Revival and The Heart of the Matter

1Corinthians 5: 6-8 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

The modern Pentecostal Church has always been enamored with the notion of revival. We have always sought out revival in one form or another. Visiting tent meetings and holding prayer vigils as we desperately seek the face of God to make things right again. The dictionary defines revival as, " an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion. I had a Pastor once preach that if we could ever keep things right, we wouldn't need revival. In order to need an awakening, we must have somehow allowed ourselves to slumber when we should be awake.

But revival is not the heart of the matter. It is the need. You get to revival and closer to the heart of the matter through repentance. The key fact we always need to remember about repentance is that it always starts with me. "Me" meaning that we all are in need of repentance. Paul teaches in Romans 3 that none are good, no not even one. All have turned from God. But it is always easier in the church to look at someone else and say they need repentance. It is always easier to look at those in the world and say they need repentance. The hard reality is that whenever we are looking at someone else's need for repentance it is probably because we don't want to look at our own. When we are quick to diagnose sin in some else's life it is probably because we don't want to look at our own sin. Instead of being introspective we become outwardly focused. Instead of doing the right things, we merely say the right things. Sometimes the church gets pretty good at talking the talk but not so good at walking the walk. Even all the way up to leadership. At the end of the day, Elder or congregant, we stand the same before a holy God. We both have to answer for our sins and every careless word spoken. Preacher and lay-person alike. Standing piously over someone else to pray when there are unresolved and un-repented issues in our hearts is not lost on God. Fervently worshipping and making a show of public prayer or worship while there are unresolved and un-repented issues in our hearts is also not lost on God. In the days of the Prophet Malachi, Israel had become good at talking the talk. Malachi delivers a hard message:

You have wearied the LORD with your words. "How have we wearied him?" you ask. By saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them" or "Where is the God of justice?" - Malachi 2: 17 (NIV)

The Bible says to not call good evil. The Prophet here is saying that what we say is not nearly as important as what we do and what we are. When we clap each other on the back for our fine works and declare that God is pleased when there is still sin in the camp, we weary God with our words. When you cry out for justice while living unjustly towards others, God understands the hypocrisy we fail to see. We should not be so swift to ask where the God of justice is because we may not like the answer!

Repentance means that we must turn away from the sin that separates us from God. We all claim to want to seek the face of God. To walk in His power. To be showered by His blessings. Well here is the harsh reality for us today. None of that is possible if we are separated from Him! And sin is what separates us. The Prophet Ezekiel defines it for us:

But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done. "Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign L ord . Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. Ezekiel 18: 21-23 (NLT)

God wants us to live! He wants us to walk in His power! He wants us to be under His blessings! But a holy God cannot commune with sin. It must be repented of. That secret hurt you carry. That angst you hold against a brother of sister. You unforgiveness, jealousy, or hatred. What you know you did wrong and never confessed. It all separates us from God. Repentance is about turning from what separates us and back to the God that always forgives. The answer is repentance and it must always start with me.

But that is not the heart of the matter either. Revival is the need and repentance is the way. But at the heart of the matter is the cause. Too often we prefer to deal with the symptoms as opposed the disease. It is a subject that is not discussed much anymore in modern Pentecostal circles. Churches tend to shy away from discussing it because it isn't very seeker-friendly. The heart of the matter always has been and always will be sin. The three letter word that no one wants to talk about because it hits too close to home. Because it reveals who we truly are. In the dark, when no one else is around. Who we are when temptation comes across our desk at work or across our computer screen at home. Proverbs teaches us why revival will not work without confession of sin:

When the godly succeed, everyone is glad. When the wicked take charge, people go into hiding. People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. Proverbs 28: 12-13 (NLT)

Revival is prosperous by definition. We cannot expect to be prosperous or see revival if there is still sin that is concealed. The Book of Joshua details a great many victories the Israelites enjoyed when they finally came into the land promised by God. Those victories were secured through God and by obeying God. Similarly, when we find ourselves lined up correctly with His will and obeying His Word, we too will experience great victories in our lives and in the life of the church. Revival will not even be necessary because we will have no need to be awakened. The great walls that block our prosperity and progression in Christ will fall with nothing more than a shout, like the walls of Jericho fell before an obedient Joshua. But when there is sin in the camp...

During these campaigns of great victory God was very explicit to the Israelites to take none of the plunder they found. The picture drawn for us today is that Jericho is the world in our lives. It is the worldly ways of thinking that invade who we are in Christ. It takes the form of strongholds in our thinking which lead inevitably to sin because it is opposed to what God has said already. It is opposed to His thinking. Eventually those strongholds develop with great walls standing before us seeming to be impenetrable. God says that defeating the walls before us is not enough. We cannot take anything from the world back with us from the victory! No matter how small it may seem it will be like our key verses state. You only need a little yeast for it to spread throughout the entire batch.

After these huge victories, Joshua faced a smaller enemy in the people of Ai. Joshua dispatched 3,000 men for what their carnal minds thought should be an easy victory. The Israelites were soundly defeated however. What Joshua did not know is that there was sin in the camp. A man named Achan had secretly taken some of the plunder God had instructed they were to not take. It wasn't much. He took a Babylonian robe, some silver and a bar of gold. The size of the sin does not matter to God only the disobedience. We also sometimes convince ourselves that the sin we deal with is somehow small enough for God to overlook. It never is too small beloved. So Joshua rent his garments and cried out to God. But it was not a cry of repentance:

Then Joshua cried out, "Oh, Sovereign L ord , why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side! Lord, what can I say now that Israel has fled from its enemies? Joshua 7: 7-8 (NLT)

Isn't this sometimes how we cry out to God as well? Why me God? Why did it have to go this way? Wasn't I better off before I tried to follow your will? As Christians we too can be so easily guilty of blaming God or looking to others instead of looking inside our own camp for the hidden sin. For that small bit of yeast that is infecting the entire batch. Here is the response from God to Joshua and to us today:

But the L ord said to Joshua, "Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this? Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction. Joshua 7: 10-12 (NLT)

The sin of Achan was uncovered and weeded out of the camp. Revival came to the Israelites that day and soon after they defeated Ai. But revival could not come to them until they repented. They could not repent until they dealt with the sin issue among them. Likewise, we cannot have the victory without the process and we cannot have the process without understanding the cause. Treating the symptom will not cure the disease. Look at that last verse God will NOT remain with us unless we destroy the things amongst us that God already set apart for destruction!

What ramifications does that have for our lives and the life of our church? What things has God set apart for destruction that we still cling to? What do we have buried in our tent like Achan before us? Have we been deceptive? Have we lied? Have we gained advantage through unjust means? Have we offended one another without reconciliation? I am sure that during the time between when Achan took the items and he was discovered he acted like the rest of his clan. Just a little yeast in his tribe. I'd guess that he attended whatever ceremonies they had to praise God, lifted his hands and said and did all the right things. All the expected things. All the "churchy" things. Everything except obedience. Maybe he even prayed with people or prayed over people. Appearing pious when in his heart he was false. THAT is the leaven the key verses speak about today.

The verses from Paul's letter to the Church at Corinth spell out that the Corinthians were actually boastful about the sin in their camp! That may sound unreasonable but if we think hard enough I am sure we can think of modern day correlations in the church. Sin rampant yet boastful we remain. Proud of the numbers we may have showing every week. Proud of the latest scheme or strategy. Proud when God desires humility. Public displays of sacrifice when God desires obedience. The yeast slowly working its way through the entire batch.

What is the worldly plunder buried in our tent today? Revival is waiting for all who truly seek it. All who truly repent. Repentance is waiting for all who truly seek it as well. All who truly look at their own sin, at their own Babylonian robe that they cling to instead of God. The Prophet Ezekiel concludes for us:

"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!" Ezekiel 18: 30-32 (NKJV)

Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit beloved! When you peel away the tent meetings and prayer vigils you eventually will be left with yourself and your God. Because at the end of the day the heart of the matter is not your pastor, your boss, the person sitting next to you in the pew or the people still stuck in the world. The heart of the matter is the condition of our heart and the sin which we so easily carry with us. We must cast it out of the batch and repent. Turn away from the things we kept from the world and turn toward the God says, "live!" Then we can expect revival. Then we can hope to never need it again.

Reverend Anthony Wade August 31, 2011