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.
Looks like I get to join the illustrious club! This morning, I was diagnosed with diabetes. I’m still trying to figure out what I should feel, because I don’t feel anything. I don’t see what this “sentence” changes in me. I realized, there shouldn’t be anything different in how I conduct my life. As a Christian, I am already under a “sentence” that life as I know it can end…at any time, like a thief in the night,and that I know not the hour nor the time. Why should this be any different? However, when filling out paperwork I noticed a part where it said: “Religeon.” As I wrote in Christian, I was convicted. Am I really? What did I do on the way to work this morning that showed the love I have, or should have, of the knowledge that when I do die, I am actually born! Jesus didn’t die on the cross…he gave birth. Birth to life with Him available for all of us. I realized I take that availability for all away when I pass by the guy asking for money, when I walk around the elderly widow woman, when I let the orphans fend for themselves what they can, like wild animals begging for scraps. I confess my sin of being a comfortable Christian, Holy Father, deliver me and inflict me so that I know I’m at least doing something. Amen. If I die tomorrow, would the world know? If they don’t, than I haven’t done the job He has entrusted me to do. When Mother Teresa went to be with the Lord, the whole world cried. Me…it would take two weeks before my parents would probably find out. Saviour Jesus, I repent…save me again.