I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. ¹⁶ So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Rev 3:15-16

If we are honest with ourselves, when we read this scripture, we must ask ourselves the question, "Am I hot, cold, or lukewarm?" Good question, right? Most of us would answer that question by saying we're hot. But, the truth of the matter is that we're really lukewarm.

The problem with being lukewarm is that people who are, think they are all right. They always think that "lukewarm" is talking about those other people, in that other church, in that other denomination. They don't recognize that they too are lukewarm.

If someone is cold, they know it. You can go into any bar and ask them if they are cold towards the Lord, and they'll answer in the affirmative. They know they're going to hell, and many of them are proud of it. Many of them joke about it, saying that they'll be partying with their friends; not knowing the suffering they will go through.

On the other hand, people who are hot for the Lord always have doubts. They wonder if they are hot enough. They wonder if they've cooled down in some way, or other. They constantly are dissatisfied with themselves, and how they are serving the Lord; thinking that they could do better and be closer to Him.

You can't make something lukewarm by starting out with something cold and adding heat to it. The only way you can have something lukewarm is by starting out with something hot, and allowing the heat to escape from it.

My wife loves to take really, really hot baths. The kind that turns your skin red. But, every time she's in the bathtub, there's a problem. The water doesn't stay hot for her. After just a few minutes, the hot water becomes lukewarm. Without the constant adding of heat, anything hot becomes lukewarm.

This is true of believers as well. Most Christians, when they receive the Lord, start out hot for him. They want to witness to everyone they know. They want to be in every church service. They come forward for every altar call.

Then, some well meaning saint, possibly an elder, or deacon comes to them and says, "Calm down a little. One of these days, you'll be a mature believer, like me, and you won't need to be running around like this all the time. Just calm down and relax (and become lukewarm like I am.)"

As believers, we constantly need to have spiritual, emotional heat added to our walk with the Lord, or we will become lukewarm. We need a constant infilling of His presence. A constant love relationship. Constant prayer. Constant worship. Constant renewing of our minds with the Word of God. Otherwise, we rapidly become only lukewarm Christians. Believers who aren't a threat to Satan's kingdom. People who are unable to accomplish anything for the Lord.

So, the question remains, are you lukewarm? The answer to this is probably, yes. All of us have areas in our lives where we are lukewarm.

All of us are willing to serve God with our lives up to a point. But, most of time, we won't go beyond that point. That point is different for different people, and is different for each of us in different areas of our lives. God is trying to work in our hearts to change that point, and bring us into full obedience in all areas of our lives.

God has always, throughout history, looked for people who would follow Him with their whole heart and their whole lives. His plans here upon the earth require covenant people who will commit as full to Him as He does to us.

When God found Abram (later known as Abraham), He found a man who was willing to be that committed; a man who was willing to be in covenant with God, and commit his whole life to God. But, what about Abram's ancestors? What about his father?

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. ³² And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Gen 11:31-32

Terah, the father of Abraham, was willing to follow God to a point. He started out from Ur of the Chaldess, to go to the land of Canaan. Why did he do this? In those times, people didn't travel for the fun of it. People didn't move from their city to another one in search of a better job. Most people were born, grew up, and died in the same town; even in the same house. Yet, Terah took off from his home, to go to a far away land.

Yet, even with this goal, Terah didn't finish his journey. He stopped along the way and lived out his days without reaching his goal. It wasn't until he died, that God told his son, Abram to finish his journey.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:

Gen 12:1

It doesn't say here where it was that God told Abram to go, but we know that God took him to Canaan (Gen 12:5). It appears as if Terah started the journey, but then became tired of it and stopped. Why did he leave Ur to go to Canaan? And, if he that was his destination, why did he stop in Haran, way short of his destination?

Reading between the lines, it appears that the reason Tereh started off for Canaan was that God told him to go there. The Bible doesn't tell us that, but there is no other logical reason for him to leave Ur with that destination in mind. Especially, when we consider that God told Abram to go there after Terah died.

The reason for Terah's unwillingness to complete his journey becomes obvious when we look at a map. To leave Ur and go to Haran, one only needs to follow the river Euphrates. They would have the river available for fresh water the entire journey. But, to get from Haran to Canaan is another thing entirely. One must leave the comfort and security of the river and strike out across the desert to reach Canaan.

Terah was only willing to follow God while the going was easy. You might say he only wanted to receive God's blessings. But, when following God required doing something difficult, he balked.

Many believers today are exactly the same. They are willing to follow God in order to receive His blessings, but not when there is a price to pay. They're interested in any message that talks about blessings and prosperity, anything that'll make them feel good. But, when the preacher talks about tithing, or holiness, or making a sacrifice for the Lord, they're ready to get up and leave. They'll only follow God up to a point.

Typically, we have different points in different areas of our lives. We might be willing to fully obey God in one area, but not in another area. I found this true in my personal growth with the Lord.

Early on in my Christian life, the Lord started talking to me about tithing. I made all the excuses that everyone else does, and didn't tithe. Do you know why we make excuses? Because whatever excuse we give, what we are literally saying is, "I'm only. I don't need to change. You're talking to the wrong person."

Finally, the Lord got through to me, and I started to tithe. Then He was able to move on to work on another area where I was only serving Him to a point.

The other thing we see in the life of Terah is the result of His lukewarmness. If my "reading between the lines" is correct, Terah had a commission from God to accomplish something for Him. God had given him a calling, and he had accepted it. But, somewhere along the line, Terah forgot about God's calling. He forgot to build the kingdom of God here on earth. He forgot about his commission.

When he stopped, he stopped in a place called Haran. This is the name of Terah's son who died. In many places in Genesis we see cities named for people; typically the people who founded them. Obviously, Haran didn't found this city, because he was already dead before Terah left Ur. So, somebody else named it after him.

Either Terah founded this city, or in some other way gained political control of it to the point that he had the right to name it. When he gave up God's calling on his life, he turned to do something else. This other thing was to build a monument to his son, instead of to God.

Many times, believers turn aside from God's work, because they feel it is too hard for them to do. When they do this, they often turn to doing some other "good" work. Unfortunately, these other good works are not the things that God wants done.

If we are not building God's kingdom in the way that God wants us to, we are building some other kingdom; either our own, or Satan's. These other kingdoms do not bring glory to God. If we are not bringing glory to God, we are bringing it to someone else.

The result of lukewarmness is that we no longer bring God glory; we no longer accomplish His will; we no longer build His kingdom.

The Bible is full of examples of people's lives, and their relationships with the Lord. Some were hot for God, others were cold, and still others were lukewarm. In each case, there are lessons we can learn from their lives. Let's take a moment to look at the life of King Asa, one of the kings of Judah.

The life and reign of King Asa is shown in Second Chronicles, chapters 14 to 16. It is also shown in First Kings, chapter 15, but the account in Second Chronicles is much more detailed.

Asa's reign began when his father, Abijah, died. He was the great-grandson of King Solomon. We already know that King Solomon left the path of wisdom (fearing the Lord - Pr 1:7) and sought after strange gods. His son, and grandson served the Lord to a point, but they didn't do it with their whole heart. Then when Asa takes over, the first thing that the Bible tells us about him is that the started a revival in Judah.

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God, ³ for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. ⁴ He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. ⁵ He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.

2 Chron 14:2-5

There is a saying that, "There's no such thing as an indispensable person." That's a false saying. Throughout history, there have been people who have been indispensable. Without them, some sort of major event would not have happened. We especially see this in Biblical history. At this time Asa was one of those indispensable people. The one God used to turn Judah's heart back to Him.

Asa gave God the credit for all that happened in that time. He didn't try and steal the credit for himself, nor did he ignore an opportunity to exhort the people to serve God. His heart was after God; hot, not lukewarm, and he desired to help others be the same.

The land is yet before us; because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side.

2 Chron 14:7b

Shortly afterwards, Judah is attacked by the Cushites. Although Judah had a sizeable army, the Cushites had a much larger, more powerful one. Instead of fearing, or seeking a military alliance to help him out, King Asa sought the Lord.

And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.

2 Chron 14:11

People who are on fire for the Lord turn to the Lord in times of problems. People who are lukewarm look elsewhere. Oh, they might pray, but that'll only be as a last resort. If they're sick they'll go see their doctor first, take some medicine, visit their curandero (Mexican faith healer), maybe go light a candle at the Catholic church, and then, after all else fails, ask their pastor for prayer.

My children have grown up expecting God to move. All through their lives, we have been in the ministry, praying for every need. When they are sick, they don't ask for medicine, they don't ask to see the doctor, they immediately ask for prayer.

Asa knew his God and immediately sought His help. Of course, God answered him and gave them the victory (2 Chron 14:12-15).

As Asa was returning to Jerusalem, a prophet, named Azariah, came out to meet him. He said, "The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you" (2 Chron 15:2b). God answered King Asa's prayer because he was with God. Because he made it his lifestyle to seek God's presence, and helped others to do so as well, he was in a position to receive the blessings of the Lord.

Asa was encouraged by this message (2 Chron 15:8). He increased his efforts to expunge all the idols from Judah, and encouraged the people to serve God with all their heart. He repaired the altar of burnt offerings, from before the temple, which had been ignored, and gathered all of Judah to make sacrifices unto the Lord (2 Chron, 15:10-11).

Asa's reform was so effective that the people of Judah reentered into covenant to seek the Lord God (2 Chron 15:12). Even people from the ten northern tribes, who had given up serving the Lord came to Judah to join with them (2 Chron 15:9).

Look at what it says in verse 15:

And all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the LORD gave them rest round about.

2 Chron 15:15

The people of Judah, not just King Asa, rejoiced in their oath of allegiance to the Lord. But, more than that, they followed through with their covenant oath and sought God with their whole heart. As always when people seek God, they find Him.

Although it is in the next chapter, there is a great span of time between what we see happen in chapter 15, and chapter 16. The Bible doesn't record anything about the majority of King Asa's reign, so we can safely assume that nothing major happened during that time.

However, during all the years after this war, up until the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, the Bible does tell us that there was peace in Judah. We don't exactly know how many years of peace that was. But, by reading the way the account was written, it appears that the revival, and the first war were during the early part of King Asa's reign. So, at a minimum, we can safely say that he had 25, or even 30 years of peace.

In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

2 Chron 16:1

This should be easy for King Asa. After all, he's had the experience of the previous war. He should remember what God did when he prayed and asked for God's help. All he has to do is the same thing. Right?

Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, ³"Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me."

2 Chr 16:2-3

What happened? Instead of remembering what God had done for him in the first war, King Asa went the way of the world and sought help from another king. In the first war, he relied on God, in the second war, he relied on man. Not only that, but he stole the gold and silver from the treasury of the Lord in order to seek that help!

God's way and the world's way are never the same. When we seek God's way, we receive God's blessings. But, when we seek the world's way, we don't receive God's blessings. Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 28 says, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." God's way brings life, and life more abundantly, the world's brings pain, misery, and death.

Somewhere along the line, King Asa had become lukewarm. Remember, this man started a revival in Judah, but he didn't stay revived in his own heart. He lost his relationship and dependence upon God. Although, he started his reign out hot for the Lord, and hot after his ways, sometime during the years of peace, he stopped seeking first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness (Mt 6:33). That's when he became lukewarm.

Asa still won the war, but he lost much more than he won. A prophet, Hanani, came to him and reproved him for not seeking the Lord, as he had in the first war.

And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. ⁸ Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

2 Chron 16:7-9

We too, can win the battles in our lives by natural means. But, there is a great difference between winning with God and winning with the world. You see, after the first war, when King Asa looked to God for help, he had many years of peace. After the second war, when he looked to the world for help, he had war after war after war, for the rest of his life.

It is the same in our lives. We don't go through physical wars like Asa did, but we do go through spiritual warfare against the kingdom of Satan. When we ask the Lord to help us with a battle, he is always willing, as long as we are being obedient to Him. When we win with His help, we receive His peace. The enemy learns that it is unsafe to attack us in that area, and seeks other ways and means to attack. But, when we win with the world's help, the enemy quickly sees that he has a way to affect our lives and hurt our walk with the Lord.

Let's go back to that verse for a minute, it's one of my favorite in the whole Bible. It says:

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

2 Chron 16:9a

Why are the eyes of the Lord continually searching throughout the earth? To find people with perfect hearts. But, why does he need to search for them? Because there aren't very many people who actually fit into this category.

What's a perfect heart? This verse isn't talking about a heart that doesn't have any error. The word that is translated "perfect" in this verse is "shalem" in Hebrew. This word, shalem, means to be complete, full, whole. In other words, it is a heart so fully committed to the Lord, that it is perfect in it's commitment, if not in it's actions.

There are many people who pray, "Lord, keep me in the center of your will." You can pray this way and still have a lukewarm heart. This isn't enough to have that shalem type of heart. To have that heart, we need to have the Lord in the center of our heart and will.

I think that every believer needs to take this verse and hang it on the wall. Our continual prayer should be, "Lord, make me one of those people with a shalem heart, so you can show Yourself strong on my behalf."

King Asa had obviously started out with this type of heart, but had lost it along the way. During the years of peace he had forgotten to continue reheating his heart. After failing in this "test" God sent him someone to remind him of his error. Unfortunately, Asa did not receive this message, and instead was angry at the messenger that God sent.

Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.

2 Chron 15:10

Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to rekindle a heart that has become lukewarm if the person isn't seeking to become rekindled. Outside influence won't do it, unless the outside influence is catastrophic enough to make them reevaluate everything about their lives. No, it takes a desire from within the person's heart before anything can be done.

And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.

2 Chron 16:12

Asa ended his life sick, at war, and far from the Lord. What started as a little lukewarmness destroyed his ministry, his testimony, and ultimately his life.

So, the question still remains. Are you lukewarm? As I said earlier, the answer is probably yes. If you're honest enough with yourself, and with God to say, "yes," what are you going to do about it? Are you going to be satisfied with being lukewarm, and risk losing everything. Or, are you ready to repent before the Lord, and make a change to your life?