100711 A Pathway To Revival

• Elections August 24. Get out and vote. These are the elections that give you the choices to pick from later in the fall.
• Last week: America Need Revival
  • Revival is a return to renewed obedience to God. Obedience that is not demanded but desired in the heart of the believer.
  • Revival is finding a fresh Presence of the Living God stirring in the heart of the believer.
• Remember the portion of the Book of James where James instructs people to not take the best seat in the house? Do you want to know where he got that truth from? Read. Mk. 10:35-45

A.  There is a Little James and John in All of Us

1. Help me, I am a little dull. The sin of self-centeredness. This is what pulls families down, cities down, and nations down. Most times we are doing it we don’t even know.
   1. Remember these are the 12 guys who have been following Jesus for 3.5 years. They have sat under his teaching. These are the ones who had an established miracle ministry.
   2. The 12 failed to get the message. They were thinking of themselves.
      1. Jesus was preaching a Love revealed in death. I am giving you what you do not deserve. This is a service both to you and to my Heavenly Father. Mk 9:33-37; 10:32-34. Both passages Jesus are revealing his future to the 12 but they do not understand.
      2. Their understanding is still superficial (shallow, not pertaining to substance). They are thinking that Jesus is going to restore David’s Kingdom in the natural, now. They are thinking this will be glorious and we have opportunity to sit at His right and left hands.
   3. When our knowledge of Jesus is superficial (shallow, having no substance) we are in need of revival. I am amazed at how many believers I run into who have so little knowledge of God. They know a little about traditions, a little about the word but they do not know God. When a family, community, nation is in that condition we need revival. Ie. 4% of those 25 and under regularly practice their faith.
2. Do for us whatever we ask vs. 35 That’s a statement that reveals the heart! Jesus, just give me what I want. How many times to do our prayer end up there? Gimme, gimme, gimme! Particularly when our hearts are in great pain. Often that pain is an identity crisis. We want something so that people think we are something. We ask not having His heart in mind.
   1. Many people see Jesus as their ticket to satisfaction and a care free life.
      1. Dietrich Bonheoffer “When Jesus bids a man come and follow He bids him come and die.”
   2. Many people see Jesus as a way to get to where they want to be:
      1. At the top-position of supremacy.
      2. In the know-position of secrecy.
      3. Over all-position of authority.
      4. With the Glory-position of dignity.
   3. Their selfish ambition brings discredit on them. It revealed their heart.
3. Destroy them for their arrogance vs 41
   1. The first group wants a seat of authority thus revealing their heart of selfish ambition.
   2. The other 10 are displeased thus revealing their own heart’s struggle for identity. “I can’t believe they would they would ask for something like that. That should be my seat.”

B.  There is a Call for More of Jesus in Us

1. Are you able to drink my cup and share my baptism? Vs. 38
   1. This question posed by Jesus demands a solid “no!” answer.
   2. They answer with a naïve ‘yes’. Because they do not understand the prophecies concerning His passion they have no “clue” what the road there requires.
   3. You will drink this cup…vs. 39
2. Come let us reason together. Vs. 42. “Lets talk…” Jesus invites them to himself so that he can impart to them more of Kingdom. This message has to make it into the heart of those with whom He is intrusting the Kingdom of God. When you get born again immediately you begin to be entrusted with the Kingdom of God. This message about being a servant, lifting others up, setting others free, considering them better than yourself has got to get home in the hearts of His disciples.
   1. This is what the world does…vs.42 Mark 10:42-43 Jesus got them together to settle things down. "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around," he said, "and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads. ⁴³It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Message

1. You will not be that way…vs43 New pattern given.

3. According to the pattern.
   1. Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." NKJV
      1. I came to serve—diokonasthai—carries the basic understanding of personal service. The concrete sense is basic: a. "to wait at table," b. "to care for," and c. (comprehensively) "to serve." For the Greeks service is undignified; we are born to rule, not to serve. In Judaism the word was weakened from meaning love your neighbor to love the righteous. By exalting service and relating it to love of God, Jesus both sets forth a completely different view from that of the Greeks and purifies the Jewish concept. (from Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, abridged edition, Copyright © 1985 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. All rights reserved.)
      2. Luke 12:37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. NKJV

3. I came to die—Your life is more important than my own. Jim Elliot “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
1. John 13:14-17 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. NKJV

C.  The Low Road Leads to Great Places

1. Slave of all…vs 44. In the Kingdom of God sonship does not mean autonomy but a new relationship with God. In that just as we share in the blessing and favor of God we also share in the sufferings of Christ. The 12 are called to live their lives in humility.
2. The Low road is humility. This is a powerful word in the community of the Kingdom of God.

1. Humility has two major facets to its understanding.

1. God intentional humbles us to bring us to repentance--Deuteronomy 8:2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. NKJV The good news is: God led, God provided, God kept us in a place of total desperation on Him. That is what humility is--Total reliance on God. Humility as defined by Webster=Lowliness of mind, act of submission, sober estimate of who one in is in the Presence of God. That God would do this is a reoccurring theme in scripture.
2. Secondly there is a self humbling. It is a theological theme frequently connected with the word humble. It means self inflicted inner pain expressing contrition and is often accompanied by fasting. Lev 16:29,31; Ps 119:107; Is 58:10 (from Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Copyright © 1980 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
1. It is humility that leads to the place of greatness. If you want to be first then you have to be a slave to all. If you want to be greatest then you must be a servant of all. Jesus took the ultimate low road and ended up the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In humble obedience He followed the Father and it resulted in resurrecting revival. The way up is down!
2. Years ago the Lord gave me a little phrase that has stuck to me. It is simply this: “Humility is the soil in which the Word of God grows.” Peter, James and John had an enormous amount of Word in them. You could not possibly live with Jesus for 3.5 years and not have the Word in you. But it was not until they were humbled, and humbled themselves that the Word began to spring up alive with in them. Humility released their faith. Just as it does in salvation. When one humbles himself and acknowledges Jesus is Lord the Word comes alive with that faith. The result is the Word working in us.

2. 2 Chronicles 7:1 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. NKJV
   1. The Kingdom is about God. We need revival when the Word and Kingdom are more about us than God.
   2. The Kingdom is about others. We need revival when the Word and the Kingdom are more about us than

• The disciples eventually ‘got it’. We know because James was sawn into as punishment for following Christ. John later wrote: 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. NKJV
• How do we ‘get it?’
  • James – If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask. Father gives us wisdom to find the place of revival.
  • God, I present myself to you a living sacrifice. Crucified with Christ yet alive and living by faith.
  • Submit yourself to God.
  • Consider others.