Never Lacking in Zeal

Dannah Gresh: Today on Revive Our Hearts, Pastor Chris Brooks directs our attention to the fact that Jesus is coming back soon!

Pastor Chris Brooks: How should that affect the way we live? I think it should revive our passions! Jesus has already promised a victory, and He wants us to live with an urgency to know Him and to make Him known.

Dannah: Welcome to the Revive Our Hearts podcast for January 29, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh. Our host is the author of Incomparable, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: There's a special group of men and women who help provide leadership to Revive Our Hearts that you need to know about, and that’s our Board of Directors. I’m so thankful for these godly followers of Jesus and how they generously give their time, their prayers and their wisdom to help keep us accountable as a ministry. 

They help us know where to focus our energy and encourage us to best steward the resources God has entrusted to us. So, thanks to our Board of Directors! When our Board met last August in person, we asked them to share with our Revive Our Hearts team during our regular chapel time. The message you’re about to hear came from that chapel. 

Pastor Chris Brooks may be familiar to you. He hosts a daily program called Equipped, and it’s a great privilege and honor to have him serving on our Board of Directors, along with the Chairman of our Board, Bob Lepine, who asked Chris a few questions before he opened the Word for us. Here’s Bob.

Bob Lepine: What’s on your heart right now as you look at the Church? Where are we in America as evangelicals? What’s God stirring in your own heart?

Pastor Chris: I think, above all, that we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. It was the late great Chuck Colson who said this again and again, “Ultimately, salvation doesn’t fly in on the wings of Air Force One.” Politics have their place. We should be civically engaged, but ultimately our hope is in heaven. The Church needs to model a faith in Christ, where our ultimate hope lies. 

It’s important to be heard on earth; it’s far more important to be heard in heaven. God needs His Church to raise her voice in this hour. I’m grateful to be a part of a ministry that’s doing that. Revive Our Hearts is doing that.

Dannah: Chris Brooks was just coming off of a five-week sabbatical. And Nancy, he told us he’d benefited greatly from your devotional book on the life of Jesus, Incomparable.

Pastor Chris: While I was on sabbatical, every morning started with Incomparable. It was such a ministry to my heart, to my wife’s heart. We had a lot of time to just ponder upon the greatness of our King. When we reconsider the glory of Jesus, it settles our hearts in a really anxious time!

Bob: How long have you been walking with the Lord?

Pastor Chris: Man! Since I was thirteen, and now I’m twenty-one (laughter) so about thirty-five years. 

Bob: And still, you’re reconsidering the greatness of God. That never gets old, does it?

Pastor Chris: It does not! We all need the gospel. The world needs the gospel. The Church needs the gospel. The pastor needs the gospel, again and again and again.

Bob: I tell my people we have to every day re-believe the gospel because it is the power of God for our ongoing salvation.

Pastor Chris: Yes!

Nancy: One of the things I so appreciate about Chris is how he stays rooted in the Scriptures. So on that day when he’d come to participate in Board meetings, he opened the Word of God for all of us Revive Our Hearts staff and Board members. What he shared was so encouraging that we wanted you to hear it, too. So here’s Pastor Chris Brooks, speaking to the staff of Revive Our Hearts.

Pastor Chris: I just want to spend a little bit of time in God’s Word and consider 1 Peter. We’ll look at 1 Peter chapter 4, so we’ll camp out there for just a moment. But I’m reminded this morning about what Paul writes in Romans chapter 12, verse 11. He says these words: “Never be lacking in zeal” (NIV). 

And I was thinking about those words over the last couple of weeks, what that means for my life, what that means for our church, for my family as I endeavor to lead my wife and children.

And what continued to come to mind was that every time I open up social media, one of the great things about this time of year is, in particular the month of August, it seems like every married couple I know is having or celebrating an anniversary. As a matter of fact, in a few short days, my wife and I will be celebrating twenty-seven years of being married, and it’s a great joy!

So that made me curious: what is the most popular month for weddings? So I went to the internet, because [tongue-in-cheek] you can trust everything you see on the internet! I went to the website called TheKnot.com. I just used that as a reference point, it’s a website that supports weddings. They said that the most popular month for weddings is August.

The most unpopular month for weddings is January. (Don’t worry if you were married in January, you still can have a good marriage!) But August is the most popular month. When anniversaries come, it’s an opportunity to renew our vows to one another. It’s an opportunity, if you’re married, to be reminded of why you said, “I do.” It’s an opportunity for you to recommit to pursuing each other, to pursuing your spouse with passion! 

There are very few things that are sadder than seeing a Christian couple, a married couple, that has stopped pursuing one another with passion and have just been going through the motions.

I want to just read a quote I got from R. C. Sproul, a great Bible teacher. He says, 

“I’ve married dozens of Christian couples. All begin with great promise, not all continue with promise. Unfortunately, some of these marriages will not survive. The great sin that tends to drive Christian marriages to dissolution is not what many may assume. Seldom is adultery, addiction, or abuse the underlying cause of Christians pursuing divorce. The number one destroyer of most Christian marriages is the subtle sin of marital apathy.”

Think about what he just said there. It’s when we stop pursuing one another with passion that we become apathetic, just going through the motions, that our marriages tend to die. Now, I’m not here to talk about marriage—though the Bible has much to say about that—but I do want to talk about apathy and how we overcome it in our lives. Because I think the subtle sin of apathy can destroy not just our horizontal relationships, but our vertical relationship.

 

Now, there are a lot of ways we can define apathy, a lot of technical ways: the absence of emotion or desire or pursuit or passion.

But I think one good way of defining apathy is when you know something with your head that is no longer affecting your hands or your heart. You know something in your head intellectually, but it’s no longer affecting your hands—how you live, and your heart, how you love. I think that describes a lot of Christians today in our culture.

It’s not that there is a lack of knowledge of the fact that Jesus Christ came into this world, laid down His life, rose again, that He is Lord of all. I think for a lot of Christians, if we were to give a quiz on the life or ministry of Jesus, some would pass it, most would pass it. 

They know the information, but maybe it has stopped affecting your hands and your heart. Maybe the people that we’re ministering to have grown apathetic, and that’s why ministries like Revive Our Hearts are so important!

I love this ministry because what it is doing is challenging the apathy and reminding people to live with a passion for Jesus! Where does this passion come from? Well, if you survey the New
Testament, what you will find is that the root of their passion was in the gospel urgency.

A gospel urgency: that’s what allows us to overcome the apathy that often plagues our lives because of discouragement or trials or tribulations that seem to hinder our passion. This was certainly the case for Peter’s audience in 1 Peter. 

He’s writing to a group of Christians in what he calls the diaspora, this gathering that was scattered around the world. I know some of you are in the “holy land” of Niles, Michigan, but most of you are scattered around the world [speaking of where the staff live].

And these Christians, though, were on the run for their faith. They didn’t have power or position or, many of them, resources. Imagine how discouraging that could become to your faith and how apathy could settle in.

But Peter says in 1 Peter 1 and 3 that we’re supposed to be living with a hope, a living hope that comes from Jesus Christ! By the time we get to chapter 4, though, he says these words . . . and this is where he finds motivation, and where I hope we can find motivation. 

He says, “The end of all things is at hand” (v. 7). [He repeats the verse.] His recognition of the return of Christ became his motivation, and it should be ours as well. The New Testament writers lived with a sense of the imminent return of Christ.

And friends, I just want to remind us of what many of us already know, and that is there is nothing that holds back our Savior from returning, except for God’s grace and patience, desiring that more would come to repentance. Again, that’s why this ministry is so important!

But Jesus could come back at any moment, any time. When you read the New Testament, there seems to be two time periods that Jesus and the writers of Scripture kind of frame the world in. One is “the present age,” and the other is “the age to come”—the age to come inaugurated by the return of Christ. This present age is the period between His first coming and His second coming.

We’re living in this present age, but the age to come is beckoning. It is nearer now than when we first believed. I believe, and hopefully you do as well, that we’re living in the end times. So if Christ is imminently returning, how should that affect the way we live?

I think it should revive our passions. I think it should stir us to live with a gospel urgency that overcomes apathy—the apathy we can feel when we see sin seemingly prevailing, when we get discouraged by the persecution and the trials that many are facing.

I want you to know that Jesus has already promised the victory, and He wants us to live with an urgency to know Him and to make Him known! Peter lists three ways that this sense of the return of Christ, the end of all things, should impact us.

Let’s look at verse 7 again. He says, “Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” I’m so grateful that he said that! That sense of self-control connects us back to verse 3 of this very chapter [4], where he talks about the ways the Gentiles live, in their own passions and drunkenness and sensuality.

He says, “Listen, the end of all things is at the end, so let’s not live wild lives. The end of all things is at hand, so let’s make sure that we’re governing our thinking, and we’re not allowing ourselves to get caught up in the vain imaginations of this present age. But, be sober-minded, be self-controlled.” I love that he connected it to the sake of our prayers.

I think one of the indications that we truly believe that the end of all things is drawing near is our prayer life. You know, my prayers around this particular issue of the return of Christ have changed over the years.

The first time I heard someone preach about the end times, I was fifteen years old. A preacher in my local church was going to town about Jesus coming back! I remember thinking, as I listened to him, Wait, Lord Jesus, wait! I hadn’t gone to prom yet, hadn’t graduated from high school, still waiting on my driver’s license. 

But now you fast-forward a few years to where I am now, and my prayer is, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” Maybe your prayers have changed in this area as well. The more we know of the glories of heaven, the more we understand the magnificence of our Savior, the more our prayers change to, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

But there’s a second reason why this connection to prayer is so important and that is, he is going to give us a list of imperatives, some things that we must do. But before Peter gives these imperatives, he wants us to understand what a lot of Sunday school curriculums have forgotten, and that is: you can’t live a life for God without the power of God. We need to pray because we need the power of God to live for God!

You know, far too many Sunday school curriculums teach little Sally or little Joey that he should be or she should be kind and nice and loving and forgiving . . . as if we could live out these virtues apart from regeneration. 

It’s a sad thing, because we heap condemnation upon people whenever we try to “principle-ize” the teachings of Christ as if they’re just good pragmatism or good strategies, and we can do it without the indwelling presence and power of the Spirit of God inside of us. NO!

Peter recognized that living for Christ in this present age requires prayer. It requires us to stay connected to the power of God. But then, he goes on to tell us something that should perk up our ears, verse number 8: “Above all.”

Whenever you see those two words, you should listen closely. This means “first in rank and order of importance.” “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (v. 8). Now, what does love have to do with the end of all things being near? Why does Peter connect those two?

Well, it’s because of what the New Testament writers teach us about what love is going to look like in the last days. You’ve read 2 Timothy, we know that in the last days men shall be lovers of themselves, lovers of money (see 3:1–2).

In another place, Matthew 24:12, Jesus says that the love of many would wax cold because of the increased wickedness of our times. If you want to stand out in this present age, love like Christ! And so, He calls us to this Christ-type love for one another, that He says is marked by the overlooking of sin, that love covers a multitude of sin.

Now, this covering of a multitude of sin is not speaking of somehow earning our salvation through loving acts towards one another. We know that’s not the gospel. We know the gospel is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone!

We don’t earn our salvation through acts of service, but I do believe on a horizontal level, that the love of Christ allows me to overlook your faults and allows you to overlook my faults. Loving me isn’t easy, because I’m imperfect. Loving you isn’t easy because you’re imperfect.

But when the love of Christ is at work in our lives, we’re able to overlook a multitude of sin. You’ve heard the statement before, the phrase: “Love is blind.” That typically describes the beginning of a relationship where the passion that you have for a person that you’re in a relationship with causes you to overlook their problems.

It’s not that issues don’t exist. As a matter of fact, the rest of that statement, if you said it correctly is, “Love is blind, but marriage is an eye-opener!” The fact of that matter is, oftentimes later we see the issues of the person we’re in a relationship with.

But there is a passion that comes with love that allows us to overlook one another’s problems, and when Christ is at work in us, we love like He loved—that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” I praise God that He overlooked our faults and saw our needs! And that’s the message we need to not only proclaim to the world, but we need to live by ourselves.

Peter goes on to give us another challenge, not just that we should “demonstrate love,” but we should also devote ourselves to hospitality. Look at what he says, verse 9, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”

You know, the first time I read this I thought to myself, Man, Peter sure does know how to mess up a verse! It’s one thing for him to say, “Show hospitality,” but then he added, “without grumbling.” 

Maybe you have family members like mine. When you show hospitality, they know how to show up with their appetite, but not much else. Or maybe you know what it’s like to host a party. The friends and family members come over, and the house becomes a mess, and they leave at the end without even offering to help clean up! 

Showing hospitality is not easy, never has been, never will be. It’s a sacrifice of love! If you’ve ever made a big meal for your family, you know that’s a labor of love. But Peter says we’re supposed to show this type of hospitality without grumbling!

And all the more, how much more was this type of hospitality needed in the first century? You think about his original audience, many of them were leaving their homes and their homelands. THey were running in persecution because of the terror they were experiencing because of their profession of faith in Christ. And where were they going to find respite?

You know, traveling then is not like traveling now. I just mentioned to Bob that we went on a road trip, and every exit has a gas station or a hotel or a restaurant, a place to eat. It wasn’t so in that day and age. You were wholly dependent upon the hospitality of hosts, of people who would open up their homes and their hearts to you.

This is the essence of hospitality, it is more than just opening up your home, it’s opening up your heart. And what Peter says is that we’re supposed to live this way, that it should mark our lives. Our zeal and our passion should cause us to love others this way.

That word “hospitality” in the original language means “lover of strangers.” Now, I just want to connect that to Revive Our Hearts for a moment. I think about places all over the world where the message is getting out, and many of these believers are people that you’ve never met before.

Many of these nations you’ve never visited before, but yet God has filled your heart with a love for them. That’s hospitality, friends, when we’re willing to sacrifice and to invest so that people, maybe we’ve never even met in this life, can hear the good news of Jesus Christ! We’re showing hospitality.

And yes, sometimes in the local fashion, it means opening up the doors of your home. You don’t have to be Martha Stewart to do that. In the midst of all of the regular realities of daily life, you can open up your home. But even more, it means opening up your heart to the world! I love that many of you are doing that through this incredible ministry!

Let me land the plane by looking at verses 10 and 11. Peter goes from telling us to devote ourselves to love and to demonstrating hospitality to saying to us that we need to diligently serve.

He says, “As each [of you] has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace” (4:10–11). I wish I had a couple hours to just unpack that verse, but I will just tell you this: each one of us has received not only spiritual gifts and empowerments from God, but each one of us has received the gift of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, that gift we receive upon faith in Jesus Christ. But notice what he says. As you have been recipients of grace, eagerly desire to share that grace, that others may benefit from the grace that you have received. 

Don’t forget that you have been blessed! You’re blessed to not only know Jesus, but to serve in this ministry—to know His Word and the beauty of His promises. That’s what propels us to desire to share this gift of God’s Word and the grace we know in Jesus Christ! 

He goes on to say in verses 11–12, “Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the church says, “Amen” to that!

See, this is what it’s all about. Peter doesn’t give us an exhaustive list of the spiritual gifts; he gives us two categories: speaking and serving. And he says, “If you’ve got speaking gifts . . .” Maybe you’ve got the gift of gab, and that’s not just preaching, that’s exhortation, that’s evangelism. He says, “Don’t just use yourwords,” because our words are not where the power lies, but speak the oracles of God. That’s what brings transformation in a person’s life! 

Maybe you’re the strong and silent type. He says you still have a place, you can serve. Roll up your sleeves, cook a meal for someone, or maybe do repairs on someone’s house or love someone in a tangible way through the use of your hands.

But if you do, don’t do it out of your own strength. Do it out of the strength that Christ supplies, that God supplies, so that in all things “God may be glorified through Jesus Christ!” That’s the driving passion and mission of this ministry, that God might be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything we do all around the world!

This morning when I woke up, I prayed that God would revive your hearts, that God would allow you to experience freedom and fullness and fruitfulness in Christ. I prayed so that, like the psalmist says in Psalm 1, “You can be like that tree planted by the streams of water that produces fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and everything he does produces fruit and prospers” (see v. 3).

God wants us to be revived. He wants us to live with passion, but the only thing that can overcome the apathy of our age is to remember: He’s coming back again! The end is at hand, and—praise God—the victory is secure!

I think about all those Olympians who, when they crossed the finish line, rejoiced and celebrated. And if they can celebrate about a treasure that fades, how much more we who are recipients and “inheritants,” those of us who inherit eternal life! So I pray that you would be encouraged and that you would know that Christ is at work in and through your life! Let me just pray for us today.

Father, I pray that we would not give in to the apathy of our age, but that we would live with a passion. I pray, Lord, for revival—that You would revive our hearts, and through us, that revival would spread to our family, to our friends, to our churches, to the world. In Jesus’ name, until all have heard, until Christ has come, amen and amen.

Nancy: We’ve been listening to a message that Pastor Chris Brooks gave in a Revive Our Hearts chapel when he and others on our Board of Directors were here in Southwest Michigan last summer. My own heart was so encouraged and refreshed by what Chris shared! 

In fact, I jotted this down as he spoke: “The danger is knowing something in your head that is no longer affecting your hands (how you live) or your heart (how you love).” That was an important word for me. I’ve been soaking in the Word a lot for sixty-plus years—really, ever since I could read. 

And so, I’ve come to know a lot in my head, and I do think it usually is affecting my hands, the work I do, but sometimes it doesn’t affect my heart as much as it needs to—the way I love. So that was such a timely word for me to hear the day he shared it, and again today. I hope you were challenged by it, too. 

Dannah: Well, I was! Nancy, Chris mentioned your book, Incomparable. It takes people through the life of Jesus over the course of fifty devotional readings. Now, someone can read it anytime of the year, but I think it’s especially meaningful in the days leading up to Easter. 

We’ve included a link to Incomparable in the transcript of this program. You’ll find that on the Revive Our Hearts app or at ReviveOurHearts.com. And while you’re there, would you consider making a donation to support Revive Our Hearts?

We are listener-supported. That means we depend on friends like you to continue bringing the message of freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ to women all around the world. 

This month, when you give a donation of any amount, we’d love to send you a copy of the twelve-week study Seeking Him. It’s our way of saying, “Thank you!” Request it when you contact us with your gift. 

You might want to check into details on how to become a Revive Partner as well. Revive Partners give a regular amount each month, and there are a ton of wonderful perks that come along with joining our Revive Partner team. 

To make a donation or to get more information, head on over to ReviveOurHearts.com, or you can call us at this number: 1-800-569-5959. 

You know, Pastor Chris just prayed for the Lord to move in revival. Tomorrow Nancy will continue on that theme as she talks about how we can seek the Lord together for spiritual awakening. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.