Sermon: I can’t get no satisfaction
Posted: June 27, 2021 Filed under: Sermons Comments Off on Sermon: I can’t get no satisfaction
Sermon preached at Westonia Miners Hall on 27 June 2021
| When I’m driving in my car, When a man come on the radio He’s telling me more and more About some useless information Supposed to fire my imagination I can’t get no satisfaction When I’m watchin’ my TV, And a man comes on and tells me How white my shirts can be But, he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke The same cigarettes as me I can’t get no satisfaction When I’m ridin’ ’round the world, And I’m doin’ this and I’m signin’ that And I’m tryin’ to make some girl, who tells me Baby, better come back maybe next week Can’t you see I’m on a losing streak? I can’t get no satisfaction |
Early in 1984 a BBC documentary told of the famine in Ethiopia. On November 25th of that same year Bob Geldof from the Boomtown Rats called together 40 other pop stars to form a super group called Band Aid. They produced a song called “Don’t they know it’s Christmas?” He expected to raise $72,000. It became one of the fasted selling records of all time with over 3 million copies sold; he raised $15 million and created a worldwide awareness of the plight of Ethiopia
Since that day we regularly see situations in our media where people are going without basic necessities like food and water as famine and starvation hits a nation decimating millions of men, women and children.
In our COVID world, we see yet other kinds of crises, with people in certain sectors of the economy losing their jobs, going crazy in lockdown situations, small businesses closing and travel being limited.
Today however I want to talk about another kind of need in our own land. Not a famine of food and water in the physical sense or the consequences of the COVID pandemic but something far more significant – a lack of purpose in life; uncertainly about the future and minimal spiritual satisfaction.
Someone once said, “You don’t have to be a Christian to be concerned about the state of our country, you just have to be awake.”
We live today in a rich but spiritually bankrupt nation, and we can’t find any real satisfaction as Mick Jagger sang back in the 60’s. A more recent U2 hit reminds us that “I still haven’t found what I am looking for”.
These songs lyrics could well be the heartbeat of the world. They underline a deep rooted problem in our society, the endless quest for satisfaction in life.
It seems that whatever we pour our energies into, whether its fame – money – pleasure – possessions – family – we seem to remain unsatisfied…
Freddie Mercury in one of his songs asks, “Does anybody know what we’re living for?”
John Rockefeller once said, “I have made millions, but they have brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on a office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on $3 dollars a week.”
Boris Becker, who was declared bankrupt in 2017, said “I had won Wimbledon; once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed; money, cars, women, everything…..I know that this is a cliché . It’s the old song of the movie and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy….I knew that I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.”
Kenneth Williams, from the Carry On movies took his own life, recording his last words in his diary, “Oh, what’s the bloody point. I wonder if anyone will know the emptiness of my life.”
Kurt Cobain rose to extraordinary success with Nirvana wrote in his suicide note on April 8th 1994. “I can’t fool you, any one of you; it simply isn’t fair to you or me. The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I am having 100% fun.”
And Princess Diana said, “Being a princess is not all it’s cracked up to be.”
Let me tell you a little story about a little 5 year old boy at his first day at school. This little boy had one goal in life; to have as much fun as possible. He was really excited it and he was determined to have fun. Mum kissed him goodbye at the school gate and then went home. About lunch time there came a knock at the door. It was her son.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’ve quit school!” came the reply.
“Why?” said mum.
“It’s too hard, too long, and too boring” replied the boy.
“Well,” said the mother, “we better get you back on the bus because you’ve just described life!”
Life is tough and if are honest, there are times when we feel just like that little boy. We just want to have fun, but fun doesn’t always deliver satisfaction.
In my life, I’ve had fun, I’ve lived life well, I’ve been generally free to do what I’ve wanted to do. But I must confess, large parts of my life have been totally unsatisfied. I’ve found myself returning to that point the little boy found himself at the front door with his mother, “It is too hard, too long and too boring.”
Do you feel like this little boy about life?
I have to be honest with you… If it wasn’t for my relationship with Jesus Christ, I would be utterly miserable because He is the reason that I live. He is the one who has finally brought me lasting satisfaction.
In John 6:35 Jesus says, “I am the Bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
At the time when Jesus said this, there were people following him because he had just feed 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish. It was an awesome miracle!
They were following the miracle-worker!
Jesus had brought physical nourishment to their stomachs and they were physically satisfied and they wanted to be around him because they thought that he could give them some other satisfaction! (John 6:26 – you are looking for me because you ate the loaves and had your fill.)
But spiritually they remained unsatisfied. They didn’t yet believe in Jesus as “God with them.” They simply wanted to see more miracles (John 6:3O – what sign will you give so that we may see it and believe in you). But Jesus wasn’t here to entertain them with miracles.
He said, “The sign is ME. I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
“For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33)
In this we see Jesus confirming his identity and the reality of lasting satisfaction through faith in him. To find real satisfaction we must come to terms with the person Jesus Christ, we must come to Him and realize whose presence we are in.
A missionary once wrote, “While …serving in Paraguay, a Maka Indian named Rafael came to sit on my porch. I was eating and went out to see what he wanted. He responded, “Ham, henek met.”
Again I asked what I could do for him, but the answer was the same. I understood what he was saying but not its significance: “I don’t want anything; I have just come near.”
Later another missionary explained that this was Rafael’s way of honoring me. He really didn’t want anything; he just wanted to sit on my porch. He found satisfaction and pleasure just being near me.
When Jesus says that he is the Bread of life he is saying that he can bring lasting satisfaction into your body and soul so that he can satisfy your deepest longings. Ultimately it is through the crucified death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, that satisfaction has been made possible between God and humanity. Jesus alone can satisfy our lives, he is the one who brings lasting spiritual nourishment.
Jesus Christ is the one who can bring real permanent lasting satisfaction into your life….
To be really satisfied you need to come to the one who said in John 6:35 “I am the Bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” because you will only be fully satisfied through a relationship with God Himself.
There is a story of a man who got lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry. Then he saw a little shack in the distance.
He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small bottle of water and a note.
The note read: “pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need”.
The man had a choice to make, should he trust the note and pour all the water in and hope that it worked so that he would have all the water he needed? What if it didn’t work? He would still be thirsty and he might die.
Or should he choose to drink the water in the bottle and get a little immediate satisfaction? What if it wasn’t enough, he still might die.
After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire bottle into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out that he could drink all he wanted, could wash himself, and could fill all the containers he could carry for the next part of his journey. Because he was willing to give up momentary satisfaction, he got all the water he needed.
Now the note also said: after you have finished, please refill the bottle for the next traveller.” The man refilled the jug and added to the note: “Please prime the pump using all the water, believe me it works!”
We have the same choice to make, it’s not about finding the things for immediate satisfaction.
It’s about fully trusting God to provide all the satisfaction we need.
Then once we have experienced what God has to offer, we need to tell other people, “Go ahead prime the pump, believe me it works!”
I said earlier that I have found the greatest satisfaction for life in the relationship that I have had with Jesus since I was 27 years old.
And you have heard Kerry and Doug’s story – everyone who has decided to follow Jesus has a similar story. A story which tells of the greater satisfaction through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Saviour of the World and Lord of their life.
Pray with me … Lord Jesus, You say that you are the Bread of Life who can satisfy all my needs, who can give meaning to my life now and who promises eternal life on the last day. Today, I come to you with a desire for a new purpose. Let me not go away hungry. Lord God, grant me faith in the One whom you sent, that I might believe with my heart and soul. Amen.
Sermon: Christ-Following Faith
Posted: June 21, 2021 Filed under: Sermons Comments Off on Sermon: Christ-Following Faith
Sermon preached at Merredin Uniting Church on 22 June 2021
Whenever I think of an anvil and a blacksmith, I am reminded of the early days of my Dad’s engineering business where a blacksmith would put the iron in the fire and when it was really hot, he would pull it out and hammer it on the anvil until it took on the shape he wanted. It reminds me that God often forges us through the hammer blows of life so that we might be everything that he intended us to be.
But the word “forge” can be used in two very different ways. Yes, we can be forged into something beautiful and right, BUT it is also very possible to be a “forgery”, an imitation of the real thing. And this can happen also in the way of our faith – we can be “forged” into the real thing, or we can be a “forgery” – an imitation of the real thing but actually a fake.
And very often in the world out there, people are confused, they look at the imitation and recognise that it is not real. And if it is an imitation Christian, they may choose not to be followers of Jesus. That is really sad – because they have not yet seen the real thing.
So what is the real thing?
What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
What do we mean when we say that we believe in Jesus?
First lets look at the forgery.
The forger sets out to create an appearance – to use the correct words, creeds and ceremonial actions to impress others into believing something which is just not true.
A forged bank note may look like the real thing but it is actually quite worthless. It might have all the right marks, signatures, metal strips and pictures but the Reserve Bank which issues the real notes does not recognise it.
It has no backing from on high!
Similarly, a person who professes to be a Christian and who does all the stuff BUT who does not have the backing from on high … the relationship with Christ … is a forgery.
The sadness is that forgeries are so rampant that they have almost replaced the real thing – we need to get back to real world faith.
We need to come back to the Bible and find out just what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
I was reflecting about this and I thought that we will probably still do the same stuff on the outside but we will be different inside. Our attitude will be different because it will be the attitude of Christ – as Paul called for in Philippians Chapter 2.
We will have Christ-Following Faith!!!
Let me take you to the sea of Galiliee. The disciples are taking the boats to the other side and Jesus is resting – sleeping on a cushion in the stern of the vessel. A furious squall rises up and the boat is nearly swamped. The bravado of the disciples disappears in the face of the storm – they rush to Jesus, who is still fast asleep, “Don’t you care if we drown?” they ask.
He gets up; rebukes the wind and tells the waves to be still and then when everything is completely calm he turns to the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
What is this faith that Jesus expects? Didn’t the disciples have at least a little bit of faith when they chose to leave everything to follow Jesus. How can He say that they have NO faith?
Christ-following faith is not the faith that causes us to rise up and follow Him … no, its much more than that. It is the faith that enables us to look to Jesus in the midst of the storm and, seeing Him at rest and asleep, being comforted to know that everything is going to be alright.
It is sometimes common to speak critically of those who practice their faith on Sundays but who seem to abandon it during the week. We like to classify these people amongst the forgeries but often that is not the case.
Yes, perhaps some are just putting up a pretense but quite often, it seems to me, the church has not expected much more from them than attendance at a Sunday service.
But faith is not lived or practiced in the church. Jesus never expected this … those who followed Him were not often in the Temple or synagogue. They were on a mountainside, or alongside a river, or walking along the road between the fields.
Faith was exercised alongside a well in Samaria, on a boat in Galilee and in the graveyard at Garesene.
Christ-Following Faith – the faith which Jesus taught and to which He called His people is meant to be practiced in the streets of our life, not especially in the church on Sunday.
So let’s look at the text from Hebrews 11.
It says that “faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, certain of the things that we cannot see.”
That is an interesting definition because it really is no definition at all.
It doesn’t tell you what faith is; it simply tells you what happens when you have it. And that’s a very different thing. When you HAVE faith, you are sure of things hoped for; when you HAVE faith, you are certain of the things you cannot see.
Ultimately, it seems, you can never define faith but you can know it when you see it. The author of Hebrews goes on to describe in Chapter 11 a whole army of people in whom we can see faith. His intent is that when we look at that list we might be able to understand what it means to have faith.
Here are people who did some amazing things that were a pleasure to God. They won battles, presided over miracles, endured incredible hardships and even overcame death itself. It is a demonstration of faith on the street, rather than in the church.
Ultimately faith can only be described in terms of a collection of stories about people who lived a life of faith – and that is why testimonies are such an important part of our witness to Christ!
The bottom line in each testimony in Hebrews 11 is amazingly simple:
- They had a certainty about how to meet and commune with their God
- They develop a remarkable degree of self-control as they come to understand the importance of having God fill their interior lives, and
- They each realise that every person has a part in history and that it is vitally important to make that history in accord with the purpose of God.
In other words, they trusted God and so had little or no fear about the things that generally intimidate people.
When they looked within themselves, they had a clear understanding of their personal weaknesses and strengths and knew how to manage these with God’s help.
And, not surprisingly, they seemed to be guided by a dream or mission that absorbed them and made sense out of all of life’s details.
They are models for us – “a great cloud of witnesses” seated in the great stadium of heaven, who cheer us on as we undertake our own race through life on the fields below.
The question is whether they have anything to cheer about.
How can we live the life of faith? Sure of the things we hope for and certain of that which we do not see?
Lets think now about another boat.
A sailing friend invites you to join him on his sailboat. You’ve never been on a sailboat before so as you climb aboard you make jokes about your lack of seaworthiness.
He gives you some simple advice.
“I want to put your mind at ease,” he says, “so that you can really enjoy the time on the water. I only need to tell you two things: first, this boat cannot tip over no matter what your senses tell you, and second, it cannot sink.”
It cannot tip over because of something to do with the relationship between the area of the sail and the size of the keel. And it cannot sink because of the way in which the hull has been constructed. You don’t understand it but you have been told that it cannot tip over and it cannot sink – that’s all that matters.
You trust him and are prepared to enjoy yourself. That’s faith
And then when the wind comes up and it seems that the boat is going to tip over, you refuse to worry because he has told you that the boat cannot capsize.
That’s also faith. You have trusted him and you have mastered your feelings.
Now he calls you to take the wheel while he works the jib up front. You experience a feeling of exhilaration as you do your part in guiding the boat towards your destination. You are becoming part of its history, your name might even be written up in the logbook as having been at the helm during this particular journey.
That’s also faith.
Living our life of faith is just like that.
It is that simple!
It is not doing the things which are apparently expected of Christians – going to church, grace at meals, and so on …
It is accepting the invitation of Jesus to follow Him. And that invitation is right there! You can’t avoid it – Come, follow me!
And our life of faith grows as we take God’s word about realities that I don’t yet have the experience to perceive and it matures as I involve myself with the whole process of making the journey happen.
The boat cannot tip over, and it cannot sink!
You can take Jesus’ word on that … your life is a journey to a defined destination.
It is a journey with Jesus.
And you can relax.
You don’t need to pretend anything, simply trust His word.
Will you do that?
Lift your eyes – look into the wonderful face of Jesus
And the things of the earth will grow strangely dim ..
In the Real World – with capitals! – life in Christ is lived not only on Sundays but in the ordinariness of our lives.
In our morning prayers for the day, as we wake.
In situations through the day as we walk with our Lord.
In relationships, as we try to love each other as Christ has loved us.
At the end of the day, as we give thanks for God’s presence with us.
In our peace – the shalom of God – as we journey through each day.
Hold on, to the live you have … it is a gift of God, don’t spoil it for earth’s sake. But rejoice in the grace and favour which God has bestowed upon us.
“Bestow” is an interesting word. It means “stowed, or stored, within us, as a gift”.
God has given us life as a gift. When we misuse it and confess that failure to God, he restores it and gives it back to us again. We are “born again” into a new beginning, a new life, a new start.
Will you take up this gift of God today?
Will you live your life for God?
Will your whole life become a wonder of God’s Amazing Grace?
Sermon: Send Your Fire!
Posted: May 23, 2021 Filed under: Sermons, Uniting Church in Western Australia Comments Off on Sermon: Send Your Fire!
Sermon preached at Penrhos College on Pentecost Sunday (Uniting Church in WA “Church Together” Event)
Today is Pentecost.
For the Jew it is the Feast of Weeks – the Wheat Harvest Festival that comes 50 days after the Passover.
For the Christian, Pentecost is the celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit ten days after the Ascension of our Lord and fifty days after Easter. It is commemorated as the birthday of the Church in which God empowered the people and sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom and the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. It begins the 2nd period of Ordinary Time in the church, sometimes called the Season of Mission.
On this Day, the Spirit came as “tongues of fire” that separated and came to rest on each of those gathered in the Upper Room. As they were filled with the Holy Spirit they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
It was the first Revival of the Church as had been prophesied a long time before by the prophet Joel.
Today I want us to focus on revival because if we don’t, the church will continue to decline to nothing. We can make all the plans we like, but if we don’t have the fire of God our plans are worthless. RA Torrey once said that in this world we face either revival or revolution and a simple look at the state of the world today would suggest that revolution against God is already with us. The danger we face is that this rebellion against God will take us to places we don’t want to go …
We need to pray that God would send revival upon His Church – a return to faith in Jesus Christ, a belief in the Word of God and the upholding of Biblical values and morality.
We need to pray that God would send renewing fire again upon the church – that THE LORD WOULD SEND THE FIRE – and we need to pray that we are ready.
As we examine our text from 1 Kings 18 today – the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal – I want us to see three things: First, the enemies of revival, Second, the elements of revival and Third, the evidence of revival … Enemies, Elements and Evidence.
THE ENEMIES OF REVIVAL
There are three kinds of people who are the enemies of revival. There is the Compromiser, the Corrupt and the Confused.
Obadiah was a compromiser. He was a good man, even perhaps a believer, for the text tells us that he feared the Lord. But he was in league with Ahab – the most wicked of all of Israel’s kings. He had hidden the prophets from Ahab but here we find him looking for grass with the wicked when he should have been praying for rain with Elijah.
If you are compromising your faith in Jesus Christ then you are an enemy of revival – you are promoting the revolution!
If you cheat on your taxes, lie to your spouse, turn the poor and hungry away from your door then you are a compromiser.
If you are promoting the way of the evil one in any way then you are a compromiser and an enemy of revival.
The world looks at you going to church (like Obadiah’s hiding of the prophets in a cave) and then sees your lying and cheating ways (like Obadiah’s assistance given to Ahab) and it becomes blinded to any hope in God. Don’t compromise the way of God in the way you live your life!
The second enemy is the corrupt one – Ahab and Jezebel in our text. Ahab was the most wicked king that Israel ever had. His wife was a schemer and conniver. They had possessive spirits. Elijah said of them that they had sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. When they didn’t get what they wanted, they killed and schemed until they got it. Ahab wanted Naboth’s Vineyard and his wife set a trap for Naboth so that they could grab the land. What they wanted they took and they worshipped Baal because he was, they thought, the god of provision.
We have corruption in governments across the world.
We have corruption in businesses, we even have corruption in the church.
Corruption is the seeking of personal wealth and glory at the expense of truth and integrity. Most often this is to the detriment of the poor and those who cannot defend themselves. It denies God. It is rotten and tainted with vice and sin. We need to examine our lives – have we cheated someone, our employer perhaps. Have we taken what was not ours – plagiarised an essay, put in an exaggerated travel claim, pocketed a pen from work. Don’t do it – it compromises your integrity and waters down your word – even when you speak truth.
The third enemy of revival is found in the confused people. When Elijah gave the people the choice between God or Baal – THEY SAID NOTHING. They could not make the choice because they didn’t know the difference.
The world is full of people who are confused about God – they don’t know who God is or what God is doing. God is often simply a kindly old gentleman who gives good things to people who ask. Sometimes He is confused with the so-called gods of other religions – that they are just another way of approaching this kindly old gentleman.
BUT the worst enemy of all is always the Compromiser. God can work with corrupt government and business, He can work though confused people but when believers compromise the Word of God – God has no-one to work through !!
God needs people like Elijah (and James and John and Peter, and YOU) – people with courage and an unyielding faith in God. People who will challenge the corruption in government and business – who will challenge the wickedness of the day. And who will reveal God’s power to the confused.
Will you be that person?
The confused need a demonstration of God’s power. They need to see that Jesus is Lord through the sovereign declaration of power.
They need to see the evidence of revival – they need to see the fire fall.
So lets look at THE ELEMENTS OF REVIVAL
First, Solidarity – the Altar
Elijah summoned the people – “Come here to me.” And all the people came together, to repair the altar. You cannot have revival until you have UNITY –God’s people need to be of one mind with one focus and one intention. When you read the early documents which led to the formation of the Uniting Church, this was IT. It was a call to unity of purpose focussed on Christ and empowered by the Spirit of God. I am not sure that we really have that anymore – our attention is all over the place, pulling this way and that. It is time to come together to repair the altar of the Lord – to get our focus right again.
Next, Separation – having come to the altar of God they dug a trench to separate it from the altar of Baal.
You cannot yoke together the clean and the unclean. This is compromise – the enemy of revival!
Within many of our lifetimes, preachers spoke out against card games, liquor, dancing and television … it seems like a joke today but they would argue that in giving ground to these things we will eventually allow government-promoted gambling, and that there would be widespread drug abuse, public strip clubs, prostitution and pornography. And we condone it by our silence.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that this is where we are today. And we are paying the price because it would appear that God has withdrawn a distance from us – God and sin cannot cohabit, they cannot be in the same room together.
If we want revival – for God to come near to us again, our faith in our saviour as redeemer of sin and the giver of life should be firmly established in everything we do. We need to separate ourselves from sin – not just, as we seem to have done – by compartmentalising our lives into parts that are holy and parts which we would have difficulty in explaining to God. In everything we do, in every aspect of our life –in public, in church and in private we should ask ourselves, “How would Jesus react to this?”
Third, Sacrifice – taking the risk with God
It seemed a strange thing for Elijah to do – to pour water over the wood intended to burn the sacrifice but if God is limited by wet wood then He is not God, and Elijah wanted to show this to the people.
If we want revival, a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God, we need to know whom it is that we believe.
We need to take risks with our faith – that’s what trusting God means.
If I have everything sorted out before I take any steps I am simply trusting in my own ability to plan my life – I have no trust or dependency on God.
My prayers must never be just words mouthed into the air which sound right to other people –instead they need to be earnest appeals to the God whom we believe can do anything –from multiplying bread to raising the dead.
Fourth, Supplication – Prayer for God’s glory!
The word “supplication” in the context of prayer often relates to God’s ability to “supply” that for which we ask. We sometimes call it Intercession.
But this is not prayer for self. “Help me, O God, I am in trouble” or for others “Help them, Lord, they are in trouble” BUT rather it is an appeal for the revelation of God’s glory –the manifestation of the divine in the ordinary. “Lord reveal Yourself as the God of Israel. BRING REVIVAL. Announce Life. SEND YOUR FIRE!!!”
And so we come to THE EVIDENCE OF REVIVAL
The Fire Fell on Elijah’s altar!!!
The Fire that comes from God consumes the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil and the water. When God’s fire falls it consumes the dross and the dirt of our lives. It burns up all our excuses until our substitute sacrifices of selfishness are no longer there.
Do you understand what this means? It means that God’s fire burns away our masks and our play-acting costumes. It means that we stand before God without defence. Suddenly we are aware of the depth of our sin as we stand in the holy presence of God.
The Lord requires obedience NOT sacrifice.
When His fire falls it consumes everything that is not obedient to His Word.
And it is the Fire that convicts. When God’s fire falls, people are overcome.
George Finney was preaching in a little town outside New York once on the judgement of Sodom. As he preached the people fell to their knees sobbing and crying out for forgiveness.
“I could not have cut them down faster with a two-edged sword,” he said later.
Eventually only one man was left standing in the pews. “Who are you,” asked Finney.
“My name is Lot,” said the man, “and this town’s name is Sodom, It is the most evil town in New Jersey.”
When God’s fire falls we will know it. We will feel His fierce fire burn our hearts. We will know that the Spirit is pointing out our sin, and the fire of embarrassment before God will burn in our spirit. We will fall to our knees confessing our sin and crying out for forgiveness.
And then, it is the Fire that converts.
When God’s fire fell that day on Mount Carmel the confused people were no longer in doubt. No more did they waver between two opinions. Elijah didn’t have to make any altar calls … They spontaneously cried out, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”
Let me summarise, the world today is confused. Even in the church people are confused. They don’t know who God is, or where to find God and the Church is often just an institution “doing the stuff” instead of creating opportunity for people to enter into a relationship with God.
There is compromise and corruption everywhere. Jesus said that before the end there would be war and rumours of war, famines and earthquakes, people will turn from their faith, false prophets will appear and there will be much wickedness everywhere.
He said, and I am not making this up, you can read about it in Matthew 24 or even in the today’s news … He said that the love of most will grow cold.
It is happening today.
The church is almost irrelevant. It seems that only the Remnant remains – and you are that Remnant.
We need revival like never before.
Not for our sake, but for Christ’s sake. For the sake of all those He loves and for whom He died. Pray for revival!!
Pray – LORD, SEND YOUR FIRE!!!!
Faith2Face 