So imagine, you've had a busy day, it's been a real shocker. You get home, you kick off your shoes, you flop down on the couch exhausted wondering how you're ever going to get dinner together and then there's a knock on the door, it's Jesus, do you invite Him in or not?

It's a real dilemma isn't it? If you believe in Jesus on the one hand, sure you want to live your life for Him, absolutely you do but on the other, man there is so much going on, so many pressures, the 'day-to-day' is hard work right? My children are all grown up now, we just recently had number two son, he's thirty four years old, staying with us for ten days before moving overseas for a while.

I remember what hard going it was when he was a teenager, I mean he was a great kid but teenage boys, well they're a handful aren't they? But now as a thirty four year old it was such a pleasure to have him around. Easy to get on with, none of that teenage tension, just a sheer pleasure, and just quietly, really satisfying to see him grow up into such a remarkable young man.

But often when Jacqui and I are out we see parents struggling with their kids, it’s hard going, it takes so much time and energy and it's draining. On top of that there's work, keeping the household running, I mean you get the point right? It's great to have a plan to live your life for Jesus but actually doing that, where do you fit in the time to pray, where do you fit in the time to read your Bible?

How can you show the grace and the mercy and the love and the sacrifice that you're meant to show, that you want to show when all the pressures of the world seem to be caving in on top of you? So what happens is that the passion, the enthusiasm you once had for Jesus starts to wane right?

This wonder, this sense of awe of having a personal relationship with the God who created the universe, of walking daily with Jesus, it goes from full on to, well taking a backseat, from being hot to being lukewarm. And it's not living that lukewarm life that we're chatting about in this series called Overboard With Jesus. Let's have another listen to the powerful words of Jesus spoken to the Church in Laodicea and indeed to every one of us as we find ourselves sometimes in that place I've just described, Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 to 22:

Jesus says, 'I know your works, you are neither cold or hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot so because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say 'I'm rich, I've prospered, I need nothing', you don't realise that you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest therefore and repent.

I'm standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I will come into you and eat with you and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.

So Jesus is calling us out of our comfort and complacency, out of that place where our faith in Him has taken a back seat to all the cares and indeed the comforts of this world, to get real with ourselves, to focus back on what's really important, to be earnest and to repent.

Great. If you just listened to that half of the message, man it feels an awful lot like condemnation, it feels an awful lot like Jesus waving His big bony finger at you and shaking His head. There's such a fine line sometimes between being condemned and being convicted of right and wrong. But today I have some really good news for you, some great news, Romans chapter 8 verse 1:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The devil condemns, God convicts. That's a big difference. Condemnation is meant to draw us away from God as we become mired in guilt, that's what the devil wants, to draw you away from God but God has a different approach to dealing with sin, it's a redemptive approach, it's an approach of reconciliation. Here's Jesus talking about what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, John chapter 16 verse 8:

And when He comes He will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness and of the coming judgement.

I remember when I was a young man I was a smoker, three packets a day, absolutely hooked. I tried to give up but it was a struggle, I always ended up back on the dreaded weed until one day I was in a hospital room and I watched a woman die of lung cancer. I actually watched her take her last breath, that thing they talk about, the death rattle, the body not wanting to give up, that's exactly what happened.

And I remember walking out of that room, taking the half full packet of cigarettes and throwing them in the bin in the brightly lit, antiseptically clean corridor. That was over thirty five years ago now and I haven't had a single cigarette since.

See that's what happens when we're deeply convicted of something, it changes our behaviour and that's what God wants to do. He didn't send Jesus to condemn the world but to save the world and what today's message is about isn't condemnation, its conviction. Yep Jesus quite clearly is putting His finger on this whole lukewarm Christianity thing, absolutely, He doesn't mince His words because He's going for impact, the very same impact that that death of that woman before my very eyes had on me.

I said a moment ago conviction is redemptive, that's a bit jargony isn't it? What does that mean? Well I think Jesus says it best, "I'm standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches."

I love His choice of words there, I'm knocking, if you hear my voice today, if you open the door to your heart to me today I'll come in and sit down and we'll share a meal together. Back in those days when that was written and I guess it's also true today, the idea of sitting down and eating together was a sign of friendship and fellowship.

Jesus is saying, "I get where you're at, I'm holding up a mirror to your face here so that you'll realise exactly how lukewarm your relationship with me has become. Once you hear that, once you get that, I'll draw close to you and we'll have a dynamic real intimate relationship and you will become a conqueror not because you had the strength but because of the victory that I won for you on that cross and through that empty tomb. My victory will become your victory."

Wow, you see that's Jesus speaking to you and me today, do you get it?

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them today.

He wants you back, you, He loves you, His word today is meant to convict you deep in your heart of the poverty of your situation and Jesus is calling you back, He's knocking today on the door of your heart, do you hear Him? Will you get real and repent? Will you let Him in today? Because Jesus, this Jesus who died for you and rose again for you, He has a whole new life ready and waiting for you.

A life so rich, so vibrant that you can't begin to imagine. The life that He brings, yes it will have its challenges, it will have its trials and it will have its suffering but He also brings the sort of contentment and satisfaction that a lukewarm faith, a lukewarm relationship with Jesus can never bring.

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them today.