Revolution Requires Revelation
Growing up, you might’ve heard a phrase that says, “whenever you point the finger, know that there’s three pointing right back at you.” It’s a good reminder that before we judge other people, we first need to deal with ourselves. So, have you dealt with you? The feeling to judge someone else is innately human. For whatever reason, we like to hold people to God-like standards that we don’t even live out ourselves.
1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (NIV). In order for us to understand how to get through life, we have to first understand where our standard for living comes from. If the standard is Jesus, then things like grace, forgiveness, love, and understanding shouldn’t be conditional. They should be things that we’re able to freely give. But, more often than not, our humanity gets in the way.
Let’s look at this practically. If you were to listen to a sermon on forgiveness, do you feel a deep conviction to repent, or do you think of all the people in your life who are unforgiving? When you read scriptures about not judging others, do you sit and apply that to yourself, or do you point the finger at everybody else? When you hear the word grace, do you extend it out of conviction, or is that the expectation for everyone except you? If God’s word preaches to others before it preaches to you, that lets you know that there are some internal wounds that need to be healed.
If you were to break your leg tomorrow, you’d go to a doctor to get the surgeries or treatments you need. Did you know that your mental, emotional, and spiritual health deserve that same level of attention? Most of us aren’t walking around with broken legs, but we are walking around with broken hearts, crushed spirits, and all sorts of wounds that other people can’t see. And, unhealed wounds that haven’t been submitted to God can be detrimental to our purpose as followers of Jesus.
Whatever pain you fail to deal with, ultimately, becomes the place you live out of. Unhealed church hurt turns into resentment and criticism of your new church. Constantly being told you weren’t good enough as a child, unaddressed, can lead to a life of insecurity as an adult. Getting your heart broken by someone who claimed to love you can cause you to assume that everyone has bad intentions. Hurt people, hurt people.
Moral of the story: An unhealed church is an ineffective church. And by the church, we mean each of us as individuals who make up the body. Why? Because we can’t show a broken world that Jesus is the answer if we’re just reflecting more of the same. To see our communities, our cities, and our world saturated with the presence of God, we have to allow the Holy Spirit to do the internal work that is necessary in each of us to show up as the healthiest version of ourselves.This means staying rooted in the word of God. This means continuously asking God to search us for anything that doesn’t look like him. And this means being in a constant rhythm of repentance, knowing that we as humans have blind spots, therefore we need Jesus to bring things into full view.
Have you dealt with you? As we continue on in this week, let’s challenge ourselves to be more aware of the things we can let Jesus heal.
Watch the full message “Revolution Requires Revelation” from our LEADER-SHIP series on YouTube.
Sunday’s Set List:
Fall | Free Worship
Gold | Jesus Culture
