Overcoming Spiritual Lukewarmness- Apostle Peterson Onoja Abu

The Renewal Life Christian Center is an apostolic and teaching ministry led by Apostle Peterson O. Abu. They focus on revealing Christ through teachings and the power of Christ. They address the issue of lukewarmness in the church, using the examples of the churches in Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea from the book of Revelation. The speaker emphasizes the importance of maintaining a strong connection with God and seeking spiritual refreshment. The psalmist in Psalm 42 serves as an example of someone who longs for God's presence and recognizes the need for spiritual renewal. The Renewal Life Christian Center is an apostolic and teaching ministry that anchors on revealing Christ and Him Crucified through expository teachings and the manifestations of the power of Christ. It is generally coordinated by Apostle Peterson O. Abu. For further inquiry and counsel, please contact us with these numbers. 234-802-671-9577 or 234-081-024-21675 or 234-807-599-6218 or WhatsApp us via this number. 234-802-671-9577 May you encounter God as you listen to this life changing word. Yesterday, God bless you, I am so happy that every one of you who are here and what I am about to share with you is not just something that will help you now. What I am sharing with you is something that will also help you, even in the future. Because some of you that are here with me today, tomorrow God might call some of you into ministry. You may not be with me tomorrow. So in case you are in ministry and you start experiencing what I am about to teach you now so that you will know what to do. And some of you that have mentees, you have people you are mentoring. This will also be help to you. Are you with me? Because what I am about to share with you will mentally bless you. We bless you. Shall we go to the Lord in prayers? Father we thank you for this moment. Blessed Holy Spirit we ask you that even now you are speaking to us. Let your word become life and spirit to us in Jesus name. Bless every heart, even now and forever more in Jesus name. Let us open our Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 2. I will be teaching you on the topic overcoming spiritual lukewarmness. Overcoming spiritual lukewarmness. Revelation chapter 2. I read from verse 1 to verse 5. Unto the angel of the church Ephesus writes, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou cannot bear them which are evil, and has tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and has found them liars, and has borne, and has patience, for my name's sake, as labor, and has not fainted. This is good recommendation. Jesus Christ said I know everything you have been doing. And may I say to every one of us here, that every single thing we have been doing for the Lord in the house of God, we have been doing. Even your chairing of the programs, our ministry programs, everything we are doing. Don't be surprised when you get to heaven and Jesus said I know your work. It was a good recommendation. It was a good commendation. It's recommended for us to copy. And it's a commendation to them. But let us come to verse 4. Nevertheless I act somewhat against you, because thou hast left thy first love. Nevertheless I act somewhat against you, because thou hast left thy first love. You'll be surprised to discover that these people were active. Because Jesus Christ was commending them. But they were active in a state of departure from the first love. They have departed from the first love. Although they were still active. There are times that we cannot give excuses. Most especially you are a pastor, you are a leader. Or you are a young woman, you are a leader. And I appointed you as a leader. And you can't call me and take permission and say well, I won't be able to go and minister. I won't be able to coordinate them. But you just have to be there. You know because you want to be obedient to me. But in the secret you have left thy first love. In the secret you have departed from the first love. So this was the controversy that Jesus had with them. They were faithful, they were doing activities. They were faithful to religious activities. But Jesus said nevertheless I act somewhat against you. Is it because they had left the first love? That's right. Remember therefore from whence thou art falling and repent. And do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly. And I will remove thy candlestick out of its place. Except thou repent. I will remove, I will remove, I will remove, I will remove. Not the devil. I will remove your candlestick. Except you repent. Revelation chapter 3, I read verse 1 to verse 2. Revelation chapter 3. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis writes. These things saith he that are the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works. That thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. I know, do you know what it means to have a name? It means that these people were popular. Are you with me? Jesus was talking about a church here that was popular. For someone to have a name, for a church to have a name. It means that that church is renowned. It's a popular church. When you go to every community, it's the talk of the town. And Jesus was still pointing his finger to the things that the eyes of men cannot see. There are things we do. There are things we are. Our true picture and reflection is known by God. You see, for people know, they see you that you are alive. You see, but you are dead. It means that these people were carrying religiosity from the state of death. The church in Ephesus, their problem was they departed from love. They departed from the first love. Although they were still active in activities. But they have departed. But this church in Sardis, they were officiating from the place of death. They were dead spiritually. They were dead spiritually. So we are going to look at the last church before we go into the topic. Revelation chapter 3. They say chapter 3 of Revelation. Verse 14 to 17. And unto the angel of the church in Laodicea writes, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou art hot or cold. So then, because thou art lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will pour thee out of my mouth. I will pour thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, I am increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art vicious, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. It is unfortunate that these people were so poor that the only thing they had was money. So Jesus wrote to them that although you have physical material blessings, you have material prosperity, but you are poor in spirit. You are poor in the realm of the spirit. So we see three categories of the state we are about to discuss. Number one, we see a state of a departure from the first love. We see a church that departed from the first love, although they were still active. Although they were still active in the community, in the society, in the nation, but they have departed from the first love. That is the first category. The second category of believers we saw are people that are dead spiritually, although they have a name. They are popular, but they are dead. They are popular, but they are dead. They have no connectivity with God again, although they are still popular. This is the second sect of people. The last sect is the Laodiceans. They are neither cold nor hot. They are lukewarm. So tonight I am going to discuss with you on overcoming spiritual lukewarmness. For us who have a better understanding of what it means to be spiritually lukewarm, we are going to consider and examine the crime of a psalmist. Psalm chapter 42. I read from verse 1. As the earth planted after the water brooks. I believe you have opened your Bibles. Every one of us, let us open our Bibles. Every one of you, please. You are ministers, open your Bible. You are workers, open your Bible. Members, open your Bible. Let us shake the scriptures together like the Babylon Christians. Verse 1. As the earth planted after the water brooks, so planted my soul after thee, O God. My soul tested for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Verse 3. My tears have been my midst day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When you read verse 2, it says my soul tested for God, for the living God. When shall I come? When shall I come and appear before God? As we see a man that had a burden for God. He had a burden because he had missed the place of intercourse with God. So we saw a psalmist who understood the benefit of being spiritually refreshed. And he said, as a deer planted after the water brooks, so planted my soul after thee, O God. He said that the animal called deer tests for water. I don't know if you have never seen the animal before. Most of us in this part of this nation of Africa, in Nigeria, most especially some of us in the city. We have never seen the animal deer except you go to the internet to check. But that animal, if that animal is planted for water, until the animal finds the water, the animal will never find rest. So when you see deer planted for water here, it's ready to pay any price. It doesn't care to know the distance that it would scrape to before getting that water. Even if it would cost the deer to move from Nigeria to Ghana just to take the water, the deer would be ready to pay the price. Because it's planted for water. So the psalmist said, as the deer planted after the water brooks, he said so planted my soul after thee, O God. So planted my soul after thee, O God. So you understand that for you to plant for water, there must be a testing. There must be a dryness. There must be lukewarmness. So there was a spiritual test that the psalmist was. That was why he was seeking for God. He said my soul tested for God. My soul tested for God. I feel an atmosphere that I am not conversant with. I am feeling an atmosphere that I cannot be adapted to. An atmosphere of godlessness. I want God in my atmosphere. As the deer planted after the water brooks, so planted my soul after thee, O God. As the deer, as that animal seeks for the water, seeks for water, so my soul seeks for you, O God. Because I cannot remain in this atmosphere for long. There is an atmosphere a believer comes into the moment he departs from the first love. The moment he departs from life. The moment he departs from the presence of God. There is an atmosphere that suffocates a Christian. There is an atmosphere that brings pre-Israel suffocation. You begin to gasp for the breath of life. You know that something, you are in the wrong atmosphere. You may be inside the church but you are in the wrong atmosphere. It is an atmosphere where everybody begins to worship God. You see someone that they are slaying the spirit, some are weeping. Poisoning and worshipping God. And you, you are in their presence, you are in their midst. And yet you do not understand what they are experiencing. You look at your right, visitize, weeping, crying and asking for more of the presence of God. You look at your left, you see a brother, holding the pulpit, holding the pillar, weeping and say Lord, I need another fire. And you, in the midst of these believers, they still saw you that you are spiritual. But you knew that nothing was even impacting to you. Nothing was touching your spirit man. You tried to pray but it was not flowing. You tried to pretend like them. But something is telling you that you are not getting the original thing. That you have nothing to do. That is a state of spiritual lukewarmness. As we talk about spiritual lukewarmness. Spiritual lukewarmness is a spiritual state where a believer becomes, number one, inactive in a spiritual commitment. Spiritual lukewarmness is a spiritual state where a believer becomes, number one, inactive, inactive in a spiritual commitment. What is your daily spiritual commitment? For some of us here, the first thing we do in the morning is what we call quiet time. I have been teaching some of you quiet time. The school of discipleship, I taught you quiet time. And that was the first thing we did. That every time we woke up in the morning, we are to have first our quiet time with God before family devotion. And that is your spiritual commitment. And then you add your weekly commitments. Once or twice in a week you fast. Once or twice in a week you go for evangelism. You add numbers of bible chapters you finish every morning. It may be three, three chapters, five chapters, ten chapters. And these are your spiritual commitments. So, when we talk about spiritual lukewarmness, it is a spiritual state whereby a believer becomes inactive in a spiritual commitment. He doesn't do any of these things again. He doesn't add these things as daily commitments again. That means that every time he wakes up in the morning, he wakes up anytime in the morning, anytime. He doesn't wake up at that usual time where he has to pray before he sees the face of men. So, that is spiritual lukewarmness. It is a state where you become inactive. You become inactive in spiritual commitment. Then number two, spiritual lukewarmness is also a spiritual state whereby a believer becomes insensitive to the leading and to the voice of God. Insensitive to the leading of the spirit and insensitivity to the leading of God. Insensitivity to the voice of God. Insensitivity to the whispering of God. It is a spiritual state where you become insensitive to the leading of God. Even when God is trying to communicate to you, you can't hear him again. So, spiritual lukewarmness blocks your spiritual ears. It blinds your spiritual eyes. For you not to become sensitive to God. So, those that are in spiritual lukewarmness become less sensitive to God. They become insensitive to God. Number three, spiritual lukewarmness is a spiritual state whereby a believer loses his interest or her interest for spiritual things that he once enjoyed. He loses his interest or her interest in spiritual things he once enjoyed. You once enjoyed evangelism. Today when they call you for evangelism, oh we are going for evangelism. You have 101 reasons why you shouldn't go. You have 30 reasons you will not go that day. You have 100 reasons you can't be consistent every week. You were consistent before in the things of the spirit. In the things of God. In the choir department you were active there. You always come to the church to claim the acts of God. You are not consistent again. Even those spiritual things that gladden the heart, they are not like bothering to you. That is why some of us are beginning to seek permission of why we cannot be a worker in the acts of God. Why? Because we are beginning to lose interest in the things we once loved. Those things that we loved initially, we are beginning to give excuses. It is a sign of spiritual lukewarmness. It makes a believer to lose interest or to lose interest in spiritual things that he once enjoyed. When a sister comes to the other sister and says sister let us go into two days drive faster. You say I am not too sure I will be able to join you. But this was a sister before. Before you even mention two days faster. It will say why not make it three days faster. The brother whenever you say please come to my house we have a vision. Before you even say we have a vision. It will tell you that you don't need to tell me. Call me anytime I will be there. But now when you say we have a vision. It will remind you that the nanny is going to his place of work. And he needed to sleep so that he will have enough time for work. Spiritual lukewarmness. And let me say this that irrespective of your spiritual level. Let me use that word. It can happen to any believer. You might have been 10 years in Christ, 20 years, 50 years. If you are not careful you will be ruled by spiritual lukewarmness. And in the Christian journey it will happen many times. It all depends on how you tackle it. That is why I am giving you this message. Because some of you here I don't know God may call you to leave me. You may not be with me tomorrow. So anywhere you find yourself or anywhere you start doing ministry. You should understand that the Christian way is a mixture of white and black. There are days of spiritual lukewarmness. There are days where your spiritual battery will be down. So those that don't have the idea on how to manage their spiritual lukewarmness. These are the people that eventually backslide. So you are going to learn a lot. I believe you are getting blessed. Am I right? So spiritual lukewarmness I think number one it makes you inactive in your personal spiritual commitment. Number two, spiritual lukewarmness also makes you to be insensitive to the leading of the spirit of God. Number three, spiritual lukewarmness also makes you to lose the interest for spiritual things you once enjoyed. You once enjoyed. Now spiritual lukewarmness is also called spiritual dryness. So the Psalmist said, As the deer planted after the water broke, so planted my soul after day. He is talking about a state of dryness. He needed something to cool his tongue. So when you are spiritually dry you will be weak. So we can call it spiritual weakness. We can also call it spiritual lukewarmness. And spiritual lukewarmness is a very dangerous state. When you are in the state of spiritual lukewarmness you shouldn't continue for long in it. The moment you perceive it you need to quickly look for remedy. Let me give you three dangers about this state. The three dangers about this state of spiritual lukewarmness. Number one, believers become weak to overcome temptations. Most times the devil will wait for your spiritual lukewarm state before he will strike. Yes, because in that state you become weak to overcome temptations. It is very dangerous when you are in that state. You will not visit the lady you want to get married. And you say, I am going to pass night in her place. Nothing will happen. Something will happen. You are not spiritually able. Besides all those things. As a Christian you ought not to do that. It is in the state of spiritual lukewarmness that the devil will start bringing suggestions to you. Telling you that there is no need to pass the night in the house of your fiancé. In the house of your fiancé. Sometimes he will tell you that there is nothing bad. Collect the money from your place of work. So spiritual lukewarmness, the state is the state where a lot of Christians are exposed to temptations. So in the state of spiritual lukewarmness, believers become weak to overcome temptations. Believers become weak to overcome temptations. Believers become weak to overcome temptations. So the state of spiritual dryness, of spiritual lukewarmness, there will be certain weakness. This may be the period whenever you come on social media. And the moment you are flipping through your phone, immediately you see a nakedness. You see a psychedelic seductive lady. And the next thing you start imagining evil thoughts. Imagining the nakedness of that lady. Because you have not been prayerful. So anything you see, any temptation that comes to you like that, you become weak to overcome. You want to yield to temptation. So spiritual lukewarmness, that state is a very dangerous state. It is a state where many pastors eventually fall victim of adultery or fornication. Because in those states, most especially our pastors that will have private rooms. Not transparent glass rooms. Not a room whereby you will be outside seeing the pastor inside. You know, there are some rooms whereby you can't even see who is inside with the pastor. And these pastors welcome the opposite sex in. And the lady that put on a very powerful perfume enters the room, the office. And then they shut the door. Just them and the lady inside. Their wives are not there with the pastors. And the pastors, they are aware that they are spiritually lukewarm in that state. So eventually you will hear that the pastor committed fornication. Right in the office, in the church. The spiritual lukewarmness, that state is a state you have to guide yourself. The Bible says that you should guide your heart with all diligence. From heart of it proceed the issues of life. In the spiritual lukewarmness state, that state, there will be many evil thoughts that will be coming to you. So it is a state where believers become weak to overcome temptation. Spiritual lukewarmness is also a state, the state of spiritual lukewarmness is also a state where believers are exposed to the arrow of depression and unbelief. And that is why I tell you that you shouldn't stay long in this state. Because it is a state where if the enemies, if they are perceived in their kingdom, if the wicked enemies, agents of darkness, if they have weighed you in their kingdom and they discover that you are weak, that you have stopped praying, you have stopped having your commitment with God, they will shoot you the arrow of depression. Do you know what arrow of depression can do? It can make a fervent burning Christian to become a drunkard. It can even make you to masturbate. You will see a married pastor masturbating, a young pastor, a Christian, a fervent Christian masturbating. And the moment you start committing secret sin, that is your position in the church will start suffering. That is as spiritual thing goes. The moment you are living in sin, you will be giving your pastor excuses why you can't come and take praise and worship. You will be running away from activities because you know that your life is not right with you. And as you are doing that, the devil will be seducing you far away from God. The devil will be seducing you far away from God. So spiritual weakness, spiritual lukewarmness, in that state, if you are not careful, if you don't quickly revive yourself, you will be shot the arrow of depression and the arrow of unbelief. That is number two. Then number three, in the state of spiritual lukewarmness, it is a state where the flesh begins to look for gratification. The flesh begins to seek gratification. So when you are inside the public transport system and then you are coming home from the public transport, you are inside that bus, that public transit, the taxi, you are inside. And then maybe the driver has misunderstanding with you. You will see that immediately you will start reacting. The next thing you will start insulting, you will see a Christian sister that always preaches fighting in the marketplace. Any little thing starts offending you because your flesh is responding to gratification. Not only pleasure because when we talk about fleshly gratification, you are thinking about sex, sex, sex. No. Retaliation, retaliation is of the flesh. For you to retaliate is the flesh. The flesh wants to gain pleasure by retaliating. The flesh wants to defend itself by retaliating. So when you are in the state of spiritual lukewarmness, whosoever offends you in that state, you will want to retaliate back. You won't have the energy to forgive. You won't have the strength of the spirit to forgive. Forgiveness will be far away from you. You will want to react against your husband. You will want to fight your wife. You will want to pour out your anger on your children. That state is a very dangerous state. And that is why I am coming here to share it with you. Because some of you are in this state already. Yes, you are in this state. And you need the help of God to come out from that state. Spiritual lukewarmness. So quickly I am going to share with you the courses of spiritual lukewarmness. I will just give you just ten courses of spiritual lukewarmness. Ten. Ten is enough. Ten courses of spiritual lukewarmness. What brings a Christian into that state? That his brother was fire full this day. The next day, we saw him became very lukewarm. What eventually brought him to that state? That a sitter that was, whenever she is praying, she is roaring like a lion. Roaring like a lion. Before that, she was quite lioness. Because of the energy in prayer. And eventually, she doesn't even have stamina to pray. She sleeps while praying. She sleeps on her knees while praying. He starts snoring while praying. He doesn't have the energy again. So what brings them to that state of spiritual lukewarmness? Because one of the dangers about this state is that if you stay so long in this state, you will start losing your respect. Have you met some Christians that you thought they were fire full? And then, because you always see them on the pulpit, you start respecting them. But the day you went to visit them in their house, or the day you became closer to them, and they were in their spiritual state, that is when you start observing that that brother can lie. The pastor can tell lies. You start seeing natures you were not seeing when he was fire full. It takes a mature believer to know that in that state is in spiritual lukewarmness. So you don't judge him by the state. You help him out. Because in the state of spiritual lukewarmness, your Christianity will start appearing as fake to the people that thought you were fire full. And that is why you shouldn't stay long in spiritual lukewarmness. If not, you will lose your servile. When a sword has lost its servile, it becomes useless to everybody. So let your sword be salty. So what are the causes of spiritual lukewarmness? Number one, leading to temptation. Leading to temptation. Lukewarmness doesn't only expose you to weakness to overcome temptation. It can be that temptation is the one that brings you into that state. When you lead to temptation, you fell into fornication. You won't have the stamina, the energy, the boldness to pray that night again. You will be full of guilt. Because temptation, when you lead to temptation, it produces guilt. You won't be able to pray. You won't be able to have the energy to cast out demons again. So you start condemning yourself. Self-condemnation. Guilt. Immediately you stop praying. Eventually you stop reading your Bible. You become depressed. So leading to temptation is one of the causes of spiritual lukewarmness. Leading to temptation. When the devil tempts you and eventually you give in to that temptation, you will see yourself becoming weak. After you finish fighting in your street, after you finish fighting in the marketplace, after you finish fighting inside the church, you become weak because you have already disgraced yourself. There will be guilt. After you finish watching pornography on social media, on internet, and then you are the one to lead prayer that night, there will be no energy in you. You become stagnant. You become stagnant. So one of the things that brings spiritual lukewarmness is leading to temptation. Temptation of stealing, fighting, smoking, drinking, womanizing, lying, cheating. It weakens the spiritual life. That is number one. Number two. Number two cause of spiritual lukewarmness is procrastination of personal commitment. Procrastination of personal commitment. You always pray by 5 o'clock in the morning. It's not 5. It's not 4.30. You say, I'm going to pray in the afternoon. I'm going to pray by 12. I will observe 12 o'clock prayer watch. It's not 12 in the afternoon. You say, I'm going to do it. Let me come back from work. You came back from work. My body is weak. The body is not a firewood. My body is a living organism. I'm going to pray later at night. And that is, your fire eventually goes down. Procrastination. Why are you supposed to spend quality time to read the Bible? You shifted it to a time that will gratify your flesh. And eventually you miss it. That is how you eventually start losing the anointing. That is how your fire eventually dies down. The time you ought to pray, you make it a visitor time. Visiting time. That is the time that people want to visit you. That is the time you have told the Lord, I will be praying. And yet you still invited people to visit you at that time. Saying that you are going to do it the next day. When you start procrastinating your personal commitment, you are already inviting spiritual lukewarmness. When you start procrastinating your spiritual commitment, you will be already inviting what? Spiritual lukewarmness. Some of us procrastinate our time. Because of our long stay on social media. You see, if you cannot discipline yourself to manage social media, people think that when they run away from social media, they will be spiritual. It is a lie. When you run away from social media, you are only telling yourself that you are indisciplined. That means you cannot bring social media under discipline. The same way when you have a job, you will be missing your time too. Because if you cannot overcome social media, is it your job you will overcome? When you come back from your work, your place of work, you will be very tired. But when you put social media under your control, how do you do it? Anytime that it speaks for God, you can be there. I am not saying that you should leave social media entirely. But when it is time for prayer, you should not be on social media. When you finish praying, reading your Bible, you can go back. That is not the problem. That is okay. It will help you. It will help your post. It will help your messages. But when it appears that the time you ought to pray, you are still on one short conference call, WhatsApp call, you are still on Facebook call, the time you ought to intercede to pray, to quicken, to refresh your spiritual life, you are busy shutting somebody there. That is when you are being tangled by the power of internet. So procrastination can also weaken or destroy your prayer life. It can cause spiritual low calmness. Number three is nothing offences and unforgiveness in your heart. When you are nothing offences, unforgiveness, the danger of it is that the moment you decide not to forgive a person, or the moment you nothing that offence or unforgiveness in your heart, it weakens you to pray that night. So when somebody offends you, right there, let your mind know to them, my sister you have offended me, my brother you have offended me. The moment you settle the matter, let it leave your mind, so that you can continue burning for the Lord. But when you not offence in your heart, when you put it in your heart and you say, no, I am going to show this person that I am not a mumu Christian, and then you are beginning to think on how to revenge, how to retaliate, it will be causing weaknesses in your body. It quenches the fire. So if you want to overcome low calmness, learn to forgive. Learn to forgive easily. Do it very fast. Number four is bodily stress and weakness. In as much as we try to spiritualize everything, I will tell you the truth. If you are physically weak, you are always doing stressful work. Your work is very, very stressful. And you are spiritually weak. It will eventually reflect in your commitment with the Lord. It will weaken you. So if, for example, you are coming back from work late, as a married lady, before you enter the kitchen, prepare food for the children, for your husband, and then you fix your prayer time by 12, it is not possible for you to pray that 12. Your body will be tired. What you will do? Fix the time. You can make it 5.30 to 6 o'clock or 5 to 6. Fix the time there in the morning so that you can sleep till that time to reflect yourself with a renewed energy. If your body is physically weak and you are physically lazy, I mean your body is lazy by reason of stress, it will show up in your spiritual life. It will show up. It will show up. So bodily weakness and stress can also cause spiritual lukewarmness. The number five is wrong association or company. Wrong association. Wrong association or company. When you are in the wrong association, you are in the wrong association. You... You newly met... You met new friends. And ever since you met them, they always want to be going out with them. And then those your personal commitments, you are beginning to make those commitments. They are wrong association. They may have a good intention for you, but for the fact that they are coming in between you and God, they are wrong at that moment. They may not be wrong in mind, wrong in heart against you, but for the fact that they are breaking your commitment with God, they are wrong people at that moment. You can reschedule your plans and you are going out with them if you don't want to miss them or lose them. You can tell them that, boy, my sister, I don't think we will be going out at this time again. Let it be so and so time because I always have time with God at this time. So, wrong company. When you are making friends with the wrong company, people that always... Immorality, every time you come into their midst, what they are discussing is soccer, football, football, this and that, polities, the things of the world, secular things, and nothing that revives you. Every time you leave their presence, you start thinking about making money. It's not bad. There is time for thinking of making money, but that becomes your central thinking, your central thoughts. You don't think about God again. How are you thinking about this? How to make this quick cash? And then, the time you are supposed to be spending with God, you are using it to look for money. You have met the wrong company. The number six is worries and anxieties. Worries and anxieties can also cause spiritual lukewarmness. When you alert depression, you are worrying, you alert anxiety, what to eat, what to put on, how to pay the house rent, the cares of this world, that begin to cause anxiety on you, depression on you, you will discover that you won't have the energy to stand up to pray, because you are depressed. Even when you want to pray, there won't be energy, you are discouraged. So, you shouldn't alert that. You must conquer that thought with faith. When the thought of depression is coming, when the thought of worries and anxiety is coming, conquer it immediately with faith, so that you can continue praying. Are you with me? I'm teaching you people this thing, because in the next ten years, in the next five years, we may not be together. I pray that every one of you be with me, but if the Lord's will, some of you may be in another part of this country, the other part of this country, some of you may be outside this country, we may scatter tomorrow, and if the Lord decides to call some of you into ministry, or you become mother fathers, you will lead children, you will have your children, these are the things to teach them. When you start experiencing these things, you will not know how to conquer this. Are you getting me now? So, worries and anxiety, weakens the spiritual life. You must guide your heart. With all diligence, from as of it proceed, issues of life, you must guide your heart. Don't allow depression, don't allow frustration, don't allow worries and anxieties. Conquer them with description, with prayer, with praises. Number seven is inactiveness in spiritual services, or work of God. When you decide not to be doing anything for God, decide not to be a worker, I don't want to work for God, I don't want to join any department in the house of God, all that concerns me is my personal work with God. I go to church, I come back, you will die spiritually. Do you think that those grades are manifest in our lives? They manifest because we decided not to work for God. It was when we started working for God, that God started putting measure upon us. He put a little measure, put another measure, put another measure, before He put the gift of prophesying, word of wisdom. It was while we were acting in the service of God. If you say you are not going to be fireful, if you say you are not going to be consistent, if you say you are not going to work for God consistently, there will be no need for God to release upon you graces, because you will be useless. Everything that concerns you is yourself. Some of you have gone to the point whereby you say, what concerns us is evangelism. I don't need to do anything for the work of, do anything in the house of God. As far as I'm going for evangelism, it settles in. Who tells you it's like that? Who tells you it's like that? If God is not implanted in church, why will He be calling men to start it? If there is no grace in the service of God, why will He be calling men into it? But when you are busy in the house of God, when you are active, there's a department, even in that your church, that is not yet popular, there's a department that you have told yourself, and said this department, even if God is going to call me into another ministry tomorrow, but as far as I'm here, this department must carry the fire of God. You are active in that department. You make sure everything is put in order. You are busy. You are working for God, and heaven is looking at you, and heaven is about nominating you for the last days revival. You don't know that heaven nominates people? So when you are not active, you are not busy, it's just you and your wife, you and your husband, you'll be... The graces that people experience that are busy in the work of God, you will never experience it. You will start becoming spiritually lukewarm, because there is no responsibility. There is nothing to wake you up to start interceding for those in your department, as the leader of that department. There is nothing waking you up to start interceding for your leaders, because you are a follower. There is nothing that is forcing you to pray for the fellowship to grow, because you are not a worker. You will discover that you start losing energy. You start becoming normal. You start becoming ordinary, because the commitment of being in the service of God is higher than just a bench warmer, sitting down in the church. So when you are not active in the house of God, you can eventually become lukewarm. You can eventually become lukewarm. Then number eight is pride. God reduces the pride, and gives grace to the humble. So if you are proud, you will eventually become lukewarm, because God will withdraw all the graces from you. A proud man does not grow in grace. If you are proud, you can't grow in grace. So God will reduce, will withdraw, sorry, will withdraw all, everything from you. You will become weak and empty. Then number nine is self. Okay, that is number ten. I think number nine is pride, yes? Okay, number eight is pride. Number nine is separating oneself from fellowship with other believers. There are people that don't go to church again. They say, cretinities of the heart. And some of you are already becoming like them. Cretinities of the heart. We don't need to go for fellowship. We don't need to go for fellowship. We don't need to go for, what are we going there for? We can just be at home and access social media, and call Pastor Kwetuwu. Pastor Kwetuwu online will give us all the messages we want. Do you think that fellowship is all about worship? Do you think fellowship is all about preaching? That's why you say, my pastor is already an old man. He's about 60 years old. It's not preaching according to what we like, we young people. We youth in the church. So, therefore, let us go and look for younger preachers. And some of you came to me. If you are here because you are running away from your pastor, don't come here because you are coming to the wrong man. I'm going to preach in such a way that you will return back to your pastor. Except God has spoken to me that he wants you to be with me for me to train you. That is a different case. But if you are running away from your church because you want to be close to me here, you are meeting the wrong man. If I find that, I will send you back there. Or I will carry you back to your church. You don't run away. Go there. Become part of that system. Even when your pastor have weaknesses, you are there to cover up the nakedness. You are there to strengthen your pastor. You are there to encourage your pastor. Not to discourage him. He has been fighting battles for many years before you got born again. You shouldn't be a reason he should get discouraged. Don't you know that if you leave him, he will be discouraged? If you leave him, you have joined the devil to fight him. Go back to him and encourage him. So when you decide not to be going to any church, you just want to be in your house, you will become lukewarm. You will become weak. Number ten is, Be zeal. Be zeal for God. And not be zeal with God. This is what we taught all the workers. Be zeal for God and not be zeal with God. From Monday till 10 in the night, you are in market, you are preaching everywhere, sharing tract. Monday till 9. That is good. But when it comes for you to have personal time with God, you start sleeping. And people cannot judge you because they see you doing the work of God. So you are busy in the work of God. But you are not busy with the work of God. You spend time preaching, you have choir practice from Monday till 9. But each of the choir, each of the choristers, they don't have personal time with God. So they are busy for God. They are not busy with God. It will bring spiritual lukewarmness. And it will become a congregation of lukewarm people. Praise the Lord. We come now to overcome spiritual lukewarmness. How to overcome spiritual lukewarmness? Number one is realization. I want to round off now. For you to overcome spiritual lukewarmness, number one is realization. Remember where God has called it. Jesus said that it is the sick that needs the physician. But if the sick man decides to say he is not sick, what will the physician do? The physician cannot do anything. So you have to realize that you are spiritually lukewarm. You have to tell yourself the truth and say I am lukewarm. Number two is repentance. When you have realized your lukewarmness, you repent from it. Go to the Lord's employer and say, Lord, I am sorry. Repent. Then number three is retreat. Number three, you go for retreating. When I say retreating, I mean you separate yourself either for some hours or some days. You can do personal retreat for like five hours. You are on personal retreat for five hours. You can do it for days in whichever way. Maybe you are working. You can't go for days. You can make it five hours. That five hours you switch off your phone. You pray, you read the Bible. You pray, you read the Bible. See, it is five hours. You become revived. So you separate yourself either for hours or days just for prayer and the studying of the world. That is how you revive yourself. If it is a case where you can't even pray at all, despite you have realized yourself, you have repented, you can't pray, you call for an anointed man of God to pray for you by the reason of his ordination. When he makes a declaration upon your head, there will be a freshness upon you to pray. Are you with me? Or you pray with other praying believers just for you to ignite that passion, just for you to ignite that fire before you go for your personal retreat. If you know that if you go for your personal retreat, you won't be able to pray there, then first of all, go and catch the fire somewhere before you run back there. And God will help you in Jesus. Shall we go to the Lord in prayers? Let us open our mouth and begin to talk to the Lord. Begin to talk to God. Begin to talk to God. Begin to talk to God. Begin to talk to God. Hug the Lord and say, Father, revive me again. Take away this pergishwa lucumness away from me. Take it away from me. Open your mouth and pray.