Greg Laurie - How to Come Back to Life Spiritually (12/27/2017)
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Pastor Greg Laurie thanks God for the massive response to Harvest America, sharing stats on professions of faith and global reach. He urges inviting friends to Easter services and preaches from Revelation 3 on the dying church of Sardis, outlining marks of spiritual deadness and Jesus' prescription to wake up, strengthen what remains, and watch for His return to come back to life spiritually.
Giving Thanks for Harvest America Results
Good morning. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. Thank you. What's gotten into you people? Very nice of you. Thanks so much. We give all the glory to God. What happened there? I mean, what else can you say? Just amazing. I mean, who would have ever thought? You know, we base all this, remember, on 3:20. Every day we ask you to set your smartphones and pray at 3:20. And that was based on Ephesians 3:20, which says that God is able to do exceedingly above and beyond that which we could ask or think. Guess what? God did exceedingly above and beyond that which we could have asked or thought. He really did. Incredible.
The response was just amazing and we're just still kind of reeling from what was accomplished. I mean, to stop and think that this was the single largest evangelistic live event in American history is mind-blowing. And that we were allowed to play a part in that, you know. Can you believe that? So, thank you, Lord, for that. But, hey, that was then and this is now. And we have new opportunities before us.
Of course, the Southern California crusade is coming. It'll be upon us before you know it. And then we're going to be doing a crusade in Atlanta, Georgia. Hello. Georgia. Georgia. Clearly, Georgia's not always on my mind there. But we'll be going to Atlanta, Georgia for our first crusade this year as well.
Easter: Prime Opportunity to Invite Friends
But, hey, next Sunday we have one of the greatest evangelistic opportunities of the year. And that's Easter Sunday. That's the one day when non-believers will consider coming to church apart from Christmas, I suppose. I read a stat. I don't have the exact percentage. But it's something along the lines of 40% of people would go to church on Easter Sunday if they were invited by a friend. So there's a huge percentage of people out there that will actually go to church next Sunday that would not go normally.
So that's where you come in. You need to extend the invitation to those people and bring them. We have a little invitation here that you can pick up as you leave today. It gives you the service times. And by the way, we're adding a couple of new service times. We're going to have a service this coming Saturday. Saturday. Well, first of all, Good Friday at 12 P.M. and 6 P.M. Then Saturday, 4 and 6 P.M. So we're making more room for more people to come to church. So check that out. 4 P.M., 6 P.M. on Saturday and Sunday. 6, 8, 10, 12, and 6 P.M. So lots of opportunities to bring people to church.
Easter Shirts and Satellite Church Updates
And we've even printed up a t-shirt here that you can wear. That kind of is in the spirit of Easter. It just says, "Risen." And this is the girl's shirt I'm holding. So this is available as you leave today. I guess I'll give this one away to a girl. Oh, you look so excited. But I'm giving it to this girl back there. No, not... No, it's the girl behind you. I'm sorry, it was the girl behind you. It was her. Sorry. This is what happens when greed kicks in. But not really. I'll give you one too. I just don't have it here. Now she's embarrassed and I feel bad.
So that's the girl's shirt. And here is the guy's shirt. Looks pretty much the same. It's kind of hard to do with the microphone. This one doesn't have the little rays of light coming out. More masculine. Sir, you're going to get the shirt. Because you wave the most and I'm coming your way. So there it goes. And I almost... Well, you almost... I almost got it right to you. There you go. That's for you.
And finally, we have one for the kids too. Yes, the kids. So I don't see any kids. I must see a parent or a grandparent. Now you get the shirt. Here, give it to the Gerolimos. Here, hand that back. Would you help me? Hand it back. Thanks.
All right. Now, hey, you guys watching that satellite, you're saying, what's going on here? Oh, we're just hanging out and having fun. But I have good news for satellites out there. First of all, I want you all to know we have satellite churches all around the area that meet together every Sunday. Of course, we have one in South Corona. And we have Eastvale and Woodcrest. So let's welcome all them that are watching right now. Welcome to all of you. Welcome to all of you.
And, of course, Harvest Orange County, which we really don't call a satellite. That's a full-blown church, actually. But we're going to add some new satellites, or at least we're praying about two new satellite areas. One of them is Redlands. Is anyone here from Redlands? Raise your hand. Okay, you Redlands folks. After the service today, go out to the community table and let us get some information, because we want to talk with you. Because if we do that, we would actually like you guys to help us out. As we get it started, we're going to need some help in a lot of areas, ushering and so forth. So go and sign up, and we'd appreciate your input.
The other area we're looking at is Temecula. Out there in that direction. Now, South Corona is kind of moving that way, but this goes a little bit further. So if you're from... Anyone from Temecula here? Okay. Okay, there's a few of you. So we'll sign up at the community table as you leave today, and it will keep you apprised of all that we're doing. So lots of great worship opportunities coming up.
The Dying Church of Sardis – Revelation 3
All right, well, let's grab our Bibles now, and let's turn to Revelation chapter 3. Now, I had a nice Palm Sunday message I was working on, but this one sort of bubbled up and said, it's my turn. Sometimes messages talk to me. I may be delusional. I'm not sure. Actually, I gave a version of this message last Thursday at Harvest Orange County. This is a version. I added some other things to this one, so you folks at Harvest OCU, this will be familiar to some degree.
But the title of my message is, "How to Come Back to Life." How to Come Back to Life. Revelation chapter 3. Why don't we pray? Now, Father, as we open your word, we want to hear your voice. But before we do that, we want to give thanks to you. We're reminded of the story in Scripture of the 10 lepers that were healed, and one came back to give thanks. And Jesus asked the question, "Where are the other nine?" Lord, we don't want to be like the other nine that forget to give thanks because we prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for Harvest America. And you answered our prayers. You did above and beyond that which we could ask or think.
So now we want to just say, thank you, Lord. Bless all of those new believers wherever they are. And we pray that they'll be absorbed into vibrant churches and that they will continue on in their spiritual life. Bless all of them, we pray. Not just in Texas, but all around the country and the world that came to you. We commit them all to you now. Speak to us as we open your word. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, quick question. How many of you like to be sick? Raise up your hand. You like to be sick. Well, I know there's some people like that. What do we call them? Hypochondriacs, right? They have their doctor's phone number under the favorites on their iPhone, right? They always think they're sick.
Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, once said, and I quote, "A bore is someone who, when asked how they are feeling, will tell you." And there are people like that. They love to talk about their aches and pains all the time. But then there are others that are in denial when they're sick. And they're reluctant to go to the doctor.
I read a rather strange article in the paper a while back about a woman who ended up in a Seattle emergency room after complaining about nausea, vomiting, and a dull pain in her back. Doctors discovered the woman, listen to this, had eaten a tube sock. Why? I don't know. She said she had a nervous habit of eating about half a sock each evening. Wow. Now I know where those other socks go, okay? This woman has been eating them.
I did hear the story of a brunette lady, a brunette lady, in case a blonde lady is relaxed, a brunette lady who went to a doctor because she wasn't feeling well. She said, "Doc, everything I touch hurts. I touch my head, it hurts. I touch my leg, it hurts. I touch my shoulder, it hurts. I touch my toes. Everything hurts. What's wrong with me?" The doctor said, "I hope you're not offended, but were you ever a blonde?" She said, "Yes." And the doctor said, "You broke your finger." See, your finger's broken. Everything she touches, her finger's broken. Get it? Okay.
Marks of a Dying Church – Sardis Exposed
Well, here in Revelation chapter 3 is a story of a sick church. The problem was they didn't know they were a sick church. In fact, even worse than being sick, they were actually a dying church. And we find what Jesus says about them, about the problems that were developing. And I'm gonna point out five marks of a dying church in this message. But he also gives them a prescription for recovery.
Now, how does a person die? Well, sometimes it's sudden and unexpectedly. Other times it's over a period of time, a new ache or pain and perhaps something that's left untreated and then it leads to death. And the same can be true individually. We can be a sick or a dying Christian. And there are telltale signs. But Jesus will tell us how to come back again.
Now, this particular little section of scripture we're looking at is really the introduction to the great book of Revelation. And we have the message of Jesus to seven different churches. These were actual geographical churches that once existed. The church of Ephesus and the church of Sardis and Laodicea and Smyrna and so forth. And they're not in order the way I just said them. They were actually following a postal route. So these were churches that once existed.
But they also are really a picture of the church historically from the church of the first century to present day. And sadly, we see a regression. We start with an apostolic church called Ephesus and we end up with an apostate church called Laodicea. It starts with the church leaving their first love and it ends up with the church closing their doors to Jesus himself causing him to say to the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and I knock and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in."
I mean, contextually, Jesus said that to the church. We often quote it as Jesus wanting to come into the life of a non-believer and that's true, of course, but in effect, this was a non-believing church. It's possible to be in the church and not really believe and that's how bad the church gets in the end times.
The same can happen in marriage. You show me a marriage that's headed to divorce court and I could take you back and we'd probably find the problems developed months before, maybe even years before there was a breakdown in communication. The romance was gone. The affection was gone. And one thing leads to another and soon the marriage is unraveling. The same can be true of us as followers of Jesus. We lose that closeness to him, that intimacy with him and one thing leads to another and before we know it, we're a sick and dying believer.
Well, is that the end? Well, not necessarily. We can come back to life. Hence the title of this message, "How to Come Back to Life Spiritually."
Jesus' Diagnosis of Sardis – Reputation vs Reality
Here are the words of Jesus and how to do that. But first, let's identify the problem. Revelation 3, starting in verse 1. "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." So remember what you have received and heard and hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, says Jesus. And you will not know what hour I'll come upon you. You have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life. But I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
We'll stop there. So here's the church of Sardis. Impressive on the outside, but dying on the inside. I heard a story about a church that caught on fire, and it was a small town, and people rushed out to watch, and there stood the pastor watching his beloved church going up in flames. And some man showed up that a pastor had seen many times around town, and had invited him to church, and the guy never came. And now here he is, when the church is in flames, and the pastor said, "I can't believe that you showed up. This is the first time you've ever come here before. Why did you come on this day of all days?" And the guy said, "Well, I know it's the first time, pastor, but this is the first time your church has ever been on fire."
See, that can be true of some churches. Now Jesus starts with a compliment before a criticism. Look at verse one. He says, "I know your works." Hey, I know you guys are busy. This was not a lazy or inactive church. They were not slackers. They had a name. In fact, their name was known far and wide. In fact, the church was probably humming with activity. There was no shortage of money or talent or manpower. There was outwardly every indication of a church on the move.
But there was a problem that was developing that only Jesus could see. He says in verse two, "I have not found your works perfect before God." That would better be translated "fulfilled." You're not fulfilling the purpose for which you were placed there. And what is the purpose of the church? This is a very important question. Why does the church exist? Are we here to just babysit your kids on Sunday morning while you catch up on your sleep? Are we here to entertain you? Are we here to provide programs for you to be involved in? No, that is not the purpose of the church.
The church is here on this earth for three reasons. I have four fingers up. Okay, three. Okay, three. Number one, the church is here for the glorification of God. Number two, the church is here for the edification of the saints. And third and lastly, the church is here for the evangelization of the world. You can sum it up this way. Upward, inward, outward.
Purpose of the Church: Glorify, Edify, Evangelize
First, we're here for the glorification of God. That's why we give such a place to worship in our church. And by the way, worship is simply prayer set to song. When we sing these songs, we're praying. These musicians that stand up here are leading us in prayer. We call them worship leaders. They're not the warm-up act. That's why we should not show up late to church and miss a time of prayer because we're here to bring glory to God. And that's not just true of us in church, but it's true of us in life. Whatever you do, you should be able to bring glory to God. In your career, in your marriage, in your choices you make in life, bring glory to God. That's why God put us on this earth. In heaven, we read these words. "For your pleasure, you have created all things." I'm created by God to bring pleasure to him and bring glory to his name.
Number two, we're here for the edification of the saints. That's just a fancy word that means to build up. That's why we give such a prominent place in all of our services to Bible study. We're always gonna do that. We've always done that. We'll always do that because this is God's word that he has given to us. So we come to hear the word of God. And however that's expressed, there's always worship and Bible study. You'll probably notice. If it's youth ministry, ministry to women, ministry to men, that doesn't really change. It's always worship and Bible study. And not only Bible study, but it's encouraging one another and building up one another and serving one another. That's the edification of the saints.
And finally, there's the evangelization of the world. This is really the outgrowth of the first two. I'm glorifying God. I'm being built up in the church. And now we evangelize the world and fulfill the great commission.
But Sardis was not fulfilling their purpose. They had a great reputation, but no reality. They were dying and they didn't even know it. This reminds me of the story of Samson. Remember him? He was the he-man with the she-weakness. Samson liked the girls. And straight away, he was involved with a prostitute and then he had other involvements with women and he finally ended up with this girl named Delilah that was hell-bent on his destruction.
And Samson thought he could handle it because after all, he had superhero qualities. On one occasion, he killed a thousand Philistines with a jawbone he picked up off the ground. This guy picked up the gates of this city once and carried them for many miles before dumping them. This guy was amazing. And you know, a lot of times, we think Samson was super buff, right? You know, washboard abs and bulging biceps. Bible never says that. Maybe he was a little nerdy guy, you know, skinny and small. Because we read the Holy Spirit would come upon him and he would do these supernatural feats of strength.
Well, whatever the case, Samson thought he would always get out of every problem he was in. And for the most part, he did. Traps would be set for him and he always overcame the traps. And Delilah even began to try to find the secret of his strength, getting closer and closer to the truth. And then when she thought she found it, she'd say, "The Philistines are upon you." And the Philistines would rush in to grab him and he'd throw him aside like rag dolls.
Well, one day, she did discover the secret of his strength. It was his long hair, which was a symbol of his consecration to God as a Nazarite. And she shaved his head. And she said, "The Philistines are upon you." And he jumped up to get rid of them. But the Bible says in Judges 16:20, "He did not know that the Lord had departed from him." And of course, they grabbed him and took him away and gouged out his eyes. It was a very sad story the way it ended.
But see, this is the thing. The person who is dying spiritually is usually the last to know. They think everything's fine. They think they're doing just great. They can rationalize every decision they've made, even though those decisions are wrong. And someone will come along and say, "Hey, bro, I think there's something wrong in your life spiritually. I'm seeing some bad indications." And they'll say something like, "Hey, don't judge me. I'm doing fine. Who are you to say anything to me?" But they're dying.
See, Jesus told them they were dying, but they didn't realize that they were dying. Did you know you can do all the right things outwardly and still be spiritually dying? We can sing our worship songs perfectly, knowing each lyric as well as the melody. We can pray eloquently, even having people comment and say, "My, that was a wonderful prayer." We can dutifully take notes on messages that we hear and even know our Bibles quite well, but there can be a spiritual deadness about it all.
I don't want you to go out of church today saying, "Man, that was great worship." Or even saying, "Man, isn't the Harvest worship been amazing?" I want you to walk out of here saying, "Man, don't we worship a great God?" See, that's the message that we're trying to convey. A great God that we worship. I don't want you to walk out of here saying, "Great sermon." I want you to walk out of here saying, "Great Savior." Because that is our job, if you will, is to point you to Christ.
And we've all been to dead churches. We know what they look like. It's just a deadness from beginning to end. And there are marks of a dead church. Chuck Swindoll wrote an excellent book on the book of Revelation. And he gave an outline on five marks of a dead church. So I'm taking his outline and adding some of my own thoughts to them. Here's what he came up with.
Five Marks of a Dying or Dead Church
Number one. A dead church worships its past. A dead church worships its past. There are amazing stories of conversion. But they all happened 30, 40 years ago. And I'm all for reflecting back on what God has done. But I refuse to live in the past. We need to be in the present. And we need to always be planning for the future. But dead churches live in the past.
Number two. A dead church is inflexible and resistant to change. It's inflexible and resistant to change. Listen. The problem in the church today is sometimes we're flexible where we need to be inflexible. And we're inflexible where we need to be flexible. Does that make sense? Where should we be inflexible? We should be inflexible on the essentials. The teaching of the word of God. The worship and glorification of God. Evangelism. These are essentials. We're not going to back down on them. We're not going to water these things down. These are the essentials. So we need to be inflexible there.
But then we need to be flexible with non-essentials. Or excuse me, flexible with non-essentials. I'm getting all confused. I think you understand what I'm saying. Sorry, losing my voice here. I'm fine. All right, now. So we need to be flexible with non-essentials. And by that, I mean style. This is where people get hung up. Style. Styles of music. Embracing new technology. All kinds of things along those lines.
I'll tell you a little secret. It might surprise you. I don't like all the music we have at Harvest Crusades. Does that come as a revelation to some of you? Now, what I mean, I don't dislike it. But it's not my style of music. But it's not about me. It's about reaching a generation of young people that may like certain kinds of music. So we change. Because some of you say, "I'm not going there. I don't like that music." Well, who cares what you like? Why don't you put your earplugs in and load up your van with a bunch of young kids and take them to the crusade and pray that they come to Jesus? That's the point. It's not about the world revolving around you.
Because when you get older, you like routine, predictability. You listen to certain kinds of music, usually from your childhood. You like to go to a certain restaurant and sit in a certain seat and order a certain item every single time. You have your go-to clothes that you always wear. You like to know what's coming. Young people, in contrast, like change. They like action. They like activity. So we can become very rigid. And we can be resistant to change.
I remember when we put in video screens. I think it was the 90s. I can't remember now. We put two screens up. And some people freaked out. I had people actually write me a letter. "I don't come to church to watch TV." Oh. We're not exactly showing reruns of I Love Lucy. Okay? I mean, it's just video enhancement.
I love it when people say, "I want Greg to be here in person speaking. I don't want to watch him on a screen." They say this while they're watching me. On the screen. Because I see where you're looking. You're looking there on the screen. Right? That's okay. But my point is, we became very rigid about this. I like this. Put a screen up here that has a bunch of stats on it. Using a screen, as a matter of fact.
Harvest America Stats – God Did Exceedingly Abundantly
And okay. So let's review this for a moment. Okay. Look at the red line. 82,000 people came. We filled the stadium to capacity. With overflow. I'm told thousands of people were not able to get in. We never expected that. I'll be truthful with you. I always thought we'd have enough room for everyone. So God truly did above and beyond that which we could ask or think. So 82,000. 83,000. That's a lot of people.
Here's a picture from the platform. If they can pull that photo up to kind of give you a sense of the size of the crowd. Going all the way to the top tier. Those are just solid people. Okay. Let's come back to that graph for a moment. And let's go to what else it says. Back to the graph for a moment. Sometimes technology doesn't work as well as you would like. Here we are.
All right. Now on the top line, 6,300 people made a profession of faith. That's a lot of people. 6,300. Okay. If that's all that we did. If that was it, that would have been more than enough. Worth all the prayer. Worth all the effort. But as they see in the commercials. But wait. There's more.
Now look at the next line down. 7,000 host sites. Right? All around the United States. And even around the world. But look at that number in the middle. 180,000. By the way, we don't exaggerate numbers here. We're very particular about numbers. And so we had 180,000 people in attendance at a host site somewhere in America or in another country. That's a lot of people. They were watching a screen, by the way.
But best of all, 18,000 of them made a profession of faith to follow Christ. I mean, that's amazing right there. Now here's... There's even more. Look at the bottom line. 89,000 people. 769. Watch the Webcast. It says unique views. Now, sometimes people will say we got so many hits on our website. That is not all that meaningful. A unique view is someone that tunes in and stays tuned in. We at 89,000, we can track that sort of thing, viewed in 123 countries. And look at that last number, 1,042.
Now go to the next screen and look at this conclusion. 351,769 people in attendance. 25,342 people making a profession of faith. Now, I mentioned we went around the world. I've gotten some more stats since we had that put together. 123 countries visited Harvest America Live. There was a church in India where 156 people gathered. In India, this was Harvest America. But they missed that and they made it Harvest India. God bless them for that. And 32 people made a commitment to follow Christ, watching it in India.
And a church in Nairobi had 2,000 people attend. 2,000 people in Nairobi. Listen, 700 people responded at the invitation. In Nairobi. Crazy. So, you know, we have to be flexible. New opportunities come along. New platforms of media. We're going to use those platforms with the gospel. But a dead church is inflexible and resistant to change.
Number three, a dead church has lazy leadership. Lazy leadership of complacency and lethargy sets in. A church is in spiritual cruise control. They don't want to change anything. You know what? Periodically, I think things need to be blown up. I like to blow stuff up. Say, what are you? Some kind of a pyromaniac? Let me explain. Well, I don't blow that much up. That sounds kind of dramatic. But I did blow a tugboat up once. A toy. It's okay. It was a little toy that belonged to my son Christopher, who was a very little boy at the time. It was a sort of little unsinkable tugboat. And we tried to push it down to the bottom of a pool and it would pop back up again. And he really loved this crazy thing.
And so after the years went by and he got a little older, I said, "Hey Christopher, you want to blow this thing up?" He said, "Yeah, Dad, let's do it." So we cut a tiny hole and we dropped an M80 in it. You know what an M80 is? That's more powerful than a cherry bomb. Now, it wasn't dramatic. We just dropped it in and we got back and watched it. It just sort of sat there and went... And then... Down to the bottom. But hey, we blew it up, right?
Sometimes in church we need to blow things up. Like, "We've always done it this way. We can't change it." No, you can change it. In fact, you need to change it. Because it's not working anymore. You know, any church that still is a cassette ministering, maybe it's time to blow that up. Because you have to go to eBay to buy cassette players now. Okay, they've gone the way of the 8-track. But my point is, we'll say, "But this is always the way we did it." But is it still effective? Maybe it's not as effective as it used to be. Let's change it. Let's be flexible. Well, we can be flexible. We won't change the essentials, but let's be flexible with the way they're expressed.
Jesus' Prescription – Wake Up and Watch
Okay, so those are the marks of a dead church. Now, if this is happening in a church, or even in an individual's life, what should they do? Jesus gives this prescription for spiritual renewal. Number one, they need to wake up. Verse two, "Be watchful." That could be better translated, "Wake up." In other words, recognize something is seriously wrong. First, you wake up.
Number two, strengthen the things that remain. Verse two, "Strengthen the things that remain." The word strengthen means to stabilize that which is frail. You know, we've seen this scene in so many films. Someone is seriously injured, and someone else says, "Stay with me until hope comes. Stay with me. Don't leave me now." Jesus is, in effect, saying, "Stay with me, church. Don't give up now."
Here's a very important one. Number three, be watching for the return of Jesus Christ. Why, verse three, "If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief." You know, it's interesting how people react to the imminent return of Christ. I think it's a real spiritual barometer of where you are at with God. If when you hear Jesus is coming, you get excited, that would say to me, you're walking with the Lord. If a sense of dread overtakes you when you hear Christ could come back at any moment, that would indicate to me that maybe you're not walking with the Lord as you ought to.
John gives us two potential reactions to Christ's return in 1 John 2:28. He says, "Now, dear children, continue to live in fellowship with Christ so when he returns, you'll be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame." Here's your two choices. If you're right with the Lord, you'll be full of courage. If you're not right with the Lord, you'll be shrinking back from him in shame. You can walk with him and have courage or you cannot walk with him and have shame.
What is your attitude toward the Lord's return? A person who's right with God, when they hear Jesus say, "Be holy, come quickly," responds, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus. I'm ready, Lord." You know, I've been a pastor for over 40 years. You know that. And back in those days when we first started out, I would preach on the soon coming of Jesus. I believe Jesus could come at any time. In fact, I even designed a little bumper sticker with my little cartoon character, Ben Born Again, with a little caption bubble saying, "Jesus is coming." And we printed it and we reprinted it and we reprinted it again. In fact, I thought we had to bring him back again.
But you know, you're saying, "But Greg, that was 40 years ago and he didn't come." Doesn't that mean you were wrong? No, I wasn't wrong. I think we should live every day as though it were the day Christ was coming back. I don't regret any of that. Because one day, it'll be the day. We should live every day as though it were our last day because it could be.
Yeah, but Greg, that was 40 years ago. Guess what? We're 40 years closer to it than we were then. So I'm still excited about it. Now look, if Jesus comes in my lifetime or if he doesn't, that's not the point. He'll come when he's gonna come. But I'll tell you one thing. Some of you ought to be glad he didn't answer our prayer to come back in 1970. To illustrate, let me take a quick poll. How many of you have become a Christian since 1970? Raise your hand. You see, look around. That's a lot of you.
God is not late as some men count lateness. He's longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. When you believe Jesus could come back at any moment, it has a purifying effect on you spiritually. We're told in 1 John, "He that has this hope, that is the hope of the Lord's soon return, he purifies himself even as he is pure."
Be Filled with the Holy Spirit – Power for Revival
So how are we to live as we await his return? We're to live godly, uncompromising lives for his glory. We are to strengthen what remains, watching and waiting for him. And listen to this. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Because he tells us that we need that power in our life. In fact, it's interesting, when you go back to what Jesus says to this church in verse 1, he presents himself as the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. These symbols were identified in the first chapter of Revelation. The seven spirits are a symbol of the Holy Spirit in his fullness.
What Jesus was saying is, you guys who are dying spiritually, you need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. So here's my question for you. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? So Greg, I'm a Christian. Of course I am. Hold on. You can be a Christian and not be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Because over in Ephesians 5, it says, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit," speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And that could better be translated, "be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit again and again and again."
Therefore, a believer needs refills. You see? It'd be like buying a car, brand new, driving it for a week or two, and then the car stops working. You think, "What kind of piece of junk is this?" You take it back to the dealer. "This car stopped operating. It's brand new." And the dealer looks in your dashboard and says, "That red light, sir, is called an idiot light. And you're out of fuel." "I thought this was a Tesla." "No, this is not an electric car, sir. You need to put fuel in the vehicle."
So we're going through life, and we start sputtering, and we find ourselves becoming impatient with people, and we don't look for opportunities to share our faith, and other problems are developing. And we say, "What's wrong?" Maybe you need a refill of the Holy Spirit. You say, "Well, how do you get it?" You just pray for it. In fact, at the end of our time, we'll pray and ask God to refill all of us.
So we need to be refilled with the Holy Spirit. We need to be living a life that brings glory to Him. And now a very interesting and misunderstood verse. Look at verse five. "He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out His name from the book of life, but I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels."
The Bible tells us that God has a book. In fact, He has quite a few books. He has a book of remembrance containing the names of those who fear the Lord and think on His name. Then He has the book, sometimes referred to as the book of life, or even the Lamb's book of life. In fact, in Revelation 20, we read that the books, plural, will be opened, and the dead will be judged what is written in the books. And then another book is opened, which is the book of life. And whoever is not found written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire.
Here's my question for you right now. Is your name written in the book of life? You say, well, how do you know? Well, when you believe in Jesus, it's there. Now, I don't know when it happens. I don't know if God in His foreknowledge puts it in there before you believe because He knew you would. Or maybe He writes it in there when you do believe. But one thing I do know, when you put your faith in Christ, your name is written in God's book of life.
You know, you can have your name on the church register, but not have it written in the divine register. So we want to make sure our name is written in this book. But here's a very important thing. The Greek sentence here has a double negative, as if Jesus meant to say, "I will never by any means blot your name out." You should never walk through life as a Christian thinking, "I'm not saved." If you put your faith in Christ, God says, your name will never be blotted out. You don't have to live in fear of that. You can live in confidence that your eternal future is secure.
Look at verse 5. "He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out His name from the book of life, and I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels." I love this. Jesus promises to stand up for us in heaven. Here's the question. Will we stand up for Him on earth? He's standing up for us. Talk about having friends in high places. Will you stand up for Him?
Jesus said, "If you will confess me before men or people, I'll confess you before my Father and the angels in heaven." But then He added, "That if you deny me before men or people, I'll deny you before my Father and the angels." Here's something to consider. Sometimes by not confessing Him, I may in effect be denying Him. There can be an outright denial, as in the case of Simon Peter, when he said, "I never knew the man," and he said it three times.
Man, Peter, think about that for a moment. I mean, Jesus said, "You're going to deny three times that you know me before the rooster crows twice." So Peter leaves, and he's hanging out by the courtyard of Caiaphas. First question I would have asked is, "Are there any roosters around here?" Because if there are, I don't want to be here. I'm steering clear of all roosters. Jesus mentioned a rooster. And after His first denial, sure enough, the rooster crows, and on it went. Yeah, that was a denial.
But sometimes to not confess is a denial. You might be in a conversation with some coworkers, and the conversation turns to spiritual things, and everyone begins to opine about their views on God and the afterlife. "Well, I think this, or I think that." "What do you think?" And they turn to you. "What do you think happens after we die? Do you think there's a God?" And you as a Christian? Say something like, "Oh, I really don't want to comment on that. I don't like to get into arguments." Really? That was a form of denial. Come on now. Don't deny Him. He's standing up for you. Stand up for Him.
Yes, Jesus can heal a sick and dying believer. And that's why I want to pray that God would just fill all of us with the Holy Spirit. But before I do that, I want to just say these final words to any of you that might be visiting today, or maybe you've come here for a time, but you're not sure if your name is written in God's book.
Listen, we've got to get this resolved right here, right now. This is not something you put off. I said you should live every day as though it were your last day because it could be, and I believe that. Someone's name is going to end up in the obituary column. It could be your name. It could be mine. But if I have my faith in Christ, that's not something I have to fear. If that's what's going to happen, it happens. They go to heaven.
But if I don't have my name written in God's book, what does the Bible say? I'll be cast into the lake of fire. Well, how could a God of love send someone to hell, you ask? Well, as a matter of fact, God doesn't send anyone to hell. As I said in that little roll-in video, God doesn't send people to hell. He saves people from hell. The last thing he wants is for anyone to go there. That's why he sent Jesus, his son, to die on the cross and pay the price for our sin and rise again from the dead.
And this coming weekend, we'll remember that and we'll celebrate that. But listen, right now, you can have your name in that book if you believe in Jesus. And if you've not done that, you can do it right now.
Invitation to Salvation – Get Your Name in the Book
We're gonna all bow our heads and pray and everyone pray with me if you would. Father, thank you for your word to us. Thank you for loving us so much that you sent Jesus to die for us. Now I pray for those that are here and those that are watching and listening that do not yet know you. I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict them of their sin, convince them of their need for you and help them to come to you now and believe.
While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, how many of you would say today, Greg, I want my name in God's book. I want to go to heaven when I die. I want to be ready for the return of Jesus. Pray for me. I'm ready to say yes to Jesus right now. If that's your desire, if you want God to forgive you of your sin, if you want to be sure that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want your name written in God's book, if you want to be ready for the Lord's return, wherever you are, I want you to raise your hand up and I'm going to pray for you. Just raise your hand up higher where I can see it. God bless you. Raise your hand up. I'll pray for you today. You want Christ in your life. Let me pray for you. Wherever you are, Just lift your hand up high, where I can see it. God bless you, God bless you. Anybody else? Raise your hand now, I'll pray for you.
You guys watching this screen, of course I can't see you, but that doesn't really matter now, does it? Because the Lord sees you, and the Lord loves you. Would you raise your hand up right now, saying, yes, I want Jesus in my life. Wherever you are, raise your hand up. God bless all of you that are raising your hand up. Wait one more moment. You want God's forgiveness, you want Christ to come into your life. You want to know you'll go to heaven when you die, raise your hand. God bless.
Now everyone that has raised their hand, if you would please, I want you to stand to your feet. Just stand up. You heard me right, stand up. And we're going to pray together. Even if you did not raise your hand, but you want Jesus to come into your life, stand up, wherever you are. You're watching this screen, stand up. Wherever you're hearing this, watching this, stand to your feet, we're going to pray together. You will not regret this decision. I'll wait one more moment. Stand up. We'll pray together. Get this settled, man. Come on. Anybody else? Stand to your feet. Stand up. God bless you standing. God bless you. Anybody else? Stand now.
All right. God bless all of you. Now you that are standing, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Again, as I pray, you pray this out loud after me right where you stand. Pray this now.
Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. But I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus, come into my life. I want my name in your book. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. God bless all of you that stood and prayed that prayer. God bless you guys. Amen. God bless. God bless you. Well, you've made the right decision to follow Jesus. We have a little gift for you today. It's called the Start Bible. It looks like the one I'm holding here with the red cover and a white arrow. It's a New Testament with some notes in it that I wrote that will encourage you in your commitment to follow Christ.
Now, I'm going to ask all the campuses to stay in line for a moment if you would, please. You here at Harvest Riverside that just prayed this prayer with me over to my right, your left, in the corner of our sanctuary. You'll see that red sign with the white arrow. I want all of you who just prayed with me to get up out of your seat right now. Walk over there and we're going to give you that Start Bible up in the balcony, here on the ground floor. Outside, come around the back. If you're a counselor, it's okay to go as well. Go over there right now if you would. All of you that just prayed that prayer.
You and the satellites, you go forward to where the screen is. Go to the front of the room where the screen is. And we'll give you the same Start Bible. And you guys at Harvest Orange County, you go to your right. There's someone standing there to your right of the stage holding this Start Bible. So, you go that direction and we'll get you all taken care of. And God bless all of you.
Prayer for Holy Spirit Filling – Revival Power
All right, let's all stand up now. Hey, we all could use a refill of God's Holy Spirit. So, we're going to pray for that right now. Jesus says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him. I think for some reason, and I'm not sure why, we've made this idea of being filled with the Holy Spirit all about emotion. And it can involve emotion, certainly. You can feel his presence, sometimes, but not all times. So, when you pray for God to fill you, it isn't always going to be something you feel. Do you have an emotional experience when you refuel your car? Maybe when you see how much it's going to cost, but... You just fuel your car and you drive your car, right?
So, we'll pray, "Lord, fill me," and I'll feel something. Other times, I'll pray, "Lord, fill me," and I'll feel nothing. But he'll give the Holy Spirit to those that ask. And he tells us to ask for this again, and again, and again, and again. It's a good way to start your day. Get up in the morning and say, "Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me all the power I need. Give me all the gifts I need to follow you."
So, let's pray for that right now. Let's all pray. Father, we come here today needing your power. We live in a crazy world that does not believe in you. And we are called to be your lights in this dark place. And sometimes it's a bit overwhelming. So, we want the power you promised. So, would you fill us right now with the Holy Spirit? In fact, as you just stand there, just pray, "Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit." Just pray that out loud. Pray it. Amen.
Just fill each one of us, Lord. Give us patience when we're impatient. Give us love when we're angry. Give us courage when we're afraid. Give us joy when we feel down. Help us to live as vibrant representatives of you. We do not want to be dying Christians. We want to be living, vibrant Christians that bring honor to your name. So, bless us and fill us with your spirit. We ask now. In Jesus' name. Amen.