Burn Your Idols | Darren Rouanzoin

Everybody is talking about revival right now. But history shows the same pattern every time God moves, whether in Wales in 1904, on Azusa Street in 1906, or in Ephesus in Acts 19: the presence of God, the fear of the Lord, sin confessed, and idols dropped. You can't manufacture revival. You meet the conditions and God sends the fire.

In this first week of a six-part look at Acts 19, we step into first-century Ephesus, a city where to belong was to worship Artemis. She was the goddess of security, health, wealth, and blessing, and the temple was the bank of Asia. When the Ephesian believers finally dragged their hidden scrolls of sorcery into the light and burned them, the word of God outpowered every other power in the city. These weren't new converts. They were established Christians who had kept old spells in the drawer just in case Jesus didn't come through. That's most of us. We don't throw out the old operating system; we install Jesus on top of it. Every hidden idol is a confession that we haven't trusted God with that part of our lives, and secrecy is the oxygen that keeps it alive.

Pastor Darren names the idols of Southern California, including wellness, image, sexuality, entertainment, and money. The question isn't what to cut back on or put boundaries around. It's what God is asking you to burn. Name it, burn it, and fear the Lord.

Part of our series Church on Fire: A Journey Through Acts.