Do you have a strong, personal, fulfilling, passionate, and precious relationship with God? Think about that for a moment before you answer.  I didn’t say do you have ‘a’ relationship with God. Even atheists have ‘a’ relationship with God, whether they know it or not, they will meet their maker one day and they are currently benefiting from God’s common grace.  To that most Christians would reply “I am no atheist, I have a much stronger relationship with God than they have.” To that comment I respond, are you sure?

I spoke with a friend recently who confided in me that their bible study group was working through Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love.  If you are not familiar with the book, the book was written to encourage Christians to abandon easy believism and to passionately pursue and live a life glorifying Jesus Christ.  I personally loved the book, in fact I read the book in one sitting. The most challenging part of the book is when Pastor Chan identifies what he calls ‘lukewarm Christians’.   Lukewarm Christians, according to Chan, are people who want just enough Jesus to get them into heaven, but not enough Jesus that they will have to make any sacrifices or jeopardize their present lifestyle.

I wasn’t surprised to hear that people felt upset after reading Chan’s book as the authors intent was to create an emotional response.  When I first read his book I felt convicted by the Holy Spirit for being a lukewarm Christian myself. There were times where I felt Chan hit the nail on the head describing my own behavior as though he were writing about me personally. That said,  I was very surprised to hear that some people stopped showing up to my friends bible study group claiming Chan’s book was too harsh, unloving, and judgmental.

Harsh, unloving, judgmental ? Pastor Chan? He’s one of the most respected and accepted evangelical writers of our time.  Chan’s books are read and enjoyed all across Christendom.  While seminarians will argue that Chan is no bible scholar (and he isn’t) his books are written with precision, care, love, eloquence, and from a pastors heart.  I couldn’t believe that his book was the cause of some people dropping out of a bible study.  Then I briefly glanced through it again and it all made sense.

Whenever a preacher or teacher of the Holy Scriptures proclaims a truth that is exclusive in nature, challenging in content, and lovingly aggressive in tone, there are Christians who come out of their silence to make the accusation that that biblical expositor (person who explains the scriptures) is judgmental, hateful, unloving, and course in their speech. 

People often have this reaction because they feel satisfied with their walk with God already.  Growing in intimacy with the Almighty requires work, and many lukewarm Christians have no interest in putting in the effort.  This happened at my friends bible study group in response to Chan’s book.  While many Christians reading Chan’s book will undoubtedly profess to love  it, I would say that many of them are involved in lukewarm Christianity themselves.

“ And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24.

Jesus makes it absolutely clear, that if someone wants to come after him (in the Greek this phrase means to passionately pursue, like a young man pursues his beautiful fiancé and like the psalmist pursues God in Psalm 42 and 63) they must first deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him.

Denying oneself is admitting God is completely in control of your life. It means that you will surrender your life to His will. His will is always for the Good of those who love Him so it isn’t as though you are taking a chance by surrendering your life to God (Romans 8:28) Self denial is the act of loving someone more than you love yourself. In this case, God wants you to love him and desire him more than you love and desire your self.

Taking up one’s cross is surrendering one’s life to Jesus completely and being willing to make sacrifices, even to the point of physical death, if necessary.  As the Apostle Paul writes in Philppians 1:21

“²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”.

We are called to live for Christ now!  Not tomorrow.  Not after you get this party phase out of your system.  Not when your husband or wife starts treating you better and making you feel more appreciated.  Not after you get some revenge from that person who wronged you in the past. Not after you fudge the numbers on your tax return in order to receive a bigger refund.  Not after you lie about how many hours you worked this week in order to get paid more.  Not after you view inappropriate content on the internet when your wife, girlfriend, or parents aren’t around.

Jesus wants you to surrender your life to Him, right now! Jesus doesn’t want your sloppy seconds.  Jesus does not want you to be involved in lukewarm Christianity as lukewarm Christianity kills:

¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” Revelation 3:16.

As you can see, the term lukewarm was not something that I cleverly concocted in order to make my point.  Jesus makes it perfectly clear that the lukewarm have no place in the Kingdom of God.

Again in Matthew 7 the scriptures read:

“²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me,you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-22

Many lukewarm Christians will not enter the Kingdom of heaven because lukewarm Christianity kills.

In the first paragraph I used the example of an atheist and compared them to lukewarm Christians.  While Lukewarm Christians do in fact believe in God, they often participate in what theologians call “practical atheism”.  Practical Atheism takes place when a person willingly lives there life without God. For instance, whenever a man types in an inappropriate website with the intention of lust, he is guilty of practical atheism as he denies the presence of God in that moment.  Whenever a person cheats on their taxes, lies to their boss, cheats on their spouse, gets high on drugs, they are practical atheists.

Those are extreme examples and many of you can safely say “I’m not involved with any of those things.”  Maybe your practical atheism is manifested in how you go through an entire day without thinking of God at all.  Perhaps you have a problem with swearing, and you have no intent of stopping.  Maybe you enjoy watching television programs that are inappropriate or listening to music that is gross in content.  There are so many example of practical atheism, and many of them are widely accepted in the Christian community.

Having an eternal, personal, passionate, precious, and practical relationship with Jesus is far more fulfilling than the temporary pleasures you can experience right now. Jesus wants you to treasure him.  He wants you to follow Him.  He wants you to come after him.  He wants you to submit to His will.  He wants you to love Him and fear Him. It won’t always be easy, in fact it will often be quite hard.  He wants you to work on your swearing problem, to think twice before watching certain movies, and to reconsider your music selection.  There are many practical things you can do right now in order to make Jesus a part of your daily life.

It’s important to remember that carrying one’s cross means making daily sacrifices.  Doing His will will interfere with your schedule and won’t always be convenient for you.  Being prepared to surrender your life to Him may result in some serious persecution and problems for you.  Yet He is worth it, and you won’t regret it.

If you feel convicted by this message, and have never surrendered your life to Christ as your personal savior, lord, and treasure, I want to ask you right now to pray to Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you for your sins, and that you will commit your life to Him.