Do we really want revival?
8/14/2004
Lamentations 3:40-42 (NIV)
40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: 42 “We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
2 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
Introduction… Do we really want REVIVAL?
Is it something that we as Midway Baptist Church and we as individuals really want to see?
We say we do…
We claim we do…
We pray for revival…
But do we really want to see revival in our midst?
Next Sunday, we are going to start a six day series of Revival services…
And I ALWAYS say revival services because I think so many people today are somewhat confused about what revival really is…
These services in and of them selves will not be a revival!
But wait just a minute… Every good Baptist knows what a revival is don’t they?
Every Christian knows what revival is… right?
As a matter of fact, even those that have never professed to be Christians, know what a revival is don’t they?
Many evangelical Churches have a revival once or twice a year…
You see, to most Christians and even non Christians today, a REVIVAL is the series of meetings where a guest preacher comes in to preach and the church as a whole puts an extra emphasis on bringing in non Christians and seeing them make a profession of faith…
There were recently flyers up all over town for a two week long revival in town under a tent…
That’s how many people picture revival, as a meeting under a tent…
And I don’t know about all denominations, but many Churches have gimmicks to promote this evangelistic effort…
I have a book at the house which is entitled “Revival planbook for the local church”
It has some good ideas and suggestions in it, but it also gives some of the gimmick promotional ideas such as ;
High attendance day,
Battle of the banners,
Pack-a-pew night,
Hot dog night,
Children’s night,
Youth night
Family night,
Good neighbor support or prospect night,
Friendship night,
Patriotic night,
Old fashioned night… and on old fashioned night I have heard of people who have had there ties cut off with the scissors if they wore a tie to Church that night…
Doesn’t that sound like fun….
Now, there is nothing wrong with having fun…
But we should try to bring in everyone we know each and every night…
Every night should be youth night, every night should be pak a pew night, every night should be bring a friend night….
but lets not get away from what true revival is all about…
Lets not get away from the reason for the services to begin with…
And yes, I know that not all churches use gimmicks for their revival services, but most churches do put the emphases on reaching the lost, and then a less substantial emphases is put on bringing in “backslidden” members, or those who have fallen away from coming to church on a regular basis….
But is that what REVIVAL is all about?
Even the tenth edition of the Miriam Webster’s collegiate dictionary has fallen into this trap…
As a secondary definition of the word revival, they have
“a period of renewed religious interest…” and “an often highly emotional evangelistic meeting or series of meetings”
But, if you were to back up to the original definition.,.. it says
“ an act or instance of reviving : the state of being revived”
And if you look at the definition of revived you will see that it comes from the Latin word reviver and it means “To live again”
“To bring back to life or consciences”
And if we were to take this and apply it to the church today, it would mean a process by which the spiritual life and power of Gods people is once again brought back, or restored to them…
So if we look at the word revival, we can determine that the act of revival is to deal with the existing deadness within the church, NOT the much emphasized and publicized act of bringing the lost to Christ…
As Henry Blackaby once put it, you can not revive something that has never been vived, or, born to start with. Accordingly, revival should be understood as referring to a return to spiritual health and vitality after a period of spiritual decline into sin and broken fellowship with God…
Friends, it is crucial for us to realize that true revival involves restoring spiritual life and power within the Christians who make up the membership of any particular church.
We must come to realize that the focus of revival should be the lifeless and powerless spiritual condition of Christianity within the church... not the people outside the church who do not even profess to be Christians.
Until Christians really come to understand and appreciate the fact that it is ourselves who are spiritually sick and desperately in need of spiritual healing and reviving, we will never experience true revival.
Now, understand , I am not trying to diminish the need for reaching out to the lost…
Jesus commanded us to reach out to the lost…
But if we would just understand true revival, then we would find that if the Church were to be truly revived.. then we would see an increase of the lost coming to Christ because of the revival of the church..
You see, they go hand in hand…
Charles Finney once said, “revival is the renewal of the first love of Christians, resulting in the awakening and conversion of sinners to God…”
So basically, Finney was saying that when the Church is revived.. salvation of the lost will follow….
Friends, if we would ever come to understand that Gods desire for us, for the church, for the saved, is to examine ourselves and realize where We are spiritually… for us to realize that we are apathetic… that we are complacent.. that we have been less than faithful to God, that we have been less than 100 percent sold out for God…
If we, the church, were to come before God in our sinful state and fall on our knees before him, if we would confess our sinfulness and turn back to God in true brokenness, if we would come to God in true repentance, then God would forgive us, and cleanse us..
Yes, God would REVIVE US…
And if God were to revive us, there would be such power in our lives and in our churches that all those around us, including the lost would see the transformation, the true transformation in our lives and they would realize… that they have a need and a desire for that kind of transformation….
Friends, if we here at Midway Baptist Church were to be revived.. a spiritual awakening could follow like has never been seen in all of history…
Do we really want to see true revival in our midst?
Well, most of us will still say OF COURSE WE DO….
Well, lets look back at the first passage of scripture I read this morning…
Lamentations 3:40-42 (NIV)
40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: 42 “We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
“Now wait just a minute here….
When we go into revival services we do it because we want to focus on helping old Sally Sloth…. Or, Jeffery Joker…
We want to show old backslidden Bill the error of his ways…
We want Lost Leanne to come to Christ…
We want Dirty Dann to straighten his life out….
This is not about ME…..
I mean, we would rather give to the poor and needy,
We would rather devote our energies to reaching the lost… you know those in true need of spiritual help…
Lets start another program,
Lets start a support group,
Lets get the evangelism committee going.. Ill serve on the committee..
Lets get the outreach program in full swing….
Ill devote my time, resources and energy to someone else…. But just don’t make me look at my own spiritual life…
Don’t make me examine myself in light of Gods pureness and holiness…
Don’t make me look at what I am doing today , how I am living my life, after the great sacrifice that Christ has made for me…”
You see, most Christians will do almost anything, to avoid looking at our own lives and seeing the needed adjustments that we should be making…
The need for true revival friends, is for those of us sitting in here thing morning, and those that will be here this evening….
The need for revival is not a need for THEM OUT THERE…
It is a need for those of US in here…
We need to examine ourselves, we need to test ourselves, WE NEED TO RETURN TO THE LORD….
WE NEED REVIVAL.
If we fail to recognize that it is us who need revival… then true revival will not be seen.
But, if we can get past this painful moment in our lives, if we can come to truth and realize it is for OUR good, not someone else’s, then revival can come our way..
And God has a formula in His word to show us how to usher in TRUE revival…
It is a passage that is used quite often, a passage that we used at one of our cottage prayer meetings this week….
Take your Bibles and turn to 2 Chronicles 7:14….
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Now, I want you to notice here, a promise from God…
God says, I WILL hear from heaven….
I WILL forgive their sin….
I WILL heal their land…
But we must also notice that the very first word in that passage of scripture, is the word IF!
And that word if is a very big, little bitty word…
It is a prerequisite…. It is a condition…
And IF we meet Gods conditions, then He will grant us the promised blessings…
IF we humble ourselves……
IF we pray,
If we seek Gods face and turn from the sinfulness that we each have inside of us…
If we realize that the need is for us, that we need to do these things, and if we do these things with an earnest desire…
THEN God will hear,
Then God will forgive,
Then God will heal… or, restore us to the spiritual life and health and power that we so long to have…
It takes self-examination guys…. Something that we don’t necessarily want to do…
In talking about being humble, the “Expository Dictionary of Bible Words” teaches that there is pain involved with self-examination and confession of sin….
The process of honestly and soberly evaluating our conduct and attitudes against the plumb line of God’s word as stated in Amos 7:7-8 is no pleasant occasion.
Remember what God has said about His word: Jeremiah 23:29 (NIV)
29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The intense conviction of the Holy Spirit is extremely uncomfortable.
John 16:8 (NIV)
8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
Jonah discovered what every Christian should know, that you can try to run from the spirit of God but you cannot successfully hide from him… God is always there….
In his letter to the first century Christians, James made it very clear that the experience of humbling ourselves to God in confession and repentance, so as to bring about the cleansing of sin from our lives, will not be a happy, cheerful occasion.
James 4:7-10 (NIV)
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
There should be no doubt in our minds that God’s requirements for true revival of humbling ourselves before him will be a painful, distressing and traumatic experience in deed.
With this understanding of the pain, discomfort, distress, brokenness and humiliation which are all part of the process of humbling ourselves, and in view of the fact that humbling ourselves is the first and foremost prerequisite for revival…
why would anyone in his right mind ever want to experience true revival?
Well, quite honestly…. Not many people would.
And not many Christians do!
It’s a wonder that any church would want to have true revival.
And it’s no wonder most churches have long ago stopped trying to have genuine revival.
Do we really want revival?
Do we really want to do what it takes in our own lives to see God work in and through us this very day?
Are we willing to go through the painful process of self examination… are we willing to confess our sins… are we willing to change our ways….
Are we willing to get right with God…
Do we really want to see revival!
I hope and I pray that we do… all of us…
If we want to see this nation of ours brought back from the very brink of destruction…
If we want to see our friends and family members come to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus…
If we want to see God work in a mighty way…. WE NEED REVIVAL.
Are you ready today?
Are you willing today?
Let us today friends, prepare our hearts and our lives… let us today, give in to God, let us today, examine ourselves and free our lives of all that would hinder true revival….
Lamentations 3:40-42 (NIV)
40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: 42 “We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
Yes friends, as we prepare for the week long series of services… let US seek and desire… true revival!
As we prepare this week, you can show the Lord how serious you are… you can show the Lord that you are ready,… would you do that this morning…
