The Lukewarm Cedar Valley

A few months ago I outlined the great danger that the Cedar Valley is in because we have become lukewarm. In this article, I would like to amplify a part of Scripture that I believe we have been warned about lukewarmness, but first, let’s get a whole view of the passage. 

Revelation 3:14-22 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked– 18 “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, [that] the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ‘ “

In this post I want to focus on the phrase in verse 17 where it says, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” This is the true decree from the “Christian” culture in the Cedar Valley. As you may know, I recently called the Cedar Valley to come together for a day of fasting and meet for prayer to repent and ask God for mercy due to Pridefest coming to our area. This was the public stand that I took to defend God’s institution of marriage and sexuality as He defines it in the Bible, but behind the scenes, I was emailing and calling pastors to invite them to join me in this endeavor. After sending out 150 emails and making dozens of phone calls there was but a handful of pastors who responded positively. The churches in my association (that are in the Cedar Valley), told me, “They appreciated the stand, but would be more comfortable at a neutral location”.  The “mega” churches of the Cedar Valley told me, “We are not interested in this event”. Several churches refused to respond (even after multiple phone calls), and of course, the apostate churches chewed me out. I am not writing this article to complain, I am writing this article to point out the spiritual temperature of the Cedar Valley. 

As I read the spiritual thermometer of the Cedar Valley, I look and I see three possible outcomes: one is hot, one is cold, and the last one is lukewarm. Unfortunately, the thermometer reads, “LUKEWARM”. Our area is about to have thousands of people downtown celebrating homosexuality, you know the sin that God destroyed Sodom for, and the response of the pastors was, “we are just fine”. This is right out of the Laodicean’s Script, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” The pastor’s of the Cedar Valley look at the fact that we are the fourth least Biblically minded area in the nation (behind San Francisco, for some perspective) and are about to parade sin up and down our streets in a celebration of perverting God’s purpose and design for marriage, and their response is, “We are good, don’t need to humble ourselves and pray”. Jesus has a response to that and it is, “Gag”, actually He isn’t near that nice, He says, “I will vomit you out of My mouth.” 

It is time that we as Christians wake up in the Cedar Valley and take a stand for Christ, and make no mistake about it you cannot stand for Christ unless you are standing against sin. It is time that we heed the advice that Christ gave the lukewarm church and buy gold from Christ that has been refined by fire. Instead of having the belief that we are “just fine” in the Cedar Valley, we must see our need to work in the heavenly economy. Those throughout the Scripture who undoubtedly gained many heavenly rewards were always willing to proclaim God’s message, they were also bold and uncompromising with sin, and they feared God more than they feared man. If we desire to see the Cedar Valley come to a place of repentance and revival we must be willing to do these three things. We must proclaim God’s message, it is not enough for you to live a moral life, you must speak God’s word. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We must also take a stand against sin. In the Cedar Valley, we have been justifying sin for so long that we have forgotten that it is ok to call sin exactly what it is and that is sin. Lastly, we must fear God. There is no doubt that the Cedar Valley has become a comfortable place for those who love the works of the Devil, for this reason, there is great backlash when you shine God’s word into this dark area. This backlash is not fun, but we must fear God more than we fear the backlash. 

I hope that from this article you have seen the need to repent of our lukewarm ways because we are in desperate need of revival. The words of Lenard Ravenhill ring true today, ”The only reason we don’t have revival is because we are willing to live without it!”

*A special thank you to Pastors Jared Cline and Jay Burt for joining me at the prayer meeting.