Sermon Tone Analysis

*Why Doesn’t Revival Come*

October 28, 2007

2 Chronicles 7:14

When I arrived in Cut Knife many months ago, I prayed for a vision for Good Shepherd Community Church and for this community.

The vision God gave me was for revival – awakening God’s people.

God’s call to me was to awaken the spiritual eyes of this church to focus its gaze on Jesus.

So, given this vision I promoted your participation in the Sutera twins revival meetings in North Battleford, and Marcy and I took in their 18 days of teaching.

Then, in March, we invited Ken Graham to speak to us again on revival through repentance.

And throughout those times and to this day, I prayed, as Paul did in Ephesians 1:17-18,  that /God would open the eyes of your heart – would infuse you with excitement about spiritual matters.

/For many of you, I am still praying that you will open the door to Jesus and let Him be the ruler of your life.

And now for the big question: What have I achieved?

Or, more pertinent, “What has God achieved at Good Shepherd?”

Has my vision for revival come to pass?

Has God revived you?

No? Why not?

Why hasn’t Revival come to this body of believers?

That is the question we will examine this morning.

Many Christian scholars believe that revival is delayed when  the essence of Jesus’ preaching is neglected.

What was the essence of the preaching of Jesus?

When you see Jesus preaching, you are looking at the heart of the Father.

Jesus said, /"…I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak…" /(John 8:28).

/"…all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you"/ (John 15:15).

As the Son of God delivered the message from the heart of His Father, the first word out of His mouth was, /"Repent" /(Matt.

4:17).

This was the essence of Jesus’ preaching.

*Repent!!!*

Who was Jesus speaking to at that time?

He was speaking to God’s people.

John 1:11 says, /"He came to His own, and/ /His own did not receive Him."/ Did He then say, "I am not going to preach to them anymore"?

No, He kept on preaching to them because it was a life and death message.

He knew how critical the message was.

Our problem is that when people do not listen to us, we quit, or when things get tough, we quit.

As a pastor I see myself as a spiritual physician.

I work for perfect spiritual health.

I see sick Christians all the time.

I don’t get upset with them.

I simply say, "That’s why God has me here."

God has given me the gifting to be a spiritual diagnostician.

Let’s pray: “Lord, help me to know how to diagnose what is happening and then address the root cause."

I find that when the root cause is resolved, all of the symptoms disappear.

And the root cause is summed up in Jesus’ message for us – to repent.

Again, I ask, have I delivered the message to you? Did I say it strong enough?

Did I say it often enough?

Have you believed it and received it?

I have never yet known God to place anyone in a difficult situation where He didn’t have all the resources to bring us, His people, from where we were to where we ought to be.

When you are healed spiritually, then the joy of the Lord and the power and the presence of God will fill the life of the church family.

If we repent!

When our Lord came, He had that very specific message for His people.

There is, these days, a terrible neglect of preaching repentance to God’s people, and so God’s people don’t repent.

Consequently they are full of sin.

Yet they cry for revival, and God essentially says, "No, no, no!

You are full of sin.

I want you to know that My arm is not short that it /can’t /save; My ear is not heavy that I /can’t/ hear, but your sin has come between you and Me, so I /will not/ hear" (Isa.

59:1).

Does He not say in Psalm 66:18 that if you regard and cherish sin in your heart, the Lord will not hear you?

Surely a pastor should say, "I had better deal with sin in the life of God’s people."

Have I been neglectful  in preaching repentance?

I know I’ve preached it, but have I preached it enough?

Has it been preached to the extent that you see how important it is?

If I have been neglectful in this duty, I ask for your forgiveness.

If I’m not guilty, then you will already be familiar with what God has led me to preach today.

I urge you to pay close attention; I urge you to take notes (if you have no paper, take notes in your Bible).

Why am I saying this?

It’s simple: Until we as individuals and corporately as a church, repent – that is, turn away from the direction we’ve been going, and start following God’s direction, we are only playing church.

Until we repent, we will not be the people He wants us to be; we will not be used by God to any great degree, we will not change Cut Knife; we will not grow spiritually; we will not grow numerically either.

We will continue kidding ourselves that we are godly people.

God wants us to repent; He wants us to surrender; He wants us to hunger for His Word; He wants us to have a passion for His Son; He wants to be absolutely number one in our lives; He wants us to grow daily in His Word; He wants us to be prayer warriors.

Yes, He wants all of these things, but first He wants us to repent.

So the question is this – do we want what He wants or will we settle for wasting our time playing church?

The answer to this question determines the course your life will take.

If He is number one in your life then everything in your life will be subject to Him – how you think, what you say, what you do with your time, your talents, your money, your possessions.

It’s a huge commitment, isn’t it?

But His Word assures us that making this decision will be the wisest decision we will ever make!

Those are pretty strong words, aren’t they?

Do you believe them?

Some people feel that praying for revival is a substitute for repentance – that somehow God will be pleased if we ask Him to come in power.

God says something like this: "I have been here all along, and I didn’t leave My power in heaven.

The problem is not with Me.

It is with you.

You do not know how to recognize My power and my presence.

All the power of God, all the fullness of God, dwells in His Son who is the head of this church.

So our church is at all times filled with the fullness of God.

The problem is that we are not appropriating His power.

Remember Ephesians 1:3? /“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.”

/We have every spiritual blessing!

It is like Christmas.

Under the tree is a load of gifts from God  and they all have our name on the tag.

All we have to do is receive them.

Take them.

Use them.

We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

Let’s return to the heart of Jesus’ teaching.

The first word out of the heart of Jesus to His people is always /"Repent!" /The most/ /positive word from the heart of a God with perfect love is/ "Repent."

/That is not a negative word.

It is the most positive word from the heart of God because God always accompanies it by saying, /"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."/

In other words, "Repent because the entire kingdom of God is right under that Christmas tree waiting to be unwrapped and put into your life."

Although it is the most positive message from the heart of God, it is one of the most neglected.

As long as God’s people won’t repent, revival will not come.

Prayer is not repentance.

Confession is not repentance either.

Confession is the first step toward repentance.

Confession acknowledges that I believe my sin is as bad as God tells me it is, and therefore having confessed my sin, I must repent.