Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." - John 3: 3 (ESV)
Beloved, the problem with the unsaved is not behavioral; it's relational. We can achieve all of the revivalistic-quasi-political goals it seems evangelicals ruminate over and nothing will have shifted eternally. Nothing will have been accomplished spiritually. We can have the ten commandments posted in every courthouse, stop every abortion, prevent every homosexual from marrying, reinstitute prayer in schools, and return to the sexual saturation levels of the Victorian Era and nothing will have changed because everyone else would still be unsaved. Our job is not to convict the unsaved of their sin - that is God's job. Our job is to preach the Gospel. I saw the Christian glee over the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling yesterday and was frankly downcast because we still do not get it. Driving away the very people we need to present Jesus to is not a wise evangelistic strategy. We need to realize that all we are trying to do is save Sodom and God is not going to relent. Our citizenship is not on this earth yet we act as if America is God's country. We are supposed to be pilgrims and sojourners through this land but instead we abide. Not under the shadow of the Almighty but rather in the belly of the beast we pretend to abhor. The people who are separated from God do not need to hear us condemning them. They need to hear the Gospel. Which brings us to our key verses for today taken from Psalm 85 and deals with the subject of revival. Let's take it piece by piece:
Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?
The first lesson is that revival deals with us - not them. It deals with those who are already the Lords. We love focusing on them because it means we do not have to look at ourselves. Our own deficiencies. Our own sin. It is much easier to look upon the world and blame them for all of the ills in society and the coming judgment. Easier than to look inward to what we should be doing better in these last days. The second lesson here is for us to ask the very disturbing question - what are we rejoicing in? The Psalmist asks for revival specifically so that they may rejoice in the Lord. That leads me to believe that the need for revival is linked to a falling away from rejoicing in the Lord. Look out over the landscape of modern Christendom and see what it is that we rejoice in today. We rejoice in large sculpted buildings and pomp and circumstance. We rejoice in money and possessions. We rejoice in a religion that costs us nothing. We rejoice in exploiting the grace of God so that we can excuse our own sin. We rejoice in false signs and lying wonders. We rejoice in the very things the Bible warns us we will rejoice in:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. - 2Timothy 3: 1-5 (ESV)
These verses are not about the world beloved. They are about the church. We have plenty of appearance and are sorely lacking in power. If you want to see what we rejoice in, turn on what passes for Christian television these days. Realize that when Joel Osteen can pack in 55,000 people into Yankee Stadium to hear a message devoid of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are rejoicing in the wrong thing. I have heard all of the arguments and they do not stand next to the holiness of God and the imperative of His Gospel. I do not care how nice he is. I do not care what his motivation is. I do not care if he makes you feel good. I care about the Gospel and he does not preach it. Period. The church needs to return to rejoicing in God. To find all we need in God. To be sustained in God. To be in love with God. To find our sufficiency in God. To find our purpose not in a church building but in His Gospel. That is where revival starts.
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.
There are two things we lose sight of when we drift as a church. Two things we take for granted. The love of God and His salvation. There is a perverted grace leaven running through the church today that is driving us farther from God. A grace that turns the love of God into a caricature. There is no subject that causes Christians to abandon biblical truth faster than love. We run to the world and embrace their distorted views on love and then drag them back to camp and try applying them to God. Far too many Christians believe God doesn't even want them uncomfortable. He was OK with the crucifixion of His only Son, but is infinitely concerned with our comfort! Let us never lose sight of the true love of God
