Reviving Faith: Embracing Correction and Intimacy with Christ

About 12 years ago now, I came on my journey and I encountered Jesus. And He met me when I was broken. He met me when I was messy. He met me when my life really looked the complete opposite to really what you'd read in the Bible. But that's the gospel, that God doesn't come and ask for our perfection, that God comes and just asks for our lives as we are and says, if you would come as you are, I'll transform you. I'll turn your mess into a message. I'll turn the test of your life into a testimony. I'll take what was broken and make it whole. And that's the goodness of God. [00:01:05] (37 seconds)  #MessToMessage

It's quite important that we hear this verse and put a tone behind it and really understand that the heart of God here is not that he is raging. It's not that he is angry. He's not that he is trying to punish us, but that he's speaking with a fierce love. He's speaking with a confronting love. He's speaking with a love that's calling us to let go of what we're holding on to, but to draw his bride back into intimacy. That we wouldn't be consumed by this world, but that we would be consumed by him. [00:07:12] (32 seconds)  #FierceLoveCalls

See, it's the small things that allow us to dilute the temperature of our lives. It's never instant. It takes time. And what I've learned about correction as a dad is correction is constant. It's little by little, but it aligns us to where we need to go. This morning, where do we need to embrace a fresh correction from God? Come on, maybe in our personal walk with God, God's saying, hey, the temperature's gotten a little bit, little bit timid, a little bit lukewarm. It's a bit mid. God's saying, come on, would you turn it up again? [00:13:41] (32 seconds)  #ConstantCorrection

Come back to the prayer closet. Come back and fast. Come back to the Word. Come on, come back to be a generous person. Come on, in the unseen things, in our character and in our choices, God's saying, hey, would you turn the temperature up a notch in our marriage, in our parenting? Come on, I love as a church that we're having a date night because it's an area that we need to invest in. It's an area that we should be going, God, I want you to speak into my marriage. I want you to speak into my future. [00:14:13] (27 seconds)  #TurnUpTheHeat

The key message here is that God is speaking directly saying you are actually bankrupt. You've got rags. You're not clothed in riches. You're blind. He's challenging this false sense of pride. This false sense of I'm alright. I can do it on my own. I've been there. It's so easy to get to a place where we're like, I'm good. I don't need His presence. But God's speaking directly saying, Come on, come back. Come back to that place where you're going, God, here's my life. Here's my world. God, I don't want to stay lukewarm. [00:23:01] (36 seconds)  #GraceKnocksAgain

This is the incredible grace of our Jesus, that even in apathy, that even in complacency, that even when we know how good his grace is, but we've allowed the temperature to be diluted, that he comes and he still knocks at the door. He says, come on, open the door. I wanna dine with you as friends. I wanna sit down with you. I wanna share a meal with you. It's interesting to me that the church that receives the harshest rebuke also gets given the greatest promise, that we will sit on the throne with him. [00:24:13] (34 seconds)  #SitAtTheTableWithJesus

As John receives this apocalyptic vision and he gets all this imagery that when he's seeing this cosmic conflict between good and evil, heavenly messengers revealing hidden things, that in the times of crisis that our world is going through, that we can look to the end and see hope, that we can look to the end and that we can see Jesus, that ultimately, that this book is calling us back to see Jesus, the conqueror, Jesus, the one who will bring justice. [00:25:32] (30 seconds)  #VictoryInChrist

Hold tight to our faith. The Bible says hold tight to our confession, to the confession of our faith, that even when it's tough, that even when we go through persecution, that even when the temperature dials down a bit, that we can come back and say, Lord, I'm going to keep my allegiance to You. Because in the end, we're on the winning team. God wrote this book, not so that we would live in fear, but so that we would have confidence. [00:26:59] (31 seconds)  #DrinkFromTheSpring

Come on, if you feel like you're in a season, like the latest scene in church, and you go, I've allowed the water to dilute. Jesus is saying, hey, I'm the one who gives water. You can thirst. If you thirst, come to the spring of life. It's without cost. We're gonna have a moment to worship in just a minute. A time to say, God, we're gonna drink again. [00:29:44] (23 seconds)  #KnowLoveFollow

See, that's what separates Christianity from every other religion. Every other religion will tell you, you must measure up, you must become good enough, you must get your life right, you must start a journey to walk your way towards God. But the truth about Jesus is that He's done everything to walk His way towards you. And that's the story of Him, that He comes and He rescues us, that He seeks after us, that He comes and knocks on the door of our heart and says, would you allow me to come in this morning? [00:33:34] (29 seconds)