Grace in Revival
Influencers is dedicated to Men, Missions, and Marriages. Orlando Sanchez has a special mission to minister to needy families. His food distribution ministry is flourishing during this time of Covid. After faithfully honoring God’s call to feed needy families for the last 33 years, God is blessing his ministry exceeding abundantly above all he can ask or think. In 2020 food donations to his ministry increased from 46,000 lbs per month to 200,000 lbs per month. His ministry has extended across the border into Mexico as he has been allowed to provide food to needy Mexican families. He recently signed a contract for a new warehouse in Stanton to store his over abundance of food supplies. Jesus said, “man shall not live by bread alone.” Orlando’s ministry distributes both bread to the needy and the bread of life, the Word of God to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness in Christ.
It’s important to get back to the basics….to what’s really important in our lives. All Christians are works in process. Even though we have been saved by grace through faith… born again of incorruptible seed, Philippians 3:12-13 says, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
As God’s works in process, in order to maintain our fellowship with our Heavenly Father, we need revival… a remedial refresher on who we are, where we are, and why we’re here… why we’ve been brought to this moment in time. The ultimate purpose is in Philippians 2:10-11, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Each of us has a story… As we reflect on our personal histories, our stories come into focus through the lens of His Story, for Jesus Christ is the cross-roads of history. Pastor Pete’s story began in Birmingham, Alabama where he was raised and attended church on Sundays like the other children in his neighborhood. As he grew older, he discovered sports. Competition became the driving force in his life. He realized that sports had become his God… his purpose for living. In his church, Pete was convicted of sin. When the preacher spoke, Pete’s guilty conscience compelled him to come forward to rededicate his life to Christ. Then each Monday he found himself engulfed over and over again in the sins of this world.
After high school, Pete was recruited by Auburn to play baseball where he excelled and became an all star. After graduation he played in the A league for the Detroit Tigers farm team in North Carolina. On a road trip, he and his team went to a bookstore. The book The Bobby Richardson Story caught his attention. Pete knew that Bobby Richardson was a famous player for the New York Yankees. Pete read that In Bobby’s third year of the minor leagues, he met a Christian ball player. Bobby realized that he could be both an uncompromising baseball player and an uncompromising Christian. The Bobby Richardson Story made Pete realize that he too, could be uncompromising as both a man of God and a ball player. Pete prayed, “Lord, I know I am not the man of God that you meant for me to be. Lord, please make me that man.”
Grace is the nature of God himself. Grace is God’s favor bestowed on the undeserving without the expectation that the recipient can make any payment in return. It is the unmerited favor given by the one who wasn’t required to give it to the one who didn’t deserve to receive it. Grace is dispensed by God through his gift of the Holy Spirit. Grace is contrary to our fallen sin nature.
In a marriage counseling session, Pete said to the husband, “You need to give your wife grace.” The man replied, “I hate grace.” He had built up a resentment bank against his wife. A resentment bank will break up any relationship. The world teaches that “you get what you deserve.” However, the Word of God teaches that grace transcends our own merit. Grace and Mercy are foreign concepts from the world’s perspective. Grace is a manifestation of the love of God. Love is the nature of God himself.
Pete recalls that early in his marriage, his wife Suzan said, “You’re going off to play golf again with your buddies. When will I get four hours of your undivided attention?” When Pete heard his wife’s complaint, he couldn’t get the car out of the driveway fast enough. As their marriage continued, Pete always anticipated spending time with Suzan on Tuesdays after she met with her Womens’ bible study group. He knew she would be in good spirits after she met with her Christian friends. One Tuesday as Pete was leaving for his tee time, she said, “Go out and beat those guys.” Pete almost didn’t play golf that day. Because of her gracious encouragement, he found himself wanting to spend more time with her.
Grace of God’s Holy Spirit focuses our minds on what’s really important. Grace is received only because God sent his son Jesus Christ so that we who were dead in trespasses and sins may be made the righteousness of God in him.
When Suzan approached Pete when he was playing ball in North Carolina after college, she told him, “I’ve met someone special in Mexico. His name is Armando.” They had broken up so many times before and Pete always flew into a jealous rage. She expected a similar reaction. However, she did not expect Pete’s gracious response. After reading the Bobby Richardson Story and dedicating his life to Christ, Pete had a profound change of heart. He had decided to give her grace. Suzan was surprised by Pete’s change of heart and she fell in love with the new man Pete had become. They were married a few short months after.
The story of Les Miserables is a story of grace. Jean Valjean desperately stole precious candelabras from the church where the parish priest had befriended him. The French gens d’armes caught him red handed with the stolen property. When they took him to the church to return the candlesticks, the priest said, “He didn’t steal them. They were a gift, in fact he forgot to take this matching golden candelabra with him.” This act of grace changed Jean Valjean’s life. The story of Les Miserables is the story of redemption through God’s grace.
A similar story of grace is the story of King David’s conviction after he had sinned with Bathsheba..
David had walked away from fellowship to the point that he no longer feared the Lord God Jehovah. God spoke to his prophet Nathan and told him to confront David about his sin. Nathan was reluctant to confront David. He knew that David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah murdered. God gave Nathan a story to tell David. Nathan told David about a poor man in his kingdom whose only possession was a precious little ewe lamb whom he cherished and loved like his own daughter. There was also a rich man in David’s kingdom who owned many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. A traveler came to the rich man’s house for dinner. Instead of taking one from his own flock, the rich man stole the poor man’s precious little ewe lamb, butchered her, and served her to his rich guest. David had been a shepherd as a boy so this story moved him deeply. The penalty for stealing a man’s sheep is to pay him back four times over. However David pronounced the death penalty when he said, “the man that did this thing must die.” Then Nathan stuck his finger in David’s chest and said, “You are the man.”
David was broken. When we fall from fellowship, God will call a brother to reprove and correct us. If you don’t find Nathan, then Nathan will find you. Correction is to restore to an upright position. Those who hearts are prepared for revival are ready to repent. They run TO the Lord not FROM the Lord. Jesus said, He who loses his life shall find it and he who finds his life shall lose it.
Psalm 51 is David’s prayer of repentance. This Psalm begins, “HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions…. create in me a new heart.”
The new nature of Christ in us the hope of glory will convict our hearts when we sin. The Holy Spirit will shed the light of reproof and correction when we fall from fellowship. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit, the comforter, will teach us all things that are true according to His word.
In the parable of the three stewards, the Master gave his three servants talents to invest while he travelled to a far country. To one servant he gave ten talents, to another five, and to the third, he gave one talent. …When the Master returned, the stewards to whom he had given five and ten talents, each doubled their master’s investment. The master said to each steward, “Well done thy good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little, I will make you rulers over much. Enter now into the joy of the Lord.”
The steward to whom he gave one talent said, “I know you’re a hard task master and you reap where you haven’t sown and gather where you have not planted and watered. I was afraid so I went and buried your talent in the ground. Here’s the talent you gave me…..” The master replied, “you wicked and slothful servant. You should have at least put it into the bank to earn interest. Give the one talent to my other servant who earned ten talents.”
The devil tricks men into turning their hearts against their Master. He had filled this wicked servant’s heart with fear, cowardice, and resentment. God blesses those who fill their hearts with the love of God to serve their Master with joy and faith. God never honors fear but he always honors faith.
In marriage counseling sessions, Pete takes notes while husbands and wives empty their resentment banks. He often takes three pages of notes as a wife recounts how her husbands has broken her heart over the years. Pete realizes that women are usually more committed to their marriage vows. Their sensitive hearts are easily broken by their husband’s inconsiderate attitudes and actions. Wives have such high expectations of the ideal marriage that the pain of their husband’s violations accumulate over the years. Each hurtful deposit has built up into a resentment bank. A wife’s turning point is when God says, “The reason I’ve shown you your husband’s failures is so that you will know how to pray for him and to show him the meaning of grace and mercy.” Suzan, Pete’s wife learned to never criticize, condemn, or complain about her husband. She filled her heart full of God’s grace and mercy. She held her husband to the higher standard of God’s gracious love.
It’s easy to get caught up into the “political correctness” of this world. The world indoctrinated us to think “what’s in it for me.” The world’s standard for interpersonal relationships today is, “I have a right not to be offended.” If I’ve offended them, I’m guilty of a “hate crime.”
However revival starts in our own hearts. Love conquers all. Grace motivated by the love of God is patient and kind. It is never rude, boastful, or proud. Love keeps no record of wrongs, is never resentful and doesn’t seek to get even. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes for the best in all things and endures all things. Love never fails.
Professor James Edwin Orr taught theology at a university. In the 1940’s he took his theology students to some religious sites in England. At the Epworth rectory they visited the home of John Wesley, an English reformer. Wesley prayed for revival both in England and America. The students visited Wesley’s house and observed the notebooks of his personal diary and meditations. They were in awe of the legacy of this Man of God whose ministry God used to change the course of history through revival in England and the United States.
One student noticed worn patches in a rug beside Wesley’s bed. The professor told the student that Wesley wore out this rug with imprints of his knees while he prayed for revival. Soon afterwards, the students met in the bus to to resume their tour. The professor realized that one student was missing. When he returned to the rectory, he found the student kneeling in the worn spots of Wesley’s prayer rug. The student prayed in tears, “Lord do it again. Lord do it again with me.” Professor Orr said, We’r leaving, let’s go. The student continued in prayer, “Lord do it again with me!” Then Billy Graham got up from Wesley’s prayer rug and left the rectory with his professor.
Our prayer is that there may again be revival in this land and that the revival would start with me….
…That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
