Preparing for Revival - Message 2: Dealing With Sin
We live in an unusual era. Did you know that there is no such thing as sin? That’s right. Sin is no longer real. Instead we replaced sin with…
• Alternative Lifestyle choices
• Addictions & compulsions
• Genetic predisposition
And you know what – that would be just fine IF man was the final judge of all things. However. We aren’t.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
We can redefine sin if we want to, but we cannot undo the end result of sin: death.
And before we can enter into revival as believers – we’ve got to deal decisively with sin.
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12
God speaks to us today through this passage of His Word. He tells us how to deal decisively with our sin.
Here’s the crux of the matter: If I will chose to live right before God, I will reap the benefits of love, mercy and blessing!
How do I deal decisively with my sin?
God says: ‘break up the unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord…”
When I walk in sin, my heart gets hard and crusty. And in order for me to move into revival, I’ve got to invite the Holy Spirit to break up that hard ground and make my heart soft before the Lord!
How do I do this? Through intensive Holy Spirit guided self-evaluation, followed by repentance that leads to right action.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5…
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-- unless, of course, you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5
So, where do we begin? We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Do you desire to live right before God? Then take a moment right now and ask that the Holy Spirit would guide you to see your sin. Right now. SILENT PRAYER
Now, let’s do some evaluation. As I thought about sin, I realized that there are categories of sin – types of sins that fit together – that might be helpful to help us see the truth about ourselves.
Here’s three categories: Sins of Neglect. Sins of Attitude, and Sins of Commission.
1. Sins of Neglect: These are sins that result from NOT DOING what is right.
2. Sins of Attitude: These are sins that result from NOT THINKING what is right.
3. Sins of Commission: These are sins that result from DOING what is wrong.
Let’s do some evaluation regarding the first…
1. SINS OF NEGLECT: These are sins that result from NOT DOING what is right.
Lack of gratitude
Think about the number of times that you’ve experienced the favor of God and you’ve never taken the time to express gratitude. The times when He came through for you – providing jobs, money, protection, guidance, reconciliation, healing – and in your busyness, you just kept going without stopping to express thankfulness.
Colossians 3:16 says… “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16
Gratitude is to be a continual and obvious description of the Christian.
Where the Spirit leads, simply confess – and be restored.
Lack of love for God
It is easy to get a divided heart and start to love the things of this world more than God. But God deserves your undivided love and attention. Exodus 34 says…
“Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Exodus 34:14
God is jealous in the sense that He is deserving our absolute fidelity – just like the sanctity of marriage requires fidelity – God requires our fidelity.
So, things like money, popularity, success, entertainment – etc. must take a back seat to the supremacy of God!
Neglecting God’s Word
One of the largest problems that I see in the Body of Christ is ignorance of God’s Word. Why are we ignorant – because we neglect God’s Word. You will not have awareness of something that you ignore.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says… “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16, 17
Do you want revival? Repent of your biblical ignorance – and open the book. Turn off the TV. Read. Study. Gain understanding. Get prepared.
The Holy Spirit has revealed to me that I am in a major season of spiritual preparation. And it has caused me to hunger for God’s Word like never before. I pray you’ll do the same.
Now, ignorance of God’s Word leads to this next sin of neglect…
Unbelief in the Promises of God
How can you believe what you don’t know? So, we end up revealing in our speech and habits what is true in our hearts – we speak unfaith.
Hebrews 11:1 says…
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
It’s time to be sure – confident – in God’s promises!
2 Peter 3:9 says…
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
If you’ve lost heart in the promises of God – you are in danger. Get back into the Word.
And, another issue that is all too frequently neglected…
Neglected prayer
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says… “pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
but, instead of praying, we worry, we fret, we get anxious, we get depressed. We rage and we sulk.
But, the peace that comes when the believer simply goes to his knees and gets alone with God.
How’s you life of prayer?
Lack of self-denial
Self-denial is a condition of following Jesus. You cannot have Jesus and have YOUR WAY. Jesus is LORD, not your co-pilot. We follow Him, He doesn’t follow you.
Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Now, let’s move on to a different set of sins. Sins of Attitude.
2. SINS OF ATTITUDE: These are sins that result from NOT THINKING what is right.
Service without passion
Going through the motions of life. Doing what is required but without a sense of purpose, a sense of passion and sense that God is in the details of your life. Sure, you go to work – but you complain and curse. Sure, you clean your house and feed your kids – but you gripe about it. Sure you come to church, but you dispassionately sit back and expect very little.
But God says:
“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalms 118:24
There are no ‘do-over’s’ in life. You’ve got to seize the day and squeeze every last drop of life and enjoyment, and purpose and passion out of it.
I believe that this passionless living leads to the next sin of attitude:
Indifference towards the lost
People in your family are going to Hell. And while you cannot MAKE a person love Jesus – you certainly can rise up and INTERCEDE for them with a heart of compassion.
Jesus saw the city of God – Jerusalem – as it really was and it broke His heart. When is the last time your heart broke of the condition of people around you?
And now, a third kind of sin:
3. SINS OF COMMISSION: These are sins that result from DOING what is wrong.
Worldly thinking
You know what worldly thinking is? It’s defining your life by what the world says is important. So, possessions and position become incredibly important.
But God has the only perspective that matters.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Col. 3:1-5
Pride
Here’s a simple way of knowing if pride is a problem for you. Did you spend more time this morning worrying and concerning yourself with how you looked on the outside than you did preparing your heart to meet with God in worship?
Envy
Envy happens when you look around and see others functioning in their giftings – and rather than praising God for it – you found reasons to put them down.
Critical Spirit
Speaking or thinking about other believers in a way that tears down rather than builds up.
1 Corinthians 13:7 tells us that love always hopes for the best about others! Critical spirits always hopes for the worst!
Slander
Did you know that you don’t have to LIE to be guilty of slander. You can tell the truth about a person, group, or thing – with the intention to injure and be guilty of slander.
One of the hallmarks of the growing Christian is that we intentionally ‘put off slander’!
Lack of seriousness before God
God is Holy and Higher than anything in all of the universe, but there are times we treat him with less respect and honor than we do the clerk at the fast food restaurant.
When Moses encountered God in the Burning Bush – God told him to take off his shoes because he was standing on ‘holy ground’.
Right now in Heaven a worship service is happening:
“Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:8-11
If that is what is happening in Heaven – our attitudes and action should reflect it as well.
Being in the Presence of God is an awesome thing. Don’t take it lightly.
Another sin to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal is..
Lying
Do you know what lying is: It’s designed deception. It’s doing and saying – or not doing and saying – things that are intentional in their design to deceive.
Following lying is…
Cheating
When you cheat another person, you are devaluing them as a human being made in the image of God. Do we not remember what Jesus taught?
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
Hypocrisy
We all know what hypocrisy is: Pretending to be something on the outside that you aren’t on the inside. Jesus warned against this in Matthew 23:
“Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Matthew 23:26-28
Another sin that needs the light of God’s love shone on it:
Robbing God
By robbing God I mean taking the investment God has made in your life – talents, abilities, time, money, gifts – and using them for purposes that don’t bring a return.
All of us will give an accounting of our lives to the Lord. We need to make sure that we are living fully to His glory.
Bad Temper
Bad temper means that you lack self-control. We all get angry about things. But, our anger must be kept in its proper place – or – it will become like an out of control fire – destroying everything it touches!
I could probably list dozens and dozens of sins in which we need to be aware of – and if we are doing – we need to repent of. But here’s the point of today:
If we are going to have revival, we have to deal decisively with our sin.
God says…
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12
So, here’s the plan. This week, get alone with God. Ask the Holy Spirit to begin to reveal the sins in your life. The sins of neglect. The sins of attitude. The sins of commission.
Write down what He speaks. CONFESS and Repent. And as we do this… look at the end of Hosea 10:12 – “…he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
He brings JOY, CONFIDENCE, INTIMACY, PASSION AND PURPOSE!
Charles Finney wrote: “If you do not start working on your heart immediately, one can say you have no intention of being revived; and you have forsaken your minister, letting him fight the battle alone.”
Revival will come, when God’s people prepare their hearts.
• Alternative Lifestyle choices
• Addictions & compulsions
• Genetic predisposition
And you know what – that would be just fine IF man was the final judge of all things. However. We aren’t.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
We can redefine sin if we want to, but we cannot undo the end result of sin: death.
And before we can enter into revival as believers – we’ve got to deal decisively with sin.
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12
God speaks to us today through this passage of His Word. He tells us how to deal decisively with our sin.
Here’s the crux of the matter: If I will chose to live right before God, I will reap the benefits of love, mercy and blessing!
How do I deal decisively with my sin?
God says: ‘break up the unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord…”
When I walk in sin, my heart gets hard and crusty. And in order for me to move into revival, I’ve got to invite the Holy Spirit to break up that hard ground and make my heart soft before the Lord!
How do I do this? Through intensive Holy Spirit guided self-evaluation, followed by repentance that leads to right action.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5…
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-- unless, of course, you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5
So, where do we begin? We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Do you desire to live right before God? Then take a moment right now and ask that the Holy Spirit would guide you to see your sin. Right now. SILENT PRAYER
Now, let’s do some evaluation. As I thought about sin, I realized that there are categories of sin – types of sins that fit together – that might be helpful to help us see the truth about ourselves.
Here’s three categories: Sins of Neglect. Sins of Attitude, and Sins of Commission.
1. Sins of Neglect: These are sins that result from NOT DOING what is right.
2. Sins of Attitude: These are sins that result from NOT THINKING what is right.
3. Sins of Commission: These are sins that result from DOING what is wrong.
Let’s do some evaluation regarding the first…
1. SINS OF NEGLECT: These are sins that result from NOT DOING what is right.
Lack of gratitude
Think about the number of times that you’ve experienced the favor of God and you’ve never taken the time to express gratitude. The times when He came through for you – providing jobs, money, protection, guidance, reconciliation, healing – and in your busyness, you just kept going without stopping to express thankfulness.
Colossians 3:16 says… “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16
Gratitude is to be a continual and obvious description of the Christian.
Where the Spirit leads, simply confess – and be restored.
Lack of love for God
It is easy to get a divided heart and start to love the things of this world more than God. But God deserves your undivided love and attention. Exodus 34 says…
“Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Exodus 34:14
God is jealous in the sense that He is deserving our absolute fidelity – just like the sanctity of marriage requires fidelity – God requires our fidelity.
So, things like money, popularity, success, entertainment – etc. must take a back seat to the supremacy of God!
Neglecting God’s Word
One of the largest problems that I see in the Body of Christ is ignorance of God’s Word. Why are we ignorant – because we neglect God’s Word. You will not have awareness of something that you ignore.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says… “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16, 17
Do you want revival? Repent of your biblical ignorance – and open the book. Turn off the TV. Read. Study. Gain understanding. Get prepared.
The Holy Spirit has revealed to me that I am in a major season of spiritual preparation. And it has caused me to hunger for God’s Word like never before. I pray you’ll do the same.
Now, ignorance of God’s Word leads to this next sin of neglect…
Unbelief in the Promises of God
How can you believe what you don’t know? So, we end up revealing in our speech and habits what is true in our hearts – we speak unfaith.
Hebrews 11:1 says…
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
It’s time to be sure – confident – in God’s promises!
2 Peter 3:9 says…
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
If you’ve lost heart in the promises of God – you are in danger. Get back into the Word.
And, another issue that is all too frequently neglected…
Neglected prayer
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says… “pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
but, instead of praying, we worry, we fret, we get anxious, we get depressed. We rage and we sulk.
But, the peace that comes when the believer simply goes to his knees and gets alone with God.
How’s you life of prayer?
Lack of self-denial
Self-denial is a condition of following Jesus. You cannot have Jesus and have YOUR WAY. Jesus is LORD, not your co-pilot. We follow Him, He doesn’t follow you.
Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Now, let’s move on to a different set of sins. Sins of Attitude.
2. SINS OF ATTITUDE: These are sins that result from NOT THINKING what is right.
Service without passion
Going through the motions of life. Doing what is required but without a sense of purpose, a sense of passion and sense that God is in the details of your life. Sure, you go to work – but you complain and curse. Sure, you clean your house and feed your kids – but you gripe about it. Sure you come to church, but you dispassionately sit back and expect very little.
But God says:
“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalms 118:24
There are no ‘do-over’s’ in life. You’ve got to seize the day and squeeze every last drop of life and enjoyment, and purpose and passion out of it.
I believe that this passionless living leads to the next sin of attitude:
Indifference towards the lost
People in your family are going to Hell. And while you cannot MAKE a person love Jesus – you certainly can rise up and INTERCEDE for them with a heart of compassion.
Jesus saw the city of God – Jerusalem – as it really was and it broke His heart. When is the last time your heart broke of the condition of people around you?
And now, a third kind of sin:
3. SINS OF COMMISSION: These are sins that result from DOING what is wrong.
Worldly thinking
You know what worldly thinking is? It’s defining your life by what the world says is important. So, possessions and position become incredibly important.
But God has the only perspective that matters.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Col. 3:1-5
Pride
Here’s a simple way of knowing if pride is a problem for you. Did you spend more time this morning worrying and concerning yourself with how you looked on the outside than you did preparing your heart to meet with God in worship?
Envy
Envy happens when you look around and see others functioning in their giftings – and rather than praising God for it – you found reasons to put them down.
Critical Spirit
Speaking or thinking about other believers in a way that tears down rather than builds up.
1 Corinthians 13:7 tells us that love always hopes for the best about others! Critical spirits always hopes for the worst!
Slander
Did you know that you don’t have to LIE to be guilty of slander. You can tell the truth about a person, group, or thing – with the intention to injure and be guilty of slander.
One of the hallmarks of the growing Christian is that we intentionally ‘put off slander’!
Lack of seriousness before God
God is Holy and Higher than anything in all of the universe, but there are times we treat him with less respect and honor than we do the clerk at the fast food restaurant.
When Moses encountered God in the Burning Bush – God told him to take off his shoes because he was standing on ‘holy ground’.
Right now in Heaven a worship service is happening:
“Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:8-11
If that is what is happening in Heaven – our attitudes and action should reflect it as well.
Being in the Presence of God is an awesome thing. Don’t take it lightly.
Another sin to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal is..
Lying
Do you know what lying is: It’s designed deception. It’s doing and saying – or not doing and saying – things that are intentional in their design to deceive.
Following lying is…
Cheating
When you cheat another person, you are devaluing them as a human being made in the image of God. Do we not remember what Jesus taught?
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
Hypocrisy
We all know what hypocrisy is: Pretending to be something on the outside that you aren’t on the inside. Jesus warned against this in Matthew 23:
“Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Matthew 23:26-28
Another sin that needs the light of God’s love shone on it:
Robbing God
By robbing God I mean taking the investment God has made in your life – talents, abilities, time, money, gifts – and using them for purposes that don’t bring a return.
All of us will give an accounting of our lives to the Lord. We need to make sure that we are living fully to His glory.
Bad Temper
Bad temper means that you lack self-control. We all get angry about things. But, our anger must be kept in its proper place – or – it will become like an out of control fire – destroying everything it touches!
I could probably list dozens and dozens of sins in which we need to be aware of – and if we are doing – we need to repent of. But here’s the point of today:
If we are going to have revival, we have to deal decisively with our sin.
God says…
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12
So, here’s the plan. This week, get alone with God. Ask the Holy Spirit to begin to reveal the sins in your life. The sins of neglect. The sins of attitude. The sins of commission.
Write down what He speaks. CONFESS and Repent. And as we do this… look at the end of Hosea 10:12 – “…he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
He brings JOY, CONFIDENCE, INTIMACY, PASSION AND PURPOSE!
Charles Finney wrote: “If you do not start working on your heart immediately, one can say you have no intention of being revived; and you have forsaken your minister, letting him fight the battle alone.”
Revival will come, when God’s people prepare their hearts.
posted by Doug Love at 2:15 PM
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