 The reason that this is such an important series in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 is because of the fact that not only are we getting advice to churches, but the advice is, if you have a red letter Bible, it's all red, so the advice is from Jesus himself. So Jesus, who is the head of our church, of this church, is giving specific advice to these churches. Now look down at verse number 14, we look at the last church, the church of Laodicea. The Bible says, so we see a pattern, what was the pattern that we see, Jesus calls himself a name, he gives himself a description, and then he gives some good things, some bad things and consequences is the pattern that we're seeing in the advice to these churches. Look down at verse number 14 of Revelation chapter 3. The Bible says, and unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things say at the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. So he calls himself three things here, I'm not going to go into the beginning of the creation of God, that's John chapter 1, Genesis chapter 1, talking about how the earth was created by Jesus Christ, he was created, Jesus is the Word and that is the way, the method that the universe was created. But what does he say in the first description of himself, he says he is the amen. Now in this church, and churches like ours, you know a lot of times the men will say amen. If they hear some preaching or they hear something that they like, they'll say amen. Well amen basically means certainty, truth, meaning I agree with that. So when you say amen, you're saying I agree, I like, that's truth is what you're saying. When you say amen in the church. So don't say it unless you agree. You know I mean look it's a good encouraging thing for a pastor to hear, people say amen to the sermons and things in the sermon, but it means I agree with that. So Jesus is basically calling himself the certainty, the truth. You know of course I am the way, the truth and the life, John 14.6. And then what does he call himself? He says so he's the certainty, the truth. Then he calls himself the faithful and true witness, turn to Matthew chapter 10. He calls himself a witness here. Not only is he a witness, but he's the faithful and true witness. Go to Matthew chapter 10, Matthew chapter 10. So Jesus is a witness, Jesus is a witness. Look at Matthew chapter 10 and look at verse number 33. Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 33. The Bible says, Jesus says, but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father which is in heaven. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. So Jesus is a witness to us here in Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 33 to the father in heaven. So Jesus is a witness for us to the father. So he's saying you know I will you know witness to my father for you. Look at Matthew chapter 7 and verse number 21. Matthew chapter 7 and verse number 21. I will often use Matthew chapter 7 and verse number 21 to describe what it means to believe on Jesus Christ to someone who maybe grew up in a Catholic church or a Lutheran home or something in a church where they learned about Jesus, maybe they believe Jesus existed, maybe they even believe Jesus is God, but they don't understand that they must trust only in him. They don't understand that they must let go of this idea that you can lose your salvation if you don't do good works or you can you know not be saved if you don't confess your sins or something like this. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21 through 23 is a great set of verses for this type of person. But look what the Bible says here. It says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now this is saying, it says, look these people here in verse number 21 they call Jesus Lord. They call Jesus Lord. That's not an issue for them. They know Jesus is the Lord. But he's saying, not everyone that calls me Lord is going to go to heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, in thy name cast out devils, in thy name done many wonderful works. So these people, while they believe Jesus is Lord, they are actually still trusting in their own works to get them to heaven. And look at verse number 23. The Bible says, and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. These people are going to hell not because they didn't know who Jesus was, because he didn't know them and he's not going to be a witness for these people. Because once Jesus knows you, he will be a witness for you and he's a witness by the way that doesn't get anything wrong. He's a faithful and true witness. Now look, people as witnesses were a mess as witnesses. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19. People are witnesses. Did you know, I just figured this out a couple days ago while I was reading into this, but did you know that half the people that are falsely imprisoned, they're imprisoned falsely because of like an eyewitness that made a mistake? Think about that. You end up in a police lineup and somebody says, that's him right there and they point at you and you didn't do it. You know what, you're falsely accused. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 19. God trying to manage us as sinners tries to make things better in this case. That's why in Deuteronomy chapter 19 and verse 15, the Bible says, one witness. Now we're talking about God's law. This is how you manage a nation in Deuteronomy. One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin or for any sin that he sinned. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. So to cover for us, you know, being just forgetful, you know, liars or, you know, just making mistakes, you know, God says, you know, you need two or three witnesses for, you know, trials of men. Okay. But look with Jesus, you only need one because he's the faithful and true witness. Now, like judges and law enforcement agencies, they come up with all kinds of tricks to try to solve, you know, this problem of eyewitnesses getting it wrong. They'll do things like when they have police lineups, they try to make people, you know, look the same. They'll try to get like five people with the same look, height, stature, you know, in the same lineup that reduces errors of eyewitnesses. They've done studies on this. They'll do things like if they show pictures of suspects to people, like the more pictures they show you and the fewer pictures that a person picks out that better the odds are that they're correct and who they're identifying. All kinds of like psychological studies have been put into this. But the point is, there's all these things that men try to do to try to cover up our errors and try to make our errors less as witnesses. But with Jesus, there is no errors. There's only one witness that's needed. When Jesus says, I know you, that's it. He knows you. He's faithful and true. He doesn't make mistakes. Turn to Revelation chapter 19. As a matter of fact, not only is he a faithful and true witness, but faithful and true is actually one of his names. Look at Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19, look at verse number 11 of Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19 and verse number 11, the Bible says, I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, uh-oh. Jesus is no longer on the donkey. Jesus is no longer on a colt, the foal of an ass here. Jesus is now riding a horse. What are horses for in the Bible? Horses are for war in the Bible. So Jesus, the first time that he came, the first time that Jesus came, he was a peacemaker. He came to declare and make peace between, by sacrificing himself, he came to make peace between man and God. And he rode on an ass. He rode on a donkey symbolizing that meekness, that humility of that peacemaker. Now, in Revelation chapter 19, Jesus is coming back for a battle. He's coming back for a battle. This is the battle of Armageddon in the Bible, in Revelation chapter 19. And Jesus, he's riding this white horse and look what the Bible says, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he does judge and make war. Look, he doesn't make mistakes. That's why with Jesus you need one witness. With men you need two, three, more, hey, the more witnesses with us, the better. Because we make so many mistakes. So look at what verse number 12 says. Again, we see the true glorified Jesus here. This is not the Jesus of Sunday school. The Bible says he's riding a horse, he's coming back for war here. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. I love verse 12 because in this world, even when the one world government comes, there's going to be many kings, many kings that come together to serve the antichrist and as the antichrist rules the world, Jesus, he just wears all the crowns himself. Jesus has all the crowns, all the power. And then look at this. How's this for a Sunday school lesson? He's faithful and true. And he had a vesture. That means clothing dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word of God. And of course we know him well as the Word of God. So this is talking about an event that happens, you know, right before the millennial reign of Christ, okay? Now Jesus is faithful and true. He is the faithful and true witness. Go back to Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three. Let's look at the problem with this church. Let's look at what's going on with this church in Laodicea and see what we can learn from this. Let's look at the problem statement. The problem statement is in Revelation chapter three and verse number fifteen. Revelation chapter three and verse number fifteen. Jesus says, I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot. So Jesus is saying here, he's saying, you know, you're neither cold nor you're hot. Hot being good. Okay? Hot being on fire for the Lord. Okay? These people are in between. Look at verse sixteen. Then because thou art lukewarm, so that's again, that's right in the middle. They're not hot, they're not cold, they're just right in the middle. So then because thou art lukewarm, neither are cold or hot nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now, I'm going to come back to this point on why Jesus, I mean, because right away we think as people, we think as people, well, you know, at least they're not cold, at least they're not cold. Instead, but Jesus uses this just this, just over the top, you know, explanation of this church. And he says, look, you're lukewarm. He's like, you're not, he's like, I wish you were cold or hot. He's like, instead, since you're lukewarm, he's just like, baaah. It just makes me sick. This church just makes him sick because they're lukewarm. But I want to get into why they're lukewarm first and then I'll come back to why he can't stand that they're lukewarm. And I hope I can put it in a sense where we can all kind of make sense of it. But look down at verse number seventeen. So let's table the fact that, you know, they're lukewarm and let's just table this logical thought that we probably all have. Well, you know, it's better that they're lukewarm than they're completely cold. I mean, would it be better that they were, you know, ice water? At least they have some heat to them, but we'll get to that at the end of the sermon. But look what's worse. Look at verse seventeen. This is what happened. This is how they got to be lukewarm in verse seventeen. Then Jesus, he gives them the answer of what happened to them. Look at verse seventeen. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Jesus says these people, he's like, you think you are great. He's like, you think you are great, but you're naked. You know, you're blind. You're wretched. You're miserable. These people think that they're rich. Look at, go to Proverbs chapter sixteen. It says in Revelation seventeen, it says we're rich. It says I am rich and I am increased with goods. This church is saying and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So why? Why are they lukewarm? Because they're in need of nothing. They're increased with goods is one of the things that we see. Look at Proverbs sixteen, verse eight. Proverbs sixteen, verse eight. The Bible says, better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right. The Bible here is saying you would be better off having little or nothing with righteousness than great revenues without right. That's this church in Laodicea. They have great revenues. They have great worldly possessions. They have great things in front of them. They literally have need of nothing in their own minds, but it's without right. These people don't lack anything physical. I think we need to pay special attention to this evening because in America today this is us. This is us. Look, I don't care who you are. I don't care how much money that you make in this country this is us. This abundance, this lack of want in this country is just, I don't care who you are, where you come from. You have a lack of want of physical things in this world. I woke up on Friday night. I was going to go to bed early and I woke up and I was just like, oh man, I need some fishing weights. I was like, I think I'm running low on six ounce fishing weights and I went and I clicked something on the computer and I ordered like five dollars in fishing weights on the computer and they were at my house like thirteen hours later. We have lack of nothing in this world today. Nothing at all, especially in this country. The president came out and said that there's going to be food shortages a couple of days ago. He's like, get ready for food shortages and people in this country, I'm telling you, they're just like, they're short circuiting in their brain because they have no idea what that even means. We have food abundance in this country. Like too much food is our problem in this country. Food shortages of everything is our problem. Look, we literally have need of nothing in America today. So the question is, is this good? Is this good that we physically lack nothing? Everyone's like, yeah, it seems good. It seems good that I don't need anything. It seems good that everything that I need, want or desire, I can have it my fingertips within twelve hours or twenty-four hours by Amazon. That seems good to me. What is this good for us? Let's go back to this church. You say, what's the downside? You're being kind of hard. You're really preaching against Amazon tonight? It's like, no, what's the downside? Look, the downside is this church, and I'm going to focus on this one analogy that Jesus uses here. The downside, look, it's a terrible condition that they're in because the Bible says they think they're clothed but they're naked. Think about the physical reality about that for a second. What if, I mean, that's horrifying to most people to think about that. Jesus uses that analogy here. The Bible uses that analogy all over the Bible. Look, imagine thinking that you had clothes on and then realizing that you don't, wherever you are during the day, it would be horrifying to most people. But Jesus here is using a physical truth to demonstrate a spiritual condition with this church. Turn to Isaiah chapter forty-seven. It's not, look, it's not new. This analogy is used throughout the Bible. It's not new. Isaiah chapter forty-seven. I could go to dozens and dozens and dozens of verses. I'll just show you a couple so you believe me. Go to Isaiah chapter forty-seven. Look at verse number three. Isaiah chapter forty-seven and verse number three. Isaiah forty-seven verse three. The Bible says, thy nakedness, again, using this idea of, this idea of, of the shame of nakedness to demonstrate a spiritual condition. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. Yea, thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man. Turn to Nahum chapter three. Nahum chapter three. Nahum chapter three and look at verse number five. The Bible is using this idea of, look, you don't have to teach, you don't have to teach this. This is why this is such a, a powerful truth in the Bible. You don't have to teach that it is shameful to be naked. You actually have to teach people the opposite. You don't have to teach people to not care about being naked. We'll talk about that in just a couple minutes. But go to Nahum chapter three. Let's look at one more verse here. The Bible says in Nahum three, look at verse number five. It says, behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts. I will discover thy skirts upon thy face. And I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy what, thy shame. It's comparing nakedness to shame here. This church in Laodicea, Jesus is using this analogy saying, look, you think you're great. You think you're wonderful. You think you lack nothing. He's like, but you're naked. You should be ashamed is what Jesus is saying. So look, turn to Exodus chapter 28. Exodus chapter 28. First of all, nakedness is completely misunderstood today because we have to look at what the Bible says that nakedness is. And when we see what the Bible says that nakedness is, you're probably going to be surprised if you've never seen this before. But this is what the Bible says your nakedness is. Just because we're teaching people that this isn't your nakedness doesn't mean it's not true. The Bible says in Exodus 28, look at verse 42. Exodus chapter 28, look at verse 42. Talking about clothing that should be made for people here. And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their what? To cover their nakedness from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach. So the Bible teaches this. You turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2. First Timothy chapter 2. The Bible teaches everything from your loins to your thighs is your nakedness. Now look, this is not what the world teaches today. The world is trying to, the only reason I'm trying to define this physical truth for you is so we can see how the world is making shame go away. The world is taking shame and throwing it out the window. But the Bible says shame is a good thing. The Bible says your nakedness, your physical nakedness is your loins. You know, your midsection to your thighs, basically to your knees. So everything from your midsection to your knees is your nakedness and that should be covered. And if it's uncovered, it's shameful, the Bible says. So look folks, here's another thing you won't hear from the world today. Shame is a good thing. Shame is a motivator. Shame is something that God is using in Nahum and Jeremiah and Isaiah that we just looked at to motivate these nations to get right. He's saying get right or I'm going to show your shame to these nations. It's like get right or you're going to be shamed in front of everybody. And the church at Laodicea, Jesus is trying to tell him, he's like look, you're shameful. But you don't even know you're shameful. You're shameful. Look at 1st Timothy chapter 2. Look at verse number 9. This is talking about women and clothing being modest. Look at 1st Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 9. In light manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety. Not with broided hair, gold, pearls or costly array. So basically there's a lot of things covered here and a lot of people say, well, modest means just not rich. But look, modest here could mean just not rich and not flashy, but it says with shame-facedness. That means that the nakedness should be covered. That means that they should be aware of shameful things. They should be aware of biblical shame. So look, just because people around us or people in our society today get used to things or tell us that certain things aren't shamefully, that doesn't mean that it's not shameful. Okay? Look, this is particularly a problem that women in society struggle with. I hate to pick on the ladies, but this is something that women struggle with. If you look around today, if you look around today in our society, there's women walking around naked everywhere just because of the definition of what nakedness is in the Bible. There's women's sports. Women's sports is in the news today. Women's sports is in the news today. It's in the news today because it's being taken over by a bunch of homosexual men. It's like the dumbest thing ever that people are going along with this. But look, I had a problem with women's sports way before this whole controversy. You know, I shouldn't even say women's sports. I should say girl's sports. Because look, feminism, I think, here's a conspiracy theory for you. Feminism is really run by like a cabal of men somewhere. It must be. It must be because it's bad for women. It's horrible for girls. I mean, think about the irony of this. Think about the irony of women's sports. Young women say, you know, we can compete in all the sports that men can compete in. We can compete in track, in gymnastics, in volleyball, and then the high school coach or the junior high coach. I mean, I imagine that I'll never have this meeting. But I can't imagine the meeting where they bring in the parents and the young girl and they say, yeah, you know, she's going to play in track or whatever she's going to play in. Oh yeah, but by the way, she has to play in her underwear. Because why? Is anyone asking why? Has anyone asked that why? I mean, why can the boys run around in shorts that are down to their knees and tank tops? And the girls, they all have to compete in their underwear. Why is no smart, strong, feminist woman ask this question? Because it must be run by men. That's all I can think. It's terrible. Why aren't parents stand, forget the homosexual men taking over the sport. It was wicked way before that. People are being convinced to basically send their daughters out naked. So they can be strong. What? It's stupid. It's wicked. It's evil. What father is involving his daughter in this garbage is what I've always asked. Back to the church at Laodicea. Nakedness equals shame. I don't care what society says. Despite the world, despite the culture, nakedness equals shame in the Bible. Period. The Bible here is saying, Jesus is telling this church, you are spiritually naked. But they think that they're clothed. What's the solution? Go to Revelation chapter 3. Go back to Revelation chapter 3. How do they fix it? How do they fix it? Go back to Revelation chapter 3. They're in a terrible position. They're in a terrible position. They think they're good and they're not. They think they're good and they're in a shameful condition. Look at Revelation chapter 3. Look at verse number 18. He says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich in white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyesav that thou mayest see. You know what he's saying? He's saying, wake up and start caring about the spiritual things. He's saying, wake up and quit thinking that you have everything because of this physical world and all these physical desires that you're filling for yourself. Turn to Luke chapter 16. He's like, wake up and start caring about the things that are spiritual. You know, this gold tried in the fire reminds me of the pure words of the Lord tried in the furnace of fire. That's what they need to care about is the pure words of God. They need to start forgetting about the physical and start caring about the spiritual. And wake up. He's like, then your eyes will be like fixed. They'll be fixed with medicine and you'll see. Imagine that moment when they see and they're like, ah, they see their condition. Luke chapter 16, look at verse number 13. Here's really the problem. Start caring about the spiritual things. Well, you say, why can't they care about both? Why can't they have all these things? And then also care about the spiritual things. Look, look at Luke chapter 16 verse 13. The Bible says no servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon. You say, why can't I love both? Because it just doesn't work that way. You know, it just doesn't work that way. Look, and you know it doesn't work that way. You know it doesn't work that way. Look, it's just like, look at all the men that had two wives in the Old Testament. How many men that had two wives, even though God said, don't do this, how many wonderful loving marriages did you see come out of that? We just read about a few of them this morning. It was a terrible nightmare of a family. Because you can't love two things. It's like, God made your heart to be single focus. He just made it that way. I suppose he could have made it different, but he didn't. And he's telling us that this is how it is. He's like, you either care about that stuff or you care about the spiritual things. It can't be both. Look at verse number 20 of Revelation chapter three. We have single focus hearts. Our hearts are like a camera. So the camera can either focus on me or focus on the sign behind me. It can't do both. You know, we have single focus hearts. If we get focused on the wrong thing, and these people in Laodicea were focused on all these wants and desires that they had, and they were just completely, they were so focused on that, all this spiritual stuff became blurred and it ruined their spiritual life. It's very clear what happened here. Look at verse 20. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Of course, he's the door. Another door analogy. If a man hear my voice and open the door, I'll come into him and I will sup with him and he with me. He's like, hey, get right. He's like, you can get right. To him that over cometh, will I grant to sit with me and my throne, even as also I overcame and have set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. So what's just, let's just recap this. This church was rich and worldly abundance and they were half hearted. They were lukewarm about the Lord. But you say, at least they were half in. It's like, what's the problem with that? You say, at least they were half in, you know, being lukewarm. Why spew? Why spew that? At least they weren't ice cold, right? I mean, isn't this how we think? Isn't this how we think? But think of this in the, let me give you a couple examples that hopefully we can start to see this. Think of this in the context of your kids. Think about giving your kids some chores. You men in the room, you give your kids some chores to do. Hey, son, go on mother one. Your son mows half the lawn. Does that make you happy? Your son, you give your kids some homework. Moms, you give your kids some homework. You give them a book report. You give them a book to read. You give them something to do. And, you know, an academic chore to do. And they do half of it. Are you like, well, at least you did half of it. Is that how you are as a parent? Is that how you are as a loving parent? Look, I tell you what, my kid goes out and does half the chores. I am infuriated. I am infuriated. Look, that's just, because I'm a loving dad. Because do you know what? You know why? You know why? Because what it shows, are you starting to see? Are you starting to see men in the room? Are you starting to see? What it shows, if you give your kids something to do and they do half of it. No man who's got hair on his legs is gonna see his young son or his young children go out and do half their work, half their homework, half of anything and say, well, at least they did part of it. Nobody's gonna do that. Because you know what it shows? It shows a major problem coming. It shows a major direction problem. Something like that and look, if you have that problem, something like that left alone, will keep getting worse and worse and worse. This is why Jesus is so upset. It means they can't stay on task. You know what it means? It means somebody who's heading into quitting altogether is what it means. We had, this probably isn't gonna make sense to anybody, but we had this problem at a power plant years ago. We had this hopper. We had this hopper, it was a small hopper, it was 80 tons. We had this 80 ton hopper and we couldn't get this control system to stop so we were feeding the hopper coal and the hopper had coal coming out of it at certain times. And we couldn't get the control system to start feeding coal into this 80 ton hopper and stop it from being emptied all the way. Because when it got emptied, when it started pulling coal from the hopper, it pulled it so fast that we couldn't catch it and feed it fast enough and turn on all that equipment fast enough to stop it from going empty. And you know how we fixed it? We fixed it by instead of setting a line of, okay, when it hits 40 tons, start filling the hopper. When it hits 50 tons, 60 tons, it never, we couldn't fix it that way. This is how your thermostat on your house works. We couldn't fix it by setting a level. The way we ended up fixing it was I just compared data points and I found where the slope started decreasing. Instead of setting a limit on the weight of the hopper, I looked at two data points, heavy and lighter. And as soon as it started getting lighter, we started filling the hopper and then we caught it. We see the problem was not solved by the level that the hopper was at. The problem was solved by the direction the hopper was heading. And this is why Jesus is upset with this church. He's not upset at the point that they're at. He's upset at the direction that they're going. That is the problem. Turn to Jeremiah chapter three and verse number 12. Jeremiah chapter three, look at verse number 12. It's the slope of your spiritual life that matters. It's not the data point. It's not like, hey, where am I at in my spiritual life? It's no, it's where are you going in your spiritual life? That's what Jesus is upset with. That's what he's talking to this church about. This church is on the decline. And Jesus has indignation about it. There's a lot of Bible on this too. I'll just give you one verse right here. Look at Jeremiah chapter three. Look at verse number 12. Go back up to verse number 11. It says, Return thou backsliding Israel, sayeth the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you. Notice how God's angry here. Why is he angry? He's like, he's angry because they're sliding backwards. They're going back in their lives. And he's angry about it. He's gonna judge them for it unless they get it right. Now do a thought experiment. Do a thought experiment. Do a thought experiment. Where am I, give yourself some data points. Where am I at spiritually yesterday versus today? How's your slope? How's your slope looking? You're like, well, it's about the same. Okay, now last year. Can you see a difference? Go take data points. How about two years ago? How about, how about where are you at from the moment you got saved until today? How's that for a data point? Take those data points and draw a line and look at your spiritual slope this evening. Because this is what Jesus has indignation towards the lay of the scenes about. And you'll see that when you look at backsliding. Just do a word study on backsliding and you'll see this indignation, indignation. He's angry about it. His wrath is kindled at backsliding nations, at backsliding churches, at backsliding people. So look, here's the answer. Go to, you know, you say, okay, I get it. I get it, but how do I fix it? Well, here's the answer. Look at Philippians chapter three. Here's the answer. I'm gonna give you the answer, but it's easier, it's easier read and it's easier said than it is done. Especially in the country that we live in today. In Philippians chapter three, look at verse number eight. So it's the slope of your life that matters. It's the slope of your life that matters, folks. Look at Philippians chapter three in verse number eight. The Bible says, yea, doubtless. This is Paul. I count all things but lost. So I mean, Philippians is written from Rome. We were talking about this earlier. This is written from Rome, Paul's in prison right now. Okay, he's in prison right now under house arrest or whatever kind of lockdown he was on at this time. He says, yea, doubtless. And I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. So Paul kind of has lost everything, all right? So he counts all things but lost. You know, and we can say to ourselves that we should do that and all this, but look, Paul has actually lost everything right here. So he's like, count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Here's the answer, folks. You have to not care about the things in this world. That's the answer. You say what? You say what? We live in California. What about my cars? What about my job? What about my house? What about all the things that we like to do? Look, you just, if you lose it all tomorrow, would you be here Wednesday? Can you do that thought experiment? If you lose everything tomorrow, where's your spiritual life gonna be? Is that an easy one to do? Philippians 3-8 is real easy to read. Can you really count it all but lost? Can you really say that I don't care about these things? Look, that's where you have to be. If you're not there, look, I'm not saying don't work hard. I'm not saying don't enjoy your home. I'm not in saying don't enjoy having a nice car that doesn't break every five seconds. I'm not saying all these things. Look, you can have all those things. You just count them a blessing for as you have them and just you have to put yourself in a mentality that it may all be gone tomorrow. That's it. That's the answer, hard to get there, especially in the society that we live in today. Enjoy your life, but you can't care about those things. This is the challenge of the Christian life that we're living, turn to Mark chapter four. You can actually, you know, you can get to the point in your Christian life where these things, they become your chariots. They become your horses. They become what you rely on. That's the church at Laodicea. They become your chariots in your horses to the point where you think you're strong and you're a pile on the ground. You're a shameful waste of a Christian. This is the church at Laodicea. Turn to Mark chapter four. They will kill the spiritual in you. And then, guess what? And then, and this is where you shouldn't wanna be. All right? Then God will come after them. God will come after them. You say, why? Look at Mark chapter four. Look at verse 19. You know why? Because if you're saved tonight, if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and you have been saved in the blink of an eye in a moment, eternally, forever, you know what? God wants you productive. God wants you productive in your life. Look at Mark four and 19. And the cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches. And the less, look, isn't that deceitful? If I'm fully, if I think that I have everything and I have nothing, isn't that deceit? Isn't that riches deceiving me? If I think that I have the best clothing and I think that I'm the greatest and I think that I'm awesome and everyone thinks I'm a fool and naked, that's deceit. That's the deceitfulness of riches. And the loss of other things entered in and chokes the word and it become what? Unfruitful. You know why God's so angry? You know why Jesus is so angry with this church? Because this church is sending people to hell. Because it's only by the saved believers being ambassadors for Christ carrying the gospel that people are gonna go out and get saved. That that fruit is gonna be born from the tree. Jesus is, look, Jesus is saying, look, this is gonna cost eternity for people. That's why he's so mad. He's especially gonna be mad at you. Because look, in this Christian life, you say, well, you know, I feel like I'm hot, but here's the thing, it's a spiritual game where you can just keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. You know that? You can never win that game. God will just keep opening doors and opening doors and opening doors. You will just affect more people and more people and more people and be like, I don't see the path. Well, it's not your path. God chooses the path. God will, his ways are higher than your ways. If you keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter in your Christian life, doors are gonna be open and you will do things that you would never have imagined years before that you would have been able to do. God will use you in ways that you would just, you'll look back five years later and you'll be shocked. And all you have to do is just keep doing what you're supposed to do and just keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter in your Christian life. But most Christians, they never get hot in the first place. Most Christians get saved. They take their salvation and they just walk on their way. And they never get hot in the first place. Some Christians, they get hot right away. This is the bottle rocket Christian. They get saved and they're super fired up and they're like, pop, and that's it. Maybe that's a year, maybe that's six months, maybe that's two years, whatever it is, but, and then they start falling away and they backtrack. But look, some can change the world for thousands of people. Some can affect thousands, tens of thousands. How many people did Paul affect? Millions? Us? If you just keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter, you will never win that game. You will never hit the ceiling because God will just keep using you and using you and using you in your Christian life. That's why he's mad. That's why he's mad at this church because he sits there and looking as a pastor, I can relate. I can relate. I can relate seeing the potential in people and then just seeing them just throw it away. I can relate to that. And guess what? It just makes you sick. It makes you sick. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's like, look, I can see the potential here. I can see the potential and you're throwing it away. Get it right. Is what Jesus is telling this church. It makes you angry. It makes Jesus angry. And look, as a church, we just need to keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter. This is just the beginning for us. This is just the beginning for us. We're gonna keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter and effecting more and more people. And God will just keep opening more doors and more doors and people in this room, you will have no idea. I don't care how young you are. I don't care how old you are. God will use you all the way to the end of your life. If you allowed to. You don't start cooling off and just wasting that potential in your life. This is a huge message for this church and it's really applicable to us personally and to our church. It's all about the slope and the direction that we're heading in our lives, folks. We wanna be on that upward trend all the time. Constantly be giving yourself data points. Where am I at? Where am I at? If my data point, if my line's going in the wrong direction, why is that? What do I need to do to fix that? Get it fixed. Because it's other people that are depending on us and on you. Let's bow our heads and have a word with us.