RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

The Personal Life of the Evangelist: Holiness
I want to talk to you about a specific aspect of revival. In every great revival its always been a part of it .. and in fact it’s been at the very center of it. But let me go back and just maybe give some more definition about what revival is.
If I could tell you what revival is .. revival is simply .. as we get to know God .. it’s that time where God moves and works in our lives that draws us closer to Him where we walk with Him in a new way and a fresh way.
Well, revival is not an end in itself. Evangelism is not an end in itself. The end is the glory of God .. the end is the purpose of God. It’s what God .. the path that God places us on and one of the most important things for us to understand is that when God works in us, it’s not because he is trying to put us down or convict us of something .. make us feel bad. God wants us to be on the path of his purpose in life.
Now, the question is, “What is God’s purpose?” Well the book of Hebrews talks about pursuing peace with all men and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now that word holiness is a .. maybe a religious term or biblical term that many people don’t understand and we kind of get afraid of it. But holiness is a wonderful thing. Because you see holiness is the process which God begins in us when Christ comes into our hearts.
Because, you see .. He is the holy one. There’s only one who is really holy. And that’s Him .. Jesus. And that word holy means set apart. He is in category all His own. He is perfect. He is absolute goodness. He is total righteousness.
Now when it says to pursue holiness, that simply means we’re pursuing that image of Christ in our lives. The life-long walk .. path that we go down is one of pursuing to become more like Jesus. And what I can tell you is, as an evangelist, my goal is not to preach to the most people or to win the most people. My goal is to become like Jesus. Everyday I want to become more like Jesus. I want my family when I die .. I want my children to remember that their dad was like Jesus. Not perfect – but in the process and he was growing.
By the way, this is a never-ending process. You never arrive at that point where you say “Wow .. man .. I’m there, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.” No – all through my life I am trying to grow and become more and more and more and more like Jesus.
Uh, there was a pastor – and I told you yesterday about the revival in Romania, and the pastor who God used to bring that revival into Romania and he taught the people to pray as I mentioned to you yesterday.
But there was another thing he did, he preached a very simple message and here it was, “The repenters must repent.“ You see in Romania during those days, Christians .. believers .. people who had come to know Christ were called repenters. And that word repent just means one who has had a changed heart, a changed life. And so those who had come to Christ .. their lives have been changed.
But this was his message, those of us who have been changed must continue to change. We must continue to grow into the image of Christ. Every day I want to become more like Christ. And when Christians caught that vision, in Romania – that’s when God sent the revival. And in fact, the church actually entered into a covenant of repentance and within six months of that time, two hundred people were baptized. And by the way, during those days under Communism, it was very dangerous to be baptized. But two hundred people came to know Christ during those days because people were being changed.
As the Christians were changed, as they grew, as they were becoming more and more and more like Jesus, the world saw what was happening in them and they were attracted to what God was doing.
It doesn’t mean that you are perfect – it doesn’t mean that you have arrived. But it means that you are in the process of being changed. So the pursuit of holiness is simply coming to God and saying, “God search my heart, try me, show me if there is something that’s not pleasing to you.” Anything .. and all through your life you need to be doing that. And when God brings something to your mind .. when God shows you something that’s not pleasing to Him, confess it and let God cleanse you of it.
Let God search your heart. Pray that prayer today. Would you do that? Just Search my heart, oh God! Try me and see if there be anything that’s not pleasing to you.