In his sermon 'Burning in the Soul', Kevin Swanson addresses the current state of the evangelical church in America, highlighting its decline and the need for spiritual rejuvenation. Swanson emphasizes the importance of spreading the gospel and calls for members of the church to actively participate in sharing their faith. He notes a significant drop in church attendance and a disconnection among younger generations from a true biblical worldview. Swanson argues that the church is in a state of apostasy and requires a renewed focus on strengthening its foundations. He draws on biblical messages from the churches of Sardis, Laodicea, and Ephesus, urging believers to be watchful and strengthen what remains. A central theme is the need for a stronger and more profound understanding of God, a robust faith, and an empowered gospel that goes beyond mere forgiveness to transform lives. Swanson uses the analogy of a telescope to describe how believers should seek to magnify their view of God, gaining a greater appreciation for His majesty and sovereignty. He warns against 'cheap grace' and stresses the need for a more substantial conception of God that will lead to stronger families, communities, and churches capable of withstanding future challenges.

Sign me up, Jeff. I'll go. Yeah. I love it. Anybody else want to go with me?

Let's just go. Amen. What an opportunity the world is waiting for the gospel of Jesus Christ to get out there. Will you go out there and share the gospel of Jesus Christ tomorrow, the next day? Let's do that, amen.

I have something quick to say, Scott, by his amazing grace, let me slip in here for just a moment. I, Kevin Swanson from Colorado by the way, and I would really like to see the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ be strengthened here in America. I think we're all trying to grapple with where are we and where we need to be And as we come back and we see the brokenness of the church of Jesus Christ, it pains my heart. It's so broken down. It's so weak.

The evangelical church in America is crumbling. It's actually shaved down from the 25-28 percent down into the 18-19 percentiles and we've got 40 percent drop off in church attendance in the last number of years. Only one percent of Gen Zers believe in something of a basic biblical worldview versus 57% of them think they're Christians, only 1% think like Christians. That's George Barna's statistic and his definition of a worldview is not quite as solid, I think, as my definition, but nevertheless, only 1% of Gen Zers even have a remote idea of what the Bible says about anything. 57% of them still think they're Christians.

So you've heard the statistics, so as we step back and we say, what does the Church of Jesus Christ need? I know more CCM. That'll help. Or more scandals out of the CCM industry. Maybe that will help.

I think we understand how broken down the church is in the Western world. We're in the midst of a gigantic apostasy and the message that Jesus brings to the church at Sardis and Laodicea and Ephesus as well does very much apply, I believe, to where we are today. And the message to Sardis is the message to the evangelical church in America today and the Reformed church in America today. And that is just simply Revelation 3 verse 2, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. We are dealing with a dead and dying church, therefore what do we do?

The message is clear, be watchful, strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. We need to be strong and to be stronger. We need a stronger, stronger grace, a grace that goes beyond the forgiveness of sins but is able to actually cleanse the man from his iniquity and empower him to keep the law of God and to walk in God's ways. We need a stronger gospel to know that the gospel is the power of God to really save us from our sins. And a stronger Jesus to know that he died on the cross, to set us free, to set the captives free, to overcome the great enemies of our soul, to give us that victory over sin, Satan, and death, and to proclaim the victory of Jesus, that he is risen, he is on the right hand of the Father, he is bringing his enemies under his foot so he makes his people willing in the day of his power.

We need a stronger conception of Jesus, a stronger sense of the gospel, with the gospel a stronger grace and certainly stronger faith. So I think this is the message. We need, I think beyond all things right now, the fundamental thing that we need to recapture is a stronger understanding or conception of God himself. We need a God-centeredness and a better sense of everything about God, His holiness, His greatness, His goodness, His grace, His power, His sovereignty, all of it. We need that magnified in our minds, such that we have an object of faith.

It's the object of faith that we have a better conception of that we have a better faith, we have a stronger faith because we have a stronger object of faith conceived and understood and held to in our minds and in our hearts. So I think this is the issue, a stronger conception of God that we would fear God and understand more of the awesomeness of God, more reverence towards God in our day-to-day language, more reverence towards God in our prayer life, more of a conception of the awesomeness of God in every aspect of our children's curriculum. Now there are two different ways in which to get a better and a clearer and a larger conception of something. One is using a say a magnifying glass or the other is a telescope. The telescope is different than a microscope or a magnifying glass in that the telescope will magnify that which is much larger, much more majestic, much more glorious than we would have conceived without the telescope.

So what we want is more of a telescope in our preaching, in our study of God's Word, to see the more gloriousness and majesty of God himself. Take a telescope to God. You think about the largest star in the universe, the Canis Majoris. If the earth was a golf ball, the Canis Majoris would be the size of Mount Everest. And so you see with a telescope, we might be able to see a little bit more of the size, the magnitude, the gloriousness of the star Magnus Canis Majoris.

And that's what we're saying here, is as we preach the Word, as we study the Word, as we study God's creation, as we study in our day-to-day study of history and science and all the subjects, may we see more of God, more of the gloriousness, the greatness, and the praiseworthiness of God. The beginning of wisdom and knowledge in everything is the fear of God. If we want a better conception of the gospel, the beginning of our conception of the gospel will be the fear of God, a real sense of the gloriousness and the greatness of God, and a response of praise and worship to Him. So that's what we need I think brothers and sisters more than anything else today we need a better conception of God we need a stronger conception of God a stronger faith in a stronger God And so I leave you with that verse one more time, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. And I think today we're dealing with something very similar to what Bonhoeffer was dealing with when he spoke of cheap grace, the free grace movement, the easy believism movement that Walt Shantrey and others were speaking of in the 1970s, John MacArthur as well, Lordship controversy, and the evangelical fish issue that Douglas Wilson would bring out what 15 years ago.

We are still dealing with this broken down, I call it, evangelo kind of conception of God, of the gospel, of grace, of faith, and all of it. So may God give us a vision, a better vision. May the Holy Spirit of God strike us in the preaching of the Word of God this weekend, that we might have a better conception of God and a stronger faith, stronger grace, stronger gospel will produce stronger families, stronger men, stronger fathers, stronger pastors, stronger preaching, and hopefully by God's grace stronger churches that will not fold like a cheap coat, stronger churches that can stand against what's to come in what I think to be even more tribulation, difficulty for us and especially for young people who will live out the next generation. So be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

Be strong in a strong Lord, the strong gospel, strong grace. Stand on strong grace. Amen and amen. Thank you.