There are many ways to prepare food for dinner. You can bake it, boil it, fry it, simmer it, or as we've discovered in the age of radiated ravioli, you can nuke it. Yea, microwave, the ultimate symbol of the too-busy-to-cook generation! Actually, they do come in handy when your stomach is growling and your time is short. Microwave ovens cook some things better than others, I've discovered. I don't know if you've had the appetizing experience I've had on occasion. Your dinner comes out nice and warm on the outside, but cold on the inside.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Warm on the Outside, Cold on the Inside."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God is sobering because it's about people who believed the Scriptures, never missed a meeting at church, and lived rigorously righteous lives. It could be us! Our word for today from the Word of God is in Mark 7:6-7. "Jesus replied, 'Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

You know, Jesus is describing here in modern terms what I call microwave folks in the church. He says that their lips are sounding a good sound but their hearts are cold. They might look warm on the outside, but they're cold on the inside. Oh, their faith has gotten to the outside, but it somehow never warmed on the inside. Twenty centuries later, still religious people are there who are warm on the outside but cold on the inside. You and I have to look at ourselves and say, "Hey, could this be me?"

Now, you can't judge by spiritual talk. Jesus said, "Their lips are saying the right words." They're praising, and preaching, and witnessing, but they have a distant heart. You can't judge by religious activity. I mean, these people, according to Jesus, do worshipping things. But He says it's in vain; they're wasting their time.

Revelation 2 describes Christians who are working hard, dealing with compromise, enduring hardships. Everything that men can see checks out great, but something's missing. He says, "You have forsaken your first love." Could it be you've grown cold on the inside, even though you still seem pretty warm on the outside? What you used to do for love you now do for duty. What used to be spontaneous for the Lord is kind of formal and mechanical. What used to be close is now distant, isn't it?

It's time to get back to your first love; to visit that cross with the recent sin that you need to repent of, not just all the sins of years ago. But I mean the things you need to catch up on, to catch up your repentance. To remember at that cross what it cost to pay for you - the blood of the very Son of God. To go there and confess the compromises that have crept in, and then spend some extended time to be there by your Lord, with your Lord, who gave His life there for you.

You know, you could be becoming a microwave believer. You might be cold on the inside. And cold on the inside just isn't worth it, you're missing so much of what it means to serve your Lord. That's not what He wants. What He cares about is the warmth of your heart.