This is the same page as “Revival Lesson” but has what I originally wrote, which includes messages for church leaders. If you aren’t a church leader, be careful reading this page. Getting all angry and angsty over your church is an attack. The anger of man never produces the righteousness of God (James 1:20). You can pray for your church, but “pray the positive” as the Lord would always direct me. Our goal is building up the church, not tearing it down.
I set before you today a choice between life and death.
Humility – Repentance – Surrender
These three things are necessary for revival. You need to receive revival yourself (even the virgins with full lamps were asleep!), but you also need to make sure your church is ready to receive revival. When the new wine is poured out, it’s either held in new or old wine skins. I define old wineskins as man’s efforts to carry out man’s plans to accomplish man’s purposes. The Lord is working a reformation of the church. If you have old wine skins, they will burst. Revival can destroy your church, and the revival will be spoilt itself. But if you receive the new wine into new wineskins, you’ll have it to savor and be able to pour it out to others. We’ll be looking at revival by going through 2 Chronicles 29. We will apply it to you as individuals, but also focus on what it means for a church.
The Lord looks with favor on those who tremble at His word. (Is 66:2)
Read 2 Chronicles 29. Ask the Lord to highlight what He’s saying to you.
Pay attention to the things they do. They cleansed; they sanctified; they worshiped; they sang praises; they sacrificed and brought offerings of thanksgiving, etc. God had chosen them to minister and the command is to not be negligent.
That gives you a question to ask the Lord. Am I being negligent in any way in the ministry You’ve chosen for me? That includes all your ministries, spouse, parent, etc.
As you go through, stop and ask Him the questions like this. Write down anything that comes to mind.
Hezekiah becomes king, and in the first year of his reign, he opens the doors to the house of the Lord and repairs them. He calls in the priests and Levites and commands them to sanctify both themselves and the house of the Lord and also to carry out the rubbish from the holy place.
How can you sanctify yourselves and your houses of worship? By getting rid of the rubbish.
To sanctify, to make holy, to set apart — we are set apart in two ways. We are set apart from and to. We are separated from sin, self, and the world and separated to God.
What do we need in order to clean out the rubbish? We need to be able to distinguish between the holy and the common.
What in your life is not holy, not set apart from the world and to God? What in your church is not holy, not set apart from the world and to God?
External things:
Individuals – entertainment (games, streaming, sports, etc.), “addictions” (fleshly pleasures, foods/drinks, stress relievers), sin (things you know are sin absolutely must go, as well as things like complaining, grumbling against others, taking offense, etc.)
How do you get rid of them? You need to truly want them gone. Make the choice. Hate them because they are rubbish and are interfering with your relationship with God, taking up space where His Holy Spirit should be dwelling in your life. Ask God to remove it. Cooperate, and keep making the choice of God over those things. We don’t save ourselves. God saves us! Let Him be your savior. Look to Him alone to save you. Don’t rely on man’s effort or “expertise.”
Churches – movies, entertainments/amusements in the service, Trunk or Treat and egg hunts (examples), groups all about food/fun/friendship, marketing. Our marketing is copied from the world. We didn’t get the idea for branding, merch, and vision statements from the Bible. (Note on branding and vision statements, which touches on unity and idolatry)
Internal things:
What is the heart motivation that drove the choice of those external things?
Individuals – You need to look to God as your Savior. He is your comforter, your peace, your love, your joy, your pleasure, your provider, your help, your protection. When you are looking to yourself or to others or something else to be those things for you, you are in idolatry. When you are stressed, don’t seek comfort outside of Jesus! He is your peace. Look to Jesus and be saved!
Churches – Is the heart of the church set on knowing Him and making Him known? Or is it set on growing its own kingdom? Getting butts in the seats isn’t growing the kingdom. I know it’s easy to justify it by saying that otherwise people wouldn’t come to church and that they are hearing the gospel (hopefully). But the church is to be set apart. If you want to reach those out in the world, go out into the world! Don’t invite the world into your church. God tells us to go! That’s a perfectly holy thing to do. But mixing our holy, set-apart church with the world corrupts the church, makes us common, and invites uncleanness. We’re supposed to be getting people clean and free from the entanglements of the world.
Ask the Lord to reveal your heart. What is your true motivation? You must be willing to give up everything for Christ: your job, your ministry, your family, your life. He gets all. Nothing else matters. If there’s something you are hesitant to let Him take away, work on giving that over. Ask His help. You must surrender all. Be His. He’ll be your God.
And, of course, sin needs to go. If any sin is tolerated, it needs to be addressed. You need to confess and address any ways you’ve given yourself (or your church) over to the culture instead of taking a stand. You need to confess ways you’ve tolerated things like worldliness, gossip, pride, and complaining.
Are any of those sins tolerated in your church or even in some ways encouraged? If your leadership is praising you for your generosity instead of praising God for His, something is off. They shouldn’t be encouraging pride in you (nor guilt nor greed) to get you to give more! Church leaders, if you are making a weekly plea for money, you are looking to man to meet your need instead of looking to God to provide. What about a weekly encouragement to surrender all, to give up our lives to Christ to take up as His own, without mentioning money? A surrendered life is a generous life; it’s not holding onto its own life.
Where to start? What needs to happen?
Sin needs to go. There’s no justifying it. Jesus came to take away our sins, not just forgive them (John 1:29, 1 John 3:5). 1 John 3:9 says that one born of God cannot go on sinning. Romans 6:18 says we are no longer slaves to sin, but we are slaves to righteousness. If you are a slave to sin, you are missing your salvation. Jesus is not a weak Savior. He is able to set you free. Believe in the power of God to save you from your sin.
We also need the world out of our lives. If you make Jesus your all, He will be the most thrilling, delighting thing in your life. You won’t desire any of that rubbish. 1 John 2:15 warns us not to love the things of the world, that if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. What do you really love? Settle it. Make your choice. The command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. Love God with all. There’s no room for anything else. Nothing else. He is all. Choose Him.
Recognize you need His help with all of this! Ask for help where you need it to hate the sin and the things of the world and to love Him. That’s humility, reliant on God and not self. Jesus did nothing of Himself. He relied on God for everything. How much more do we need to do so? You don’t have the strength to conquer sin, self, and the world. He does. Rely on God for your salvation. Rely on Him for everything. That’s humility.
The next four verses of 2 Chronicles 29 contain confession. They confess forsaking God, turning their backs on God. They confess prayerlessness (they aren’t burning incense). They recognize God’s just hand that brought about their captivity.
We just talked about ways the church and our lives are entangled with sin and with the world. It’s captivity. Jesus came to set us free. The truth sets free. Jesus is the truth.
Believe 1 John 1:7 and 1 John 1:9 that God cleanses us from all sin, from all unrighteousness. Our job is to confess and to walk in the light. Get all these things into the light and then keep in the light.
The next part of 2 Chronicles 29 is their choice to make a covenant with God. Make your choice. Settle it with God.
They go on to cleanse the temple and sanctify it. God-pleasing (as opposed to man-pleasing) worship is restored. They bring their sacrifices to God. Ask God what this looks like for you and your church. Note: Many current worship songs are written to appeal to man. Choose songs that bless God, not songs that “bless” the congregation. No self focus in worship! Everyone’s attention should be on God during the worship service. Worship means bowing down. Our hearts should be bowed in worship as we are gathered. Man shouldn’t be exalted and praised; God should be exalted and praised.
Here’s how the chapter ends: So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order. Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people, since the events took place so suddenly.
It doesn’t have to take a long time to turn things around in your life or in your church. Trust that God has prepared for this moment. You’ll need to seek Him for how to set your house in order. Do not seek it from me. Do not seek it from each other. Seek it from the Lord. Live in relationship with Christ. Make your decisions in relationship with Jesus. Do not seek and follow the methods of man on this. It will fail. Even if you can fabricate some sort of revival atmosphere, it will not last, and it will never produce lasting fruit. You will be leading your flock to their death instead of into life. You must humble yourself and seek the Lord on this. Rely on Him. He wants to be your God!
If you don’t have a relationship with the Lord where you can ask the Lord questions and He’ll answer or where you can ask for His help and expect help, then this next part is certainly what you need.
You need to get on your face before the Lord. Confess any sin. Repent. Hate it. Want it gone. Ask Him to take it away, and to help you truly hate it if you don’t. He’s a great God! He’s the Savior! His arm is not too short to save. Confess worldliness, the love of the world and the distraction and cares of this world. Get your heart right. Then bring to God your church, your family, your group, whomever you are representing. Bring them to God. Confess. Ask God’s help. He can do it quickly.
He can do it. You can’t. We need humility, relying on God for everything. We need repentance. Choose to get rid of the rubbish. We need surrender. Surrender your life. Surrender your church. Put it ALL up on the altar. Give up EVERYTHING to God to do with as He pleases. You must be willing to relinquish it ALL. He gets to set the holy flame to it. It either gets consumed and taken away or purified and consecrated for His use.
Tell the Lord “yes” to whatever He might decide for you. That’s what you want. He is all that matters. As long as you have Him, nothing else matters.
And a warning:
Don’t seek the revival. Don’t seek gifts or manifestations. Seek God. Want Him. Desire Him. Delight yourself in Him. He is the reward. Give yourself to Him to have His way. Give your church to Him. Don’t decide what this is going to look like. Get your eyes on Jesus and off your ambition. You are not your own. Your church is not your own. Let go and give it all up to Him. Then wait on Him. You can’t bring about revival. Give thanks for that. Rejoice in that. It’s God’s work. Know your utter dependence on Him to do the work. And when He comes in power, He gets all the glory. Look at HIM with wonder at what is happening. The things happening aren’t wonderful. He is wonderful! Praise HIM!
He revives. He gives abundant life. It’s His will, His heart desire. Go after His heart. Be His.
Humility – Repentance – Surrender