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Plymouth-Sorrento SDA Church

Ralph Henderson

If You Love Me…

This morning I want you to just remember that we're talking about probably the most important aspect of our Christian walk and that is revival and reformation because we all are looking forward to Jesus coming.

You know, we hear and we experience from day to day, from week to week, all of these different things going on in our world and in our church.

This morning, Russell came, and he shared with us about his nephew, Chris, who was 1 of the burn victims at that accident just up the road from us.

Last week Dot fell and she's injuring and kind of recovering from an injury.

And all kinds of things go on in life and We're all wanting to be done with this, aren't we?

We all say, you know, I wish Jesus would come.

We go through trials and struggles in life.

We suffer from physical ailments, all of these things.

And we say, you know, I just wish Jesus would come.

But you see, we need to understand that Jesus can't come back until there is a group of people that are safe to save.

You see it all began when Lucifer committed that first sin and then man succumbed to Lucifer's deceptions and man fell into sin and here we are.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit more today, but this morning as we begin, I hope that as we start right now, that you can put everything else on the back burner for the next 35 minutes or so.

You know, that's the other issue that you face.

You know, I remember when I went to, Hector and I both were in a homiletics class together and the professor that was teaching the class was telling us, you know, I know when you first start trying to put a sermon together you're always worried that how will I come up with enough information to fill in 35 minutes of sermon.

He said don't worry, what's going to happen is as you study you're going to try to figure out how do I condense it down and get it into that time frame.

How do I get the most important points across?

And I'm asking you as we kneel for prayer this morning that you'll pray for me that God will give me His words and that the points that you need to know for your salvation are going to be given to you today.

And you know, we're in a series on revival and reformation, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that after prayer, but this is a series, so I'm going to also ask you that if you've missed a week we started 2 weeks ago we started with the seed of revival last week we followed up with following the instructions so today is actually the third part and we could go on 5 or 6 weeks in this series so if you miss a week I know Marty's gonna love me for this, but ask on the on the sermon thing, can I get a copy of this week?

And then Marty, in his kind generosity, will make that extra copy for you from a few weeks back or whatever you missed.

But as we begin, I want you to kneel with me as we pray.

And remember, I want you to pray for me while I'm praying for all of us.

Heavenly Father, this morning, once again, we find ourselves on our knees.

Lord, I remember a statement many years ago, if you want to be able to stand in the times of trial, then make sure you get on your knees.

We're on our knees today, Lord, because we know that you are the only 1 that can help us in our time of need.

We know that you have the answers to all of the struggles of life.

We know that you can bring peace in our hearts in a world of turmoil and confusion.

But right now, Lord, I'm asking that you would come into our hearts.

By the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would touch each 1 of our hearts just now.

Not only come into our hearts, but open our hearts and soften them to be receptive to what you want to say to us today.

As Hector says so often, we want to have an encounter with Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we want to know when we go away from this place that we have lingered long enough in the presence of your heavenly throne that we have had that connection with you that we need.

This morning, Lord, it's not about me, it's not about what I say, it's all about you.

It's about what you want to do in each 1 of us.

And this morning, I just come before you and I pray that the weak vessel that I am, that in spite of myself you'll use me today for your glory, that you will touch the hearts of every individual in this room because Lord our needs are wide, varied, and we just are here together as a church family seeking for your face, your power, your wisdom, and your strength.

So come to us now through your Holy Spirit.

Fill this place with your presence that we each 1 will know that we have been in the presence of the living God.

So bless us now we pray and speak to us through your word because we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

By the way Eddie thank you for that beautiful song.

You may not know it, but Hector and I were singing 2 parts with you.

When Eddie started singing, I grew up sitting on the couch on Sabbath afternoons with my mother and she was in a trio and she taught me how to sing parts.

And we would always sit there and we would get the hymnal out and we would be singing different parts and when Eddie began to sing that third part just started coming into my head, and I started just humming that part, and all of a sudden I heard Hector humming another part, and I was almost tempted to just tap him and go, let's just stand up behind him.

But it's just, it was a beautiful song, and I thank you for that.

And this morning, that's really what our prayer is about, that God will have his own way with us.

Our subject today is If you love me, obedience, the evidence of revival.

And as we are going through this series of revival and reformation, I want to continue to keep reminding us where we started and as we look forward to what we hope to accomplish.

We started 2 weeks ago, and those of you that were here remember we talked about the seed of revival.

We talked about the fact that the beginning of revival comes with recognition.

And we used the illustration briefly of the prodigal son when he was away from his father and he had gone away from the will of his father and that's something to remember this morning.

He had walked contrary to the will of his earthly father and he was out and his life was a mess and we remember that the Bible says there in Luke, I believe it's 15 and verse 17 that as he was there in that pig trough he came to himself he had a recognition of where he was and we said that the problem with Laodicea is they don't recognize what their need is so this morning as we are reiterating where we are in this revival and reformation series, we want to remember that hopefully that each 1 of us is recognizing individually what our need is today.

No matter where we think we are in our spiritual walk, we need a Savior.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit more as we continue on.

But that recognition brings us to a point, remember the recognition brings us to a point, that young man went back to his father and he wanted to repent and turn away from the mistake that he had made.

Recognition and repentance are the beginning of revival.

And you know, it's interesting, as Acts 5.31 tells us, that only Jesus can bring repentance.

You see, repentance comes from Jesus, revival or recognition comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

God is the 1 who is moving in our lives and in our hearts to bring about revival.

But you see, the part that we all play is as we prayed this morning, to have that heart that's open and receptive for Him to be able to speak to us.

So we looked at the seed of revival last week, then we saw that as we come to repentance, as we start turning back towards the Lord, as we start turning our heart toward home, then we begin to have a desire to understand His will.

We want to know, God, what do you want to do in my life?

And so we begin seeking to know his will, and we discovered that learning to follow the instruction book is the most important factor.

Prayer and study that leads us closer to Him and gives us direction to His will, following the instructions.

You see it is only in that true obedience that we will find joy and peace.

We live in a world where people are never happy, they're never content, they never seem to have peace in their heart, and it's because we are struggling so much to keep up with the world that we forget that the only peace there is is found in Jesus alone.

We must learn to follow the instructions.

We are talking about revival and reformation and the 2 work hand-in-hand.

If you have revival without reformation, you will end up having a false revival where people will just be living off of a feel-good feeling, and they'll be saying, oh, as long as we love Jesus, as long as we worship Jesus, everything's going to be great.

But on the other hand, if you have reformation without revival, then you have just a set of legalism or forms and people are actually turning their forms into their religion.

The 2 must work hand-in-hand and we've read this quote many times but again to keep it in your mind I want to remind you again Inspiration tells us in Review and Herald, February 25, 1902, revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening or coming to life or reactivating of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death.

So a revival means that at 1 point there was some spiritual life in us, is that right?

At 1 point we had that first love, at 1 point we were seeing that we needed Jesus, But you see what happens so often, and the problem that Laodicea has, is as we begin following along that path, and we begin living an upright life, we start looking at how good I'm doing as I'm walking along in life, and we stop forgetting that we still need a savior.

We still need Jesus in our hearts and we think that we've done it all on our own.

Remember when Peter was out walking on the water?

Peter was accomplishing an impossible task, wasn't he?

But you know that he stopped looking at Jesus and the minute he took his eyes off Jesus, he sunk.

Brothers and sisters, that's the way life is with us.

Sometimes it may take you a little bit longer to sink.

But sooner or later you're going to go under if you don't look to Jesus and hold on to Him.

She carries on now and she says that Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices.

In other words, when revival comes into my heart, I become a new creature.

And we're going to talk about reformation more, but we have to build on the understanding that revival brings reformation.

Reformation doesn't come before revival because if it comes before revival, then it's not from the heart.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they were whited sepulchers.

Oh, they looked great on the outside, but they were wicked, filthy on the inside.

And what Jesus is looking for is someone who is clean from the inside out.

They not only reflect him and look like him on the outside, but when somebody searches deep inside the heart, when the doors are closed and nobody else is around, they're still reflecting Jesus in their thoughts, their words, and their actions.

Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the spirit.

Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work, they must blend.

So we are talking about revival and reformation.

So as I talk to you about the first aspect of revival, Don't even think that we're not going to get to Reformation because we are, because they have to work hand in hand.

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If You Love Me…

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