My Gospel is to the Lukewarm: Why "Lord, Lord" Is Not Enough
It was January 10, 2017. I clicked the link, mostly out of curiosity to see where my head was at half a decade prior. I expected maybe a grocery list or a complaint about the weather. Instead, I stared at a single, terrifying sentence that I had typed into the digital void:
"My gospel is to the lukewarm."
That sentence didn't just come from my own intellect. It was a marker, a memorial stone of a supernatural encounter that had happened the night before I wrote it, which itself was a confirmation of something that happened way back in December 2011. Reading it again, the air in my room seemed to change. The memory washed over me, not as a fading recollection, but as a fresh fire. It wasn't just a journal entry; it was a mandate.
We live in a time where we want everything easy. We want a drive-thru Jesus and a microwave salvation. But looking at that screen, I remembered the weight of the Spirit that fell on me when I first received that word. It is a burden I still carry, and frankly, it is the fuel behind everything I do at ConradRocks.Net. My passion is for you to have a spiritual relationship with the biblical Jesus—not the cultural caricature we see on television, but the King of Kings.
And to find Him, we have to talk about the temperature of our hearts.
The Night the Mandate Came
Let me take you back to December 2011. I wasn't sitting politely in a pew; I was in my living room, pacing the floor. I was walking around praying like a madman.
Now, when I say I was praying in the Spirit, I need to clarify something because we have a lot of theology that gets in the way of reality. People often think "praying in the Spirit" exclusively means praying in tongues. While that is a valid manifestation, think about John the Revelator. In Revelation 1:10, he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. He wasn't necessarily speaking in tongues; he was positioned in a spiritual state where the carnal mind—that critiquing, doubting, logical part of our brain—was suspended.
That is where I was. I was walking, seeking the face of God, bypassing my own understanding. The carnal mind cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. I was just open, a vessel waiting to be filled.
Suddenly, words bypassed my brain and came straight out of my mouth. I heard myself say them as if I were a bystander in the room:
"My gospel is to the lukewarm."
I stopped walking. The words hung in the air. This wasn't a thought I had concocted. It was a Rhema word—a spoken, living word from God. It has happened to me a few times in my life, where the Spirit overtakes me and speaks something that my mind has to scramble to catch up with later.
The Danger of Entertainment
I am reminded of another time this happened, which helps explain why this "lukewarm" mandate is so critical. I was preparing to lead worship at a church for the very first time. I take the presence of God seriously. I believe if we are going to usher in the King of Glory, we better be clean. We better be desperate.
I was fasting and praying in my house before the service. I was telling the Lord, "God, I don't want to perform. I don't want this to be a show." I was grieving over how much of the modern church service has turned into a spectator sport—lights, fog, and people on a stage facing the audience rather than everyone facing God.
As I was praying, the Spirit overtook me again. My mouth opened, and I shouted:
"Entertainment gets your head chopped off!"
I stood there, blinking. What? My carnal mind tried to process it. "Entertainment gets your head chopped off?" That sounds crazy. But then, the revelation downloaded into my spirit instantly.
I saw Herod. I saw the party. I saw the entertainment—the dancing girl, Salome, mesmerizing the king and the guests. The devil wiggled his way into Herod's entertainment room, and because Herod was caught up in the show, he made a foolish vow. The result? John the Baptist's head on a platter.
The greatest prophet born of women lost his head because of worldly entertainment.
Do you see the connection? When we are lukewarm, when we are merely entertained by church rather than changed by it, we lose our heads. We lose our spiritual discernment. We stop thinking with the mind of Christ and start reacting to the beat of the culture. That journal entry from 2017 wasn't just a memory; it was a warning. My gospel is to the lukewarm because the lukewarm are in the most danger—they think they are safe inside the house when they are actually about to be spit out.
Main Message: The Myth of the "Christian" Nation
This brings me to the fruit we see today. I have a passion for you to know Jesus, not just know about Him. There is a massive difference. You can know all the stats about a celebrity, but if you show up at their front door, they are going to call the police because they don't have a relationship with you.
God led me to an article from the Washington Post regarding the 115th Congress. I remember looking at the stats and thinking, "You have got to be kidding me." The article stated that 91% of Congress identifies as Christian.
Think about that for a second. Ninety-one percent.
The article went on to say that this percentage has barely wavered in the last 50 years. We have gone from "Leave it to Beaver" to "Desperate Housewives," from a culture that at least nodded toward morality to one that celebrates confusion, yet the "Christian" statistic in our leadership remains unchanged.
If 91% of our leaders are followers of Jesus Christ, why does the fruit of our nation look like Sodom?
It is because we have redefined what a Christian is. We have bought into a "sinner's prayer" theology that inoculates people against the truth. We tell people, "Just say these words, close your eyes, raise your hand, and you're good for eternity." There is no call to repent. There is no command to take up a cross. There is no Lordship.
We have people who said a prayer ten years ago, live like the devil today, and think they are heading to heaven. They are looking to politicians to save them because they don't know how to seek the face of God themselves.
The Call to Repentance
We are looking for a political solution to a spiritual problem. We want to vote the right people in, assuming that since 91% of them claim to be Christians, they will fix it. But the Bible gives us a different prescription for healing a land.
If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV)
Notice the order. Humble. Pray. Seek His face. Turn from wicked ways. It doesn't say "Vote for the guy who claims to be a Christian."
In my book, Open Your Eyes, I talk about how the supernatural realm is more real than the physical one. When there was a famine in the days of David, he didn't form a committee. He inquired of the Lord. He asked, "Why is this happening?" And God told him it was because of a broken covenant involving Saul and the Gibeonites. David had to make it right spiritually before the physical famine could end.
We are in a spiritual famine, and we are trying to fix it with carnal tools. We are lukewarm. We have one foot in the world and one foot in the church, and we wonder why we have no power.
Personal Reflections: Programmed by the World
I have to be honest with you—I missed this for a long time. Back in the 90s, I had a realization that shook me. I found myself humming commercial jingles. I knew the "Big Mac" song. I knew the sitcom theme songs. I could quote lines from movies perfectly.
But I couldn't quote the Word of God.
I realized I was being programmed. I was being conformed to this world. The apostle Paul begs us:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2 KJV)
The word "transformed" there is metamorphoo—metamorphosis. It's the caterpillar becoming the butterfly. It is a complete change of nature. But instead of metamorphosis, we are settling for camouflage. We look like the world, talk like the world, and entertain ourselves like the world, but we slap a "Christian" bumper sticker on our car and think we are safe.
I don't want to be vomit. It sounds harsh, but that is the language Jesus used. He didn't say, "If you are lukewarm, I will be disappointed." He said:
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16 KJV)
This is why my gospel is to the lukewarm. The cold know they are cold. The hot are on fire. But the lukewarm? They are comfortable. They are the ones in the most danger because they think they are already saved.
Biblical References: The Terrifying "Few"
When the Lord gave me this mandate, I started reading the Bible with fresh eyes. I stopped reading it through the lens of modern church tradition and started reading what the text actually says. It scared the daylights out of me.
We love to quote John 3:16, but we ignore Matthew 7.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14 KJV)
Few. Not "most." Not "91% of Congress." Few.
Jesus continues in that same chapter to destroy the idea that a verbal profession alone is enough.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21 KJV)
This is the verse that keeps me up at night. These people aren't atheists. They aren't enemies of the cross. They are calling Him "Lord." They are active in ministry! Look at their defense:
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (Matthew 7:22 KJV)
They are prophesying. They are casting out devils. They are doing miracles. And yet, look at the response of Jesus:
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:23 KJV)
"I never knew you." That is the key. It’s about relationship. It’s about knowing Him, not just working for Him. The Greek word for "know" there implies intimacy. It's not intellectual assent.
If Jesus is truly your Lord, you do what He says. Luke 6:46 asks, And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
It is a contradiction to call Him Lord and refuse to submit to His mission. We are supposed to submit to God. That word "submit" is a military term. It means to get under the mission. We are like a submarine—sub-mission. We go under His orders.
Key Takeaways
If you are feeling the heat of this message, don't run from it. That heat is the love of God trying to wake you up. Here is what we need to grasp:
- Lukewarmness is Fatal: It isn't a "phase"; it's a spiritual condition that causes Jesus to reject us. We cannot be comfortable in Zion.
- Fruit Matters: You will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16). A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. If our lives look exactly like the world, we need to check our root system.
- Profession $\neq$ Possession: Saying "Lord, Lord" or repeating a sinner's prayer without a life of repentance and lordship is a false security.
- Relationship is Everything: The only thing that matters at the judgment seat is whether Jesus knows you. Not if you went to church, not if you voted right, but if you walked with Him.
Conclusion and Call to Action
I realize this is a heavy word. But I deliver it because I love you, and more importantly, God loves you too much to let you sleepwalk off a cliff. My gospel is to the lukewarm because I was there. I was the guy knowing more jingles than scripture. I was the guy seeking comfort over the cross.
But God, in His mercy, met me on my living room floor. He woke me up. And He wants to wake you up too.
We need to turn off the tube and turn on Jesus. We need to fast and pray—two things that have almost disappeared from the American church. When was the last time you missed a meal to seek God for a breakthrough? If we aren't willing to push away a plate, how serious are we really?
Let's rise up, Team Jesus. Let's be the few who find the narrow gate. Let's refuse to be vomited out.
If this post stirred something in your spirit, don't let the feeling fade. Act on it. Share this with someone who needs a wake-up call. Subscribe to the blog at ConradRocks.Net so we can keep digging deeper and going higher together.
Action Items
- Audit Your Input: Take stock of what you are consuming. Are you being programmed by the world or renewed by the Word? Commit to reading the Bible more than you watch TV this week.
- Fast for Breakthrough: Pick a day this week to fast. Skip a meal or two and use that time to pray and seek the face of God, specifically asking Him to reveal any lukewarm areas in your life.
- Check Your Fruit: Read Matthew 7 again. Ask the Holy Spirit to honestly show you your fruit. Are you doing the will of the Father, or just saying "Lord, Lord"?
- Abide: Make a conscious effort to "abide in the vine" (John 15). Don't just visit Jesus on Sunday; dwell with Him on Monday. Talk to Him like a person, because He is one.
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