What nauseates the Lord most? The Lord told the church in Laodicea that it was their lukewarm hearts.

The words of the Amen…“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.’” (Revelation 3:15–16 ESV)

Stated in other ways, what sickens “the faithful and true witness” is not just a heart of defiance but a heart that's drifting. “The beginning of God’s creation” testifies against blasphemy, of course, but also against boredom. He disciplines those He loves, and calls them to “be zealous and repent.” This includes turning away from the sins of lack of care, disinterest in fellowship, thinking you need nothing. The One who conquered and is with the Father declared the lukewarm gross to Him.

There is part of the human religious experience that gets anxious when there isn't a perceived heightened emotional experience. C.S. Lewis wrote about it in The Screwtape Letters, and I think he's onto something by acknowledging that it’s a frustrating and false expectation to always seek increasing intensity of excitement. But it is a different kind of dangerous when our direction is “carrying [us] out of [our] orbit around the Enemy,” in other words, when our lives aren't revolving around the Son.

The aim of our charge is not habits of half-heartedness (see 1 Timothy 1:5). To be complete in Christ does not mean to arrive at a more mature stage of boredom. It's one thing to whip ourselves up into a frenzy before we crash, it's not the antidote to live like we've already crashed.

So, let our hearts be hot or cold. Let us wake up, and I don't just mean from falling asleep during the sermon.

I recently finished reading a book titled, Acedia and Its Discontents. It is profound, with some big problems, but overall as edifying as it is provoking.

Acedia is an English word derived from the Greek word that means being "without care." It refers to spiritual or mental sloth. In English we also talk about one of acedia’s synonyms, apathy, which is being without passion.

Other nuances given in the book include being bored, not in the sense of having nothing to do, more so in refusing to work at enjoying what is delightful. It's a state of complaint about reality, especially about the things that are great but require too much (perceived) effort to acknowledge or embrace.

“Boredom is a heresy, declaring God was wrong when he saw the goodness of the world.” (R.J. Snell, Location 1128)

The modern version of acedia is aggressively dulling, like sand in the chainsaw gears and gas tank. It's why Netflix knows it has five seconds to autoplay the next episode or related movie, you're too tired to turn it off and go to bed. It's why social media doesn't want you to have a chronological timeline only of your followers, because then you could get to the "end" of it, at least at a given time. Now you have a virtually endless stream of middling novelty. Door Dash is costly (and I suppose a kind of convenient that could be a proper blessing in a pinch), but the bigger cost is learned laziness; it's not worth your effort just to go through the drive-thru? In such a condition, nothing is seen as gift, it’s all at some level of tiresome.

The author calls this the “terrible covenant of sloth.” It is our modern cultural agreement to let every man define right in his own eyes. There is a liturgy to it, a message without explicit words, a message that teaches that discomfort is always bad, that work is the hurdle to and enemy of delight, that the flesh should be served, never told “no,” or even “wait.” Our souls constantly wish to escape the burden of what is. We are disgusted with what God says is good.

Unlike the creation stories with pagan gods, God did not make men to be slaves, but rather to be rulers. God did not make men to be machines that move, but rather beings that live and move. God did not make men to be computation devices with legs. We are homo sapiens compared to creatures that merely have instinct, but we are homo adorans in that we're creatures with built in capacity to recognize and worship what is great.

We sin when we exchange what is great/glorious (Romans 1:23), we sin when we refuse to honor and love what is great (Romans 1:21; Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37-38). Jesus made clear, it is “the great and first commandment.”

Humans want, we are known by our wants. They can want wrong things or right, but the most advanced algorithms are at least four layers away from desires. Computers didn't "decide" to mimic our behavior. First layer: humans had to want. Second layer: humans had to express those wants in language. Third layer: humans had to (want to) teach the AI to see language patterns. Fourth layer: humans had to (want to) prompt the AI to predict some text in a different format than just quoting back what human wants had already been expressed.

AI doesn't care. AI cannot worship.

Our corporate worship isn't mostly a product. The most important part is God, yes, but not the direct object of the service itself, as if we were creating a package to give Him called "Worship." The Lord is not recording our singing each Sunday to add to His praise playlist. Adoration isn't an artifact, something that exists in its own space when we're not there. Adoration is about the ones adoring. The subjects/we aren't the goal, but we are the gift. We present ourselves as living sacrifices which is our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). We are being transformed “from one degree of glory to another” by “beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Humans are worshippers.

You want to be an adoration agent. That is, you want to have a care, you want to reject whatever is lukewarm in your chest, and then run to obtain the prize. You don't want to offer anything that doesn't cost; you know that the cost is part of it.

If your life operating system is like lines of code, then here are four ways that parts of our liturgy update your OS for your faith and fruitfulness. Here’s how we are fighting Acedia with corporate adoration.

We are not finished when we collect truth, but we will not be fruitful without truth.

the church is the pillar and buttress of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)

We care about special revelation in Scripture, we let the teaching God's Word make us wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). We learn answers to questions, about God's nature and works, about the nature of man and his purpose. We learn about salvation and then we adorn the doctrine (Titus 2:10). There is a “standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17-18). Pay attention to sound doctrine (that which elders are required to teach and defend in Titus 1:9).

Definitions instruct us about what is truly good, and correct and conform our thinking when we were thinking something else was good.

So much of the Bible itself is narrative, stories. They are non-fiction stories, and along with history they show us the divine Author’s frequent if not favorite story arcs/plots. We aren't just told that God is faithful, we watch His faithfulness through generations (brining Israel back from captivity in Egypt). We aren't just told that God is love, we see that love demonstrated in the sending and sacrificing of His Son. We don't just learn that God is Three-Persons but One God, we have a record of God's relations and reconciliations with His people. These stories are “for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

When we gather to worship we are not alone, of course, and that means we also have examples. We watch, not just those up front, but those around us. We have patterns to follow (see related Philippians 3:17).

Demonstrated in the assembly: Loud singing. Large smiles. Humble kneelers. Fathers giving candy. Kids coloring. Tasty bread. Handshakes and hugs.

Livestreaming is a blessing when sick or stuck. But these days there are more professing Christians who are making livestreaming church their preferred liturgy. Screen-only participation is soul-thinning. Being around good examples encourages our own embodying of good.

Liturgy requires a kind of submission. We’re willingly working to fit into a mold not of our own making. Paul told Timothy, with application for all the brothers, “train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). That takes more than the least amount of effort.

As you are able, get here on time so that we can start together. Sing when, and what, we sing. Put yourself into position to want to want more than you naturally wanted all by yourself. Stay awake.

Here we are learning to will what is good. Know it, love it, approve of it, praise it. It is necessary for the life and glory of your soul.

There will be no great love of the true, good, or beautiful without a new heart, and this life is found only in Jesus Christ.

Drink from the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2:13-14). Beware what is worthless, and getting into a rut of seeking out worthlessness (Jeremiah 2:5). Come to Christ, behold His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) and seek His gifts (Revelation 3:17-18).

The Amen, Jesus Christ Himself, says:

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. (Revelation 3:18 ESV)

Adoration cannot be automated. We are made to worship in fellowship with God through His Son.

It is hard to care. It is death to have no cares.

The Father disciplines those He loves so that we would have zeal for holiness. He trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. Give yourself to care about what is good and acceptable and perfect in God’s sight.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 ESV)