Are You A Revolutionary? Part 3

(This message was inspired by George Barna and his book, Revolution. I also found Sermon Central contributor, J. Martin’s messages on this topic helpful.)

Are you a Revolutionary?

Are you in a close orbit with God? Are you doing whatever it takes to get closer to God and to help others do the same? Are you obliterating any obstacle that prevents you from honoring God with every breath you take? Are you being such an outstanding example of the Christian faith so that no one will question your heart or lifestyle?

Those things are the things that a Revolutionary does. These are the things that separate a person who is desperate for God from a person who just hopes to make it into heaven and nothing else.

Being a Revolutionary is a transformational event that I believe needs to happen in the lives of every believer.

But the fact is that some will reject this Revolution.

There are three ways that the church will react towards Revolutionaries. They will try with all their might to stop the Revolution. They will ignore the Revolution. Or they will support the Revolution looking for ways to retain the importance and identity of the church allowing the Revolution to enhance the church and their own lives.

I think you know which one I am for.

Being a part of the Revolution does mean one thing; it means change. That is what a transformation is.

Change is always going to be a part of life. Every day and in every way changes are taking place.

Changes in technology, in science, in medicine, in politics, in personal relationships, in your status, in your self-image, as well as many other ways. Change is always taking place.

In April I announced that I was going to let my hair grow for one year. Does anyone remember why? I felt the Lord calling me to illustrate the constant theory of change.

I get a kick out of people. Someone came up to Debbie the other day and said, I need to apologize to your husband and Debbie asked why.

The lady said, “I didn’t recognize your husband.”

Thank you, God! Do you understand?

Sometimes we control the change that happens and sometimes it just happens.

The point is, change is going to happen whether we like it or not. So we better like it, if not for any other reason than this, Jesus Christ, the Son of God was the main agent of change in our world.

He came and He changed the whole spiritual temperature of the world. He made it possible for people to have a close relationship with God the way God intended. It was a change. No longer did a person have to go through the priest to get to God.

A good example of this kind of change would be the Protestant Revolution that took place in the 16th Century.

The Protestant Revolution, also referred to as the Protestant Reformation, was a movement in the 16th century to reform the Catholic Church in Western Europe.

The Reformation was started by Martin Luther with his 95 Theses on the practice of indulgences. An indulgnace was done after a person committed a sin. It could have been the reciting of a prayer or the giving of money.

It is still practiced today in the Catholic Church.

Indulgences are not a “license to sin” or a “get-out-of-Hell-free” card; they are a means for the sinner to “pay” the “wages” of sin.

Luther disagreed with this. His 95 Theses, challenged the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgences.

This writing sparked a theological debate that would result in the Reformation and the birth of the Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, and Baptist traditions within Christianity.

It was a change in religious thinking. The place of the Bible in the life of mankind was changed. It was now a tool in the hands of the believer. Worship of God became more intimate. Faith became the responsibility of the believer instead of the institution.

The Pope went from being the preeminent religious leader of the earth to the religious leader of the world’s largest denomination.

The point is, change took place and change continues to take place today.

In this series we have been looking at the different definitions of Revolution.

The first two that we looked at were:

Definition 1 – Movement of a body in an orbit or circle.

Definition 5 – Overthrow of a government or social system, with another taking its place.

Today we are going to look at the final definition:

Definition 4 – A complete or radical change of any kind.

PRAY

Father we ask for Your anointing on us today. Place Your anointing on me as Your messenger today. Make each of us revolutionist.