(Clip) You Don't Want Revival, Do You — Shane Idleman

Holiness as a Burning Work of the Spirit

God is a consuming fire. His eyes were like flames of fire. So holiness is a burning deep within. We stoke those flames. You ever poke and stoke and whatever you need to throw gas on that flames? And you keep that Holy Spirit burning and burning.

You want more of God, more of holiness, more separation. And you remember people saying this, probably when you were younger, when they'd say, I'm so stoked. What does that mean? I'm so stoked, pumped, that's a good word.

Quenching the Spirit and Craving the World

I'm so excited, I'm so excited. It's the same thing, you stoke the Holy Spirit or you quench and grieve him. No wonder people don't want to go to church unless it fits on their schedule. No wonder they wish there was one worship song and a two minute message and then free lunch.

Because the Holy Spirit has been quenched in grief. So we don't want the things of God, we want the things of the world. What do you crave? What are you hungry for? More of God or more of the world? Carnality means that the fire is almost out and the rivers of living water are dried up.

Praying for the Church to Be Filled With the Spirit

And I'm only telling you this because I care for where you're at. I wish, my biggest prayer for this church, for many years, when I'm up early praying about, for many years, is for God to fill you mightily with his Holy Spirit.

Revival That Disrupts Comfort and Dignity

Let the truth be told, the cat's out of the bag, whatever that means. Who put him in there, I don't know. But isn't that the most important thing? Shane, what about sound doctrine? Oh, I love theology.

But theology without the Spirit is dead theology. What about potlucks and fellowship groups and wonderful, but if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit, those become gossip centers. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, that's my prayer for this church.

My prayer for this church for many years has been revival, to wake us up. I didn't do this at the first service and I don't know if I can find it. It's a note I wrote many years ago, probably when the church first started.

And I felt that God spoke this to me. I don't say that too often, but he put something deep in my spirit. I could not stop writing this. And it's so true talking about our church way back then. You could say they don't, they or you, whatever you want to put in there, but he wrote, I wrote this down.

You don't want revival. It will ruin your schedule, your dignity, your image, and your reputation. Men will weep throughout the congregation. Women will wail because of the travail of their own souls.

Young adults will cry like children at the magnitude of their sin. My presence will be so strong that the worship team will cease playing. Time will seem to stand still. You won't be able to preach because of the flood of the emotions entering your own soul.

You'll struggle to find words, but only find tears. Even the most dignified and reserved among you will be broken and humbled as children. The proud and self-righteous will not be able to stand in my presence.

The doubter and the unbeliever will either run for fear or fall on their knees and worship me. There can be no middle ground. The church will never be the same again. You don't want revival. The very thing we need is the very thing we are afraid of.

Repentance and Weeping Before Revival

Then Leonard Ravenhill wrote, the church must first repent, then the world will break. The church must first weep, then our altars will be filled with weeping sinners. See, folks, that's a hard truth.

Carnality in Everyday Christian Life

That's a hard truth to swallow is most people do not want more of God. Most people are not filled with the Spirit. They don't seek after holiness. They don't seek after, they think, well, that'll be weird.

That'll be weird. And what happens is that fire, that deep fire of the Holy Spirit is quenched. The river of living water is run dry, and carnality crushes the Spirit-filled life. Let me give you a few examples of just, in people's lives I've seen recently.

For example, let's just say somebody in ministry, in any area, whatever, they get drunk last night, and they're gonna get to church, they think they're gonna minister. They just wanna get out of there and go eat lunch as quickly as they can.

Others are watching ungodly entertainment, dark entertainment, and they wonder why they have no connection to Christ. Because they're filling their mind with darkness. How in the world are you going to experience the light of the Gospel if all that's going in is darkness?

And then we've got others. See, we all struggle with something, right? The enemy looks for opportune times. What's gonna take you out is not gonna take me out. And what will take me out is not gonna take you out.

He knows how everyone's wired. And he'll get the gossipers and the slanders together, and they think they're gonna come to church and be filled with the Spirit? With that wrong spirit? Then we have people who are hard and angry.

Bible Knowledge Without a Transformed Heart

They're arrogant. They think they're filled with the Spirit. They say, well, I go to church. I know the Bible. Wow, good for you. So do the Pharisees. The religious leaders of Jesus' day knew the Bible better than the common people.

They could quote the Torah, right? They could break it down. Genesis and Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, verses six, seven, verses eight, Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastics.

They had it down. They could break down the old prophets and the minor prophets and major prophets and Amos and Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi. You know, they could tell you, I got it down.

No, but you don't have Christ in your heart. You're as hard as stone. See, the same word of God that melts the wax will harden the clay, the Puritans used to say. The same word of God, the same preaching, the heart that melts the wax, the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

Same thing with preaching. You've gotta open your heart to receive, and holiness is vitally important.