Elevate - Survival to Revival

The speaker talks about the need for revival and renewal in our relationship with God. He shares his personal experience of coming to faith and witnessing a revival. He emphasizes that revival starts with individuals and their hunger for God. He discusses the difference between survival mode and revival, highlighting the symptoms of being in survival mode. He urges listeners to examine their spiritual condition and seek a deeper connection with God. The speaker then explores Psalm 143, where King David cries out to God in his state of survival mode, feeling depressed and distant from God. The speaker encourages listeners to assess their own spiritual hunger and prioritize feeding their spirits for a vibrant and thriving relationship with God. We need to be revived. We need to be renewed. We need to be awakened. We need to be refreshed. We need like a cold splash of water on our face or a cold drink on a hot day that brings strength and life back to you. We need we need to be refreshed and revived. Do you want that? Do you want that vibrant relationship with God that you once had but just doesn't seem to be there anymore? Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DeQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. It'll be 26 years this year since I came into a relationship with Jesus Christ. I grew up in church. My parents did the right thing. They drug me there. Doors were open. I was there. I did Royal Rangers. I had the patches. I did all this stuff. But I made a decision to follow Christ in 1997. It was in the midst of the Brownsville Revival. I wasn't living down here. I was in Pennsylvania at the time, but I came down here just to be a part of what God was doing. There was so much life within me and so much life all around me. The church that I was raised in, that I started going back to with my family, they were in that same revival place. I watched my parents just change overnight. God was doing some amazing things in their lives. There was just such a sense of life. Let me tell you something. What happened in Pensacola during that season, some of you may remember it. Some of you weren't even born yet. We've seen God do things like this in different pockets. But I want to tell you something. When God pours out His Spirit in a region and it begins to spread, which happened for that particular revival, it didn't just happen randomly. It's not as though these people were just moving along status quo and all of a sudden God just did something. There was a cry that was coming from the people that were in that church at the epicenter of what God was doing in that season. What we've just seen with the Asbury Revival at the Asbury Bible College in Kentucky, they're in a stadium now, or an arena, and they are still continuing with that revival. That did not just all of a sudden happen. There was a cry and a hunger and something internally that was taking place that brought about this incredible move of God, and it didn't start on a corporate level. It started individually right here. Right? So I don't know how many of us are in this room, maybe a hundred of us, right? It's going to start with a hundred people experiencing that revival in their hearts first, in their lives, before it ever can manifest into something where all of a sudden this place is on fire and people are seeing it from everywhere and they're coming in and lives are being touched and lives are being changed. And so I was birthed in this, and this is just what's been on my heart, and so this is what we want to talk about today. Now if you haven't noticed, in the last probably 20 to 25 years or so, TV television has been largely dominated by the idea of reality television. I think the particular reality show that really took the world by storm when it first came out about 20 or so years ago was the show called Survivor. Does anybody remember the show Survivor? I think it's still on. Yeah, some of you probably still watch it, and it features a cast of everyday ordinary people out in the wilderness, and their job is to survive. They have to survive harsh living conditions. They have to survive these games and events that they make them do, and at the end of every week they have to survive a vote and hope that they don't get voted out of the show and off the show, but that they survive to stay on the show, and survival is the name of the game. The idea of surviving, it's a skill that is very instinctive for us to keep going in the face of terrible odds, to keep breathing in the worst of conditions. Many of us have learned how to survive life. In fact, people have said life is all about survival. We're surviving our jobs, we're surviving our marriage, we're surviving our children, and everybody said, but too often we are also surviving in our walk with Jesus. We're in survival mode. We're breathing, but we're on life support, just surviving, and today I want to tell you that life is about so much more than survival, because God wants you to experience not survival, but revival, and so that's what we're going to talk about today is moving from survival into revival, and so we're going to look at Psalm 143, and this is King David, and he is crying out to God when he was in survival mode. Okay, we're going to begin in verse one in Psalm 143, and it says this, Lord, hear my prayer. Listen to my cry for mercy. In your faithfulness and righteousness, come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. The enemy pursues me. He crushes me to the ground. He makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead, so my spirit grows faint within me, and my heart within me is dismayed. Hear this cry that's coming out of David's... well, it's coming off of his pen, but it's coming out of his mouth, right? He is not in a good place. He's comparing himself to the faithfulness and the righteousness of God, and he realizes that he falls exceedingly short, but then to add insult to injury, he feels as though he's under constant attack by the enemy around him, like he's got a target on his back. He says, I've been crushed, right? He's been crushed to the ground, ground into dust, and then he says he's dwelling in darkness like somebody who is dead. This is what he's saying in the scripture. It sounds to me like David is depressed, and he's not living currently in the light that he has experienced in the past, and we have a lot of David's life recorded for us in this book, and we know that David experienced a lot of high moments, and we know that he's experienced that in the past, and he's not feeling that right now. The darkness feels to him as permanent as death. I don't know if I'll ever feel any differently than I do right now. Does that sound familiar to anybody? I know I've felt this way. A little vulnerability moment for you. The isolation of the pandemic that began three years ago, coupled with the devastation that it inflicted on our church, our church family. I felt much like David. I found myself in this same place, like God, how much more can I take? How much more can I stand? God, where is the light? Because my soul feels dark and hopeless, and David says in verse 4, he says, my spirit grows faint within me. My heart within me is dismayed. This depression, this sense that David is feeling, it's not just something that we feel in our bodies. It's not just something that is taking place in our minds, but our very spirit is hanging on for dear life. He says, my spirit grows faint within me. My heart is dismayed, and he's in survival mode, and we've been in that place where we've just been so isolated, and we've just felt like we're in survival mode, and our spirit grows faint, and we're just surviving. So what does that look like for us today? How can we diagnose ourselves and determine whether or not we are in survival mode? Well, for us, it would look like, hey, I'm coming to church. You know, I still give a little bit in the offering, and I'm exercising some self-control, and I'm not going crazy and getting involved in all these crazy sins, and I'm living a good life. You know, I'm nice to people. I'm doing my best, but my prayer life is a wasteland. It's a chore for me to simply read my Bible or to pray. Sharing my faith, that's out of the question. Take up my cross and follow Jesus and be ready to die to myself and all that I want and all my desires. Yeah, that's a little bit extreme for me. I'm happy. I'm happy with my spouse and our couple of kids, and I like our vacations and our nice cars, and so I'll focus on those things, but come attend a prayer service or come to the altar or worship throughout the week. Like, yeah, that's just not me. Like, everything's good. Right, I'm coming. Come to church. I say hi to a few people. I say some Christianese words. How you doing, brother? Oh, if I was doing any better, it would take two of us to enjoy it. Right? We say all that stuff. We do our duty. We live good. We're nice. We're happy, but yet what's really going on? There's just nothing else. There's no life. There's no life that's actually happening with us in our spirits. There's nothing drawing us into the presence of God. There's not the thought of Jesus in the morning as I awake, and my mind is not on the things of God ever. I haven't cracked open my Bible in a month. I haven't shared my faith in four years. All right, I look good. Everything's fine. I feel okay, but let me tell you, you're in survival mode. I got the basic functions going, but there's no real life. And listen, guys, this is about our want-to. This is about that thing within us, because when your want-to is in the right place, it's so much easier to follow Christ authentically and be that person that is living in revival and not just survival. But sometimes the pressures of life, they bring us to that place of survival. We just get busy. We get bogged down, right? But oftentimes, we find ourselves in spiritual survival mode because we've allowed our spirits to just kind of come to the brink of death because we're not feeding it. I mean, it gets a little bit of food. I don't know about you, but I can't live on just a little bit of food. But we've given our spirit a little bit of food, but it's not really enough to sustain vibrant and thriving life like we still do in the church things, and we still come to the service. But really, what we're getting is just scraps, not like the smorgasbord of spiritual food that we were devouring when we first came into our relationship with Jesus Christ and we were young in the Lord. Now, let me just stop here. Do you remember? Do you remember when Christ first came into your life where you said yes and all of a sudden a switch was flipped inside of you and it was the only... it consumed you? You remember that? That time when we first fell in love with Jesus? For some of us, for many of us, that only exists as a memory. And we don't even realize it, but we're in spiritual survival mode. Let's move on in Psalm 143. In verse 5, David says this, I remember the days of long ago. I meditate, right? I think about it. I think about your works and I consider what your hands have done, right? We do remember. We do remember what it was like to be in that revived place, to be in that place where we were just awakened in our spirits. Jesus changed our lives. We couldn't get enough of His Word. We loved being in church. We loved hanging around with the people of God. And the moments that we had of worshiping God were the most joyful moments of our day. And it wasn't just on Sunday. We worshiped in our cars and in the hallways and on the streets. The name of Jesus was on our lips. It was the first name on our lips when we woke up in the morning and it was the name of Jesus was the last name on our lips when we went to bed. We would stay up late for hours, not watching movies, not partying, not hanging out, but talking about the Lord with people who felt the same way that we felt. Do you remember that? And through that, we saw God moving, right? David said, I think about the works of your hands. I think about what you did. And we remember we saw God's moving. We saw that we were being transformed right before our very eyes. Our life was changing. We saw God setting free and healing and breaking through and delivering in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. So what happened? Somehow we found ourselves in survival mode. And I think that if we all kind of think about who we would like to be as a follower of Christ, if we picture our ideal for what a follower of Christ would look like, we would say, well, this is someone who is excited about Jesus every day. This is somebody who witnesses the people and shares the gospel. This is someone that does not struggle to get up in the morning and spend time with Jesus and read their Bible. This is somebody who has a vibrant prayer life. This is a person that gives generously to the work of the church and to the poor and to God's kingdom. This is a person that serves people and loves people at their own personal inconvenience and loss. This is a person who lives a life that is pure and disciplined. Right? That's that ideal. That's that perfect believer that we all kind of wish that we were. We know what we want. We know what it's supposed to look like. But when we hold that up against who we actually are, we realize that we pale in comparison to that ideal Christian that we think that we ought to be. Am I talking to anybody today? And so we're holding on to this remnant of what we once were. We believe we know God is faithful. We know what he is capable of. We know that we should be in the word. We know that we ought to be worshiping, but somehow the want to that internal motivation, somehow that want to is gone. And now we find ourselves in survival mode. And you know the reason, you know why that want to is gone is because we keep trying to be that person. We've gotten inspired at times, you heard a good message, had a nice time at the altar, you got inspired and you're like, I'm going to be the best Christian that I can. Right? But then we find that we fail over and over again. Like how many journals do you really need to buy in order? You know, I'm talking to some of you in this room. This journal with the nice picture of the cross on the front and the lines in it with a date and a little scripture at the bottom, that's the one that's going to really turn me on and get me, get me going for the Lord. Right? We try, we set our alarm for an hour earlier and we get up for a week and then all of a sudden we find this news button again. Right? We've tried to be this person. We've tried to be that worshiper. We've tried to keep our mind on Christ, but it just keeps on going to other things. And then we fail at it. It's because you know why we can't, we can't be that person in our own strength. We can't do it through sheer discipline. You're not going to whip yourself into shape to be the revived Christian that, you know, you want to be. I'm just telling you, your flesh is weak. My flesh is weak. But that person that you, that you hold as the ideal believer, that person, that person is a manifestation of Christ working through you. It's not you trying real hard to be that person. Because here's the goal. We're trying to be like Christ, right? Isn't that what the Bible tells us? That we ought to be transformed in the image of Christ. Be like Christ. Can I tell you something? You can't be like Christ by just trying real hard. Christ has to manifest through you because you have opened your heart to such a place where He is so big in your life that He is manifesting Himself and now you are like Christ. Because He's coming out of you. You can't do that in your own strength. And as He revives us, it's His life that begins to live through us. So we know what kind of Christian we want to be, that we ought to be. But in reality, I just can't get to church more than once or twice a month. I haven't read my Bible in a while. I haven't shared my faith in a while. Our want to is gone. The light has gone very, very dim within us. The passion has died and we've kind of just gotten used to survival mode and it's become the status quo. We're just kind of there. We're not unhappy. Right? We're doing okay. We've got our things. Our marriage is okay. We've got enough money to take care of stuff. I like my church. Right? This is good. Life's good. But the light has gone out. The passion has died. And we may not even realize that we're in survival mode. And every time we try to be that person and we fail, it creates so much shame and guilt. And we feel less than and we feel like we've disappointed God and that He's done with us. All right. Now, let me just stop here because I have painted a picture, a kind of grim picture, of what it looks like to be in survival mode. Now, many of you may be doing better than this bleak image that I've presented to you today. But we know that at some level, we can relate to what David was going through. And what I'm talking about today, we know we can relate. We know it to be true at some level for most of us. We're surviving in our spiritual walk, but we can't describe it as thriving. We can't really look at it and say, yes, my spirit is revived and awake. And this is just... I'm living in revival. We need to be revived. We need to be renewed. We need to be awakened. We need to be refreshed. We need like a cold splash of water on our face or a cold drink on a hot day that brings strength and life back to you. We need to be refreshed and revived. Do you want that? Do you want that vibrant relationship with God that you once had, but just doesn't seem to be there anymore? Or maybe you've never had it. Maybe you grew up in church and you just kind of always believed, but you never really felt alive. It's always just kind of been a struggle. Or maybe you've recently come to faith, but the fire has never really blazed within you. And it's just kind of been coming to church, and I like what's going on here, and I like these people, and I like being here. Wherever you are, wherever you are or whatever your story is, the question is today, do you want that awakening in your life so that you have been revived by the very Spirit of God? Do you want to move from survival to revival? I hope that you do. Let's keep reading. We're in verse 6 now of Psalm 143. This is David. He said all this stuff about his plight and how he feels, but then he says this, Now here's where things start turning around in this chapter. David is no longer simply acknowledging his plight, but now he's reaching out to God. He's reaching to God. He spreads out his hands and he says, Lord, I'm thirsting for You. Lord, I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. I'm thirsting for You. Lord, I'm thirsting for You like a parched land. Listen, if you are in survival mode in your life, let me tell you something. You are thirsty. You may not have your want to. You may not feel like you can be passionate for God ever again, but your spirit is thirsty. It needs refreshing. It wants God like a person in the desert that longs for an oasis of refreshing. You may not even realize it, but your spirit is thirsting for more of God. Have you ever been hungry? That's a stupid question. Like ravenously hungry. But eating doesn't quite seem to take that hunger away. You know why that is? It's because you're actually thirsty. You don't know you're thirsty, and you're mistaking your thirst for hunger. And so you fill up, but what your body really needs and wants and has to have is water. It needs a drink. It's thirsty. And our lives can be like that. Our spirit is so very thirsty, but we're mistaking it for hunger, and so we're filling up on everything but God. We think we probably should pray, but instead we turn on the TV. We think that we should get up and spend time with the Lord, but yet, we hit the snooze button instead. We think that we should probably be sharing our faith, but we find something else to do on outreach days. We think we probably should tithe, or that maybe we ought to give something, but we just don't want to let go. And we're mistaking our thirst, our spiritual thirst, for something else. We're mistaking our thirst, our spiritual thirst, for God, for hunger, for entertainment, and for possessions, and for mindless distractions, and we're filling up on that stuff, but what we really need is God, because our spirit is so thirsty. Do you hear what I'm saying? And like David, we've got to come to a place where we recognize that we're thirsty. So very thirsty. Thirsty for His Word. Thirsty for His Spirit. Thirsty for His presence. Not hungry for the stuff of the world, and not hungry for the stuff that just makes our flesh feel better, but really thirsty for God. You ever hear anyone say, we all have a God-shaped hole in our heart? You know what? That's what we're talking about. Nothing can fill the void except for more of Him. I know it sounds trite. It sounds like spiritual wisdom from a can, right? You know there's a God-shaped hole in your heart, but I'm telling you, nothing can fill the void like Jesus. I'm telling you, you'll never be happy because you watched all of Breaking Bad. It's never going to fulfill you in your life. You'll never be happy because you watched Better Call Saul, but it might be a good show, but it's not going to fulfill you. Disney World is not going to fill the void in your life and quench the thirst that's in your life. Another vacation to Pigeon Forge. Another car that you buy. I've got a Beemer in my driveway now. I've got a Mercedes in my driveway now. Yay! I've done it! That's not going to fill you. But yet we keep going after it. It's like a bag of chips. My goodness, you ever say to yourself, I'm just going to have two or three... bags, right? But we do that in our lives. It just never... We just keep going for more, and we keep going for more, and we're trying to fill something. We're trying to quench the thirst that's there, but we're trying to fill it with the wrong things. We're trying to fill it with the wrong things. But Pastor John, I just don't feel like... I don't feel it. I don't feel passionate about God. I'm not internally motivated to do these things, God. My passion is gone and I feel nothing. I don't have my want to. What am I supposed to do? I can't change how I feel. Good. That's a good place to be. You recognize it. Now let's do like David, David wasn't feeling it either. But let's look what he says here. Beginning in verse 7, he says, Answer me quickly, Lord. My spirit fails. Like he's crying out to God like, God, I'm thirsty. I need more of You. But You better answer me quickly because my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I'll be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I've put my trust in You. You see this cry? He's like, God, I'm thirsty for You. Maybe tomorrow morning when I wake up, it's going to bring me word of Your unfailing love. Something's going to change. Maybe in the morning, because I'm putting my trust in You right now and I'm crying out to You right now. So I know, God, that You're going to show me. Show me the way, for I trust You with my life. Verse 9, he says, Rescue me from my enemies, Lord, for I hide myself in You. Teach me to do Your will, for You're my God. May Your good spirit lead me on level ground. For Your namesake, Lord, preserve my life in Your righteousness. Bring me out of trouble in Your unfailing love. Silence my enemies. Destroy all my foes, for I am Your servant. This is David's earnest plea that basically says, I can't do it, Lord. I need You to do it for me. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website, AuthenticLife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church, to find out what we have going on, or to make a donation. You can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DiQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.