Ps 86:11 “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”
Introduction: A couple of weeks ago we began a series on preparing for personal revival. I think it’s important that we realize every single one of us needs to make sure our experience with God is fresh and renewed.
There’s none of us that are so spiritual that we don’t need to experience personal revival from time to time. No one here tonight is so spiritual that you don’t need to spend time in prayer. No one here tonight is so spiritual that you don’t need to spend time in the word. No one here tonight is such a spiritual powerhouse that they don’t need to spend time in the presence of God.
We all need times of refreshing. These messages are not just for those who are doing poor spiritually. But these messages are a wake up call to all of us that if we don’t to care, we’ll find ourselves growing cold and indifferent in our relationship with Christ.
There’s a lot of believers who are in that condition. All they care about is whether or not they’re going to make it to heaven. But what they don’t realize, if we don’t maintain ourselves spiritually, they may not make it to heaven.
Think about some of the prevailing attitudes in the church today. I’ve seen people just looking around when an alter call is given. There’s people who show no reverence to the Holy Spirit when the gifts of the spirit are in operation.
We need to realize something, God’s not going to waste His time or waste His power on people who do not care. We talked about what Jesus meant when He said that the church at Ephesus had left it’s first loved. He was meaning that their fervency for Him had left. They were still doing spiritual things, but the love they had for Christ was growing cold.
That’s why we need to keep ourselves in check, and spiritually in tune so we don’t grow cold on God.
Let’s look quickly at some of the things we covered last time to refresh our memories.
1. We need to pray the prayer that David prayed in Psalms 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”
This was a very honest and open prayer by David. All of us are in process. God is still wanting to work out things in our lives that should not be there. If we don’t want to know or listen to God concerning areas in our life that isn’t where they should be, then we start getting in trouble. Do not expect blessings where we allow sin to rule. We can not serve God and the world too!
We’ve got to be honest before God and allow Him to show us sin and short comings in our life.
2. Next we saw that we need not only to allow God to reveal sin in our life, but we need to agree with God about each area He shows us, confess it and repent of it.
3. Next we looked at the importance of living in the Word of God. We fall short if all we do is just read the Word. We must meditate on it and apply it to our lives.
4. Then we started looking at some questions we need to ask ourselves, not just once but I believe we need to ask ourselves these questions on a regular basis. The first question was concerning salvation and we asked “have you ever genuinely repented?”
Repent means to turn away from or change directions. When Christ really comes into your life and you repent of your sins, there’s going to be a change in you.
If there’s been no change in your life then you really need to take a close look at your salvation experience.
If any man is in Christ, then the old creature is gone. If your still acting like and living like you did before you asked Christ into your life, then the old creature is still around.
When Christ comes in, and the old nature’s gone, there will be such a change in your life that people around you will notice.
Let’s look at the next question…
Is all my trust in Christ? What a heavy question. It’s easy to trust Christ when everything is going good but when bad times comes, we then try other solutions other than trusting Christ for the answer.
I want you to see three things the Psalmist teaches us
Ps 37:3-5 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
If you want to enter into the blessing of God, you’ve got to get to the place where you trust God! By nature, we are people who go by feelings, but God’s desire is for us to go by faith.
We are constantly in a battle in this area of trust. I want you to understand something tonight. Just because something is not going very well, or you’re in the middle of an awful situation, doesn’t mean that God is out of the picture.
There are times you can be right in the middle of God’s will and be in a big mess.
Joseph was in God’s will, God had been revealing things to him through dreams, but look what happen.
He ended up in a mess! Being thrown in a pit to be sold as a slave, then ending up in prison because a woman was lusting after you. None of those things are good experiences. But none of those things stopped God’s will from being accomplished in the life of Joseph!
I think about David, here he was anointed to be king, and what happened to him. He got a mess. King Saul wanted to kill him, he had to hide in caves, but none of those things stopped God’s will from being accomplished in his life.
Daniel was in the Lion’s den. Shadrach, Meishach and Abendigo were in the firey furnace. But it none of their situations stopped God’s will from being accomplished in their life.
Do you know what the key was in the life of Joseph, David, Daniel, and the three Hebrew Children. They never quit trusting God! They never quit delighting themselves in God, they never quit committing themselves to God, and God didn’t fail them.
You hear me tonight. As long as you’re Trusting, delighting and committing, nothing can stop God’s will from being done in your life.
Bad times can’t separate us from God’s love. Don’t let your feelings do the talking in your life. Keep trusting Christ for everything in your life.
You keep trusting Him in the good times. Keep trusting Him through the bad times. Keep trusting Him whether you’re on the mountain top or in the valley.
No matter what, you keep hanging on to God and He will see you through! Trust Him for in everything!
Next we need to ask ourselves, Is Christ Lord of my life? Let’s look at what the scriptures says…
Luke 6:46-49 “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”
What does it mean to allow Him to be Lord of our life?
1. It means that we are not just hearers but doers.
2. It means we let Christ have control over every area of our life.
We are putting up an affront to Jesus if we go around calling Him Lord as if He has control of our lives, but we have no intentions to following wholly after Him. We’re deceiving ourselves if we think we can make it to heaven just by the mere profession and not follow what Christ commands us to do.
Look what Matt 7:21 says…
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
You need to understand what Jesus was saying here. No one just professing faith in Christ and His work will be saved. Only those who “doeth the will of My Father”
There’s a lot of people in this condition. They make a lot of professions but when it comes down to them doing God’s will they’re not interested.
When we allow Christ to be Lord, we’ll not only profess Him, but we’ll do the will of the Father.
A sure sign of our need for revival is when we don’t allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives. When we really let Jesus be Lord of our life, we put His will above our own. We put Christ’s desires above our own.
Jesus put it very simply, you can not call me Lord and then don’t do what I say. In order for personal revival to come to your life, you’ve got to make up your mind, I’m going to do what Christ says. I’m going to let Jesus be Lord of my life.
The devil has so many people deceived by thinking a lot of things that God wants of us is optional. You need to understand something here tonight. Allowing Christ to be Lord of your life is not optional.
The reason Joseph, Daniel and David could keep on standing in the face of trouble was they had a firm commitment to serving God. Yes, I’m sure they had moments of weakness, but because they had a made up mind to serve Jehovah God, they had underneath them a firm foundation that could withstand any storm.
If you’re going through a storm tonight, check you’re foundation. Unless you let Christ be Lord of your life, you’ll never have the foundation that you need to stand. The Word says, great was the fall of the house that was built upon the sand.
If you’re not letting Christ be Lord of your life, ask forgiveness and repent, and He will touch you one more time.
What kind of foundation do you have tonight?
So preparing for personal revival means we must honestly look at our salvation experience. Have we genuinely repented? Is all my trust in Christ? Is Christ Lord of my life?
