INDIFFERENCE IN THE CHURCH AT LAODICEA

    INTRODUCTION:

    1. We are not with out our problems, but perhaps the greatest problem of all is the increasing number of people who don’t know and don’t care.
    2. One writer lamented that, "Indifference is the invisible giant of the world."
    3. Indifference – "When it no longer matters one way or the other, is of no importance or value one way or the other, marked by no special liking for, or dislike of something, marked by a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern for something."
    4. It takes 42 muscles to frown; 17 to smile and 0 to sit with a blank look.
    1. This is actually a more troubling attitude than that of those who openly oppose Christianity.
    2. Lack of conviction and disinterest is far more contagious than atheism.
    3. When it is found among us, in the church, there is great reason for concern as it will spread.
    4. Remember the principle that Paul stated to the brethren in Corinth: "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump" (1 Corinthians 5:6).
    5. Do you ever wonder why things don’t always get done in the church? "Love will find a way; indifference will find an excuse."
    6. There are things in life about which one may be indifferent with no negative consequences:
    7. What are the effects of indifference in the church?
    1. DISGUST:
    1. Revelation 3:15-19 - "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 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 — 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. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 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. 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.
    2. The Lord is more disgusted with indifference than He is with outright rejection.
    1. It is easier to reach someone who knows he is lost that he might be restored, than someone who could not care less one way or another.
    2. Jesus describes this as lukewarm. What does that mean?
      1. Cold – (psuchros) it means cold to the point of freezing.
      2. Hot – (zestos) it means to the point of boiling.
      3. Lukewarm – between hot and cold, tepid
    1. Notice that Jesus says He will spew or vomit the lukewarm church out of His mouth.
      1. Actually projectile vomiting.
      2. Shows the level of disgust the Lord has with one who has no real convictions one way or the other in spiritual matters.
      3. Dante said "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in a time of great moral crisis.
      4. David Riggs tells the story of a ship that was discovered many years ago among the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean, with the captain frozen in place as he was making his last entry in the logbook. The crew was found, some in their hammocks, and some in the cabin all frozen to death. The last date in the logbook showed that for 13 years that vessel had been moving among the icebergs, a drifting tomb, manned by a frozen crew, posed as if no one cared.
    1. The church in Laodicea had become a church filled with apathy and indifference.
    1. They had, in their wealthy condition, become so focused on themselves that they did not care about anything or anybody else.
    2. Unless it pertained to them, they did not want to know nor did they care!
    1. Welcome to the 21st century! People today harbor the same attitude.
    1. "Unless it effects me, I don’t want to know about it."
    2. "I don’t care if it is happening to someone else."
    3. "It is none of my business."
    4. Fat, lazy, rich, and busy Americans.
      1. We pay people to mow our lawns,
      2. Wash our cars,
      3. Even to cook for us and bring our dinner to us,
      4. When it comes to evangelism, we pay the preacher to do that.
    1. There are those who believe that the church exists solely to pet and pamper them and make them feel good.
    1. When it fails to meet that criteria, they become offended and blame the church for not caring!
    2. The church does not exist for me, but as the body of Christ that it might glorify the One who loved it enough to give His life for it.
    3. We should not be a body of complainers.
    4. We were not designed to be a people who whine for lack of attention!
    5. Paul admonished the church at Philippi: Philippians 2:3-4 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
    1. DESENITIZED:
    1. Callused to the point of not feeling for others.
    2. A young Englishman was in Germany when the Nazis degraded the Jews in the streets. At first he was sick at the sight and rushed down a side street. The next time he felt he could look and stopped for a full minute. The third time he watched the whole episode. The fourth time, as he stood with the jeering crowd, the sight seemed less revolting. He told himself that he was becoming "objective" but what he was really becoming was indifferent. (E.M. Blaiklock)
    3. Luke 16:19-21 "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. "
    1. The rich man feasted daily like a king!
    2. The poor beggar, in obvious discomfort from his sores, was forced to survive on the crumbs that fell from his table.
    3. How could the rich man step around the ragged figure each time he went in or out of his house without feeling a little sorry for him?!
    4. How could he eat those filling meals with the beggar just outside and not share some with him?
    5. The text does not say that he kicked or beat the beggar.
    6. His sin was one of indifference!
    7. He simply did not think it was his affair that another human being lay suffering just outside his ornate mansion.
    1. A woman in the church learned that her husband was a practicing homosexual. Soon after the divorce several members of the church told her that they had known all along. When asked why they had not told her, they replied that they didn’t think it was any of their business!
    2. Whatever happened to the golden rule? (Matthew 7:12)
    3. We see indifference every day in the prevalent sins of our time:
    1. An unborn child is killed every 20 seconds.
    2. God and the mention of Jesus have become a matter of abhorrence and have been replaced in schools with godless humanism!
    3. Our society glorifies murder, rape, adultery, homosexuality, nudity, profanity, and fornication.
    4. Churches are even allowing immoral behavior to go unchecked in their midst.
    5. False doctrine which once was challenged by our pulpits is now being embraced!
    1. And we sit back with the attitude that it is "none of our business."
    2. How would you feel if your doctor examined you and found treatable cancer, but said nothing. Later on when it had advanced to the point of being untreatable, and you asked, "Why didn’t you tell me? " to which he would reply, "Well I thought it would just take care of itself and I didn’t really want to get involved."
    3. Someone summarized it this way. "If I do not have to face it, myself, it is not real. It is somebody else’s problem. After all, I have enough problems of my own to take care of."

      a) Open-heart surgery is routine until they do it to you.

    4. We have become desensitized to sin! As God’s people of old.
    1. Jeremiah 6:15 "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down," says the LORD.
    2. When we get to the point that we no longer blush, that we no longer respond to things with emotion, we are in trouble.
    3. If we are going to be content to allow things to go one that are definitely wrong, and we just allow them to happen without uttering a word, we are in trouble!
    4. Television illustration.
    1. DISASTER:
    1. You cannot harbor the spirit of apathy and indifference and expect things to turn out well. It is a recipe for disaster.
    2. Example: Jeremiah the prophet reveals that God instructed for the sins of the people to be written down. The hope was that in written form the people would read of their sins and repent of their evil ways (Jeremiah 36:3).
    3. Jeremiah 36:23-24 And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words.
    4. Even when faced with a crystal clear warning, the King and his servants rejected the truth.
    1. They paid dearly for their indifference and refusal to listen.
    2. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity in the land of Babylon (586 B.C.).
    3. Even though the prophets foretold it, the people simply didn’t want to believe it.
    1. We proclaim to the world that the Lord will be coming back someday to destroy the earth and everything in it, but people continue to live their lives as if it had nothing to do with them directly.
    2. Indifference also has disastrous effects for members of the Lord’s church.
    1. We do not take seriously the fact that our neighbors are lost.
    2. The great commission is meaningless to some of us.
    3. Now, if your neighbor’s house were on fire you would try to save him.
    4. But some act as if nothing is wrong.
    5. Luke 25:27 –37 Good Samaritan

    CONCLUSION:

    1. Until we start caring and stop standing on the sidelines, the church will remain stagnant.
    2. Revelation 3:19 "As many as I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be eager to repent."
    3. Let us never forget the warning given by Paul to the church in Rome.
    4. Romans 2:4-5 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
    5. I decided a long time ago to start caring again.
    6. I challenge you to do the same thing and we will see the results.
    7. Verse 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.