Revival Part II

Recap of last week

Revival - recap why this discussion

John Piper - “a fresh outpouring of God’s life-giving Spirit on his people. That is what revival is.”

A Phenomenon of God - not of man....

…and I debated whether or not to start with Revival - in a corporate or community sense - as we talked last week about our example of Israel and King Hezekiah....or should I start with the topic I want to address with you this morning which is that of our own personal renewal....and I chose to start last week with the discussion of Revival but that is really the end state - God Chooses the time and the place for this fresh outpouring of His Spirit on His people...

…and always what seems to come before any act of God like this is a season or intense focus on personal renewal... in the Church particularly of Believers....

Recap of last week…and so last week when we talked about these 4 points

…and so last week when we touched on these 4 Points:

1. Awakening or revival happens when God’s people clean out the junk from their lives

2. Awakening or revival happens when churches re-center themselves on Scripture

Awakening or revival happens when churches re-center themselves on Scripture

3. Revival happens when Christians re-center themselves on the gospel

Revival happens when Christians re-center themselves on the gospel

4. Revival happens when God’s people devote themselves to prayer

Revival happens when God’s people devote themselves to prayer

“a fresh outpouring of God’s life-giving Spirit on his people. That is what revival is.”

Recap of last week

Personal Renewal

but what causes these things to happen - last week we said clearly that revival is a work of God and not of Man…but we also see examples of how, in some way, we have a role to play in this - in helping to create the fertile ground as I said last week - for God to grow a Revival in....

so when we think about personal renewal or revival at a personal level - as a requirement or prerequisite..... here is a good synopsis I came across in my study - “The bringing back of individuals to life or vigour at the point of personal regeneration through the work of the Holy Spirit...”

Bringing back - Believers must take responsibility for personal renewal - - “fan into flames” - anazopyreo. - means to rekindle or to reactivate

Personal regeneration - - Hezekiah needed to repent to get right with God - even he who was clearly faithful to YHWH then…but was intentional about repentance - change...

Holy Spirit - - we said that God was active in any larger more corporate or regional revival last week....understand that the same is true with us individually....

…and so you might ask, how do we do that…how do I do that.....

…and that’s a good question - Acts 2.37

37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” - friends, people have been asking this very question for centuries....

last point, not on our own....expand a bit on works…not on your own

last point, not on our own....

look in your bulletin

The Holy Spirit Convicts

…one of the ways that God is active in our personal renewal, is by conviction....of our Sin…of our backsliding

Tim Keller - “Personal gospel renewal means the gospel doctrines of sin and grace are actually experienced, not just known intellectually. “

But how does this experience happen? It comes through the work of the Spirit, strengthening our ‘inner being’ and our ‘hearts’ so that as believers we can know Christ’s love (see v. 16). It happens, in other words, through gospel renewal.”

eph 3.16 - Paul tells us....

16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit....it takes strength to confront our sin - but to often we think we have to do it alone....Paul says no!! - The Holy spirit will strengthen us for this....

the Spirit is the one that is able to peel back layers of our idolatry, showing us what needs to be corrected, lead us to repentance and strengthening our belief in Jesus’ work on our behalf. That we wouldn’t default to works-righteousness but trust in Christ’s work alone – the only place we put our hope. 

Let’s pray for Jesus to do a monstrous corporate work of gospel renewal. That the Spirit would peel back layers of our idolatry, showing us the sinfulness of our sin, lead us to repentance and belief in Jesus’ work on our behalf. That we wouldn’t default to works-righteousness but trust in Christ’s work alone – the only place we put our hope. 

We Appeal to God

- 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Renew a loyal spirit within me.

“This is the classic passage in the OT on man’s repentance and God’s forgiveness of sin. Along with , it was written by David after his affair with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, her husband (). It is one of seven poems called penitential psalms (, , , , , , ). To David’s credit, he recognized fully how horrendous his sin was against God, blamed no one but himself, and begged for divine forgiveness.

…often times, especially for believers, this conviction and recognition of an absence or speparation from the Spirit creates an longing...

We Long for God

ps 42.1-2 -

1 As the deer longs for streams of water,

so I long for you, O God.

2 I thirst for God, the living God.

When can I go and stand before him?

This work of the Spirit in our lives that causes conviction then ultimately brings us to this understanding that we can do this on our own - we’re not strong enough....and frankly God doesn’t want you to do this on your own....

Tim Keller has another good quote around this - he said “In other words, revivals and renewals are necessary because the default mode of the human heart is works-righteousness” — we do not ordinarily live as if the gospel is true…we’re trying to do it by our own works....

“Christians often believe in their heads that “Jesus accepts me; therefore I will live a good life,” but their hearts and actions are functioning practically on the principle “I live a good life; therefore Jesus accepts me.” - repeat

That’s not the Gospel - remember one of our points last week - we have to be Gospel minded....and Good news of the Gospel is that Jesus has already done the work - he already accepts you....you don’t have to, in fact you can’t work your way to salvation....sometimes even though we’ve been walking with Him for a long time, we need to be reminded of that....and so then we need to change....remember earlier I said change is just another word for repent....

Personal Repentence

New Living Translation Psalm 51

1 Have mercy on me, O God,

because of your unfailing love.

Because of your great compassion,

blot out the stain of my sins.

2 Wash me clean from my guilt.

Purify me from my sin.

3 For I recognize my rebellion;

it haunts me day and night.

4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

You will be proved right in what you say,

and your judgment against me is just.

We have to realize as David did, our need for change at times....

I love the words of Job here: Job 22.23

New Living Translation Chapter 22

23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored—

so clean up your life.

Conclusion

There are many examples of people, believers recognizing their own need for renewal and that leading to a Revival....and many of those examples are found right here in Canada...

The New Light Revival in the latter years of the 18th century that enveloped the Maritimes;

The Hamilton revival in 1857; …and right up to our modern era....

in 1971 in Saskatoon...the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church (a church of 175 people) had experienced some frustration over failing to get his congregation involved in evangelism. He came to the conclusion that his congregation did not have a heart for evangelism and, from that time on, began to pray and seek God for revival. He also began emphasing the importance of prayer and challenging his congregation to attend the Wednesday-night prayer meeting. The prayer meeting grew to fifty, then to a hundred, and then to 150 people. The church was really gaining a heart for prayer and even children had prayer meetings. Ralph and Lou Sutra held meetings at the church. The meetings became crowded out and use of a larger building was secured. This too was crowded out and an Alliance congregation cancelled their missionary conference to provide the use of their building for the revival. This 1000-person building was soon maxed out and the largest church building in the city, a 1600-seat United church building was rented. This too was packed with spiritually-hungry seekers and two evening meetings were scheduled to handle the crowds. Many souls were converted and there was seemingly no end to the testimonies of what God was doing. God was moving in unusual ways. There were at least two meetings where there was no preaching. The revival did not stay confined to Saskatoon but, instead, many teams, in fact, over two thousand, came out from the revival. These teams ministered throughout Canada and the United States as well as internationally.

For any corporate Revival to happen, a personal renewal needs to happen first - not that God can’t bring Revival without us - but it doesn’t take much effort or research to see that when he does bring revival, it’s almost always when His children get themselves right - as Job said - clean up your life...

So here ‘s my final word for you this morning - if you are praying for revival/awakening in our Church and our community....take some time to take stalk on the inside....do our prayers for renewal need to be ammended to focus on ourselves...

Could the Spirit be convicting you, is your own Spirit truly appealing and longing for God....is Personal repentance something that is required of you…you weren’t made to do any of that on your own - trust in Jesus and His work

Prayer