Title: How to Awaken a Dead and Unregenerate Church? Meta: I was asked at my table what would I preach to bring church members to Christ... I would preach the Lordship of Christ, I would preach repentance, I would preach the new birth, I would preach the necessary evidence of the new birth, I would preach the sovereignty of God in salvation to the extent that I could push that. I would do everything that I could to blow a trumpet in Zion and to awaken those that are asleep. Tags: dead,church,false,regenerate,sinners,prayer,revival,salvation 1 00:00:05,180 --> 00:00:07,200 I was asked at my table 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:08,910 what would I preach 3 00:00:08,910 --> 00:00:14,370 to bring church members to Christ. 4 00:00:14,370 --> 00:00:15,600 And I said the last thing I would preach 5 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:18,570 would be John 3 16. 6 00:00:18,570 --> 00:00:22,430 That just lulls everyone in the building to sleep. 7 00:00:22,430 --> 00:00:25,430 I would preach the Lordship of Christ, 8 00:00:25,430 --> 00:00:27,880 I would preach repentance, 9 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:31,500 I would preach the new birth, 10 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:37,280 I would preach the necessary evidence of the new birth, 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,230 I would preach the sovereignty of God in salvation 12 00:00:40,230 --> 00:00:42,780 to the extent that I could push that. 13 00:00:42,780 --> 00:00:45,250 I would do everything that I could 14 00:00:45,250 --> 00:00:48,030 to blow a trumpet in Zion 15 00:00:48,030 --> 00:00:51,870 and to awaken those that are asleep. 16 00:00:51,870 --> 00:00:53,800 And when I was at my previous church 17 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,510 it was not a county church 18 00:00:56,510 --> 00:01:02,030 but it was a long standing church, 100 years old; 19 00:01:02,030 --> 00:01:03,989 when I preached 1 John 20 00:01:03,989 --> 00:01:08,579 and the necessary evidences of the new birth 21 00:01:08,579 --> 00:01:13,110 it rocked the planet - 22 00:01:13,110 --> 00:01:15,960 for good and for worse. 23 00:01:15,960 --> 00:01:20,110 And if you do not see this evidence in your life, 24 00:01:20,110 --> 00:01:21,450 you are not saved, 25 00:01:21,450 --> 00:01:23,130 you are self deceived, 26 00:01:23,130 --> 00:01:25,350 you have never been born again. 27 00:01:25,350 --> 00:01:26,450 And I mean across the board, 28 00:01:26,450 --> 00:01:28,570 it’s not 3 out of these 9 tests. 29 00:01:28,570 --> 00:01:30,390 It’s not a multiple choice. 30 00:01:30,390 --> 00:01:34,720 All 9 of these will be evident and present in your life 31 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:37,000 if you are born of God, 32 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:38,000 if you know God, 33 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:39,000 and if not, 34 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,700 you’re going to hell. 35 00:01:41,700 --> 00:01:44,759 And I remember one year we had 100 adult conversions. 36 00:01:44,759 --> 00:01:47,050 That’s a lot of adult conversions. 37 00:01:47,050 --> 00:01:49,270 That’s a lot of people 60 years old, 38 00:01:49,270 --> 00:01:51,180 50 years old, 39 00:01:51,180 --> 00:01:52,180 being saved. 40 00:01:52,180 --> 00:01:54,430 I had one deacon saved in the deacon’s meeting. 41 00:01:54,430 --> 00:01:56,490 I just happened to be sitting next to him 42 00:01:56,490 --> 00:01:59,369 and he said, “If this is what it is to be a Christian, 43 00:01:59,369 --> 00:02:00,990 then I’ve never been a Christian.” 44 00:02:00,990 --> 00:02:05,730 Well you just got to peel back all of the veneers 45 00:02:05,730 --> 00:02:09,310 and layers of religiosity 46 00:02:09,310 --> 00:02:11,319 and churchianity 47 00:02:11,319 --> 00:02:14,209 to get down to the live nerve 48 00:02:14,209 --> 00:02:18,489 of what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. 49 00:02:18,489 --> 00:02:22,050 And there is a necessary evidence of the new birth 50 00:02:22,050 --> 00:02:24,889 and that’s why 1 John is written. 51 00:02:24,889 --> 00:02:26,870 That you may know that you have eternal life 52 00:02:26,870 --> 00:02:28,450 and there is something worse than 53 00:02:28,450 --> 00:02:30,919 not having the assurance of your salvation. 54 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:37,519 What’s worse is to have a false assurance of no salvation. 55 00:02:37,519 --> 00:02:40,939 And so you just have to shake people loose 56 00:02:40,939 --> 00:02:42,480 from their dead testimony, 57 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,049 from their dead religion 58 00:02:45,049 --> 00:02:48,060 and you just have to be relentless with it. 59 00:02:48,060 --> 00:02:51,499 You have to paint things black and white. 60 00:02:51,499 --> 00:02:54,849 And people like that usually don’t walk the aisle 61 00:02:54,849 --> 00:02:56,599 at the end of the service. 62 00:02:56,599 --> 00:02:57,659 I mean Spurgeon said 63 00:02:57,659 --> 00:03:02,299 the wounded deer wants to withdraw to the thickets 64 00:03:02,299 --> 00:03:05,180 and lick its wounds in private, 65 00:03:05,180 --> 00:03:09,930 rather than be paraded forward in front of a TV camera. 66 00:03:09,930 --> 00:03:11,999 And so there was week, after week, 67 00:03:11,999 --> 00:03:13,879 after week, after week, 68 00:03:13,879 --> 00:03:17,939 just nonstop - that knock on my office door - 69 00:03:17,939 --> 00:03:19,840 when the service is over. 70 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:22,430 “Can I talk to you?” 71 00:03:22,430 --> 00:03:26,489 And my office became like the birthing room 72 00:03:26,489 --> 00:03:28,469 at the hospital. 73 00:03:28,469 --> 00:03:29,809 And I would just say have a seat 74 00:03:29,809 --> 00:03:34,579 and the cushion is still creased from the last person that sat there, 75 00:03:34,579 --> 00:03:36,400 the box of Kleenex right there 76 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:41,150 and people just under a sense of desperation 77 00:03:41,150 --> 00:03:43,089 and that’s the way it was in Acts 2. 78 00:03:43,089 --> 00:03:45,159 They interrupted Peter’s sermon 79 00:03:45,159 --> 00:03:47,900 and the sinners gave the invitation. 80 00:03:47,900 --> 00:03:50,589 “What must we do to be saved?” 81 00:03:50,589 --> 00:03:53,669 There was a sense of desperation. 82 00:03:53,669 --> 00:03:55,940 So you know, 83 00:03:55,940 --> 00:03:57,989 there is a certain kind of preaching, 84 00:03:57,989 --> 00:04:02,519 and there are certain subject matters 85 00:04:02,519 --> 00:04:06,239 that are like well chosen arrows for the bow 86 00:04:06,239 --> 00:04:07,790 that find their target.