A Fresh Call to Our Mission

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says there's something vital that will always be a part of Revive Our Hearts.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The transforming power of the gospel. Our goal is not in this ministry just to give people more information to change their behavior, but it’s to believe God to reform their thinking and to transform their lives from the inside out.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Adorned, for December 26, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh.

I trust your Christmas celebration was full of joy and worship. And maybe you’re still celebrating and planning to gather with family and friends. Well, today on Revive Our Hearts, you’re going to get to listen in on a family gathering of sorts.

A few months ago, the Revive Our Hearts’ staff got together at our headquarters in Southwest Michigan. There were staff members here from as far away as South Africa. It was time to recharge our spiritual batteries.

As part of that gathering, Nancy addressed us all. She felt burdened to get back to the basics and remind us of the solid principles we need to stay anchored to what we represent, what our message is, why we’re here, and why we do what we do.

I think you’ll be encouraged just as we were. So, speaking to the entire Revive Our Hearts’ team, here’s Nancy with “A Fresh Call to Our Mission.”

Nancy: I was thinking of 2 Peter where, in chapter 1, Peter says, “I will always remind you about these things.”

This is after he’s just given a list of some basics of the Christian life and Christian growth and Christian purpose and mission. He said:

I’m going to always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have. (v. 12)

You’re walking in these things, but I’m going to tell you again because we need to be reminded. He said, 

“I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent [as long as I have breath, I’m going] to wake you up with a reminder.” (v. 13)

That suggests that the longer we know the Lord and walk with Him, it’s easy to fall asleep. It’s easy to get lulled into complacency. So he said, “I’m going to wake you up with a reminder.”

And then he says, 

“I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure.” (v. 15)

He said, “The Lord has told me I’m not going to be here long.”

I don’t know how long the Lord’s going to have me here, but I know I won’t be here forever. None of us will. But some will be left, and we want to say these things to each other again and again and again so that when our leadership team has left, when the leadership in your area has gone, that you will never forget who God is, what He has called us to, what we’re here to do.

And then he says it again in the third chapter of 2 Peter. He says, 

“Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; [1 Peter, 2 Peter] in both letters, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder, so that you recall the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior.” (v. 1)

He didn’t say, “I want you to remember the things that I made up, or that I wrote about. But I want to remind you of the things God told us in His Word through His Holy Spirit by His apostles, His commands.”

And then he says, “This is another reason it’s important, not only because we fall asleep or we get forgetful,” but he goes on to say, 

“Be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires.” (v. 3)

And as we think about the mission of Revive Our Hearts, of revival and biblical womanhood, there are many, perhaps most, today, even many within our churches, who don't share this vision. Some who even scoff at it—the whole concept of biblical womanhood. People scoff at this.

And the world thinks it knows better than God knows. So that’s why we have to keep reminding ourselves what God has called us to. Reminding ourselves of the gospel. Reminding ourselves of the truth. And then what this ministry is about. So, I felt the need for us to keep going back to the basics, reminding ourselves of our core values.

We get tied up in the grind and the demands and the deadlines of the daily work, and it’s easy to lose heart. It’s easy to forget what this is about. You’ve got your little piece of a job, and I’ve got my piece, and you’ve got your piece, and we get consumed with even maybe the problems or the challenges that we’re facing. We forget who we are, why we’re here, and what we’re doing.

And then, the danger of advocating to others what we barely do ourselves. I think that’s a challenge and a reminder we need to go back to these “first things.”

I just want to touch on several of those things tonight. It’s a little bit random, but I was prompted to do this because Brent started an email exchange a couple of weeks ago, and he asked several staff to chime in. He’s new. He’s learning. And he says, “What makes Revive Our Hearts special? What makes it different? What makes it unique?”

One is that we need to remember that we must always be rooted and grounded in Scripture—the Word of God. That’s the starting place.That’s the lens through which we view everything. Every topic, every contemporary issue, we need to ask, “What does the Scripture say?”

Not just we talk about it and then we go to the Scripture, but we start with the Scripture. We’ve got to be people of this Book. People of one Book. This Book is timeless, and it is timely. It transcends pop culture. It transcends every demographic and every geographical boundary.

We’ve been called to build their lives on the solid, unchanging foundation of God’s Word. And that’s what we’re calling women to do—to stand on the promises and the truth of God’s Word.

It’s easy to get sidetracked from that, so I want us to keep going back: What does God’s Word say? Where is the Scripture on this? And that’s why the goal of our core resources—those resources don’t replace the Word of God—is to get people into the Word of God.

So, for example, the “TrueWoman Manifesto.” I was reading that again today. It’s a concise statement, about two dozen points, about what we believe the Scripture teaches, that this ministry is committed to sharing with others. I hope that you read the “TrueWoman Manifesto” regularly, and that you let it take you to the Scripture, because it’s not inspired. The “TrueWoman Manifesto” isn’t inspired, but God’s Word is. But we need to be familiar, to read it, to internalize it, and make it a part of our lives.

Seeking Him. That’s our core revival principles: humility, honesty, repentance, grace, obedience, forgiveness, clear conscience, the filling of the Spirit. We never get past our need for these core teachings, these core principles from God’s Word.

Don’t go past them. Don’t think, I had that ten years ago. I was walking fresh and new in that. Are you walking fresh and new in that today? Am I walking fresh and new in that today?

Some of us need to pull out some of those tools if we’ve lost a little bit of heart or lost our way, or we’ve gotten sidetracked. Maybe not backslidden, but backsliding happens by little degrees. We just move a little bit away from our hunger and our longing and our passion for God’s Word. That’s why we’re supposed to stir each other up to love God’s Word and to love Him and then to respond to God’s Word.

We want to be rooted and grounded in Scripture. If we ever cease to be that, then this ministry should close its doors. That’s our starting place and our continuing place.

 

We also want to keep the spotlight on Jesus. We want to make much of Him. We want in everything we’re doing, whatever your role is, we want to be pointing people to Him and helping create in them a hunger for more of Jesus. 

• That they may love Him. 
• That they may know Him. 
• That they may serve Him. 
• That they may trust Him. 

Let’s not forget that.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4: 

“We are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (v. 5)

So when we’re tempted . . . As the ministry gets larger, there are going to be things within departments, within different areas of the ministry, where there is going to be disappointment or envy or competition or differences or dissension. Listen, the enemy is sending dissension and division to every sphere of society today. And it’s not just happening in our world and in social media and in politics and government, but it’s happening in the Church, and it’s happening among believers.

We need to preserve our oneness in Christ and be humble enough to assume the best of each other, to not let these seeds of toxic poisonous contention get planted in our hearts or in our relationships within this ministry. We’ve got to keep a clear account with God and with each other—vertical and then horizontal.

We’ve got to challenge each other to this, to be biblical. If you’ve got a problem with somebody—and with this many people in the room, there’s going to be some people you love working with, and there’s going to be some people you’re a little tired of working with and that are making your life more difficult. Well, maybe you’re making their life more difficult. It’s easier to see it in the other person—right?—than in ourselves.

But let’s be biblical. Go to that person as in Matthew chapter 18. Don’t let those seeds of bitterness creep up. We need to be keeping the focus on Jesus and letting Jesus be Lord—which He is—over every area of our lives and ministry.

I don’t want us to forget—ever—the transforming power of the gospel. The gospel changes everything.

 

Our goal is not in this ministry just to give people more information or to give them an emotional lift—to make them feel better. It’s not to educate first or foremost or to entertain or just give them a spiritual “face lift” to change their behavior.

Our goal is to believe in God to reform their thinking and to the transformation of their lives from the inside out. That’s why we’re always saying, “Take it home. Make it personal.” Lead people to say, “Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.” Now, if we’re not saying, “Yes, Lord,” day in and day out, how are we going to lead others to say, “Yes, Lord”?

You may say, “Well, in my part of the ministry, I don’t really do all that stuff.” The way each of us is living and responding to the Lord in our homes, in our marriages, in our relationships, in our churches, in our community, it’s all telling a story about the gospel.

We need to believe that the gospel really does change people, that it makes that which is old, new. It recreates. It makes a whole new person. There is no hopeless, helpless case. If we don’t believe that, then we should go work somewhere else because you get better pay. You probably get better hours. We’ve got to believe that the gospel really does change lives.

We need to remember. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. This is just reminders that we are calling women to embrace and delight in their God-created design and in His mission for their lives.

This is a response to the gospel. This is not a third-layer issue that God made male and female. God gave us calling and mission and roles. He made us to complement one another—whether you’re married or single, whether you’re younger or older. God put in a woman’s heart something that is distinctly a reflection of His image, and God put in a man’s heart something that is distinctly a reflection of His image.

One of the people who commented in Brent’s email that he got started was that she appreciated about Revive Our Hearts, “We have an unabashed love of God’s design for women.” We’re not ashamed of that.

Now, the world’s trying to make us ashamed of that because the enemy is deceiving people today. Isn’t it a timely thing that we should have True Woman conferences and events and resources—TrueWoman.

The world is saying, “We don’t even know what a woman is or what a man is or if there’s any difference between them. Oh, there’s no such thing as male or female. Or, there are twenty-seven varieties.”

The world has gone insane when it comes to just basic God-created truths. So our responsibility is not to throw stones at them. Our responsibility is to live and rejoice in and proclaim the truth because the truth sets people free. But today, what we’re talking about, male and female, that’s very old-fashioned. That is not in vogue.

One woman said on this email thread, 

“We’re not here to make women comfortable with whatever views they already hold. We're here to love them by proclaiming what God's Word actually says about womanhood and heart revival and to help women live it out and teach it to other women in a way that is faithful and distinctly feminine. And that’s not going to be applauded by this world.”

Another part of the biblical paradigm, as it relates to womanhood, is this thing of generation to generation—older women teaching younger women the ways of God.

I love seeing how many women on the Aviva Nuestros Corazones staff of the younger women who came into this or because they were being discipled by some of the older women who are on that team. Let me say, you decide whether you’re an older or younger woman or maybe a little bit of both.

But, older women, we—I’m there—have got to be investing in the lives of these younger women around us—not just the ones in our ministry, but the ones in our churches and our families and the ones He puts in our path. We need to be conscious about that.

I’m not saying we all have to be teachers, but Titus 2 says we are to teach younger women. But it’s life to life. It’s standing in the aisle before a church service starts or after a meeting like this and pouring into lives.

And younger women: Make sure you’ve got older women in your life who are pouring in or helping you, sharing out of their experience with knowing Christ and His Word. This is part of God’s model, and this is how the truth continues from one generation to the next.

Let me move on. Just another point that came out of this email thread, and that is we are a remnant ministry. 

I looked up “remnant” in the dictionary today, and it says, “a small remaining quantity of something.” The point is, there aren’t many left. It’s not the mainstream. It’s not the way the crowd’s going.

Our goal is not to be a big ministry. Our goal is not for every woman around the world to join our club. Our goal is not to be popular. Our goal is not to be mainstream.

Our goal is to faithful to Christ and to the truth and to the old, old story of Jesus and His love. It’s the old message of surrender, humility, servanthood, death to self, a life of obedience, holiness.

Listen, these are all counter-cultural things. The world’s not saying, “Oh, can you tell me how to be more holy?” I mean, our flesh doesn’t want to be more holy. But our spirit cries out and says, “Oh, Lord. I want to be holy as You are holy.”

It’s not mainstream. We’re swimming upstream. It’s not easy. We will never fit into this world’s mold. If we are fitting into this world’s mold, then something has gone wrong.

Paul says in Romans, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold. But instead, be a new and different person in the way you think and live because the gospel changes everything.”

It was in the early 1950s that there was, what was then, a very small group of women who were considered extreme, far out, radical and fringe. They were not afraid to say things that were unpopular. And those women became the whole second and third wave movements of feminism.

It really started in the Garden of Eden where Eve signed her declaration of independence. But how much of our world has been turned upside down and inside out. If you’re younger than, probably fifty, you’ve never known a world that wasn’t swimming in these waters where women are saying, “I’ll have it my way.” That’s the Eve life.

But we represent Mary, who said, “Lord, You have it Your way.”

So this is not a popular message. We are a remnant. But it means we need to be willing, as a ministry, but also individually, to be bold, to be unafraid, to take a stand for God’s way of thinking about womanhood and manhood and marriage and children and purity and life and everything that the gospel instructs us in.

No, people, we’re not going to have the most “likes” and the most “follows.” The world’s going to get far more of those. But we’re not out following the world. We’ve decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.

And for all of us at times, that is going to feel like a sacrifice. For some, this may be a new way of thinking for you. You may think, You’re sounding a little more radical than what I knew I was signing up for here.

Well, I want to invite you to get around others in this ministry who get who we are and where we’re heading, to look at some of these resources that will point you to God’s Word, and say, “Lord, will You mentor me? Will You tutor me in Your ways?”

I just want to say, “Yes, Lord, to whatever You have, to whatever the message is.” I want all of us to say together, “We want to be men and women of God’s Word, of God’s ways, who are willing to be counter-cultural, willing to buck the tide.”

We want to be winsome. We want to be grace filled. But there are going to be times in our world today where, if you are grace filled and winsome, you’re still going to be discounted as being bigoted and misogynist and crazy. We’ve got to be willing to be given those labels.

It actually makes me a little concerned—occasionally—that there hasn’t been more push back on our ministry in modern days, because we represent exactly the opposite of what the world is promoting today. So, I’m thankful for the people who are listening and are responding and are receiving the message. But if we’re being faithful with the message, there are going to be people who think we have lost our minds. We’ve got to be okay with that.

Now, we don’t want them rejecting us because we’re contentious or because we’re mean-spirited or because we’re mouthy or because we’re not acting in Christ-like ways. We want to be Christ-like, but we’ve got to be bold and uncompromising.

The world is not necessarily going to accommodate to our message. They’re not going to buy into it. They’re not necessarily going to be comfortable with it. But we are not trying to walk in sync with this world, even with much of the Christian world.

It’s tempting to try and sugarcoat the message or to dilute it to be gun shy about proclaiming it. But here’s the thing: there are women and their families all around us who desperately need this message, and they don’t know how desperately they need it.

We’re offering hope and help to women whose lives are hopeless, or they feel like they are. They’ve been abandoned. They’re living in a rat race. They’re overwhelmed with busyness. They’re exhausted from trying to be a good Christian. They’re weak. They’re traumatized. They’re beaten down. They’re discouraged.

You just name it. Hurting. Wounded. Jaded. Bored. That’s who we’re trying to reach. They’re self-righteous. I mean, there’s a whole host of ways women are needing this mission and this message.

So I want to say to you: this is not a job. If you thought it was when you signed up, you don’t have to stay. We hope you will. We hope you will embrace the calling. But it is a mission, and there will be hard days.

 

Paul talks about the sufferings he experienced as a result of proclaiming Christ. He talked about the many “dangers” he faced in 2 Corinthians 11. He talked about “toil and hardship, and many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing. Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me and my concern for all the churches” (v. 24).

And that’s just a little bit of what he experienced. Christ went to the cross for us. And as the hymn writer said, “Do we expect to go there on flowery beds of ease when others paid the price and gave their lives?”

This is a calling for all of our lives. So thank you for being on mission with us. Thank you for counting the cost. Thank you for day after day saying, “Yes, Lord!” Thank you for being and aspiring to be holy, humble, happy servants of Jesus and of each other and of His people.

 

God is doing great things through your lives, through the loaves and fishes that we offer Him together. I just want to share with you a text that someone sent me this week. God is setting captives free, and this story could be repeated in many different ways in many parts of the world. She said (and I got this just this week):

“Three months ago today I saw evil up close and personal. [There was an assault that took place on this woman’s life, and she said:] Two months ago today I tried three times to die over a three-day period. Today, three months later, I’m undone by His love for me.”

You see, she’s been listening to some of the messages. She said, 

“Had I taken my life two months ago today, I would not have experienced the greatest blessing I have ever known—what it is like to be wholly owned by the Son of God. What Sovereignty. What Providence.”

That’s one life. That could be you. It could be me. God is finding and meeting us all in places of need. We’re not just giving this message to others. We’re receiving and responding to this message day after day ourselves.

Each time I go up to speak, Robert prays, “Lord, help Nancy to go first with what she’s about to say.”

I want to go first. I want you to go with me. I want us to receive and respond to the message. But then to know as we proclaim it to others, whatever your little piece of the whole is, as a whole, there are women like that one I just read that text from, who are saying, “I’m alive today because God reached down and intervened, saved my life. He’s delivering me from the snare of the evil one. And now I know what it’s like to be wholly owned by the Son of God.”

There are going to be things that are hard this year, but we need to keep reminding ourselves, “Heaven rules.” Heaven rules, and we know who owns us. We know who rules, and we need to say, “Yes, Lord.”

Lord, how I thank You for these precious servants of Yours, my brothers and sisters. I love them. I pray Your blessing on them. I pray that You would keep reminding us of why we came, why You raised up this ministry. Keep us, Lord, loving Your Word, loving Jesus, growing, being humble and holy and happy servants of Yours, living out and not forgetting or skipping over these basic principles that first set us free.

So:

• Is there someone here tonight that we’ve not forgiven?
• Is our conscious not clear with someone?
• Is there something we’re holding too tightly onto?
• Is there some area of Your Word where we know we’re not living in obedience?
• Is there some area where we’re walking in fear rather than in trust?

Lord, You know our hearts. Search us. Know us. And would You fill us with Your Holy Spirit and work through us to accomplish—this little band of people and those joining us online. Lord, we’re little, and we’ve got the whole big, wide world that You’ve called us to—and half of them are women—and we love them.

We want to see Muslim women coming to faith. We want to see women coming from Protestant churches and Catholic churches and Hindu backgrounds and atheistic backgrounds and women coming out of Baptist and Presbyterian churches—women who need You. They need to know the gospel, need to be transformed. We believe there isn’t anything You can’t do.

So have us. Hold us. Use us. Keep us. Bless us. And bless these men and women, by Your Holy Spirit I pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: Amen. We’ve been listening to Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth speaking at a gathering of Revive Our Hearts’ staff. She was reminding us what Revive Our Hearts stands for, what makes up our DNA as a ministry.

I don’t know about you, but it gets my heart beating a little faster, makes me say, “Yes, Lord! Make it true in me, too!” That’s what I want my heart to be anchored to.

And, Nancy, we wanted to share that message with more than just the Revive Our Hearts’ staff. We wanted our listeners to hear it, too, because it really does apply to all of us.

Nancy: It does. You know, this isn’t rocket science we’re talking about. In some sense, this is Basic Christianity 101. It applies, of course, to us at this ministry, which is why I shared it with our staff, as we’re calling women to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ. But it applies to all of us. It applies to you as a listener.

As I mentioned in that message, as a Christ-follower, you’re in the minority, swimming upstream in this world.

Dannah: Yes. And that’s why we’re just so thankful to have you as a listener, partnering with this remnant ministry. Not only listening in, but it could be that you’ve made a donation to help support the ministry of Revive Our Hearts in the past.

Nancy: And if that’s the case, can I say, “Thank you”? The Lord has used your support to help us get this far. It’s by His grace that we’re staying the course on these non-negotiables. And it’s by His grace, Lord willing, that we will continue on, and He uses friends like you as a part of that process. Thank you so much.

Now, here’s an invitation: If you’ve never made a donation to Revive Our Hearts, this week would be a great time to do it. Or maybe you’ve given to Revive Our Hearts in the past, but it’s been a while. We’d love to hear from you again. Even if you give frequently or maybe you’re one of our Monthly Partners, now would be a wonderful time to give an additional gift.

And that’s because any donations that we receive before midnight on Saturday, the 31st, will be matched by some friends of Revive Our Hearts up to a total of $1.4 million dollars.

Now, that may sound like a lot, and it is, but in order to continue our current outreaches and take advantage of some of the beautiful opportunities that God has set before us for the coming year, we need to meet that matching challenge and surpass it.

So, if you’d like to play a part in helping Revive Our Hearts be in a healthy financial position for the coming year, please contact us with your donation.

As the Lord enables you, and as He puts it on your heart, we’d love to hear from you here at Revive Our Hearts. To make a donation, just visit us at ReviveOurHearts.com and click where it says, “Donate.” Or you can give us a call at 1-800-569-5959.

And if you’re mailing your donation, remember that it needs to be postmarked by this Saturday, the 31st. And don’t forget that your donation will be doubled if we hear from you this week.

Dannah: You know, Nancy, it’s been so exciting and such a blessing to see so many people making a donation toward this matching challenge this month. We’ve been praying that God would provide through the rest of this week.

Now, tomorrow you’re going to take us to Psalm 28 to show us “Perspective, Promises, and Prayers for a New Year.” I’m looking forward to hearing that.

Nancy: Yes. That’s a long title for a short psalm: “Perspective, Promises, and Prayers for a New Year.” But I love this psalm. In fact, I want to encourage you to go ahead and pull out your Bible sometime between now and tomorrow and read Psalm 28. Start meditating on it. Think about the perspective it provides and what promises and prayers you see in that psalm. And be sure and be back with us tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to anchor your soul in the freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness of Christ.

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