Message summary: As we observe our nation and world spiraling into lawlessness it can be very distressing but then we remember that Jesus said, "Lawlessness will increase". Jesus warns us of the dangers of a cold heart.

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"And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12). "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11).

We have had some very cold temps the last several days although we have a brief break today with temps getting into the mid-forties. Now depending on where you live on the planet this may not seem very warm but after the frigid cold it practically feels balmy!

But this weekend we will have frigid temps again and a likely major snowstorm as many of you reading this may also experience!

One beneficiary of snow storms are the snow plow operators. They put a lot of money and energy into their equipment and need some snow storms to recoup their investment and hopefully make some money. But they're not the only ones.

Rick is a friend who runs a business supplying materials to the AG industry. Products come in by the train car load and the materials delivered are used by farms and feed mills all through the northeast. He mentioned that the cold temps and ice sure do sell a lot of ice melt! I hadn't considered that aspect of his business.

For some reason the word "ice melt" and the cold weather got me to thinking about a "cold heart", that is, a cold heart toward God. Our daily text, part of Christ's sermon just before His death, is known as the Olivet Discourse since it was given on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24:3).

In this message Jesus taught that lawlessness will increase in the last days (Matthew 24:12), which we sure see happening at an ever increasing pace. We are approaching conditions, especially visible in our populous cities, where we wonder how long before there is a complete breakdown.

But our focus today is the second part of the verse. Jesus plainly said because of these lawless conditions "the love of many will grow cold". (some versions say "most").  The New Life Version renders it, "Because of people breaking the laws and sin being everywhere, the love in the hearts of many people will become cold".

This is a vulnerable condition we are all prone to. Our hearts can become cold and even icy. We may have blind-spots as believers and sometimes our love for God may inadvertently grow cold, but when we seek the Lord through self examination, the Spirit is faithful to direct our hearts back to Him. You might say praying in earnest and seeking Him in the Scriptures can be an ice melt for a cold heart.

Colin Smith is pastor emeritus of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In a blog post titled "How to Turn Up the Heat When Your Heart Grows Cold" he lists 3 Truths That Can Renew Your Spiritual Passion:

(See below for a link to this post and elaboration on these points.)*

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" (Romans 12:11). We both memorized this verse early in life and admittedly the spiritual fervor can wane. The Greek word for fervor is zeo which means a) to be hot; b) (of liquids) to boil; c) (of solids) to glow. One word study points out that zeo is onomatopoetic for the sound of boiling water. (Onomatopoetic means words formed in imitation of a natural sound.)

We encourage you to do a self-examination of your heart along with us to test for any coldness toward Christ. If needed take the proper steps to deal with that cold heart. Paul wrote to Timothy to "fan into flame the gift of God" (2 Timothy 1:6). That's something we all need to do!

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13