The Days Are Surely Coming, a sermon based on Jeremiah 31: 27-34 and 2 Timothy 3: 14 - 4: 5, preached on October 19, 2025

Just last week, columnist David French celebrated revival movements right here in the United States of America, yet wisely, he cautioned us to remember that there is a difference between a revival and a rally. He’s right about that. There is a difference between a revival and a rally. A rally, like a high school pep rally, is a celebration of what is right about us and what is wrong with our opponents, while a revival is always sparked, not by a self-righteous cause or a quest for victory, but a call to repentance. A revival causes one to look deep inside himself, and so the hymn that so defined the Billy Grahm Crusades was always: Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. I’ve told you before that I’ve answered the alter call, not once, not twice, but at least four times because even though I repented, I always retained that capacity to be tempted by sin, so I’ve gone forward to be washed in the blood of the Lamb again and again and again and again. I’ve felt that desire to be saved, so I know by the stirring I’ve felt in my own soul that revival begins not with the assurance that my cause is righteous and that it’s my enemy who needs the correction, but revival begins with the conviction that I must repent and be forgiven. There’s a difference between a revival and a rally, for a revival begins with repentance. In the months leading up to the Civil War, preachers in the North declared that God was on their side and would ensure the victory of their cause, while in that same moment, preachers in the South declared that God was on their side and would ensure the victory for their cause. That’s a rally. On the other hand was President Abraham Lincoln, who humbly said, “I just hope to be on God’s side.” My friends, I tell you that we must be wary anyone who stands from the pulpit or the podium declaring that our cause is just and that our enemy is evil, for the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires. Who will tell them whatever they want to hear, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and will wander away to myths. Those are words from our second Scripture lesson, and I hope that you know that those days are not just coming, they are already here. Already, there are too many preachers in our world who spend all their words telling their congregations what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear, which is a tragedy because revival begins not when we’ve been told that we’re just fine and our neighbors are the ones who have it all wrong. Revival begins when we stop pointing out the speck in our neighbor’s eye to deal with the log lodged in our own. Revival begins with repentance. Revival beings with that simple prayer: Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. My friends, you can tell the truth from the lie. While there may be those who will tell you whatever you want to hear, remember that the truth hurts while the lie goes down easy. There’s a great story told by author Anne Lamott. She was attending a women’s Bible study, and the leader asked the women to think of who has been like Jesus to them. “Who has been Christ like in your life?” she asked them. The first woman described her grandmother, who lived in a small house that was right on her way home from her middle school. In those days when she was a middle schooler and things weren’t going her way, she’d feel a nudge to stop by her grandmother’s house, and like magic, the moment she walked through the door, her grandmother would be pulling chocolate chip cookies from the oven. “We’d sit and talk, and she was like Jesus to me”, the first woman said. The second woman told the group about her golden retriever, always happy to see her when she walked through the door, which was such a comfort after her husband died. Around the table they went. Wonderful story after wonderful story, until the last woman at the table spoke. She had a different take on the question because she saw Jesus in a slightly different light. “Who has been like Jesus to me?” she began. “That’s a difficult question because based on what I read in the Bible, it has to be someone who was so honest with me that I wanted to kill him.” My friends, that’s the correct answer. And I want you to know the truth about the love of Jesus because the days are surely coming, indeed they are already here, when people will harm you by telling you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. Think with me about the friend who sat you down to talk about your drinking. Think with me about the friend who wouldn’t co-sign on your bologna. Think with me about the doctor who sat you down and told you that if your diet doesn’t change, you’ll have type 2 diabetes. One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard Fran Hammond say, and it’s hard to pick because I’ve heard Fran Hammond say so many funny things, was one day a friend of hers was telling her that her doctor had the audacity to say, “You need to lose a little weight.” “What am I going to do, Fran?” her friend asked. “Sounds to me like you need to get a new doctor,” Fran said. That’s funny because it’s the wrong answer. The voices who tell us the truth love us enough to tell us the truth even if hearing it makes us what to ring their necks. The one who tells you the truth loves you enough to tell you that you have some work to do, while the one who tells you that you’re doing just fine and that you don’t need to change may be benefiting from your brokenness. I don’t want to be broken. I want to be free. I want to live. I want to have joy, and today I declare to you that joy comes from gratitude, which is rooted in our ability to keep what we need while giving the rest away. That’s ironic because I used to think that I’d finally be happy when I have enough. Then, I finally realized that it’s never enough. I have some work to do because in our house, we’re subscribed to Netflix, and Hulu, and Disney Plus, and Apple, and Amazon Prime, and Paramount Plus, and HBO. If you’re looking for something good to watch, I can tell you, yet I can also tell you that I still sit in front of the TV with all those streaming services thinking, “There’s nothing to watch.” Likewise, we order groceries and fill the refrigerator. If that refrigerator gets too full, am I the only one tempted to buy another? We have two cars, then Lily started driving, so we bought a third. Last Friday, it was my job to clean the bathrooms, which took me forever because unlike our first house, we now have more than one. Last week, I walked into the worst bathroom I had to clean. I’m not going to tell you whose it was or where it was, I just want you to know that I walked into a bathroom last Friday morning that was especially nasty because the sinks were clogged, wet towels had been sitting in the corners, and the trash can was full. It reminded me of the Dead Sea. Did you know that reason the Dead Sea is dead is because water flows into it, but nothing flows out? And so it is for us as human beings. If we only accumulate without giving, we die. There is no more miserable person than the one who thinks only of herself. We weren’t made to take and take without giving. The apple tree doesn’t eat its own fruit, yet how many of us accumulate wealth without sharing it with those who are in need? My friends, if you spend more money on your storage unit than you give to the church, than I have an opportunity for you. I used to feel weird about preaching about stewardship. That was before I realized that this pledge card is our ticket out. If you just google “How many times does Jesus mention money?” you’ll see that He mentions it 288 times, basically one out of every ten verses in the Gospels has Jesus talking about money. Why? It’s because the truth is that it’s better to give than it is to receive. However, that’s not what everyone wants us to hear. The days are surely coming, indeed, they’re already here, when everyone around you is telling you that what you need is more. You need to have more and buy more and spend more, yet C. S. Lewis tells the story of a young boy who wanted to buy his father a Father’s Day present. Knowing he didn’t have anything, his father gave him $10.00. The boy ran down to the store, and some candy caught his eye. It wasn’t much, so he put it in his basket. Then he saw a new baseball, which he needed, and $10.00 was a lot of money. His father wouldn’t mind. Little by little, the boy ended up spending $9.00 on himself, and he bought for his father just a card. A $1.00 card. That’s all the Father asks for. Providing us everything that we have, our Heavenly Father only asks that we take the time to return 10% as a sign of our thanks, and as a means for us to gain our freedom in this culture of greed, selfishness, and materialism. If you look at your credit card bill and are spending more money on streaming services than you’re giving to the church, then it’s time to make a change. Let us all change, that revival begins among us here at First Presbyterian Church. Amen.