Staying in the ZONE!
Philippians 3:12-14
A young girl became a Christian in an exciting revival at her church and was baptized the closing Sunday morning. That afternoon she ran through the house singing and dancing. Her sour grandfather rebuked her with these words, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You just joined the church and you’re singing and dancing on the Lord’s Day!” Crushed by her grandfather’s attitude, the little girl went out to the barn, climbed up on the corral fence, and observed an old mule standing there with a sad, droopy face and bleary eyes. As she reached over and patted the mule sympathetically, she said, “Don’t cry, ole mule. I guess you’ve got the same kind of religion that Grandpa has!”
We all have heard the saying “In the zone” as pertaining to someone who is doing whatever they are doing to perfection and consistently. You hear it when someone can’t miss a basket, they throw a ball up and it goes in the hoop no matter where.
I think that after Paul had his experience with Christ on the road to Damascus was “In the zone”. In our text we hear the words of Paul saying the he was not perfect, but he was pressing on, or staying in the zone.
And this week, for those of us who attended the Revival, we have been in what I call, “In a zone”. We are on the mountaintop. We are on a Spiritual high, and rightfully so. We have experienced the presence of God in a way like no other in my time as your pastor.
So when something goes well I always try to look back and evaluate what we did right. And as I thought about this, I really can’t give a blueprint answer. So today I thought I would just give a review of what happened and what needs to continue to happen to stay, “In the zone”.
Was it the speaker?
Now I love Wayne, and I enjoyed the messages, but in his own words, “I have preached these same sermons elsewhere and not received the same response”. That is the way it is usually with most evangelists, God gives them a message and they can use the same message for several different places.
With being a pastor, you probably would not like it if I would use the same sermon within a few weeks apart. I’ve thought about doing it sometime, just to see if you are listening. I know the message that I originally planed to give today and still plan on giving some day was entitled, “I can’t get no satisfaction”. My wife Hope informed me that I had already done that sermon, but really I just have used the title before, not the sermon.
Another Revival that came into my mind was with my first Revival as your pastor over 4 years ago. We had Don Kinder with the theme of, “Don’t put God in a box”. And we experienced the presence of God then also. People were getting saved, lives were being changed, and it was defiantly a Revival to remember. But sense that time, we have had brother Don back twice, and yes we had decisions made, but never quite made it to the bar that was set on the first one. Don and I talked this week and we both agreed that we have never surpassed the bar that was set on that first meeting. Same speaker, not the same results.
So even though the preaching was good, I don’t think the speaker was what caused us to get “in the zone”.
I think being receptive to the speaker and the message is a part of it.
You want to fuel the speaker, be the cheering section. Just like a ballgame, if you have the fans into it, then it gives the team the energy to do their best. Now you might be thinking, for the fans to be into it, then the team has to do something to get them into it. I agree. But if you turn the speaker off by not paying attention or falling asleep, then you might miss when there is something to cheer about. Now as one of the speakers, I have to do my part. But you need to realize that not every sermon is intended for you. We all have different needs and different circumstances. But we are to encourage one another.
So we can stay in the zone by being receptive to speaker.
And another thing that is part of the reason I feel that we experienced Revival is my next point.
Was it the music?
Now this is the first Revival that we used the same group every night. Usually we have a variety of music from within and outside of the church. And I enjoyed the music this week. Summer sings like an Angel. But we have had a lot of good singers in this church and even have some remarkable talent within the church.
I think music is a big part of worship and a big part of preparing our hearts and minds to receive the message. That is what I was talking about with the speaker part. I can feel if the Spirit is here when I get up here or if we are just putting in our time. Coming to church, doing our good deed, then leaving here without even receiving anything out of it.
That is why when we sing a song we need to realize that we are singing to God. Think about it. Would you get excited if you thought that you were going to have an opportunity to meet someone special? Maybe it would be some famous singer, or maybe our President. Maybe some famous sports figure that you admire. We would be excited wouldn’t we?
So why don’t we get as excited as we sing or listen to singing because we are entering His presence.
Psalm 95:1-3 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God. And the great King above all gods.
This week we experienced a time of worship in music before we heard the message. We were in the zone before the message was ever delivered. Our hearts and minds were ready to receive the message from the speaker. And we can still do the same thing. We can enter into the zone by singing praises to our great King and our Lord the great God.
Was it the preparation?
I have heard some say that they feel that it was the preparation that was done, to till the ground per say, to prepare us for Revival. Now I believe that had a part in it, but not the total reason for it. We may have averaged 20 adults here on Wednesday nights when we did our lessons on preparing for Revival, and of those, not everyone was here for all of them.
Maybe it was a fire that started, and then spread to others, I’m really not sure. Some remarked that it was Richard Lipscomb who started this, and I do believe that Richard expressed his approval of the preparation to his Revival. In Richard’s own words, “His Revival started the Wednesday night before the Revival started on Sunday”.
So if it was a part of it, I want to review those four lessoned we did on Wednesday nights for those who do not know what they are and as a reminder to those who do, so that we can all continue to stay “in the zone”.
We referred to a rope and how it is made up of many strands. And when those strand have pressure applied then they in fact grow stronger by pulling closer together to the other strands. Christians as well when they endure stress can become closer together as well. So in order to stay in the zone we need to rely on these four stands as well.
1.Revival through giving
When a person hears about giving to a church, the first, and sometimes only, thought they have is money, and that immediately strikes a bad chord with many. But it is not just the giving of our finances.
Malachi 3:7 tells us, Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. “Return to Me, and I will return to you”, says the Lord of host.
What does that mean? It means that we have the responsibility of going to God first. And once we go to Him, He will respond by coming to us.
I think the one thing that hinders God from sending Revival is actually brought about by us; specifically our inability to obey. In verse 7, it tells us that we have not obeyed God. It goes on to give an example of how we disobey Him. He said for us to give, and we don’t give. And since we have disobeyed Him, we hinder His ability to give us His blessings.
We need to give of our finances. Just as your home has expenses, God’s house does also. We need to give of our time. There are 168 hours in a week, how much of that are you willing to give to Him? We need to give of our talents. God gives you a talent; use it. Sing a song, keep the nursery, teach a class, mop the floor, there is something for everyone to do. Another way we can give was not mentioned in the preparation, but I feel was a big part of the Revival. Give a testimony. Don’t stand up to be seen or heard, but if God gives you a word, give it. It blesses me and others I’m sure.
2. Revival through praying
2 Chronicles 7:14 If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and PRAY and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Fervent and persistent prayer has always been of utmost importance to God’s people. It talks about the disciples in ACTS 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brothers.’
They were “continually in prayer”. These men knew the importance of prayer and they devoted themselves to it. We need to start a habit of prayer. We need to schedule a time of prayer. Not before a meal, not as only in case of a emergency, but as a daily time of prayer. Daniel had a habit of prayer 3 times daily. He would open his window and pray to heaven, and he not only survived the Lion’s den, he was victorious in it with the leading others to Christ.
After Daniels victory in the Lions den, King Darius wrote in Daniel 6:25-26, I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God,
You need to have the proper prayer. You do this by affirmation. Affirming that He is God. He is reverend and all-powerful.
You then confess. Rid yourself of any sin that hinders you from entering His presence.
Then give Him thanks. So often we go to prayer to ask Him for things then we forget to thank Him for what He was done.
Then we need to finally pray with supplication. Just as Jesus prayed before His own crucifixion. “Not my will but thine be done”. His will, His way, and His time.
3.Revival through fasting Jesus said in Matthew 6:16 Moreover, when you fast… This is one of the over looked commandments I believe in today’s time. When we mention the word ‘fast’, most people just think about going without food and getting really hungry.
However, when we fast and pray, we enter into the presence of the Lord like at no other time. When we fast and pray, the depth of our faith grows strong and steady. And it is this faith that can produce miracles in and around us. And the fourth stand for Revival is…
4. Revival through Communion We are to receive the blessing of Communion, but the only way to do that is to reconcile ourselves with the Lord. And we cannot do that without realizing that we are no better than anyone else, and we cannot afford to harbor any ill will towards anyone else. Communion offers us the chance for complete restoration, which is no less than a complete healing from the disease of sinfulness with which this sinful world infects each one of us.
There is one more thing that we did to get “In the zone” and we need to continue to do to stay “in the zone”.
We met on a daily basis. So am I saying that we should meet every night to stay in zone? That certainly would help, and in the first Revival we read in the book of Acts 2:46 So they continued daily with one accord in the temple…
We had great attendance every night of the Revival. And there are so many times that we think that we can stay “In the zone” by just coming to church on Sunday mornings. Do you just eat once a week?
What I am trying to say is that we need have our daily bread. We need to try to come to God’s house every time the doors are open. We need to come to Sunday school. We need to come on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. Instead of coming to church because we feel like we have to, we need to come to church because we love our Lord and we want to.
We need to pray on a daily basis. I’m talking about spending quality time in conversation with God. You don’t have to church to hear good singing. Listen to the right kind of music during the day. Joyce will tell you that. She put in the CD and cranked up the volume and she had church right there in her house.
The same is true with being feed by the speaker. Sometimes instead of being served, you need to go to your own spiritual refrigerator and feed yourselves. It is our daily bread. Have breakfast or lunch with another Christian. Have close Christian friends. Lift up and build up one another.
Roger on Sunday night told a story that really made me realize just how important it is to not just put on Christ on Sunday’s but to put on Christ on a daily basis. And here is how the story went. There was a chief of a tribe who had two dogs, a black one and a white one. And on every Saturday he would take his two dogs and fight them. The rest of the men from the tribe would gather around and place bets on whether the chief’s white dog or the black dog would win the fight. Every Saturday they would place their bets and after everyone else had placed their bets, the chief would place his bet. But the chief would never loose. If he would bet on the white dog, the white dog would win. The next week he might bet on the same dog or he would change to the black dog, but either way, he never lost a bet. He was asked one day how he knew which dog would win the fight. He replied, “It’s simple”. If I want the white dog to win, I won’t feed the black dog for three days before the fight. If I want the black dog to win, I won’t feed the white dog for three days before the fight”.
So what dog are you feeding? If you are feeding the flesh you lose the zone. Or are you are feeding the things of God and staying in the zone.
Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things.
