Do you know what God hates? Hypocrisy! Vain religion! Lip-service! These things He cannot tolerate. These things sap the power right out of His house. These things weaken the saints and sicken the heathen.

There is a price for Revival. It doesn't just come. God doesn't just decide one day to pour out his spirit and Boom! There it is.

No! God responds to the sincere hunger and seeking of His people. But He doesn't respond to mere begging. He responds to sincerity. What does sincerity look like? Well, if you've ever had anyone wrong you and apologize, you know what sincerity looks like. There is action in sincerity. Things change.

Notice what God says in this passage -

The ox knows who commands him - the donkey knows who owns him - but we prefer to think of God as our "buddy", our "friend".

Yes, Jesus called us friends. God has called us His children. But He is still the Lord and Master of the universe, and He should be respected as such.

Do you know him as Lord? Boss?

But they still called Him Lord. They still attended services and offered offerings.

They were doing the 'right' things - making the right moves. They had their religion down. They knew what to do. They had 'church'.

Meaningless offerings? What is he talking about?

Why? Because they were formalities! Because they were substitutes for the real thing. These people knew how to 'worship'. They sang the songs and raised their hands. They cried and jumped and shouted. What more could they do?

Listen to what God says He will do to these people.

What? God is not listening!

If you knew God had quit listening to you, what would you do? Find out why and fix it!!!

Clean up your act! Stop doing wrong! Go and sin no more! Learn to do right! Do something right for a change! It's not enough just to stop doing wrong. You must learn to do right.

God wants to revive his church. But He can't if his church is dishonoring Him. There is a price for revival!

3 things are required for revival.

Obey God. Do what He says. Do exactly what He says. Get your life in order. Once you have experienced His grace, you must live in obedience to Him.

Do you have a grudge against someone? Better make it right.

Are you legal? You may be free, but are you legal? Are you in right standing with a clear conscience before God and man? Have you cheated on your income tax? Were you completely honest? You cannot expect God to bless dishonesty can you?

How about your account with God? I know I've mentioned this a few times lately, but it doesn't seem to be getting through.

Are you tithing? Uncle Sam gets his share every week. Does God? Do you understand that the tithe is 10% of your income and that the tithe is the Lord's. Let's read it again -

The tithe is 10%, or 1/10. The storehouse is the local church. It is not your brother-in-law who has financial problems. It is not your aging mother. It is not charity, or the United Way, or any other such agency. You can't give God's money to anyone other than to God. Who gave you that right? Not God!

Do I want your money? Yes! I want your money. No - let me rephrase that - I want God's money out of your pocket. I'm tired of counting pennies to see which bills we can pay this week. I'm tired of calling the bank to see when and if I can cash my pay check. (I don't mean to complain, but there is no excuse for this. There is enough money in this room to support this ministry if everyone would do their part.) God's business should be doing better than this.

You raise your hands and praise God, but do you praise Him with your disobedience? Put your money where your mouth is!

I've been watching Christian TV. That's where a lot of the money is going. Maybe I need to say it the way they say it. "Your Christian program that you love can stay on your station - it all depends on you. Do you want to keep it on the air?"

One said this just the other night -

"The minute you get paid you need to pull out your tithes and offerings. Get the curse off of your house. You have cut off the flow of God in your life. The choices you make determine the outcomes you receive."

And listen to this -

"If one person refuses and disobeys, they can stop the release for the whole house. Remember Achan (explain). Once we break the agreement - the covenant with God - everything miscarries."

Are you doing your part in serving Him? Most people complain about what is not being done, or about how things were done wrong. Some even complain about who is doing the work. Stop complaining and start doing.

It's time to repair the altar! In 2 Kings, Josiah ordered the temple, and the altar, and proper worship to be restored in Israel. The nation had been living under a curse and didn't even know it, because they had forgotten God. Oh, they still had church. They had just forgotten God.

It's time to repent of our lack of fervent prayer and get on our knees. Nothing eternal will be accomplished without prayer. We know how to have meetings, how to sing our worship songs, how to speak Christianese - we know how to talk about prayer and how to take requests, and how to say "I'll pray for you brother." But when do we really pray? When do we seek God?

Are you really committed to Jesus? Are you really committed to His work? Are you really committed to His church?

We've had enough lip-service! You may be holding back the church with your lack obedience, with your stinginess, with you half-heartedness. We must stop lying to ourselves - pretending.

This is not a day for silly doctrinal frivolity. We debate about Prosperity, Positive Confession, Dancing-laughing-barking before the Lord, while men go to hell. We're straining at gnats. The heathen could care less about our doctrinal practices. They just need Jesus.

There is a common phrase out today that applies here. I'll give you the cleaned up version - "either eliminate or vacate the facility"! Does everyone know what that means? That's as plain as I can put it.

I'm tired of not having revival! Aren't you? We can do something about it.

God spoke to me about a year ago about straightening some things up, and I have not completely followed through on it. I have not completely obeyed Him because what He told me to do is unpleasant. He told me to remove everyone from membership who was not living right and remove everyone from leadership who was not tithing.

What I did was appeal to you to get yourselves in order. I left it up to you to make it right, because I don't want to judge anyone. Well, it's time for me to right my wrong. I've been too patient. We're going to get God's house in order. I believe we can have revival if we will just get ourselves in order.

In a few weeks, we will have our Annual Church Business Meeting. You have till then to get things in order. If you don't approach me before then, I will approach you.

Last week, some of you had to cough up some back taxes and get things in order with your Uncle Sam. Some of you need to catch up your back tithes with your Father. How long have you lived under a curse?

Let me close with this thought. Why do you want revival? So you can feel better, or so you can be better? Do you want it for yourself, or for the sake of the Kingdom of God?