Promise of Revival

Tomorrow is groundhog day. Luke, age 13, I don’t think we should let a groundhog determine when the weather is going to change. As long as he went through the week we just did I’m ok with him making the call.

Technically ended 21DOP last Sunday, ok if you kept praying, will take a minute to celebrate tonight at city night

Intro about revivals

For those of you who don’t know or remember. Revival meet regularly

Who remembers?

Joe Johnson Newport/London sandwich sign

until someone got saved, shouted, suits

maybe same speakers year after year because God moved one time they spoke so I’m pretty sure we spiritualize it but we might have superstitiously scheduled them year after year because we didn’t want to jinx it.

We had camp meetings, we might have met outside in tents, we sang songs that struck a chord with so many of our emotions like I surrender all or Just as I am.

Switching gears so that you don’t think I’m just making light of how we used to do things.

Me Tent revival 100 people, don’t know where they are,

ONne time i fasted all week for breakthrough and saw two physical healings and two of my friends pour out their heart at the altar, those that experienced healing have passed away and I don’t think my two friends are still in church

new lex colton and abby, i was exhausted day 5 abby sang brian shouted, but brian doesn’t should every service…

My dad 30 day, Troy, not perfect.

I accepted the call to preach at an outdoor camp meeting and wouldn’t pastor my first church 9 years later…

But we believe so many of these methods worked because we encouraged people to do collectively what they should be doing daily. Living in His presence.

We’ll talk more about why and how revival throughout today but I want you to continue to comeback to these three words with me today.

RECOGNIZE REPENT REJOICE (REPEAT)

Who has read some of the book of Acts this year? (Bible reading plan)

Context for text Pentecost, how many saved so far etc…First time He preached it cut to the heart

Acts 3:17–19 ““Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”

me agitated by allowing for ignorance

Luke 23:34 “Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”

How could Jesus say they didn’t know what they were doing?

Beating, spitting upon, crucifying an innocent man. Not just an innocent man, but a man who had performed more miracles, healings, and acts of kindness than anyone who has ever walked the face of the earth. Not only was He not worthy of death, He should have been esteemed with high favor among all of the people.

When people commit acts of sin

Forrest Gump found his seat on the bus next to the only one that would afford him a seat. It was next to a young girl named Jenny who would become his love interest in the movie. Upon seeing her as a child he described her by saying, “I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life, she was like an angel.” After a short dialogue, Jenny asked Forrest, “Are you stupid or something?” While this would have hurt most people’s feelings, Forrest replied with one of the many timeless quotes that emerged from this film, by quoting the most intelligent person in his life, his mother. To Jenny’s question, Are you stupid or something? Forrest matter of factly replied, Mama says stupid is as stupid does.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

AI said this about that funny yet perhaps very insightful wisdom from mama. "Stupid is as stupid does" means a person's actions define their intelligence or foolishness, not their words or perceived IQ; if you do stupid things, you are considered stupid, regardless of your potential. It implies that behavior reveals character and that poor choices make someone foolish in effect, even if they aren't intellectually deficient.

Now you can know that the word stupid is a very dangerous word to be used from the pulpit, and you need to hear me say that I’m not calling anyone stupid today, but I wonder if you were found to have done something wrong would you rather be labeled as stupid or sinful? I don’t think I would ever be so happy to be called stupid in my life, but we are familiar with phrases or have used phrases like…

You knew better… You do know better… You should have known better.

We usually attach such a phrase to someone to shame them or point out when the thing that they did is at a level where we know without a doubt that they did in fact know better.

We do know better don’t we? I wonder how many times a day we do something even though we “know better?” Make a short list

Real Ignorance

Blissful Ignorance

You know you shouldn’t have spent that money, You know shouldn’t have ate that kind of food, drank that much, hung out with those people, looked at those websites…

But if we continue in sin, do we really know better? If they could murder Jesus and in the same moment Jesus say they don’t know what they are doing. To what degree can we hold others guilty for lesser sins?

In this moment I’m certainly not advocating for a license to sin, rather I’m wondering how are we to understand that Jesus said they didn’t know, then Peter say you acted in ignorance?

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…

Knowledge of God’s law without a relationship with the law giver will leave us in a state of spiritual ignorance.

The ignorance that causes us to remain in sin comes from not truly knowing or remembering the love of the father. We know on paper it’s wrong. We know it may hurt others. We know it’s selfish. But it feels good. It seems desirable. It scratches the itch that I have in the moment. The lie of the enemy will always be that sin will make us feel better than it does, and hurt others less than it does. We said a few weeks ago that input informs our values, values drive our decisions, and decisions produce outcomes. Input informs our values, values drive our decisions, and decisions produce outcomes.

RECOGNIZE REPENT REJOICE

When Mama said stupid is as stupid does, she spoke well to a greater ignorance that goes beyond knowing what is right and wrong. Our spiritual knowledge or lack thereof which we could refer to as spiritual ignorance results from our input. Little by little we allow different sources to speak into us, and our spiritual mindset is revealed.

Colton did such a great job with this last week that I’m going to quote directly from his sermon, on the ability to overcome sin and temptation he said this…

This is not a spiritual switch that gets flipped in a moment of temptation, but the strength and power to resist is already there because we are regularly waiting on the Lord. Or rather, living in His presence. See, when we allow ourselves to fully surrender to the love of the Father, our desire to sin drastically declines. When temptation comes to us in the most enticing ways that it can, we’re able to walk away from it because it’s of no interest to us.  

I CANT BELIEVE THEY DID THAT!!!

You can’t? You can’t believe they had a heart attack when you saw what they ate at the dinner table for 30 years?

You can’t believe they are broke, when you watch how much value they put on material things?

You can’t believe they drink, when you see their lack of interest in worship?

Peter spoke the Word of God to the people and yes the “knew” what was sin was not, but when they were now confronted with the outcome of the sin, they realized they were at a crisis moment. So what do they do? We read from Chapter 3 in Acts today, but right before this Peter preached a similar message to the larger crowd and they respond, What shall we do? He said repent.

RECOGNIZE REPENT REJOICE

But repentance is tricky…

Two-edged confession

Anyone in here ever run a red light and feel bad about it? Raise your hand come on. Anyone in here ever run a red light and call the police and confess to them? Yeah that’s what I thought.

Should I confess a sin, if I knew I will go to jail for it?

Who all should I confess my sin to?

Should I confess a sin, if it is going to hurt someone to become aware of the sin?

I mean I just can’t wait to tell someone that I hurt them. There’s nothing more exciting than ruining someone’s day with the admission that you have done something that they aren’t going to like.

Why did I title this point two-edged confession? Well for starters my mind was brought to Hebrews chapter 4 and the imagery that is used to describe the way the word of God cuts through us. It exposes us. It’s sharp. Confession brings healing but along with it anxiety, fear, and often unknown and certainly undesired consequences. Maybe our perception of the consequence is something we weigh out before we determine whether or not to confess our sin. I can remember confessing a sin or two to my parents as child or teenager. I think I probably said well if the consequence is going to be a week or less, maybe it’s not worth the guilt. But if it’s going to have a bigger price tag… then what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

I was at a pastor’s conference one time where the following phrase was used from the stage. “Confession should be met with celebration rather than condemnation.” “Confession should be met with celebration rather than condemnation.”

Confessions can be two-edged because confession often brings freedom to the one confessing, but pain to the one receiving the confession. This is why sin causes such a mess. The person who has been living in sin actually become better on confession day because up until that point they were living in disobedience, rebellion, perhaps even manipulation. When they confess it can be a turning point in their life. But at the same time, the person that did not commit the sin has to come to terms with the reality of it. They are hurt, experiencing pain. Psychology has taught us that hurt people hurt other people. And you are asking that hurt person to forgive when they seemingly have every right to condemn. That’s too hard, isn’t it?… But it’s also a picture of God’s love. Time and time again we’ve all “known better” but stupid is as stupid does emerges. I’ll clarify again and echo what Paul said that grace does not give us a license to sin. But we live in a culture that demands justice for others and expects mercy for themselves. Every time I’ve wanted to withhold forgiveness from someone, God has seem to whisper to me, is it ok if I then choose to withhold forgiveness from you?

RECOGNIZE REPENT REJOICE

How do we prevent falling into ignorance and ultimately sin time and time again? How do we keep the pump primed for God to turn on the faucet of His Holy Spirit whenever He so chooses?

Bursting Pipes

It was about 15 years ago and my dad who was also my pastor became sick on a Saturday night, and I got the call to be ready to preach on Sunday morning. Allison and I with baby Wesley pulled up to the church, I unlocked the side door of the church and I turned to open the door for Allison and with my back to the building i heard something that I would say most reminded me of the sound that I’ve heard coming from a waterfall. Which don’t get me wrong, in nature can be majestic, calming, and peaceful. But in this context that was not the case. I turned around, and about 8 feet off the ground in the middle of the hallway water was gushing out of the drywall and onto the carpet. This was my first experience with a burst pipe, and let me tell you it seemed like the atlantic ocean was supporting this flow. I’m not sure how long it had been going, but 50 of us came together and shop-vac that place for about 3 hours.

I hope no one experience this tragedy this week, but this cold weather brought this possibility to mind. We may have been reminded to keep extra heat on our pipes or keep our faucets on a drip. In our house this week we kept many of the faucets in our house dripping and checked in each day throughout the day to make sure the drip was still going. It seems like such an insignificant thing, but the dripping faucet releases the pressure that builds up as things become colder… Moving water is harder to freeze, it causes an escape for the build up rather than allowing it to expand where it causes great damage.

I wonder this morning how many of us have seen situations in our life build little by little? We’ve allowed our hearts to grown cold not because we intentionally moved that way, but because we weren’t intentional about moving towards God. How often does our relationship with God just need to be like that daily drip? What if two to three times a day we checked in to make sure His spirit was flowing through us preventing the build up to take over, the gradual cooling of our hearts to lead us to places of greater mistakes.

A million dollars today or a penny that doubles every day for a month?BUT it doubles every day? The very tone and presentation of the question lends itself to us knowing that the answer is? Wrong because they aren’t making pennies anymore.

Pentecost 3000 yes, but added daily 2:47, times of refreshing 3:19

RECOGNIZE REPENT REJOICE (LEAVE UP FOR REST OF SERMON)

Keep it going and at any moment you can experience times of refreshing from the Lord as He chooses to turn on the faucet and pour out His spirit.

Pipes keep from freezing, by drip and applying heat. Holy Spirit drip, heat comes from continued movement?

Revival is an exciting time because it brings forth the idea of dead things coming back to life.

What relationships need revived today?

Where are you longing for things to be refreshed? Was it a bursting pipe that alerted you to the daily drip that needs to take place.

From Earley Email: “Have you grown tired of what you can do? Are you weary with the status quo? Are you worn out by business as usual? Are you sick of man-sized things? Do you hunger for some God-sized things? Do you long to see God do in seconds what you have failed to do over years? Is good enough no longer good enough? If you have reached this place of humble honesty, you are on the verge of revival.”

God cannot resist the spiritually broken. He gives them renewed life and spiritual revival. He has done it for so many others, and He’ll gladly do it for you.

From Earley book page 118: Ezra had just read the law to the people of Israel and they recognized their sin and felt great remorse. Starting in the first full paragraph of our book on page 118 it says this.

“The words of the Law were crystal clear and convicting. They became aware that individually, and as a nation, they had severely and frequently disobeyed the Law. Yet the Lord had been good to them. He kept them intact during captivity. He restored them to their homeland. He provided protection for their city.

Soon, sniffling was heard throughout the gathering. Conviction of sin settled over the crowd. All around, men, women, boys, and girls wiped their eyes as hot tears raced dow their dusty cheeks. Sobs and weeping punctuated the scene.

The people wept tears of gratitude and guilt. Ezra, Nehemiah, and some of the other leaders cried out, “This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not mourn or weep. Then Ezra sent them home to get something to eat, saying, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to thosee who have nothing prepared… Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.

The next day, as they read the Law of the Lord, they discovered that they were supposed to have been celebrating three annual weeklong feasts. These weeks were to be set apart for God.”

RESPONSE

Maybe you or someone in your life has sinned. No, let’s not do that, don’t worry about that other person right now. Focus on you. What’s that thing that remains where you know better but you continue? We say we want revival by definition assumes something that was dead needs to be brought back to life. Sure you have recognized where you have come up or short or done what you ought not to, but we need to recognize again. We recognize this morning that we’ve forgotten, we’ve failed we’ve strayed.

I believe every corporate revival has been sparked by the culmination of a few individual revivals

Some of the greatest revivals in history have had their origin in individuals confessing their sins and the confession being met with celebration rather than condemnation. It doesn’t mean that confession comes without consequences, in fact in my experience it always does. But I believe their is a culmination of scripture that teaches us that the peace and ultimate healing that comes from confession will ALWAYS, ALWAYS outweigh the consequences.

3000, but more than that heard it that day, some said I knew what sin is, maybe I didn’t truly understand what would come of it, but now I do, 3,000 said yes but undoubtedly some said no. You have been found before God to have acted ignorantly, but through the consequences that have come as a result of your sin, He now puts the ball in our court. You see the pain and disarray that sin causes, He said Father forgive them, and that included you. But now you have to choose to accept forgiveness.

Repentance means we want something different than the way things have been. It means we believe that we need His forgiveness and that our own way of doing things just doesn’t measure up to the way He would have us live.

Is it worth daily going to the faucet to check the drip, you might note when the pipes burst that day that clean up was a lot easier because I was living in community and not doing it on my own

We want passion to come for faucets rather than bursted pipes. Useful healing refreshing vs a nuisance, wasteful, and

Nothing else Lyrics

I'm sorry when I've just gone through the motions I'm sorry when I just sang another song Take me back to where we started I open up my heart to YouI'm sorry when I've come with my agenda I'm sorry when I forgot that You're enough Take me back to where we started I open up my heart to You

Nothing else will do I just want you

Recognize that there is a distance between you and God that needs to be journeyed so that you live in communion with Him again

Repent, come to the altar and whisper that thing outloud and ask God to forgive you and let him lead you in the next steps to wholeness

Rejoice because He wants to bring times of refreshing. He wants to restore relationship with you. He wants to heal the hurt. listen I’ve prayed against sin in my life on day 1, then failed day 2, which didn’t seem fair but I persisted, and hope found me, and I overcame

Simply pray… Lord I’m sorry, Nothing else will do I just want you

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