Revival Begins with Us

They change.

Isaiah's Encounter with Christ.

Think about Isaiah.

Chapter 6.

Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up.

The seer from Christ, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

And when Isaiah encounters the Lord, the holiness of God, his first reaction isn't look at how sinful everybody else is.

He says, woe is me.

That's a important lesson for us.

It's easy to pray for God to change them.

Change our city.

Change our country.

Change our neighbors.

Change our families.

Change the younger generation.

change the culture, change our church, change everybody else around us.

But genuine spiritual awakening should be, cause us to ask, Lord, what needs to change in me? That's right, what needs to change in me? Where have I become comfortable with sin? Where have I become spiritually apathetic? Where have I stopped praying? Where have I stopped loving people? Where have I become more concerned about winning arguments than winning souls? Where have I stopped sharing the gospel? Where have I become satisfied with going through the motions of life without passionately following you? Revival becomes very personal when we stop pointing outward and allow God to examine our own hearts revival and repentance.

That's why we can't really talk about revival without talking about repentance.

Repentance is more than feeling guilty.

Biblical repentance involves turning.

We turn away from sin and toward God.

And sometimes we want revival without repentance.

We want God to move powerfully without asking him to disturb anything in our lives.

We want transformation without surrender.

We want the fire of God without fire.