do so because the last thing I want to do is discourage someone from believing that if they don't see great fruitfulness that that must mean they're not being used by God because that's not simply true Jesus tells us that we're not all used to the same degree he said some produce 30 fold 60 fold and a hundred fold there are just some that God intends to use in ways that he doesn't choose to use others but when Jesus gave those statistics on fruitfulness it's important for you to know that he wasn't saying that 30% was pretty pale compared to 60 or a hundred because in Jesus's day the average crop productivity was around 7% if you got 10% productivity off your crops it was a bumper year so what's my point my point is that we're too easily satisfied I fear we're settling for crops of about 10% when we could be reaping 30 60 and a hundred fold we've rationalized small days small crops and small victories until God is very hard to see and his handiwork hard to spy and with a theological rationalization we justify by blaming God oh you know well God is sovereign I read nothing of that in the Apostles Epistles that kind of attitude doesn't register in my Bible what does it do in yours I mean you cannot deduce that kind of reasoning from the Lord listen to what Jesus said every branch in me that does not bear fruit he lifts up and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit I'm the vine you're the branches he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit go to the text again verses 15 and 16 Jesus said I know your works you're neither cold nor hot I could wish you were cold or hot so then because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot how vomit you out of my mouth those words chill my heart even as I was just now reading them I was praying oh God please don't let this be me this is not about your devotion so much to God often this text is presented well they were kind of the best of the worst and worst of the best they were just simply half-hearted for Jesus that's not what Jesus is saying they knew exactly what he meant you see though they ought to see it was a very wealthy city it had one thing it lacked water refreshing water and so it had to it had by aqueducts had to have its water shipped in from two sister cities nearby Heriopolis and the city you should know Colossae modern evac you excavations have shown these magnificent aqueducts leading in to Laodicea Heriopolis was known for its hot springs people would travel many many many miles to sit in the hot water believing that the water was somehow medicinal that they could recover from their illness but by the time the hot water got made its way to Laodicea it was lukewarm and they would take the water and store it in large vats until the water had cooled off and then Colossae the only city in the Lycus Valley there in Asia Minor present-day Turkey that actually had cold springs bubbling up out of the earth and once again aqueducts would take that cool refreshing water and travel make its way to Laodicea but once again the cool water in the summertime became lukewarm what's Jesus saying he's saying very simply I wished you were hot if you were hot you would have a ministry of healing you would be able to to take those who are spiritually limping and you could minister to them but you're not useful for me in that regard and you're not cool and refreshing nobody can be revived who needs revival I can't use you and you know what lukewarm does when you put it in your mouth it creates a gagging reflex and this is what Jesus is referring to you're not productive enough to bring any healing you're not good enough to refresh the downtrodden and the downcast this you're just simply useless this is Christ indictment you're no longer useful to me and here's how that happens please listen you don't wake up one day and decide you're going to be lukewarm no you drift into it quietly gradually and unknowingly we were questioned today about our prayer lives all six of us I wished I would have been quick and thought to try to as much as I could to take the question out of the laboratory out of the theoretical and say to you what one of the major motivations secondary probably to the love of Christ for me is the fear of this happening when I get up I have to go to the Lord why I think I told you last year the year before I've got a leaky heart I I'm not a permanent reservoir of the glory of God what comes in does go out I need something and I need refilling I need more day after day and I know what it's like to become lukewarm and one day discover the power of God's no longer on your life I remember that feeling it was about 2005 for a year almost two years I sensed that the anointing of God had lifted on my ministry oh I kept preaching sermons that the activity of the church continued nothing changed even people were coming even now and again somebody was converted but I knew I knew I knew power wasn't there not like it had been and I remember praying one day I had been in town I was driving by and the Lord answered my quandary my my query what what's going on and he showed he pointed to something in my soul something that I wasn't even guilty of but I would not obey him when I got to my office I got on my face and I wept before God I'm not trying to testify of me I'm trying to tell you I know what I'm talking about I know how gradually can happen and you don't even know that's what's happened to you and God came and he visited me and he revived me so how does it happen well I think you lose first of all your sense of need of Christ I have need of nothing you go days without real prayer you can read the scriptures without encountering God you can function without listen listen desperation how do you serve God without desperation friend Jesus said you're to be like him as he is so are we in the world how do you think you're going to pull that off to be like Christ power the flesh is insufficient religion will not cut it I've got to have supernatural power I need heaven's help and I need to be in the place where I can receive it and I think that recalls for a heart of desperation may I tell another story about brother Solomon later that week we had him for several services a young man that I'd led to the Lord discipled a physician actually called me up said can you arrange a lunch meeting with brother Solomon I want to talk to him this man has affected me I need to talk to him and so I arranged the lunch and we all three went out and brother the brother asks brother Solomon sir I want to have faith like you can you tell me how my faith can increase and be like yours and Solomon without a beat without even thinking he said your faith can't be like mine my brother said what do you mean because you don't need God and my brother was taken back and I'll be honest with you I was a little surprised myself and he said what do you mean I don't need God yes I do no no you don't and then he asked him a question think about it what do you do when you or one of your family members get sick sick enough that you're not going to be able to get well by over-the-counter drugs what do you do well I take them to the doctor very good and what do you do when you get ready to leave the doctor you pull out of your wallet an insurance card don't you and you lay it down and they take it and you walk out and there's no issue is there brother if I get sick or one of my family members get sick I don't have an insurance card all I got is God and I have to pray and cry out to God either for the money for the doctor or that he would heal us I need God you don't and to make his point a little bit drive it a little deeper he said what do you do when you need a new vehicle or are your vehicle you're driving now needs to be repaired well I take it to the serviceman I drop it off and I rent me another car and then I'll pick up my car when it's fixed brother for years I didn't even have a car but if it gets broken the one I have now I can't just take it and rent a car and take it to a mechanic I have to have God help me do you see his point how many of us can live and maneuver life just fine without God's help and we do it every single day and we don't even know we're doing it everything on the outside looks nothing looks broken but we're powerless the church continues our prayers continues the sermons continue but there's no power have our ministries become lukewarm have our church services become lukewarm pastors have our sermons become lukewarm a brother sitting here in this room told me just the other day oh I don't want to go to the conference and just hear more sermons I want to see God do something don't you you lose your sensitivity and your sense of need of Christ secondly you substitute activity for intimacy you're still active but no longer abiding prayers no longer fellowship its formality the Word of God is no longer food it's information and Jesus is no longer your life he's simply a part of your life Christ becomes an addition to your life come on friend I'm preaching for your good here tell me tell me isn't it true he's just become a part of your life your life is not revolving around him he's not the Sun with which you orbit and everything is ordered by how can we treat the one whom we've heard in these last two amazing sermons who's helped me to see him once again in his great love for me how can we just make him a part a part of our lives and not all of our life but we do admit it face it if you're to be healed you must you must agree with the diagnosis you thirdly you tolerate sin without trembling no open rebellion no something more dangerous you've come to peace or terms with sin you don't longer war against it you say ah but brother Michael that's not true I do repent I find myself praying those kinds of prayers yes but your repentance is now delayed delay not prompt not quickly why because you've lost sensitivity to the Spirit of God he speaks he convicts and you rationalize and your heart has become dull lukewarm this is not the presence of sin it is the absence of conflict with it that's what lukewarmness is and simply it leaves you not hungry for God oh you used to hunger for God but now you think about him yes you still think about it but you don't pursue him you admire spiritual things but you don't ache for them you've ceased to fight for a burning heart you no longer fight for a seeking spirit most dangerous place you can be in tonight is when you lack the desire and you're no longer troubled about it and the moment you lose your sense of need you've been drifting you drift so let me ask you plainly if I'm right if I'm interpreting the text correctly if lukewarmness is self deceptive how do you know you're not deceived well it's that's the negative let me get to the positive repentance is revival look at verse 19 as many as I love I rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent beloved please pay attention we've got so much messed up theology about revivals and great awakenings now points of spirit many are now trying to remove such terminology from our vocabulary many or even tell us don't even pray for revival that's a long past thing not to be repeated again the only big thing on the Christian calendar is Jesus's return so please just listen carefully revival is not mystical it's not something you wait for either I'm not talking about an awakening that is totally the sovereign work of God it is an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit and God does that when he sovereignly sees fit but that's not what this text is dealing with this is not about another great awakening or an awakening a move of God that so changed society and culture no this is about a church like churches here this is about individual believers if any man hear my knock and open up he's talking about believers tonight revival is not something you wait for revival is repentance it's to turn in genuine brokenness back to God that you've become so accustomed to and take for granted now what does repentance mean and here again I think sometimes we preachers are so guilty of our theological terminology and jargon that most people have become oblivious to what we mean and so I'm always trying to find a way to say the same things in a way that keeps people listening let me tell you what repentance is first purge what keeps you from Christ that you may have increased faith and possess spiritual treasure now let me break all that down it's right here in the text let our Lord do it for us revelation 318 revelation 318 here's what repentance looks like in verse 19 he tells them to repent but he's already defined it for us here he says first buy from me gold refined in the fire he's very specific here he's talking about gold not newly mined but mined and refined it's been through the fires been through the furnace and all the impurities have been removed because that's what fire does that's what fire does it it purifies and listen very carefully God is a consuming fire he will provide the fire that will purify your heart tonight God will deal with what is false if you will let him here tonight if you will do business with God in the seriousness of a heart that is gripped by its condition you will know the purifying fire of God he will purge from you what keeps you from Christ but look at this word gold go why the word gold well we get the metaphor we see it purified gold all the impurities the dross is gone yes but there's another reason and I think the reason is connecting this dot in Revelation 3 to first Peter 1 7 interestingly Peter identifies gold with faith with faith that the genuineness of your faith be a much more precious than gold that perishes though it's tested by fire may be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ purge purge out this satisfaction that keeps you from being desperate for God so that your faith will increase and you can now possess the spiritual treasure that Christ wants to give you that's what he's saying here and then secondly receive cleansing this is also what repentance looks like receive cleansing he continues here and verse 18 buy for me gold refining the fire and white garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed the Lord does not want to shame you here tonight this message that is much more difficult than the two preceding which were so glorious to listen to I believe with all my heart that God has allowed this word to go forth because he doesn't want you to be reproached he wants to cover your shame he wants to hide by removing the iniquity I've thought so many times in prayer Oh God thank you thank you thank you thank you but you've not allowed my sins to go public what would you feel like tonight if somehow some way an angel appeared with a list and it had your name on it and had all your sins and he began to read them what a kindness of God but he doesn't allow some of our thoughts to be known by others in that amazing mercy you don't seem to be too happy about it why why is he so gracious because he loves you he doesn't want you to feel the guilt the shame and the reproach he bore that for us you are already exposed and you're ashamed tonight because you're thinking like that poor native that your clothes when you're standing there naked receive the cleansing he wants to bathe you here tonight and wash you and then thirdly repentance is a fresh vision of the glory of Christ you have been fascinated with your idols you have been passionate about other things than Christ oh but now he says anoint your eyes with I said that you may see see him see him who transcends the beauty of his own creation look upon him in his majesty and in his glory and be smitten again fall in love again you not only need forgiveness please listen repentance is just not about forgiveness it's about seeing Jesus Christ again afresh and anew I can illustrate it from one thing in Jesus's life because some of you've never heard things like this I never thought of repentance like this well Jesus taught us with a young rich ruler notice the young rich ruler he doesn't preach the gospel to him he says nothing about his death he says nothing about his resurrection he doesn't talk about the Holy Spirit bringing conviction of sin and repenting from his sin he says nothing like that all he says to that man is what go sell what you have give it to the poor and come follow me and Jesus preached faith and repentance in that one sentence turn purge your life of that which fascinates your heart and come keep your eyes on me and follow me that's faith and that's repentance it's not some legalistic chart where you check off okay I confess my sins I prayed the prayer I I feel some sorrow no it's beholding the King and coming to attention once again you're not a freelancer you're not a soldier for hire you're under the command of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords well how do I obtain this Jesus said look at the text once again verse 18 I counsel you to buy from me now you need to listen very carefully because some of these things I'm going to say some of you theologians will immediately start having bells and whistles go off but if you do it's because you misunderstood me I'm completely Orthodox and what I'm about to say because I'm just telling you what the text is saying we can't earn what Jesus is talking about here we don't earn these things and yet look at the word he uses by by purchase the Laodiceans could not buy what Jesus was offering because he already told them they were poor they were rock-bottom poor they had nothing in their spiritual bank accounts and yet he tells them to buy interesting language and here's the paradox you're poor and yet you're commanded to buy tonight Jesus is saying to us take my counsel here's my counsel to you buy come and buy but how do you buy without money in the sense of giving to get what Jesus is offering there is nothing for us to give see I'm not preaching heresy he's already purchased it for us as we heard this morning for no cause within us freely he already paid the price however Jesus says buy from me his message is you must relinquish something or give something to receive what is offered not not as a payment but as surrender but as surrender the thing required is you you yourself not as a price that purchase what Jesus is offering but as a surrender necessary to receive it I don't know why we don't preach like this anymore our fathers preached like this our Calvinistic fathers preached like this they were not afraid to call men to surrender to deny themselves and pick up a cross well somehow we think that's man-centered no it's not man-centered it's Christ centered with number one he commanded number two I'm doing it for him and I do it for him because I want more of him that's how good is and when you find him you discover you want to give more that what you've yielded and surrendered to him is penance it's little it's nothing compared to what you are receiving you must give up this illusion illusion of what you think you are so that you may receive what Christ truly is and I'm talking to Christians but that applies to every lost man woman boy girl here what shall a man give in exchange for a soul what profit is to a man should he gain the whole world but lose his own soul the most valuable thing more than the value of all the gold silver and precious jewels more than the world itself is a living soul that's the currency God trades in and that's what he wants you why so he can put another notch in his belt no because he treasures you he purchased you if you're a Christian here tonight you've been purchased by the blood of Christ you're no longer your own you're bought with a price he's come to demand surrender of what belongs to him salvation is free all the blessings of God are free but there is a price to be paid to be used by God there's a price we must surrender to be his disciples and that price is a surrender of yourself to Christ that you no longer live but Christ lives within you and the life you now live you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you is this making sense in Romans 12 1 we're told to present our bodies as living sacrifices all of you and so tonight here's my here's my call even if your heart is lukewarm bring it even if your desire is weak for Jesus offer it well you say the Michael that sounds hypocritical no not at all if you bring the sacrifice God will bring the fire I'm telling you here tonight don't care what you think I'm telling you the truth if you will do business with God tonight he will meet with you you put yourself on the altar he will come and ignite that altar he'll do the work that's what this promise means who's here tonight who will say Lord I believe help my unbelief I'll take you at your word look at verse 20 behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me these are one of the precious verses that I keep before my heart almost daily how did Christ knock he's he's knocking he's knocking on the door the Laodicean Church he's knocking on the door now this is very important I'm about finished please listen how did Jesus knock on their door you've got to get this or you'll miss what God has for you tonight you'll qualify quantify it and you'll try to manipulate it please please listen was it through some mystical experience that he was knocking at the door and the answer is no not at all was it through being overwhelmed emotionally they knew that the Lord was knocking because I could feel him so powerfully is that the way he did it no not at all he came through his word delivered by an exiled apostle he came knocking on door by a letter an inspired letter but a letter nonetheless now please don't misunderstand the Laodicean letter was not written to you and I today but it was written for us today it was written to the Laodiceans but it was written for you and me as much as it was for them and tonight he has come to us in the very same way and if you need more from God than this word then my dear friend I don't even know if you're saved his word is sufficient and all he asked you to do is to believe his word because when you believe him you glorify him as being most faithful and most true tonight he's speaking and if you will hear him open not tomorrow not later right here right now tonight open confess what he already knows Lord you're right about me don't defend yourself don't excuse yourself agree with him awaken from the dullness of your lukewarmness because friend as I began you have learned to live without him and you've had the audacity to call that Christianity but he stands here ready not to condemn but to restore listen if anyone hears he's here to give himself to you if anyone hears my voice opens the door I will come to him and dine with him and he with me come back to him be restored in your affections for him and you will find that he has not lost his desire for you even though you have lost your desire for him he still wants you and we'll receive you here this evening for you already are his you're sealed with his spirit your name is engraven on the palms and if he's hands and he cannot deny you he's here for you and he will not be denied don't do that receive him tonight there's no more I can say to you I'm finished it is now in your hands it is now with you to deal with God will you do so I pray you will for he stands at the door and he knocks amen and amen bow your heads with me I'm going to pray that I'm just gonna leave the platform I'm not here to manipulate anyone but I do think you need to deal with God because he's dealt with you here tonight father here we are me included forgive me of dullness of lukewarmness but thank you that you can teach us how to spy it out more quickly and to deal with it rapidly thank you for this text how often we've heard it but it seems to have had little effect Oh change that tonight come Lord even as you have said in this word in this letter Lord prove yourself to be true we need not to be proven that we would believe that you're true but because you are do it you cannot deny yourself Lord these are your people we are the sheep of your pastor and we're crying out to you you said he that calls upon me I will come to him and show him my salvation we are calling to you tonight we we know you will not be denied of us you will hold us fast until the very end we know we know but you did not die for us so that you could be a part of us you died so that you might live and dwell in us and that the life that we now live in the flesh we live by faith in you move in this place help my brother's plea be fulfilled I don't want to hear another sermon I just want to see God work do it we pray in Jesus name thank you Lord Amen