Until the Church Awakes

We are living in a critical time in which spirituality in our churches is near an all-time low and immorality in society is near an all-time high. The pulpits of the land have lost their influence upon society and many Christians are no longer distinguishable from the pagans in which they live. In our day, worldliness has infiltrated the churches to such a shameful degree there is no longer any distinction between the church and the world.

In the book of Acts, we read the following. These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. We must ask ourselves, friends, the painful, probing question, why are we today turning the world upside down with our Christianity? It's because our brand of Christianity in the West is so meager and impoverished in power that it can barely keep its own churches from dividing, let alone have any significant influence upon the society in which we live.

We've fallen into the trap of using the latest church growth method, the latest man-centered methodology to enlarge our congregations, but where has that gotten us? Nowhere. We've done much in the name of Christ, but without the power of heaven. Through the Holy Spirit, God has forsaken us and left us to our own pitiful and fleshly devices.

Our congregations are dividing through infighting and disharmony. The divorce rate in the churches is as high as pagan society. And holiness among believers is as rare today as a lunar eclipse.

And where has all this man-centered, flesh-driven methodology gotten us in the past 20 years? Nowhere. Even though there is a church in every neighborhood in the land, crime and immorality in society are out of control. It's as if the church did not exist at all.

Listen friends, we must ask ourselves the question, as the world perishes, why are we so obsessed with building bigger and more comfortable buildings? Why is the majority of church growth today not the result of new converts, but believers transferring their membership because of dissatisfaction with their present pastor? Where did we go wrong? What will alter this current crisis? The prophet Joel cried out in anguish. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, spare that people, O Lord. Today, the church stands in a crisis, and sinners stand over a preface of a Christless and lost eternity.

And the typical pastor today is beat up, run down, discouraged and confused. And the major sin of the church today is catering to self, rather than the annihilation of self. The crucified life is a tock-up topic you seldom ever hear today, friends.

We've become like Peter, who denied his Lord rather than himself. Peter had to come to the place in his walk with Christ where he saw the corruption of his heart and his need to deny self and cast himself entirely and utterly upon his Master only. The words of Jesus stand in stark contrast to the bride in the West today.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? Listen to me, friends.

Where is the holy fire emanating from our pulpits? Why has the flame gone out? Many pastors are more familiar with burnout today than ever before, but it's our own choice of choosing fleshly methodologies to run the church that's destroying us. We're running on money and manpower rather than God and holy ghost power. Our lack of spending time with God and a Sinai-like experience in which we come down from the ground with our faces aglow and our hearts burning with a fresh word from the Most High is our main lack today.

Few are willing to put forth the effort to climb up to the mountaintop experience with God. I want to read us right now what I feel is a prayer that this nation should be doing, that every church should be on their face and praying this prayer. It's found in the book of Psalms.

If you'll turn in your Bibles, friends, to Psalm 80, I believe we should be having nights of desperation in our assemblies, crying on our faces to God over the sins of the land and praying over this mighty Psalm for God to look down upon us. I want to read us Psalm 80 now as we continue this evening of prayer. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth, before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us, turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us strife unto our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

Thou that hast brought a vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparest room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts.

Look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down, they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

So will not we go back from thee? Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

Listen, friends, when the church fails to proclaim the great doctrines of the Bible, replacing them with human philosophies and methodologies, then the church will lack power and influence upon society, and evil will increase in large measure. When the church treads the old paths and once again boldly proclaims these great truths of Scripture, much progress will be made in tearing down Satan's kingdom and effecting transformation in society with the revival of religion. But until the church fears God over man, it will carry on its programs that occupy its members through activity and entertainments, until the church awakens from her slumber and begins to hate sin with a holy vengeance, when she begins to startle heaven with her swelling heart cries for revival, when she once again storms the gates of hell with preaching the great doctrines of the Bible, then, and only then, will the devil take notice and tremble before her heavenly authority made possible through the blood of the Lamb, when the church cries out against the many perverted lifestyles in society and openly condemns them instead of tolerating them, will she have power from on high, when the church once again travails and travels counter to the culture in which it exists, where there will be a clash and a turning of the world upside down, when her members are willing to suffer persecution and imprisonment for their faith and their testimony in Christ Jesus, only then will the world take notice and acknowledge a difference between it and them, when Christians are willing to lay down their lives for their faith in Christ, then, and only then, will the heavens rejoice with sounds of heavenly choirs heralding the coming King of Glory, the times are desperate, the hour is late, how badly do we want to see revival in our day friends, are we willing to pay the price, and on that day, when you review the moments of my life, my thoughts, my deeds, every word I spoke since knowing you, and all is placed into the fire for testing and review, will what remains be gold and silver or ashes heaped with hay, the day will declare to what degree I lived my life for you.