Revive

With everything that has happened I believe it is time that we focus on being revived. I believe that it is time for us to start seeking a revival within ourselves and our church.

I am not just talking about having a group of meetings with some guest speaker coming in and getting wore out from being up here every night and not getting any rest during the week because we are obligated to be at the church. I am talking about getting refreshed in the presence of God.

📷

Revival is defined as, “to restore to consciousness or life”. Merriam-Webster defines it as, “to resuscitate”.

I believe that we need to resuscitate everything that it is going on in our life and in the life of our church. Everyone is walking around blaming the pandemic for all of our problems and I have even made the comment that I believe the pandemic has been of the majority of the problems that we have faced.

· I do not believe that to be the case any longer because the word of God has not changed, and the people need to quit making excuses.

Over the next several weeks we are going to be looking at this thing called “Revival” so the first thing we need to understand is what is “Revival”.

📷

You have to be careful when you say revival because “Revival” is a misunderstood word.

When we hear the word revival it normally means that for the next 3 days or a week, we are going to church every night to hear someone preach. There will be some great music and we will see people that we probably haven’t seen in a while. We will see people from other churches and the only time we worship together is when we are at a revival.

What we need to understand is that a true “REVIVAL” is more than just a series of meetings.

Transition: We have all been to revivals and felt the presence of God and walked away talking about what a great time the revival was. The question we need to answer is…

I. What is Revival?

The word “Revival” is something that is normally brought up about once a year to help break up the routine of church and to light a fire under people.

People start to get complacent with church, so we call for a revival because revival is to bring something back to life. I want you to know that “REVIVIAL” must start within us.

I don’t believe that we are to wait for just once a year to have a revival where we invite in a guest speaker who is going to jump up and down and preach a message that is going to talk about the prophet calling the 4 winds to breathe life back into those dead bones.

📷

People hear that and they start jumping up and down and getting the Holy Ghost goose bumps and want to run around the building and they don’t realize that the evangelist is talking about them.

The reason that he is there is because the preacher has called him and told him that the church has gotten into a routine and we need to set a fire under them to bring them back to life. We need God to breathe some life back into the church so the evangelist preaches, “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”” (Ezekiel 37:1–3, ESV)

Revival has to do with bringing back life and I can honestly stand up here tonight and say that even though there has been a major drought hit not only this church but a lot of churches that there is a spirit of revival in this place.

📷

The people of Redeemed have been praying for a move of God not because the church is dead but because Satan has been attacking hard and the last thing that he wants is for a revived heart to be on fire.

We come together and we pray for a move of God and I strongly believe that God hears our prayers because like the Psalmist we are seeking God.

There are those that disagree with praying for revival because they feel that if God wants to move in the church then He will. I have no problem with that, but the problem is that we don’t allow God to move.

It is not that we are praying for God to move, I believe we are praying for us to move and allow God’s presence back into the church because we have stopped Him from moving.

Remember that the psalmist prayed, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6, ESV)

Transition: Some people want to know…

II. It is Right to Pray for Revival

I believe we should always be praying for a revived heart (EMPHASIZE HEART) because we allow so much to control the way we feel. We try our best to do what is right and we do our best to listen to what God wants us to do.

📷D.L. Moddy once said, “Every great work of God can be traced to a kneeling figure”.

That tells me that we need to be on our knees seeking God every chance that we get because when you read our scripture, we see that the psalmist is praying for revival.

God hears our prayers and He knows what we need before we ever ask but we need to know what we need because when He answers our prayers then we will know what that answer was for.

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV)

When people pray with a sincere heart then God moves on our behalf. If you don’t believe the OT then let’s look at the NT.

The scripture says, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31, ESV)

📷

Are you praying to the point that the building was starting to shake from the presence of God? Are you taking the time to truly seek God for what the church needs?

With the way that the world has been acting I guess the question we should ask is, “is it right to expect revival today”. I believe the answer is “YES”.

The psalmist asked the question, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6, ESV)

I don’t believe that this is such a hard question because most people believe that revival has taken place in the past.

· They believe Nineveh repented

· They believe the early church turned the world upside down

· They believe John and Charles Wesley brought revival to England

· They believe Jonathan Edwards saw revival in colonial America

· They believe there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Azusa Street revival.

· They believe there was an outpouring in Brownsville

· 📷They believe there was an outpouring in our own backyard in Lakeland

The problem is that those same people do not believe that God will bring revival to us today. They do not believe it because of everything that is happening in our society today which is exactly why we need a revival like those that I mentioned.

I tell people all the time not to live in the past. God’s spirit never changes so the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that happened then is the same outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will happen today.

I serve a God that is bigger than my circumstances and He is definitely a lot bigger than those who speak negativity into your life. People want to prophecy over your circumstances but unfortunately it is not God that they are hearing.

God told the prophet Ezekiel, “… “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!” (Ezekiel 13:1–3, ESV)

There will always be people that do not agree with you and that is ok because as long as you are in line with the word of God then nothing can come against you. It is when you are out of the will of God that you need to be careful.

The bottom line is that we can have revival right now because revival starts with you. As long as you stand defeated then you will never enter into a personal revival in your heart. Remember I said in the beginning that “revival” is defined as, “to resuscitate”.

📷

There are times in our life that we need “resuscitation”. We walk around like zombies and we need the prophet to speak to the winds and blow life back into the “dry bones”.

I have closed my eyes and imagined seeing the valley full of those bones lying all around and the prophet standing in the middle of a parched land. What a symbol for the church that is, people sitting in their chairs, “dead” to the very word of God because they have allowed their circumstances to overtake them.

All of a sudden a mighty rushing wind comes in like fire and those dry bones come alive again and we are back up on our feet shouting glory to God because we have felt a fire that has been shut up in our bones as the prophet has prophesied to the four winds.

I want you to know that God has not changed, and He is still the same God that He was during the Azusa Street revivals and during the revival that saved Nineveh.

📷

We can have revival and that revival starts now.

We need to understand that when we go into revival that we need to rejoice. If we go into revival not expecting then that is exactly what we are going to get but I am expecting miracles, signs and wonders.

Whenever there is a true revival happening in the people’s hearts then you will also see rejoicing in their life. You cannot help but be happy when your spirit has been renewed.

· If you are tired of walking around like you are all beat up, then seek God for a revival in your heart.

I don’t know why we wait for the preacher to call for a revival because revival in our spirit is part of who we are as Christians.

📷

There are those that will tell you that unless you are sitting in a church somewhere listening to someone preach then you are not in a true revival.

Revival starts with you because revival finds God’s people focusing on Jesus, and when their focus is on Him then there is only joy in their heart.

Conclusion:

For some reason people think that a revival starts with a large gathering of people. If you step back for a moment you will realize that “revival” starts with one person. It only takes one to start a fire.

Very seldom will you ever hear me call for a series of meetings and call it a revival. Don’t misunderstand because I love to hear some great messages that people will bring into those kinds of meetings.

📷

If we are only concerned with how many “meetings” we are going to have and how many people might show up, then all we are doing is having a bunch of church meetings and that is not revival.

The greatest revivals of all times started with a fire burning in someone’s heart that grew into a large flame. This flame spread like a wildfire like it did on the day of Pentecost and people were consumed.

What I am seeing for the church and I mean all churches is that we need a new life. Jesus is calling the church to “rise up” and come out of the tomb of depression, the tomb of doubt, the tomb of complacency and the tomb of fear. Jesus is telling you and me that it is time to get back to what is important.

I asked a question when we started, “Are you willing to let Revival begin in you”? If you are then you need to get ready because God is ready and waiting for you.

Preached:

27 September 2020 – RWC

Related Media

Related Sermons