Revive Me

I appreciated the special music. Thank you, Mr. Braulmuller and the hymn after it. As Mr. Braulmuller was talking about holy ground, reminded me that last week we spoke about the Sabbath and that this is holy time indeed that we are in. As such, it is God's time and very glad to see all of you here today at the Sabbath day. Last week, you remember, we talked about the Sabbath day and how it can be a barometer, if you will, of how close to God we are.

Some of the questions that you might have taken home from you or with you last week, questions that I asked myself as well, is, do we really enjoy the Sabbath day? Is it a delight? Is it something that we look forward to all week long and that we're in a constant mode of, we just can't wait to get into God's holy ground and be there with His people, there in His presence and have that time where the rest of the world is set apart?

Now that we cease to do all the things that we do during the week and come together on the Sabbath day before Him and be revived, be rejuvenated, feel closer to God. You know, there's a saying, I don't know if I said it last week in the sermon, but as I was reviewing some of the things, the Puritans used to have a saying that good Sabbaths make good Christians. And I don't know if that's exactly right, that maybe the good Christians have good Sabbaths because good Christians know it is holy time, the one and the other in holy ground.

And to the extent that we keep the Sabbath holy and it becomes important to us and it becomes the delight of our week, then maybe that's a good barometer of what we are like as Christians. And as we move closer to the Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread, perhaps that's one of the areas that we can look at as we begin to examine ourselves and see where we are in standing with God as we move toward that time.

That begins the time of where we reverse God's plan again. Turn with me, if you will, over to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, the people who have been going to the home Bible studies, the last few of them, have heard this verse read and we've talked about it. And in Titusville, you may hear it briefly again. You may hear it a few more times between now and the Passover.

But in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, Paul is talking to the Corinthian church. And the Corinthian church is much like the church or the world we live in today. It was a very cosmopolitan world. It was a very wealthy area. It had a lot of constraints and a lot of things that could distract people's attention from God. And he was reminding them of the Passover that they were about to embark on, the days of Unleavened Bread they were about to go on to.

And he was reminding them, he says, I received, in verse 23, from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when ye had given thanks, he broke that bread and said, Take eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so every year when baptized members of God's church come before him and take of the Passover, we eat that bread.

And it should be a very symbolic and a very deeply meaningful observance that we do, as we recognize what it is. Not just going through the ritual, but understanding what that represents when we do that. Verse 25, he says, in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. Another thing that if we've been in the church 30, 40, 50 years, maybe we've done 30, 40, 50 times once a year, just as God prescribed for us to do.

Every time we do it, it should be a deeply meaningful ceremony for us, a deeply meaningful thing that we should be recognizing what it is that we're representing as we take, as we take that cup of wine, and what it represents, and what we're committing to God as we do. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.

In verse 27, words I hope that we will always take seriously. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Take it seriously what you do. Don't just let it become a custom, a ritual, and something that you know on the evening of Sunday night after sunset, which is the 9th of April, will be gathered together here, and something we just have to go through and think that's okay just to go through the thing.

God wants us to prepare. He wants us to understand what it is that we're doing that night, and to appreciate it what it is that Jesus Christ did for us. And that doesn't happen if we just start thinking about the things that day or the day before. Something we need to be mentally preparing ourselves now for, and be ready to begin this process of keeping God's holy days, the annual holy days, as we'll begin here in about a month or so. Verse 28, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Let him examine himself. Let him look at himself. Let him look at itself through the eyes of the Bible. Let him look at himself through the eyes of what God wants. And then take of that body, or that bread, and that wine. Think about those things. Spend the time between now and then thinking and examining what is it that I'm doing?

What progress have I made? Would God be pleased with what I have done over between last year and this year? Have I made spiritual progress? Am I really becoming more like Jesus Christ? Am I becoming less like the world and less like the old me, and more like He would have me be? Let a man examine himself. For he who eats, verse 29, and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Those are some pretty serious words when we look at those. If we come to the Passover, and if we take that bread, and if we take that wine, if we haven't done any forethought, if we haven't done any preparation, if we haven't done any spiritual preparation for that night, God says He drinks. If He takes it in an unworthy manner, He drinks judgment to Himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Counting it as common, something that you don't really have to pay much attention to.

And how could we ever, if we understand what Jesus Christ did, that He gave up being God, was born as a human, suffered the way He did, gave up His life, that you and I could have eternal life? You and I, unworthy people, by the way we've lived our lives, that He gave all that up so that we could have eternal life if we follow Him, if we repent, if we give our lives and yield our lives to Him, if we're baptized and if we receive His Holy Spirit.

None of us want to be taking the Passover or any of the things of God, not discerning Christ's body.

For this reason, He says in verse 30, many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged. If we would just look at ourselves, if we would honestly examine ourselves, if we would follow what David said in Psalm 139, O Lord, search my heart, see if there's any evil within me, show me the things in my heart that aren't in line with you, show me the intents of what I do. They may be well beheaded to us because none of us are there.

None of us are perfect. All of us have things that we need to overcome. And we need to realize that. And believe me, if we start thinking, I can't think of anything in my life that's out of line, then we might want to dig a little deeper. We might want to fast and we might want to look at things and examine ourselves in a really worthy manner, recognizing what it is that we do and recognizing what Christ did for us.

You know, it was Jesus Christ who lived and who died that we might have our sins forgiven and have eternal life. Now, what will you repent before God? When we are baptized and when we receive His Holy Spirit? There's a word that's used in the New Testament in the Old King James that I think brings alive what God does for us. He quickens us. You know, the New King James, while the translations are very okay, you know, they will say, made alive.

But sometimes we need a word that's a little different to make us realize what it is that God's Spirit and what God does for us is. Let's look back at John 6 and verse 63. John 6 and verse 63.

You know, as we look at ourselves and as we examine ourselves, there's a lot of questions we can ask us, and I'll give you a few of those here in a second. But we can ask ourselves, are we spiritually alive? Are we going through the motions? Are we really excited about what God has called us to? Are we really excited about His plan? Are we really looking forward to the days of Unleavened Bread?

Or is it just something that we do every year and has become kind of rote and kind of routine to us? In John 6 and verse 63, it says, in the New King James, it says, It is the Spirit which gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words Christ says that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. In the Old King James, it says, It is the Spirit which quickens us, quickens us, brings us to life, takes us from dead and dull and going nowhere, and quickens us and puts life in us. God who quickens us over in Ephesians, Ephesians 2 and verse 1.

Ephesians 2 and verse 1. And you, it says, and I'm going to read it from the Old King James, and you he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. You he quickened. He put a spring in your step. He gave you a meaning to your life. He gave you purpose, something to wake up for in the morning, something to look past this physical life we're in now.

He quickened. It's kind of a good word when we look at it. It has so much more meaning than the typical word we would say, He made you alive. He certainly did make us alive. He put within us the down payment of His Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that gives us and imparts to us truth, that gives us the knowledge of God, gives us the ability to understand, gives us comfort, teaches us, guides us.

It needs allow us to understand the words of God and that as we yield to Him and use that Holy Spirit more and more, that He will write His law in our minds and in our hearts, because it is the Spirit that quickens us and takes us from being in a state of death, spiritual death to spiritual life. Down in verse 5 of Ephesians 2, Even when we were dead in trespasses, not only read verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, He quickened us together with Christ by grace you have been saved. He quickened us by Christ by grace, together with Christ who He quickened, who He gave life to, who He made alive, the same way He makes you and I alive.

Over in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, Christ suffered once, once for sins, but just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but being quickened, being quickened by the Spirit. Being quickened by the Spirit. When God quickens us, something happens to us. We are new creatures. We receive God's Holy Spirit. There's something He has in mind for us, but we have to be doing something with it as well.

In the Old Testament, we find the same concept. Let's go back to Psalm 119. We'll be turning back to Psalm 119 a few times today. Let's see a few of the words quickened in the Old King James. In another word that you used here in the New King James, it means the same thing. Psalm 119. Let's look at verse 25. You know, the Psalm 119. It's a very long psalm, but it's so full of meaning. And I might suggest that as we prepare for the Passover, the upcoming days of Unleavened Bread, that we would look through Psalm 119. And don't read all 170-some verses in one sitting.

Sit and look at the sections. Meditate on them. See what God is saying in each one of these series of eight verses that He has in that psalm, because there is some deep meaning in there. And as we look at ourselves and as we examine ourselves and as we see what the psalmist here has written, we can see some of what He's gone through and how He was quickened and what quickened Him, what He found Himself beaten down by the world.

Maybe beaten down by the events of life. Feeling lethargic. Feeling complacent. Feeling like there's no energy left and I just can't get revved up for this because I've done it so many times before. Because there are answers to how we can be quickened in Psalm 119. Let's look at verse 25. Read through one of the sections of eight verses here. Verse 25 says, My soul clings to the dust.

Revive me according to your word. The old King James says, Quicken me according to your word. New King James says, Revive. Revive me. Wake me up again. What does revive mean? This Hebrew word comes from the... this word comes from the Hebrew word kai, c-h-a-y-a-a-c-h-a-y-a-h. It means literally, Bring me to life again. Restore life to me. We know what it means if someone is revived, if they're having health incidents and they're revived, someone is doing something to bring them back to life again.

And the Psalmist says here, Revive me, God. My soul clings to the dust. I'm feeling lethargic. I'm feeling like I'm not going anywhere. I'm feeling like my life is in perpetual stall as opposed to moving forward. I don't feel the excitement. They don't feel the energy that I should. Revive me. Revive me according to your word. Oh, there's a clue. If you want to be revived, spiritually revived, you might want to go back to God's word.

Because you know what? That is the basis of truth. That's the basis of what we are. That's the basis of what we live by. And when we read God's word, and we read it, not just to put in the time, not just to check off a few boxes on our daily to-do list, but really look into it and ask God to lead us and help us to understand what He's saying. It can revive us and it can make us feel alive again.

My soul clings to the dust. Revive me according to your word. I've declared my ways and you answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts. So shall I meditate on your wonderful works.

My soul melts from heaviness. It's the burdens I bear. I feel like I'm weighted down. I can't seem to let go of these things. Strengthen me according to your word. Remove from me the way of lying, or any sin that does so easily beset us. Remove from me the way of lying and grant me your law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth, and everyone in this room, I hope, would say, I have chosen the way of truth, your judgments.

I have laid before me. I cling to your testimonies. Oh Lord, don't put me to shame. I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart. As I follow You, as I let You revive me, as I look into Your word, as You breathe life into me again, and help me come out of the doldrums of life, the distractions that can take us away from what God wants us to do, the complacency and the heaviness that we may fail and think, I just can't do it.

I'm just so weighted down. I don't know where the energy has gone. There is one place, well, a few places that we'll see in Psalm 119 that we can go to get revived again. And between now and Passover, if any of us are feeling that way, that we just don't have the energy, we just aren't looking forward to it the way we show that we're not excited about God's plan, we're not excited about the Passover and taking the blood, washing one another's feet, looking at the symbols and having the deep meaning that it means as we recommit to God to follow Him.

As we're not looking forward to cleaning our houses, but also the spiritual part of putting sin out of our lives, that we take that leavening and we put it out. God, show us where that leavening is. Let us put of our house not to bring back in again, but never to be there again.

If we don't feel that excitement, now's the time to ask God to quicken us again, to revive us, to look into His Word, to give us the energy, to give us the zeal for the calling that He's given us, just like He did back at the first time we understood the truth.

The first time that we knew what God was saying. Let's look at another section here in Psalm 119, the end of the book, back in verse 145. Psalm 119, 145.

Revive me according to your justice. Show me your path. Show me what it is that I need to change. Revive me according to your justice. They draw near who follow after wickedness. I feel the footsteps closing in. I am having a hard time keeping ahead of it. They are far from your law. You are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are truths. Concerning your testimonies, I have known of old that you have founded them forever.

Revive me according to your justice. Revive me according to your word. We live in a world. We live in a world that can be, well, a world that's simply put, it's tough to live in. We are surrounded by people we work with, people we watch on TV, people we go to school with, that have a totally different lifestyle and a totally different system of beliefs than we do. We can find ourselves downtrodden. We can find ourselves discouraged. We can talk to people about what we believe. And we think it's so plain when we look at the Bible, the truth of what God's plan is, what He created man for, and try to explain to someone what the purpose of man is, and that God created man for a purpose, and that He put in motion a way of life that existed from the time that He put man on earth until the time that the heaven and earth exist no more.

And we can get discouraged when people look at us and say, basically, who cares? I don't want to follow God. I want to do the things that I want to do it. And I believe God does these things like people say, as long as I'm doing well. We were back up in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. I want to be, I don't know if it's a bumper sticker, or if I saw the sign in someone's yard. And the sign said, or the bumper sticker said, my religion is kindness. My religion is kindness. And I thought about that, and I thought, well, isn't that it? Yes, God wants us to be kind.

But so much of the world says, all you need to do is be kind. Just be good and loving to other people. And certainly God wants us to be that way. But there's a lot more responsibilities that we have when we follow God than just being kind. You know, James 1, 27 says, pure and undefiled religion is this, that you keep oneself unspotted from the world.

And you visit the orphan and the widow in their need. Well, we can look at another, you know, when might we know the revival that we need, some spiritual revival? Let's go back and look at Revelation 3. Revelation 3, and look at the message to one of the seven churches there.

I guess it's commonly accepted that the Laodicean church is an end-time church. And we can see facets of this church that we might look at ourselves as we examine ourselves and ask, is there any part of me in these verses? Verse 14, Revelation 3, to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things, says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. You kind of are there, but you aren't really zealous for my word. You're not really alive for my word. You're just there out of habit. You're not really cold either. You haven't rejected me. You haven't come out and said, I reject what God has to say. I'm not going to keep His law anymore.

I'm not going to keep His habit anymore. I'm not going to pay attention. I'm going to believe the way of the world and forget what God has to say in His word. You haven't done that either. God says, I just wish you would make a choice. I wish you would get zealous for me again.

I wish you would be on fire again. I wish you would let me, God says, revive you. So then, or verse 17, because you say, I'm rich. I've become wealthy. I have need of nothing. And we can read those words and we can say, oh, it's talking about physical things.

I've got a good job. I don't need to worry about money anymore. I don't really have to worry about any of that anymore. No, He's talking about some spiritual aspects of our lives here, too. If we look at ourselves and say, you know, I'm doing pretty well. God must be pretty pleased with me. Look where I am. And if we have that attitude, then we might want to look at ourselves because God specifically talks about that in these verses.

I don't need to do anymore. I am on the right track. And I hope we're all on the right track. But I hope we all realize, me included, there's a lot we have to overcome. There's a lot we have to change. There's a lot we need to become like before Jesus Christ returns and says, you know, that we will be one of His brothers and inherit eternal life the way He wants us to. Because you say, I am rich, I become wealthy, I have made Him nothing. And don't know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You're not seeing clearly.

You haven't examined yourself the way that you should. You're looking at yourself through your eyes rather than the eyes of the Word of God. You're looking at yourself through your eyes, comparing yourself maybe to other people, but not looking at what God says. Not having Him deeply look into the intents and motives of our heart. What's going on in our minds? What motivates us? We can think we're doing a lot of good things, but God would say, are you, perhaps, blind, naked? I counsel you in verse 18, to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that come from the acts of righteousness, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see.

You know, God will open our eyes to see who we are if we ask Him to, and if we're asking Him sincerely to, if we really want to know, if we really do want to follow Christ, if we really do want to be more like Him, if we aren't just playing a game and haven't just become part of a routine that we do, but we really are looking toward the kingdom of God, we really are looking toward the return of Jesus Christ, that we really are letting and asking God's Holy Spirit to lead us, guide us, change us, make us into who He wants us to be.

And not just going through the motions and patting ourselves on the back because of the things that we do, but looking to God to make us into who He wants us to be. So we can look at Revelation, notice to the lay of the city of Sier, and say, those are some questions we could ask as we examine ourselves.

Let me give you a few more. A few years, I guess several years back, I gave a sermon and talked about what the Jews, when they look at self-examination. And I gave a sermon on three questions that they asked. What was very interesting about the questions they asked was, what are the questions like, how much do you know about the Bible?

Can you recite this? Do you know what the meaning of this is? The questions made you search deeply into yourself on, do you know the way of God and are you applying it into your life? And as I was researching this, I came across those three questions of the book that I was reading, but I came across a few more from another author. Let me just read some of these through to you. I'm not going to answer them. Well, maybe you can write them down, and as you're examining yourself, you can look and think about these questions as we examine ourselves and as I examine myself.

One, what do we want most in life? And not just the stock answer of what we all know we should say, what do we really want most in life? What are our real goals and aspirations? What motivates us? There's nothing wrong with having physical goals and aspirations God gives us. He puts us on earth. He says He wants us to work. He gives us the ability to do the jobs we have. Nothing wrong with that, but what do we want most? Are we following God, or are we really most focused on what we want?

Another one, what do we think about most? He's got a passing thought in our mind a few minutes a day, maybe a couple times a week. Can we go through an entire day and then at the end of the day think, wow, I haven't taken any time to pray or talk to God or whatever.

What do we think about most? When you wake up in the middle of the night or when you're in there in the day and you have some time to think, what do you think about most? Another question, how do we use our money? Is it always just for us, or do we ever look at our money as blessings that God has given us that we might help others in need? How do we look at tithes?

Are we happy to give God a kite and recognize what He's done for us? Or does it really bug us that we have to give God back some of what He's given us? What do we think about money? How do we use our money? Another one, what do we do with our leisure time? Nothing wrong with watching TV once in a while. Nothing wrong with having entertainment once in a while.

But what do we do with our leisure time? What kind of things do we typically do? Is it ever when we have extra time in the day that we think, Oh, I'll pick up the Bible and finish what I was reading this morning before I went to work?

Do we ever pick up the phone and talk with other brethren? Do we ever do any of the things that would remind us? Or that because we are part of a body and part of God's body that He's placed us in? What do we do with our leisure time? Do we just do the things that entertain us without any thought of what might benefit others or what maybe we could be doing with our leisure time?

How about the company that we enjoy being around? What kind of people do we hang around? Where are the people that we like to be around? Turn back to...well, you may be in Psalm 119. Let's look at...no, you're not. Psalm 119. Let's go back there. Psalm 119. And read another series of Scriptures there. Psalm 119 and verse 57. Psalm is right.

You are my portion, O Eternal. I have said that I would keep your words, something you and I have all said to God. I will keep your words. I entreated your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word. I thought about my ways. I kind of asked questions of myself. I kind of examined what was going on. I thought about my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies.

I kind of surveyed what I was doing, and I realized my feet might have been headed in a different direction when I really honestly looked at myself and I made the conscious decision to turn my feet to your testimonies. I made haste and didn't delay to keep your commandments. The cords of the wicked have bound me. I find myself just ensnared by these things. These things that just keep coming back to me. The people that I hang around with.

They don't believe anything that I do. They lead me astray. They lead me in the wrong direction. And it's difficult to always be swimming upstream. Yes, we work with people. Yes, we go to school with people. Yes, we have friends in the neighborhood.

Now, we are witnesses to them. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I haven't forgotten your law. I don't let them affect me. I should be trying to influence them. At midnight, I will rise to give thanks to you because of your gracious judgments. I am a companion of all who fear you.

That's the people I like to be around. If I had my choice, I would always be around people who fear you.

Is that the way you and I feel? Is that who we would prefer to be around? People who follow God's law. Yes, being an example. Yes, being friendly. Yes, working and working with people. But not letting others influence us.

Who do you like to hang around? Where is the company that you enjoy?

The next question goes right along with that one. Who and what do we admire?

If we were going to look and say, the most admired person is this. Who would it be? Someone you work with? A relative? Your parents who may not understand God's way at all? Or would it be someone from the Bible? Would it be someone that you look up to that you perceive as following God's way of life? Because who we want to be like and who we admire, sometimes is a good indicator of where our heart is. You know, back in the Psalms, it says, or Proverbs, I guess, it says, what we think about, where our heart is, that's what we're going to become. What do we think about? Who do we want to be like? Who do we admire? And finally, the last one here in this list is, what do we laugh at? You know, God wants us to laugh. He didn't call us all to be serious people all the time. He wants us to have a good time. What do we laugh at? What are the jokes that would make us laugh? What's the TV shows that make us laugh? What are the movies that make us laugh? What is the company that we keep around that make us laugh? You know, there are a lot of things that are out there. And in our younger days, and I can speak in my younger days, what made me laugh then? Far different than what makes me laugh now. I hope that's the same for all of you as we grow in God's way. And as we look at the world around us, there's precious few, if we had precious few things on TV, that would make us laugh. Might make us sorry for where the world has gone and what it has become when we look at some of what the world considers as entertainment and laughable. But what makes us laugh? So, you know, those are some questions that we can look at as we examine ourselves. But I always say, you know, the best counseling and the best place that we can look at for what we can look at when we examine ourselves. And when we're asking God, quicken us, revive us, we can look into the Bible. We can look into the Bible. So let's go back to Revelation again. And let's look at some of the churches here that are listed in Revelation 2 and 3.

I know over the years, some people will say these were just seven churches in Asia Minor. And they had their identity and what God wrote to them was something that was specific to them. Other people will say it's eras of God's church. What these seven churches are, are you and me? Because anything that we read about these seven churches wasn't... isn't something that we could say, well, our church doesn't have that problem. There's those things, as we read the seven of the seven churches, you and I see ourselves in some of those. We might see ourselves in the first church here in Ephesus. Revelation 2, in my letter yesterday, I talked about the church in Ephesus. Revelation 2. Let's pick it up in verse 2.

I know your works, God says to this church, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil. All good things. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. You're able to soon discern the truth from lies. And you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my namesake and have not become weary. You keep doing work. You keep doing the physical things. You haven't let up in that regard. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. You have left your first love.

I grew up in the church, but there was a time when I knew what the truth was. My parents taught it to me, and I believed it. But I never, there was a time in my life when I knew that I knew. And for the first time, when I would read the booklets, when I would come to church, it was exciting. It was like I'd heard the words before, but they were sinking in, and it was something that I knew, and God was, I knew God was working and calling me, and I couldn't deny it.

And even though I'd been around for 20 years by the time that I got baptized, it was exciting and it was new. And I felt alive for the first time. I couldn't wait to get back from work and to look at some of those booklets.

I couldn't wait to look at the Bible. I couldn't wait to get to church. I was excited. I was alive. I wanted to do everything because the church meant that much to me, and the truth meant that much to me, and I could just feel God working in me. And that was somewhat 30-some years ago now. But over the years, as we do things over and over again, we can become a little complacent.

We can find that energy waning a little bit. It's like when you first fall in love, when you first get married. Everything about your spouse you love, everything about them you're enamored with. You can't wait to get home from night. You can't...you hang on to every word, everything that they say. You want to make them happy in that regard.

But after five years passes and after ten years passes, many a spouse will say, I don't feel that same love anymore. Because we get used to each other, it becomes commonplace. And what God is telling the church of Ephesus here, you don't have that zeal anymore. When you come to Passover, you don't have that same spring in your step. You're not recognizing what it is that you're doing and committing to God. You're not remembering what Jesus Christ does. That doesn't excite you. That doesn't make you thankful and grateful. That doesn't motivate you to live your life the way that God said.

You're just kind of going through the motions. When it comes to days of unleavened bread and you have to clean your house, you think, really? Do I need to do that? Do I really have to go through the motion of cleaning all this leavening out? Yeah, you really do because, you know, it's not the gift of the physical leavening, but it shows us the spiritual part of what we're doing.

That as we are taking the physical leavening out, we're taking the spiritual leavening out. That we realize when we throw that baking soda out, that soon in our lives we're supposed to be putting out of our house never to be brought in again. And that should be exciting to us as God shows us what is in the cobwebs of our minds, what's exciting or what is in the back of our motivations, what drives us, what motivates us. And every year we find something that isn't that we didn't know before. There are some things that we have to put out that, well, we let back in again.

We let that leavening back into our lives again. We have to throw it out again, but there's something new that we learn about ourselves that we ask God, purify us, and we find it exciting to think God will purify us, God will cleanse us. Is it exciting to us to think purity is the goal? I could go out on the street quarters and tell you there's plenty of people who would say, purity, that's your goal?

What's wrong with you? Do you think that? Or do we realize purity is the goal? That's the future. That's what the eternity is. That's what God has called us to. And that's the life that He has called us to. The church in Ephesus lost that first love. Back in Luke 22. In Luke 22, Jesus Christ, on that last Passover, He said words that should motivate us.

And I ask myself every year, do I have the same attitude toward Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread that Jesus Christ did? Luke 22, verse 15, here He was. He knew what that Passover was going to mean. He knew by the end of that Passover day that He was facing, that He was going to be arrested. He was going to go through agony. His physical life was going to ebb from Him in a horrific fashion. Luke 22, verse 15, He said to them, as they are preparing for the Passover, with fervent desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

With fervent desire, I am looking forward to this. I have been waiting for this time. This is part of God's plan. This is what I was born for, He would say. Do I? I have to ask myself, when I come to the Passover, do I have a fervent desire to keep it the way that Jesus Christ said to keep it? Do I have a fervent desire to recommit, to do the things and to understand the things that He said? In the early days, I did, and I hope I still do, but I have to remind myself, this is important. This is important, maybe the most important holy day because, or holy time, because God even made a provision that if you were sick or couldn't be there at the first Passover, you could take it 30 days later.

No other holy days. No other holy days, did He say. If He missed the first day of Unleavened Bread, keep it 30 days later? No. But the Passover is an important time. With fervent desire, I hope you can ask ourselves, do I have that fervent desire? Or is my love becoming a little cold? Is it getting beaten down by the world? You know, Christ said in Matthew 24, because lawlessness will abound. And anyone who says that we aren't living in a lawless society that's becoming more and more lawless, throwing out every moral law that there is, every even law of nature that there is, anyone that can say we're not living in a lawless society that's becoming more and more lawless, you're fooling yourself.

Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold. They'll lose their first love. They'll listen to the world around them. They'll listen to some of their reasoning and some of their logic and say, well, you know what?

That makes a lot of sense, even though the Bible says the exact opposite of what the world says. And their love will grow cold. Let's look at Psalm 119 in regards to our first love.

Psalm 119.

And verse 33.

119.33.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Indeed, I will observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.

It turns me on. It puts the spring in my step. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Not to the things that I want. Not looking to see what I want, but looking to see what you want in my life. Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things, and revive me. Revive me in your way. As I make the choice, consciously make the choice, to follow you. To order my steps. To keep your commands. To make and set the things in my life in order that I will follow you.

And you will revive me. You will give me that first love again. You will be the one who put the excitement to the spring back in my step. You will be the one who will turn me to you when I make the choice. To turn my eyes away from worthless things. When I make the choice to turn my steps to you. When I make the choice to follow you with all my heart. And that can be a difficult thing to do if we've drifted.

Sometimes we have to just make ourselves do things. It all depends on what's important to us. What's most important to us. Over in verse 81. 119. 81. My soul thanks for your salvation. That's what drives me. That's what is the thing. That's why I realize what you have given us. My soul thanks for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes fail from searching your word.

I keep looking. I keep going back to your word. I keep looking for the inspiration. Saying, when will you comfort me? I don't give up. I don't do it a couple times and say, God didn't answer my prayer. I didn't give me any inspiration. I keep doing it. I discipline myself. I will go back to your word over and over and over again. For I have become like a lion's skin in smoke. Yet I don't forget your statutes. How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?

The proud have dug pits for me. Which is not according to your law. All of your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. They make fun for the way I live my life. They don't understand why I don't like going out to the bars and chasing women. They don't know why I don't like to go to R and X-rated movies. They don't know why I, as a single young man, don't want to go to the strip joints in Orlando. They don't understand. And so they can look at me and they can make fun of me. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me. They almost made an end of me on earth, but I didn't forsake your precepts.

Revive me. Revive me. Wake me up again. Stir me back to life, according to your loving kindness, so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth. If you've lost your first love, if we examine ourselves and ask ourselves, do I really feel the way I used to feel?

Am I excited about what's going on? We might want to go back to God's Word. We might want to be asking Him. We might want to be delving into His Word and seeing what it is that He wants, because it was a symptom of the Church of Ephesus.

It's here in the churches of God today, too. It's here in the churches of God today, too. Maybe that's one of the things that when you look at yourself, or I look at myself, I will look at and say, wow, where is that first love? Let's go back to Revelation 2 and look at the next church that's listed there. Revelation 2 and verse 8. The angel of the church of Smyrna, or two of the angels of the church of Smyrna, write, These things, says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life.

I know your works, the tribulation and poverty that you were rich, and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. And then He tells them, don't worry about the things you're going to suffer. I know the blasphemy of those who say they're Jews and are not. You may remember the church in Philadelphia. He says the same thing to them. The people who are Jews but are not, I will make them kneel down or bow down to you when God resurrects us.

The blasphemy of the Jews who say they are Jews but are not, what is He talking about? Is that something that is in the churches of God today? Could that be something I am guilty of? Or you might be on the verge of? Or something that we would need to ask ourselves?

Because the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not is something that Christ talked about as well. People who are part of the church but don't follow the ways of the church, who are there in name only but who follow to the beat of a different drummer, who don't necessarily follow the things that God said or in the order that He said, but maybe are looking to direct their own steps toward their own goals.

And maybe deceiving ourselves along the way, but that's God's will. But you know, God has a plan in mind for every one of us. He knows exactly what we need. He knows exactly what we need to do. And my road is different than your road, which is different than your neighbor's road. This is different than your spouse's road in some cases. But God knows what it is that He needs to purge out to make us who He wants us to be.

And there are those who Christ would call weak that are truly yielding to God and letting Him direct the steps of their lives and guide the steps of their lives. And there are those who Christ would call tares who look like they're in the church, who look like they're doing the same thing, but aren't. Let's go back to Matthew, Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 24. Another parable of Christ, Matthew 13, 24, put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is like a man who's so good-seated in his field. He did all the right things. God did all the right things. But while men slept, His enemy came, and so tares among the wheat and went His way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, the tares appeared. Well, it looks like wheat. Can't tell the difference. So the servants of the owner came and said to Him, Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? And He said to them, An enemy has done this. Satan has somehow come in and taken the good seed that I called and has turned them into something that I didn't call them to be. They look like wheat. They look like Jews, spiritual Jews. But they're not. They're not the wheat that I called them to be. An enemy has done this. The servant said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? And he said, No. Lest while you gather up the tares, you up-set, or you up-wrote the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, First gather together the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn. I hope we'll all, me included, ask God, am I wheat? Am I doing the things that you want? Is the good seed that you planted in me still producing good fruit? Or have I deceived myself into thinking that the fruit I'm producing is what you want, but it's really what I want, and not what you want? And that can take whatever turn you want as we look at ourselves, and as we examine ourselves. God, what is my real motivation? When the Psalmist, David, said in Psalm 130, says, Search my heart! Search it, and let me know if there's any evil within me.

That's a pretty deep statement, too. We have to be prepared to look at ourselves honestly, and not deceive ourselves. Look at Psalm 119. Psalm 119.

Verse 113.

He says, I hate the double-minded. I hate those who are thinking or looking like they're doing one thing, but really doing another. They've got another mission in mind, or doing something else. I hate the double-minded. I want to work with the people, and I want to be with the people, and God wants the people who are pure in heart that are doing what He wants, His will. Not masquerading it as their will, but maybe clothing it in His will.

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your word that I may live, and don't let me be ashamed of my hope. Hold me up, and I will be safe, and I will observe your statutes continually. You reject all those who stray from your statutes.

You reject all those who stray from your way of life, for their deceit is falsehood. You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, I love your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. We can look at what happened to the church in Smyrna because it may be happening among us. We might be one of those. But we could ask God, and if we repent, if we let Him revive us, and repentance is the first place to revival after we look into His word and understand what we're doing.

Let's go back to Revelation. Look at another church. This time the church at Pergamos. Revelation 2 and verse 12. The angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast on my name, and didn't deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. We can look at that church and say, well, I haven't heard anyone talking about Balak.

I haven't heard anyone talking about the doctrine of Balaam. I don't even know what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans is, so that can't be something that's going on in our church or in my life, is it? But those were things that were extant in that church at that time. But we certainly could have false doctrines among us that we are holding on to. False doctrines like, once saved, always saved. Once we're baptized, our life is over. God has given us His Holy Spirit.

And no matter what we do from then on out, we will be saved. Not true. We can have false doctrines among us that we hold on to from our past lives, or that we hear our friends' neighbors say, and we think, oh, that sounds like a fair doctrine, even though it might be different than what the Bible says. False doctrines that come among us, some of which you could read count to me. One of them would be that all God cares about, is that we don't keep the commandments.

In fact, there's a false doctrine out there that pops up even in the church from time to time among people. That God kind of looked at it and said, I made a mistake. Those ten commandments are just too hard for people to follow, to live by. Wrong! They were the way of life that was established at the time of creation, and Christ said they will exist until the time there is no more heaven and earth.

He expects us to keep them. And there's a confusion out there among what the law of Moses is and the sacrificial laws that accompanied or were added to the commandments to be a tutor to the law or tutor to the people that we're done away with at Christ's death, but not the commandments and not the way of life of God. That can be a false doctrine that can be among us and that we can think about and maybe allow into us.

You know, back in 1 John...or I'm sorry, 2 John. 2 John. 2 John 9, I think, verses 9 and 10 or somewhere in that area. Remember, we talked about 2 John that says, you know, some of us are bringing you the doctrine of Christ. That they're not bringing you the doctrine of the Bible, the truth that's in the Bible. Don't even entertain them. Don't let them into your house. Those are back in the days when someone would knock on your door and say, oh, Jesus Christ, I don't think He was the Savior.

But today we do the same thing. We can let people in our house all the time from the Internet who can spread to us false information. And if we allow it to sink into our minds and if we think, oh, man, that would really be nice if we could believe that instead.

Or we could turn on the TV and let all sorts of people and all sorts of doctrines into our house. And among us, some of us here, there are probably some false doctrines in our minds that we just think, wouldn't it be nice if? And somehow we can deceive ourselves to thinking that that is the case.

Revive me, God says, according to your word. Revive me according to your judgments. Let me turn my paths to you. Let me believe you with my whole heart. Let me examine myself and let me live by every word that comes out of your mouth.

Let's go back to Psalm 119 and verse this time, verse 105. Psalm 119 verse 105. Your word, not what I hear on TV, not what I hear on the Internet, that might appeal to my thinking, that might appeal to what would make my life easier, if I could just believe that. Your word, every word, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep your righteous judgments. I am afflicted very much.

Revive me, O Lord, according to your word. Wake me up. Breathe back life into me. Crowd out these things that I've allowed to creep into my life and into my thought process. Revive me, O Lord, according to your word. Accept, I pray, the free will offerings of my mouth and teach me your judgments. My life is continually in my hand, yet I don't forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me. They're there. They've got all the logic. They've got all the reasoning.

They've got all the things that sound right. They've laid a snare for me, yet I haven't strayed from your precepts. Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the very end.

I will look to you. I will look to your word. When I hear something, and I'm not sure I'm going to go back, or whatever your word says, that's what I'm going to believe. That's how I'm going to live my life. I'm going to weed out all these false precepts that I have, that the world wants to portray or feed into my mind. And follow you explicitly and only.

Not leaning on my own understanding, not leaning on what I want, but always looking to your will, God. What your will in my life is. Yet that's what we truly want to do in our heart. Let's go back and look at another church here. This time the church of Thyatira. Another church that had a specific thing that God held them accountable for.

That we could find in our society today, and maybe even in our church.

Revelation 2, verse 18.

To the angel of the church of Thyatira, write, These things, says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass. I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and ask for your works the last or more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, but she didn't repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

The church of Thyatira. They were enticed into sexual immorality. In the ancient pagan world, there were two things. Sacrifices to meet to idols and idolatry was one of the big things that they did, and sexual immorality. They somehow manipulated God into... manipulated sexual immorality into the pleasing God as long as you were there at the temple and using the prostitutes that were there. God said, somehow, among you, church of Thyatira, you've let people induce you into that. You know what the word is? You know that sexual immorality is something that you cannot justify in any way, shape, or means. The world around us today is full of sexual immorality, right? You can't turn on a TV show. You can't talk to anyone in the world. Everyone is full of sexual immorality. All the precepts have been gone. Rarely, rarely, rarely will you find someone outside of the church who would say, premarital sex is wrong. Rarely, right? It's becoming more and more rare that you would find anyone in the world today who would say, homosexuality is a sin. It's all around us. You can't listen to the news. You can't turn on the TV. You can't listen to a TV show. You can't listen to a radio show. You can't talk to your neighbors. You can't talk to the people at work. You find yourself, I can only believe God. And I feel kind of like a buck out of war here because everyone around me is saying the things. And I know it's particularly difficult for our young people to live in that environment and to do those things and to have to do those things. But here's a church at Thyatira. It's prevalent among us. I won't say prevalent among us. It's prevalent in our society today. And God says, no, church of God. Now we might say, oh, I never commit adultery. I wouldn't go into the physical act. But we have all sorts of ways of committing adultery. Jesus Christ expanded the law. He said it's not enough that you just don't commit the physical act. Don't even look at a woman till lust after her. And yet what today is the biggest money producer on the Internet? Pornography. I can go out into the high schools. I can go out into colleges. And I can do a survey of people who would say and ask, is there anything wrong with pornography? I would dare say that the overwhelming majority would say, no. Not hurting anyone. It is hurting someone. And it's prevalent. And I know there's problems in the church. I'm not talking about this church, but I know throughout the church of God, it's something that can wear on us because we have a society out there that says, it's okay. It's okay. Do it. And it can wear on us. It can beat us down. And just like the church of Thyatira, all of a sudden we can find ourselves in that situation.

And God says, don't do it. Don't give in to society. Don't give in to the entertainment. Don't give in to your friends. Don't give in to any of those things.

And I'm telling you, entertainment and media is one of the areas and the music of society that can lead us down that path if we listen to the words that are there and play it over and over and over in our mind.

I was listening. I turned the radio on the other day and I was going to tell you the name of the song. But I listened to it and I remembered the song back from the seventies. And I listened to the words and I remembered the tune and I thought, oh, I kind of like this song. But then I listened to the words and I thought, wow, I used to like this song? What is my problem? Because it espoused everything that we would be against today.

Now, I'm sure the music of today is far more direct and far more opposed to what the Bible would say about sexuality than that song was.

Let's go back to Romans 1 this time.

Romans 1.

I'll tell you one of the things that we need to look at as Christians and I have to look at myself and ask the same questions. What is it? What is it the entertainment? What am I watching on TV? What am I watching when I go to the movies? What am I doing?

In Romans 1, God talks about a society that leaves God behind. And when people leave God behind, all sorts of unnatural things occur among them. And you can read through verses 28 through verse 31 there talking about the things. And it's a definition of the society we live in today. As society moves farther and further away from God, we see these things that it talks about here in these verses being there. But let me focus in on verse 32. Talking about the people who didn't like to return God in their knowledge, it says, Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things, speaking of sexual immorality here, and these things, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. And I think that Old King James renders that verse a lot better than the New King James does. It sounds very innocuous in the New King James that says in the Old King James, they not only do the same, but they take pleasure in those who practice them. They find it entertaining. They find it gratifying to sit there and watch it played out on a movie screen or a TV screen or played out to a nice tune.

As we examine ourselves, as we look toward Passover and ask God, what is going on in our lives, that's one of the things that we could ask Him. Let's go back to Revelation 3, because the last church we'll look at here, and then we'll wrap this up. Revelation 3.

This one's of the Church of the, the Angel of the Church and Sardis. To the Angel of the Church and Sardis write, these things says He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. You carry the name that sounds like you would be following Me, but you are dead.

That's a pretty hard thing to say. You know, God doesn't say anything good about the Church of Sardis. He says, Be watchful, strengthen the things that remain. Repent, go back, do the first works, make yourself alive again. If there's a church, or any of us who might look at ourselves and say, Am I dead? Do I just go through the motions?

Do I really feel alive with God? Or am I just doing this for some reason, out of habit or whatever? We might want to ask something about ourselves. Let's go back to Psalm 119. And you know, even if we would look at ourselves and say, you know, I kind of think I am spiritually starving, spiritually languishing, even spiritually dead. God can revive. He can make us alive again. And He will do it, and He wants to do it. But there's actions we have to take.

He's not just going to magically give it to us, and one day we're going to wake up, and we have this desire. We have to make some decisions to show Him that we want to draw near to Him. Psalm 119, this time, verse 153. Consider my affliction and deliver me. Consider where I am, God. For I don't forget Your law. I know where the truth is. I know what the Bible says.

I believe that what You say is true. I don't forget Your law. Plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to Your word. Let me get my nose back into the Bible. Let me start making the choice to study every day, and to make myself, even if it hurts to sit there for however long, to read the Bible. To show God I really intend to turn my life around. I really intend to follow You. And I will continue to come back to You.

I will continue to pray to You. And I will discipline myself to show You, God, I want to draw near to You. And you know when you do that? And when you show God and He knows that that's where your heart is and that's what you want? You'll find it.

He will provide that for you. He will revive you. Consider my affliction, deliver me, plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to Your word. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don't seek Your statutes. Great are Your tender mercies, O Lord. Revive me according to Your judgments. Let me do things the way that You want, not the way that I want, not the way I want to think, but what You think, what You say to do.

And let me purpose and let me make my life. Follow You implicitly. Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I don't turn from Your testimonies. I continue to follow You no matter what gets thrown against me. I see the treacherous and I'm disgusted because they don't keep Your word. Consider how I love Your precepts. Revive me, O Lord, according to Your loving-kindness. The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

Could we be in need of a spiritual revival? Could I be? Could You be? We know where to turn if we're feeling a little lax, if we're feeling a little complacent, if we're feeling a little distant from God, if we don't feel any excitement toward what God's plan is, what we're going to be doing in the next and celebrating and observing in the next several weeks here.

You know, back in 2 Timothy, Paul says, stir up the gift. If we've been baptized, if we've repented and baptized and God has given us the Spirit, stir it up. Go back and do the things. Do the first works. Repent. Be zealous. Make yourself do the things. Don't get up out of bed in the morning and say, I just don't have time to do it.

I'll do it later. Discipline yourself. I was talking to someone this week. Not here. They were talking about their physical life and how they were turning it around and how they were feeling alive again because they were making choices about what they ate, what they did, what they did exercise, and how hard it was, but what they could see it paying off on. And you know the same thing happens to us spiritually. When we make the effort to find and do the spiritual exercise and to eat the proper spiritual diet, we come back to life again.

We can feel the energy. We can feel the zeal. We can feel the revival as we move toward Passover, as we move toward the days of Unleavened Bread. Let's examine ourselves. Let's ask God to revive us and go back to the source where that revival comes from.