The Almost But Not Quite Revival
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23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11.23-
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Men’s Bible Study Tuesday evening @ 6:30 - “It’s a game changer” Dr. B
Introduction
Introduction
The story of Joash is a fascinating one, his was a reign filled with promise. After a steady decline in the kingdom from the time of David a bloody coup had taken place, upon the death of her son the king, Joash’s grandmother had killed all of the royal family and set herself upon the throne. But Joash’s great aunt had snuck the infant Joash out with his nurse and they hid for six years in a secret place at the Temple of God. When Joash was seven years old the priest Jehoida staged an uprising against the wicked and idolatrous grandmother, placing the boy Joash upon his rightful throne. The temple of Baal in the city was destroyed, the priest of Baal was put to death, the covenant was re-established and proper temple worship was re-established. It looked as if another golden age was coming to the kingdom of Judah. It looked like revival was coming, but then something went wrong.
The question for us this morning is, "what went wrong?" Why did such a perfect opportunity for revival slip away? What kept God from pouring out his blessing, What did Joash do wrong?
Transition
Transition
The reason these questions are important to me this morning is that I believe we are in a time that in many ways is similar to the beginning of Joash’s reign. A time that looks as if we could be on the brink of revival. Yes, society has experienced moral decline. Yes, terrible things have happened, but there are positive signs, signs that people are growing discontent with the status quo.
So I think it’s important for us to look at the lesson of Joash... of almost, but not quite revival, so that we might see the traps to avoid, the things that quench revival.
In the story of Joash 4 things seem to stand out as roadblocks to revival. The first is:
1. Follow the Leader Faith
1. Follow the Leader Faith
2 Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.
2 Chron 23
16 Jehoiada then made a covenant that he, the people and the king would be the Lord’s people. 17 All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.
18 Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the Lord in the hands of the Levitical priests, to whom David had made assignments in the temple, to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered.
As long as Jehoida was around to guide him, Joash did, OK. Not perfect but, OK. But it seems as if there’s little conviction in him, It wasn’t possible for Jehoida to make a covenant on behalf of the king, the king needed to dedicate himself to the Lord, but I don’t believe he ever really did that, and then, as soon as Jehoida is gone, Joash is easily led astray by those who wanted him to turn against the Lord, to reinstate Idol worship and to mix it with the worship of the One true God.
As long as Jehoida was around to guide him, Joash did, OK. Not perfect but, OK. But it seems as if there’s little conviction in him, It wasn’t possible for Jehoida to make a covenant on behalf of the king, the king needed to dedicate himself to the Lord, but I don’t believe he ever really did that, and then, as soon as Jehoida is gone, Joash is easily led astray by those who wanted him to turn against the Lord, to reinstate Idol worship and to mix it with the worship of the One true God.
Joash was a follower, and that can be OK as long as you’re a follower with conviction, but Joash seemed to be a follower primarily because He had no convictions.
The same danger exists for us today. It’s tempting to follow the crowd or even to follow a charismatic leader, but that’s dangerous even when the leader is a good one, because you need to have a personal relationship with that Lord, and if your commitment is leader based it’s easy to be led astray or turned around by some other leader. And it’s also dangerous because people will let you down.
Though we often think of historical revivals in terms of their "leaders"--Jonathan Edwards, D.L. Moody and others, but I don’t believe revival has ever come because a leader desired it, but only because the people desired it enough repent of their sin and seek God in prayer with changed hearts and lives.
Now a leader may play some part in imparting a vision under God’s anointing of what God wants to do, so that the people are inspired to make those changes, but I believe revival has never and will never happen where people seek to ride the coattails of a leader into revival. For that reason I believe that "follow the leader" faith is a roadblock to revival.
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1 cor
The second roadblock is...
“The worst thing that could happen is that you spend your life trying to outrun God because you think he’s chasing you to collect what you owe—when he’s really chasing you to give you what you could never afford”
2. Neglecting the Strongholds
2. Neglecting the Strongholds
4 Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord.
5 He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of your God. Do it now.” But the Levites did not act at once.
2 Chronicles 24.
(vs. 6) King Joash summoned Jehoida to collect the tax imposed by Moses for the rebuilding of the Temple.
(vs. 9) A proclamation is issued in Judah and Jerusalem that required the people to bring to the Lord the tax
(vs. 10) the officials and the people brought their contributions gladly
14 When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the Lord’s temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord.
3 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
The high places were centers of idol worship on mountains and hill tops, Often poles to the goddess Asherah were erected. Altars, similar to the ones in the temple, for animal and even human sacrifice were often found there.
But they weren’t in the cities, and the pagan priests who operated these franchises were often very politically powerful.
It sounds as if Joash, once he reached an age where he could have been aware and done something about them, simply wasn’t willing to make the effort.
Also remember that idol worship had become more prevalent than genuine worship, the stories in the books of Kings and Chronicles make it clear that many of the kings liked keeping a pagan god on the side just in case the God of Israel didn’t come through in a tight spot. To destroy the high places would be to give up your insurance plan.
You may be thinking, pastor, what does this have to do with us, we haven’t got any high places, we don’t worship Idols. Maybe not, but perhaps we do have places hidden in the hills of our lives, places where God is not sovereign, those habits and practicing sins, inappropriate relationships, temptations we indulge, and what about the plans we’ve made for our lives that we don’t want the Lord Messing with.
The next roadblock to revival is …
3. Surrendering the Sacred
3. Surrendering the Sacred
17 About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. 18 But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his predecessors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.
When faced with a crisis, Joash doesn’t turn to the Lord, he doesn’t call upon the nation to fast and pray, instead he surrenders the sacred objects, the things dedicated to the Lord. He uses them as a bribe to get his enemy--and the enemy of the Lord to leave him alone. This is another example of Joash’s weakness and lack of resolve.
What about us? When push comes to shove in your life what gives way? Is it the things that are sacred to the Lord? When the budget is tight, what gets cut? When something really neat is happening on Sunday Morning, where do you find yourself? When your daily schedule is tight does the task wait or does the Lord? Or what about your family? Marriage?
(Optional)
The world around us tells us that the sacred has got to go. Bill Gates, Founder and CEO of Microsoft put it this way in an interview "Just in terms of allocation of time resource, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." (Quoted in Chicago Tribune, Jan 13, 1997).
Now, please, don’t hear this as some kind of a legalism that says you have to "do your time" to be right with the Lord. But if we are earnestly seeking a deeper walk with the Lord, If we’re hungry for Revival, then all of our resources, Time, Talent and Treasure must belong first of all to Him, and if we surrender the Sacred for the sake of convenience we shouldn’t expect revival.
The next roadblock is ...
4. Ignoring the Call To Repentance
4. Ignoring the Call To Repentance
2 Chron 24.19-22
19 Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.
20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’ ”
21 But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. 22 King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”
Even after Joash had strayed far from the path that the Lord had marked out for Him, God in his mercy sent messengers to warn him, to invite him back, to offer revival, restoration. But, Joash didn’t want to hear that what he was doing was wrong so he killed the messenger.
I believe it is God’s will for us to experience revival--I believe that’s always God’s will. But I also believe that unless we as individuals and as a community of of faith Heed the call to repentance we will never experience all that God wants for us.
The blessing of God and intimacy with Him are simply incompatible with an unrepentant life.
The blessing of God and intimacy with Him are simply incompatible with an unrepentant life.
Our decisions will affect the next generation …
1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion
Any High Places need to come down?
Have you surrender the sacred things of God?
Is God calling you to repentance?