Revival - Romans 12, 1-2 // 4 October 2026

I um I think we really got somewhere as a congregation as the worship went on, but there was just a time throughout the service that the end of the first song and then the the next song after that where we didn't know whether we were clapping or not clapping.

I think it's sometime really important to to understand what our posture is meant to be in any given moment.

So can I invite everyone to stand, please?

Is that okay?

I want us to have a posture to receive now.

And I think when we have a posture to receive, we stand, we you know, we spread out our uh our body and we hold our hands out.

So if you want to receive something this morning, because I know God's got something for us this morning, let's let's hold our hands out in anticipation to receive, and and I'm gonna pray for us.

Dear Lord, we lift the time we have left together this morning up to you, Lord.

We pray that your voice will cut through.

We pray that there would be an eagerness in us to receive your word, both the encouragement of it and the challenge of it.

I pray that we'd wrestle with your truth, but surrender in obedience.

Lord, let us have a heart to receive now.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

You guys are allowed to sit down now.

It's okay, thank you.

You know, when we uh when we looked ahead at this series on revival, we plan to go in a very different direction today, but I felt that last week God breathed something of life into this room.

And I was praying on it at the start of the week, and I felt like a deep conviction that we needed to stay in that space and expand on that more.

So I asked a couple other people to pray about it, and they felt that same conviction.

So it doesn't matter where we were going, those were our plans.

We're trying to be obedient this morning to where we're meant to be.

And we're gonna go back to that word from last week that we had, which was to keep the fire burning.

Keep the fire burning.

That word came from Leviticus 6, 12 to 13, which is the fire on the altar must keep burning.

It must not go out.

Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the offering.

The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously.

It must not go out.

So we tried to expand on that last week, but that comes from a moment in time where the Israelites were in the wilderness.

They're wandering in the wilderness, and they would set up their camps, and when they set up their camp, they would set up a tent in the middle of their camp, which was known as the tabernacle, which was God's dwelling place, because God wanted to dwell among his people.

And at the front of that tent there was a courtyard, and in that courtyard was an altar where they would do the burnt offering.

Now it's the fire on that altar that the priests are being asked to keep burning.

Now the burnt offering was a whole offering, it was the whole animal, and it was an offering of atonement to reconcile God's people with God.

The animal paid the price for man's sins so that we could be right with God.

Now, the priests were asked to keep the fire on this altar burning.

What I didn't mention last week is man did not start that fire.

Man did not start the fire that the priests are asked to keep burning.

Let me let me read how the fire started.

It said, Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting.

When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all people.

Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering.

And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.

This fire on the altar was a divine emergence.

The priests were asked to keep something of God going, not something of man.

And so we were challenged that that fire that we're meant to keep burning is something we have today.

We're meant to keep the fire burning today.

Now, when we through faith and repentance gave our life to Jesus, we had a water baptism, which is the mark, a moment in time where we are now followers of Jesus, and it's to celebrate something that happened publicly.

But we also know that we don't just have a water baptism, we are baptized in the Holy Spirit because God promised us a gift, which is his spirit that dwells in believers.

So when you choose to be a follower of God, you have a fire ignited inside of you.

Something you didn't light yourself, something that is a divine ignition.

It's the fire of God that burns within you.

That is a divine bridge between you and God.

That is the indwelling of God in people.

There's no tabernacle anymore, there's no temple, there's you.

You are the presence of God.

You hold the presence of God.

You're not God, you hold and contain the presence of God within you.

The Holy Spirit that burns within you is to guide you, teach you, encourage you because it wants you to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

The Holy Spirit that dwells within you brings God's presence, God's passion, and God's purity.

Is that not exciting?

We gotta keep this fire alive.

And so with that in mind, we actually have some warnings in the New Testament when it comes to keeping the flame alive.

In Ephesians it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

The Greek translation here explains that you can cause the Holy Spirit to feel sorrow, pain, unhappiness, and distress by your choices and actions.

We're talking about sin.

However, when we're talking about sin, there's some layers to sin because there's the intentional act of sin and the unintentional act of sin.

So let's let's think about the intentional in uh in a minute because we are in a constant process of uh sanctification throughout the rest of our life, which means that every one of us, myself included, are going to have a revelation in the days ahead of something in our life that is a sin that we shouldn't be doing that we need to change.

We're either gonna have that from the encouragement of another believer, we're either gonna have that from the revelation and the conviction of the Spirit or the revelation of God's word, but we have unintentional sin in our life that we are currently not aware of, so we're not intentionally committing it.

However, where we grieve the Holy Spirit is when it comes to the intentional.

The things we know we shouldn't do, the things we know we shouldn't give ourselves to, the things we know we shouldn't speak, the things we know we shouldn't get involved with, that is the intentional sin.

And when we choose to do that from a place of knowing we shouldn't, that's an act of rebellion and defiance.

And that can only come from a defiant heart.

And so when it says you can grieve the Holy Spirit, it's from that place that you grieve the Holy Spirit.

And you know what it feels like when you're grieving the Holy Spirit?

It feels like you're at odds with something inside of you.

It feels like you're at odds with something inside of you.

Galatians explains it the best because it says, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit of God.

So the flesh is our makeup before God.

We desire what is contrary to God because we want to compromise, we want to conform with the world around us.

But the spirit is in contr conflict with the flesh because it desires the things of God, and it's in conflict so that we desire the things of God.

So when we intentionally move in the spaces we're not supposed to move, we grieve the Holy Spirit.

We're at odds with the Holy Spirit.

Now let's be really clear and open and honest about something.

The Holy Spirit is sovereign, we are not.

So if we feel at odds with the Holy Spirit, I guarantee you the Holy Spirit's not the problem.

If you're feeling at odds with the Holy Spirit, at odds with something inside of you, it's not the Holy Spirit that's the problem.

We have to ask ourselves, what is creating that compromise?

Are we conforming to the things of God or are we conforming to the things of the world?

But there is a compromise and we need to examine the motive behind that compromise.

But it's not just that you can greed the Holy Spirit.

Thessalonians said we can quench the Holy Spirit.

Because when we choose to not move in the Holy Spirit, when we choose to not obey the Holy Spirit, when we choose to reject the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we quench the Holy Spirit within us.

We dampen the power of God within us to actually refine us, change us, transform us.

And like we said last week, we put the wrong things on the fire and we get smoke.

And smoke suffocates the oxygen, that divine bridge between us and God.

You can't harm the Holy Spirit, but you can quench it.

Now, we need to understand this because we're meant to keep something of God burning in us.

It's not going to go out, but we can suffocate it.

And so the priests had these three things they were instructed to do to keep the fire alive.

And the first thing they were instructed to do is every morning they were instructed to put wood on the fire.

They were instructed to put wood on the fire.

We all know why they're putting wood on the fire, because fire needs fuel.

So at the start of every day, they put fuel on the fire.

Your flame needs fuel.

We all know what that fuel is.

We know that fuel is reading the Bible.

We know that fuel is prayer.

We know that fuel is worship.

We know that fuel is praise.

We know the importance of the body of Christ to that fuel, doing some of these things together, having that spiritual connectivity.

You know fuel is also going out and proclaiming Jesus to other people.

There is something that is fueling the fire inside of you when you go out and share the good news with others.

We know what that fuel is.

And the early church was devoted to that.

Now we know that fuel is essential for keeping the flame alive and helping us to build deep roots of faith in us, but it's also awesome.

There's nothing better than when you're reading the Bible and God gives you a revelation, something you haven't seen before, you have this aha moment.

It's not just essential, it's awesome.

However, there's a problem.

It's called the guilt trap.

And some of you might be feeling it right now because some of you might be like, I don't read the Bible enough.

I don't pray enough.

I don't worship enough.

I don't praise enough.

And you might be feeling that guilt, that condensation.

Some of you might be going, I can't, I've tried, I've tried so hard and I can't, I keep failing.

Or maybe you feel felt convicted on a Sunday before and you're like, I'm gonna start this new devotional, I'm gonna start this new commitment, and you're like, I keep starting these things and I don't finish these things.

Or maybe you're actually really committed.

You're like, I'm praying, I'm worshiping, I'm reading the word.

But even in that, it's so small in comparison to everything else I do in my life that I don't even feel like it's making a difference.

What you found yourself in is in the guilt trap.

And the guilt trap is real, it creates distance between you and God because you hear these voices in your head that condemn you and distort the image of who God is to you.

So instead of being under His love and His grace, you go, I've got to earn it, and I'm not earning it enough because I'm not doing it enough, and and you're you're stuck in this trap.

And that trap's not bringing you closer to God, it's bringing you further away from God because it's a lie.

Jesus is the once-for-all offering.

You didn't earn your salvation, you can't earn your salvation.

It's something that was done in his name because of who he is.

You're under his oak tree of righteousness, you're under his grace.

This fuel for the fire is not about earning something from God.

See, Jesus was an offering of atonement.

We offer gratitude.

We can't earn it, we're under his grace.

And so that's why these three things the priest did to keep the fire alive, I think is important because the first one is what we all know: that we need to add wood to keep the fire going.

But the next thing the priest did once the fire was going and the heat rised is they made an offering.

They made an offering.

You see, that was what the word was last week that we need to expand on today.

Is it was a burn offering, it was a whole offering, it was the whole of the animal.

And this part's important because Romans 12 1 says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Everything, every part of us is an offering.

All of it, everything we think, everything we feel, everything we do, it's all going on the fire.

We are a whole offering.

There's no compartmentalization, there's no separation.

Don't let the world fool you that you have a sacred and a secular.

When you gave your life to Christ, you became spiritual and spiritual only.

When we think we compartmentalize, we're just believing a lie.

God doesn't take our spiritual bits and ignore the rest.

We are a whole offering.

All of what we are is going on the fire.

And when we understand this, it's transformative.

Because we stop the separation.

You see, the second part of this scripture, first part was to understand we're a whole offering, but the second part is do not conform to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

I think it's really important that in these two verses about offering and renewing our mind, it says holy and pleasing.

Do you know when they made the burnt offering, it created an aroma that was pleasing to God?

It's not just because we're smoking meat.

Alright, but it's I thought that.

Thanks, Katie.

Thank you, thank you.

The rest of you.

Come on, guys.

That was a good one.

I knew as I said it I shouldn't have.

But when they made the offering, it said it was a good and pleasing aroma.

It says here that we are meant to be an offering that is holy and pleasing to God.

The renewing of your mind starts with understanding that everything is going on the fire.

Every aspect of our life is going to be fuel, and some of that is going to be fuel that helps the fire, and some of it is going to be fuel that dampens the fire.

It's going to create smoke and it's going to deprive the oxygen.

But if we can renew our mind, we have a mindset shift about how we respond and approach everything else.

You see, some of us think we don't have enough time for the fuel of God because everything else is a distraction.

But when we understand everything else is an offering, that shifts how we treat everything else, and we don't feel like everything else is competing and distracting us from what we're doing over here.

There's actually an overlap.

See, Colossians said, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord.

First and foremost, I think some of us here need to hear our life can be a pleasing aroma to God.

I think some of us don't feel that right now.

Some of us don't feel that our life can be a pleasing aroma to God, but your life as an offering can absolutely be a pleasing aroma to God because God cares about your commitments.

God cares about your relationships.

He cares about your rest.

The things, these are things that matter to God because you matter to God, and He doesn't want to just exist in this fuel side over here.

He wants to exist in your everything because your everything's going on the fire.

You see, Jesus was our example.

He was God revealed.

We become followers of Jesus to become more like Jesus.

So if we look at Jesus as an example, he knew how to live life.

He hung out with his friends, he went to parties, he went to weddings, he went to gatherings, he had dinner parties, he had a good time, he rested when he needed the rest.

He said, the enemy comes to kill and destroy, but I have come to give life and life to the fullness.

So if that's our example, we can experience life to the fullness because our example shows us a situation where he could experience the fullness of life, the commitments of life, the relationships of life, the rest of life in step with the Holy Spirit.

So how he did it glorified God.

So we can live through the commitments and the expectations of our life in step with the Holy Spirit, so that this everything that we once saw as a distraction is something that is actually glorifying the Lord.

Some of us need to hear that this morning.

Some of us need that breakthrough.

Some of us are so torn because it's like the Bible, all this stuff, it's just it's become this jaw because I can't find the do-it, and and then we feel such separation from everything over here.

But the reality is, this is all the same thing.

It's all going on the fire.

So we're doing this so we can go over here and test and approve what is God's will so that we do this in step with the Spirit and it glorifies the Lord, not us.

We gotta stop living different lives.

I mean, let me tell you how it works for me.

I don't expect God to operate in the boxes I create.

I don't expect God to talk because I've created a prayer time.

I don't expect God to minister because I've created a church box.

I wake up with the anticipation and the belief that He is gonna move throughout my entire day.

That the Holy Spirit is gonna do his thing through my entire day.

He is gonna speak, he is gonna guide, he is gonna reveal, he is gonna disrupt.

And all I'm praying for in the morning is that I have the obedience to hear and do.

You see, prayer is not like a light bulb.

We turn on our prayer time, we turn off our prayer time.

If we have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of us, then everything you're doing, every minute of the day, you're doing it with the Spirit.

So why don't you do it in step with the Spirit?

Come on.

This shifts everything.

He's gonna speak, he's gonna guide, he's gonna reveal.

But we've got to keep our hearts soft towards God.

We've got to keep Him soft towards God.

As I said before, Jesus made the sacrifice, the offering of atonement.

Your offering is one of gratitude.

Gratitude keeps our hearts soft towards God.

If you want the fire of God in your life, you need to understand that He consumes the sacrifice.

It's gonna cost you the tangible, but you're gonna gain the intangible power of God.

Now, God can move in our life and it can become a pleasing aroma.

That is true.

We can learn to do the things in our life, the commitments, the full aspect in step with the Holy Spirit.

But in learning to do that in step with the Holy Spirit, it said in the scripture that we would test and approve what is God's will.

So we are an offering.

It's all going on the fire, but we also need to make a sacrifice.

As we do this, we're gonna understand the things in our life that is the will of Scott or the will of whoever, the will of you.

And we're gonna understand that that's gotta be sacrificed so we can move in the will of God.

Because when we go into our workplace, when we go into our commitments, our relationships, our rest, our everything, we want to do it in the will of God, not the will of us.

And so that's when we got to make a sacrifice.

We've got to die to the things in our life that are not in line with the will of God.

Because the intangible power of God comes with the cost of the tangible.

So to keep this fire burning that we didn't start, we need to add wood, we need to make an offering.

But the last thing the priests did is they removed the ash.

You see, what's been burnt has been burnt.

But it leaves behind ash.

And ash can't build up because that also chokes the fire.

So the priest had to remove the ash so the fire could breathe.

You know, the reality is the scripture says, I think so graciously, it says, so you can test and approve.

The scripture takes into account, although your whole life is an offering to God, there's gonna be mistakes.

We're gonna fall short, we're gonna get it wrong.

Things that shouldn't go on the fire are gonna go on the fire, they're gonna create smoke, they're gonna burn up, but they don't have to be a forever consequence.

You see, we can burn the wrong fuel, we can smoke out the room, we can suffocate the divine, but we're not condemned forever by our choices or our mistakes or our shortcomings.

We're just called to have a repentant heart.

So when the wrong thing gets burned up, we can confess.

1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful.

He is faithful, guys, and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

You know what that says?

It means you're not called to live with your mistakes, they're not going to be held against you.

So guilt, condemnation, that's not a part of moving in and out of grace.

But the ash of those things needs to be taken away.

You see, the flame is still alive, but the evidence is still there.

But you can't remove ash if you don't accept that it was a problem.

So if you can't accept I burnt the wrong thing, I did the wrong thing, this wasn't intentional, you can't take it away.

So we've got to have a repentant heart that's able to confess I fell short, I got it wrong, I put the wrong thing on the fire, and however I got out of it, that ash needs to be removed so I don't put myself there again.

Again, we're not talking about the unintentional, we're talking about the very intentional.

I'm gonna wind down the sermon now.

I'm gonna ask the band to come back up, but I'm not gonna get off the stage yet because I um think one of the reasons we came back to this is because we needed more chance to respond to this.

You know, last week I talked about how when we put the wrong fuel on the fire, it creates smoke, and smoke suffocates the oxygen of our flame.

It doesn't put the flame out, but it suffocates it, and we feel this cloud between us and God.

And I talked about how when you have a wood burner or a fireplace and you get that smoke, sometimes you can get underneath the smoke to the embers and you can breathe on that fire, and it can push the smoke out of the chimney and ignite something.

And what I what I felt God was saying is that we needed to experience that divine breath in our life.

So many people have come to me this week and told me I needed to hear about the divine breath.

I need the divine breath in my life.

I need to feel God just breathe into my life right now.

And what's that's telling me is there's a room full of people that are looking to be revived.

Looking for something to shift, something to change.

That divine breath that you're looking for, that you're wanting, that you feel you need, comes from surrendering.

When we surrender to worship or we surrender to prayer.

Who's ready to surrender this morning?

Who's really ready to surrender this morning?

Why don't we stand?

We're gonna move through the motions of this for a minute.

I feel that there was people last week that heard about that analogy about the smoke and feeling choked up and felt like I need that breath.

I'm stuck.

I've been putting the wrong thing on the fire.

I'm feeling this cloud between me and God.

This guilt trap is distorted, the reality of who he is and who I am to him, and that divine breath that you spoke of.

I need that in my life.

I need a revive.

Just push that out so I can get back on track.

Well, we're gonna have a prayer team up here this morning, but I've also asked for a prayer team to be rogue because I don't think we all have it in our hearts to come forward, but I think there's people here right now that are feeling like I need that the brine breath.

And if that's you, just put your hand up.

Because they'll come to you if you step out into the aisle.

We don't need to be scared.

Don't worry one minute about what anyone else thinks.

Because as the body of Christ, we should only have a heart of encouragement towards each other.

So if you feel like you need that divine breath in your life, I want to pray for you right now, and people want to come and pray with you.

Just be brave, surrender, put your hands up.

There we go.

We got some hands up.

So the prayer team is going to come around.

Let's pray for them right now.

Dear Lord, we lift these people up to you, Lord, and we pray that they'll feel your divine breath.

They'd feel your divine breath right now.

In their situation, Lord, they'd feel your hand upon them, Lord.

That that that guilt that had hold them down would no longer hold them down, Lord Jesus, that they would not feel like they need to earn your love or fight for your love.

Instead, they would embrace your grace and they would feel revived.

We pray for them now.

But as we're praying for them, I know there is people in this room when I said that your life can be a pleasing aroma to God.

Every aspect of your being, right in that moment, said, Not my life.

You do not know me, you do not know what's going on in my life.

There is no chance I can be a pleasing aroma to God.

You're wrong.

And if that's you, put your hand up now because I want to pray for you.

If you want your life to be a pleasing aroma to God, put your hand up.

If you're saying, I can't see how it could be, I need help, put your hand up.

Come on, don't leave today with this still on you.

This doesn't have to be on you.

The enemy wants to condemn you, the enemy wants to take down your self-esteem.

But God wants you to know that you are a son and daughter of a king, that he loves you.

So put your hand up, people pray for you.

I'll pray for you now.

Right now, I pray for those people in the room who don't feel like their life can be a pleasing aroma to God.

I pray right now for that divine breath on that situation.

That they would understand that they are loved, that they would understand that they can move in step with the Spirit in their life, that by pursuing your will they can glorify you and they can be wholly a pleasing to God.

We pray for ministry upon them right now.

I'm gonna do one more and then I'm gonna get off the stage and let us worship.

Some of you are hurting right now, some of you are bitter, because some of you have given me the face when I said intentional sin and unintentional sin.

Because there are people in this room right now that are at odds with the Holy Spirit in their life, because what they've given themselves to, what they're doing with their life, they want to keep doing it, but they know the Spirit of God is on their heart saying, uh-uh.

And so you you you're way behind compromise, you're now being held bondage by your choices.

The Lord wants you to hear us morning what is done can be undone.

What is done can be undone.

Who has something in their life that like undone this morning?

Who has some chains that like broken in their life this morning?

Put your hands up, surrender.

This was to receive, this is to surrender.

The Lord wants to break every chain this morning, his divine breath wants to be upon those who feel like they are being held in bondage, that that the people will know and believe and feel what is done in their life can be undone.

Lord, we just now offer ourselves up to you.

Let us make an offering of gratitude this morning.

Refine us, minister to us, let us surrender now in worship.

We're not finishing, we're only just beginning.