My Name is NOT Lazarus

I preached last Sunday morning from Mark 2 at Ballenger Creek Baptist Church. The story of the man sick of the palsy and the four men who brought him to Jesus by tearing apart the roof of the house that Jesus was in is one of the most exciting and important miracles of the Bible. This event has many lessons: the biggest problem in life is not physical but spiritual, the power of Christ to forgive sin, the power of Christ to heal, etc. I would like to focus this post on the 4 men that brought the man that was sick of the palsy to Jesus.
Now, you are probably looking at the title of the post and thinking that I am going to write a long post about how the fourth man in this story could not have been Lazarus; you are mistaken. I chose this name because I really love the song "My Name is Lazarus" (here is a link if you've never heard the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJMFSsf2G6A), also I chose the title because I personally thought it was witty (I hope you do as well). Let me make a few observations about these four men today:
No one knows anything about these four men. We do not know their names, we do not know their occupations, we do not know how they all met and became friends. There is really only one thing that we know about these four men and that is that they were determined to get their friend to Jesus. In fact, this whole story would not have been possible hadn't it been for these four men. Let me ask you something today: how determined are you to get your friends to Jesus?
I hate crowds! I will do anything possible to avoid being in a crowd of people. One time my wife took me out for Black Friday shopping and I still haven't forgiven her! I can imagine these four men looking at the huge crowd surrounding Jesus. The crowd was so bad that they couldn't even get into the house. Honestly, I may have given up. These men could have said, "Oh well, we tried!" and went back home. But these men were creative and what did they decide to do? Tear the roof off the house! Now, I don't think I would have been creative enough to think about doing that. But these men were so determined to get their friend to Jesus that they were not concerned about the obstacles, they did not fear the bumps in the road, they would get there friend to Jesus no matter what it took. Such a convicting thought for us modern day Christians who are too afraid to even speak the name of Christ to our friends and loved ones.
The other thing I see about these men today is found in verse 5. It says that when he saw their faith he forgave the sins of the sick of the palsy. Now, I need to be careful with this point. Jesus did not forgive this mans sins because of the faith of his four friends, but when he saw their faith. This man was forgiven of his sins the same way every other person is, by believing and accepting Jesus Christ, but there is still a correlation between the faith of the four and the forgiveness of this mans sin. Here it is: If these men had not had the faith to bring their friend to Jesus, this man would not have had his sins forgiven or his palsy healed. There are thousands, even millions, of people in this world who are starving for the truth. These people are not just in the far corners of our planet, they live in your neighborhood, they work next to you every day, they live in your family. But the only way that they can learn about the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is by you showing them the way. I believe this passage makes it very clear that when we have enough faith to bring people to Jesus, people will get saved. No, it may not be the first person you witness to, it may not be the second, but if you are tenacious and determined to bring people to the Saviour I believe that God will reward that faith and that people WILL get saved.
Here is the catcher: we have to go! No one is going to get saved by us keeping our mouths shut. We must proclaim the Gospel of Jesus. One question for you to ponder on and I'm done: What have you done lately to bring your friends and loved ones to Jesus?

Sermon on Revival

I haven't written in a few days, and I really don't feel like writing today! Instead, I'm going to copy my sermon from yesterday. I often, in preparation, try to type them as close to word-to-word as possible. If you are looking for a sermon to preach, feel free to use it. If you are just looking for something to read, I hope you enjoy and that it challenges your heart.

 

How to Experience a Great Revival

2^nd Kings 11-12

Intro: As we look through the time of the kings in the nations of Israel and Judah we see much wickedness and idolatry. The book of 1^st and 2^nd Kings as well as 1^st and 2^nd Chronicles document some of the most wicked times in the history of the Jewish people. Yet in the midst of all the wickedness that would happen in these times there would be an instance of revival. Today, we are going to look at one of the greatest revivals in the history of the nation of Judah and the 4 steps they took to get there:

1.       We must remove wickedness 11:13-16

Give historical context of passage- Ahaziah died, Athaliah took over, Joash was hid by Jehoiada for six years, Joash made king.

Athaliah was a wicked, wicked women. 2^nd Kings 11”1 says it best, when her son, King Ahaziah, died, she killed all the royal seed (all of her grandchildren and children) so that she could be the in charge. In 2^nd Chronicles 24 we also see that she was a Baal worshipper and that she took dedicated items from the house of the Lord and bestowed them upon Baal. This women was not what God wanted for Judah.  As long as she remained queen over Judah, God’s blessing and revival would never come to Judah. That is why we see that they first had to get rid of her before their nation could experience any revival.

What wickedness are you harboring today? 2^nd Chron. 7:14 makes it clear that when God’s people are wicked, we don’t have revival. We are God’s people. Wickedness doesn’t have to be some gross, immoral sin; it can be one small sinful pleasure that you will not let go of. God needs a pure vessel to bring about revival.

When I am done working outside after a long day, what I really want is a tall glass of lemonade. I’m not going to pour my lemonade into the doggy dish and drink out of it. Instead, I’m going to go into my kitchen cabinet and find a clean glass. Why? The doggy dish is dirty, the dog has been drinking from it, but the glass in the cabinet is clean (or it at least should be). God is not going to use a “doggy dish” Christian to bring about revival. That is why we must get rid of the wickedness in our lives.

I believe the biggest need in America today is for Christians to reform. The world sees how ineffective Christianity is, and they blame it on the product when they should be blaming it on the seller. God is not weaker today than he used to be, and the Gospel is still as strong as it was in the first century. What happened then? Why do we not see the results that other Christians in the past have seen? Why has Christianity seemed to become so irrelevant in this age? The reason is because Christians have not decided to overthrow the Athaliah in their lives. They know how they are supposed to live and they know what God expects of them but they refuse to do it.

The term “Christian” came about in Acts 11 in the city of Antioch. It was a name given to them by unsaved people, probably meant to be somewhat derogatory, meaning “little Christ’s” the idea was that these “Christians” were acting like Jesus did when he was on earth. But the church in Antioch took that name and used it. Why? Because they liked it. They were not ashamed of the name of Christ and they wholeheartedly agreed that they were striving to live like Jesus. I believe that we have many people today that are saved but that aren’t Christians. Yes, you’ve accepted God’s “Get Out of Hell Free Card”, you’ve been saved from eternal separation from God in Hell, but you have not put on Christ. You have not made the decision to give up your wicked ways and live a consecrated, holy life before God.

Let me challenge you with something. Try going to work and tell your co-workers that you are a Christian; if they act shocked, something is wrong. We need to live our lives in a way that when we tell people that we are Christians they can say, “I can see that”. Holy, consecrated before God, removing the wickedness from our lives.

2.       Commit yourself to God 11:17

When the nation got rid of their wicked queen, they immediately made a covenant with God. What was this covenant? That they were God’s people. On that day, they all testified that they belonged to the Lord.

We belong to the Lord. Every single person that has asked Jesus to be their Saviour is a child of God. We don’t always act like it though.

The Corinthian church was involved in some pretty wicked sin. They didn’t understand the idea of godly living, so a lot of them were involved in immoral sins of a sexual nature. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a reprimand, telling them that they are in error. In 1^st Cor. 6, Paul is reprimanding them especially for fornication in the church. At the end of this chapter, in verse 19, Paul asks, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” Why are we the temple of the Holy Ghost? Verse 20 says, “For ye were bought with a price,” See, Jesus’ blood was the price that needed to be paid for the redemption of our souls. We are saved, we have been bought back through Christ’s blood. So what now? The end of verse 20 says, “therefore,” or because of this, “glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

                We belong to God. But just like the Corinthians, sometimes we do not act like it.

The children of Israel in this passage did not just overthrow their evil queen, they also said, “we are turning from that wickedness, and now we are fully committing ourselves to God.” Has there ever been a time in your life when you have done that? Have you ever just gotten with the Lord and said, “Lord, I am yours. Do with me what you want; use me as you will.” Guess what, chances are, you will not be called to preach or to become a missionary, but God will use you where you are simply because you are open and willing to follow his lead.

Our prayer should be the same as the great hymn, "Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated Lord to Thee".

3.       Get the bad influences out of your life 11:18

The nation of Judah got rid of their queen and they committed themselves to God, but then they did something extreme. They went into the house of Baal and destroyed the place. This was something that many of the kings before this would not do even though they tried to do what was right. It was one thing for these people to commit themselves to God, but it was a completely other thing to destroy the temple of Baal. They could have just allowed the temple to stay, as long as they didn’t go in and worship there; they could have allowed the two temples to co-exist, but no. They were proactive, and they destroyed it.

Why do you suppose the children of Judah were so extreme in their actions here? I believe it is because they had a great understanding of their past and they knew what their biggest hang-up as a nation was, and that was idolatry.

Today, you may be willing to commit to God and to throw out the evil in your life, but if we are going to experience revival we need to go beyond that. We need to really re-evaluate our lives. Some of us may need to spend less time with some of our friends because we end up not honoring God when we spend time with them. Some of us may need to delete a Facebook account because of the temptation to do inappropriate things on there. What I am saying tonight is that, besides God, nobody knows you better than you. You need to be honest with yourself and ask the questions “What are my biggest areas of weakness?” and then, “Is there anything I need to get rid of that can help me to do better with this?”

Let me put it this way:

It is not necessarily a sin to walk down the liquor aisle at Walmart, sometimes the Arizona tea is in that aisle, but if you’ve had troubles with alcohol in the past it would be unwise to go down that aisle, even if you do just want to get an Arizona tea.

It is not necessarily wrong to go onto the internet without blockers and security features, but if you’ve had trouble with pornography in the past it would be unwise to do so.

It is not necessarily wrong to spend time with certain friends, but if you have an inclination to gossip when you are around them then it would be unwise to spend time with them.

We need to come to a point where we don’t just get rid of sin, but be so turned off by sin and so repentant of past sins that we determine to do everything we can to keep ourselves from every doing those things again.

Don’t think that you are weak simply because you get rid of the temptation in your life. That is your pride talking. We need to get rid of any temptations that will be in our lives. Think about Joseph, when Potiphar’s wife caught ahold of him and tried to get him to lie with her, he didn’t say, “Now, Mrs. Potiphar, let’s sit down for a few minutes and discuss why I can’t do this.” Hey, why was Joseph in the house? He had work to do. Joseph could have just said no and then went on to keep working with her standing right there sulking. But no, what did Joseph do? The passage says that he left his coat in her hands and fled! Joseph ran away. Why? Joseph was tempted and instead of testing his limits and trying to be strong, he simply ran away from the temptation. Guess what? Joseph avoided sinning that day. Don’t just get rid of the sin in your life, get rid of those opportunities to be tempted.

How much do you hate your sin? Are you willing to make some sacrifices in order to not displease your Savior?

4.       They gave to the Lord’s work 12:9-11

The nation of Judah did not just talk the talk; they walked the walk. How did they show their dedication to the Lord, by giving to him. They put their money where their mouth was, if you will.

Today, I would like to suggest that giving to the Lord can be one of the most important things that you can do. Every single one of us hates paying bills; we don’t like giving our hard earned money to the insurance company, or the phone company, or the landlord. When we write out that check to pay the bills we aren’t saying to ourselves, “This is great! I have the opportunity to invest into the future of Verizon!” Many people look at tithing and giving above and beyond with their offerings as paying a bill, but they should see it as an investment. When the nation of Judah gave to the temple it gave the priests the opportunity to fix the breaches. When we give to the Lord through the church, it gives us the opportunity to invest in winning more souls for Christ.

The nation of Judah realized, “This money I have is not mine, it is God’s; and I want to see God use it in a more powerful way than what I can do with it.” I truly believe that the day is going to come when we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. God is going to look at the person who obeyed God in tithing but also went above and beyond in offerings and he will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servants.” At that point I believe that person will see all the good that his investment did: he will see the children saved, he will see the married couple who found Jesus and got their marriage back together, he will see the broken families that Jesus healed through him, he will see the countless souls reached and lives touched at home and on the mission field simply because he gave. And isn’t that what revival is? Souls reached and lives changed? Yes!

Conclusion:  picture your life as being in a circle. Today, what I am trying to say is that we need to experience revival and the way to do that is in the way that you deal with that circle. First today, we saw that the children of Judah got rid of their wickedness; we need to get all the filth and evil out of our circle, we need to clean house. Second the children of Judah committed themselves to God; we need to commit our circle to God. Next, the children of Judah got the bad influences out of their lives; we need to reach outside of our circle and clean the immediate area around it. Lastly, they gave to God’s work; we need to put godly things around our circle. Do you want revival? If so, we need to get rid of our wickedness, commit ourselves to God, get rid of bad influences, and then give to the work of God.