Is Jesus Knocking on the Door of our Church?

A quiet country church. A knock on the side door. And a question that won’t leave us alone: what if Jesus is outside, patiently waiting to be invited in? 

In this episode I share something a bit different; a guest sermon I gave at our church a few weeks ago to help fill in for our pastor. After a brief farm and family update, we will listen to my sermon on Revelation 3:14–22, the letter to Laodicea, to explore the uneasy distance between liking Jesus and actually following him.

We unpack why Scripture calls lukewarm faith nauseating and why hot and cold are both images of usefulness—healing warmth and refreshing cool—while room temperature blends into its surroundings. With Laodicea’s banking, textiles, and eye salve as backdrop, we trace Jesus’ piercing diagnosis of self-satisfied religion and his generous prescription: gold refined by fire, white garments of righteousness, and salve for true sight. Along the way, we talk about real-life patterns that pull us toward comfort—people-pleasing, hurry, and performative faith—and simple, costly habits that reverse the drift: unhurried Scripture, honest prayer, confession, reconciling conversations, generous service, and witness that changes the room.

The heart of the message is not shame but invitation. Those Jesus loves, he disciplines. He stands at the door and knocks, not with a battering ram, but with patient mercy, promising table fellowship to any who open, even if the whole room isn’t ready. We offer practical next steps to move from thermometer to thermostat, including one action this week that costs something and proves what we value. If you’ve felt “fine” yet fruitless, this conversation will help you trade comfort for a living, useful faith that leaves a holy mark on your family, church, and community.

If this resonates, subscribe, share with a friend, and tell us: what door will you open to Jesus this week? Your story might encourage someone else to turn the knob.

Send your thoughts and questions to noah@redeemingthedirt.com

Chapters

• 0:08 Host Return And Year In Review
• 0:52 Vision For Consistent Faith And Farming Stories
• 1:31 Sermon Setup: Knocking At The Church Door
• 3:43 Fans Versus Followers Of Jesus
• 9:39 Reading Revelation To Laodicea
• 14:42 Hot, Cold, And The Danger Of Lukewarm
• 21:55 Wealth, Blindness, And True Riches
• 29:22 Discipline, Repentance, And Invitation
• 34:09 Personal Response And Practical Next Steps
• 47:13 Closing Challenge And Listener Contact

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Welcome to the Redeeming the Earth podcast. This is Noah Sanders. So glad you can join me today. Well, it's been a while since I've posted on here. We've had a busy year with uh the farm and the family and doing both some trainings at our homestead, home here in Alabama, as well as uh doing a bit of travel and uh connecting with people at some different homestead conferences, the Ozarks Homestead Conference out in Missouri, which was great. Got to meet some people out there, and we've been trying to focus on uh the raising and discipling of our eight kids, which is the most important uh disciples that we're investing in right now on the farm. So on the show here, uh Redeeming the Dirt, I'm uh trying to get together some more shows that uh to be consistent next year, Lord willing, feeling like the Lord wants me to invest a bit more time in uh sharing some of the things that he's uh laying on my heart next year through more regular podcasting, as well as trying to connect with some of you guys and share stories of what God's doing with people around the country related to agricultural discipleship, integrating faith and farming, and uh and being able to get excited about the move of God that we're all a part of. Today I'm gonna share something a little bit different. I'm gonna share a uh recording of a sermon that I did at our little country church down the road to fill in for our pastor the other week while he was out with his wife, who had just had surgery. And so it is something that uh was um a neat uh topic for me to research that the Lord laid on my heart related to um what it means to really open the door to Jesus in our lives, to what it looks like to not be lukewarm, and kind of the challenge that I gave to our church, um that I also want to take on myself about really finding ways to step out in faith in a more radical way this next year, so that God can work through us. So, not particularly a farming uh message here, but I hope it's encouraging and challenging for you uh that can definitely apply to what any of us are doing, whether we're on a farm or not. And uh then look forward to sharing some other messages and topics and interviews with you coming up here soon. Um but hope you enjoy and let's get into it. Uh just a little bit of uh introduction. One of the things that we did, or that I did before this recording starts, is I went outside the side door of the church right before the message after I'd finished with uh the helping with uh the music. We have just a very small country church that's about a hundred years old, and uh, but I just stepped out the door behind the pianist and uh then right before starting the message knocked on the door and one of my one of the men in the church that I had talked with ahead of time came and opened the door for me and let me in. And then I talked about why I did that at the beginning of the service, uh at the beginning of the message here. So give you a little bit of uh why uh the the beginning of this message I'm addressing uh knocking on the door of the church and coming in. So, anyways, hope you enjoy. God bless, and I will talk to you next time. The reason that I went out and uh knocked on the door to come in is because today uh we're gonna talk about a church where Jesus wasn't on the inside, but was actually on the outside knocking to come in. So I'm really grateful to be able to share with you guys today. Um, again, uh doing preaching or sharing a sermon is not something that I do on a regular basis, but was grateful when Brother Tim asked me to share, and as I was praying about what to share, I just thought we would just read through hopefully a scripture that I feel like is uh will challenge us. I know it's challenged me to think about it this week. Um, and I'll just trust that the uh the Holy Spirit will speak to us what we need to hear so that uh we can respond in a way that we can uh hopefully be a more fruitful, just obedient church that pleases the Lord. Um before we get started with our scripture, I was thinking about this idea of um, you know, the fact that a lot of us in the South, in the Bible Belt, we have a lot of people that like Jesus, or would say that they like Jesus. You know, you can go to other parts of the country, and there's people that are a little bit more hostile to Christianity in church, and you can't bring up Jesus without it being a bit controversial. But a lot of us, we like Jesus. We like the idea of Jesus, we like church, those kind of things. And I was thinking about this idea of being a fan of Jesus, and this idea of a difference between being a fan and being a follower. Um, earlier this year, uh my son uh Edwin Jonaville and I got to go to Indiana, and while we were there, we were able to go to a concert by Chris Tomlin, who was actually the gentleman that wrote the song How Great Is Our God that we just sing. And it was interesting going there because I had always been a fan of Chris Tomlin, um, you know, enjoyed his music, liked, heard about him, and enjoyed singing his songs. But it was very interesting going there to actually be seeing somebody in person. There's a difference about that than just me having, I liked his music and I kind of liked him. Um I remember when he first we we waited for quite a while with a lot of people outside at the state fair in Indiana, which is it was a free concert, and we were waiting, and you're kind of like, okay, when's it gonna come? And it's so far away, and which one's it gonna be? And of course you always have a lot of people coming up first, and maybe the pre-purs, and all you're like, where's the person we came to see, right? Where's Chris Tomlin? And if and he finally he came up on the stage, and I think he started, I don't know if he started singing that song or a different song, but it was interesting, it was actually very emotional for me to be hearing the gentleman on the stage right there whose songs have ministered to people all over the world on Sundays every day. I I started weeping, like tears started coming to my face, and like this, like God has used this man so powerfully. And it was such an amazing concert, such a time of worship, and um we FaceTime the family while we were there, and there were people, um, there was one lady there. I think she had just come to know Jesus because she had um still had one of those like security bracelet things on her anklets on her ankle, you know. But she was she was out there on the street beside it just being like praising and dancing and just just worshiping the Lord. You could tell she just was uh just the spirit was there. And you know, I came home and we Jonavel and I, uh Adam Jonavel and I have told so many people about the concert and about you know talking to him and then or not, we didn't talk to him or see him, we just saw him from a distance. But then later we saw he was um one of the singers at the Charlie Kirk Memorial when they did that. And when we saw him then on on television, it was like there was a different connection there because we had we had been to that concert, we'd seen him in person. And so, you know, it's it's not so much that uh, you know, he's he's just a music artist, but it was interesting the fact that before I liked his music, and then now you could kind of say that I have a personal connection, you know, with Chris Tomlin, not in that level, but that makes me he has had more of an impact on my life, and I have a I guess more of an identity having been there and seen him. And as we think about our relationship to Jesus, you know, I think being a fan is uh we a lot of us would think that that's a good thing, but it's not quite enough. You know, it's the the impact that Jesus is supposed to have on our life requires more participation and experience than just saying, I like him. You know, we invested time to go to a concert. Like we anticipated seeing, like we were there and experienced that, and that made our uh relationship with this singer feel more personal and connected and has had more of an impact for our life. And that's just a I think, again, a simple kind of uh shallow illustrations to a degree, but I think it helps us to ask, for me to ask myself, like, am I a fan of Jesus or a follower? Like, do I just like him? Or do I have like a personal connection that impacts my life, that people notice, that I talk to people about? And do I need him? Because obviously, Jesus is way more than just a music artist. He is like the one relationship in our life that matters more than anything else. So we should be way more than not just a fan, and not just a follower, somebody that likes them or that even knows them, but he should transform our whole life. And that's what we want to talk about today is where is Jesus in our life and what does our relationship with him look like? And the scripture they're going to read today comes from the book of Revelation. That's one of those scary books in the Bible, right? It's got all the prophecies about the uh the seals and the plagues and the dragons and the beasts, and how many of you have read the book of Revelation all the way through? Alright. Those of you who haven't, you should. There's this really cool promise at the beginning. Listen to this. It says, Revelations 1, 3. Well, first of all, how many of you want to be blessed? So the rest of you don't want to be blessed? Okay, we all want, we all want to be blessed, right? Well, listen, it says here, Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it, and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. So if you want an easy blessing here, just read the book of Revelation. God says, if you read it, now notice he doesn't say understand it. Just says read it or hear it, okay? So if we're reading, listening to this today, we'll be blessed. And what we're going to do is we're we're actually not going into some of the prophetic aspects of it at the beginning of the book of Revelation, which is actually something that was written by the apostle John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. He was given this in a vision from Jesus, and he wrote it down. The beginning of the book of Revelation are letters to the seven of the churches in Asia at the time. Now imagine, wouldn't it, what would that have been like for uh Hanover, Andrew's Chapel if somebody, a prophet, came up and said, Here is a letter that I was getting a vision from the Lord about end times, and by the way, he wrote something for you guys, and here you go. Okay? I mean, that'd be amazing. It'd be kind of very sobering. But this is what this was it's a letter, and we're gonna uh talk today, basically just hone in on what we can learn from the last letter written to these seven churches, to the church in Laodicea. Isn't that a cool thing? Can y'all say that with me? Laodicea. Laodicea. Um I just want us to, as we read this, I want to remind us that uh at the very end of all of these letters, it says, He who has an ear. Does anybody here have an ear? I've got two of them. Most of us have two of them, thankfully. Um, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So that means that is this applicable to us still today? Right. This is not just for the Church of Laodicea, this is to the Church of Laodicea for us to listen and learn from as well, okay? So we want to think about how this applies to our life. So let me go ahead and just pray, and then we'll get into reading through this. So, Lord, we just pray that you would give us insight today into what you want us to take away from this passage. We know that we're completely unable to understand your word without your spirit. So please just fill us with your spirit now, Lord God, as we read this together. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, can we pull up the verse here? To the angel of the church in Laodicea, write, these are the words of the Amen, the faithful and the true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, I'm rich, I've acquired wealth and don't need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, the poor, the blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich, and white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. So I was doing a little bit of study on the Church of Laodicea a few last month, my wife and I went to Africa and to Rwanda, and on our way, the easiest flight was via Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, which is used to be Constantinople. And it's interesting because I was looking up Laodicea, and this city of Laodicea was only 155 miles from where we were in Istanbul. So it's just a little bit, it's in Turkey there. It's actually not uh in existence anymore today, but uh not very far from where we went. So that was very, very uh neat to actually have been close to the to this city. But it was a city um at this point in time, you know, in the Roman Empire, it was basically a major financial hub in Asia. So it was very wealthy, they had a lot of banking and those kind of things. They were known for their textile industry. They had um apparently bought a lot of black sheet because they made black fabric that they would export. It was known for being very glossy. And then they also were known for their uh producing a lot of uh they had a medical center there and made a famous eye ointment that was used around the Roman Empire. Um so interestingly, how these things that Jesus spoke to them related to their context. Um the first thing we're gonna talk about here that we can that we want to kind of consider is this idea of what Jesus, Jesus' evaluation of their condition. In the beginning here, it says, These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. So this is a letter from Jesus, and what he establishes at the beginning is when he says the Amen, what does Amen mean? Why do we say amen? Say it louder, I can't hear you.

unknown: 16:48

I think it means agree.

SPEAKER_00: 16:50

It means like agree, it means like so be it. It's like an agreement. It's like, hear, hear. Or yeah, man, or preach it, brother. That kind of right, we're we're in agreement with it. So be it. And so it's kind of like Jesus is the amen. He's the so be it. He's the last word. He's also the faithful and true witness. He tells it like it is. Whatever he says, that's the way it is. And he says that he is the ruler of God's creation. He's not just, I'm here to help you with your life. He's like, no, I'm in charge. That's who's talking to you. And he says, I know your deeds. So he said, I'm looking at what you're doing, Church of Laodicea. And here's my assessment. What does he say? You are neither hot nor cold. Instead, you are lukewarm. And what does he say? Does he say, you need to be hot, not cold? He actually says here in verse 15, he says, I wish you were either one or the other. He says, Because you're lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm gonna spit you out of my mouth. It's amazing. Jesus uses such incredible visual images, you know. I was like, I could demonstrate that up here. It would not be appropriate in church to like demonstrate spewing, you know, out of my mouth something. But that's what Jesus is saying. That's what I would do to you. I feel like doing to you because of your deeds. So when I was researching this this week, I had honestly always thought about this being, you know, we don't want to be cold. Like Jesus was honestly, he wants us to either be like, just admit that you don't believe in God, just be like an atheist, or like be all in for God. Don't be like where you're in the middle and you say you believe God, but you don't really live like it. You know, but actually Jesus says here, I'd rather you be cold or hot. And it's just this idea of, you know, how many of you guys have a cup kind of like this? You have one, right? Now, this is a special cup because it's insulated, right? And I have some hot-ish coffee in here from this morning that would be very lukewarm if it was not in a cup like this. And you think about drinks, I love iced drinks, cold drinks. Okay? They're so refreshing. They're like you come in from working outside and you take a nice cold drink, and it's just refreshing. It's impactful, it changes, you know, um my uh my body's core temperature, and it's very refreshing. Um, or I like a hot drink. But it's very rare, unless I'm basically almost dead and I'm about to drink it, that I would say, okay, y'all, man, I drank this lukewarm cup of water. Ugh, it was amazing. You know? But I will all the time say, man, that ice cold glass of this, that, or whatever, amazing, you know, like it it impacted my life, this iced lemonade, or wow, that hot coffee, that hot chocolate, that hot tea. It was incredible. But unless we're just in survival mode, tepid lukewarm water. I mean, a lot of people I know today say, you need to drink room temperature water for your health. Maybe so, but it is not fun. It's not, it's very boring to do that. So, like milk. I love hot milk, I love cold milk, I do not like room temperature milk. Does anybody here like room temperature milk? Okay. Glad I'm not weird. Um but if you think about what this is talking about here, um it relates, doesn't it, to the thermometer and thermostat thing we're talking about this morning. Right? Lukewarm water, what's it the temperature of? Whatever it's around, right? I mean, if you're in the desert in the summertime, lukewarm water is going to be about the temperature of whatever it is around you. I mean, it's it's it's it's where if you drink it, it doesn't really have any effect. I mean, you can stick your finger in it, and it pretty much just feels like whatever the temperature it is. It's interesting in the fact that Jesus used this illustration for Laodicea because nearby this town called Hieropolis was known for their hot springs, and it was like therapeutic and medicinal, and people would go there for these hot springs. Um, Laodicea didn't have any hot springs. Then there was uh Colossae nearby, and they had these cold, ice-cold springs that were so refreshing. Laodicea didn't have those. Their water came via an aqueduct, which is like a big, you know, bridge channel that the water would come. By the time it got to the city, it was, guess what? Lukewarm, nasty water. So they would get this idea of um what Jesus was talking about here. So I want us just to be thinking about this because it's not so much necessarily that we're talking about people that are saved or lost, but we're talking about this idea of that hot and cold are both useful to us, right? The reason I want to keep water cold or keep water hot is because it's useful if it's that. I can use it to cool stuff, I can use it to heat stuff, but once it's lukewarm, it's pretty much useless. It's still there, but it's useless. So when Jesus was looking at their deeds, he was saying you're neither hot nor cold, you're not making a difference in the situation that you're in. And that's something we need to be asking ourselves is how many of us are useless for God's kingdom because we're just being a thermometer when we go through life? That the people that we come into contact with, we're not making any difference. We're not hot or cold. And I know for me as a people pleaser, that is my tendency is to be a thermometer. It's to, um, I don't want to be the awkward person in the room that's making the people that are unrighteous feel uncomfortable by my not willing, being willing to participate in gossip or uh fleshliness or whatever kind of thing it might be. I don't like being that person. But you know what? If I'm if I'm going to be hot, or maybe I'll bring, what is it like, you don't want to be a wet blanket or a cold, you know, you don't want to rain on somebody's parade. Well, I'm sorry. Sometimes that's what we're called to do as Christians. We've got to be that cold, icy water that makes people uncomfortable. Or on the other hand, sometimes you have self-righteous people. Oh my goodness, you know, I only do these things, I only listen to this kind of music, I only, and Jesus is still like, it's just works, you know, and sometimes you've got to be the Jesus that's like, I'm going to not wash my hands before I eat. And the Pharisees are like, what? You know, and that's a different kind of you know, uncomfortableness that Jesus brought. And sometimes we need to take, we need to help our self-righteous, Bible-believing uh people who are comfortable in their Christianity feel uncomfortable because we're pushing them to say, well, what does Jesus really care about? What is it that he really looks at in our heart? The second thing we see here is Jesus said, you know, he's gonna, once the spit us out of his mouth, if we're like this, but these people in response said, I am rich, I have acquired wealth and don't need a thing. So was their assessment of their own spiritual health accurate? What does he say next? He says, actually, you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. So this is sobering because it helps us to realize that one of the most dangerous spiritual conditions we can be in is thinking that we're fine when we're not. And you can even think about cold and hot being this way. Cold could be poor in spirit, where you're saying, man, I don't know how to serve God, but I want to, and I feel like I'm failing so much. And hot could be where you're just like all in, and every day's really about the Lord. Lukewarm would be where, I'm good. You know, I'm good. You're just doing the minimum, just getting by. You're not broken where you know you aren't doing it right, and you're not really all in, but you're just kind of content to be tepid. And Jesus says that even though these people lived in an affluent city and they were a well-known church, that they were morally destitute, they were to be pitied, they were spiritually bankrupt, blind, unable to see, and naked. I mean, they did not they were not covered with this righteousness of Christ. And so we want to we want to be. I would challenge all of us, if you think you're doing okay as a Christian, you should be terrified. Because that's one of the most dangerous places to be here, is where we don't really think we need Jesus. We're not hungry and pursuing him. And we are in danger of being in this same place here. Jesus is asking us to look at what he provides. So he says here, you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. And then guess what he says? I counsel you to buy from me. So Jesus says this. I counsel you to buy from me. I thought Jesus gave everything for free. Haven't we heard that, right? Does salvation cost you anything? Do you have to earn your work earn your salvation? No. But this is not necessarily who is he addressing here? Is he addressing lost people? Not necessarily. Who is he addressing? He's addressing a church. And he says, buy from me. For us to really get what God has for us does require not salvation, yes, is free, but to follow Christ requires sacrifice. It costs us something. We can't just expect to grow without investing. But it's interesting, he says, buy for me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich, white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Very interesting that he told this to the Laodiceans because they were known as the banking capital of the world. So he's like, No, you need real gold from me. They also exported black cloth. He said, Why don't you you need white clothes from me? And they also were famous for their eye salve. And he said, actually, you need uh salve to put on your eyes. He said, All these things you think you're taking pride in that you have, and like you don't even, it's it's nothing because I'm the only one that can provide you these things. And I think we just all understand that like true spiritual riches, that relationship with the God and that that eternal wealth, you know, Jesus talked about this idea of when we when we sacrifice, when we give of ourselves, when we give to the poor, he's like, then you have wealth in heaven. But does it cost you now to put treasure in heaven? It's like transferring a bank account, right? From here to somewhere else, from where you can't keep it to where you can. And then the white raiment, the righteousness of Christ, even after we're saved, we have to recognize that our ability to grow in being a better person, we completely need Jesus to be that righteousness for us and to help us to live in light of that. And we cannot see truth. We are deceived easily without his vision that he gives us. This is not a work salvation, but it is something that costs us. And some of us need to think about the fact that we may have been Christians for years, but if we're not growing in our faith, if if if our following Jesus is not costing us something, then we may be in danger of being lukewarm. Because it takes effort, right, to be cold or to be hot. I have solar power in my house, and so I've I'm always monitoring our batteries. And it takes energy to make ice, and it takes energy to make hot water. It takes no energy to keep water lukewarm. So in your life, as you think about wanting to be cold or hot. If you're not sacrificing to read your Bible on a regular basis because Satan doesn't want you to do that and it's going to be hard, then you're probably not going to be hot or cold. If you're not sacrificing some of your comforts or your time to serve other people or to invest in knowing God better or to just, we talked about this morning in Sunday school. God wants us to listen to Him and obey Him and tell other people about what He's teaching us. So if we're not listening to start with, we're not praying or reading our Bible, and it's not When was the last time that it cost you to study the Bible? And when I say cost you, like, I had a friend of mine who said, if I if I get up in the morning, he said, I do not eat breakfast until I've read the Word. And if I can't read the Word, I don't eat breakfast. Because he wanted it to cost him something. We tend to value what costs us. You know, if your aunt gives you a car, you know, it's really nice. You got it for free. But if you saved up for 10 years to buy a car and then you buy it, or like Mr. Joel, like you've invested a lot of time into the cars you've restored, like you value that a lot more than if you just bought the thing. And the same thing with our relationship with the Lord. Another thing about this is we don't, my ice melts over time. My coffee gets cold over time. So it's not something we do one time in our life. It's a habit that we have to learn to continue to ask Jesus to help us to be growing so that we aren't lukewarm. And then the next verse says, Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Be earnest and repent. You know, if the Lord can is, even right now, if the Lord's convicting you about something, or if you're experiencing challenges in your life that are showing you your need for Jesus, you should be very grateful for that. Because that's how a father treats his children. If the Lord is letting us stay in a stagnant state, or if he isn't holding us accountable, then we may not even belong to him. Because it says whoever belongs to him that he loves, he's going to discipline them. Because he wants to restore them. He doesn't want to let them just run off. I don't do that with my kids. And then to kind of finish up here, it's very interesting. I just, I only learned this this week as I was studying this. Again, this is. I'm just bringing you stuff that I'm learning this week. I've just been reading this myself. I didn't know it. Here I am, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and eat with him and him with me. Did you know that this was not to lost people? I mean, we hear this idea of Jesus is standing at the door, knocking, open the door of your heart and let them in so you can be saved. This was not, Jesus didn't tell this to save people to unsave people. This was to a church. He told the church, I am standing outside and knocking. And what's interesting is this is a personal. Well, let's say they had a church, but Jesus wasn't invited in. He wasn't in there. Wouldn't that be terrifying? It's terrifying to think that we could have church here and Jesus isn't even invited in. We're not even, we don't even let him in. But what's interesting, this Grace's invitation, he's like, I stand. He didn't go one more time. Oh well. You know, walks off. Like, he's standing there. He's still there. He's standing there. He's patient. He knocks. He's not bringing a battering ram. He's not trying to pry the door open. He's just knocking. He's wanting us to open. And it's if anyone, not like if the whole church agrees on it and votes on it. No, it's like if you, if you, if you hear my voice and open it, then I will come in. And what he promises us is he's like, I'm done with you being a fan. I want to know you. We we um knew a group when I was growing up. Uh there was a family my dad had um been friends with the dad, and we got to know their family, and then later their family went on to create a rock band, a Christian rock band called Barlow Girl, um, which was in the 2000s. And we went to a few of their concerts, and it was interesting, you know, they knew us. And they we loved having a relationship with them. And we got to go, you know, in the tour bus and behind the scenes in the little green room, and like, because they wanted a relationship with us. It wasn't just us standing out in the audience being like, woo, you know, and dancing to the music. And that's what Jesus is saying. I'm here, like, I don't want you just know about me, be a fan. I want, I want to you to come in to the tour bus. I want you to come behind the scenes with all the cool, like, whatever the green room or whatever they call that in the background, and eat the food that we've got. Come and eat with me. This close relationship he wants, this deep friendship, and he's like, when you do that, then you can sit with me on my throne, and it's this eternal ruling and reigning with him, even that he promises. But I think it's it's this is the challenges I kind of want to leave us with: these ideas of it is impossible to have Jesus living in our life in a real way, walking with him, having a relationship, and be lukewarm. Um you think about it's detestable to Jesus. In a little sense, like I do farm trainings and I like to teach people, and you I spend five days investing these people on how to how to garden and how to go back and use it to share the gospel. And if I had, I would if you if I had somebody come to one of our classes and leave, and then later I meet one of their family members, and I'm like, oh yeah, so-and-so, yeah, they came to my class, and they're like, huh. Well, they've never mentioned it. They still garden exactly the way they used to. Like, I never would have known that they had gone to your class. It'd be a little bit insulting, wouldn't it? To me. I'm like, oh, well, it's as if I didn't even know them. You know, there's no impact on their life from their relationship to me. That's what Jesus is saying. I'd rather you like say you don't know me than to say you do know me, but nobody knows that you know me because you don't have any impact. And I think a lot of times the real question of Jesus is saying here is not just get your act together. He's saying, if you're lukewarm, maybe I'm standing outside the door and knocking, wanting to come in and meet with you and be with you and have a relationship in a way that you don't have to try to be lukewarm, hot or cold. You just will be because you've been around me. You'll care about what I care about. You'll hate what I hate. You'll love what I love. So it's a call to intimacy, not a call to, you know, feel judged. But I just want to finish there's as we bring this in, how to how does this apply to our lives? You know, we have possibly there's all of us can be in three places in this room. One, maybe you are still far from God. Maybe you've never accepted Jesus before. Maybe you're still a fan, but you're not actually a follower yet. And you're wondering why you're lukewarm in your life is because you've never actually given Jesus authority in your life. And Jesus is knocking. He wants that relationship with you, he wants you to open that door. And it's very simple. We just have to admit that we are spiritually bankrupt, that understand that Jesus died for our sins and rose again, and just call on him and turn to put our faith in what he's done instead of what we've done to get us to heaven. This is the important thing. Like, we could still be, what's incredible is God can we can have a completely fruitless life on one sense where we don't actually give anything to him and he'll still save us. Like it says, some people's works will burn up and there'll be basically nothing that they did that was worth it eternally, but they'll still be saved through the fire. None of us really want to do that, be that, but thankfully there's there's that element as long as we're not. If you go before the Lord one day and he says, Why should I let you in to heaven? What are you gonna say? Because if you say anything about what you've done, you're not getting in. The only thing that's gonna get you into heaven is you say, I don't deserve to go in, but Jesus paid it for me and said he would forgive me, and so whatever he did, that's why you should let me in. If you say that, then the father will be like, Yep, that's good. Because he can pay that. But if you say anything other than point to Jesus when he asks why you should get in, then you're not getting in. But then if you've done that, then you're we're you're then your deeds are going to be judged. And I'm hoping, I want Hanover and Andrew's chapel that all of our deeds won't just burn up. And like, well, at least you got saved, but you know, you you you you were lukewarm. We want to be careful that we're not comfortable. So the second group, first, you could be still you still need to come to know Jesus and trust in him, but secondly, we could be a comfortable believer. Are you comfortable in your Christianity right now? There's a farmer friend of mine that I love in um, or it's not really a friend, but a man I know in Africa, and he says, if your faith doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. That means if you think, is there anything that Jesus could tell you to do that you would be unwilling to do? If you can get to a point you say, if I knew he told it to me, I would do it. Then you know, it's kind of like signing up for the army. Now you're signed up. Wherever they tell you, you gotta do it. And but but that's where the fruit really comes from. He's not, he doesn't want the worst for our life, he wants the best. But just ask yourself, when was the last time you talked to Jesus beyond meal prayers, if you do that? When was the last time you read his word hungrily because you knew you needed it? When did you last tell somebody about him? And he's knocking again now, not just for salvation, but for restored fellowship. He wants you to open up the door to the rest of your life as well. And then maybe you're a faithful follower and you're walking with Jesus, but it's a good reminder, like if you're not continuing to work and persevere, then you're gonna be growing lukewarm, right? It takes effort and sacrifice to maintain the ice, to maintain the heat. And we need to be praying for each other and holding each other accountable as we pursue that. So I want you to think about how you're gonna respond today. One, if you've never, if you had any answer in your head of what you're gonna say to God when you get to heaven one day, other than Jesus did it for me, then today you need to say, God, please forgive me for trusting in what I'm doing, get me to heaven. And I repented that, I'm gonna put my faith only in what Jesus has done. And then, secondly, if you're a believer, where are the areas that you've gotten lukewarm that you need to repent and ask God to show you how to be, start being obedient and to make find some way to make it cost you something so that then your faith starts to become real and becomes something actually valuable to you, and that other people see it valuable to you so that they think they can consider that it's something that you want, that they may want as well. So, right now I'm gonna give us one minute of silence to pray and ask God. Well, first I'm gonna pray, I'm just gonna just everybody close your eyes. We're just gonna pray first. If you are somebody who is still trusting in what you have done to get you into heaven, whether it's going to church or it is whatever, then right now God offers to forgive you. Boom, don't have to work anymore, you don't have to try to earn it. You can just accept that gift of salvation that you could never earn right now. And if you've never done that before, you can pray on your own time. But if you want to pray right now, here's a way you could pray, just along with me. Lord, wow, I have been trying to earn my way to heaven, my own. Please forgive me. Please forgive me for trying to uh be good enough to please you when you say that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Thank you for sending your son Jesus to die for me. I deserve that death. I deserve eternal punishment for doing things my way. Please forgive me. I want to repent of trusting in myself and my ability to do what's right. And I want to completely trust that what Jesus did, dying in my place, is enough. And that whenever, and when I get to heaven, I'm just gonna point to him. And I want to make him king of my life now, and live completely surrendered to him, not lukewarm, but hot, cold, making a difference in the world around me is in gratitude for this gift of forgiveness, of salvation that you've given me. Thank you for that. Thank you that you see me now white, washed clean, that you give me a new heart, that you help me to now grow, to reflect the God that saved me to the world around me. And to those of us who have been following Jesus for a while but need to be reminded that we may be growing lukewarm, we just want to repent, Lord. Please forgive me, Lord, for the ways in my life that I've gotten lazy, have not made the effort to find mentors, to um study your word more, to discuss with other people. Um please forgive me for that, Lord. Show me something this week I can do. Whether it's skipping a meal to read your word, whether it's I'm calling the person that I need to call to reach out and ask for forgiveness for something in the past that I've done. Whatever it is that I know that you're probably calling me to do that I don't want to do, help me to find one of those things and do them this week, Lord, out of obedience so that you can help me to grow, help me to be a thermostat, change in the atmosphere around me and not just um conforming to the world. And I pray that you would uh show each of us, Lord, what that thing is that we need to be doing, Lord. And we just commit it to you, and we just are grateful, Lord that you hear us, that you see us, and that you're here to help us. Um that your power is made perfect in our weakness, and you are wise uh that your wisdom, Lord, shines forth even as we uh don't understand everything, but we just trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. Alright, guys, here's my last challenge to you is whether it's somebody in your family or somebody else, I want you to share with them today what is either what's something that you feel like God's telling you to do to open the door to Jesus in your life more now. All of us need that more, whether it's for the first time or for to do it uh more fully in an area of our life that we haven't already, and ask them to pray for you. So share what that is and ask somebody to pray for you. What it is? Share with somebody and ask them to pray. Don't be prideful and think that you don't need the body of Christ. Alright? Don't let Satan divide and conquer us. Well, I hope you enjoyed uh sitting in our little country church and listening to those uh words from the scripture and some of my thoughts about it and challenges to our little congregation. If you have any particular questions about your faith in relationship to Jesus, please feel free to reach out to me or somebody that you know in your area. Um if you have any thoughts about things that I shared, or if you have any uh ideas for future podcasts, I would love to hear from you. Just email me Noah at redeemingthedirt.com. That's Noah at redeemingtheart.com, and I would love to be able to um hear from you. And uh, can't always get to all the emails, but uh love to respond to as many as I can. Until next time, I just encourage you all to be faithful, to be humble, and to keep redeeming the dirt. God bless you.