Revival in the cornfield
Notes
Transcript
I want to thank everyone for being out here all day, for David putting this together, for the patawomeck tribe.
Revival is a word I have often struggled with, especially with the modern church. Until last night at in the middle of the night. The result of a revival should be this, that White Oak the whole area belongs to the Kingdom of God now. Whenever it is that Satan gets his battle report updates, here is his update for White Oak, it is lost to Him and now belongs to Lord. That is Revival. When people find out where you go to church, they should already knew you are a bold Christian because the world knows White Oak belongs to the Lord
King Solomon was tasked with building the Lord’s temple.
When King Solomon completed the temple the Lord had this to say so Solomon
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.
If my people humble themselves and turn to the Lord and away from their wicked ways. If they turn away from sin. The Lord hears us. We are here this weekend to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. We pray for revival and all weekend we have spoken the importance of our community having a a revival.
Before there can be a revival there must be repentance
In order to have a true revival, in our community but more importantly in our own lives, we first have to understand what separates us from the Lord. We have understand that sin, our sin nature is what separates us from the Lord.
If you do not understand that you are a sinner, then there is no need for a savior . We are sinners, I have not been a committed follower of the Lord Jesus my entire life. I know the power of sin, and the temptation of satan.
The Lord told Solomon that the people had to humble themselves. That is step one, it to realize that we are not the top of the food chain. It is the pride of man that is the genesis of all sin. We are not the saviors of the world, Jesus Christ is the Savior
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The first words of Jesus’s ministry is to let the people know that the Kingdom of God is near and to repent. In order to have a revival we need repentance. We need it in our lives and we need it in our community. You see repentance is the turning away from sin. it is heart breaking but it most be down because we have to recognize what grace God has given us.
I spent a lot of years justifying my sin, rationalizing all of my actions, convincing myself that I was a good person. When I laid all of that down at the feet of Jesus , I saw what true freedom was. People have the notion of freedom all wrong. Freedom isn’t being able to do anything you want. That isn’t what freedom is. That isn’t what Jesus died for.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We all are familiar with this verse. This verse illustrates the truth of our world. These are the choices that we have been presented. We can chose sin and the Lord will give us over to that sin, just like Romans 1 tells us. Or we can see the grace of God working and we can accept life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin isn’t freedom, sin is bondage masquerading as freedom. The true freedom is when you give up everything in life to follow the one true King of this world. The Lord will hear you and forgive your sins when you come to Him in repentance.
But sinners aren’t the only ones that need to repent. No, we want Revival in this land then the church needs to start acting like the church. The Church needs to recapture it’s boldness.
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Here is where these verses get interesting. The location of where Jesus says this is vitally important to this verse
Caesarea Philippi was filled with temples to , especially .
Greek and Roman gods Pan
The large cave there was believed to be an entrance to the underworld—often called the “gates of Hades.”
“the gates of Hades will not overcome it”
He’s likely referencing this exact location—standing in front of what people believed was literally a gate to the realm of the dead.
one other reason for this choice of location is that Caesarea means city of ceasar, Ceasar was the ruler of Rome. Jesus was letting the devil know, and the world know, the church is being built.
“The gates of Hades will not prevail”
“The gates of Hades will not prevail”
Gates are , not offensive.
defensive
Jesus is saying: Hell will not withstand the advance of His Church
👉 Standing at a place literally called the “gates of Hades,” this becomes a visual prophecy of victory.
This is what our Lord Jesus had planned for the church. Jesus stood in front of the place that people considered to be the gates of Hell and He said this is where I am building my church. The church is supposed to be on the offensive against the darkness, instead many churches and Christians are running a prevent defense.
This is the Lord Jesus that I follow. This is the boldness that the church needs to recapture. You look around the world and people are caught up in idolatry, immorality, and people are calling these things good. The church will be quiet though. No the church is supposed to stand for the God’s Truth, not just in our church walls but outside out church walls.
Bear with me for a few moments because we are living through right now what happens when the church fails to be the watchmen. In November there will be a vote for a abortion amendment to the constitution of Virginia. It is the most radical amendment in the world. I pray that you know about his already, and I pray that your pastors have told you about it. Our society does not value you life. Many people across our commonwealth do not value life.
The Lord values you life though. The Lord values your life so much that He sent His son to die on the cross for our transgressions. This is the amendment is just one of many unbiblical things unfolding in our society . I go back to what Jesus says, This is where I build my church. As much as we want a revival of people, we need a revival of the church. We need strong Christians standing up for the Word of God. I do not cower because Jesus went to the cross willingly. We should not ever back down because Jesus never backed down for us.
Repent and believe the good news of the Gospel. When I look at the world I do not get upset, I grieve. I grieve because being separated from the Lord is the worst fate that can fall onto someone. You know my son asked why doesn’t just everyone follow the God, the other night, he asks me this. That is a deep question from 11 year old and of course he asks me this at his bed time, which is when all great deep theological questions should be asked.
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
I am concerned about your eternity, and I am concerned about the when Jesus comes back because one day the King is coming back and that trumpet will sound and all this debate will be over with because every single knee will bow and every single person will stand in judgment that day. Every morning I wake up, I take the dog for a walk and get my son ready for school and I look up at the sky. Today isn’t the day He comes, so it is time to get to work. Just as the days of Noah, the people were given 120 years of grace before that rain fell. No one but Noah’s family believed him until those rain drops started to fall.
We are currently in the longest period of grace. and people continue on drinking, marrying and living their life. One day that trumpet will sound though and the period of grace will be over. My goal in ministry is to fill heaven and later New Jersualem. People in this world are lost, lost in sin, lost in temptation and lost in who the should actually be following. I want to fast forward just a little bit in into Revelation
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
This is what the Lord has planned for you
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
The cowardly is mentioned first in this list of sins. Jesus is talking about Christians, then it falls to thos who do not believe.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
There is a lot of people in this world that desire fame, desire recognition, desire wealth. In our lives there is only one recognition that truly matters. If your name is written down in the Lamb’s book of life. Do not chase after worldly idols but instead chase after the Lord. Because I will tell you this, people may feel insignificant or not seen. You are seen, you are seen and loved by the one who gave His life for you. Your life has meaning, your life has purpose and that purpose is to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you feel down or caught up in a struggle. Your name is in the only book that counts. If your name isn’t in that book yet, if you haven’t given your life over to Jesus Christ yet. Do not leave this church if there is something being left unsaid to the Father. Pastor Rick and I are here , we have deacons and flock leaders, elders. We want your name in that book, we want as many names in that book as we can. This is the where the narrow path leads you to.
