Broken Hero's Part 5

Religion or Revival

This is one of my wife’s favorite biblical recounts. We aren’t going to get into the meat of this verse just yet (maybe I’ll have Beth preach it) but we are going to get into the first three verses of chapter 4.

Judges 4:1–3 ESV

And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.

We are in about the fourth salvation of Israel and this kind of goes with this mornings message about being a slave to sin. So we are going to continue down the same vein because I believe there is something God wants us to hear. Many people try to divorce the Old and the New Testament, but I truly believe the Old Testament visually explains the New.

Like this morning we can only serve one master. We are either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. Every time Israel did what was right in their own sight—the flesh, they became a slave to sin. They would cry out, make the right sacrifices for the time being and be saved, only to turn again to the Evil they once needed rescuing.

Proverbs 26:11 ESV

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Is pretty clear how God sees those who are saved returning to their sins and yet it’s a pattern we all face. We see the affects of our sin plainly in Israel and their on going physical slavery. It’s a picture that depicts the Spiritual slavery we face today when we release the word of God and gravitate towards the pleasures of the flesh.

I see many churches today searching and praying for revival, but I don’t believe revival is a one instance under the tent affair. Many preachers of old recall the times of amazing revival services. We recalled the Brownsville Revival which started because one Pastor said he wasn’t going to stop praying until his church was on fire. We see the Azusa street Revival when a group of men burned with the desire for more of God.

The issue is Satan will often turn revival into religion. Revival starts with a relationship with God. Men and women who cry out for more of his Spirit. It’s like those virgins who had their candles ready waiting for the bridegroom to return, but often we are faced with the realization that we are birthing virgins whose candles are only half filled with religion and whose fires goes out in the middle of night. Ultimately they miss the returning of the Bridegroom.

So what’s the difference and how does it relate to our verse.

Trouble in our lives often chases people toward Religion. We saw this when 9/11 and they terrorist airplane attacks happen. We saw this with the Sandyhook shooting. Something terrible happens and people run to church, but given a few months, weeks, or years their fire burns out because their oil basins weren’t full.

Religion is easy to embrace and hard to sustain.

The reason religion is easy to embrace is because it’s tangible. You’re given a list of do’s and don’ts and your expected to follow them. This is why the Levitical Law was fulfilled in Christ. Christ knew that the law couldn’t sustain us. It’s what we talked about this morning. The law is there to show us that we are sinners in need of grace. However, the law is often the first and sadly the only thing we give to new converts. We think that if we come to church a certain number of times, are good people, and we tithe. Well, then we will make it to Heaven. The issue is that the law doesn’t fill you, it drains you.

The law is a tough burden to bear.

The Law requires you to change. This is what Israel would grab onto every time they realized their sin has cost them more than they wanted to pay. They would cry out and God would rescue them. They would sin again because they were trying to maintain a law and not a relationship.

Revival

On the other hand is much more. The term revive means to bring back—to life. It is not just an outward obedience. This obedience will fill your candle up only half way, but won’t sustain you through the night.

Revival on the other hand means to rekindle that relationship and that passion for. When I counsel people who are quote falling out of love the biggest advice I can give is to bring them back to the point where their relationship was on fire with passion and desire and figure out what went wrong. Once we figure out the turn in the road it’s easy then to revive the flame with some work.

Revival doesn’t come easy, but it fills our oil the other half of the way and sustains us through the night. That passion for your relationship with God is what will sustain you through the law of God.

What Israel should have said and what we need to say is

Psalm

Psalm 51:10 ESV

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Revive.

Are you growing tired, burned, weighed down? Come to the alter and be revived. Jesus said at the well that his water never runs dry, but I often find that I need to return to that well to be refreshed. Don’t believe the lies that if you pray more, if you read more you’ll do better. Yes praying and reading is a good thing, but apart from desire, passion and revival it’s another law that will show you failure. You can’t read and talk out of need and walk away refreshed. You read and talk out of desire. Out of fire. And out of passion.

Lord renew a right Spirit in me!