Revival Sermon

Scripture Reading

Revelations 2:1-5 & 3:14-20

Open with Prayer

I will start this sermon different from other sermons I have preached with the invitation now and throughout the sermon.  If God speaks to your heart, then do not wait to come forward, pray, and get your heart right with God.  The prayer altar is open.  Come as God speaks to your heart.

This morning as we look at the church of Ephesus and Laodicea, let’s see if we as individuals fall into one or the other camp.  Are we like the Ephesians or the Laodiceans?

The church at Ephesus was doing everything right, except they had lost their first love.  They were working, laboring, keeping separate from evil, and being patient and honest with everyone.  Even though they were doing the right things, they had lost their first love.  Their love relationship with God wasn’t what it should be. 

The church at Laodicea was lukewarm.  They were doing things for God, but they weren’t hot or cold.  They were sort of just there doing what they had to.  They were just going through the motions.  They were just coming to church.  Doing a job here and there, but God wasn’t the center point of their lives.  When we are lukewarm we make God sick to His stomach.  Being lukewarm makes God want to vomit.  A lukewarm heart totally repulses God.  He wants us to be either hot or cold, but not lukewarm. 

Both Ephesus and Laodicea were doing things for God and from the outward appearance seemed to be quality churches, but God saw it from a different perspective.  Samuel 16:7b “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”  Psalms 139:1-4  We can appear to the outside world to be doing what God wants us to be doing, but God knows our hearts.  There isn’t anything we even think that is hidden from God.  We might be able to fool people, but we can not fool God.  A.W.Pink,  "Here the One who knows every thought and imagination of the heart, before whose omniscient eye all things are naked and opened, makes it crystal clear that lip service is worthless."  God knows our hearts.  Our outward appearance is not what God is looking at, but He is looking on the inside.  He knows our actions and our motivations and reason we act the way we do. 

James 4:17  Knowing what we are supposed to be doing and not doing it is sin. 

Have we lost our first love?  Are we lukewarm?  Do we know that we are supposed to be doing something for God and not doing it?  Are we in need of revival?  Are we repulsing God by being lukewarm?  We can do everything right, but not have the heart and God will be upset.  God knows our hearts!  Spurgeon said of revival that , “We too often flog the church, when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders.“  Ask yourself “Do I need revival?  Have I lost my first love? Am I on fire for God?”

Revelations 2:5 & 3:19,20 The way to revival is through repentance and returning with our whole hearts to God.  We need to remember back to when we were in love with God, when our heart’s desires were His desires.  When we had a hunger and thirst for righteousness.  A time when we forgave even as God for Christ sake forgave us.  When our love relationship with God that produced obedience and fruit in our lives.  We need to be zealous and repent.  If we do not repent, then God promises to chasten His children.  We hinder God’s blessings in our lives by not giving Him our all.  Sin in our lives impedes the blessings of God.  I John 1:9 We need to repent.  We need to confess our sinful lukewarm hearts and/or losing our first love.  We need to return to God with our whole hearts!  Our prayer needs to be Psalms 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  Let’s sacrifice our pride and give our hearts back to God.  Psalms 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”  

If we remember back to the time when we came to know the Lord, then we may remember what it was like to be in love with God.  Why did we love God with all our hearts, our souls, and our minds?  First, we all are sinners.  Romans 3:23  We all are deserving of hell.  But God out of His love for us, gave us Jesus Christ to die in our place.  John 3:16  Our sins cost Jesus Christ to be beaten, scourged, mocked, and crucified.  “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5   Many quote the last part of that verse, but forget the main point of the verse is that He bore our sins in His own body at Calvary.  He died in our place.  He was buried and rose again.  “We love Him, because He first loved us.”  We need to remember what our sins cost our Savior.  We need to fall back in love with the One Who loved us enough to die in our place, so that we wouldn’t spend an eternity in hell.  

The definition of revival is to “flourish anew.”  Revival is not an emotion.  Revival is not speaking in tongues.  Revival is not anything but surrendering our hearts back to God.  We may have the emotion of a broken heart over losing our first love, from hurting our Lord God, from not being what He would have us to be.  We may have emotion, but it must be followed with devotion.  A temporary feeling is not revival.  Revival is a rekindling of the fire within.  Revival is to flourish anew with the love for God we once had!  We need to pray that God will endue us with a Holy Spirit revival that rekindles our first love!  May we be anointed with a fresh fire from the Holy Spirit! 

Revival begins with repentance from sin.  God can not and will not bless sin!  If we want revival, then we must let go of sin and give our hearts back to God.  James 4:6-10  We must let go of our pride and humble ourselves in the sight of God.  Don’t be afraid to look foolish by coming down front to pray to give your heart back to God.  Worry about what God thinks, not what others think.  Surrender to God, submit to His Sovereignty, to His Lordship, to His Holiness!  Submit to God and resist the devil.  Do not yield to the temptations of the devil.  Don’t yield to the devil’s temptation not to respond to the call to give your heart back to God!  As we humble ourselves before God, submit to God and resist the devil, the devil has no choice but to flee.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  We draw near by getting the sin out of our lives and giving our hearts back to Him!  If we want to have our love relationship with God back, then we must draw closer to Him!

We must embrace His Lordship.  You can’t take Jesus Christ as Savior without taking Him as your Lord.  Luke 2:11  Jesus is both Lord and Savior.  You can’t take only half of Jesus.   If Jesus is your Savior, then He is to be your Lord.  Give your hearts and lives back to Him.  He requires our entireties!  We must not hold anything back, but lay it all at the foot of the cross. 

If you are saved, then today is the day to return to Him with your whole heart.  If you have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then this is the day of repentance unto salvation.  Ask His forgiveness from sin and take Him as your own personal Lord and Savior.

Don’t worry about where to eat after church, worry about God’s perception of each of us.

Once we have repented and given our hearts back to God we must then walk by faith keeping our eyes focused on the things above.  Colossians 3:1,2 

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There are 3 things needed to keep revival going in our lives; prayer, Bible study, and obedience to God.

1^st Prayer is communicating with God.  If we love God, then we will be talking with Him.  We will practice the presence of God.  If we are saved, then the Holy Spirit indwells us.  So no matter where we are or what we are doing God is with us.  We need to practice being aware of His presence.  We need to be continually in prayer.  We need to be constantly talking with God.  I love my wife, we spend a lot of time talking to each other.  When were dating we used to talk on the phone for hours.  Why? Because, we love each other.  If we return to our first love with God, then we will be talking with Him.  John 14:13,14 & Matthew 7:7 are powerful promises of prayer.

2^nd Bible study is letting God talk to us.  He gave us His Word for a reason.  If we truly love God, then we will be in His Word day and night.  Psalms 1:2,3; Psalms 119:93  The Word of God revives us, makes us alive.  If we desire true revival, then we must stay in the Word of God!  Turn off the TV, turn off the computer, and get into the Word of God.  Seek God with your whole heart.

3^rd Our love for God will produce obedience in our lives.  As we learn the Word of God we must apply it.  John 14:15  We need to pray Psalms 119:88 ‘Revive me after Your loving kindness; so will I keep the testimony of Your mouth.’  As God revives our hearts and we regain our first love, we will be obedient to His Word.  We will be a doer of the Word and not a forgetful hearer.  Our love for God will produce obedience and application of the Word of God in our lives.  The key to obedience to God is returning to our first love.  Our love for God will be evident in our obedience to God.

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Today, the call is to revival!  “Today, if you hear His voice harden not your heart!”  ‘What will you do with Jesus, neutral you can not be.’   If you have never accepted Him as Your Lord and Savior, will you take Jesus Christ as Your Lord and Savior today?  You are not promised tomorrow.  Life is short.  We never know when our last breath will be.  Are you ready to see your Maker?  Have you ever accepted Jesus as Your Lord and Savior?

If you are saved, then have you lost your first love?  Are you lukewarm and repulsing God?  Are you doing what is right, but not on fire for God?  Do you need to get back in love with God?  If so then come forward and pray.  Revival is a simple as 1^st, We must repent from sin and return to our first love.  We need to ask God to search our hearts and minds to show us sin and ask His forgiveness.  Psalms 139:23,24  2^nd, We must pray “Revive me oh Lord!”  Not just revive our nation, or revive this church, but we must pray “Revive me oh Lord!”, send a revival and let it begin in me.  3^rd Revival is a continuous process.  Revival does not stop when we leave church today.  Revival can start right now, but true revival will last when we go home.  There is no end to what God can do….  He can keep pouring Himself into your life.  We can become hotter and more on fire for God as we draw closer to Him!

Ask not what God can do for you, but what can you do for God?   Too many people are seeking a healing from God, a blessing in their finances, but too few are seeking to have their lives be pleasing to God.  The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart.  Psalms 51:17 & Romans 12:1 “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe My ways.” Proverbs 23:26

Will you come forward to give your heart to the Lord?  If the need is for salvation, then come and I will show you from the Bible how to be saved.  If you are saved and in need of repentance and revival, then the prayer altar is open; come and pray. 

Softly and Tenderly Jesus is calling as Invitation Hymn.