Revival: Death to Life

Death to Life

As we lead up to revival nights in August… I am reminded of something that shook the world in 1989…. It honestly changed the way we looked at the weekends… it challenged us and in many ways made us laugh…. But revealed an incredible truth that we all must wrestle with if we truly want REVIVAL….

Now you could be thinking

-the fall of the Berlin Wall

-the birth of the World Wide Web

-the release of the gameboy

-the exon oil spill…

but its far more profound than any of that….. Weekend at Bernies (FIRE CLIP )

Here is the truth about revival:

God doesn’t make dead things look better…. HE MAKES DEAD THINGS ALIVE,

To many of us spend our lives trying to make BERNIE LOOK ALIVE, and we have gotten all to comfortable hosting death where we need resurrection

Most of us when we hear the word REVIVAL… we think extra services, with large crowds and good music… a certain style of preaching…. More emotion/ more excitement

The Bible never describes revival as adding something to healthy people…. It is LIFE RETURNING where death has settled in

Ephesians 2:1

“2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,”

It doesn’t say you were sick… it doesn’t say you were “struggling”… it doesn’t say you were weak.. or had a bad day…

YOU WERE DEAD in your sins… NOW YOURE ALIVE IN CHRIST

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people GOOD… he came to make dead people alive

Revival occurs when we invite JESUS into the places where death has crept in.

So here is the question…… Where has death crept into your life… what is your BERNIE….

If I won’t acknowledge what is dead, I’ll never experience Revival:

1.) Revival requires wrestling with reality

in John 11…. Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick… and then Lazarus DIES….

Look at what Jesus says:

John 11:14–15 “

14 So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’”

Jesus said PLAINLY…. LAZURUS IS DEAD, this is the moment that resurrection became possible… because death was revealed…

Jesus didn’t pretend otherwise.. he didn’t say LAZURUS is fine…

The fact is this….

Religion gives you BERNIE

Revival gives you LAZURUS

One looks alive and is still dead….

One looks dead, but is about to experience resurrection

So often we HIDE death with activity….

You go to church, but we don’t pray

We raise our hands, but our hearts are anywhere else

We know scripture but are far from the savior

I’m Reminded of

Revelation 3:1

“3 ‘To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

I don’t want a reputation….. I WANT REVIVAL…. And until each of us are willing to genuinely and humbly wrestle with our current reality…. We will host Bernie, who has a reputation of LIVING…. But is DEAD….

Looking alive isn’t the same as being alive!

What has died…. Your first love, your passion, your prayer life, your hunger, your marriage, a relationship.. your love for people… your mission for lost people…

You cannot experience Resurrection without wrestling with the reality of the GRAVE

Jesus doesn’t IMPROVE LIFE… HE GIVES LIFE

2.) Jesus doesn’t fear death

Most people walk away from death…most of us are uncomfortable in funerals… most of us don’t know how to act..

BUT JESUS…. Jesus walks towards DEATH, because HE IS THE RESURRECTION

John 11:38–40

“38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 ‘Take away the stone,’ he said. ‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’ 40 Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’”

The stone was there to keep the stench of death in… the stone was there to keep death contained….

There is an invitation to REVIVAL right here… MOVE THE STONE, break the walls that hide your hurt, that hide your sin, that hide your habit, that hide your emptiness…

You can’t hide death and see revival…

Martha says…. IF YOU had been here… its too late

Jesus says… I AM THE resurrection

It’s not to late for your revival…. Because resurrection isn’t what JESUS DOES>….. ITS WHO HE IS

I believe there are people that feel like they are to far gone, they are to old, they’ve done to much bad… so they rolled the stone in front of their call… in front of their dream.. in front of their purpose…

the call of revival is to roll away the stone, not so death creeps out…. SO RESURRECTION CAN HAPPEN

Everyone that day saw a grave… JESUS saw an opportunity

3.) The Holy Spirit Breathes Life

There is a powerful story in Ezekiel 37. Known as the valley of dry bones… in fact I want to read some of this chapter because it so appropriately prepares us for REVIVAL

Ezekiel 37:4–10

“4 Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ’ 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” ’ 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”

Notice everything looked COMPLETE… but there was no life, until the breath of GOD … the HOLY SPIRT breathed into them

FORM without BREATH is still death

Bernie could move, but he didn’t BREATH

Religion can assemble, but it cannot resurrect

This word breath… RUACH

Breath, wind… SPIRIT

The same spirit that hovered over creation

The same spirit that raised Christ

The same SPIRT that entered these dry bones

John 20:22

“22 And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”

In Genesis - God breathed life into MAN… ADAM

After the Resurrection JESUS breathed and said Receive the HOLY SPIRIT

Revival is receiving the breath of God again… taking that DEEP BREATH

Salvation:

You choose…. LAZURUS or BERNIE… living with death or living in the resurrection… you might not want to admit it, but each and everyone of us have sinned, according to Eph we were DEAD in those transgressions …. .

But JESUS… he doesn’t run from our death he runs to it…. And I believe HE IS RUNNING TO YOU right now

CHARGE

John 11:44

“44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’”

Revival… brings freedom, it’s time to take off our grave clothes, and LIVE TRULY FREE….

ALTAR… HE Can’t resurrect what you wont reveal.