Changing your condition by changing your position
7/29/01
Luke 19:1-10
Tonight I want to preach to you about how to experience revival. What is revival? Revival is a renewed conviction of sin followed by a great desire to obey God. Revival is needed when we haven’t let God into our lives where he wants to be. Revival is needed when someone has gotten mischievous on God.
There were 2 brothers, 8 and 10 years old, who were very mischievous. Whatever went wrong in the neighborhood, they had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wits end trying to control them. Hearing about a minister who worked with delinquent boys, the suggested to the father they ask the minister to talk with the boys. The father agreed.
The mother went to the minister and made her request. He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first. So the mother sent her youngest son to the minister. The minister sat the boy down across from him at a huge desk. For about 5 minutes they just stared at each other.
Finally, the minister pointed his finger right at the boy and asked, “Where is God?” The boy looked under the desk, in the corners of the room, all around, but said nothing. Again, louder the minister pointed at the boy and asked, “Where is God?” Again, the boy looked all around but said nothing.
A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the minister leaned far across the desk and put his finger almost to the boys nose, and asked, “Where is God?” The boy panicked and ran all the way home.
He found his older brother, dragged him upstairs to their room and into the closet, where they usually plotted their mischief. He finally said, “We’re in BIG trouble.” His older brother said, “What do you mean BIG trouble?” Then his little brother said, “God is missing and they think we did it!”
Don’t be the reason God is missing from this church. When we get the mischief out of our lives we won’t have to worry about God being missing. We should be so full of God there is no room for anything else.
The Bible says in II Kings 22:8 that the book of the law was found (by Hilkiah the priest) in the house of the Lord. When we find the word of God and doing what it says again revival will come. When the king read the word of the book of the law in the ear of the people revival broke out.
I want to say, “I’ve found the book of the law and it says thou shalt have no other god’s before me (Ex 20:3).” It says, “Walk in the Spirit and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16).”
I’m talking about changing your condition by changing your position. Jesus said the Great Commandment was to “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength (Matt 22:37).” When you love God with ALL you have there is no room for anything else.
When there is a lack of brotherly love and Christian confidence among believers there is a need for revival. Turn to your neighbor and say, “That’s us.” If you would be so bold you may even say, “That’s me.”
When there’s a dissension, jealousies, and evil rumors there is a need for revival. These show that Christians have strayed far away from where God is. When there is a worldly spirit where believers are conforming to worldly dress, attitudes, entertainment there is a need for revival.
When people come to church and they are looking more for jokes and entertainment than they are for the truth of God’s word, there is a need for revival.
When you go to the grocery store you can pick up an apple and tell that it’s an apple but sometimes you notice there are some rotten apples in the bunch. When what you notice most about the fruit of the Spirit in people’s lives is that it’s more rotten than ripe then there is a need for revival. Turn to your neighbor and say, “We’ve got that here.” If you believe anything else you are deceived.
When there is an immaturity among believers there is a need for revival. Turn to your neighbor and say, “We’ve got that too.” When Christians would rather grumble about the splinter in someone else’s eye than deal with the beam that is in their own eye, someone needs revival (Matt 7:3).
The writer of Hebrews said, “Let us consider one another to provoke love and good works (Heb 10:24).” Paul said to the Romans, “Let us not please ourselves but let every one of us please his neighbor for his good (Rom 15:1).” Romans 12:10 says, to “prefer one another.”
You may say, “Brother you are being too hard.” No, friend, I’m not being hard; I’m being honest.” There is a difference. It’s time we get honest with ourselves. Isaiah said, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of host (Is 6:5).”
How do you get God to send revival? You acknowledge sin and repent of it. “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land (II Chr 7:14).”
David said, “Look upon my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins (Ps 25:18).” He said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit (Ps 51:10-12).”
But David didn’t stop there. He went on to say, “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee (Ps 51:13).” How do you have revival? Get yourself right with God then, “Love thy neighbor as thyself (Matt 19:19).” Put someone else above your own needs. Seven times in the NT the Bible says, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Seven times I say to you, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
No! I will not be afraid to tell the truth. God loves you and he made a way for you to live a life apart from sin. A young man was once preaching a revival. He preached the plain truth and the wicked (and even some believers) didn’t like him. Every time he’d preach on something folks were guilty of they would get quiet. They said, “We like our minister and we want him to preach.” They finally complained so much that the minister told the young man: “Such and such a person, who gives so much money to the church, says so and so; Mr. A says so, and Mr. B says so. They think it will break up the church if you continue to preach, and I think you better not preach anymore.”
The young man left and the Spirit of the Lord immediately withdrew from the church and revival stopped. The only thing that will break up through preaching the truth is SIN. The Bible says, “Break up your fallow (unplanted) ground: for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and reign righteousness on you (Hos 10:12).”
Truth never preached anyone to hell, but it did preach them to freedom and peace! Truth led you to Christ; truth led me to Christ. The Bible says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Cor 3:17).” What type of spirit is the Lord’s Spirit? He’s called the “Spirit of truth (Jh 16:13).”
I’ve seen preachers preach against sin and I’ve seen people jump out of their pew and shout, “Amen!” You see, they didn’t have a problem with that sin. Then the preacher will preach on their sin and they would say, “Yeah thaaat’s riiiigggggtttt (Reluctantly).
The church must put out the fires of hell, which are consuming the wicked, and even some of our own. Should the firemen sleep and let the whole city burn down? What would people think of such firemen? Yet the guilt of those firemen would not compare to the guilt of Christians who sleep while sinners around them are sinking into the flames of hell.
It’s time for Christians to wake up and experience the life changing truth and boundless love of Almighty God! I’m talking about changing your condition by changing your position.
Zaccheus was a little man that wanted to see Jesus. The Bible says he was chief among the tax collectors and he was rich. But can I tell you he was poor. He was living a life of moral depravity.
As far as the Jews were concerned you couldn’t get much lower than a tax collector. Zaccheus didn’t know God and his position was as low as they came. Not only was he short in stature he was short in morals. Why was he rich? He was rich because he stole and extorted money from others. He was more concerned with self than anyone else.
It’s time for the church to get out of the gutters of selfishness and moral depravity. Zaccheus wanted to see Jesus. So much so he was willing to change his position. The Bible says he went and climbed up into a sycamore tree.
Turn to your neighbor and say, “Climb up.” Matthew 15 says that Jesus climbed up a mountain and the multitudes followed him. If you want to know how to spark a revival start CLIMBING UP and watch and see others follow you.
God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is 55:8,9).” It’s time to climb up higher.
When you change YOUR position other people will change. The Bible says when they got to where Jesus was he healed them. Sounds like revival to me. When you change your position you will change your condition.
Zaccheus climbed up into the tree and Jesus looked up. When you are up you cause others to look up. When you are down you cause others to look down. Jesus looked up and called Zaccheus by name. Immediately Zaccheus’ life was changed. He started making amends for his ways. Jesus said, “Today salvation is come to your house.”
I believe it’s time for some folks to start climbing up. Any man, woman, or child that will change their position will change their condition. You need a change in your life and it will start when you are willing to climb out of the depths of sin and move up higher.
(From e-mail) I think it started when Madeline Murray O’Hare complained she didn’t want prayer in school, and we said, OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school, the Bible that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love thy neighbor as thyself. And we said, OK.
Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self esteem. And we said an expert should know what he’s talking about so we won’t spank them anymore.
Then someone said teachers and principles better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don’t want bad publicity and we don’t want to be sued. And we accepted their reasoning.
Then someone said, let’s let our daughters have abortions if they want and they won’t even have to tell their parents. And we said that’s a great idea.
Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they are going to do it anyway, let’s give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire. And we said, that’s a good idea.
Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn’t matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. And agreeing with them, we said it doesn’t matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private so long as I have a job and the economy is good.
And then someone said, let’s print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome down to earth appreciation of the female body. And we said OK.
And someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then a step further by putting them on the Internet. And we said, they’re entitled to their free speech.
And the entertainment industry said, let’s make TV and some movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let’s record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide and satanic themes. Then they said, this is so good lets give it a Grammy award. And we said its just entertainment so go ahead.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates and themselves.
If we think long enough we can figure it out. I think it has to do with “YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.” If you think this has merit then share your thought with others. If not then don’t do anything. But don’t sit back and complain how bad the world is.
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world is going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say but question what the Bible says.
Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they don’t have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says. Funny how someone can say, “I believe in God,” but still follow satan who happens to “believe” in God.
Funny how we are quick to judge, yet don’t want to be judged. Funny how we want people to love us and be patient when we stumble but we don’t offer love and patience to other when they stumble.
Funny how we can send jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire. But when we send something about the Lord we sit and wonder what our friends will think if we send it to them. It’s funny how I can be more worried about what others think of me than I am of what God thinks of me.
Funny how someone can be so fired up on Sunday morning but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week. Are you laughing? I don’t think God is either.
Isn’t it time you climbed up higher? Salvation is available in this house today. Mercy is available to you today. There is a transformation that is waiting for you to climb into it. There is a change that is waiting for you to climb into. Your condition can change if you are willing to change your position.
Are you willing to climb up to a higher place with God? Do you want a place of maturity, strength, joy, love and power? Climb up. The best way that you can climb up is by bowing down.
