From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Revival is a recovery of life and strength and energy and vitality and passion. It comes to Christians. Spiritual awakening comes to lost people. When God's people get right, then people start to get saved because they see God's people really walking with him in the fire of passion and love for the Lord. Do we want to see revival? Do we want to be revived? What are the critical components to revival?

Guest (Male): And that's today's question. Do you really want God to revive your heart? Do you truly want to passionately walk with the King, and do you enthusiastically want to grow in your love for Jesus? Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, we explore the incredibly special work that God wants to do in all of our hearts to give us a time of refreshing as you listen today.

You'll discover the critical components to revival in a life-changing message called Do You Want to Be Revived? The lesson we're about to hear is the last in the five-message series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival, and it's a plan custom-made for you.

This series is our gift to say thank you for supporting this ministry financially this month. You can make that gift when you go online at fromhisheart.org, and it could be a gift of any amount. We'll send you this series. Open your Bible now to the book of James if you can, and together, let's discover if we really want to be revived.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: It was in the early 1900s in the little country called Wales. It has a population, or it did in the early 1900s, a population of about two million people. Wales is only the size of New Jersey in landmass. Well, there was a young man who lived in Wales, his name was Evan Roberts, and he had a burden for revival to see God work in his country and touch lives and change lives.

He began to pray as a teenager. He was praying. He worked in the coal mines, and in the early 1900s, God called him into the ministry. When he was a young man, just at the age of 26, on October 31, 1904, he preached in his home church in Wales. Seventeen people were there. They prayed, and then he preached, and he gave the people what is needed for revival.

He said we need to confess our sin. We need to repent. We need to return to God. We need to put the Lord first. He gave an invitation, and all 17 people that were there responded and said this is what we want. We want God to do a revival in our hearts and in our country. Well, they met the next night and more people came, and the next night and more people came, and the next night and more people came.

That night on October 31, 1904, it began a revival. Seventeen people began a revival in Wales. At the end of six months, 100,000 people had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. It was real, and it was genuine, and it changed their lives, and it changed the life of the community.

It has been recorded that after that revival hit, bars closed in the community because there was no business. People weren't going to the bars. Sporting events were canceled for lack of attendance. Everyone was at church. Crime dropped significantly. Policemen had very little to do.

And this was interesting. It said work slowed in the coal mines. Why is that? Because the pit ponies, the miniature horses that they used, had to learn the sanctified language of the converted coal miners. They didn't know the commands unless they were in cuss words. True revival had come to Wales, and it was glorious and powerful and totally life-changing.

Hey, do you want to be revived? I mean, is that a desire in your heart? God does business with those who mean business. Do you really want God to revive your heart? The Psalmist prayed in Psalm 85, verse six, "Will you not yourself revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?"

God wants to do a special work, a fresh work, and give us a time of refreshing. He wants to do that in your heart, in your life, my heart, my life, in our church, in our community. Revival that would rock this place and touch the surrounding regions and states and nations. What if he began it in us? What if he began it in you?

If that could happen in Wales in one man's heart that spread to 17 that spread throughout the country and 100,000 people were saved, that would be so awesome. Remember, revival comes to believers. Revival is a recovery of life and strength and energy and vitality and passion. It comes to Christians.

Spiritual awakening comes to lost people. When God's people get right, then people start to get saved because they see God's people really walking with him in the fire of passion and love for the Lord. Do we want to see revival? Do we want to be revived? What are the critical components to revival?

Well, first of all, there's revelation. You have to see from where you've fallen. You have to have a revelation from God, from God saying this is what the real score is. So when you have revelation, you see how far you have fallen.

The church at Laodicea, Revelation chapter three, the final church in the seven letters to the seven churches, that church was lukewarm. They were making the Lord sick. And the Lord says, "Because you're lukewarm, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich and in need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." That was their true condition. There has to be revelation that shows you where you really are in your spiritual life.

Secondly, there is confession and repentance. There's a return to God through repentance and confession and through prayer. There is no revival without prayer. Evan Roberts had been praying for years for revival to come when it hit Wales. And then there can be no revival without the Word of God. The Word of God is critical.

Now, confession, repentance, and prayer, those all go together. How is confession and repentance expressed to God? Through prayer and through action, obviously, but through prayer. We pray and we confess our sins to the Lord.

And then revelation and the Word of God, those go together because for us to know how far we've fallen, that has to be a revelation from God, and we get revelation from God from the Word of God. So the Word of God is critical to revival.

Now, we've talked about confession and repentance and prayer, and we've talked about revelation, but we haven't spent a lot of time in this series yet on the importance of the Word of God to revive you, to revive me, to revive us.

The Bible says of itself, Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

God's word is alive because it has the breath of God upon it. It is literally God-breathed. And so this book has life. You read other books, but the Word of God reads you. James in his epistle says this about the Word of God, James chapter one, I'll begin reading in verse 21.

"Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls." That's the Word of God. It's able to save your souls. It's able to deliver from the guttermost to the uttermost.

He says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was."

"But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does." This man, this woman, this boy, this girl will experience a fresh touch from God, revival to the soul. Do you want to be revived?

Guest (Male): And that question should be repeated. Do you want to be revived? That's the title of the lesson today from Pastor Jeff's series, Soul on Fire. He'll be back with more in just a moment. Now, before we move on with the broadcast today, we want to thank you for your gift of any amount to From His Heart as we reach the world for Christ.

Because of your generosity over the years, God's word is being proclaimed clearly and boldly to spiritually open hearts around the world. Your partnership helps us reach people who are searching for truth, calling believers back to their first love, and pointing families and churches and homes and communities to Jesus.

As it says in Romans chapter 10, verse 15, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things." Every broadcast message and resource made possible through your support is an invitation for hearts to return to God and experience true revival.

This month, for your gift of any amount, we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's five-lesson series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival. You can get it in the format of your choice. Just call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go to fromhisheart.org and request it by name.

Thank you again for the eternal impact your gift is making as we share the life-changing truth of God's word together. Now, let's get back to answering this question: Do you want to be revived?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I want you to notice with me three essentials concerning the Word of God, the Word of God that is living and active, the Word of God that is able to save your soul. Essential number one, we must prepare our hearts for the Word of God.

If you want to be revived, if you want God to do something extraordinary and powerful in your life, if you've been wandering away and you know you desperately need to get back to him, we must prepare our hearts for the Word of God.

Therefore, verse 21 says, "Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness." Putting aside means to cast it down. It's the picture of taking off a shirt and putting it to the side. You have to lay that aside. You have to take that off. Now, the Bible uses the picture of a seed for the Word of God.

Jesus told a parable about that, the sower and the seed and the soil. So the Bible pictures the Word of God as seed, and it pictures the heart as soil. So if you are going to receive the word, you have to prepare the heart, prepare the soil of your heart to receive the word.

And just as a farmer, if he is going to prepare the soil, he has to plow it up. He has to pull out the rocks. He has to get out the weeds so that the rocks don't affect the seed and so that the weeds don't affect the seed and so that the ground is not so hard that the seed can't penetrate.

We have to prepare our hearts for the Word of God. Hosea chapter 10, verse 12 says this, "Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until he comes to rain righteousness on you." So what are the weeds and rocks? What are the things that we have to get out, to cast down, to take off like a dirty garment? What are those things?

Well, he says, "Therefore, putting aside all filthiness." That's the first thing, all filthiness. We deal with all our filthiness. You say what is filthiness? Filthiness is moral uncleanness. Filthiness is used to talk about a shirt that would be soiled with sweat and grime and dirt and scum.

You're out working all day in the fields and you come back and you've been sweating all day and you got dirt and grime on you. You would take that garment off because that garment is filthy. And moral uncleanness, vile things, defiling things.

You know, the word filthiness was also used to describe an ulcer. You don't want to see a skin ulcer. Doctors, it doesn't bother them, dentists, it doesn't bother them, but that stuff grosses me out. If you have a skin ulcer, don't show me. I don't want to see it.

You know the other word that this Greek word filthiness, it's only used one time in Scripture, but the root of that word is a word that was also used to describe earwax. You have to get the earwax out of your ears. Earwax is a gross thing. It's just a vile thing.

And earwax, if you get too much earwax in your ears, you know what, you can't hear. This is all about hearing the Word of God and then doing what you hear. But if there's earwax in your ear, you can't hear. So you have to lay aside all filthiness and get that stuff out of your life.

The Bible says in Psalm 66, verse 18, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." I can't pray, I can't have a relationship with God. Why? Because I'm holding on to sin. I have a regard for sin.

Isaiah 59, verse one says, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short that it cannot save, neither is his ear so dull that he cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear, he will not hear."

Because God won't have fellowship with sin. We have to get all that stuff out of our lives. We get it out of the shadows, we get it under the blood, and we claim 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

That's 1 John 1:9. That's the Christian's bar of soap. That's how you get clean from all filthiness. So we deal with all our filthiness, but then he says, "And all that remains of wickedness." All that remains of wickedness. We sweep all the corners of hidden sin and wicked motives.

So it's not just enough to get out the big piles of filth. You know you got this sexual sin, I got to get that out, and I got this greed, I got to get that out. But then you start to sweep the corners. You start to look around to see what else remains of wickedness.

The word for wickedness can also be translated malignancy. When you have cancer and the doctor does surgery and he takes out the cancer, what does he do? He takes out all the cells around it so that you don't have any malignant cells that will be left behind.

Why? Because if those are left behind, they're going to start replicating and the cancer will spread. So you got to get all that out and you sweep the corners, so to speak, and you remove all that remains of wickedness. You deal with all of it.

Listen, you have to prepare your heart. If you're going to receive the word, you have to prepare your heart, putting aside like a filthy garment all the vileness, all the filthiness, and all that remains of wickedness. That's the first essential. We must prepare our hearts for the Word of God. We create room for the Word of God and we get all those things that God hates out of our life, out of the shadows, and under his blood.

Second essential. We must humbly receive the Word of God. Humbly receive the Word of God. "Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls."

The reception of the Word of God, we receive it. One commentator said this, "When the word knocks on the door of your heart, we open the door and welcome the word in and give the word hospitality and attention."

Ultimate hospitality, ultimate attention. We open the door to our heart. We're very welcoming to the word. That is critically important. We humbly receive and we have a teachable spirit. See, we're open to the truth and the correction of the word.

That's what it means to humbly receive the word. You're open to reproof and correction from the word. You don't stiff-arm the Word of God. The Word of God, which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, the Word of God, which is able to save your souls, you don't say no to it.

You don't argue with it. You don't say, "Well, I don't want to hear that." In the verses ahead of this, it says, "For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger."

Do you get angry when you read the Word of God? Because it contradicts your lifestyle, and you say, "How dare God go against my lifestyle?" Hey, God doesn't acquiesce to us, we acquiesce to him. He is the Lord. He has created everything. He has set the ground rules for morality, and all that exists in him.

Morality is the reflection of God and his character. He's holy, holy, holy. And so when we humbly receive the word, we don't fight against it. Now, listen. The word steps on toes. It steps on your toes, it steps on my toes.

Sometimes I'll get an email or a letter it says, "Man, you were really stepping on my toes." I say, "Well, you know what, that stepped on my toes too." The things that I preach, don't ever get the idea, "Well, you know, Jeff does all this perfectly, that's why he's preaching about it."

Sometimes I'm praying I say, "Lord, how do I preach this? Because I'm struggling with this too." He said, "Well, everybody struggles with that. Preach it and let them know that hey, this is a word to your heart just like it's a word to their heart."

Here's what the Bible says about itself. Second Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is inspired by God." That means it's God-breathed. That's why it's living and active. "And is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Teaching, that tells you what's right. Reproof, that tells you what's not right. Correction, that tells you how to get right. Training in righteousness, that tells you how to stay right.

That's the Word of God. Why does it hit us with all the things that are right and reproves us, rebukes us, corrects us, and shows us how to get back? Because you and I and us, we're prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

We're prone to interpret scripture through our own hearts and our own lives and our own selfishness, and we say well, I want it to mean this, I want it to say that. It doesn't. It says what it says. God is not who you want him to be, he is who he is.

And he is so much greater than anything you could ever imagine. But we don't create a God out of our own imagination. We know God through his word. "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness and truth, who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

That is who God is. And so we have to be open to the truth and open to correction from the Word of God. Now, question. How well do you do with correction? Do you have somebody in your life who loves the Lord and who loves you and who has the green light to tell you of things in your life that they see that are not right?

Guest (Male): Well, if you do, you're blessed by far. It's important that you take advantage of that blessing with humility and intentional obedience to the Lord. Tomorrow on From His Heart, Pastor Jeff will be back to conclude the lesson called Do You Really Want to Be Revived?

Now, all this month, Pastor Jeff is seeking to help us all be all in for the Lord and live with a soul on fire. Would you describe yourself that way? Hey, if you want to experience the blessings of fellowship and joy and holiness in increasing measure, especially in the hectic lives we often have, then we'd love you to get this five-message series, Soul on Fire: God's Plan for Revival.

It's a blueprint for you to change your life and enjoy it the way God intended. And it's our gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount, and you can get it in the format of your choice. Call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go to fromhisheart.org and request it by name.

From His Heart is the international non-profit outreach that is reaching the world each day on radio, television, and online. Again, call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org.

And when you go online, we also encourage you to visit our prayer line page where you can leave a prayer request and people from around the world literally will see it and pray for you. And they can click a button that says notify this person that they've been praying for, and you'll receive an anonymous email that'll tell you that you have been lifted up to the Lord. Go to the prayer link on our homepage at fromhisheart.org.

Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be here next time for part two of today's lesson called Do You Really Want to Be Revived? Join us on Wednesday for the last lesson in the Soul on Fire series when Pastor Jeff will open God's word and share real truth, real life, and real hope from God's heart. Here on From His Heart.