Open up your Bibles to Isaiah 66 where we've been at, we've been talking about
about revival is, and specifically coming at it from the angle that if we
if we can create a dwelling place and a place of where God can rest, revival is inevitable. Meaning
that it's going to happen. We don't have to focus on all the other things. If we can be a people
that our hearts would burn for the Lord with first love. And those that burn for the Lord in first
love, you're bound to create a resting place for the Lord. I mean, just think about it in your
marriage. If you truly burn with love for your spouse, whether it's for your husband or whether
it's for your wife, when you're burning with love for them, you're going to do everything
that is within your power to have them enjoy coming where you're at. I mean, am I not right?
Or do I have marriage not figured out yet?
I think I can say I'm pretty confident in what I'm saying.
My wife and I do everything that is within our power, because sometimes there is things that
are out of your control to make somebody's place. But I mean, sometimes you can do A, B, C, D, E,
F, G and go down the list and that spouse comes home and they're still crabby. That's not really
on you. So they just probably had a bad day. But revival is something more, and I said
this last Sunday, but revival is something more than just the signs and miracles and wonders,
though that is a layer in revival. Revival is more than just mass salvation, though that is a layer
in revival. I'm talking about biblical revival right now. I'm not talking about some fathomed
up or we had revival. Did you really though? Because biblical revival has layers to it. And if you
want to call it a biblical revival, then you have to have these layers within it to be able to claim
that you had a biblical revival. Revival is more than just a bunch of people getting
delivered and set free and filled with the Holy Ghost, though that's a layer in revival.
Revival has layers in it if you actually study it in the scriptures and you look at the first revival
that we see in the book of Acts. There is layers to revival, but at the core, the core of what
revival is, and I said this in my first few messages, the core of what biblical revival is.
It is a people who are revived in their first love or to their first love onto the Lord,
which then causes them to create a dwelling place for their God. That's biblical revival.
And then all the other layers actually come with it. I promise you, listen to me, listen
to me, I promise you. And why I make such a confident promise to you is because you can find it
in the book of Acts. I think it's chapter four. Listen to me. If we are a people or can be a
people that would love God with our first love and create a dwelling place for him here, mass
salvation will come by the hundreds. You're saying, how can you say that so confidently? I think it's
Acts four. That the fear of God fell on the early church. And guess what? It says thousands
were added to the church that day. Not one or two thousands were added to the church that day.
Because Peter stood up and the eleven with him and they just gave the gospel.
They gave the gospel that cut the people deep to the heart. In other words, Peter stood up
with his first love onto the Lord and he preached the gospel to the people.
And the Bible says they were cut to the heart and thousands were added to the church.
So at the core of revival lays first love, a people that have first love onto their God.
And with that first love, they are creating a dwelling place and a resting place for God
to come and dwell and find pleasure and rest. That's revival. And all else follows.
The signs and the miracles and the wonders. They followed the apostles. Why? Because they
were just madly in love with Jesus. That's it, friends. That's it. There's layers to revival.
And at the core of it, I've searched it. I've looked at it from this angle. I've looked at
it from that angle. I've looked at it every which way. And I find this one thing.
A people that are living and walking in first love onto the Lord.
Yeah.
Lives laid down. They've counted the cost. They have found him worthy. And they're willing
to do anything for the sake of knowing him.
And what's interesting is that when you know him, you cannot not make him known to other people.
It goes hand in hand. That's like me being a mechanic.
Me being a mechanic, it just comes out of me. I talk about cars. I talk about motors. I talk about
bolts, nuts, and engine hoists, or whatever you want to call it. It comes out of you naturally.
Do you know how you can detect what your first love is? One way that you can detect what your
first love is. It's what you talk about the most. For from the depths of the heart, thy mouth speaks.
And I'm talking about talking not when you're around certain people. No, when you're around
your wife and it's just you and her. What do you talk about the most? Are you talking about
the problems? Are you talking about work? What is at the forefront of your conversations
with the people that you are the most comfortable with? Because remember, it's easy to be a Christian
on a Sunday. It's super easy. You just put on a nice Brazilian shirt and you put on some nice
cool shoes. It's easy, friends. It's easy. But what about when nobody else is looking?
What about the conversations that you're having that the church people are not seeing?
You can detect what your first love is of that which you talk about the most. It's at the forefront
of what you talk and more than that what you think about. So Isaiah 66 gives us three things
of how to create a resting place for God. If you think about it, it's very simple.
It is very simple. The reason why we have complicated it, the reason why we find it hard,
the reason why we don't see it happening is, I can just tell you one word. There's many more
too, but I can just tell you one word. We're selfish. That's it. That's why it's hard.
That's why we don't see it. That's why we've complicated it because we're selfish.
I'm guilty of it just as much as you're guilty of it.
Do you know why I say that with such confidence? Because if the Apostle Paul,
who by the way had an amazing resume, I mean just read 2 Corinthians, I think it's 2
Corinthians chapter 11 and chapter 12, read the Apostle Paul's resume.
And if the Apostle Paul made this statement, I have to crucify my flesh daily. That tells me
if he was selfish and he had to crucify his flesh daily, that means I'm selfish. And I
have to crucify my flesh daily. Don't think that you're just because you've grown a year that
that's it. You're like selfishness is nowhere. Friend, do you remember in my message I said,
you might be so humble that you don't even pronounce the word H. You're just humble.
We have to crucify our flesh daily. Every time I get into the presence of the Lord,
whether I'm alone or wherever it is, I'm with him and I see him and then I see myself in him
and I'm like, wow, I got to die to some things.
And it's not a bad thing because the world and the church world has portrayed it in a bad thing of
like, well, just be self-care. Just take care of yourself. And going down, listen, the best self-care
you can have is to be found in the Lord. Why? Because he said he who loses his life will
actually find it. You don't fill churches. You don't fill conferences. You don't fill
Bible schools with the teaching of death to self and bearing your cross. You just don't.
And it's very unfortunate that you don't because it's such a remedy. It's such a truth
and the depth in there that we cast it aside because we've misrepresented it or it hurts
our selfishness. See, I'm going way like this way, but I think we're tracking somewhere here.
Isaiah 66, the three things that create a dwelling place for God, which I desire for
us to have here as a pastor, that is like at the forefront of my heart.
I want us to be a church that has such a dwelling place for the Almighty.
This is my heart. It is. That we would have such a dwelling place for our God in this place.
Man. Oh, I'm just going to stop there. No, no, no, I'm going to go.
That we would be a church that is so, has so created a dwelling place
for the Lord that when new people come, they leave
so in love with Jesus that it changes their life. I'm meaning literally changes their life.
That when they walk through the front doors of our church and they come through the vestibule,
into the foyer, into the hallway, through the doors of the sanctuary,
that there would be such a resting place for God here that the love of God would just abound
and it would rest and these people would come and they would be like, what is this?
And God would confirm his word like the Scripture says with signs and miracles and wonders.
I desire for people not just to come and have an experience here.
I love when new people come. I love when new people come. But when the new people come,
I don't want them just to come and say that was a great church. That was a great experience.
I want them to come and be so touched by the love of God that when they leave, they're never the same.
And as they're here, that word, the word of love would be confirmed with signs and miracles
and wonders. That's my heart for this church. We went through, God says on these ones I look,
who is poor and of a contrite spirit, we went through those and just today I'm going to just
going to scratch it a little bit due to time. I'm going to scratch the third part where he says,
I look on those who are poor in spirit, contrite in spirit and who tremble at my word.
God looks at people. We're talking about, I say this a lot because I'm really trying to catch
you. I'm trying to drill this into your mind. The Genesis one God. I know I say that a lot.
I know I do. And I'm going to keep saying it because I want that to speak volume to you.
The Genesis one God looks at people. He gives favor. We can catch the attention
of the Genesis one God. He can be caught up with us.
You say, well, doesn't he love us already? He does love us already. But there is something about
an exchange that causes God to be moved and be caught up with the people that tremble at his
word. To tremble at the word of God is both, by the way, it's the, it's the rama word, which is the
spoken word. And I believe it's the logos, which is the written word. To tremble at the word of
God is, or I should say has more than just a physical feeling or experience to it. But there
is actually both a physical and an emotional thing that occurs when we tremble at his word.
It's both a natural thing and it's both a spiritual thing.
To tremble at the word of God, one meaning of it is to literally shake and almost like
travail. Like you ever seen somebody so scared because they saw a snake?
That was probably me. And you, and you shake in your boots. Isn't there a saying like an
American saying, he shook in his boots? Yeah? Okay. See, I got him. I've been hanging around
Pastor Vern long enough. I got him. To tremble at the word of God, one translation or one
meaning of it is to literally shake. It is, it is to travail at the word of God. Just,
just seek the scriptures and just, and look how many times that God spoke and people literally
shook. I mean, Paul, Saul at that time, was rocked by the word of the Lord, fell off his
horse, was blinded from what he just heard. We're talking about the prophets of old when
they would hear God speak and audible voice would speak. They shook and the scripture said,
they actually told Moses after God spoke for Mount Sinai, the people actually told Moses,
they said, no, no, no, you go talk to him. You go talk to him, Moses. And then whatever he tells you,
you come down and you now relay it to us because when you speak, it's not as trembling to us.
We're always wanting to hear the audible voice of God, which I think is an awesome
desire to have. It is. I think it's great for us to have a desire. I want to hear you God audibly,
but I don't think that in our full gospel circles, in our Pentecostal circles, we actually know what
that means. I honestly believe that. I don't think we know what it actually means when an
audible voice of God, the Father speaks to us and what it actually causes and the reaction that we have.
I mean, God speaks about his son Jesus when Jesus was on earth and his voice, the audible voice
of the Father, the scripture says the heavens split open. That's what his voice does.
And I'm not trying to bash anybody. Maybe some of you have had audible experiences. I don't know,
I'm not trying to bash anybody, but when I read the scriptures and then you hear people tell you
stories that they heard the audible voice of God, I question it not because I don't have
belief, but I question it because when I read the scriptures and I hear or see the audible
voice of God, the response is different and the occurrence is different than what people
share with me. And more than that, what actually follows up with it is different than what the
scriptures say happens to somebody that actually hear the audible voice of God.
So to tremble at his voice is to literally shake.
It is literally, think about it. I'm debating if I should share something or not.
I'll share it this way. I know a man who sought the Lord.
And when I say they sought the Lord, I'm going somewhere with this here.
They sought the Lord with such intensity because they wanted to know him.
What actually came out of the heart and the spirit of this man were these two things.
He said, I want to know you and I want to be and I want to make you known.
And there was a time in this man's life that when the Lord actually showed up, I believe
this man said that he even heard the Lord audibly. The Lord spoke to him and what
actually occurred or the result of that encounter, that audible encounter, what actually
occurred, aligns with the scriptures. And what I mean by that is that he was curled up in a fetal
position, travailing and trembling under the presence of God when the voice came and spoke to him.
But see, that's what I'm talking about. That's the trembling at the word. It's the
trembling at the spoken word, the rainbow word, and it's actually the trembling
at the written word. I mean, honestly, I'm just going to ask you, don't answer this,
but when is the last time that you read the scriptures that it cuts you so deep to your
heart that you actually trembled at what you read? When you actually trembled,
when you read about the holiness of who our God is?
When you actually trembled when you read about the wrathfulness of God?
When is the last time that people in the church have actually experienced the emotion or the
trembling of his word when we read the scriptures? But we read the scriptures as a chore.
We read it because we have to, and to some extent, there's truth there.
But I'm trying to show you a distinct difference on whom God looks and on whom God just sees.
And according to Isaiah 66, he says, I look on those who tremble at my word,
both the reyma, the spoken, and the written word.
He says, I look on them because they get it,
because they get the severity of my word. Do you know what the problem is? There's many
problems in the church, and we can list them on and on and on and on. But do you know what
one of the forefront problems is in the church is we've left the fundamentals?
This is what I mean. We have taken this right here. We have taken it too lightly.
Church, I'm telling you, we've taken this too lightly.
We've taken this book and our approach towards it, our view of it. We've actually taken it way
too lightly. And I think the reason is is that we've gotten way too loosey-goosey and grace,
grace, grace, and all this stuff. And we've gotten way too loose with the scriptures.
I look at the way that the generations before me, the way that they viewed the
scriptures, and the way that they handled the scriptures with reverence. Yet we, listen,
yet we now call that religiousness. You're just a Pharisee, no friend. That's actually
reverence onto the Word of God. We have now misinterpreted things. Let me share with you
something. The Lord told me this years ago. He said, son, He said, I'm going to cause you
to live such a holy life, which I'm on the road to it. I'm not there yet, but I'm on the road to it.
He said, I'm going to cause you to live such a holy life that people are going to call you
religious. Because we now interpret that which is holy. We now interpret that religion.
We have taken the very scriptures of God far too lightly. And you say, how do you,
how do you come to that conclusion? Very simple. Very simple. You ready for this?
We don't read our Bibles. We don't read our Bibles for what they're actually meant for.
We read them as a chore. We read them because, well, I have to. But we don't read them with
the heart burning of first love and trembling when we read the scriptures.
That's how I come to the conclusion that we've taken this book too lightly.
We've taken the very scriptures of God that He has spoken to us, that He has written to us
to read as an instruction manual of how to create a dwelling place for Him of who He is.
Why do we misrepresent Him? Because we don't read His scriptures. And when we do read them,
we read them for the wrong reasons. May our hearts be refined and purified when we're reading
the scriptures. Listen to me. May our hearts be refined by the Holy Spirit and become pure
when we read the scriptures. May we read them for the right reasons.
But God says, I look on those who tremble at my word.
You can't understand God and who He is if you are not caught up in His word.
You just can't. Friend, I can sit here all day long and I can tell you about my God. I can.
I can tell you about Jesus all day long. I can tell you about the encounters and the
different things of how the Lord speaks and how He moves and how He what pleases them,
what doesn't please Him. I can sit here and tell you all of these things, but unless, unless
you get into the scriptures, all you're doing with my words is you're putting on Saul's armor.
You're not holding your sling and your stones. You are actually wearing Saul's armor.
Unless you get into the scriptures, unless you tremble at the word both spoken and written word
of God, you will not have your sling and your stones. And when a Goliath arises, you won't
know how to take them down. You actually won't even recognize that that thing is defying the
name of God. He's mocking God, and you won't even recognize it. Why? Because the only Jesus you know
is the Jesus that is preached from the gospel or from the pulpit of your pastor.
But you don't know Him. You've only heard about Him as Job writes.
Are you following me? Are you following what I'm saying?
I desire to have this place be a dwelling place for God to rest, to dwell, and have pleasure in.
And it's going to take more than just the pastor. It's going to take more than just the worship
group. It is going to take us as a whole, as a body, to create such a place for God.
Each and every one of you are literally... I'm not just saying this to tickle your ears.
I'm being genuine and real with you. Each and every one of you are important to this local body
to create a dwelling place for God. According to 1 Corinthians 12,
all of us, to function together, to be in harmony in one accord,
to have God come and rest in a way that will blow our socks off.
To tremble at His Word is to have deep respect for the Word of God.
It is to have the most deepest respect
to what He has written and what He has spoken. You know what boggles my mind sometimes?
Is that we'll have a powerful service. I'm not zeroing anybody out. I'm just being very
transparent with you. I'm being real with you. But it boggles my mind sometimes that
we'll have a powerful service and we'll actually have a prophecy given, like God speaking.
And then you ask people in two, three days, what did God speak? Oh, I don't know.
I mean, it was like Pastor Vern got up and he prayed in the Spirit and then he said some
things. It's like, really? Where's the deep respect to what we just experienced?
But what happens, listen to me, what happens in our full gospel,
Pentecostal circles, is that we get so used to these things and they almost become like
mundane for us. And then we actually lose the aspect of trembling at His Word. We become numb
to the feeling of, that was God that spoke. That was actually the Lord that was instructing
us. That was actually the Lord that was speaking to us. Yet I'm so dull in my heart that I would
forget. And I would treat it as nonchalant and not even have the deep respect for what was
just spoken by God. Unless, unless we have a disbelief that God even speaks to us. That could
be another reason why people are like, well, I don't know. Do we not believe that God can speak to us?
I believe we're a church that is well established there. That God actually communes with us
on a day-to-day basis. We are not a syncretistic church. I said we are not a syncretistic
church. And what I mean by that is that syncretism is, well, God doesn't really speak to me. It's maybe
through somebody. No, we are not those people. Jesus did not pay a price for me to be somebody
that only can hear God through somebody else. No. The Lord paid a price for me to have access
into the Holy of Holies and to commune with Him on a day-to-day basis. That's the price
that the Lord paid for me. I don't know about you, but that's the price that God paid for me.
I don't have to go to a priest and do one of these and the Holy Blood. No. The price of Jesus
has paid for me to access past the veil, to receive past the veil. So to tremble is
to have deep respect. To tremble is to have high regard onto the scriptures.
The scriptures take higher priority, if you want to put it that way, than any other thought,
than any other situation, even though I don't see... I talked about this last Sunday,
even though I may not see the fullness of the scripture manifest itself in my life,
I don't let the high regard of the scriptures be taken away. Does that make sense?
Let me say it this way. If there's a situation that I'm facing and I'm not seeing the very
scriptures manifest in their fullness, that doesn't mean that now the scriptures become
lower than the situation that I am facing. I keep it at a high regard because that is one
who trembles at the word of God. I don't allow the pain, I'm not saying it's easy,
but I don't allow the pain that I am facing to now take precedent or to take priority
over what the scriptures actually say. Because the problem of why we're not
seeing the scriptures take full manifest is not the fact that the scriptures are now
dead and they don't work. It's the fact that we're lacking something.
There is something that we are lacking in why we're not seeing the scriptures in its fullness.
And with that being said, a lot of the times I feel like when people get into that stage
or when you say that, people are like, oh okay, so then it's my fault. Not necessarily your
fault, because God is not condemning you, but there is probably a piece to the puzzle
that you're missing that still needs to be found. I mean, think of it this way. Imagine you go to
Goodwill and you buy a thousand piece puzzle. You got it for 99 cents, steal of a deal.
And you bring that puzzle home. Obviously it's been open because you see duct tape
on it so you're like, all right, well somebody enjoyed it. It's my turn to enjoy it.
And you bring that puzzle home and you begin to put it together. A week goes by, a month goes by,
two years go by if you're me, and you're putting together that puzzle. And all of a sudden,
towards the end, you see that there is a few pieces that are missing.
Is it your fault that the pieces are missing? No. Why? Because you bought it used.
Now you are seeking whether you're going on eBay, whether you're going on Facebook,
whether you're going back to Goodwill. You are seeking high and low to find the pieces
of that puzzle to bring it to full completion. This is what I'm talking about when the
scriptures aren't manifested fully in our lives. It's not that the scriptures don't
work anymore. We're missing the piece of the puzzle and we are to seek high and low. We are to
knock at the door of heaven and say, Father, you said that you would make it known to me.
Father, I desire to understand that which I am lacking. It is my right according to what
your son Jesus paid for. It's to be enlightened fully of the scriptures, to understand what am I
missing to why I'm not seeing the scriptures come to full manifestation in my life.
Why God is this pain still greater? It's not that it's your fault and now God is condemning
you. No. Keep seeking. Did not the Lord say seek, ask, and knock? By the way, that's a
non-stop thing. You keep doing that. You keep doing it. And as you move forward,
you're going to face new things. If we figure God out in one generation, I don't want to serve
that God. I'm serious. If we were to figure God out in one generation, I don't want to know
that God. Every other God is an idol. There is one true living God and he is
far greater and far bigger. It's going to take us all of eternity to get to know him.
I'll hit one more and then we'll close out. To tremble at his word is to have awe and
reverence onto his word. The book of Hebrews is one of my favorite books in the Bible.
And do you know why? Because when you read the book of Hebrews, the author there
brings this comparison between Jesus and Moses and Jesus and Adam and Jesus and this and
all these things. Because Hebrews speaks about the supremacy of Christ.
That's literally why it's my favorite book. I love the Bible. I really do love the Bible,
all of it. But the book of Hebrews has been such a marking book in my life, even in my earlier
days of walking in the faith and in ministry. The book of Hebrews has been such a marking
because when I read it, there's new discoveries of the supremacy of who Jesus is.
And we tremble at the word of God with awe and reverence because this word speaks about his supremacy.
It's like when you read about somebody who's just your average Joe farmer
and you read about him and you're like, oh cool, that guy is, you know,
our attitude towards him or her is like, oh cool, that person was this. But then when you
read about somebody who's made an impact in history, have you noticed that our
heart posture towards reading those stories are different?
Have you noticed that? You read about somebody that's just an average Joe,
but then you read about somebody who's actually made an impact in history. And our heart posture is
there is this like reverence and awe, almost this respect that's due on to that individual when we
read about him. That's the attitude we ought to have when we read the scriptures. That's
trembling at the word of God. It's the heart posture that literally Jesus came and he shifted
history. Literally, you want to talk about history being forever changed? There is nobody who has
done it better than Jesus. The world was on a road of self-destruction and hell quicker than you
can say Mississippi. And the Lord steps in and literally changes the course and the history
of the universe to now redirect. Talk about history being changed. There is nobody that's
impacted history far greater than Jesus Christ himself. Literally impacted it through and through.
We still talk about him. I'm telling you, it's been thousands of years and we still talk about
him. Ain't that wild? You ever thought about that? Even those that don't like him, they still talk about
him. You know what's interesting is that those that don't like him talk about him more than
those that actually like him. It's a different tone. Yeah, it is. There's a little bit of
cuss words in there, but they say his name so much. And I'm like, man, you must really
want to get to know Jesus, don't you? Because every other word that comes out of your
mouth that follows the foul word is the name of my Lord. He has affected history so much
that literally even in secular, in secular shows and movies, they mock him. But guess what?
They're still talking about him. I'm not saying that's okay, but I'm just trying to give you
perspective of how much our Lord has actually impacted history. They talk about him. They might
mock him, but the answer, don't worry, is just like the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians.
He says, hey, are they preaching Christ? They might be preaching him out of self-ambition,
out of self-gain. He says, who cares? They're preaching Christ. They might be mocking him
in these movies and in these shows. And I'm not saying who cares, but friends, he impacted their
world so much, they're still talking about my Lord, the coming King who can't wait
to be united with his bride. He is waiting for the Father to say, go, son, go and get her.
Now is the time. That's my Jesus.
That's my Jesus. The Jesus that impacted history to that measure. I don't know about you, but that's my
Jesus. That's my Lord. Let's pray. I'll have you stand on your feet. Father, we thank you.
Lord, we thank you and we love you for what you have done in our lives and are still doing
in our lives. Lord, we thank you that you have enlightened our hearts to see the truth.
And we pray that we would be a people that would tremble at your word, God, that our hearts
would be changed and the posture of them would be changed of our approach to your word.
And cause trembling to arise for both your spoken and written word, my God.
We desire for this house to be a place of where you rest and you dwell and you are pleased with
and we understand, Lord, with our minds sobered and our hearts washed over by your spirit,
we understand, God, that we must tremble to have you rest in your fullness.
So help us, Holy Spirit. Help us, Holy Spirit, counsel us and lead us
in the mighty name of Jesus. Bless us as we leave this place.
Bless us as we leave this place. Show us yourself this week, Lord. I'm asking that you would
simply show us your face this week. Mark us. Touch us. In Jesus' name. If you agree, would you say amen?