Preparing for Revival: Message 1: Returning to our first love
In the Tom Hanks move CASTAWAY, the biggest challenge Hanks' character has is to get a fire started. He knows that his life depends upon his getting a fire started. So, day after day he works trying to get a fire going. But once that tiny flame begins – he is able to ignite a giant fire!
The Apostle Paul write to his young disciples Timothy and says…
“I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6
God wants the flame of His life to burn bright in our lives! That flame, however small it may be, needs to be nurtured to burn brightly! We must fan it so that it becomes a major flame – burning brightly in our lives and affecting all those around us.
That is revival. Revival is allowing the flame of God to burn brightly in our lives.
In April 1906 in a broken down warehouse on Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, REVIVAL broke out. What happened? This small group of people put aside everything in order to return to their first love. And they – passionately pursued God. And God was found. And the flame burns brightly to this day! Now known as the ‘Azusa Street Revival’, this revival amongst poor, multi-ethnic people became the birthplace of the modern Pentecostal movement that now affects some 700 million Spirit-filled believers around the world! THE FLAME WAS FANNED!
On February 6th, 2006 in Wilmore, Kentucky at Asbury College – a small, liberal arts Christian college, several hundred students and faculty met at 10AM for their weekly chapel service. And REVIVAL broke out! The students and faculty broke down and cried out to God with unrestrained passion and God showed up. Classes were cancelled and the chapel service continued – uninterrupted for 5 days. Local people heard about what was happening and spontaneously came to the auditorium and joined in. Repentance, renewal and reconciliation happened. THE FLAME WAS FANNED!
According to Campus Church Networks, a ministry that starts church planting movements on American campuses, there are reports from over 40 universities across the nation that have started 24-hour prayer rooms. On these campuses there is a spirit of repentance, confession and salvation. And divine healings are taking place. The flame is starting to burn.
We are by far the wealthiest nation in history. We have everything that we need – and far more. We can be entertained, fed, comforted and kept occupied 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But, There is a growing hunger across America for something more.
You feel it. You know that there has to be ‘something more’. And as this hunger grows – people are looking for a spiritual connection that is based upon Truth. At the same time, we hunger for a PERSONAL CONNECTION – no longer does ‘believing the right things’ satisfy – we need to experience God personally. We want His touch. We hunger to hear His voice. We hunger to see His power. We want to meet God personally. We want to be touched by the flame of God!
And I believe that this hunger is exactly what God wants to see!
Jesus said:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6
Revival is coming. Now is the time to prepare. Get ready.
Turn to Revelation 2
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:1-7
Look again – this church in Ephesians has a lot to going for it:
• They’ve worked hard for the Kingdom
• They’ve persevered during difficult times
• They’ve refused to compromise to the culture and false teachers
• They’ve not grown weary in doing good
But they have a problem – and you already know what it is: “You have forsaken your first love”
WHAT KEEPS THE FLAME BURNING? Following the Greatest Commandment:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
Matthew 22:37
God wants you to love Him, more than He wants you to serve Him. Devotion always precedes duty. Yes, duty is important. In fact it is vital. But it is secondary to the primary. The first and foremost thing we are called by God to do is to love Him.
To be prepared for revival means that we make sure that first things are indeed first.
So, here’s the question: How’s your love life with God?
Which words apply to your relationship with God?
Numb Alive Defeated Passionate Disinterested
Increasing Stuck Hungry Glorious Tedious
Moving Mundane Better Lesser Hopeful
Failing Flying Intimate Distant Outrageous
• Are you measurably closer to God now than a year ago?
• How’s your worship – both private and public?
• How’s your life of prayer?
Revival comes to those who make sure to keep first things first! Nothing is more important than your love relationship with God!
So – what are we to do? What do we do to move from compromise to commitment? What do we do to move from failing to flying? What do we do to light the fire of our love for Christ?
Fortunately, God gives us matches to get the fire burning brightly again:
Look at Revelation 2:5
5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
He tells us to:
1. Remember
2. Repent
3. Redo
What are we to REMEMBER?
FIRST THINGS FIRST: REMEMBER!
1. Remember who Jesus is! – Philippians 2:5-11
When you came to Jesus it was because you saw at some level how special He is! It’s time to remember that reality.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11
Specifically we need to…
• Remember that Christ is the God Who Serves! – v. 5-7
• Remember that Christ is the God Who Saves! – v. 8
• Remember that Christ is the God Who Reigns! – v. 9-11
How could you not love a God like this?
2. Remember who YOU are! – Romans 6:1-4
Because of who Jesus is – we are changed. Look at Romans 6 –
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:1-4
• Remember that I am dead to sin! – v. 1-2
• Remember that I am alive forever in Christ! – v. 3-4
• Remember that I am empowered to live like Christ! – v. 4
How could you not love a God who changes you like this?
2. Remember what awaits you! – John 5:24-25
• Remember that eternal life is mine in Christ! – John 5:24-25
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” John 5:24, 25, NIV.
Though you will one day physically die, you will live forever. Period.
How can you not love a God who makes this possible?
Revelation tells us to REMEMBER, but it also tells us that making first things first requires that we…
“Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” V. 5
FIRST THINGS FIRST: REPENT! – 1 John 1:5-9
One of the biggest hindrances to revival is when God’s people refuse to repent of their sin. To refuse to repent of sin is like refusing to call ‘cancer’ a disease! Do it long enough and it will kill you.
Look at 1 John 1:5
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:5-9
This passage tells a great deal about our need to repent:
1. God’s character is HOLY and cannot coexist with SIN.
Just like light and darkness cannot coexist, holiness and sin cannot.
2. Our sin violates the character of God and keeps us separate from Him
3. We must confess our sin to God to be forgiven our sin.
4. When we confess, God cleanses!
One of the biggest problems that we have as American Christians is something that C.S. Lewis called “Contented worldliness” – our lives get going fairly well, and we think that all is well between us and God.
But you weren’t called to be contented in the things of this world! You were meant to live for so much more! You are members of the Kingdom of God – and this world is not your home! It’s time for us to repent of our compromise and contentment and to rise up and truly to become citizen’s of the Kingdom of God!
The truly beautiful thing about repentance is that when I repent, God restores! When I cast off lesser loves, He restores us to first things first!
Don’t be afraid of repentance – seek it out!
And then, Revelation 2:5 says… “Repent and do the things you did at first.”
FIRST THINGS FIRST: REDO!
God wants you to REDO what you used to do! HE WANTS YOU TO BE OBEDIENT!
If we want revival – if we want to return to our first love – you go back and do the things you did at first!
1. Redo your thinking – Colossians 3:2
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2
Why do we need to think about ‘things above’? Because that’s where Christ is! And He is worthy of your very best thinking!
I love my wife. And I love my kids. As a result, I think about them, a lot. What kind of husband and father would I be if I didn’t think about my family?
If you are going to return to your first love – you got to think about your first love!
2. Redo your priorities – Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
The words ‘store up’ refers to things you treasure – and you cannot treasure the things of this temporary world and the things of the eternal kingdom of God at the same time! Jesus says: Get your priorities right! Because your priorities ultimately determine the condition of your heart!
Do you want revival? Get your priorities right!
3. Redo your allegiances – Matthew 6:24
“No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Matthew 6:24
The NIV has an unfortunate choice of words here in the word ‘money’ – actually it would be better like the KJV which says: “Mammon” – which means ‘treasures apart from God’. So, Christ is saying: Make your choice. Me or the world.
Can you imagine a woman who would put up with a husband who cheats on her? That’s sick. Good marriages require fidelity. God anticipates, expects and demands the same from us. He wants us to make sure we are absolutely in complete allegiance to Him.
Returning to your first love, requires turning away from all other loves. Plain and simple.
CONCLUSION:
Remember – Repent – Redo. And then – your first love will be restored to you.
Revelation 2:7 concludes with these words…
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Spirit of God is calling you – His people – to Himself. He desires a passionate, burning, intimate love relationship. Sin, compromise, adultery must be turned away from!
Do you desire a revival in your walk with Christ?
Today is the beginning. Fan into flame the gift of God!
PRAYER OF REMEMBRANCE
Who Christ is
Who I am because of Christ
What awaits me
PRAYER OF REPENTANCE
Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind specific sin that needs to be confessed
Confess your sin
Praise God for forgiveness and cleansing
PRAYER OF OBEDIENCE
Where there has been disobedience – now commit to full obedience. No compromise.
PRAYER FOR REVIVAL
Cry out to God for first love renewal!
The Apostle Paul write to his young disciples Timothy and says…
“I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” 2 Timothy 1:6
God wants the flame of His life to burn bright in our lives! That flame, however small it may be, needs to be nurtured to burn brightly! We must fan it so that it becomes a major flame – burning brightly in our lives and affecting all those around us.
That is revival. Revival is allowing the flame of God to burn brightly in our lives.
In April 1906 in a broken down warehouse on Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, REVIVAL broke out. What happened? This small group of people put aside everything in order to return to their first love. And they – passionately pursued God. And God was found. And the flame burns brightly to this day! Now known as the ‘Azusa Street Revival’, this revival amongst poor, multi-ethnic people became the birthplace of the modern Pentecostal movement that now affects some 700 million Spirit-filled believers around the world! THE FLAME WAS FANNED!
On February 6th, 2006 in Wilmore, Kentucky at Asbury College – a small, liberal arts Christian college, several hundred students and faculty met at 10AM for their weekly chapel service. And REVIVAL broke out! The students and faculty broke down and cried out to God with unrestrained passion and God showed up. Classes were cancelled and the chapel service continued – uninterrupted for 5 days. Local people heard about what was happening and spontaneously came to the auditorium and joined in. Repentance, renewal and reconciliation happened. THE FLAME WAS FANNED!
According to Campus Church Networks, a ministry that starts church planting movements on American campuses, there are reports from over 40 universities across the nation that have started 24-hour prayer rooms. On these campuses there is a spirit of repentance, confession and salvation. And divine healings are taking place. The flame is starting to burn.
We are by far the wealthiest nation in history. We have everything that we need – and far more. We can be entertained, fed, comforted and kept occupied 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But, There is a growing hunger across America for something more.
You feel it. You know that there has to be ‘something more’. And as this hunger grows – people are looking for a spiritual connection that is based upon Truth. At the same time, we hunger for a PERSONAL CONNECTION – no longer does ‘believing the right things’ satisfy – we need to experience God personally. We want His touch. We hunger to hear His voice. We hunger to see His power. We want to meet God personally. We want to be touched by the flame of God!
And I believe that this hunger is exactly what God wants to see!
Jesus said:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6
Revival is coming. Now is the time to prepare. Get ready.
Turn to Revelation 2
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:1-7
Look again – this church in Ephesians has a lot to going for it:
• They’ve worked hard for the Kingdom
• They’ve persevered during difficult times
• They’ve refused to compromise to the culture and false teachers
• They’ve not grown weary in doing good
But they have a problem – and you already know what it is: “You have forsaken your first love”
WHAT KEEPS THE FLAME BURNING? Following the Greatest Commandment:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
Matthew 22:37
God wants you to love Him, more than He wants you to serve Him. Devotion always precedes duty. Yes, duty is important. In fact it is vital. But it is secondary to the primary. The first and foremost thing we are called by God to do is to love Him.
To be prepared for revival means that we make sure that first things are indeed first.
So, here’s the question: How’s your love life with God?
Which words apply to your relationship with God?
Numb Alive Defeated Passionate Disinterested
Increasing Stuck Hungry Glorious Tedious
Moving Mundane Better Lesser Hopeful
Failing Flying Intimate Distant Outrageous
• Are you measurably closer to God now than a year ago?
• How’s your worship – both private and public?
• How’s your life of prayer?
Revival comes to those who make sure to keep first things first! Nothing is more important than your love relationship with God!
So – what are we to do? What do we do to move from compromise to commitment? What do we do to move from failing to flying? What do we do to light the fire of our love for Christ?
Fortunately, God gives us matches to get the fire burning brightly again:
Look at Revelation 2:5
5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
He tells us to:
1. Remember
2. Repent
3. Redo
What are we to REMEMBER?
FIRST THINGS FIRST: REMEMBER!
1. Remember who Jesus is! – Philippians 2:5-11
When you came to Jesus it was because you saw at some level how special He is! It’s time to remember that reality.
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11
Specifically we need to…
• Remember that Christ is the God Who Serves! – v. 5-7
• Remember that Christ is the God Who Saves! – v. 8
• Remember that Christ is the God Who Reigns! – v. 9-11
How could you not love a God like this?
2. Remember who YOU are! – Romans 6:1-4
Because of who Jesus is – we are changed. Look at Romans 6 –
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:1-4
• Remember that I am dead to sin! – v. 1-2
• Remember that I am alive forever in Christ! – v. 3-4
• Remember that I am empowered to live like Christ! – v. 4
How could you not love a God who changes you like this?
2. Remember what awaits you! – John 5:24-25
• Remember that eternal life is mine in Christ! – John 5:24-25
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” John 5:24, 25, NIV.
Though you will one day physically die, you will live forever. Period.
How can you not love a God who makes this possible?
Revelation tells us to REMEMBER, but it also tells us that making first things first requires that we…
“Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” V. 5
FIRST THINGS FIRST: REPENT! – 1 John 1:5-9
One of the biggest hindrances to revival is when God’s people refuse to repent of their sin. To refuse to repent of sin is like refusing to call ‘cancer’ a disease! Do it long enough and it will kill you.
Look at 1 John 1:5
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:5-9
This passage tells a great deal about our need to repent:
1. God’s character is HOLY and cannot coexist with SIN.
Just like light and darkness cannot coexist, holiness and sin cannot.
2. Our sin violates the character of God and keeps us separate from Him
3. We must confess our sin to God to be forgiven our sin.
4. When we confess, God cleanses!
One of the biggest problems that we have as American Christians is something that C.S. Lewis called “Contented worldliness” – our lives get going fairly well, and we think that all is well between us and God.
But you weren’t called to be contented in the things of this world! You were meant to live for so much more! You are members of the Kingdom of God – and this world is not your home! It’s time for us to repent of our compromise and contentment and to rise up and truly to become citizen’s of the Kingdom of God!
The truly beautiful thing about repentance is that when I repent, God restores! When I cast off lesser loves, He restores us to first things first!
Don’t be afraid of repentance – seek it out!
And then, Revelation 2:5 says… “Repent and do the things you did at first.”
FIRST THINGS FIRST: REDO!
God wants you to REDO what you used to do! HE WANTS YOU TO BE OBEDIENT!
If we want revival – if we want to return to our first love – you go back and do the things you did at first!
1. Redo your thinking – Colossians 3:2
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2
Why do we need to think about ‘things above’? Because that’s where Christ is! And He is worthy of your very best thinking!
I love my wife. And I love my kids. As a result, I think about them, a lot. What kind of husband and father would I be if I didn’t think about my family?
If you are going to return to your first love – you got to think about your first love!
2. Redo your priorities – Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
The words ‘store up’ refers to things you treasure – and you cannot treasure the things of this temporary world and the things of the eternal kingdom of God at the same time! Jesus says: Get your priorities right! Because your priorities ultimately determine the condition of your heart!
Do you want revival? Get your priorities right!
3. Redo your allegiances – Matthew 6:24
“No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Matthew 6:24
The NIV has an unfortunate choice of words here in the word ‘money’ – actually it would be better like the KJV which says: “Mammon” – which means ‘treasures apart from God’. So, Christ is saying: Make your choice. Me or the world.
Can you imagine a woman who would put up with a husband who cheats on her? That’s sick. Good marriages require fidelity. God anticipates, expects and demands the same from us. He wants us to make sure we are absolutely in complete allegiance to Him.
Returning to your first love, requires turning away from all other loves. Plain and simple.
CONCLUSION:
Remember – Repent – Redo. And then – your first love will be restored to you.
Revelation 2:7 concludes with these words…
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The Spirit of God is calling you – His people – to Himself. He desires a passionate, burning, intimate love relationship. Sin, compromise, adultery must be turned away from!
Do you desire a revival in your walk with Christ?
Today is the beginning. Fan into flame the gift of God!
PRAYER OF REMEMBRANCE
Who Christ is
Who I am because of Christ
What awaits me
PRAYER OF REPENTANCE
Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind specific sin that needs to be confessed
Confess your sin
Praise God for forgiveness and cleansing
PRAYER OF OBEDIENCE
Where there has been disobedience – now commit to full obedience. No compromise.
PRAYER FOR REVIVAL
Cry out to God for first love renewal!
posted by Doug Love at 2:20 PM
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