Seeing Yourself As God Sees You Series

CONDITIONS FOR REVIVAL: SEEING YOURSELF AS GOD SEES YOU

PROVERBS 21:2

Introduction: We have been looking at what it is going to take to see God’s power working in our lives and through us in the lives of the church and our community. We have observed how Isaiah was transformed by seeing God in His Holiness and how this is the first condition of revival and a fresh outpouring from God. The second condition required is for us to see ourselves as God sees us. This includes understanding where God wants us to be, where we are at, and how to get back to where we should be.

I. God created us to be holy, to have fellowship with and to serve Him

A. Leviticus 11:44 “’For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”

B. Man was created for fellowship with God and to walk in dependence on Him and in fellowship with Him.

C. Adam walked with God in the garden prior to his act of disobedience.

D. 1 Peter 2:9-10 (The Message) “You are chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a Holy people, God’s instruments to do His work and speak out for Him, to tell others of the Night-and-day difference He made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

E. Man alone was created in the image of God. Man alone was given great such uniqueness with abilities to be used to bring glory to God’s glory. All of man’s gifts are endowed to him directly by God.

II. Sin blocks this relationship and keeps us from seeing ourselves as God sees us.

A. Psalm 53:1-3 “The fool says in his heart, "God does not exist." They are corrupt, and they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise and who seeks God. Everyone has turned aside; they have all become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.”

b. When God looks upon us He sees sheep that have wandered off; spiritually blind people stumbling through life; disobedient and rebelling children refusing guidance from their Heavenly Father; sinners in need of a Savior.

c. Habakkuk 1:13a “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.”

d. Sin Defined

1. Sin is any failure to conform to God’s standard in action, inaction, or attitude.

2. Romans 3:23 “...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

3. Hamartia – to miss the mark

B. The Effects of Sin

1. Separates us from God

a. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

b. For the Christian this separation blocks the flow of God’s power and peace into his/her life.

c. Ultimately for the unbeliever this separation is finalized in separation for eternity in the Lake of Fire.

d. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

2. Suppresses knowledge of God

a. According to Romans 1:18-21, the evidence of the natural world determines that all men have knowledge of God. The natural man does not deny God due to a lack of evidence. He does so because his heart is sinful. Man is so utterly sinful he suppresses the truth of God.

b. Romans 1:18-19 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.”

3. Silences your conscience and conviction from God

a. Romans 12:15 (HCSB) “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”

b. Zephaniah 3:5 (The Message) “But evil men and women, without conscience and without shame, persist in evil.”

c. According to Vine’s Dictionary, the Greek word for conscience (suneidesis) literally means to possess “co-knowledge” of something resulting in one’s “sense of guiltiness before God.”

d. A person with a tender conscience is keenly aware of every infraction against the Lord. He recognizes sin for the ugly thing that it is... The person who habitually gives himself over to sin loses the ability to feel the spiritual “pain” of sin. - Steve Gallagher, The Searing of the Conscience

4. Stifles service to God

a. Sin keeps us from serving God the way He wants us to serve Him. Sin disconnects us from the Source of our Power — it disconnects us from God.