Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters.”

Jesus understood this. “No one can serve two masters, for he will worship the one and reject the other, or he will love the one and hate the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is a Semitic word for money. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money.” You have to choose. Money, more than anything else we handle, can become God in our lives and push God out of our lives. The peril in prosperity.

In the book of Revelation, God speaks to the seven churches of the Revelation. The last one is Laodicea, and he says to the Laodicean church, “You are neither cold nor hot. And because you are neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” Lukewarmness is an abomination to God. A lukewarm church is intolerable to God. It makes him want to vomit.

One of my dearest friends, now in heaven, was president of Mutual of New York.  Roger Hull used to say,[KM1]  “I believe that the greatest danger we face in America is the casual Christian.” I believe it. You know, I’m not bothered at all by atheists. They’re not the problem in America. The problem in America is the people who profess to believe in God and live as though God is nonexistent, the people who profess faith in God and live as though it doesn’t make any difference. I’m not concerned about the secularists and the humanists and the secular humanists in America. I’m concerned about the evangelical who with all of their protestations about secularism and secular humanism, themselves have embraced the secular way of life: materialism, the love of money. That’s where the danger is in America.

Now what was the symptom of that Laodicean church? “For you say, ‘We are rich and increased with goods and need nothing.’ ” Not even God. That’s lukewarmness: needing nothing. And God’s assessment of that church was, “And you don’t know that you’re blind and naked and poor and wretched.” It is to that church that he speaks when he says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me.” I’ll tell you, America has a lot of lukewarm, casual Christians who need to listen to the knock of Jesus Christ and open the heart’s door and let him in, or we’re doomed as a nation.