Why Do We Need Revival?

Romans chapter 13 and we'll be there in just a moment. If you don't have a Bible, there probably one in a hymn book rack there nearby. You can grab and turn with us. Romans 13 and we'll begin reading in just a moment from verse 11. I want to go back to a verse I skipped here at the earlier in the service because I thought another verse went better with the song we're singing but this goes better with the message that we're preaching this morning.

Revelation two, four, and five. John is writing to the churches in Asia which to us is actually Turkey and he says there, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. Now, this particular church, a church at Ephesus that the apostle John is writing to. He had a lot of good things to say about.

It was a good church. They they were sticking by the truth of God's word. They were contending for the faith as we've been studying about in Sunday school. They were true believers in the Lord. They were faithful believers in ministering to one another and in the church but John writes them and he says to them, I have this one thing against you.

You have left your what? First love. First love. And that first love is Jesus Christ. Not that they had completely abandoned him or betrayed him.

But they had become cold. In their love for him. They had become distant. They were going through the what? The motions.

You know, that happens in a lot of relationships. Happens in in marriages. Happens in friendships. Love grows cold. You start just going through the the motions.

Relationship is not what it ought to be or what it should be. If it doesn't have one vital element and that is love. My question this morning is this, do you need revival? Do we need revival? We're we're having revival meetings the end of this month.

We're having revival services but it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to have revival. It means we're holding meetings. It means there's a preacher coming. It means hopefully that you will come to hear him. But it doesn't necessarily mean that that we as a church or individuals will necessarily have revival just because we have an evangelist come come and just because we have meetings.

A lot of it has to do with the attitude of whose heart? My heart. Your heart. Do you really need revive? Do we as a church really need revive?

Well, if the answer to that is maybe not me, maybe them. I don't know. Then chances are we won't have. The answer to that question is vitally important this morning. Do you need revival?

This word revival simply means to be revived. Sometimes, we use it to describe someone who is virtually dead. As someone that was in an accident or had a heart attack and they take them to hospital and they resuscitate them. They revive them. Their heart had stopped.

They quit breathing and they get their heart pumping again and their lungs breathing air and they come back from the brink of death. We say that they were revived. Sometimes we use it to refer to a person who seemingly had given up on their task for lack of desire or strength and is revived in their pursuit. You know, they they had almost given up and they were revived. In the pursuit of whatever their task was.

Sometimes, we use it to refer to the task itself or the project or ministry or idea being revived. That is, it had almost been lost. It almost essentially died and the project was revived. It was brought back to to life again. Sometimes it can refer to a group like a church or school or a business which was about to go under and it was revived.

There are businesses sometimes that because of their management, because of other things, they they are just about to fold up but they come out with a new project or they hire new management. They start doing something different and they are revived. Sometimes, we simply use it to refer to someone who was asleep and has been revived. How do we mean it in reference to spiritual revival of a church or an individual? What do we mean by revival?

We're not talking about waking somebody up in the service who's nodding, okay? Though there are sometimes those that do that. We're not talking about waking up our kid for school who needs to be revived. We're not talking about his project that his homework that needs to be revived or his desire to do it. We're not talking about someone who's in the hospital whose heart is stopped that needs to be revived.

That's not how we're using it in reference to scripture, in reference to the services we're about to have. It is often used to refer to someone who is dead spiritually. If you're going to be brought back to life or revived so to speak, first, you are dead. The Bible says that before we're saved, we are dead in trespasses and in sins and by God's grace through faith in Christ, we have been quickened. That means we have been brought back to life.

We have been made alive in Jesus Christ. Our spiritual self is made alive again. Alive toward God so that we can love him, serve him, trust him. Once again It's often used of those who are saved or get saved. They've been revived by God's grace.

When I was nine years old, I was revived. I was quickened. I was brought back to life through Jesus Christ, my savior when I came to him. By faith, many of you have a similar testimony. Some of you tonight may not have a testimony of the time that you came to Christ.

And by faith received him as the Lord and savior of your life. You need that testimony because you need God's saving grace. For there's only one way to heaven. There's only one way to salvation and there's only one way to the father and there's only one way to eternal everlasting life. That is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

So, revival does speak to that but many of you here this morning, you've already been revived in that manner. You were, like me, you've been saved for several years. So, it's revival for you. Well, yes, it is. It's also used in reference to Christians.

Those who have already been saved, those who've already been made alive but in the course of living our life and serving the Lord, our love begins to what? Grow We get complacent stagnant in our growth and service. We allow other things to creep in to our life and distract us and and take up pieces of our heart and our allegiance and our time. We become complacent, stagnant in our growth and service for our master We are easily lulled asleep by the comforts and distractions of this life and we need to be woke up. We need to be woke up by our Lord.

Not by a preacher, not by an evangelist. Though God may use them as tools but it is God is the holy spirit who wakes us up. It doesn't have to wait till we have services to happen. If we'll pray and yield our heart and ourselves to the Lord. He can restore the joy of our salvation.

He can restore the zeal for the things of God. He can wake us Do you need to be woke up this morning? The answer to that speaking personally is yes. You take your Bibles, look if you would in Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13.

Look in verses 11 through 14. Paul writes and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision or no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Paul writes to the Roman Christians and he says in verse 11, it is high time. We wake up out of sleep.

Now, he's not writing to the unsaved. He's writing to those who are already what? Saved, already believers, already Christians and Paul writes to them and says, it is about time. It is high time. It's it's nearly past time.

We wake up spiritually. That we wake up to the battle that's going around us. That we get some zeal for the Lord that that we repent of our complacency That we repent, turn from, our distractions, We pour our hearts out to the Lord and we pour ourselves out in his service and we catch fire again. For Jesus Christ. It's time that we wake up.

First Thessalonians five verses five and six says, you are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober. Is Paul telling the Thessalonians that they don't ever need to go to bed at night and sleep? No, that's not what he's saying.

What is he saying to them? He's saying, you have the light of God's word. You have the light of the gospel. You have the holy spirit. You know the truth.

We are children of the king and the kingdom and of the light of Jesus Christ. We don't walk in the darkness of sin and unbelief. We know the truth. We've been set free. We have the Holy Spirit.

We live in the light of God's word. In the light of his love. Paul says, let us therefore not be lulled to sleep by the world. Let us not fall asleep on the task that God has laid out before us. There is a job to be done.

There is a mission to fulfill. God has not left us here on this Earth to simply spin our wheels and gratify our flesh, right? We know better. It is high time that we wake up. It is time for us to be revived.

Have you grown complacent? Have you fallen asleep at the wheel? Figuratively? Have you lost your zeal to serve Christ? To win the lost, defeat sin in the flesh each day of your life?

It's a battle. Have you given up, thrown in the towel? Have you lost sight of the heavenly prize for the treasures of earth? Have you forgotten? What it was like when you first trusted Christ as savior?

Have you forgotten the zeal? Have you forgotten all that God has done for you? Because we're so caught up in the things of the world. All that the people that aren't here today were here. Because obviously many of them are not here because they're caught up in the things of the world.

Other things are more important but they're not here. So, God must also have something for us today and it very well may be that we desperately need revival and I know that to some extent we do If you would take your Bibles, turn if you would to second Peter Second Peter one five through nine. Second Peter one five through nine. Talking about that word forgotten having forgotten. Peter writes here in chapter one of second Peter beginning in verse five.

He is writing to professing Christians, those who claim faith in Jesus Christ. He says to them, and besides this, that is your faith. Your salvation, giving all diligence, add to your faith what? Virtue and the virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, or self control, to temperance, patience, to patience, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is a life of growth. The Christian life is a life of bearing fruit while the holy spirit for the fruit of the holy spirit builds in our life day by day as we follow Christ and yield ourselves to him. These different characteristics and virtues that are listed here and others and as we grow in the Lord and we grow in his grace and we grow in his love and we grow in our relationship with him, it says here as those things happen that he will make you that you shall never be barren or nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will will grow and you'll have peace and joy and your zeal and your burden for the lost and for the Lord. Will grow.

Sometimes, I hate to say it often times. That isn't what happens. Rather than being diligent, uses the word diligent here. Rather than being diligent to grow in the Lord and to add these areas of integrity and and spiritual growth and fruit in our life being yielded to him rather than doing that, we get off on tangents. We get distracted by other things and God goes on the what?

The back burner. God gets put on the the backbone. A relationship with him takes second place and it says here in verse nine verse nine, but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. But he that lacketh these things is blind. And cannot see afar off but hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Eternal security and assurance of your salvation are not the same thing. Sometimes, we take the two and we imply that they're the same thing but they're not. As a Christian, you should have a assurance of your salvation because of eternal security but also because the Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit that you are a what? A child of God. Because God is producing fruit.

In your life because your faith is growing stronger. Day by day. And that should give you assurance. You see, if you trust Christ as savior and you become a child of God by faith, we are sealed by the holy spirit until the day of redemption. We are given eternal life which never ends.

We become the children of God and Jesus said, he that cometh to me, I will in no wise what? Truth. Cast out. I will no wise cast out. What does that mean?

That means that Jesus won't cast you out. If you come to him by faith, you'll become his child and you'll be his child for how long? Forever. That's eternal security. But you may believe in eternal security and not have assurance of your salvation today.

Because you're not living like a Christian You're not growing like a Christian. You're not producing fruit like a Christian There's sin in your life that you're not dealing with and that assurance therefore can be lacking. In your life. Your personal assurance. Does Peter, does God want you to have that assurance?

Yes, he does. But when we're not living for the Lord and when we're backslid and when we're complacent and when we're cold, we don't see it. We don't feel it. There is a remedy for that. Come to the Lord Jesus As it said in the verse we read from Revelation a moment ago, repent.

Repent. Why do you need revival? Two things quickly this morning. You need revival first of all according to Romans chapter 13. You need revival because the day of judgement The judgement day of all is fast approaching and our time is running out.

You need to wake up. You need to get serious. You need to be diligent. You need to wake up and be revived because your time is limited. So is everyone else's.

It says here again in revel or in Romans thirteen eleven, knowing this that now is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Paul writes the Romans, he said, now listen, the day you're going to stand before God is coming quickly and it's closer than the day you got saved and of course, that's true. Whether we'll meet him in death or whether we'll meet him at the rapture, the day of our departure, and the Bema seat, judgement seat of Christ, then we'll give an account of what we did for him as his children.

That day is fast. Bible says, see here. James four fourteen. Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?

It is what? Even as a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. Fact is, I might have forty years left. I might have forty days left. The fact is, I don't know.

And in light of eternity, it's all like a vapor. That's right. Like that boiling water pot and the vapor comes up and you go to grab it and it's already what? It's already gone. In eternity, that's what our life is like.

It's there for a fleeting moment and then it's gone. Our time is limited. The time that we will stand before God is coming. It says in Hebrews nine twenty seven as appointed on the man wants to die but after this, the judgment. There are two judgments in scripture.

The sake of time, we won't spend a lot of time on it today but there's the judgment of the saved and the judgment of the lost. We as Christians will stand before a judgment of of the Lord to be rewarded for our service for him. I pray and I hope that I won't see my life go up in smoke nor yours. Will we be found to have done nothing for Jesus Christ? Or will we hear the words well done?

Thou good and faithful servant. And then there's the judgment of the lost that's called the great white throne judgment. Amen. The lost will be to stand before God who without Christ and without his forgiveness and without his redemption will be judged on their works alone. And be found guilty and cast into the lake of fire.

Every person that's ever lived on this Earth apart from Jesus Christ will stand at one of those judgments one day. And that time is fast approaching. It's time we woke up. It's time we got serious. We need revival.

We need to get a zeal for the Lord back. We we need to wait. We need God to open our eyes and to burden us and to give us strength and grace to set aside the things that are holding us back. The the sins which so easily beset us. The the weights that hold us down in our service for Christ and refocus us.

On the things of the Lord. For it's so easy. For us to be distracted. Drawn into other things with our thoughts, our time, and our energy. Things that are of little eternal consequence.

Why do we need revival? Well, because the judgement day is fast approaching. Second of all, because as he mentions here in Revelation Romans chapter 13, he said, as the night is far spent, the day is at hand, Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

The second reason we need revival is the heart of Christians everywhere have grown cold and have become entangled with the things of what? And the things of this life. We read this to start the service out. Now, therefore, Paul talking to Timothy and door hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that worth entangled with himself with the affairs of this life.

You see, the world out there do you expect the world, the lost, to become entangled in the things of this life in this world. Do we expect that? Does God expect that? The answer to that is yes. Does it make it right?

No. But it's expected We who know Christ God calls us pilgrims and strangers in this world. That's why I sang that song. Make me a stranger on earth, dear savior. Unentangled my heart, my affections, and my life.

From the things of this world that's got me caught up and distracted. And grown cold and complacent. I need revival. I need God to unentangle my heart. Because we get entangled so easily.

It's like that insect that's caught in that spider web and at first, they struggle and they fight and they find it hard to escape and they just get more entangled and then finally, eventually, they just sort of what? They just sort of give up. Wait for the end to come. How sad it is that there are so many Christians and so many professing Christians who have pretty much just what? Given up and they're just waiting for the end.

How sad? Is that the life that God wanted us to have? Christ said, I have come to give them life but I have come to give them life more what? Abundantly. God doesn't want us to be just spinning our wheels here waiting for heaven to come.

God has a task for us. God has joy and peace and abundant life for us to enjoy. But we can't become entangled and when we get entangled, we need to get freed, unentangled. When we get cold, we need to get warm back up. We do need revival.

Just a few thoughts this morning concerning that. First is is this here. We get entangled in the pleasures of this life so easily. The attractions of this life. We come enamored with the amusements and the pleasures of this world.

And they rob us of our joy and our zeal for the Lord. First John two fifteen through 17, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of the father abideth forever.

John writes to professing Christians. He says to them, do not love what? Now, he's not talking about the people. He makes that clear in the second verse in verse 16. He says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world.

If we get entangled in the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, If we get entangled in the pleasures of this life and if we put God on the back burner and put other things first in our life, particularly sin and its pleasures, then, you are spiritually going to what? Grow cold. You're going to grow cold. You're going to lose your zeal. We're going to sacrifice our testimony.

We're going to become entangled and think, hey, well, I just can't do it. Well, you can't but somebody can and if you're a Christian, he already lives where? Inside your heart. You need to repent. You need to repent.

You need to repent of that sin. That has beset your life. That thing that you keep going back to that you know is wrong. It's robbing you of the abundant life that is yours in Jesus Christ. It's it's causing you to hesitate in your service for Christ because you know that in here, there's something that's what?

Something not right. And so we become complacent because the Bible says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness but we quit confessing. Because we don't want to deal with it and we just let it go. And maybe it's just the entertainment amusements of this world. I find it interesting sometimes I talk to people and I say, hey, why did you miss Sunday?

You know, they're they're in their family when we had some family with couple families with kids and they wouldn't show up Sunday morning. I'd say, hey, we missed you Sunday morning. Well, we went to Busch Gardens Saturday and we were just so tuckered out to going to Busch Gardens that we couldn't make it to church on Sunday. What is that? That is a choice.

That's what that is. A choice. A choice to choose the attractions and amusements of the world over the worship of the Lord. What do we teach our children when we do that? Why do we teach our children when we can't go to church on Sunday nights because we have to stay home and watch ball games?

What are we teaching our children? What are we teaching our families? And what is happening in our heart? When those things become more important. When I was a kid, there was Disney had an hour long program on its at 07:00 on Sunday nights.

The wonderful world of Disney. Some of you may remember that. Our church service at at the church where I, my parents went started at 07:00. So, every Sunday, just when it was about to come on and I wanted to watch it, I had to go to church and I never got to watch the wonderful world of Disney. Every now and then, I'd be sick and I'd get to stay home and I would watch the wonderful world of Disney.

But if I was well, I went to church. Now, whose choice was that? At the time, that wasn't my choice, it was my my parents' choice. They made me go to church. You know something?

I'm glad they did because they taught me what was more important and it wasn't the wonderful world of Disney. Now, there are some pleasures of this life that are fine. Just because it's pleasureful doesn't make it wrong. Just because it's amusing doesn't make it a sin. But what's more important?

What's taking up residence in our heart? There's nothing innately wicked and evil about a television set. But is God taking second place to football games or is God taking second place to whatever your favorite show may be? There's no room for the love of God in our heart when we replace him with the attractions of this world. We need to repent.

The second thing this morning is this, the treasures of this life. Matthew six nineteen through 21. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moss nor wrath doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Also, One of the reasons we need revival is because we become enamored with the pleasures of this world.

Another reason is because we become captivated with the riches. Of this world. We become captivated with silver and gold. There's a a song on Rudolph, the Red News Reindeer, on on Christmas time that the Klondike whatever guy sings. I forget what his name is on the cartoon but but he goes silver and gold, silver and gold.

Seems so much more when I see. Actually, Burl Ives, I think sings it on the cartoon. Silver and gold decorations on every Christmas tree. It's a cute song, silver and gold. Silver and gold.

But how sad it is that we as Christians become drawn away from playing up treasure in heaven for the sake of laying up silver and gold on earth. You know, it's nice to have a little silver and gold and the fact is, you need some of it. But what are you living for? And again and again and again as a youth pastor, as a pastor, twenty four years in the ministry now, I have seen person after person after person. They get saved, they come to church, they start to grow, but then, then, the grass is greener.

The money is better The house is nicer and rather than keeping their eyes focused on the Lord They get drawn away by the quest for riches. I gotta have that house. I gotta have that car. I gotta have that much money in the bank. No, you don't.

What does the Bible say? What does Jesus say? But seek you what? First, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto What shall a profit if a man gain the whole world and lose his own what? Soul.

And you say, but pastor, I'm not gonna lose my soul. I know Christ as savior. Praise the Lord. Then act like it. Live like it.

Don't allow the glint of riches. To keep you out of church to to take precedence in your heart over your worship and your service and your relationship with God. Don't allow riches to be the thing that drives you. For the love of riches is the root of all evil. The love of riches.

You say, but Christians can't love riches. Yes, you can. We can allow riches, treasure, wealth, popularity, all kinds of things. The desire to gain it, to have it, to feel secure in it to steer our heart away from the things of God and to cause us to grow cold. Has your life been a life of pursuit of riches?

Are riches the thing, the money in the bank account, the thing that drives your decisions in life? Have we been consumed with our homes and our acquisitions and our cars and our our our whatever at the expense of Christ having priority in first place in our heart, in our life, in our mind. I think to a certain extent, many of us as Christians struggle with that. If we're honest. It's sin which does so easily beset us.

Particularly in a lucrative society. What do we need to do? We need to repent. We need to be revived. Because repent and if we don't wake up, we're simply going to go further asleep and we're simply going to get more what?

Entangled. God doesn't want you that for you. And we owe him much more. I'm not done with the sermon. I'll finish it next week.

I have three more points. Let's start with the two this morning. The attractions and the amusements of this life and the treasures of this world. Do we need revival in those areas? Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you for your word. Thank you for what you've done for us on Calvary. Thank you for what you're doing for us this very day. Thank you for the home you promised us in heaven. Thank you Lord for Jesus Christ, our savior, and the opportunity to serve you.

Thank you, Lord for your word and the reminder today to wake up, to not be lulled asleep by the pleasures of this world and by the treasures of this world. Lord, help us to see in our life. Those things have taken precedence. Those things have taken hold and they've taken a hold of our heart. Lord, wake us up today.

We pray if there be one here that's never received Jesus Christ. We pray they come as we sing this hymn of invitation and they might be brought to life through faith in Christ might receive a home in heaven. Forgiveness that you only have to give. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.