A Recipe for Revival: Listening, Living & Reaping

Introduction

If you have a vehicle that has been manufactured in the last 7-8 years, most likely you have a feature on your vehicle that is similar to Siri on your Iphone. Or, maybe you have heard of Alexa that supports a smart home device.

In Jane’s Suburban, she has an Alexa equivalent that she will say “tune to enlighten, tune to the Message, or call Ashley” etc. I notice that with her higher pitched voice her voice activated female personality many times can not understand her commands. When I speak to the lady with authority she falls in line. In other words, Jane’s Alexa gets an attitude with her and I have to speak and straighten her out.

All joking aside, what if your GPS voice became so aggressive that as you asked Google how to go to a particular address that Google responded with a demeanor something like this:

“I told you to turn left, but no, you thought you knew better!”

What we want to discover today is that there are times we drive through this life’s journey thinking we know the best, only to realize we have ignored the correct GPS-God’s Planned Steps for our lives.

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Psalm 85:8-13.

Psalm 85:8-13

Psalm 85:8–13 “8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak, For He will speak peace To His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly. 9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. 10 Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. 11 Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven. 12 Yes, the Lord will give what is good; And our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.”

Prayer

Message

John Calvin shares about the Psalms:

"The Psalms are an anatomy of all the parts of the soul; for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror."

Charles Spurgeon writes:

"Whenever I attempt to read the Psalms, I always seem to be reading the deep things of God; the experience, the suffering, and the comfort of His people."

Last night at 6:15 pm is the epitome of the fallen estate of our country, our nation. Former President and the Republican nominee for President in our November election was grazed with a rifle shot that was an attempt on his life.

We need the psalms to bathe our soul today.

There are times that we need our soul bathed in the Holy Spirit. The Psalms are a bath to our souls. Amen.

AS we study Psalm 85 today, the Psalm acts as the divine GPS for the people of Israel. They needed a total redirection of life. Their minds had been so sidetracked and had listened to so many voices in their time of exile that they needed to get their lives back plumb and on the right track following the Lord.

The Israelites lives post the exile period were not exactly peaches and cream. The city of Jerusalem was in shambles, the temple had been totally destroyed, and the people’s lives were very fragile as it related to their faith. Israel faced a period of restoration and at the crossroad of needing to make significant changes in their lives.

The Israelites were a despondent people. Have you ever seen someone who is despondent? They are desensitized to the things of life and life has no real meaning. How are you today? Am I speaking to you today?

My NKJV reads:

The New King James Version (Psalm 85)

Prayer that the LORD Will Restore Favor to the Land

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm Of the Sons of Korah.

In OT biblical times the Sons of Korah were the worship leaders in the temple. They were the modern day praise team if you will. As we read from their depths, the sons of Korah had a deep seated spiritual maturity in their worship leadership. These worship leaders wrote the 85th Psalm by the hand of God as a heart felt prayer seeking God’s mercy and favor.

In verse 8-13, the psalmist demeanor changes from lamenting to enjoying a deep hope found in the Lord.

Listen to the turning point in the Psalm again.

Psalm 85:6 “6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?”

Here is the kicker. You must ask the question as I ask the question.

Does my life have joy? Answer that honestly. If you can say that no, my life is not joyous.

Now understand the question. I didn’t ask are you happy. Happy is built around happenings. I am referring to a real joy that sustains in the Lord regardless of the happenings in your life. If you still answer, no, I do not have joy in my life.

Then I would say based on the Word of God that you as well need revival.

In this portion of the psalm do you know where the psalmist was located in his journey?

The same place we find ourselves when the GPS speaks to us and we have taken a wrong turn. What does the GPS say? “Recalculating and provides a new plan of direction.”

Let’s listen to the GPS-God’s planned steps for those here today that may sense you have been sidetracked or totally traveling life in the wrong direction.

*Revival today is first and foremost about Christians personally getting right with God. Phil Dyar asks Christians, "When do we need revival?"

*We need revival.

-When church dinners are better attended than prayer meetings.

-When we do not love Jesus as we once did.

-When we would rather watch TV than read the Bible and pray.

-When we have time for recreation and sports, but not for Bible study and prayer.

*We need revival.

-When we seldom think thoughts of eternity.

-When we make little effort to witness to the lost.

-When we are unmoved by the fact over 2 billion people in the world have never heard the name of Jesus.

*We need revival.

-When our Christianity is joyless and dry.

-When we are bored with worship.

-When believers can be at odds with each other and not feel compelled to pursue reconciliation.

*We need revival.

-When we know the truth in our heads that we are not practicing in our lives.

-When we would rather make money than give money.

-When people have to be entertained to be drawn to church.

-When the fire has gone out in our hearts, our marriages, and the church. (1)

*What is true today was also true thousands of years ago when this Psalm was written.

As intro to our text:

Psalm 85:6 “6 Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?”

When we think of revival, we think of a series of meetings at church that win the lost to Christ.

Revive

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 2421. חָיָה

2421. חָיָה châyâh, khaw-yaw´; a prim. root [comp. 2331, 2421]; to live, whether it. or fig.; causat. to revive:—keep (leave, make) alive, × certainly, give (promise) life, (let, suffer to) live, nourish up, preserve (alive), quicken, recover, repair, restore (to life), revive, (× God) save (alive, life, lives), × surely, be whole

People that become saved at revivals are lost and that is referred to as evangelism.

Revival is a term for the believer. There are times we lose our zest for the Lord. We become sidetracked and the wrong things are influencing our lives.

Notice that when we begin to refocus our attention on Jesus what takes place. What does revival and restoration promise?

A Tranquil Lifestyle for the Believer

Look at verse 8 with me:

Psalm 85:8 “8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak, For He will speak peace To His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly.”

Listening, Liberating, and Leaving

Listening

In verse 8 we read, “I will listen to what God the Lord will speak”

Notice firstly that the psalmist makes it personal, “I”. Oh dearly beloved listen closely. There are more problems in America today than time allows me to list. What happened last evening at 6:15 pm, Former President Donald Trump being shot is as the Bible states “a sign of the times.” We want to blame the world for the state we find ourselves in. But when the church begins to look like the world we must own it. H.B. Charles Jr. Pastor states, the church is not the building, its us believers, its not a place, its us people, the church is not an organization, but an organism But we have to own it.

When we are the church and we are among the world, the world rubs off on us.

Changing me starts at the root of the problem. Changing me changes my household, changing me changes my church, changes my workplace, changes my community and the list goes on. No one can choose a change for you, but you. None of your loved ones around you can bring about revival. You have to want it for it to take place.

It begins with listening to God.

You could say to me, Brother Luke, I am here each week, I listen to our life group teachers, I listen to your message each week, I listen to God.

I have shared in a prior message about white noise, but I do not know that I really drilled down to describe white noise.

White noise is a type of noise that is produced by combining sounds of all different frequencies together. Just as white light is made up of all the different colors of light combined, white noise is made up of all the different frequencies of sound combined. This results in a consistent sound that can be soothing or used to mask other sounds.

Here are a few key points about white noise:

Frequency Spectrum: White noise contains all frequencies within the range of human hearing, typically from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, each at equal intensity.

Sound Characteristics: It sounds like a constant hiss, similar to the static sound of an untuned radio or television.

Applications:

Sleep Aid: White noise can help mask other noises that might disturb sleep, making it a popular tool for people with insomnia or those who live in noisy environments.

Concentration Aid: It can help improve focus and concentration by masking distracting sounds in environments like offices or study areas.

Sound Masking: Used in offices or public spaces to provide privacy by masking conversations and reducing distractions.

Scientific Basis: The idea behind white noise is that by playing a sound that includes all frequencies, it can help to drown out or mask other sounds because it makes them less distinguishable.

Oh dearly beloved, I provide that lengthy illustration to simply say that its not the fact you may not be listening to the things of God, but we are listening to everything else that drowns out the message.

How many times were the Israelites guilty of listening to mixed messages.

Judges 2:11–13 “11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; 12 and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.”

Exodus 32:4 “4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!””

Ezekiel 8:14 “14 So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.”

Many others-Chemosh, Dagon, Molek and the list goes on.

They were distracted by white noise so that they did not listen to the Lord.

Ask yourself the question. What is the white noise today in my life that I am not saturated with a word from the Lord? Who or what is influencing your mind and capturing your thoughts?

-social media, our younger generations are living in a postmodern, relativism mindset where there friends constantly are questioning absolute truth and traditional authorities are constantly questioned. Individualism-strong emphasis on personal autonomy and self expression which conflicts with communal doctrinal organized religion. Recreation, finances, leisure, hobbies, and the like.

“Possess is to be possessed.” The question: What do you possess that is possessing you?

Revelation 22:17 “17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

1 John 5:14–15 “14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

What motivates us to listen? Understanding that He is God, but make Him Lord.

God is so encompassing and must be a message for another day, but the name God,

El-Almighty, power, great, strength, most high, diety

We can understand those traits and what is sad is when we know God is all those things and yet choose other options for life’s direction. How do we change that?

Lord-Jehovah “the self existent, the eternal, the proper name of the Jewish National God. Why is that important? We have to be specific in identifying the true God that reigns in our lives.

The psalmist envisions God both in His power as El and in His covenant relationship as Yahweh.

God is almighty, He is omniscient and omnipotent and immutable, He is the alpha and omega, but we must make Him personal as Abba and become our personal Lord and Savior.

Liberating

“For He speaks peace.”

Peace

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible שָׁלֹם

shâlôm, shaw-lome´; from 7999; safe, i.e. (fig.) well, happy, friendly; also (abstr.) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace:—× do, familiar, × fare, favour, + friend, × great, (good) health, (× perfect, such as be at) peace (-able, -ably), prosper (-ity, -ous), rest, safe (-ty), salute, welfare, (× all is, be) well, × wholly.

Peace in the English language is a little more constrictive in definition. The word “shalom” in the Hebrew means safe, happy, friendly, prosperity, restful, feeling complete or whole. Peace in the Hebrew is the total package.

Oh listen dearly beloved, when we say that Jesus is the prince of peace, let me say from the onset that there will never be times of struggle in your life when you receive Christ as Savior. I am not saying that if the Holy Spirit brings great conviction in your life for the need of revival that every problem you have will go away. What am I saying is that Jesus can bring peace to your storms.

Romans 5:1–2 “1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Romans 8:6 “6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

John 14:27 “27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Leaving

“But let them not turn back to their folly.”

The word “folly” is the same as foolishness. We have been studying the letter to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians on Wednesday nights. We have been studying the carnal mind vs. the spiritual mind that is stayed on the Lord. Let’s deduce from the order of the prayer being uttered is that if we listen to the Lord and obey Him, and enjoy the liberated life of peace, the scene of wholeness, then we will not be tempted to fall back into our former life.

Transformation of Lordship for the Believer

Psalm 85:9 “9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.”

Oh dearly beloved, for the one here today that wants to draw near to God listen to what the Bible says:

James 4:8 “8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Psalm 24:4–5 “4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

Note how we sense the Lord’s nearness. We are to fear Him. That means we are to reverence the Lord.

Fear

A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible 3372. יָרֵא

3372. יָרֵא yârêʾ, yaw-ray´; a prim. root; to fear; mor. to revere; caus. to frighten:—affright, be (make) afraid, dread (ful), (put in) fear (-ful, -fully, -ing), (be had in) reverence (-end), × see, terrible (act, -ness, thing).

We know that fear or reverence for the Lord in a sense is fear or frighten, but a fear in reality that understands that God is so much more than we are. He is holy, He is righteous, He is powerful, He is all knowing, He is good and I could go on and on. WE understand that He is higher in every sense as the Scriptures state, His ways are higher than our ways.

Jonathan Edwards, a prominent preacher during the Great Awakening, offered a perspective that emphasized the majesty and holiness of God. Edwards believed that fearing God involves a profound awareness of His infinite greatness and our own sinfulness. This awareness should evoke a sense of awe and humility, driving believers to worship and obey God out of a sincere heart. Edwards argued that this fear is not about being terrified of God, but about having a proper respect for His glory and majesty, leading to a life of devotion and service.

How does that fear and reverence need to originate?

Acknowledging those things mentioned as to who God is.

Admitting the reality of who I am, my sin and a need for Him.

Accepting His forgiveness and living a life of faith and trust in Him.

Treasures in Life for the Believer

Psalm 85:10–11“10 Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. 11 Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven.”

The psalmist affirms that at that time when we come back to the Lord as in the scene in the NT of the prodigal coming back to his Father, we are reminded that the Father was waiting with open arms with the purple robe and to offer up the fatted calf of life for the wayward. Our heavenly Father wants to do the same for you.

We read that once we seek God what transpires once we seek revival in the Lord. Now this morning, we have covered the reality of what takes place once we begin the process. They had to repent of the sins of past to experience God’s healing, but the tone changed in verse 8 as they had hope of what was to come as they turned their eyes back to God.

Dearly beloved, we can enjoy the same hope of turning our lives back to God. We can know a tranquil lifestyle as a believer. We will see first hand the transformation of lordship and we will sense His closeness in our lives and we will experience His salvation not just at the time of conversion, but daily as we see His saving presence of grace and mercy.

Finally, we see the treasures of this life and the life to come for the believer who places their trust in the Lord. We read of a convergence of blessings that come into the life of the believer who is renewed in Christ Jesus.

“Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed.”

How could the psalmist say it more eloquently than that?

Mercy is a picture of God’s favor for nothing you did or do to deserve His goodness. God has stooped down from the heavenlies down to the literal hell we make for ourselves so many times and grabs us from the depths of despair to save us from ourselves, yes, Satan’s grip on us.

The triune God of the universe is something so overwhelming for us to fathom. Many here saw the movie “The Passion” and for all of us here would say it was the most difficult movie I have ever experienced to watch. The writers, directors and actors in that movie made the journey our Lord and Savior traveled to the cross as real as we can imagine.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine with me:

Go back and reflect upon all the symbolism and visions of the Lord when he was in Gethsemane's garden absorbing the reality of what was to come when He was to be seized, beaten, and walked the journey up to Golgotha and ultimately death on the cross. See His pangs and His humility and bowing reverence for His Heavenly Father.

Now, place yourself at the scene of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:15–19 “15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’”

Think about His humility. Think about His downcast spirit. Think about His lowness of estate in that pig trough.

Oh listen to me dear brother or sister, now as your head is held real low and downcast over your estate and you are as low as you can go, slightly tilt your head and you will see the same picture of the Holy Spirit that you saw in lowness in the garden in the form of Jesus. All the Holy Spirit wants you to do is to reach out and hold Him, love on Him, tell Him you are sorry, and reach out to Him and you will be made whole.

And when that happens, “mercy and truth have met together”, and when you grab Him and pull Him into your being, “righteousness and peace have kissed.” Amen

Oh dearly beloved, would you do that today. In your lowness, turn to the Lord.

Let’s pray.