The Dangers of A Lukewarm Society

The Dangers of A Lukewarm Society

Below are links which will direct you to the entire Dimensions Library so you can

revisit all of your favorite messages!

iTunes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dimensions/id1732614714

iHeart Radio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-dimensions-198385936/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5yMFOzngmTPuVpAxiaLw4o

You can find links to our social media pages below and our Another Level

Ministries contact information and web address as well!

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@AnotherLevelMinistries

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/anotherlevelpgh

Another Level Ministries Web Address

www.anotherlevel.church

Another Level Ministries

605 Thompson Run Road

Pittsburgh PA, 15237

(412) 586-7159

Transcript

Welcome And The Warning

SPEAKER_00 0:04

What's going on, everybody? Pastor Jay Wright here. I'm so excited that you've tuned in for Dimensions. I'm going to be talking to you today about the dangers of a lukewarm society. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are in a lukewarm society. What are the dangers of that? The Bible warns us about being lukewarm. But what happens when society becomes lukewarm and the church becomes lukewarm? We're seeing many different things in the world today that are signs of that lukewarm society. And I'm going to give you some of those. Even in our sports world, we're seeing what happens when people become lukewarm. You don't want to become lukewarm. It's the only place where the Bible says that Jesus will spit you out of his mouth. It's the one temperature that makes him vomit. And you don't want to be in that number. So I want to encourage you to lock and load and check this out because this is going to be a blessing to you because we're going to talk about the dangers of a lukewarm society. You're going to see it. It's already happening. We're already in it right now. And the dangers that come with it. All that and more coming up on Dimensions. Coming at you the very least five days a week, Monday through Friday at 8 p.m., bringing you the Word of God in season. Yes, Dimensions exists to help the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, prepare for the return of Jesus Christ. And yes, he is coming back soon. And how are we preparing you? By keeping oil in your lamp, love in your hearts, and sin and leaven out of your life. That's right. Oil in your lamp, love in your heart, and sin and leaven out of your life. You know, it's so important that we have that. Oil keeps us insulated from the coldness that's coming into the world, but it also, this is the thing, keeps us illuminated from the darkness of the world. That's what oil does. It keeps you insulated from the coldness that's coming in, but it also keeps you illuminated from the darkness. Darkness and coldness are the two ways in the heart, when it affects the heart, that it causes men and women of God to fall into deception. Deception is the result of having no oil. When you have no oil in your life, deception is inevitable. You will see deception in your life because when you get cold, offense can come in. When it gets dark, lies can come in. So think about it. You're dealing with a lying spirit, and also you're dealing with an offensive spirit. And when you have the two of those, as a result of that, deception is inevitable. And so that's the reason why it's so important to keep oil in your lamps, love in your heart, and sin and leaven out of your life. Hallelujah. So I want to talk to you for a few moments today, in just a moment, on the dangers of a lukewarm society. I believe that we are in that day and hour, even as I'm speaking to you. But before I do, would you take a moment right now to like, subscribe, follow, and share as you always do? And take a moment, if you haven't downloaded the Dimensions podcast, go to wherever podcasts are being held, download the podcast, and you'll be the latest member of the Dimensions family. But I want to take a moment today. I'm not going to be very, very long, but I want to take a moment. I want to talk to you about the dangers of a lukewarm society. That's exactly where think about lukewarm. When you think of lukewarm, it's a mixture of hot and cold. That's basically all that it is. You know, Jesus talked about in the book of Revelation that I wish you were either hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, because there's a lot of gray in the earth, because there's no definitive lines, he goes, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. There's some major things that happen when people become lukewarm, when the church becomes lukewarm, when there's no place for moral absolute truth. Whatever you consider right, truth is now considered relative and objective. It's basically whatever it is that you want it to be, that's what it's going to be. God never called that. And that's exactly what happened. It's the sin that entered the garden. It was actually the devil introduced us to lukewarmness. That's exactly what he did. He introduced the uh Adam and Eve into a place of lukewarmness. He mixed, do you realize all it takes for people to begin to fall into deception, to fall into lukewarmness, is the devil can tell you 99 truths and one lie. And that one lie can mess up the whole 99 truths that has been told. All you have to do is give place to one area in your life, one area of your life, and that will eat away it everything else in your world. One little bit, ladies and gentlemen, one little lie from the enemy will create a lukewarmness. One area of compromise can begin to create lukewarmness in and through your life. And I want to show you something here because in the book of Genesis, chapter three, this is where lukewarmness came in. And that's where we are. It's where good and evil begin to cohabitate together. It's where righteousness and unrighteousness begin to cohabitate together. You know, the Bible makes it very clear. You know, it's funny in the book of Genesis, chapter one, the Bible says he created the sun for the day and the moon to rule the night, and they were to separate the day from the night. The Bible says in the book of Corinthians that what fellowship does light have with darkness? What fellowship does righteousness have with Belial, with the sons of God, with Belial, with the things of Satan, with the things of the world? Whenever you start compromising and mixing over with the things of the world, you're going to begin to experience lukewarmness in your life. And that's what's happened in the world today. And what really prompted me uh with this, I was thinking about, I grew up in a time in a day and an hour where I remember the Magic Johnson of the world and how him and Larry Bird really saved the NBA because it was really deteriorating. And I was thinking about when Michael Jordan came uh into the league. And I was thinking about a lot of these players today in the NBA and how some of them are making$50 and$60 million a year,$20 million a year. You know, in the 80s and 90s, that was completely unheard of. I think the highest one would have been a million dollars. I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, don't quote me, I think it was Moses Malone that had the first one for like a million dollars or something like that. And that was like considered huge back then. Now that's an insult. Some of these guys are making$50 and$60 million a year. And I was thinking about how they're making all this money. And all they have to do is play basketball. Now, I'm not saying it's not a taxing job or they don't work hard, but that's all they do for a living is play on a basketball court. Of course, there's a lot of other stresses and things that come along with it. Not that they don't earn their money, but how many of them nowadays they have a thing called load management where they don't want to play a whole lot because it's a lot on their bodies. And I was thinking about, wow, I mean, if you went back to Michael Jordan and you went back to those days, uh, and if you talk to him now, he doesn't even understand it because they had a love for the game. They had a love for those things uh of of of uh basketball. As a matter of fact, Michael Jordan had a love of the game clause because a lot of the owners at those times didn't want players playing outside of the NBA because they didn't want them to get hurt and then jeopardize uh their time on the court. And so Michael Jordan actually said, if I'm gonna play with you, I have to have a love of the game clause. So I've got to have an ability where I can play whenever I want because I just simply love the game. And because now watch this, because of his love for the game, and because of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and others like uh Dennis Rodman and Isaiah Thomas and many others that just love the game of basketball, uh, they became millionaires. Now we live in a generation where instead of people saying, I gotta have a love of the game clause, now they got to have a load management clause. So I want to, I want to less, I want to still get max money, but I want to play less. I don't want to be on the court. Uh and I'm I'm looking at now, they're dealing with this major issue in the NBA called tanking, where so many people are uh they're because they're they're not willing to stay in one place and just develop the team that they had. What they're trying to do is who can lose the most and get a reward. Ladies and gentlemen, this is all the product of becoming lukewarm. There's no longer a drive to be great. People want to be great, but they want to do it at their own expense. I want to give the least of what I have and I want to get the best of everything. I don't really, you know, people back in the day, they would stay with one team and they would just work hard at that team and develop it and grow it and do the best that they can to make it the best that they could be. Nowadays, people jump five and six teams within four or five years just so then they can hopefully get a big team, not pay the cost, not pay the price, or do any of those things. I'm saying all this to you because it's a product of what has happened into the even the body of Christ. We want to give God the least of what we have and expect the best from him. People want to give him the least amount of time, the least amount of effort. And it's because we've allowed lukewarmness to come into our lives. And when it infects the church, there is a loss of many different things. Now, I want to I want to read you a couple of things that I wrote down. When you become lukewarm, there's no winners or losers. Everybody's a winner. There's no right and there's no wrong. Everybody is right. There's no correction, there's only compliments. You have to realize there are many things that happen when people become lukewarm. When you become lukewarm, the cross is lost. We remove the price of consequences and replace them with entitlement. We remove the price and consequences to have something great. And now we replace them with entitlements. You know what? I don't want to pay the price and I don't want any consequence. I want to do what I want to do, and I'm going to replace them with I have a right to it. We no longer have to earn anything. We are now owed everything. Delayed gratification and pay your dues are now considered an insult. I'm owed everything for anything I do. Matter of fact, I want to be paid up front. I want everything up front. And I don't want it to have to cost me anything. It causes everything. When people become lukewarm, it causes everything to become upside down. We start rewarding evil and we're punishing good. Look at that nowadays, where we're at. If you are a pro-life person, they'll punish you. If you stand for marriage, the institution of marriage, you can get punished, you can get banned. Take a look, I just did a podcast about Jay Nivey and how he stood up for what he believed uh in regards to uh not supporting pride, and he lost his job there in the NBA because of that. Uh, right becomes, watch this, more important. I'm sorry, uh rights become more important than responsibilities. I want to have a right to this, I want to have a right to that, but I don't want to be responsible. I don't want to work hard. You got to understand all that I'm going through. The drive begins to die. And we see it even in the body of Christ. We want the best of God, but we want to give him the least. We want, we want the best of God, but we want to kind of live holy. We want the best of God, but we don't want to pray. We want the best of God, but we don't want to tithe. We want the best of God, but we don't want to grow up. We want the best of God. We see all of these promises and perks and privileges that come with the kingdom of God. But then we isolate and we take out all the things with the cross. This is what happens when you become lukewarm. You become lukewarm as you begin to want all of the benefits, you want all of the perks, you want all of the blessing, but then you don't want anything else over here when it comes to the responsibilities of how to live. Mediocre, watch this. Here's products of being lukewarm. I'm just going through this kind of quickly. It's just been in my spirit. Mediocre becomes success. And people begin to find a way. How do I become a winner without having to give everything that I have? I've heard uh different commentators talk about people in the NBA about how uh they're he said they have made a living out of not being able to play. Now, these are people that aren't even saved. They're not even Christians. They talk about different people, how they stand. They've made a living out of not being on the, they're getting all this money, but they don't have to show up on the court. And now they're talking about going, think about it, you're making$50 or$60 million a year,$30 million,$20 million a year. All you got to do is show up for 82 games a year. And then you get off, unless you play all the way to the finals from June to like October, you get all that time off. You know, you work out and you stay healthy and all those things, but you're not showing up for work. And you get paid millions of dollars to be able to do that. And people are still saying that's too much. And it's because we've lost something uh in society today, even in the church. You know, we have to lessen church services. We got to lessen prayer time, we got to lessen these things. People say they don't have time for this. We've lost something. But then we want all of these perks in the kingdom. We want God to heal, we want God to deliver, we want his presence, we want to be overfilled with joy. It's because we become a lukewarm society. And so what happens when we become lukewarm, mediocre becomes successful. The bar of being great begins to be dropped. Why? Because the love and the drive for what we really are seeking after, it becomes now we're no longer seeking after paying a price to become great, paying a price to become successful, paying a price to have a relationship with God, paying a price for this thing. That's gone. We don't have that anymore. Now it becomes, wait a minute, I just want the good stuff out of it. What do I got to do in order to get the good stuff? And so what happens when mediocre becomes success, everybody becomes a winner. And there are no losers. You ready for this? Self-centeredness replaces self-sacrifice. People become lukewarm where there used to be self-sacrifice to be great. Now we become self-centered. The only thing that matters to me is my happiness and what I want. That's the only thing that matters. When people become lukewarm, there is the loss of absolute truth. The Bible says in Isaiah 5.20 that people will call evil good and good evil. The line between right and wrong, you ready for this? Becomes relative. The line between right and wrong becomes relative. When people become lukewarm, that's what happens. There's no longer right and wrong, it becomes relative. What do you consider right? What do you consider to be wrong? Now I'm going to take you back to Genesis 3 in just a minute. I'm just giving you an outline here. I'm going to show you how the lukewarmness that's in our society and why anything goes is because there have been things that have crept in that there's no longer right or wrong. We're in that day and hour. And nowadays people have a sense of entitlement. They demand all of their rights. They demand to be happy. They demand to have this, that, and the third, but forsake all of their responsibilities. When people become lukewarm, the fear of God is now lost. Now watch this. People are entitled. People feel they are entitled to heaven and hell is no longer real. The dangers of being lukewarm. Why? Because the number one thing, and I've shared this before, but I want you to catch this. The number one thing that happens when people become lukewarm, and why watch this, is that the devil in society removes the price to be great and the price for sin. Are you ready? And he always will do that. He will lower the price to be great, and he'll remove the consequences and the penalties of sin. There's no more price that has to be paid. You know what? You can have everything you want. You don't have to pay a price. Watch this. You don't have to pay a price to get it. And guess what? You don't pay a price for doing anything you want to do. As a matter of fact, not only should you remove the price, there's no penalty or consequence. This is what I'm going to tell you. There's not even a there's not a consequence. You should demand, even though you're not willing to pay the price to be great, even though you're not willing to pay the price to go all the way, even though you're not willing to pay the price to walk with God, you should expect it. You're entitled to have what you want, when you want, how you want. That's the day and the hour that we are in. And I want you to go with me to Genesis chapter three. I'm almost done. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes because we are in a day and an hour where the lukewarmness has crept into our society and we see it in the sports arena. I've never seen people get such huge paychecks and demand to work so little for what they're being paid. People are paying big money to go to sports events, but they want to take nights off and they've worked so hard. And I was looking at that and I thought about the same thing as in the church on how we want all of the promises. Just tell me how good I am. Tell me what God's going to do for me. Tell me all these great things about myself. Tell me how God wants to bless me. I just want to hop in a healing line, but I don't want to be in church. I don't want to serve. I don't want to tithe. I don't want to give. I don't want to live holy. I don't want to live a crucified life. I don't want to pray. I don't want to have to get up early. I don't want anything to have to cost me. I just want what I want, how I want, when I want it. That's all that matters to me. But I want to be, I want to have the best of God and give the least. And so what happens when the church begins to say, you know what? You can have all of these great things, the blessing. Listen to me, when when the world starts saying, everybody starts saying a believer, the lines have been blurred. When everybody's a believer, everybody's a Christian, we become lukewarm. That's what's happened in the church today. You think about it, everybody's a Christian. The church now mixes so much with the world. You've got people that aren't even living right for God in the pulpit. You've got Christian singers mixing with people that are just completely hedonistic and heathens in the world doing albums and compilations together. And what that does is it says, you know what, I'm just as saved as they are. We've got people in the pulpit living any way they want to live. We got preachers living anywhere they want to live. We've got all these things. So there's this constant mixing, though, the secular with the sacred, the cold with the hot, and things have become lukewarm. And let me show you here. Look at this. It all started in the beginning. Lukewarmness started right here. The first sin is that the devil showed us how lukewarmness comes into society. It says in verse 3, look at the serpent was more cunning or subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Hath God indeed said you should not eat of the tree of the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die. So notice this here, there was a price to stay in the garden. And there was a price that you would have to pay if you chose to disobey. What would happen? They would die, and the price to stay in the garden was a sacrifice. There were certain things you couldn't touch. And what did the devil do? Now look at this. Verse four. First thing he does, then the serpent says to the woman, you will not die. So he removes the consequence and the penalty for sin. How does lukewarmness come into the church? How does it come into your life? You start removing the penalty for doing things wrong. It won't cost you anything. You won't die. There's no penalty. Listen, listen, don't worry about that. You can have what you want and there's no penalty. You can do whatever you want to do and there's no penalty. But you know what? He goes a step further. Matter of fact, not only can you do what you want, and there won't be a penalty. And even though God said in his word, if you eat of it, you're going to die. Guess what? He's actually holding you back from something. God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes are going to be open and you're going to be like God. You're going to know good and evil. Matter of fact, listen, not only is there not a price, you're not going to pay for sin, you're going to up your ante. You're going to go from just being a regular man to becoming a God. Look at, oh, you you've got to do this. You've got to do this. I mean, why would you not? You're not going to die. Come on. You're not going to die. You're not going to die. What's the big deal if a man wants to marry another man? A woman wants to marry another woman. What's the big deal? Everything's okay. Go ahead and do what you want. You're not going to die. God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes are going to be open and you're going to be just like him. Wow. The devil removes the consequence. And then upset, watch this. You're right and says you don't have any responsibility. You're going to be like God. You can do whatever you want, and you're going to be just what God look what he says too. God knows. God knows. This is God's knowledge. Let me show you what God's knowledge is. That if you eat of it, you're actually going to be like him. So he doesn't want you to do it. So you need to take of that because you need to do what you want. Because actually, what God really wants, uh what he's telling you not to do is actually going to help you. You're going to be like God, knowing that you're going to know good and evil. So what does he do? Watch this. He removes the price to be great. And he removes the price. He takes the consequences out of the picture. This is how people become lukewarm. You slowly turn on the cold water by telling people it doesn't matter what you live, doesn't matter how you do, you can still have not listen. It's not even like, you know, uh, he just says, listen, you're not going to die and leaves it at that. He says, matter of fact, not only are you not going to die, you're going to get more benefits by disobeying. You're actually going to get free. You're actually going to go to the next level in your life if you do it. This is what happens. He slowly turns it out. You don't have to pray. You don't have to come to church. You don't have to do any of these things. And guess what? You're still going to get even more. You can slow down. You don't have to pay the price for anything. And guess what? You're still going to inherit everything that God wants you to have. Matter of fact, he knows that in the day that you don't pray, and the day that you don't die, and the day that you don't go to church, and the day that you do start having sex, you do start drinking, you do start eating more than you should, you do start uh not going to church, you do start doing all these things, you're going to be even more like him. So let me set you free. No penalty for sin and no price to be great. How do you lose out on that? No consequence for And guess what? You don't even have to pay a price to be great. You can do anything that you want, and God is gonna honor lukewarmness. And we're seeing it in society. Everybody wants what they want, when they want, how they want, but there's no need to be responsible. Truth is all relative. Whatever you believe, it's totally up to you. And look at what happens. So when the woman saw, oh my gosh, this makes sense. The tree was good for food. That was pleasant to the eyes. Tree to desired, make one wise. What is that? She took of the fruit and she ate it. And we begin to see the downhill spiral. And notice this. Now watch this. What was the tree, the name of the tree that they ate from? The tree of the knowledge of what good and evil, hot and cold. You could have a hundred degrees, or I'm sorry, uh 212 degrees of hot boiling water. But the moment you start trickling in that cold water, it immediately begins to simmer down. You ever boiled water and turned it off, it'll boil for a minute. But then as soon as you drop something in it, even over even if it's on the fire, it'll begin to stop boiling over at that point. What has happened is the devil has now please hear me when I say this. The devil has crept into society and he has told everybody, including the church, you don't have to pay a price for God's blessing. You don't have to pay a price to go to heaven. You don't have to pay a price for all that God has for you. And when I say to go to heaven, I don't mean pay a price that you got to work your way to heaven, but you can live any way you want to do. You do, you know. So let me back up a reassess, let me reset because I'm actually saying two things at once. He he takes away and says, you don't have to pay a price to be great. You don't have to pay a price to be uh have God's blessing, to have his favor, to have his goodness. As a matter of fact, now watch this. You can commit sin, you can do those things. God is love. This is where the love comes in. Love, watch this. In society today, when people say you have to love people, you have to love people, saying they should be able to choose whatever they want. And if you love them, there should not be a consequence. How dare you put a consequence on somebody and say you love them? I hope you heard what I just said. That the way that love is being constructed today, it is saying, you know what? What when they say you should love everybody, you should love everybody, what they're saying is this you should be able to choose anything you want, and love has no consequence. How can you say God loves me but has a consequence? That's why many people today, now hear me. Many people today struggle with the fact and the reality that hell is real. Why? How can God say he's love but bring a consequence? That's exactly what the devil did in the garden. You won't die. You won't die. And so the same thing he did in the garden, and I believe it's probably the same thing he said to them in heaven when the third of the angels joined with him. He told them, Don't worry, God's not gonna kick us out of heaven. He's not gonna do that. Come on, he, you know, you just stick with me. He removes the consequence. Why? Then there's no more fear of God. There's no more answering to a higher power. There's no more, I'm gonna stand before him one day. The fear of God is removed because there's no longer a consequence. And then what he does to lower the standard, and think about it, we're in the season of AI where now people aren't gonna study, they're not gonna read, everything's done for them. The devil is weakening what man has, their greatest ability, which is to dream, to will, to fight, to build, to subdue, to battle. He's weakening all of our defenses. And that's what he's doing. No price. Look at it. There's not why why fight for anything? Well, you don't need to fight. You don't gotta be strong, you don't got to do anything. You don't have to go after life, you don't have to pay a price for anything. It's all given to you for free. And then what happens? We start demanding, we hear it long enough, we start saying, I should have the best of God, I should have the best of life, and it shouldn't cost me anything. And we're seeing it in the world today. The devil removes, hear me again, the consequence for sin. That's what he does. He removes the consequence for sin. And then what does he do? He says, You have a right to everything. That's what the devil always does. And he has done it in the church, he's done it in the world today. I should have the best of everything, and I shouldn't have to pay anything to do it. So I want to encourage you today. I've got more to share on this subject, but I really believe this is a word from God to help people to understand why we are where we are in society, uh, why the drive has dropped, why people no longer press in, why people don't have to fight. And that's what he wants to do, even with AI. People don't realize the dangers of it. AI can be a great blessing. It really can. I mean, if you use it the right way. But people, what are they doing it for you? He's done all this and now he brings it in and says, listen, let me think for you. Let me think for you. Let me, let me, uh, not you, don't, don't, don't put any effort in. Don't grow, don't develop, don't, don't, don't become, don't think for yourself. Don't, don't, don't, don't be strong. Don't dig. Don't don't go deep. Don't pay the price. Why? He's setting everybody up for a society that he can come in and make them weak minded. So then one day, when the antichrist rises up, guess what? They'll be so weak minded, they won't even know how to think for themselves. He's slowly cooking people to death. She went, she got to a point. Now look at this, and I'm wrapping up with this. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, just a few verses earlier, she said, Man, if we can we can't even, we can't even touch it or we'll die. She he turned her to the point where she said she wasn't even thinking for herself anymore. She no longer was thinking for herself. She saw the tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desired to make one wise. She took the fruit and she ate it. Ladies and gentlemen, there's always a consequence for sin. This love definition in the world today says, if you love me, what they're saying, now hear me. If you love me, you should remove the consequence. How dare you say you love me, but put a consequence in there. It's exactly what the devil did in the garden. But God said, because I love you, there are consequences. Think about most children, if they're not being disciplined when they're younger, what do they feel? They don't feel loved because there's something about consequence that says I'm protected, I'm safe, and I'm loved. So I want to encourage you with this today. Don't let society tell you that it's okay. If you really love somebody, there should be no consequence. And don't let the devil put in there and tell you that you don't have to pay a price for anything and uh to be to have anything in life or to have anything in the kingdom. And as a matter of fact, you can do anything you want, and you should still be rewarded and you should demand it because if you love me, there should be no consequence and there should be no price. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible says very clearly in Genesis chapter 8, verse 22 as long as the earth remains, seed, time, and harvest. He said, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. Same thing with seed, time and harvest. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. I hope this has been a blessing to you. I know it's been a blessing to me. I believe it's a word for this season, the dangers of a lukewarm society. I'm gonna be going into this more in my church. I'm gonna do a deep dive into it, but I wanted to give you a little taste now and show you what's happening in the world today and why so many people's drive has dropped, why people are so prone to be um uh uh uh uh lazy and apathetic and uh just have no drive within them is because the consequence for sin has been removed, and the price to be great has been removed. What else left is there? Luke warmness. God bless you. And I'll see you tomorrow at eight PM right here on Dimensions.