Do we need Revival?

Just a reminder to wait around after the service and we’ll have a Q&A session for anyone who has a question for the pastor.

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Introduction

Have you heard some of the horror stories in the Bible?

There’s the story of Jacob’s sons who killed all the men in a town and then took the women and children captive.

Or the story of the Israelites who built themselves a golden idol and danced and played and did detestable things all while Moses was in the presence of God on the nearby mountain. And they could see the presence of God up there on the mountain the whole time!

And the story of king Ahab who married a priestess of a false god and together they killed the people who were loyal to God and set up national system of pagan worship.

Maybe you remember the many stories of the kings of Israel about whom the bible simply says, “he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.” One evil king after another. Killing innocent people. Enslaving their own countrymen. Greed, idolatry, fornication, and even child sacrifice.

And then there’s the stories of the two or three last kings of Judah. Jeremiah and Ezekiel tell about how they brought idol worship and sorcery into the temple of Jehovah.

God called Isaiah to be a prophet towards the end of all this apostacy. He begins his prophetic writing with these statements about Israel:

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Isaiah 1:2–5 (ESV)

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. [next slide]

The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” [next slide]

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. [next slide]

Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Do you hear the pleading, sorrowful, pained father in this message? What is a Father to do when His children are in rebellion? Over and over again he pleaded with them, spoke tenderly to them, inviting them to return. He provided gentle discipline and then more stern discipline only to find the people push Him farther and farther away. Notice how he pleads for them in Jeremiah 3:

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Speaking of their idols he said,

“you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to me… Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God.... Return you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” (Jer 3:2, 13, 22 ESV)

They did not return. In 2 Kings 24 and 25 we read about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Tens of thousands of people were carried off to Babylon to live in exile. The temple was disassembled to get the gold and silver and bronze that had been used to build it. Even the utensils were packed up and shipped off to Babylon.

It’s easy to look down on the Israelites. They kept rebelling against God, and they deserved what they got. But we aren’t in rebellion. Do you see any idol worship in this church? Anyone have a secret murti or a buddha idol in your house? If you do, please let me help you get rid of those things. But my guess is, most of you don’t have an idol, haven’t offered a child sacrifice, aren’t involved in sorcery or slavery or murder or fornication.

Most people in our church family could consider themselves good Christians. Which is why it probably feels like a stretch to compare ourselves with the wild stories of Israel’s many rebellions.

And yet, we really need to.

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Revival

There’s a word the Christian church has thrown around for a few centuries that I want to explore in some depth over the next three messages: the word is, REVIVAL.

Growing up in the South I would often see churches put on Revival campaigns where they would bring in a special speaker and hold worship services every night for a week or two.

Those local campaigns sought to get some of the energy that has accompanied notable revivals throughout history. World-impacting revivals such as the protestant reformation of the 16th century where people like Luther and Calvin led a renewed focus on God’s word, or the great awakening of the 18th century where Charles Finny and Dwight Moody made a big impact, or the 2nd great awakening of the 19th century where William Miller had significant influence.

There have also been many smaller, regional revivals, like the Welsh revival of 1904 where 8,000 people were converted and so may people quit alcohol that there was nobody in the taverns. You can look up the story of Evan Roberts to hear more about that revival. And there was the very recent revival at Asbury University in Kentucky which started on February 8, 2023 and included two weeks of nonstop singing and prayer and testimonies with some 50,000 people participating from over 260 colleges and universities.

It’s exciting to see revival. Something supernatural is happening. And it makes sense that we would want to experience it for ourselves. But here’s the thing:

Revival is possible when people recognize they need God. For example:

After Jacob’s sons murdered the men in Shechem, Jacob took his family and fled to Bethel in fear that the nearby tribes would wage war on them because of the awful thing they had done. They went to Bethel, the place where God had made a covenant with Jacob many years before. Jacob recognized he and his whole family needed to repent of their evil deeds and return to the Lord. And so they buried their pagan influenced jewelry by an oak tree, refurbished the altar of the Lord, and there they prayed and offered sacrifices to God. They recognized they had a serious problem and they turned to God for help and forgiveness.

In the time of Ahab, Elijah came to call the people to repent. They weren’t ready until 3 1/2 years of drought dried up the land and forced them to recognize that their so-called god, baal, couldn’t help them. Because they saw their need, they were willing to follow Elijah up the mountain and ask the critical question, “who is God, Baal or Jehovah?” When Jehovah responded to Elijah’s prayer with fire from heaven and then rain came down there was a revival in the land. The priests of Baal were killed and schools were set up to train spiritual leaders for the worship of God.

All through the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles you’ll find stories of rebellion and then when things got bad enough they would turn back to God for help. It was when the cities were besiged or the crops were being pillages, or the threat of a great army was looming that the people looked around and said, “what we’ve been doing isn’t working, maybe we need to ask God for help.” And amazingly, God would help.

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The pattern went like this:

God would bless the people

The people would become complacent and forget where their blessings came from

Then they would dabble in the lifestyle and worship of the nations around them

Which would eventually lead to total apostacy and rebellion against God

And only when they experienced hardship and difficulty would they turn back to God and beg Him for help

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Do you experience these patterns in your life? When life is good it’s easy to forget about the giver of all good things… then you slip into spiritual apathy or even drop into a worldly lifestyle with little thought of God… Then, something happens to wake you up to the reality of God’s presence and your need for His involvement in your life.

Does our church experience patterns like this? Highs and lows in our spiritual life or passion for mission?

We may not be in total rebellion against God like the Israelites during their periods of idolatry, but is it possible to look good and yet still need revival? I think so.

Laodicea

After hundreds of years of apostacy the Israelites finally got their just deserts and ended up in Babylonian captivity. Seventy years later about 50,000 of them took advantage of an opportunity to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. From that time on the Jews were very strict about following the law. They didn’t want anything to cause them to slip back into apostacy. But their strict obedience became a replacement for their God. When Jesus, the promised Messiah, came on the scene the pious leaders rejected Him and hung him on a cross to die.

It is possible for us to look like we’re rich with religion and obedient to God while being blind to God’s presence, deaf to His spirit, spiritually naked and completely devoid of the riches of God’s grace.

Turn with me to Revelation chapter 3 and notice what God says to the Laodicean church:

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Revelation 3:16–19 (ESV)

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. [next slide]

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. [next slide]

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Notice Jesus’ call in these verses. He’s talking to a group of people who for all intents and purposes have the same experience as the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. They are spiritual people. They are clothed in their own robes of righteous obedience. They are rich in understanding of God’s Word. They see clearly the signs of the times and have a working knowledge of the plan of salvation. What else do they need? What more could God ask of this group of people?

I’ll tell you what they need, The presence of God.

I believe this group of people is you and me. We are the laodicean church.

Jesus says, “I counsel you…” This suggests that although this church thinks it knows everything, we need the council of God’s spirit.

And then He says, “as many as I love I rebuke and chasten...” “be zealous and repent.”

According to Jesus, God’s church needs revival. We have a great need for God and He has a great desire to be in our midst.

Dry Bones

Let’s look at a story in Ezekiel 37 and make note of something that is critically important to the topic of revival.

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Ezekiel 37:1–2 NLT

The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.

God then asked Jeremiah a question, “can these boners live?”

The scientifically correct answer is, NO! Absolutely not. But Jeremiah had been with God long enough to know that amazing things can happen when God is involved. So He simply said, “O Lord God, you know.” And that’s when God performed a visual illustration of revival.

look at verse 5:

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Ezekiel 37:5–6 NLT

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

Who is doing the work of reviving these dead bones? God is.

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Ezekiel 37:7–8 NLT

So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.

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Ezekiel 37:9–10 (NLT)

Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’ ” [next slide]

So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.

This fantastic illustration was a tool for helping Ezekiel and us to understand God’s power to revive the dead heart. In verse 11 God told Ezekiel that this field of dead, dry, bones represented the whole family of Israel, and by extension, you and me.

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You and I may not be in idolatrous apostacy but we still need the same miracle today that the people of Israel needed in Ezekiel’s day. We need the spirit of God to abide with us.

Conclusion

People who know about these things say that the leader’s first job is to define where the organization is at this moment. You can’t define a direction to go unless you know where you’re starting from. I’ve been looking around and asking questions and exploring so that I can get an initial idea about where the Riverview church is right now. What I’ve found is that the Riverview Adventist church family has a rich history. We are the mother church of no less than seven other churches! Some of you were around when they were roofing the Richland church. Many of you have seen this church grow and transform through the years. New additions to the church facility have added a fellowship hall, a new pastor’s office and workroom, a new wing for the little kids’ classes. Repairs to the roof. Buying the community services building and starting a thrift store and food bank.

Our history is rich.

And yet, I keep hearing things that make me think there’s a sense of pessimism about our future. There are questions about our financial stability and whether we can make our budget work this year or pay off the new building. Some feel like we’ve stalled out. We’re not a church-planting church anymore—our daughter churches have surpassed us in mission and membership. I’ve even heard people say that our church has plateaued and is now in decline

Churches go through cycles and changes. Young people grow up, families move away, the needs of the community shift, and churches have to adapt. When a church is in a transition moment it can be hard to not look back with nostalgia on the past, or to look forward with concern at the uncertain future.

Who are we? Where are we going? How is God leading us? These shouldn’t be scary questions. Instead, we should see these questions as fertile ground for a revival—a renewed understanding of our need for God’s Spirit to give us power and direction. This moment in our church history is a time when we can recognize our great need and ask God to be with us and bring life and vitality to our church family and to His mission in this community.

I’m an outsider looking in on the church and I think this is a church with a fantastic future ahead. The food bank is a good example of a church filled with God-given talent and a heart for service. We have missionaries that we’re sending to Africa in a few weeks, an active homeless ministry, thriving pathfinder and adventurer clubs, an enthusiastic group of youth and young adults, fantastic sabbath school teachers, and a brand-new mission center that is very close to being ready to host the first of many, community engaging, kingdom building events. This is a church with a bright future, but we aren’t the ones to make that bright future. Just like the dead, dry bones couldn’t come back to life except by the power and breath of God’s spirit, we need God to breath on us so that we can live in the future God has planned for us.

And so I say that we need revival. We need the Spirit of God to live in our midst, to counsel and guide us, and to give us direction and power to accomplish His mission.

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When I speak again in a couple weeks we’ll explore the anatomy of a revival through the story of Josiah. But for now, all I want you to do is take home a question: “Do I need revival?” “Does my family need revival?” Ask God to show you if there are some dry bones in your life—areas where you have become apathetic, or sins that you know about but haven’t been willing to give to God. And start praying this prayer, “Lord, send your Spirit to live in me.”

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Please stand with me to sing our closing song: Face to Face, #206