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The current sermon series ?Real Revival ? has been kind of dangerous, in the sense that it brings up issues that we might rather leave alone, that it focuses attention on things that make us uncomfortable, that it calls attention to the places where we fall short as individuals and as a body. But that ?s probably a good thing for us.

When I got my first job with health benefits, the first doctor I visited, before he even introduced himself, said, ?Tell me why you don ?t want to see your children grow up. ? I knew he was talking about my weight and my unhealthy lifestyle, but it made me mad ?so I found another doctor. Fast forward ten years, and the newest doctor, in a string of a half dozen or so, tells me I am diabetic. I didn ?t want to hear it. It made me uncomfortable, but now I had to act.

James 5:16 tells us, ?Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. ? In the sermon on July 20, I said I wasn ?t sure how we should follow the example of the nation of Israel in 1 Samuel 7, where they publicly confessed their sin as a nation. I said we ?re too private and independent for that. But James tells us that if we truly want to be healed, we need to confess to each other. Maybe that ?s where we start. If we can trust our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to share our own individual struggle with sin and pray for each other ?remember, intercession makes an impression ?then God will heal us.

As God heals us as individuals, then our prayers for real revival will become more effective. As James 5;16 ends, ?The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. ? Let ?s get connected to each other and confess our struggles with sin and pray for each other. As men gather together and confess their sins, they will grow stronger in their faith. As women gather together and pray for each other, they will grow stronger in their faith. And God will heal us, and we will grow together as a body.

What a great week of VBS! Not only did I get to wear all of my Hawaiian shirts and grill all week, but I got to connect with all kinds of people, kids through adults, as we focused on God ?s Truth. The core of the week was based on Psalm 86:11, which says: ?Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. ?

While it was great to spend time with kids and adults from the church and to meet new people, the heart of ?Outrigger Island ? was to connect to God through his truth. The motto for the week was ?Know the Truth! Speak the Truth! Live the Truth! ? That ?s a great summary of the Christian life, and I ?m thrilled that kids, adults, families got to learn that together.

The key is making that connection to God ?s truth within our hearts. It ?s easy for us to run programs for Bible school, Adult Bible Fellowship, and mid-week Bible studies and stuff our brains full of Bible knowledge, but until we have the connection between mind and heart, we won ?t really be able to speak the truth and live the truth.

David shows us how important that connection is. Too often we find our hearts divided between the old life and the new life we have in Christ. And when we try to live with that kind of divided heart, we find we can ?t do it. It ?s like cardiac patients who have only a percentage of the full usage of their hearts; they find themselves weaker and with less stamina and with shortness of breath. It ?s not a full life. The only way to live the full life Jesus came to bring (remember Life360 and John 10:10?), is to have an undivided heart that knows the truth, speaks the truth, and lives the truth. So, by all means, continue to fill yourself with God ?s Word by listening to Mark ?s sermons and attending an Adult Bible Fellowship or another smaller group. But allow God to connect your heart, soul, mind, and strength so you can grow and serve.

At the end of June, Sandi and I will be taking the kids to Pennsylvania to my parents ? home for a family reunion. We get to go to PA maybe twice each year, and so we don ?t get to see my folks or other relatives very often. But one nice thing about a family reunion is that you don ?t really have to go through a lot of the stages of reconnecting with people because you ?re family. Just because you share a name or common ancestry, there ?s always something to talk about, there ?s a natural connection.

As we go through this current sermon series seeking revival from God, we ?ve been focusing on 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says, ?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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ? We ?ve been focusing on the concepts of humility and prayer and other things that we need to do as we ask God to bring revival, but it seems like we may have missed one significant point.

God refers to ?my people, who are called by my name. ? According to Acts 11:26, which says, ?The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch, ? that ?s us. We share a name; we are family. If we want to experience revival, we need to ask God together to bring it among us as his family.

As we launch into Summer and all the traveling that often happens, let ?s not forget our church family. While we don ?t have Sunday and Wednesday night programming, we can still get together with each other. Get together for a grill-out. Families with kids can plan to meet up at a park and play together. Saddle up and join Mark on Thursdays in Hines Park for Bike, Bible and Prayer. And by all means, don ?t give up on meeting together Sunday mornings for worship and Adult Bible Fellowship ?no matter how nice it is. We ?re better together!

Many people outside the church accuse Christians of being hypocrites. Technically, hypocrisy is a matter of professing a set of beliefs that you don ?t really believe. However, our culture ?and many Christians ?believes that hypocrisy is a matter of saying one thing and doing another, being two-faced. While that might seem like splitting hairs, the subtle difference between hiding one ?s true beliefs and struggling with sin in our lives is lost on the people of our culture.

Regardless of the misunderstanding, the disparity between the preaching and teaching of Christians and the lives of Christians is a stumbling block to many who are not Christians. They hear the words ?love God and love others, ? but they don ?t always see it or experience it when they interact with Christians. Then they walk away.

The fact is, Christians don ?t really fit in this world, even though we live in it. When the world sees us trying to fit in, even though we claim we don ?t fit, they don ?t see the value of being one of us. If we want to close that gap, we need to be what we were made to be: holy.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:2: ?To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ?their Lord and ours. ? The church in Corinth existed in the ?sin city ? of its day, and Paul ?s letter was intended to remind Christians that they were made to be different.

Even though that difference separates us from the ways and thinking of the world, it ?s not meant to separate us from other people. God ?s plan is to connect us to himself and to others through holiness. We can ?t hide the fact that we share with the world a common sin problem, but we also need to share the differences we have, the call to holiness. That common solution, which connects us to God through Christ, will connect us to others as well.

Since I was diagnosed to be diabetic in September 2007, I ?ve had to watch what I eat. As a result, some of my clothes are becoming so baggy that I will need to replace them soon. (As a side note, thanks to everyone for the encouragement along the way ?keep it up!) Oddly enough, as thrilled as I am with the weight loss, I have been hesitant to purchase new clothes. I think it ?s because I ?ve lost weight before, and I ?m afraid that I ?ll bounce back to where I was.

It ?s the same thing with sin. We ?ve become so accustomed to the ?weight ? of the sins in our lives and the habits of living with those sins that we hesitate to get rid of them. Even when we decide to follow Jesus and allow him to forgive our sins and give us new selves, we hesitate to get rid of the old ways because we ?ve bounced back there before.

In Ephesians 4:22-24, Paul wrote: ?You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. ? Paul says that we need to discard the old self, but then, we knew that, right? The hard part is in the word translated ?put on, ? which literally means to sink into. Some uses of the word translate it as ?invest. ? In a sense, Paul is telling us to invest in some new clothes, to sink into our new selves as if into a new set of clothes.

Verse 25 says to put off falsehood and put on truth because we are the members of one body. The rest of chapter 4 talks about different sinful habits to get rid of and what to put on to replace them. Ultimately, we all have the same problem ?can we call it ?sin handles ?but because we are members of one body, we need to work on losing the weight of sin together. Get rid of the old self; you ?re not going back because you ?ve got new clothes ?and spiritual workout buddies as well!