Church Revitalization 2a...

So when we go to the doctor and he examines us because we’ve come with a cough that just won’t go away.

So he examines us and then based on a series of tests, he gives us the diagnosis. Right? He identifies the problem or disease.

The first thing that we saw last week is that only God Himself can give this life.

So what we want to do is have the Great Physician come and examine us and diagnose us.

We need an assessment of our current status. Not what we once were, not what we wished it to be, but a realistic and accurate appraisal of where our church is right now and maybe how it might have gotten there.

We will have to evaluate ourselves in several key and crucial areas as we navigate through the revitalization process of our church.

So the doctor will as a series of questions to diagnose us.

#1 Do you thirst for God?

Here’s an illustration:

“LORD, I WANT TO KNOW YOU MORE,” SANG THE SOLOIST, JUST BEFORE the sermon. One of my seminary professors from years back, who was a guest preacher at our church that Sunday morning, sat next to me on the front pew, transfixed. As the soloist continued, I could hear my older friend sigh occasionally. When the song was over, T. W. sat motionless for so long that I thought he had forgotten he was now supposed to preach. As I turned to remind him, I saw his shoulders lift and fall with the slow draw and release of his breath. Finally, he opened his eyes and stepped thoughtfully to the pulpit. He looked down for what seemed to be a full minute before he could speak. And then he said, “Lord, I do want to know you more.” Departing from his prepared words for a while, he spoke of his thirst for God, his longings to know Christ more intimately, to obey Him more completely. Here was a man who had followed Christ for more than fifty years and was still captivated by the sweetness of the quest. In his second half-century as a disciple of Jesus, the grace of growth still flourished in him.

It has been ten years since that Sunday morning. I’ve seen T. W. at least annually since then, and the things of God have not diminished their magnetic pull on his heart’s aspirations. Two months ago I found myself sharing a shuttle bus ride with him from a denominational convention back to our hotel. Though nearly seventy now, and weakened by cardiac surgery, his eyes flashed as he talked for half an hour about what he was learning about prayer. Even as his body decays, his longings for God display the growing strength of his soul.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (pp. 15–16). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

“LORD, I WANT TO KNOW YOU MORE,” SANG THE SOLOIST, JUST BEFORE the sermon. One of my seminary professors from years back, who was a guest preacher at our church that Sunday morning, sat next to me on the front pew, transfixed. As the soloist continued, I could hear my older friend sigh occasionally. When the song was over, T. W. sat motionless for so long that I thought he had forgotten he was now supposed to preach. As I turned to remind him, I saw his shoulders lift and fall with the slow draw and release of his breath. Finally, he opened his eyes and stepped thoughtfully to the pulpit. He looked down for what seemed to be a full minute before he could speak. And then he said, “Lord, I do want to know you more.” Departing from his prepared words for a while, he spoke of his thirst for God, his longings to know Christ more intimately, to obey Him more completely. Here was a man who had followed Christ for more than fifty years and was still captivated by the sweetness of the quest. In his second half-century as a disciple of Jesus, the grace of growth still flourished in him.

It has been ten years since that Sunday morning. I’ve seen T. W. at least annually since then, and the things of God have not diminished their magnetic pull on his heart’s aspirations. Two months ago I found myself sharing a shuttle bus ride with him from a denominational convention back to our hotel. Though nearly seventy now, and weakened by cardiac surgery, his eyes flashed as he talked for half an hour about what he was learning about prayer. Even as his body decays, his longings for God display the growing strength of his soul.”

What was Paul’s grand desire in ? _________________

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (pp. 15–16). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

What is he talking about? Didn’t he already know Jesus more closely than perhaps anyone else ever would? Of course he did. But the more he knew Jesus, the more he wanted to know Him. The more Paul progressed in spiritual strength, the more thirsty for God he became. Does this describe the heart beat of our church?

What did the psalmist want in ? ________________________ Does this describe the thirst for God in our church? Whatever else is transpiring in the life of our church, our soul-thirst is a sign of soul-growth.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 16). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Three kinds of spiritual thirst...

Though it is not felt in every moment, in some sense there is a thirst in every soul. God did not make us to be content in our natural condition. In one way or another, to one degree or another, everyone wants more than he has now. The difference between people is the kind of thirsty longing in their soul.

Thirst of the Empty Soul...

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 16). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

The natural, that is, the unconverted man or woman, has an empty soul. Devoid of God, he is constantly in pursuit of that which will fill his emptiness. The range of his mad scramble may include money, sex, power, houses, lands, sports, hobbies, entertainment, transcendence, significance, or education, while basically fulfilling what (See )?

_______________________________

In stirring himself up towards spiritual matters what steps does the empty soul take towards the things of God (See )? ___________________

When you have the statistics concerning the Great Commission (2% sharing the gospel regularly), it seems that if you took the pulse in the American church, we’d have an extremely faint pulse! A Christian observes the man with the empty soul and knows that what he is looking for can be found only in the One who said, “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst” (). Occasionally, an empty soul searches in more serious-minded or spiritual ways that lead some Christians to think he is thirsting for God. But the world has no such thirst. “There is none who understands,” God inspired both King David and the apostle Paul to write, “there is none who seeks after God” (; ). Until and unless the Holy Spirit of God touches the spiritual tongue of the empty soul, that soul will never want to “taste and see that the Lord is good” ().

Thirst of the dry soul...

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 17). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 17). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

The difference between the empty soul and the dry soul is that one has never experienced “rivers of living water” (), while the other has and knows what he’s missing. That is not to say that the dry soul can lose the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit; indeed, Jesus said, “the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (, emphasis added).

difference between the empty soul and the dry soul is that one has never experienced “rivers of living water” (), while the other has and knows what he’s missing. That is not to say that the dry soul can lose the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit; indeed, Jesus said, “the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (, emphasis added).

How is it then that a true believer in Christ can become a dry soul when Jesus promised that “whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will never thirst” ()?

A Christian soul becomes arid in one of three ways. The most common is by drinking too much from the dehydrating fountains of the world and too little from “the river of God” ().

What should our plea be and our desire be before God?

Plea (): _________________

Desire (): _______________

Regardless of the cause, the dry Christian soul is like the believer of , thirsting for God “as the deer pants for the water brooks.” When you are in this condition, nothing else but the living water of God Himself will do. That’s the cry of the dry soul. Other things may have distracted you, but now the only thing that matters is a return of the sense of your Father’s presence.

That’s the cry of the dry soul. Other things may have distracted you, but now the only thing that matters is a return of the sense of your Father’s presence.

Thirst of the satisfied soul...

Unlike the dry soul, and as self-contradictory as it may sound at the moment, the satisfied soul thirsts for God precisely because he is satisfied with God. He has “taste[d] and see[n] that the LORD is good” (), and the taste is so uniquely satisfying that he craves more.

Unlike the dry soul, and as self-contradictory as it may sound at the moment, the satisfied soul thirsts for God precisely because he is satisfied with God. He has “taste[d] and see[n] that the LORD is good” (), and the taste is so uniquely satisfying that he craves more.

The apostle Paul personified this in his famous exclamation, “that I may know Him” (). In the preceding lines he had been exulting in his present knowledge of and relationship with Jesus. He announced, "But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ” ()

Then, just one verse later, the apostle cried out, “that I may know Him.” Paul was soul-satisfied with Jesus Christ, yet thirsty for Him still.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (pp. 21–22). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Does the worship and devotional experiences provided us with ravishing tastes of the piercing sweetness of Christ, only leaving you to desire more of Him? These are the marks of a growing soul of a church.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 21). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 21). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (pp. 20–21). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Whitney, D. S. (2001). Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (p. 18). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.