I have been in too many churches in too many cities in too many states that have tried to clone the Saddleback model as their own. I know pastors who do little more in the way of sermon preparation than simply purchase Warren's sermons over the internet, change the words from "Saddleback" to their own church's name and preach the message as their own. I have seen far too many churches take the "Purpose Driven" materials for church development and simply change the name of the church in the materials and try and regurgitate it in their own congregations - expecting to see the same phenomenal growth that Saddleback experiences. It seemingly works for some and fails miserably for others.
My intent here is not to judge or even speak about the work of Pastor Warren. I applaud him and appreciate his work for the Kingdom! My intent here is to say that programs are never a substitute for the power of God. What the church needs today is Revival. In this third and final part of my series on The Purpose Driven Question, I want to address the need for Revival. There are three simple statements I want to make here for your consideration.
Revival must be Personal before it can be Public.
Too often, even in the churches that still hold revival meetings during the year, we mistakenly speak of revival in terms of a public event. We think that the =series of meetings is the revival. While the series of meeting might be the forum for revival, the meetings are nothing more than meetings.
Genuine revival is a personal response to a renewed understanding of the love, grace, mercy, and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on behalf of the individual! When we are walking close with God we will certainly come to understand our own unworthiness of salvation. When we see Jesus as He really is, we will remember that nothing good dwells within us. All our "goodness" is worthless and inadequate. There was (and is) nothing that made us worthy of salvation - salvation is, and always will be, a matter of grace.
Once we remember this truth and we contemplate on God's grace and goodness, we will be drawn into a deeper and closer relationship with Him. Revival begins when we realize that our intimacy with God has waned and we desire to move back into a more intimate daily relationship with God.
Revival begins in Personal Grief
When God starts to stir in our soul (this is the beginning of revival), there will be a sense of deep grief over several things. Leonard Ravenhill points out five of the most obvious. He reminds us that when our hearts are stirred we will be grieved:
- at the worldliness of the Church.
- at the blindness of the Church.
- at the corruption in the Church.
- at the toleration of sin in the Church.
- at the prayerlessness in the Church.
Revival brings Prayer to a Priority
The truth of the matter is, as someone once said, "We can do more than pray, but we can't do more until we pray!" The most powerful weapon we have at our disposal is the weapon of prayer. Prayer is getting into the very presence of God, seeing Him as He is, and seeing ourselves as we are. We may cry out at the sinful condition of our nation, our world, our family, and our churches. We talk about the Ten Commandments (even in a courthouse) or the need for prayer in public schools. We lament the sinful state of abortion clinics and a sundry of other moral collapses. But the greatest thing any of us can do is to cover our self and others in Holy prayer! There has never been in recorded history a great move of God in the hearts of the people of God apart from the prayers of the people of God.
A.W. Tozer once said, "We are not only going to be judged for what we have done; but we are going to be judged for what we could have done." What could we have done? We could have prayed! We could have prayed for revival in our souls, in our families, in our churches, and in our nation. I am convinced that all the sorrows of the world could be removed if the people of God were serious about submitting to the will of God in every situation in our lives. The war on terror could be over tomorrow, if people came to faith in Jesus Christ. The problems in our world today are not opposing political or cultural views; they are all opposing worldviews! Either we are children of God through Christ or we are children of the Enemy, whose dominion is Hell, the flesh, and the Devil.
When we pray, we are unlimited, unafraid, undaunted, and unstoppable. There is absolutely no weapon of the enemy that is a match for prayer. Prayer is the beginning and the end of revival.
A final word
Beloved, I am fully convinced that the great need of the Church (both local and universal) is a fresh wind of fire. A great revivalist of the years gone by said it this way: "The church's style is bold, the service is cold. The places have finery but no fire. They are super-modern but lack the supernatural." I am afraid that people who come into our buildings today no longer come to hear God, but to hear a message about God.
Things are certainly not as they should be. It's time for us to become desperate. It's time for us to get serious. It's time for us to hear from God and follow His leadership in every area of our lives. It's time for Revival. "O God, I pray for revival, in my land, in my church, in my home, in my family, in my marriage! I pray for revival … and most of all, I pray for revival in me!"
