Why are revival and reformation needed, how do they relate to each other, and how do implement them in our lives?

<p>Why are revival and reformation needed, how do they relate to each other, and how do implement them in our lives?</p>

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Ouachita Hills College

Scott Burgess

Revival & Reformation

Well, we're going to have our special closed Sabbath begin this evening.

I'm going to ask the Lord to speak simply, and then we'll dive into our message here.

Father in heaven, thank you for a beautiful evening here as the Sabbath is drawing on.

And I just ask that you would be pleased to dwell here, banish any thought that would distract us from what you would have us learn this evening.

And I pray that those points that are most needful for our own individual experiences, that you will lodge them in our mind, that we'll be able to meditate on them through the night hours, and that during the coming week, that we will have new manna to feed on and that we will be able to apply this to our lives, that people will be able to see that we've been with Jesus and be drawn to Him as a result.

Well, this evening we're going to talk about revival and reformation.

And I am not an expert on this by any means, but I know that I need it so it'll be good for me as I review it with you.

So some of the material right here actually comes based on an article that I went through recently And it turns out the name of the article is this right here.

So I thought that seemed to be right on the money.

And if you would like to review it later, just to get some of the major points, it's found in the Review and Herald, 1902, February 25.

It quotes from Scripture, it goes to 1 of my favorite books, the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verses 4-5.

Part of the message to the first of the 7 churches, the church of Ephesus, and the first words of the article are these, nevertheless, I have somewhat against you because you have left your first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove my candlestick out of its place except thou repent." Okay, a pointed message.

It wouldn't have been the 1 that I would have thought on my own on a message of revival and reformation.

Now, notice right here some of these key words.

The first thing that Jesus points out to the church of Ephesus is that she has left her first love.

You were 1 place and now you are another.

And what I've discovered, usually when we talk about the word remembering in the Bible, the way we explain it is Remembering is the opposite of forgetting.

Well, I think there's a better way to look at it.

If you let the Bible talk about remembering, we have a better idea.

When you look in the book of Genesis, you get a pretty good idea of what it means to remember.

First of all, does God ever forget anything?

It has nothing to do with forgetting, so I think we ought to just chuck that definition.

When you look at the idea of remembering in the Bible, you look at Noah and it says that God remembered Noah.

It's not that he was on the boat and he said, oh yes, my servant's there, that's right, I better do something about it.

No, it means he knew he was there and he was going to act in his behalf to preserve him through that storm.

And when Noah and his family got off the boat, you remember that he set something in the sky.

And he says that every time that I look on that bow, I'm going to remember something.

And what was it he was going to remember?

Well, he's going to remember his everlasting covenant that he made with Noah and all the earth, which, yes, among other things meant that he wouldn't flood the earth anymore with water.

But it refers to remembering his covenant.

When you look at the story of Moses, or the story of the Exodus, in Exodus chapter 3, the 400 years were coming to a close in which God's people would be in Egypt.

And God remembered His people when He heard their cry.

It's not that He had ever forgotten and said, Oh, that's right.

Rather, the 400 years was drawing to a close and he knew that it is now time for me to act.

Acting is more or less a synonym for remembering.

So here, when God's telling us to remember, well, sure, it might mean that we've sort of forgotten about God, But what he's really saying is something akin to get your act together.

We had a covenant relationship Remember it act in accordance with it the way that I always have something like that and Then he says repent Now I think in a group like this, we probably will get the right answer here.

In the Bible, what does the word repent literally mean?

So recognize that you've left your first love, act in accordance with it, which is going to lead you to turn around and come back to me.

You know, can 2 walk together except they be agreed.

Now, following that, we get this comforting few words.

These words are applicable to what group of people?

You're saying that all 7 of the churches might have application to us?

Matter of fact, she refers to 5 different churches in this letter, suggested that perhaps revival and Reformation, 1 way to go about it would be to study carefully the councils to the churches, which is all about overcoming sin, which can only be done by being filled with God's Spirit.

Nevertheless, she says these are applicable to Seventh-day Adventist churches in their present condition.

And this means not only love for God, but if you lose love for God, you lose love for everything.

It means the absence of love for 1 another.

So we're not keeping those 2 principle commandments that encompass everything else.

Now going on from there, then we go to Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20.

Now Matthew 28, those 3 verses, this is the very close of Matthew's gospel.

And you might think, oh yes, I think I know what that's about.

That's that's the words that he had when he went to heaven.

And if you turn there to verse 18, you'll see that it says that Jesus came there and he spoke.

And the very first things he said was, I have been given all power in heaven and upon what?

And then he says, go ye therefore, and it's not really teaching, it's a different word, but it's like making learners.

There's a difference between teaching, right?

If I make you a learner, I make you curious.

I didn't say disciple there, which is what all the modern versions say, because that's church speak.

Outside of church, nobody knows what a disciple is, But a learner, we got a pretty good idea what a learner is.

Go ye therefore and make learners of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And then he says, teaching them, that word is teaching them, teaching them all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

Good, okay, always, even unto the end or the completion of the age.

All right, we think, okay, good, I know those words.

What's that got to do with revival and reformation?

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Revival & Reformation

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