There was a church in Asia Minor. The church was in Laodicea. Jesus charged them for being lukewarm, that is, they were neither cold nor hot. He threatened to spew them out of his mouth. Their spiritual temperature became low.
Reading further, I discovered something striking about this church in Revelation 3:17: "You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked".
This church was rich in physical and material things ( which is not bad) but Christ adjudged them as poor. What a paradox! How can a church have all they needed and still be adjudged as poor? I think it is something worth looking at.
The boast of the Laodicean church today is exactly the same boast of contemporary churches in our time. Glowingly, we talk about our wealth, our physical structures, fat bank accounts, fat offerings&tithes, our buildings, our coverage and spread and the material things we possess but God is saying 'You are poor'.
That shows that wealth and prosperity has never been a metric measurement for right standing with God. It is apparent that anytime we boast in materials things, it is an indication that our hearts have been captured by Mammon.
Luke 12:15 (TPT) says, "...“Be alert and guard your heart from greed and from always wishing for what you don’t have. For your life can never be measured by the amount of things you possess”.
Mammon will make a preacher say things that are clearly against scriptures and still validate it with "thus saith the Lord". This is a dangerous position to be in the faith. The Laodicean church was serving mammon little wonder why they were neither cold nor hot.
Mammon-driven messages, teachings and counsel will produce a people that are desperate to make it at all cost not minding the process because they have been told that is how to be in right standing with God.
The moment a group of people are made to believe that material possession is the sign of acceptance by God, they'll do anything to acquire wealth. Who doesn't want to be accepted by God?
The counsel of Christ to the Laodicean church applies to us today: "So I advise you to buy gold from me—gold that has been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see"( Revelation 3:18).