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

Real Life presents the Jack Gibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Hey everybody welcome back to the Jack Gibbs podcast here real life and we're going to be talking about what the talk is all about. Is there revival breaking out and as Barry is there revival breaking out in America? We're going to discuss what revival is and why it's necessary but where is its 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 Jack Gibbs dot com slash 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 star 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 Gibbs. 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 if you 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 for you to pray for us but if you could promote us by subscribing and sharing passing on the word given us a review that'd be incredible. So as Berry 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 a three times a week they have their student devotional in the chapel. And there was a very simple message given about 23 25 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 it I'm all for that. 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 but if we take a look at revival we need to understand some things regarding the biblical definition of revival 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 want to 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 revival the word is to be revived and the word vive is to be alive if you have life spiritually speaking if you know Christ you've been born again you have vive 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 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 at Ephesus 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 confession breaks out of sin there is a prayer very often I want to 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 you might even say on the church marquee 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 however revival does require you and I taking a look 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 return 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 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 only the saved experience revival 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 back drop of a lost sinful world that the world says what's going on what's happening I got to go see what's happening and they see believers alive worshipping praying loving caring and when that happens 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 there's the other side that says you don't have to do anything at all it's a revival just falls down out of heaven hits you on the head and you have a revival that's not true either revival 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 liking the days of Josiah liking the days of Nehemiah or in the days of Ezra or Jehosephat they see the word of God they realized 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's your part in repentance you call out to him you cry out to him Jeremiah 33-3 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 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 singing praises we're not happy we're not we're not full of grace what are 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 now when you read the book of Acts that's 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 now may will things in Asbury ebb and flow of course it'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 Baptist I'm not bashing Baptist our church has got tons of Baptist in it tons of Lutherans and tons of I don't know what in it but this one Baptist pastor he got on the his his whatever he did he made a post and he poo pooed on everything it was very pathetic he's just scolding what's going on at Asbury because they're not using the Old King James version Bible what an income poop 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 going to happen to that guy he's just a sin sniffer and a fault finder what you want to be doing is being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit trust in the spirit of God to do things according to his word okay God will never violate his word 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 in the 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 preemns revival revival preemps in awakening an awakening preemps a nation of people turning back to God the awakening preemps God's mercy being extended and mercy preemps God's grace being poured out I hope that makes sense 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 got serious about Jesus Chicago needs are 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 Detroit imagine if the believers in those cities did 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 become so beautiful and so holy and powerful that the unbelievers knock 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 pastors 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 I may wretched stinking sinner 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 wretch I am the chief of sinners I'm a mess and that's why I want to stay close to him because I want to walk with him I want to revival every day I want to experience that reviving every day of the Holy Spirit 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 10 commandments and smacking people's heads with them that's not going to do it it's not you and I going out into the world and telling them you're all going to hell there didn't know that it's us going out they're 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 going to wrap it up this way it's been my experience 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 in their private life that's cool right think about it don't point to your church as the problem your church could be absolutely woke nuts crazy but do you have a Bible can you call out to him yourself this and you can catch fire in your church and your church might catch fire 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 going to show up they're going to find out what's going on isn't that what we've seen the book of Acts 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 sacrificed 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 going to 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 listen up as always we want you to subscribe we would love for you to go to jackkibs.com where you're at now and share that with other people you can copy the link send it to your friends email send it text them jackkibs.com but we would really love for you to send the woke tech censorship machine a message this is how you do it if you smash our tap that subscribe button it 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