Second Sunday of Easter

Scripture: James 4:7-10

The New International Version Chapter 4

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Sermon:

In 12 days, we will be having a series of meetings called revival. From April 19-April 21. We will be having Pastor Mary Marlow come and bring a total of 4 messages to us. 1 each evening and 1 on Sunday morning. But I am convinced that true revival doesn’t start simply because we put a series of meetings on the calendar and it doesn’t end when our speaker closes the Bible and goes away. I am convinced there is a possibility that revival can happen this morning in this service. And so this morning, I want to begin a two-part series entitled, Recipe for Revival.

This first part is going to be our preparation. When a cook or chef goes to make something, the first question they ask is, “do I have what I need to make the recipe?” So they begin to gather the ingredients. In the same way this morning, we will consider the ingredients to see if we have what we need for revival to occur.

The first ingredient is a recognition of the need for revival. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." And sometimes we get really excited about what God will do, and we forget about that first word, “if”. If my people will, then I will. Which suggests, if His people don’t, then He won’t. Which makes the obvious question, will we?

Not until we believe we need a change. Not until we recognize our need for revival. If we are content with the status quo. If we think everything around us is as it should be, if we think this is the best life possible, then we won’t seek revival. Revival comes when we are desperate for it.

This leads to the second ingredient. Will we pray and genuinely seek God’s face. Again, Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." There isn’t an “if” here, but a “when”. Again, we will find Him when we seek Him with all our heart. Otherwise, we won’t find Him. How serious are we about finding Him?

And the third ingredient for this part of revival is to seek repentance and to remain humble. Like David, we can pray, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10. You know that sometimes we are guilty of looking at others and comparing ourselves to them. We are better than them, but maybe not as good as they are. I may not pray like Him but I don’t act like her. Comparing ourselves to each other misses the mark completely. The only one to whom we should compare ourselves is God. I think of Peter after Jesus’ resurrection and Jesus asks him three times, “Peter, do you love me.” And Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep. Immediately, Peter turns, points to John, and says, Lord, what about him? And Jesus basically says, that’s none of your business. That’s between Him and me. You worry about yourself. We can always find someone we can look down on. Someone who is less “faithful” than us. But our spirits need to be humble and we need to be honest before God about our sin. About who we are in light of who He is. We are all equal at the foot of the cross.