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.
b. 2 Timothy 2:21 “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”
C. The Path of Sin
1. James 1:14-15 “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”
2. The attitude of sin follows this general line of reasoning. Right or wrong, I want it even if it is wrong. Right or wrong, I want it even if it hurts me. Right or wrong, I want it even if it hurts others.
III. Self Examination under God’s microscope is necessary for a Proper diagnosis of our spiritual state.
A. The Mirror of the Written Word
1. Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”
2. When we look into a mirror it is very reveals our blemishes, our imperfections, if our hair is a mess, if we have dirt on our face, etc. We cannot tell or see these things until we look in the mirror. James compares the Bible to a mirror which will reflect the condition of our hearts. Jeremiah tells us we cannot trust our hearts.
3. Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart; I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
4. The Mirror by Chris Herd
"When I look in the mirror, what do I see,
there I see my eyes as they look back at me.
Staring, who are you I say inside of my mind,
not really wanting to answer, what will I mind?
When I open the Bible I see myself there,
then in my reflections I can’t help but to stare.
For I see that I am more, than just a mortal man,
but a soul created for God’s eternal plan.
I see I have many faults, I am laden with sin,
but I see through the Bible a promise within.
If I gaze at my life, in God’s mirror of love,
I can make changes, to prepare me for above.
In God’s mirror gives direction, in it is a place,
where I can be with God, see Him face to face.
But He asks me, be honest, examine, be true,
and make all the changes that I ask of you.
If you’re honest with the reflection, all that you see,
obey and be blessed, for eternity with Me.” - copied
B. The Measure of the Living Word
1. In Discipleship Journal, Carole Mayhall tells of a woman who went to a diet center to lose weight. The director took her to a full-length mirror. On it he outlined a figure and told her, “This is what I want you to be like at the end of the program.” Days of intense dieting and exercise followed, and every week the woman would stand in front of the mirror, discouraged because her bulging outline didn’t fit the director’s ideal. But she kept at it, and finally one day she conformed to the longed-for image. - August 8, 1990 Daily Bread
2. Acts 17:31 God “...has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
3. Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son...”
4.
IV. Three C’s to Cleansing – Confession, Contrition, Consecration (2 Chronicles 7:14)
A. Confession – Acknowledgement, Admission
1. 1 John 1:8-10 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
2. An illustration used by a Chinese evangelist: A woman with a bundle of dirty washing had taken it to the riverside with the purpose of washing it. But she was ashamed to open it for fear someone would see how dirty it was; so she just plunged the whole bundle into the water, jogged it up and down several times, and then went home with it. A lot of people are like that foolish woman. They have many sins that need to be cleansed, but they are not willing to bring them out and confess them one by one. They just say, "Lord, I am a sinner, forgive me." So, they cover up all their sins, their thefts, and their lies, and their jealousies, and their hatred. But they have to be brought out and confessed, and only then can they be cleansed.
B. Contrition – Remorse, Regret
1. Psalm 51:16-17 “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”
2. King David’s life serves as an illustration of contrition. David lived in impenitence after his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah for an entire year when Nathan came to hold his awful sin up to him. Upon being confronted David acknowledged his sin and with a contrite heart ruefully cried: “I have sinned against the Lord.”
C. Consecration – Dedication, Devotion
1. Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
2. A Connecticut farmer came to a well-known clergyman, saying that the people in his neighborhood had built a new meetinghouse, and that they wanted this clergyman to come and dedicate it. The clergyman, accustomed to participate in dedicatory services where different clergymen took different parts of the service, inquired: "What part do you want me to take in the dedication?" The farmer, thinking that this question applied to the part of the building to be included in the dedication, replied: "Why, the whole thing! Take it all in, from underpinning to steeple." That man wanted the building to be wholly sanctified as a temple of God, and that all at once. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" --H. C. Trumbull
Even though God sees in me my sinfulness, God says, “You are precious to My heart" and sent His Son to provide the way for you and me to get back where we belong in right standing and sweet fellowship with the Holy God of all Creation. Romans 5:6-8 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
