Awakening Or Revival?

AWAKENING OR REVIVAL?

“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city." - Acts 8:4-8

When Philip preached in Samaria, great things happened. People heard and heeded the Word. Lives were changed. Miracles took place. The Scripture states, “And there was great joy in that city.” Wow!

What if this happened in your hometown? What if it happened to an entire region or country? Actually, that is exactly what we need. While others seek political or social change, I am praying for a spiritual change to take place here in my region … and right here in the United States.

Do we need a revival or an awakening? The answer is that we need both. There is a difference between a revival and an awakening. A revival is a divine move of God among His people, typically at a local church. An awakening is a wide-spread move of God bringing many sinners to saving faith in Christ.

The colonies actually enjoyed a spiritual awakening in the 1730's and 1740's. Historians refer to it as the Great Awakening. God used the preaching of men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield to reach thousands of souls with the Gospel. A second Great Awakening occurred around 1800 and a third in the 1850's.

Our churches need a fresh move of God. We need revival. Typically, genuine revival produces mass evangelism which often results in an awakening. A revival that never penetrates the four walls of a local church will never last and it is questionable whether it is really revival at all.

When churches experience revival, refreshed believers boldly take the Gospel into the community and beyond. The same Spirit who brings revival also fuels revived believers into becoming effective evangelists. When the community and region gets stirred by the Gospel, the local churches are invigorated by this, causing revival to continue.

We need revival in our churches. We need an awakening in our communities, our region, our nation and across the world. The United States used to be the greatest missionary-sending country in the world. Now we've become one of the largest mission fields. When Christians experience revival, they realize that they are missionaries right where they are. Homes, communities and workplaces are ripe harvest fields in dire of need of missionaries like us. May God raise up an army of believers to penetrate this world with the Gospel!

A genuine revival is rare these days. Our nation has not seen a spiritual awakening in my lifetime. We need both a revival and an awakening.

I want to see revival in my lifetime. I long to see a spiritual awakening occur in this nation. I am tired of the status quo. I am frustrated with the spiritual apathy that is prevalent in America. I am sick of seeing churches compromise with the world rather than impacting the world. I am saddened to see so many churches closing their doors. It is heartbreaking to realize that over 150,000 people die daily, many of them without Christ. Meanwhile most church members seem to be playing games at the foot of the cross.

Our problems are obvious to see, but the solution requires a miracle. The only hope for this world's woes is the person of Jesus Christ. Only He can revive our churches. God is the only One who can take lukewarm church members and set them aflame with revival. It takes a mighty move of God to revive the cold churches in our communities. This is something we can't produce. Only God can provide it. It begins with people like you and me. We need to get serious about spiritual matters and seek God passionately for revival and an awakening.

Today is a good day to begin.

Ruin Or Revival

 RUIN OR REVIVAL

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” - Isaiah 5:20

Our world is in a mess. The news headlines remind us of this fact every day. It would not be an understatement to say that our nation is facing judgment because she has embraced, encouraged and endorsed sin. Isaiah wrote, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.” Sadly, that describes our nation today. Notice that God declares “woe” unto such people.

In the Old Testament, prophets were given the unpleasant task of preaching a message of judgment to nations. Israel was not exempt from the message of doom. As a result, God-ordained prophets were abused and tortured because of their faithfulness in preaching God's message. In spite of the “positive message” from false prophets, the prophecy of judgment actually occurred.

I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet. However, it is my firm belief that there is no political solution to our nation's spiral descent into destruction. Apart from a miracle of God's grace, our nation is doomed.

There are many “feel-good,” preachers who, like the false prophets of old, refuse to warn of bad news. While it is true that the Christian message is good news, it can only be fully appreciated in the light of the bad news. Only when unbelievers realize their guilt before a holy God will they really appreciate the cross and God's marvelous gift of eternal life.

Although we are commanded to spread the Gospel, our message does not negate the reality of judgment. When a nation proudly follows the path of Sodom and Gomorrah, the same judgment that fell on those two cities will certainly come to such a nation that embraces their sin.

There is only one hope for America. Only one. The people of America need to honestly admit their guilt and desperately seek God for mercy. Is this possible? Let me give you an example of a city that did this. Nineveh was an evil, wicked city. God sent Jonah to preach to them. His message was not a self-improvement, self-motivation sermon. Instead, he preached the message that God gave him. In forty days, Nineveh would be destroyed.

Surprisingly, this wicked city believed the message and repented, including the king! As a result, God had mercy and spared them.

This story gives me hope for our land. We need more preachers to preach the uncompromising truth of Scripture. We need to get serious about our situation. Let me put it bluntly. We are in a desperate situation … yet the American church seems oblivious to this fact.

I invite you to join with me in doing three things:

1. PRAY

If these are desperate times, we need to act like desperate people. We need to pray for America. We used to sing, “God bless America,” but she is not on blessing grounds today. Instead, we should pray, “God have mercy on America.” Pray for the American church to be revived. Intercede on behalf of the lukewarm church members. Pray for a mighty spiritual awakening to come to our nation. Pray for our leaders. If the king of Nineveh could repent, so can our leaders. We need to pray desperately because this is a desperate situation.

2. PREACH

Next, we need to faithfully proclaim the Gospel. Warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come. We need to point lost souls to Jesus. People need to hear the truth. There is good news and we need to spread it. If Christians got serious about sharing the Gospel, God would change this country! Lester Roloff once said, “If you want to save America, get America saved.”

3. PREPARE

As we pray and preach, we should expect a hostile response from the devil. Prepare for spiritual warfare. Put on the whole armor of God each day. Stand on the promises of God. America is worth fighting for. Souls are worth fighting for. As Christians, we fight on our knees, fighting spiritual battles with spiritual weapons. We shouldn't be surprised when persecution comes. The devil is a dirty fighter. We can't afford to get complacent or lazy. Too much is at stake.

I'm not giving up on America. Yet it may be that I'll never see a spiritual awakening in my lifetime. Perhaps America has gone too far. At the very least, I want to go to my grave fighting against the devil every step of the way. I want to finish well, living for the glory of God, preaching the Gospel and winning souls. Or as the late evangelist, Bill Stafford once put it, “I want to die with my boots on.”

What about you?

Revive Us Again

REVIVE US AGAIN

“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” - Psalm 85:6

I confess that I love old hymns. While I enjoy new songs, I also have a passion to keep hymns alive in the church. Someone once said that a good hymn is theology set to music. I couldn't agree more! Recently, the congregation at our church sang this grand old hymn:

Revive us again,

Fill each heart with Thy love;

May each soul be rekindled,

With fire from above!

If there has ever been a time that revival is needed in the America church, it is right now. We need a fresh move of the Spirit in congregations across our land. There is a dire need for God to do a mighty work in our hearts and lives. The Church should be making a powerful difference in our world. Instead, the world is making a woeful difference in our churches.

We need something more than paved parking lots, new choir robes and the latest programs. We need the power of God like never before.

There are many signs that indicate our desperate situation. When we consider facts like decreasing church attendance, increased heresy, the high divorce rate among believers, hypocrisy in churches, and apostasy that is so rampant, we know that revival is needed today.

In this message, I want to be crystal clear about revival. First of all, we are going to consider what revival is not, then we explore what revival really is.

1. WHAT REVIVAL IS NOT

There are many misunderstandings about revival. Most church members have a wrong concept about revival.

First of all, revival is not about extra meetings. Sure, you can dedicate a series of weeknight services and call it revival, but that does not guarantee that revival will arrive that week. For many people, “revival meetings,” are just extra church services and nothing more.

Secondly, revival is not primarily about conversions. Obviously, evangelism is highly important, but it is not revival. Most churches “schedule,” a revival with the desire of seeing souls saved during the special services. They want to see numerical growth. Some believe that scheduling revival services is the quick way to gain new members. If conversions do not occur during a series of “revival” services, some think that the extra services were a failure. While it is true that conversions are the often the result of revival, revival is not primarily about seeing souls saved.

2. WHAT REVIVAL IS

Revival is about God's people getting right with Him. Revival is about seeing Christians repent of worldliness, sin and compromise. Revival is a sovereign move of God among His people, drawing them closer to Him. Revival is a season of refreshing, the downpour of God's mercy on the dry, parched church. We need revival showers to sweep away our spiritual drought.

Real revival changes lives. If you want to have revival, but also maintain the status quo, you misunderstand what revival is all about. Revival is all about change. Our churches have too many Pharisees who look for others to change, but never seek to change themselves. Revival is about God changing me.

Revival begins on an individual basis, but spreads like fire. Oh, that our lives, families and churches were engulfed with revival fire today!

When revival comes, apathetic believers are set ablaze with spiritual passion. When revival arrives, the church become evangelistic (and yes, this leads to the salvation of souls). Revival brings renewed desire for holy living. Revival leads people into deeper levels of obedience and love. As Vance Havner once put it, “A revival is the church falling in love with Jesus Christ all over again.”

Be aware of this. An evangelist cannot produce revival. A genuine revival cannot be organized. Revival is a move of God. It is a divine work that only He can do. However, we can pray and prepare for revival. We should present ourselves to the Lord as candidates for revival. G. Campbell Morgan once said, “We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again. ”

Set your sails today. Perhaps the breeze of revival may come our way today!

Kill The Snake

 KILL THE SNAKE

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” - Romans 8:13

I was cutting weeds with my weedeater recently, when I noticed something moving where I had just been cutting. I looked back and saw the back half of a copperhead snake slithering away. He darted back in an area where I couldn't reach him. I wish I could have killed it. I hate snakes!

Evangelist Billy Sunday once said, “One reason that sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.” He is right. Sin is very much like a poisonous snake. First of all, like a snake, sin is deceptive. Most snakes blend in with their surrounding, making it difficult to spot them. Secondly, like the pit vipers here in the mountains where I live, sin is deadly. Copperheads and rattlesnakes are dangerous vipers and should be treated seriously.

One of the reasons the American church lacks power is because of sin. Sin is condoned. Sin is excused. Professing believers practice secret sin and then pretend to be spiritual on Sunday. One sign of genuine revival is the repentance of God's people. These days, most church members expect sinners to repent, but they never intend to do so themselves.

It is one thing to encounter a pit viper in nature, it is another thing to deliberately bring one into your own home. When we allow sin to continue in our lives, we've unleashed a pit viper in our lives.

If a man is home with his family and sees a copperhead snake move behind a couch, does the man simply lean back in his recliner and say, “Out of sight, out of mind”? Does he wishfully hope that the snake will find its way out of the house? Absolutely not! For the sake of his family's health, as well as his own, he will do everything possible to locate and remove the dangerous reptile right then. He won't go to bed until the snake is gone.

That is how we should deal with sin. Paul wrote, “... if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” The “deeds of the body,” that Paul writes about are sinful deeds. The word, “mortify,” means to kill or slay. As Puritan John Owen once wrote, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

Is there a sinful snake on the loose in your life? Be assured that you, your family and others will be harmed. Perhaps there is a whole den of snakes on the loose in your life. How do we exterminate the snakes of sin?

1. ENACT A HEALTHY FEAR

I have a healthy fear of snakes. I don't faint or panic when I see one, but I am acutely aware of the danger. When it comes to sin, we tend to underestimate the power of sin and overestimate our ability to deal with it. We need to understand the nature of sin. We should treat sin seriously. Furthermore, we should hate sin. We should hate sin just like we hate snakes. Jesus was commended by His Father because He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Let's do the same.

Furthermore, we need a healthy fear of God. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. These days, there aren't many sermons about fearing God. Perhaps that is why our churches are in a mess. People don't fear God like they should. The writer of the book of Hebrews said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” When we fear God, we tend to treat sin seriously.

2. EMPLOY A HELPING FRIEND

In some areas, snake infestation requires the aid of an animal control specialist. Well, we have a specialist who can help us get rid of the snakes of sin. Our text says, “but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Notice this is “through the Spirit,” that the deeds of the body are put to death. You and I are not able to rid ourselves of the snakes. We need a professional. The Spirit is our helper. He is our friend. A sword can easily sever the head of a snake. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. It is the weapon that Jesus used on the mount of temptation. Let's use it ourselves and watch this sword slay the serpents in our lives.

3. EMBRACE A HOLY FUTURE

Snakes reside where there is food. If you keep the grass and weeds trimmed, snakes tend to stay away. Snakes enjoy devouring mice and ground squirrels. They love blackberry vines, where small birds come to dine. Clean up the area and you often rid yourself of snakes. The same is true of our lives. Come to the Lord and experience His cleansing. Cooperate in the sanctification process. Keep your heart and mind clean. The snakes will have a harder time entering a clean area. Get clean and stay clean.

We need to treat sin seriously. We need to go into attack-mode and take drastic action. If you found a rattlesnake in your home, you'd take drastic action, wouldn't you? That's how you need to respond to sin.

Take drastic action.  By the power of the Spirit, kill the snake of sin!