Are you lukewarm?

In Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus makes it clear that the church in Laodicea’s “lukewarm” approach to following Him, does not please Him. In our culture it is very easy for this to happen. With so many options in our daily lives of things to give our attention and time to, it is easy for our relationship with Christ to slowly fade toward lukewarm.

In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan lists a series of descriptive statements that describe a person who is halfhearted or lukewarm in their relationship with Jesus. Chan writes, “Would you describe yourself as totally in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better?” (Crazy Love, p. 68) This is not a question that anyone can answer for you. The matter of being in love with Jesus is a totally personal matter.

Over the next three weeks, I am going to present some of the indications Chan gives of a lukewarm, halfhearted, or partially committed person. The goal is for you to examine yourself in a real and personal sort of way. 2 Corinthians 13:5 makes it clear that self-examination of our relationship with Christ is healthy.

The first description Chan presents of someone who is lukewarm in their faith is; “Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly. It is what is expected of them, what they believe ‘good Christians’ do, so they go.” (Crazy Love, p. 68)

What is your motive when it comes to going to church? Is it something you do because it is expected, or is it motivated out of a heart to worship the King of kings? Throughout the Old Testament prophets, God makes it explicitly clear that He is after our hearts. Is your heart after Him?

Revival Prayer

Yesterday I presented 2 Chronicles 7:14 as the model for revival praying.

“If my people who are called by name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

~ 2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

As we pray together for the Holy Spirit to do something extraordinary in the days ahead, we must take seriously the principles we observe in Scripture. While God does not follow formulas there are principles we can learn here that can help us to put ourselves in God’s way.

Our part in the process is to humble ourselves, pray, seek, and turn. This is not a surface level engagement with God. We must allow the deep part of who we are to be totally transparent before Him. Then it is up to God. We are not responsible for the results. The results are up to God. We must ensure, however, that we are faithful in our part. When we are, I believe then God will hear, forgive and heal.

In order for us to see God do something extraordinary in our lives and in the life of our church family, we must first of all see the need. If we are comfortable with mediocre relationships with God and with each other, we will not be diligent in being humble, praying, seeking, and turning. But if we long for God’s presence and power to be made real in our lives we will persevere in seeking Him. That means we will follow the principles of the process outlined in this model for revival prayer.

Revival?

Over the next three weeks, Trinity Church is preparing to host Life Action Ministries and participate with one of their ministry teams in a revival summit. Revival is an old school term that carries some pretty heavy baggage with it. So over the next three weeks, I am going to be making postings here on my blog to talk about what revival is and why we might need it in our lives.

I want to start by describing what revival is, by describing what revival is not. First of all, revival is not a meeting or an event. Many people with church backgrounds grew up going to “revival meetings.” While those events were likely significant, they may or may not have brought a fresh touch from God.

Revival is also not a mass evangelistic event. Revival is for God’s people. To “revive” means to “come back to life” or “full strength.” In order to return to life, there must have been life to begin with. There comes a time in our lives where we simply get comfortable with the status quo. We get comfortable living from day to day, seeing little power and little kingdom impact.We get so used to it that we end up thinking that it is normal. We lower our expectations of what it means to follow Jesus in a loving, devoted relationship.

I personally ascribe to Richard Owen Roberts’ view of what revival is. Roberts’ writes, “…revival is an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extra ordinary results.” (Roberts, Revival! p. 16) Revival is an extraordinary movement of God whereby we should be able to observe extraordinary results. Revival is something that God does. We cannot schedule it on our calendar. What we can do is seek God for it.

When it comes to praying for revival, we must follow the model of prayer found in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “…if my people who are called by name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Revival is all about falling in love with the Reviver all over again. Falling in love to the point that all we long for is His presence to be made real in our lives.

Over the next few weeks we are going to take a look at some indications that show we need to fall in love with Jesus again…. that we need the Spirit to come and wash over us anew so that we can give Him the glory He is due.