Revival: Returning to Our First Love and Living Out What We Believe

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. If buddy. Welcome back to the Jack Hibbs Podcast here real life, and we're gonna be talking about what the talk is all about. Is the revival breaking out? And Asbury, is the revival breaking out in America? We're gonna discuss what revival is and why it's necessary, but where is this proper place in scripture and in our culture. So it's very important that it's time for you and I to live out our lives. It's time for you and I to live what we believe. It's time for real life. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com/podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five our ratings. To us, that's like saying, amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Well, hey, welcome back. Listen, if you are blessed by this podcast. We'd love to know that. In fact, you could really encourage us by simply going to the subscribe button. If you'd if you'd hit that subscribe button, and share with others that they too can join us. It'd be great. That's we're not asking for money. We're not asking for anything else. Of course, we'd love you to pray for us, but If you could promote us by subscribing and sharing, passing on the word, giving us a reveal, that'd be incredible.

0:01:40
So Asbury, Kentucky. What's going on? This now, I think by the time of our recording, we are in the eighth or ninth day ninth day of what is being called a revival that has broken out. I say broken out. I'll qualify that in a moment. At Asbury College. It's a Christian College. And there was this three times a week they have their student devotional in the chapel. And there was a very simple message given about twenty three, twenty five minutes long, and it was either a visiting pastor or a campus pastor simply gave a message. Maybe you've already watched it. I watched it. Which is completely basic. You need to love one another. You need to stop gossiping. You need to think about how you treat others around you, when you see people in need, love them, and it was it was the basic challenge to believers to live out their faith. And the pastor, the speaker got done, walked away, the worship group got up, started to sing their closing song, and they've been singing worship songs ever since. And that's awesome. And that's beautiful. And I'm not knocking at them all for that.

0:03:00
So immediately, the press and others, including the Church Family, by and large of all denominations, began to say revival has broken out. This is revival. It's revival.

0:03:12
But if we take a look at revival, We need to understand some things regarding the biblical definition of revival. I I should probably preempt what I'm about to say by saying this. The church seems to be so dissatisfied with its experience that it's groping and looking for any kind of experience right now to hook its wagon to or to say, look, God is here. Or god is there or whatever. We wanna be careful about that because of the experience doesn't necessarily mean that it is revival or an awakening or Christ centered. I'm not saying that asbury is not Christ centered. What I'm saying is there is a rule in the bible to the definition of revival. So it goes like this.

0:04:07
Revival, the word is to be re vibed, and the word vyve is to be alive. If you have life, spiritually speaking, if you know Christ, You've been born again. You have vyve. You have life. And to revive is to renew or bring back to life that which was previously dead in the spirit. So we, as believers, we need to experience on a daily basis, technically, continuous revival. You see, Jack, what does that mean? Well, every day you want to make sure that your private time with the lord is intact, that you're reading the bible for yourself, and that you're hearing from god for yourself, I'm not talking about sermons on Wednesdays or Sundays. I'm not talking about driving and listening to radio bible teaching or anything like that. I'm talking about personally spending time with God to maintain a perpetual state of revival is to maintain fellowship with God. Does that make sense?

0:05:17
If you have not had fellowship with God, if you've wandered away or become cold, maybe like in the book of Revelation, Jesus says to the Church of Ephesys, you need to return back to your first love. That's Jesus actually giving you the definition of revival is to going back to your first love. And when that happens, you are revived. Worship breaks out. Confession breaks out of sin. There is a prayer.

0:05:50
Very often, I wanna be careful that I say this and that you hear this. There's a group throughout history, for example, that will say things like, let's have a revival next Sunday night. Okay? And it might even say on the Church Marquis out in front of the street, revival here next Sunday night. That's cute, but it's completely false. You can't do that. You can't manufacture revival. It's the move of God. It's sovereign move of God.

0:06:22
However, revival does require you and I taking a look at our at ourselves on the inside and saying, I need to repent and get back to my love of God. I need to get away from these sins that have beset me and returned to the Lord. In fact, listen, the prodigal son parable that Jesus gave. Is a perfect example of revival. That young man had life, but he walked away from it. And he got into the pitfalls and perils of the world And then he woke up and realized this stinks. I need to get back to my father, and I need to get back to live in a life that I'm supposed to live.

0:07:03
And revival is not mentioned, but it's a story about revival. Repentance isn't mentioned, but it's a story about repentance. And so we need to remember this. Revival can only happen to the church, not unbelievers. It's impossible. Unbelievers do not experience revival. Only the saved experience revival.

0:07:26
When revival happens, watch and check out history. From old testament to new testament to history. When the church is revived, it becomes so attractive against the backdrop of a lost sinful world that the world says, what's going on? What's happening? I gotta go see what's happening and they see believers alive. Worshiping, praying, loving, caring. And when that happens, listen, revival technically, ought not to stop. So what's happening right now in Asbury should always be happening everywhere as we walk close to God. But hallelujah, it's happening in Asbury, Kentucky, And let's pray that it sweeps the nation among God's people. Right? So the world says, what's going on over there? And we even know from the revivals that took place, for example, where the methodist thought that they could engineer a revival. They thought they could pull it off. So John and Charles Wesley, including one of my heroes, George Whitfield, they thought if we just do this, then God will have to do this part. That's not exactly true. And then then there's the other side that says, you don't have to do anything at all It's revival just falls down out of heaven, hits you on the head, and you have a revival. That's not true either.

0:09:07
Reversal happens when we watch based on the old testament, you're reading the scriptures. And when you read the scriptures, Israel was convicted of their sin. And they began like in the days of Josiah, like in the days of Nehemiah or in the days of Ezra or Jehosaphat, they see the Word of God. They realize even Daniel Oh my gosh. We have fallen so far from God's word. We need to repent. We need to seek his face. Call out for mercy and forgiveness, and we need to get right with God, and we need to do it now. And when you seek God, remember the word preamps revival. You see the word what it says. You're convicted. You seek God that your part in repentance, you call out to him, you cry out to him, Jeremiah thirty three three, you seek his face, You see the sinfulness of who you are as a believer. Your need to get back to god to your first love.

0:10:15
And what happens is that is very contagious among other believers. And we see this in the Old Testament and in the New. The believers begin to gather and they begin to get serious about God. And while you're being serious about God, a world that is lost in drugs, sin, violence, stupidity, wokeness, insanity, death, mayhem, hopelessness, they look around and they see, wow, we're not let we're we're not singing phrases. We're not happy. We're not we're not full of grace. What do those people have? And they they will come and they'll knock on the doors of the church. And they'll say, what's going on in there?

0:11:02
Now, when you read the book of Access exactly what you see happening, you see people who came to life and or were revived And the world cried out and said, what must we do to be saved? This is amazing. What's happening? And Peter preached and said, you all need to repent and you need to seek God and ask him to forgive you of your sins. They came to Christ and they got saved. What happened? A true revival, watch lasts. It doesn't have to end.

0:11:36
Now may Will things in Asbury ebb and flow? Of course, that's normal. But will the reality of revival stay? That's what we're waiting for. But listen, we don't have to watch and see what's going on at Asbury to see if we should do anything. What we should do is see what's going on at Asbury and say, hey, is my life revived? That's the question. Is your life revived? I saw some back test.

0:12:06
I'm not bashing Baptist. Our church has got tons of Baptist in it and tons of Lutheran and tons of I don't know what in it. But this one bath, this pastor, he got on the his his whatever he did. He made a post, and he poo pooed on everything. It was very pathetic.

0:12:23
He's just scolding what's going on at Asbury because they're not using the old King James version bible. What an encompute. You don't do that? That's not the right thing to do. And then he said they're not singing the hymns that are approved. What? What hymns are approved. Then he said, and he just tore it apart. Well, I got news for you. That kind of attitude will not experience revival. That's not gonna happen to that guy. He's just a thin sniffer and a fault finder. Well, you wanna be doing is being open to the moving of the Holy Spirit, trusting the Spirit of God to do things according to his Word. Okay. God will never violate his word.

0:13:08
So a revival happens when the word of God is consulted and people turn back to holiness. Holiness that is holy living. Believers stop their sinful lives. They start walking before god. The church the believers become so attractive to a lost world that the lost world experiences awakening and they come and they experience salvation. So the saved who are on fire got that way because they've been revived. The lost world who's condemned to death sees the work of the spirit of god. They're convicted of their sins and they come and they join the church because they repent and believe on the lord Jesus Christ and they are saved. So turning to the word preempts revival. Revival preamps an awakening. An awakening preamps a nation of people turning back to God The awakening preempts, God's mercy being extended. And mercy preempts god's grace being poured out. I hope that makes sense.

0:14:24
We need to calm down and stop criticizing what's going on at Asbury But at the same time, we need to calm down and not claim that it's a revival, not yet. Let's pray that god moves in Chicago. In fact, listen, wouldn't it be awesome? If the believers that live in Chicago, that's serious about Jesus. Chicago needs a revival among the church. What about Seattle? Where are these big areas of crime and violence? Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, I'm sure I'm at Detroit. Imagine if the believers in those cities did.

0:15:10
Cried out to god open up their bibles, experienced the seeking of god based on the word Is it possible that Portland could be rescued? That the people of Seattle and the inner city of Los Angeles? Could be rescued by the fact that the church is awakened and becomes so beautiful and so holy and powerful that the unbelievers knocked down the door of the church trying to find out what is it that you guys have? We want that. And we tell them, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not some pastor's tennis shoes. It's not how cool and hip our lighting is. It's not how amazing our worship is. It's Jesus, Christ forgives sinners. And so listen, it's still true. For god's soul of the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. You believe that? Listen, Christian. You should tell yourself that every day. You should experience personal revival every day.

0:16:18
I'm a wretched, stinking, center just like you who needs god saving grace every day. And I live like that every day. Every day, I'm looking for god, the holy spirit, to do something new in my life. Why? Because I'm a reg. I am the chief of sinners. I'm a mess. And that's why I wanna stay close to him. Because I wanna walk with him. I wanna revival every day. I wanna experience that reviving every day of the holy spirit.

0:16:52
In such a way that the world says, what's going on with you? Who are you? What is it that you believe? Can you tell me about that? That's what people are attracted to, not us taking out the ten commandments and smacking people's heads with them. That's not gonna do it. It's not you and I going out into the world and and telling them you're all going to hell. They already know that. It's us going out there saying, you know what? We were all condemned to hell, but Jesus Christ came and died on the cross to pave the way to buy the ticket. That you might experience eternal life. I'm gonna wrap it up this way. It's been my experience.

0:17:40
That those who share the Lord with other people at the supermarket or at the Super Bowl. Those who share the Lord Are those who are experiencing personal revival? They could go to a dead church and still be experiencing personal revival. And their private life. That's cool. Right? Think about it. Don't point to your church as the problem. Your church can be absolutely woke nuts crazy. Do you have a Bible? Can you call out to him yourself? Listen, you can catch fire in your church, and your church might catch fire.

0:18:17
People might be revived, and then people that live across the street from the church, down the street, on the other side of the county, They wind up hearing about it. Hey, there's a church on fire for Jesus. Let's go check it out. And people are gonna show up. They're gonna find out what's going on. Isn't it what we've seen in the book of x? People gathered together to see what in the world is going on, and they got saved. Why? Because there were people preaching the truth who were on fire? And they didn't say, well, I'm on fire for God because I'm so holy. No. God declares you to be holy by virtue of his blood. When I come to faith in Christ, I'm trusting in the blood of Christ. Jesus sacrifice for my sins. So let's pray that revival sweeps across the nation among god's people. And then the church becomes so awesome. Believers become so awesome on fire for Jesus that the lost can be saved. That's how it's scheduled to happen in the bible. That's how it works in scripture. So is revival breaking out? We're not gonna know until we see the lost, saved, and until we see the believers walk in holiness. Hope that makes some sense. God bless you guys.

0:19:37
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0:20:21
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