Awaking From a State of Spiritual Indifference|10.12.25| Jesus Over Everything pt.2

Bonjia.

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Oh, I like it. So we were presenting to a church in, uh, down in central Illinois. Um, and we were talking to the youth and at the end we had questions and answers. So somebody raised their hand and said, you speak Brazilian.

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So does anybody know what they speak in Brazil? What language Portuguese. So let's try that again. I'll say it. And then you repeat it. Bonjia.

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Now you speak Brazilian. Good job.

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All right. Some of the people probably don't know us. Uh, my name is Matt, like Drew said, my wife Janelle's here and our girls just left to go help, uh, in Sunday school. So like Drew said, Janelle and I grew up in central Illinois down by Bloomington. Um, then I was a pig nutritionist and Dan Costa was my first, uh,(...) pig client here in Illinois.

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And we did that for about 10 years. And like you said, um, felt the calling of God to go to Brazil in aviation. And that's all I'm going to say because you're all going to stay and watch the movie, correct?

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And then you will hear the rest of the story.

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Uh, what I'd like to do is talk today a little bit about, um,(...) there's a letter that John wrote, uh, to a church in Laodicea. And we find this in the book of revelation. So the last book of the Bible, the title of the sermon is awaking from a state of spiritual indifference.

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So I think that as we, uh,(...) have this walk with Christ and we sang a lot about it and we are living a life that God wants us to live. We still have an enemy that wants to distract us, kill, destroy, and all that. The first thing he wants us to do is he wants to draw us back into sin and get us to live a miserable life. But the next thing, um, if he can't get to do that, he can't get, if he can't get us to fall back and, uh, and, uh, stop coming to church, stop reading our Bibles. Then he likes to lull us to sleep in a state of indifference.

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And we're going to read about this in this, uh, letter. So the, like I said, we're going to find this in revelation.

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Last book of Bible revelation three and verses 14 through 20. And so this is John was the disciple and he said he might've been the only one that wasn't a martyr, but he got sent to an island. They say he was by there by himself. And then he wrote this called revelation and it was visions or dreams or whatever that God gave to him to write. So he writes at the beginning of revelation. He writes a couple of letters to churches that actually existed at that time. But we can read them today and they can apply to churches today, but they can also apply to us. So hopefully this one doesn't apply to you, but we're going to read it. Um,(...) so John is writing this letter and it's, and he's getting these words from Jesus. So it says, write this letter to the angel, the church and loud to say, yeah, this is a message from the one who is the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation. So it's from Jesus and he's writing this to the, to this church. He said, I know all the things you do that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other. But since you are, but since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth or vomit you out of my mouth. You say, I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. Have you ever said that?

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And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to buy gold for me, gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich.

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Also buy white garments from me so that you will not be shamed by your nakedness

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and anointment for your eyes. So you'll be able to see I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.

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Look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in and we will share a meal together as friends.

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So I'm going to go back and read one more part here.

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Jesus says,(...) I wish that you are one of the other, but since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. You don't realize you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Who just got triggered? If I came up to you and said, you are poor and wretched and blind.

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Oh,(...) that's what Jesus said.

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Do you feel fuzzy and loved?

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If somebody told you that.

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Oh, but God is love.

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God is forgiving.

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He is.

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Absolutely. And he says, I'm not a man. Absolutely. And he still loved this church, but they were indifferent.

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Indifference, lazy.

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I have everything I need.

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You ever feel that way?

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Lukewarm.

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And Jesus said, I wish you were either hot or cold, but not lukewarm. And again, there's a lot of history of this church. You can, if you like Bible commentary, you can go back and read like this city that had water problems. So they had a pump water. So the water was either really cold. And then there was also some springs that were close by hot spring. So the water was hot. And they used that for, like, medicinal purposes. And then there was also, they had this salve that you put on your eyes. And there was like a big business in this city and they sent ointment all over. And so you read a little bit about that. So everything is, as you write these letters to these churches, it's all, they all can relate to that. And so you study the history, but we're going to focus on this lukewarm part because I don't think Jesus wants us to be lukewarm. Can you agree with me on that? Okay. He wants us to be there hot or cold. And so sometimes we can say, okay, what is it to be lukewarm? Or we can say, what is it not to be lukewarm? And we can understand, okay, I want to be like that, or I don't want to be like that. So to understand what lukewarmness is, we're going to study what we think is not to be lukewarm. Does that make sense?

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And this we're going to find in the life of Peter. Peter was a disciple of Jesus.(...) And I'm going to go through some of the stories of Peter's life when he was a disciple with Jesus. And we're going to see what it's like to not be what I think not be lukewarm. So the first story we find is at the end of Jesus' life, he's been walking with the disciples for three years. He knows Peter, he knows the rest of the disciples, and they're at the last supper.

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And Jesus goes around and he starts washing their feet.

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And this, like he's probably never done this before.

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And he's their leader. He's their hero.

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And he's washing their feet to show them that even if you're a leader and even if you're everything, you can still serve.

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And so he gets to Jesus' feet. Okay. So the other disciples are just sitting there. The Bible doesn't say anything about them.

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And he gets to Peter and Peter says, "No way are you going to wash my feet."

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And Jesus is, after three years, kind of used to this crude, brute Peter that was a fisherman. He's like, "Okay, here we go again. Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you're not going to be part of my team."

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And Peter says, "Well, then I want you to wash my whole body."

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You see, there's no lukewarm there, is there?

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Okay. I washed my feet. I don't care. No, he's all in. He's excited. He wants to do something. Sometimes he doesn't know what to do, but he wants to do something.

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And Jesus said, "Calm down. I just want to wash your feet." And so that's what he does. And we read that Jesus loves this guy. Even at the end, after Jesus denied him, Jesus went back and said, "You love me, Peter, you know, and feed my sheep." So Jesus loved him even with all the way that he was, his crudeness and just being a brute fisherman.

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He said, "No, just calm down. I just want to wash your feet." And then we go back a little bit further. We're going to go back. And another story of Peter,(...) we find,(...) so Jesus is preaching to a big crowd of people, thousands of people. They don't have any food. The disciples are frantic. Like, "What are we going to do? Jesus sent them away before they start complaining and grumbling because they're hungry. Send them away." And Jesus said, "No, let's feed them. We don't have anything. What do you got? I got a couple pieces of bread and some fish." And Jesus multiplies them. He feeds thousands of people. It's a miracle.

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And then Jesus tells them to get in the boat and go across the lake.

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So he tells them to do something and they obey him.

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And it gets them into a lot of trouble. So they're halfway across the lake, the middle of the night, and a storm comes up. And the waves are huge. The wind is strong. It's raining. It's pitch black.

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And Dan's been down. Dan Costa's been down to Brazil to see us. When you're out on the river, and the river we live on is huge. We used to live on the Amazon. The Amazon was smaller. It was only 27 miles wide.

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27 miles wide where we lived. Actually, the river we live on now is the Trivial River. Actually, the river we live on now is the Tributary. It's only about a mile and a half, two miles. But if you're out in the middle of that river in a canoe or something and the storm comes, there's nothing you can do. It's not like here in central Illinois, a storm comes, run home,(...) run to the church, get into a store, somewhere where you can get out of the rain.(...) When you're out in the boat, you're not going to do that. And so that's where they were. They found themselves in the situation.(...) Storm. They're going to die. And in that time period, there was a myth that if somebody drowned, a fisherman or a sailor drowned, they would come back as a ghost and they would come back and they would walk on the water. So that's what they thought when they saw Jesus or this thing walking on the water. They probably thought, here comes the death reaper or whatever. He's going to come get us because this person is walking on the water as a ghost. And they freak out even more than they already are freaked out.

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And then Jesus says, calm down.(...) It's me. Don't be afraid.

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So storm is still going, wind's still raging.

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And the disciples are sitting in the boat.

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And Peter looks out there to Jesus and he says, "I'm going to go. He says, if it's you, call me.

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I want to come and walk on the water." So that's another not lukewarm thing to do, right?

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So I imagine the other disciples are in the boat and my daughters aren't here to roll their eyes at me, but you know, I can see him saying,(...) "Hashtag so wet here."

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Oh my goodness.(...) Run my most perfect shirt. It's all wet. You know, Peter doesn't do that.

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He just, I don't know what he does, you know? Did he say, "Oh, hold my cell phone, get my wallet, take my shoes off. I don't want to get wet." I don't think so.(...) I think he just dove in, you know? He'd never walked on the water before, jumped in and starts going towards Jesus. That's not lukewarm. That's, I'm going to take advantage of this. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to walk on the water again.

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Again, I want you to remember they were obeying what Jesus said and they were still in a situation. I thought they were going to die. So sometimes in your life, you are obeying God and it's not going well.

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That's, I want to say, "Okay." And you're like, "No, it's not okay." I want to say, "Okay, it's not okay, but God is still with you and you're still obeying what he has for you. Probably you need to learn something." Anyway, so back to Peter. He jumps in, starts walking. And this story I heard since I was little, Peter had little faith. The poor guy, he just didn't have any faith. He started to sink.

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He saw the waves and he started to sink. Peter, the man of little faith.

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No,(...) the guys in the boat were the people of little faith. Don't you think? Peter had a lot.

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He was the one walking on the water. Yeah, granted, he doubted a little bit.(...) The waves were huge and he doubted.

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But he had a lot of faith.

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The second thing is once that happened,(...) what did Peter do?

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So the one thing that was still floating on the water was the boat.

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His friends were in the boat. He knew that was safe. That was physically the best place for him to go back to.

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But he knew who could save him. And that's when you're in the storm. Sometimes we want to run back to what we think and what we know is safe. And sometimes God's not calling us to run back. He's not calling us to step out in even more faith. And that's what Peter did. I think this is so important. It's a lesson for us. He didn't look back. He didn't turn around. He didn't try to swim to the boat. He just looked at Jesus and said, "Save me."

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And that's what we need to do sometimes.

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Forget about the past. Forget about the things that work. Because sometimes that stuff's not working anymore. And just say, "Jesus, save me." And Jesus did. So he immediately reached out his hand. "Save Peter." They got in the boat and the storm calmed down. So this is a guy that could never be accused of being lukewarm.(...) And if we go back even farther,(...) we find the place where Peter first encounters Jesus. And again, another story in the Bible. And as I said, told the first service, "Please go back and read it and make sure that I'm telling this story correctly.(...) And call me up after me like, "Hey, I don't think it was like that." So, because I'm telling this in my own words. So we go clear back. We're backing up again now to where Peter one day is out fishing. Fished all night.(...) Didn't catch any fish.

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So he brings the boat back with his friends and they're on the shore and they're cleaning their boats, washing their nets. They're not very happy.

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No money.

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Wife's going to be mad.

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And this guy shows up that they don't even know.

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Walks up to Peter and says, "Hey,(...) I want to get in your boat. Can you push it out into the water?" And now we can imagine what Peter thought because we know him as we read the rest of the Bible.(...) What?

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I'm tired. Who does this guy think he is?

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I don't know him and he wants to use my boat. But the Bible said he did. Pushed it out and Jesus preached. Peter, I imagine since he didn't know him, just kept working. But he was listening. He was listening to what Jesus said because at the end of the sermon,

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Jesus told Peter, he said, "Hey, catch any fish?" I didn't catch nothing. I fished all night and catch anything. And Jesus said, "Hey, take your boat out and go farther out. Go in the deepest part."

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And since I've been out, we've been in Brazil for almost 15 years. I've learned a little bit about fishing. One thing I've never seen is a boat out in the middle of the river where it's deepest trying to fish. They're always along the shore or up a little creek or something. And Jesus said, "Go out in the deepest part and throw your nets out." Peter's like, "Because it's you, I will do it." And so we get a little bit of an understanding that he heard something that Jesus preached and he heard that this guy was different. He said, "Because of you, because you said it, I'll go do it." And he goes, "They go out, they throw their nets out,(...) and they catch so many fish. They catch so many fish. And I'm going to do this again in the first service, the only person that laughs is my wife, but there was so many fish, more fish than you've ever seen in your life. So many fish."

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My best Trump impression.

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He's got it made. So now he's got it made. He's caught so many fish.

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And now he can maybe get ahead.

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He's never caught this many fish in his life. He can get more boats. He can hire somebody.

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He's got it made.(...) He goes back and he throws himself at Jesus' feet and he said, "I'm a sinner. I am so unworthy. I don't deserve this the way you've treated me." And Jesus says, "I want you to leave this, and I want you to follow me."

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And Peter does.(...) Leaves the boats, the everything, and he follows Jesus.

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So that's where he's not lukewarm. That's where we need to be. Willing to obey Jesus, willing to do it, give up some things maybe that we shouldn't be doing,(...) especially because it's to give it up and follow Jesus. So to still illustrate this a little bit better, I got some props this morning. Did anyone help me?

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So we have this life that we believe,(...) we want, that we've dreamed about, being successful,(...) having a bigger house, have a nicer car, which God wants to bless us, I believe. I think you believe that. He wants to bless us. He wants us to be joyful and peaceful. But sometimes the things we're doing aren't exactly what he wants us to do. And so sometimes we have to decide, and we can tell that sometimes we are not doing exactly what he wants us to do. And the Bible says you can't serve two masters. And so this is going to represent our life that we want. Peter wanted to be up here. He wanted to start a business. He wanted to have a fleet of boats.

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He didn't have to want to have to work all the time. Every day I'm out here working. If I can get some employees, they can do it for me.

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I can sit on the beach.(...) So this is what he wanted. This was his life. And he's like, I'm going up. I'm going up.

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I've got it made. I'm stepping up. I'm getting up in life. And this is where he was going to be.(...) And with that catch of fish, he was going to make it all the way up here.

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Finally. But this was what God wanted him over here. Let's imagine this is the life that God wants for you. His will for your life.

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And sometimes we have to decide and you know by how you're living, if there's some things in your life that maybe are not exactly what he wants for me. Maybe some decisions that I'm making.

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Maybe some things that I'm doing that I shouldn't be, or maybe some things that I'm not doing that I should be doing.(...) Maybe I should be serving a little bit more better. Maybe I should be treating my wife better. Maybe I should be spending more time with my kids and I'm not. I'm over here on this ladder.

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And then you're like, you know what? But I can do it. I'm going to do what God says. I'm going to do that.

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But I'm going to keep one foot over here.

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And God calls you a little bit more and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to go to church a little bit more. And I'm going to study a little bit more of the Bible. I'm going to join a men's group or a women's group. And yeah, I'm doing it. I'm going up here. But you still got one foot over on this side.

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How far can I go? Can I keep going?

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Can I keep climbing?

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Am I going to get to where God,(...) what he wants for my life? Am I going to get up here or no?

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Like this?

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I don't think so. It's going to hurt.

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And then we'll get frustrated.

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Like, but come on.

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I see other people that are more joyful. Their life isn't perfect, but they seem happy.

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Why can't I get up there?

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You got one foot over here, right?

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This is lukewarm right here. This is lukewarm. Ah, it's okay. It's okay. How's it going? Oh, is that right?(...) Really? Yeah. Does it got to have more for you? I think so.(...) And this doesn't mean they do what you know. And I didn't leave everything. I'm not saying that.

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It's not for everybody,(...) but God has a purpose for your life. You know what it is. If not, pray more,(...) but you can't live like this. Who can live like this? You can live like this. You can't go any higher. It's not fun. It's lukewarm.

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And what Peter did, he just jumped. He just jumped over here. He said, no, that's what I'm going to do. And I'm going to move up the ladder.

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So hopefully you understand that today. Hopefully you're not like this. Let's not be lukewarm. Let's either be hot or cold. Let's be like Peter.(...) When you see what God wants for you and has for you in your life, jump in.(...) Don't sit in the boat, right? When he says, go out in the deep and throw out the nets.

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Don't sit here like this.

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I don't know.(...) Maybe.

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Go all in. Get on this big ladder and climb up.

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Amen.