Sparking a Flame

One spring when I was in the ninth grade our P.E. class was outside playing softball. I was on second base when the next batter hit the ball deep into the outfield. I immediately took off running. Rounding third, I headed for home when I noticed a girl on the other team playing catcher, standing in front on home plate. I continued running for home as she stood in the way waiting for the ball. If I continued running I was going to take her out. So, at the last moment, I dove to the right to avoid hitting her. As a result, I broke my left arm and was in a cast for the next six weeks.

Over the next two years I had two more breaks — the right arm and then the left arm again. It became such a familiar routine that when I broke my arm the third time and called my mother to let her know, she asked if she could have the beautician finish cutting her hair before she came and took me to the emergency room.

I don’t understand, but I’ve been told that when you break a bone and it heals that the bone is actually stronger there than it was originally.

Our theme this year is Coming Back Stronger. I don’t have to tell you what the last three years have been like. We’ve all experienced the losses and disappointments.

I remember when we went into the lock down to slow the spread. That February my appendix had ruptured and I missed the next four weeks. My first Sunday back was the first Sunday of the lock down. I was finally able to preach and we didn’t have services. That was a long two months. We finally began having services online but I can assure that it’s no fun preaching to a camera.

I couldn’t wait for services to begin again in the building and I thought everyone else would feel that excitement as well. But they didn’t. Not everyone anyway. It took months before we got anywhere near the attendance numbers we had before the lock down. But I shouldn’t complain. I hear stories of churches that are still at half their pre-COVID numbers almost three years later. However, I know that God is at work and that we can come back stronger.

You remember the story of Job. In one day he lost his wealth and all seven of his children. Eventually, even his health was taken. The only thing not taken from him was his wife and she was encouraging him to curse God and die. But Job’s story ends with God restoring all that Job had lost and then some.

Through the prophet Joel, God promises he will restore to his people what had been taken from them.

25 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten — the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm — my great army that I sent among you. 26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. (Joel 2:25-27)

God says that he is able to restore what has been taken and make it even better than before. This is the hope and the promise we have. We can come back stronger. However, it is going to take men of courage and men of faith.

In our culture today the role of men is being downplayed. This isn’t new, it’s been going on for years. If you watch TV or movies when there’s a problem the mothers are too busy to do anything and the fathers are idiots. It’s left up to the kids and their pets to save the day. Men are the only demographic you can make fun of any more. Our country needs men, godly men, who will stand for God. Our community needs godly men who live out their faith. And our churches need godly men who will lead by example. God has called you to be that example in your family, in your church, and in your community. We need men who will help to turn our communities and our country back to God.

Turn with me in your Bible to 2 Kings 22. I want to look at the story of a king who helped to turn his nation back to God. It is the story of the greatest revival found in the Bible. This revival took place in Jerusalem some six hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Judah had suffered for more than fifty years under two bad kings who had led the nation into idolatry. They were in desperate need of revival even as we are today.

Speaking about our country’s need for revival, Dr. James Vernon McGee said:

It is my firm conviction today that the only thing that can save our nation is revival. It is either going to be revival or revolution. There is corruption in government on all levels. There is corruption in all organizations today. Immorality and lawlessness abound. Sex, liquor, drugs, filthy magazines, foul pictures, scandals, and riots reign. This nation is wallowing like a pig in a swine’s sty. We are like the prodigal son in a far country in the pigpen with the pigs. Without revival, revolution stares us in the face. Socialism is creeping in today. Political parties are willing to sell the birthright of this nation in order to stay in power. The church today is under the blight of apostasy. Liberalism controls the organized church. There is a brazen denial of the Word of God even in so–called evangelical circles. The Word of God has been lost in the church, and there are atheists today in the pulpit.

He continues:

The first thing Christians need to recognize is that revival is personal and individual. I don’t think revival has ever begun as a mass movement. What we need today is not politicians calling other politicians crooks. We need politicians who will say, “I have been wrong. I am going to get right with God.” It would be a strange thing, and I suppose it would frighten our nation, but it’s what we need.

What I want you to know is that Dr. McGee spoke these words in the late 70s, but it sounds like he could have spoken them last week. I think he’s right; we need revival today. We need a “restoration of ailing Christians to vigorous spiritual health.” Or as Vance Havner defined it:

Revival is the church falling in love with Jesus all over again.

In 1 Kings 22 we find the story of a king falling in love with God and with his word.

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. (2 Kings 22:1)

Josiah was only eight when he became king because his father had been killed at the age of twenty-four. He was so bad that his own officials assassinated him only two years. So, Josiah became king at the age of eight.

2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. (2 Kings 22:2)

All good kings were compared to David, a man after God’s own heart. To say that David was a man after God’s heart is not to say that he was perfect but that David loved God and worked hard at keeping a right relationship with God. Can that be said of you? Do those around you know that you love God?

David is often mentioned as Israel’s greatest king. From my limited perspective I think Josiah was a close second. Josiah led what became the greatest spiritual revival since the time of David. God’s word says that Josiah did was pleasing before God.

3 In the eighteenth year of his reign [Josiah is now twenty-six], King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the Lord. He said: 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5 Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord – 6 the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple. 7 But they need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are honest in their dealings.” (2 Kings 22:3–7)

The temple was like any building, repairs are needed from time to time. Nothing lasts forever, especially if you don’t take care of it. Both Josiah’s father and his grandfather had been evil kings. They hadn’t cared much for God and hadn’t cared much for the temple. The temple had probably been neglected for more than fifty years. Aware of the need, Josiah orders that work be done to repair it. The money had already been collected; he was just encouraging them to spend it.

8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. (2 Kings 22:8-10)

That is a staggering thought. The only way they could “find” God’s law is if they’d first lost it. How does that happen? It happened because they didn’t see the importance of God’s word. Perhaps they were busy one day and so they decided not to read from God’s word that day. Then, they skipped reading it the next day. A few years later no one even knew God’s word even existed. They completely forgot all about it. And they lost it of all places in the temple, in God’s house. What else had they been storing in the temple that prevented them from seeing the scrolls of God’s word that right there in front of them? Had someone put the scrolls up on a shelf where they just collected dust? God’s word does no good if we don’t read it. But finally, during this remodeling of the temple, someone stumbled upon it. God’s word was given to the high priest who thankfully realized its importance. He took it to the king’s secretary who took it to the king and read it to him. And what did Josiah do when he heard God’s word for the very first time?

11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:11–13)

Imagine hearing the Bible for the first time. That was Josiah’s experience. He’d never heard the God’s law. Understand this was not the Old Testament. The Old Testament was still being written. Most likely this was the book of Deuteronomy which was often called the “Book of the Law” and at most the first five books of the Old Testament. Whether it was one book or five, it was God’s laws and God’s commands. They told the people what God required of them, what would happen if they obeyed, and what would happen if they rebelled. When Josiah heard what was written he reacted immediately by tearing his robe, an act of sadness and contrition. Josiah knew he and his father and his grandfather had not been obeying God. So, he had the priests go to God to find out what they needed to do. They in turn went to a prophetess named Huldah.

Josiah wanted to know God’s will for him and for the nation.

I’ll just summarize 2 Kings 23. Having heard what God required, Josiah had the law read to the people and the people pledged to follow it. Josiah had reforms instituted throughout the nation. Altars to idols were torn down, priests were called back to work. They got rid of false priests, and feasts were celebrated again. Josiah brought revival to Judah like it had never seen.

The question for us is can revival come today and what do we need to do to reignite our faith that we might come back stronger? There are three lessons I want us to learn from this story.

First, there must be a return to the word of God.

They had lost the Bible, and they had lost it in God’s temple. However, when they rediscovered it, they put it back into their lives.

I still remember our first Sunday in Louisville, KY. We had moved to Kentucky on a Saturday so we didn’t have any time to look for a church to attend the next day. Thankfully, there was a Christian church just down the road. Or so we thought. The Bible was never read during Sunday school. A couple of verses were read during the worship service but the sermon wasn’t based on the Bible. It was a shock to us but there are many churches like that today who don’t believe the Bible to be the word of God. They don’t believe Jesus died for our sins and they don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead. If you don't believe those things, why would you bother reading the Bible? But if you do believe them, why wouldn’t you it? There can be no revival without the word of God.

Howard Spring wrote:

The kingdom of God is not going to advance by our churches becoming filled with men, but by men in our churches becoming filled with God.

That will only happen when commit ourselves to the word of God. There must be a return to God’s word. Have you committed yourself to reading the Bible daily? There are hundreds of Bible reading plans. West Side just started a two year Bible reading plan. This plan will take us through the Bible in two years reading five days a week. If you’d like a copy of the plan let me know. Or you can talk to your preacher. I know he can set you up with a good reading plan. We must return the word of God to a place of importance in our lives.

Second, revival begins with repentance.

The reading of the God’s law brought repentance. When he heard the law read to him, Josiah tore his clothes as an expression of deep emotion. Why? Because the law of God revealed his sin and the sins of the nation. Without the word of God they did not realize how far they had strayed from God’s Law. A return to the word of God brings revival because it brings repentance.

One commentator told of a preacher who told the congregation what they needed to do was get down on their faces before God in repentance. Do you know what the congregation did? They got a new preacher. They didn’t want to hear what that preacher had to say. They didn’t want to hear about their sins and they definitely didn’t want to hear about having to repent. When we get into God’s word it will bring conviction. There won’t be true revival until there is repentance.

Another quote from Dr. McGee:

We could have revival in many of our churches, but there must be a conviction of sin that only the Word of God can bring. When the Bible brings conviction to the heart, repentance must follow. To repent means to make things right. Repentance means to turn around and go in the opposite direction. If you are going the wrong way, you turn around and go the right way.

Third, we must recognize that revival is personal and individual.

Revival doesn’t begin as a mass movement but with a single individual. For Judah, revival began when the king who was convicted by the law of God got right with God. It began with one person. We can pray for a revival for our community or for our nation but it begins with individuals.

Evangelist Gypsy Smith, was asked what the secret of revival is. He said:

Go home. Take a piece of chalk. Draw a circle around yourself. Then pray, “O Lord, revive everything inside this circle.”

One more quote from Dr. McGee wrote:

My friend, the only thing that can save our nation is revival. Somebody asks, “Can it come?” Yes, I believe it can come.

He said however:

Look around you today. When we had a depression in this country, we did not turn to God as a nation. We were plunged into World War II and saw the spilling of American blood that had not been equaled. That experience apparently did not teach us a thing. There was no revival. Since then we have had the Korean and the Vietnam wars. Neither did they bring us back to God.

Many people seem to think that if they get out and protest, things will change. But what we need is some real deep conviction on the inside. We need to recognize our coldness and indifference. When was the last time you confessed your coldness and indifference to the Lord? Have you told Him today that you love Him? He is your Savior, my friend, and I am convinced that even in this dark hour, as has happened in the past, we can have a revival. The story of Josiah encourages me. It was in the darkest hour in the life of his nation that revival came.

I don’t think any would disagree that our nation needs to return to God, to his word, and to his commands. We hope for it, we pray for it, but it must begin with us, with the men in our churches.