From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Because we're so prone to wander away from the Lord, we leave our first love, and then we start to operate without fulfilling the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and you live a subnormal Christian life.

We need revival, which is supernormal, to get us back to normal, which is the normal Christian life, which is an abundant life. But here's the problem that we have. We've gotten so used to this life that's subpar that we just think, well, that's the Christian life.

Larry Nobles: Are you in need of revival that lifts you above that subpar Christian life that you've gotten used to? It would do us all good to live consistently in the real Christian life that's abundant and full of the power of God. This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and today he's going to share three characteristics of the true Christian life. And he'll help us discover how we can be revived and experience the fullness of life in Christ.

The message today is from Pastor Jeff's five-lesson series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival. If you miss any of these that we aired, you can later go to FromHisHeart.org and click the Listen tab. There too, you can download a free MP3 of any broadcast and the sermon notes and outlines from Pastor Jeff. They're absolutely free. Now though, open your Bible to 1 John chapter 1. Here's Pastor Jeff Schreve to begin the lesson entitled, This is the Life.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I believe that the church in America desperately needs revival. I read a book by Henry Blackaby and his son Richard and Claude King called Fresh Encounter. It was all about revival. We need a fresh touch from God. Why do we need that? Because as the song says, we're prone to wander, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

You need revival in your heart. I need revival in my heart. We need revival as a church. We desperately need revival in America because America, if you've been following at all, is going down, down, down. The church has the answer because we can call upon the Lord, and God is the God who can turn things around just like that.

We need revival. As it points out in the book I read, Fresh Encounter, Richard Blackaby asked the question. He said you read about revivals in history where people just get on fire for the Lord and everything changes in a community. Bars closed down, and nightclubs closed down, and people are just coming to church. They're not looking at their watch. They're staying for hours and hours and hours.

When the Christians get fired up, then lost people start coming. They say something's going on here, and they come to know the Lord. You can have a situation where, as in one revival, 100,000 people in this one city got saved in a six-month period of time. Richard Blackaby asked, is revival normative? No. Everybody would love to live in revival. God, let's just pour out your Spirit and fire up everybody and let's just live there for the next 100 years.

But we don't have revivals that last for 100 years. They may only last for six months. They may only last for a year or two. Revival is not normative; it's restorative. Here is the situation. Because we're so prone to wander away from the Lord, we leave our first love, and then we start to operate without fulfilling the greatest commandment to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and you live a subnormal Christian life.

Jesus didn't die to give us a wrecked salvation. He died to give us a great salvation. He said the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly. In the Lord, we have eternal life and we have abundant life. So many are not living the abundant life.

Backsliding is subnormal, and we need revival, which is supernormal, to get us back to normal, which is the normal Christian life, which is an abundant life that is full and overflowing. A life that experiences the fruit of the Spirit, which is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

But here's the problem that we have. In Revelation 2:5, the Lord said to the church in Ephesus, remember therefore from where you have fallen. We don't remember from where we have fallen. We've gotten so used to this life that's subpar that we just think that's the Christian life. That's not the Christian life. That's a subpar Christian life. We need to get back to the real Christian life that is abundant and full of the power of God.

John, in his first epistle, 1 John, talks about the life that the Lord wants us to have, that He wants us to enjoy, that He wants us to live. He says this, "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands handled." He's talking about his relationship with Jesus. We've seen Him. Our hands have touched Him concerning the word of life.

He likes that term for Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Here he calls Him the Word of Life. And the life was manifested, it became visible, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us because the Word became flesh.

What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also that you also may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Why do we need revival? It's because we've fallen from living the true normal Christian life. What is that life supposed to be? I want you to notice three characteristics of the true Christian life from 1 John chapter 1.

Characteristic number one, the Christian life is a life of fellowship with the Lord. Fellowship with the Lord. "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also that you also may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Fellowship is the word you've probably heard if you've been around church, koinonia. Koinonia, the Greek word that's used for fellowship.

That word means a partnership. It means a sharing together. It carries with it the idea of oneness and unity. Somebody, this was when I was in college, used to talk about fellowship and say, what's a good definition for fellowship that everybody can remember? Fellowship: two fellows in one ship. We say okay, that gives you a little bit of a picture. We're together. We're in one ship. That's fellowship.

But it's not really two fellows in one ship. That's a very surface understanding of koinonia. It's two people sharing the same life. That is koinonia. It's a sharing together. It's a partnership. And we share the life of God in us. We become partakers of the divine nature when we receive Christ. That's what the Bible says.

Partakers of His nature because He comes to live inside of us through the person of the Holy Spirit. He makes us alive spiritually. Where we were once dead, now we're alive spiritually, and there's a new man inside of us. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence."

"For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust." We're partakers of the divine nature. We share His life. How do we have fellowship with God? Because we share life with God. His life in us connects us to Him. How do we have fellowship with other believers? Because we share the same life.

Colossians 3:4 says, "When Christ who is our life is revealed, then we also will be revealed with Him in glory." And we share His life. If you put that in practical terms, that means we have communion with God and other believers. Communion. I'm not talking about the Lord's Supper. I'm talking about a communion in that there's intimacy, and there's sharing, and there's conversation, and there's a relationship, and there's a closeness.

That's what God wants to have with us. That's what John said to the people. This is what we have with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and we want you to come and be a part of that and have that fellowship with God. It is awesome to have the Lord as your best friend. To have the Lord who's a friend of sinners who will never leave you, He will never forsake you.

When you pass through the waters, He says, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. The God who spoke the worlds into existence is the God who lives inside every believer. The God who says, come boldly before my throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hang out with Me. Spend time with Me. How cool is that? God, the King of the universe, the creator of it all, the one who knows everything about you, He wants to hang out with you. He wants to have fellowship with you. He wants there to be a sharing and a closeness with you.

Larry Nobles: Are you ready to hang out with God? To fellowship with Him 24/7? He's not too busy for you. He wants that closeness. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and he'll return in just a moment to continue part one of the message, This is the Life.

We wanted to make sure you also know just how much we appreciate you listening. We hope that these lessons help you examine your soul, your heart, your loves, and your sins and renew your passion for Him. When you listen and apply these truths to your life, you'll experience a time of spiritual refreshing that only Jesus can bring.

This month, we're offering a resource that'll surely get you moving and praying in the right direction. It's entitled Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival. It's a five-lesson series available in the format of your choice for any gift to From His Heart this month. Simply call 866-40-BIBLE or go to FromHisHeart.org. Thank you for helping open hearts hear the truth of God's word. Thank you for investing in a message that doesn't just inform, but it transforms. Now let's continue with the lesson today, This is the Life.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: He says that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. Online church or television church, that's a good supplement; it's not a good substitute. Some people, that's all they have. They're shut-in or they can't get out for whatever reason, and so that is a lifeline to them.

But here's the thing that online church or television church can't do. It can't give you fellowship with one another because you don't gather together with the people of God. You're just there and you're watching remotely, and it's not the same as being there and rubbing shoulders with another believer and praising the Lord with another believer and hearing the word preached in the family of God.

The Christian life is a life of fellowship with the Lord. Second characteristic, it's a life of joy in the Lord. He says in verse 4, in the easy-to-read version, "We write these things to you so that you can be full of joy with us." Why are we telling you about the fellowship? Because we write so that you can have joy with us. There's joy in fellowship with the Lord. There is joy in the Lord.

Interestingly, the Greek word for joy, C-H-A-R-A, is pronounced chara. That's joy. You meet somebody named Kara; that name comes from the Greek, chara, which means joy. Fellowship with God brings joy regardless of the circumstances that you have because your relationship with God, your fellowship with God, is not based on circumstances. Regardless of what might be going on in your life, you can have joy in the Lord.

Paul wrote the book of Philippians. It's called the book of joy. Where did he write that? He wrote that from prison in Rome, and he talked about joy. He's chained between two Roman soldiers and he's talking about joy. He says in verse 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near."

Joy and rejoice, they come from the same root word, which means calm delight. Joy is so much better than happiness because it goes deeper than happiness. We talk about how we hear this from parents all the time. I just want my kids to be happy. I just want them to be happy. Happiness is something everybody wants. Every good parent wants your kid to be happy. But here's the thing.

It's better for your kid to be joyful in the Lord. Why? Because happiness is based on happenings. The word hap means an occurrence, a happening. When we talk about being happy versus unhappy, you're happy when your hap, your circumstances are good. You're unhappy when your circumstances are bad. Happiness is like a thermometer; it registers conditions.

Joy is a thermostat; it regulates conditions. Joy says, I don't care what is going on, my joy is in the Lord. As the old song says, "This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me. The world didn't give it and the world can't take it away because it's joy in the Lord." That's why Paul says in prison, rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

It doesn't have anything to do with your circumstances; it has to do with your relationship with Jesus. When you are in fellowship with Him, there is joy. Joy is a wonderful byproduct of abiding in His presence. How do you know if you're right with God? Two easy ways to tell if you're right with God, if you're really abiding, as it talks about in John 15.

I'm the vine; you're the branches. Abide in me as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so you abide in me. How can you tell? You will have joy and you will have peace because the Lord is the Prince of Peace and He is the one who gives joy. Psalm 16 verse 11, in your presence, the psalmist said, is fullness of joy, and in your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.

When I'm in the presence of the Lord, when I'm abiding with Him, when I'm having fellowship with Him, when the intimacy is close there and we're having a close communion, there's joy regardless of my circumstances. I might be unhappy because the happenings around me aren't good, but there's deep abiding joy.

Just like you can have the storm can be raging in your life and you say, is it peaceful in my life? Not in the outward circumstances, but inside there's peace because the Prince of Peace is ruling and reigning in my heart. I think sometimes we look at people in the Bible, especially somebody like the Apostle Paul, and we say Paul, he never struggled with fear; he never struggled with any of that stuff. Baloney. He did.

In the book of Acts, he's on a ship going to Rome, and it looks like the ship is going down. He has to tell the sailors, they all thought they were going to die. Even Paul thought they were going to die. The Lord had to come and tell him, don't be afraid, Paul. You're going to speak to Caesar. Don't be afraid. Why do you tell somebody not to be afraid? Because they're afraid.

It doesn't make much sense. Don't be afraid, Paul. I wasn't afraid, Lord. But now I am. Why'd you say it to me? He was fearing, and so the Lord gave him a word. We need to hear from God. We need to trust God. We need to abide in His presence, and we will have joy and we will have peace regardless of the circumstances when we do that.

Jesus said in John 15, "Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full." Same word, full, that's translated in verse 4: complete.

All these things we write so that our joy may be made complete, may be made full, and you can enter into the fullness of our joy, and your joy would be full too. Let me ask you a question. Be honest. You don't have to answer out loud or raise your hand, but just in your own heart. How's your joy today? Where's your joy? Is it full?

In His presence is fullness of joy. Your happiness may not be very good, but are you joyful in the Lord? Some people just grumble and gripe about everything. Nothing's ever good enough. Nothing's ever right. The temperature's never right. Something in the service just not right. They just can find where something is just off.

This song wasn't sung right. Jeff didn't preach this passage right. The service was too short. The service was too long. Really, you don't ever say the service was too short. But the service was too long. I was taught in seminary there is no such thing as a bad short sermon. But you're just a complainer. The Bible, you've heard me use that term, Philippians 2:14, about grumbling and disputing.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing. The word for grumbling is the Greek word gongusmos. It sounds like grumbling. Gongusmos, gongusmos. You hear it in church all the time people at the drinking fountain. How's it going? Gongusmos, gongusmos. It's grumbling and griping and complaining.

There are people, I'm not going to share who they are, there are people that you know if they come to talk to you, it's a grumble, it's a gripe, because they don't ever talk to you unless they're grumbling and griping about something. And if they come, you just know, get ready because they're going to be griping about something. There's not a lot of joy there.

Joy is a byproduct of spending time with the Lord. The Christian life is a life of joy in the Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, of which things there is no law. The Bible says in Romans 14:17, "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment that it may give grace to those who hear. What is the real normal Christian life? Fellowship with the Lord, joy in the Lord, and thirdly, the Christian life is a life of walking with the Lord.

Larry Nobles: What a wonderful message today from Pastor Jeff called This is the Life. I know when I walk with the person I love the most on this earth, we always are holding hands, and there's just something especially sweet about touching the one you love as you walk. That's a good picture of how we ought to walk with God. Touching Him with our hearts and attuned to how He wants us to live and interact with others.

When we're conscious of that, we'll experience the joy of walking with the Lord, connected at the heart. Our lesson today, This is the Life, is from Pastor Jeff's five-message series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival. These lessons remind us that Jesus didn't die so we'd live an empty, second-rate spirituality. Rather, He wants you and me to have life and have it more abundantly. That's found in John 10:10.

1 John 1:3 says, "What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." You can find out a lot more about what having a soul on fire for the Lord can do for you right now when you go to FromHisHeart.org and click the Listen link.

This series is also our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. To do that, call 866-40-BIBLE or go to FromHisHeart.org. That's all for today. Thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Nobles, and we hope you'll come back next time for part two of the lesson, This is the Life. Join us on Tuesday when Pastor Jeff will open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart. Here on From His Heart.