Are you a lukewarm Christian?

What is the point of lukewarm Christianity?

Many people say that they are Christians.  It is not for me or anyone else to say whether or not that is the case. It is something that only God really knows.  Yes, we can see whether or not they are producing the fruit of repentance... but still... it is hard to determine the line between encouraging one another to press on towards Christ and actually becoming judgmental. We are warned in the bible not to judge one another. We are also told to encourage one another to remain free from the entanglement of sin. Many times what it comes down to is whether or not a person WANTS to be held accountable to living a biblically based life, or not.

Some church go-ers are more in love with their imagined view of Jesus than the actual Jesus we read about in the bible.  They like the "feel good" parts of scripture that all have to do with what God can do FOR them.  They don't spend any time studying what God asks of us. They have bought into the idea that to be a Christian, you repeat a prayer one time, attend church services and put some money in the offering bucket.  Sometimes they even feel a little bit guilty about sinning... so they cry, ask for forgiveness, and try really hard for the next 48 hours to refrain from that sin, before giving in again and allowing the cycle to repeat itself over and over. 

Always a victim of sin's side effects, they never truly get to the point where Christ gives them victory over their bondage to sin. This shakes their superficial faith... "Why isn't God doing anything to help me?" they ask. Well.... what God are they referring to? The imagined one that they conjured up in their mind using a verse here and there out of context? The God who they only turn to when an emergency happens? The God who they plan to thank if they have an award speech but not when times are hard?

Many of us need a perspective check. We have either forgotten, or we were never informed, how mighty, holy, powerful, sovereign and unapproachable the glory of God is.  It is impossible for him to be anything less than perfect and holy... which we could never be, therefore, a relationship between himself and us would have been impossible. We are taking for granted the fact that the only way we are able to have the Holy Spirit of God live in wretches like us was through the sacrifice of God's own Son.  We have no idea how huge that is.  We can talk about it without any emotion. It has become casual information to us. It is not even as exciting to us as preparing for Santa Clause to come for our kids on Christmas.

We sin against our own bodies in which the Holy Spirit dwells, expecting that he isn't going to mind, just because we haven't heard from him lately. We don't read the bible because "it's confusing," "it's too long," "it's boring," or "we are too busy." Yet we make time for the things (or idols) that ARE important to us.  Then we want to know why God has not just placed the victory over our addiction to sin in our laps without any effort on our own end. (Crying and feeling bad and asking for forgiveness does not count as effort.)

God always does his part.  When we express genuine faith in Jesus Christ's death, resurrection and Lordship, then ask for his forgiveness (with a heart that yearns to change and a mind with the full intention of doing so) he absolutely does wipe our slate completely clean.  There is nothing you or I can do through our own efforts to earn God's righteousness. Salvation is freely given to us. No one is deserving of it. The moment that we repent and confess Christ as Lord, we are called sons and daughters of God and all of the angels in heaven are rejoicing over us!

The problem, often times, is that we do not understand what it means to be a new creation.  We think we are still the same old person, who will continue to do the same old things, only now, Jesus will come along with us to make us feel good while we go about OUR business.  We don't sit down and identify how we got to the place where we hit rock bottom in our sin.  We don't want to admit that we are weak and we might fall again if we don't set up some boundary lines in our lives.  We pridefully hold onto things that might actually lure us back into a place of bondage and addiction.  Maybe it's because we like those things so much.  Maybe it's because we are afraid of standing out of the crowd and seeming too radical about our walk with Christ.

If that is the case, I will ask it again... What is the point of lukewarm Christianity? What does that do for us?  Is it anything more than a silly, meaningless cycle of being a victim to sin without being willing to walk in the obedience that is required for God to finish the work that he has started in you?

If you want different results than you have been getting, you must do something different than what you have been doing! How about practicing biblical Christianity? The kind that says, "Jesus, you have complete authority in my life.  I know that I will make mistakes along the way, but I commit to do everything within my power to flee from sin or anything that wants to influence me to return to sin. I am choosing to abandon my own will and live my life for the purpose of building your kingdom. I will find my satisfaction in pleasing you. I will trust that your ways are supreme and always better than my ways. I will be obedient when it isn't popular because I know how much you love me. I know that you have a purpose for me.  I am not willing to let the devil deceive me and steal what you have in store for my life."

What would that look like for you? Who will you need to say goodbye to? What habits will need to stop? What social ideals will need to go out the window? Who will you need to stop needing to impress? Who will you need to stop envying? What will you need to say "No More" to? Who will you need to start spending more time with? What will you need to start doing? Who will you need to start sharing Christ with?

I have got to tell you, it is better never to have heard of Christ at all than it is to be a lukewarm Christian. We will be held responsible for the fact that a buffet of truth (God's word) was right in front of us but we didn't feel like eating. We made excuses. We didn't see anyone else eating so we felt too awkward and afraid to dig in. We never made disciples because we never actually even became one. We never followed Christ, we just listened to sermons about him. We heard the word and so deceived ourselves, never actually doing what it says.

Listen, if something is stirring up inside of you, don't ignore it.  I don't care if you have to stand alone.  You better respond to what the Holy Spirit is trying to do inside of you. Lukewarm Christianity can end today. There are so many bible verses that go along with this message but I have to get the kids to bed so I'm gonna leave this as it is for now and publish the verses separately tomorrow. 

For those of you who want more out of your walk with God, you can look up the verses for yourself and study them.  Ask questions! Talk to people about them! Fight to get to the place in your walk with God that you have still never been.  It will be worth it. Your life will finally line up with what the bible says about Christianity.  You will finally experience the power of God working through you. Lives will be changed because you decided to take it to the next level with God. And when you stand before him in all of his brilliance, he will say, "Well done."