The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Beware of Lukewarm Christianity!

Episode Date: October 26, 2018

In America, most of us do not have any big needs. As a result, it becomes easy to think God is not needed, because it seems like we can provide everything for ourselves. We become cafeteria believers, people who believe what they like, and reject what they do not. In today’s episode, Jeff says we need to make sure we don’t become so self-reliant that we feel like we don’t need God. Beware of lukewarm Christianity! Snippet from the show: The opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is indifference!

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show, episode 87, beware of lukewarm Christianity. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, welcome to the show this week. So glad that you could take a few minutes to join me once again.

and share a few things about discipleship and growing in the Lord, just trying to get to heaven, aren't we? And we've got so much going on in the world right now. And I want to talk about a theme that I'm seeing more and more, and that is how Christians are spending a lot of time watching TV and talking politics and debating, you know, Republican Democrats, CNN, Fox, all of that. and I'm wondering where the message of Christianity is in the middle of it and where does Jesus come in into the discussion. And one of the things, frankly, that I'm a little bit afraid of, and I've been afraid of it in my own life from time to time, is being lukewarm, you know, just being a part of America where it doesn't seem like we really have any big needs.

We can take care of everything, go online, take a couple clicks. You can even have a delivered same day, you know, if you want it. And we have access to 24. 7 News, most of it of which is not really worth watching. It's more news entertainment. And I have certainly curtailed a lot of that in my life. I have cut out a lot of that because I'm just, well, I'm not interested. And to be honest with you, it kind of gets me down from time to time. Earlier on a show, I'm trying to remember which show it was. Now, I was talking about trading in some of these shows on TV like Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith, Hannity, all of them. you know, from time to time, just trade in that hour and read scripture.

You'd be surprised at how much you can take in of God's Word and meditate on God's Word. One of the things we hear often is, well, I just don't have the time, but I don't buy that. I really do think we do have the time. We just don't use it really wisely. So what I'm going to do today is I want to talk a little bit about one particular church in the Book of Revelation called the Church of Laodicea, where the term lukewarm is used. You're lukewarm and I'll spit you out of my mouth. And I want to kind of give a little bit of a warning.

And remember, when I say that, I'm always talking to myself too. I'm not up on a soapbox barking at people, but I have a tendency to talk about things that I'm interested in in that I think I need to hear in my own life. And I want to pull back some from this public discussion and entertainment on YouTube and all of that. And I really want to go deeper with the Lord. And I know you do too.

And he certainly didn't come to this show to go deeper into politics and all of that. So, hey, I've got a couple of letters from you. I want to share, let's see, David from Melbourne, Australia, writes, happy to report, I got my new Great Adventure Bible a few days ago. It finally made it to Melbourne, Australia. For the first time, I'm really motivated to read it with intention. 51-year-old. Having a plan and understanding all the connections between the different books makes it almost addictive to want to know and understand the full story of salvation. I gotcha,

David. I've been doing it for about 40 years now, and I'm like you. I'm addicted. And he says, I hope I can fulfill my part in passing on the story to my children. Yes. Yes, that's what we want to do. That's what we want to do. So thank you, David. I really appreciate it. Got another letter. Hi, Jeff, picked up the new Great Adventure Bible last month, and it's been a game changer. It has led me to your podcast and your School of Discipleship, which I teach locally in the Twin Cities.

Thanks for all you do to inspire Catholic faith. You bet you. Mark writes in, Mark says, I've come across your materials and really like the materials that you produce. I'd like to compose a study plan to cover the entire Bible along with some additional materials related to, like, the catechism. and encyclicals, church fathers and saints and so forth. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

Well, I do, Mark. First of all, I would suggest get your great adventure Bible. They're on back order right now, but they're going to be in the warehouse anytime. So if you order it now, it'll be coming to you shortly. And we just were surprised, to be honest with you, how these Bibles were going to take off while they did. While they did. In fact, there is a video put together, Mark,

that Ascension Press put together of a lot of young adults from around the world that are now reading the Great Adventure Bible and what they had to say about it, I'll put that link in the show notes. And all of you, I mean, go to it. They did a great job of this, you know, putting together this compilation. I was really, really thrilled to see it. And that's very gratifying. But here's what I'd say, Mark, is that a good plan to cover the entire Bible is to take the approach of the Great Adventure, and that is, I wouldn't start with an individual book. I'd start with the whole Bible. Get your arms around the whole story, and you can do that. Pretty short order. In fact, in the Great Adventure Bible, at the very beginning, there's

a three-month reading plan that will help you read through the Bible in chronological order. It takes you about three months, four chapters a day. And I think that's a good place to begin. Now, if you're going to incorporate the catechism into your Bible reading, what I would suggest is that you use the index in the catechism, and as you're reading along, just go back and forth from time to time and see how does the catechism, how does the catechism fit into the story of salvation history? How does the church treat individual texts? And what is the church teaching about, you know, or teaching from individual texts? I think that's a good way to do it. And in doing that, you're also going to get a good dose of the saints, encyclicals, the church father,

others, all of that. So I think that's a good place to begin. Hey, thanks for writing in. And if you would like to write in and ask a question or have an idea for a show, which I've got a good backlog as shows that I'm putting together based on your suggestions, you can write me at the Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. And a big reminder, we're sold out going to Israel in January, but put it on your calendar. We're going to go back next January, but there's a big one coming up in June of 2020. Father Mike Schmidt is going to be joining me with a number of excellent singers. We're taking a trip to the Holy Land. In June of 2020, it's going to be the biggest trip of young adults. We're going to

have concerts in Galilee, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, great fellowship and teaching. It's just going to be fantastic. And that's going to be up on my website, jeffcavens.com very shortly, but put it on your on your calendar. Okay, let's talk about the Church of Laodicea for just a little bit. Now, the problem with the Church of Laodicea, I think, is the problem of American Christianity, to be honest with you. And it's a problem of a community that starts off pretty good, but then becomes incredibly self-reliant to the point where they really have become lukewarm. So let's go into that a little bit. I think you'll find it interesting. Laodicea is one of the seven churches in the book of Revelation, and John wrote to the seven churches of Asia Minor, which is now modern-day Turkey, all secular Muslim

state country. Anyway, there was seven churches there, and Laodicea was one of them, chapter three, starting in verse 14. And a little bit of background. Laodicea was the wealthiest city in Frigia during the Roman times. It was widely known for its banking establishments. It's known for a number of things, okay? Number one, banking establishments, medical school. They had a phenomenal ISAF made of this special powder from that area. Number three, the textile industry, clothing, okay? So, Leodicea was known for these three things. You got the banking, you got the medical, and you got the clothing, the textile industry. Its major weakness was a lack of an adequate water supply. Each of these characteristics is reflected in the letter. It's reflected in the letter.

Now, let me read that portion of scripture to you, so you have an understanding here. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation, I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. For you say I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. No, not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, and poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire that you may be rich

and white garments to clothe you, and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and save to anoint your eyes that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and chasten, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. So that's the message, okay? Now I like to Church of Philadelphia, Laodicea was hit hard at one time with an earthquake. And it was a rough earthquake. But here's what's interesting. The people of Laudacea, the leadership, refused imperial funds and rebuilt themselves. In other words, they're pretty self-efficient and pulled themselves up by the bootstraps. They were known for the manufacturing of healing, I salve, and their banks and clothing, as I said. Now, in this letter to Laodicea, John Fawley. John Foll

a pattern, which he does with all seven of the churches. He talks about their virtue. He talks about their vice. He talks about the reward if they respond to the correction that he gives them. Now, when it comes to Laodicea, he doesn't mention any virtue, no virtue there. But he does mention vice. He says, you are greedy, cultural Christians. Ooh, that sounded close, didn't it? You are greedy cultural Christians. And what's the reward if you will respond to to God? correction is that you will dine with Jesus, and it'll be about the Eucharist. Now, these people were basically cafeteria believers. Have you ever run into a cafeteria believer?

They're selective believers. They go down the line with their tray and their plate, and they just take what they want and leave what they want, and they call it a day. They believed what they liked, and if they didn't like it, they didn't believe it. Isn't that sound like so many Christians in America? If they liked it, they believed it. If they didn't like it, they didn't believe it. And what they chose was right.

Boy, have you ever heard of someone say, it's just not right for me? It doesn't sit well with me, you know? Instead of, Lord, you want me to do that? I'll do that. I'll take the whole smorgasborg. The amen, to say amen is to verbalize an oath. to say amen means to call down upon oneself the curses of the covenant.

And as you read that text and you see how amen is used there, this becomes very, very serious, right? Now here's what's interesting. When we talk about being lukewarm, this is what's interesting about Laodicea. It doesn't have really anything to do with being really on fire or cold. It has to do with indifference and complacency. to be the church of Laodicea is to be a complacent church. It is to be an indifferent church. The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. And now this idea of being lukewarm. Now Laodicea, remember, they had the textile, the banking, remember that? And they had the ISAv, the world famous ISAv. And they needed water to make sure that they could produce this stuff. but not lukewarm water. Now, Laodicea was situated between two other important cities, Colossi, where Paul writes to the Colossians,

and Hieropolis. Colossi was wedged into a narrow valley in the shadow of towering mountains, where water, it was watered by icy streams that tumbled down from the heights. In contrast, Hyropolis was famous for its hot mineral springs that flowed out of the city. If you Google it, you'll see it's really beautiful, actually.

And across a high plane, these waters would flow until it cascaded down a cliff that faced Laodicea. Now, by the time the water reached the valley floor, it was lukewarm, putrid, nauseating. At Colosset, therefore, one could be refreshed with clear, cold drinking water, and at Hieropolis, one could be healed by bathing in its hot mineral. pools, but in the middle it becomes putrid and lukewarm. And the accusation against

Laodicea is that it is ineffectual, good for nothing. He is not saying that he would rather you be an apostate or on fire. He is saying that he wants you to have an influence on society. That's the position that Laodicea is in. In Revelation 318 refers to three items in which Laodicea took great pride, financial wealth, extensive textile industry, and famous ISAV. We're going to take a break and want to come back. I'm going to go into those three and see if that doesn't fit America in some ways and maybe even our own lives. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Bible that actually explains how to navigate it and makes sense of it, a Bible that includes a detailed plan for how to read it

with a page layout that's designed for study and personal devotion. Now for the first time ever, there is a Catholic Bible that does just that. A Bible that incorporates the same color-coded learning system that has proven so effective in the Great Adventure Studies. I have had the privilege of working with some of the most talented biblical scholars of our day, Mary Healy, Andrew Swofford, and Peter Williamson, to create the Great Adventure Catholic Bible. This Bible makes the complex simple as it guides you through the narrative woven throughout salvation history. The translation is the revised standard version second Catholic edition, an elegant, accurate, and modern Catholic translation. The Great

Adventure Catholic Bible is perfect for your personal devotion and Bible study or as a gift for friends and family. If you want to understand sacred scripture and be transformed by the Word of God, then this is the Bible for you. Pick up your copy at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. We're talking about the Church of Laodicea. Beware of lukewarm Christianity. Beware of lukewarm Christianity. And this is the problem with the Church of Laudacea. They are situated in between Colossi with the great drinking water and Hieropolis with the great mineral springs for healing and they have placed themselves in a place where they need the water but they need

hot or cold but they ended up with lukewarm water and that is nauseating and of course we don't want to be lukewarm in our own faith three things that leodicea was known for they were known for gold refined they were known for gold and you know they the the the great banking industry and in uh this book of revelation listen to what listen to what to what John says. He said, I will spew you out of my mouth, for you say I am rich. I have prospered and I need nothing, not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable. And then he mentions kind of a hint here at these three things that they're really pretty good at. You're poor. They were the banking industry. You're blind. They were the ISAv industry headquarters. And you're naked. And they were

the textile leader. You see how John is writing to them in their own culture and saying, you think you're rich. You know, you have all this with the medical field and the clothing and everything, but the truth of the matter is you're poor and you're blind and you're naked. And then he says, therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire. In other words, your banking industry might be really great. And maybe you did rebuild with all your own goods and your own people and you didn't need anyone else's help. But You need gold refined by fire. And this alludes to purification through suffering.

Purification through suffering. First Peter, chapter one, talks about this. I'll put that in the show notes for you. True faith and genuine works of obedience are spoken of in scripture in terms of jewelry and especially gold. God says you need gold. Yeah, you need gold, not your own kind of gold, but you need gold refined gold. fire. In other words, genuine works of obedience. That's what you need, Leodicea. We're pretty rich in

America, aren't we? But we need gold refined by fire. The second thing, he says, is not only do you need gold refined by fire that you may be rich, you need white garments to clothe you. Oh, but I thought we were the world leaders in the textile industry. You are, but you need white garments. And what white garments. Well, Revelation 198, it's in the show notes. It refers to it, eludes to white garments as the righteous deeds of the faith. There's two in a row where he's basically saying, yeah, you've got the banking industry, you've got the textile industry, but you know what? You need to start doing the word of God. You need to start being obedient to the Lord. Then he goes on and he says, and let's see, that you may be rich the white garments

to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen and salve to anoint your eyes that you may see. Oh, what a direct hit there. I mean, this, John, these people are the world leaders for this great Phrygian powder for the eyes, you know? No, he says, you need eyesav so that you can see. And in John's gospel, blindness is used to describe those who refuse to acknowledge guilt and repent. John 9, verses 39 for 41 through 41. It's in the notes. So blindness is a symbol of man's fallenness. And what John is saying is, you know what, you refuse to acknowledge your guilt and repent. You need to get on your knees and repent and receive the truth. So this reminds me, my friends, so much of the United States and that we have such pride in our

economy and the products that we produce and the entertainment and the sports and so forth. And the truth of the matter is, we are so desperately in need of God. And what he offers this ancient city, Laodicea, who is lukewarm, which is useless. It's not good for anything. In fact, that's one of the themes that John addresses to all seven of the churches in Asia Minor, is they've lost their place, like Ephesus, once a great port city, now miles away from the ocean, and simply an archaeological garden. You've lost your place.

You've lost your influence. And I'm wondering if America is on the brink of losing their influence, we have become lukewarm as Christians. And so many of us, and what we need to do is we need gold refined by fire. That's acts of obedience, genuine works of obedience. We need white garments, the righteous deeds of the saints. We need God's eyes have. We need to repent and turn so that we can see clearly. And then he says to them at the end, he says, listen, in Revelation 320,

I'm standing at the door and I'm knocking. If you open the door, I'll come in and I'll dine with you, and you will eat with me, and that is an allusion to the Eucharist. That is an allusion to the greatest source of grace in the history of the world, the Eucharist. We are feasting on the resurrected Christ. We are having dinner with him and feasting on him. Now, all seven letters are calling the church to return to God in the spirit on the Lord's Day. and these seven letters are calling us to repentance. And if you read the Catechism, the Catechism talks a lot about tips on conversion after we have

been baptized. I suggest that you read it. I don't have time in the show to go into all that today, but it's paragraphs 1427 to 1429, and I'll put that in the notes. My friend, what I'm saying today is that in our own lives, and I'm talking to myself, we have to be careful about being so self-reliant that we don't need God. It was Archbishop Fulton Sheen that once said that one of the biggest problems we're facing in the United States is that the message that we have to give people is falling on deaf ears

because people feel like, I really don't need God. I can handle life myself. my finances, medical, retirement, education. I'm doing okay. Why would I really need God in my life? But that is blindness. That is blindness because it's one-dimensional. It is just this life. These 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years that we're living here. And we're thinking that this is all there is. Eat, drink, and be merry. The barn is full. I've done my life. This is great. But what we fail to acknowledge is that these few years are simply the beginning of eternity. They're the beginning of eternity, and we need to become rich in God, not simply rich in the

things we have on this earth. If you're in college right now, which I know I've got a lot of college listeners, especially the college listeners who are reading the Bible with us, you have to expand your world. It's not just here. It's not just what you buy. It's not the house. It's not the car. It's not your clothes. It's not your food. It's much bigger than this. And if that's all we're going to go for is what we get out of a college education, we are so poor. In fact, Mother Teresa said it one time, didn't she? She said the great poverty in the United States is deeper. And it is more profound than the poverty in Calcutta, because we don't see it. And so today, today, let's get God's gold refined by fire, shall we?

Let's do that. That's purification through suffering. Let's get God's white garments, the righteous deeds of the faith, and let's put his eyes on and say, Lord, open my eyes, and allow. me to see what is really important in life and not what I'm just seeing as I walk through the mall and what I see on TV and what I'm shopping for on Amazon Prime. Oh, Lord, I don't want to be lukewarm. I don't want to be lukewarm. I don't want to be indifferent and complacent. I want to be active and dynamic in your kingdom. Lord, we repent. We repent and we learn the lesson from

Laodicea, and we want the reward of dining with you. Not only here with the Eucharist, but at the wedding banquet, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, which is later mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Oh, Lord, that time, that moment, that moment when we take our last heartbeat and last breath, knowing that the next one very may well be to see you face to face. make us rich, Lord, in this life. Amen. Well, my friend, I encourage you to write the Jeff Cavan show at ascensionpress.com. And let me know how these, how the shows are ministering to you and how they're affecting your life. It's good to know that once in a while. And I hope that I've said something this week that will help you to clarify what life is really about as a

disciple and a couple of ideas of what we could do to change things. Go to me. mass as often as you can. Remember to pray every day. Meet Jesus in the morning. Dulexio divina. At the end of the day, do the examine prayer and make it a real relationship. When you pray, talk out loud in the car. Make it real. Get it out of your head. Make it real. This is a real relationship with the Lord. One last thing, by the way, in a matter of maybe a week or two, my new book comes out. It's called The Activated Disciples. taking yours faith to the next level. I'm excited about this stuff,

and I hope that you will read it when it comes out. Great companion to the new Great Adventure Bible. Life is good. Walking with Jesus, there is nothing like it. You have a great week.