Pursue Righteousness

Announce Teresa’s birthday being this past Wednesday!

I listen to a lot of people discuss and state their opinions about our nation and about the condition that we and the world are in today and of what they believe needs to happen to change things.

And there is one thing that I hear people say most often, (Christian people that is), that they believe needs to happen in order for this nation to turn around to God.

Would anyone like to guess what that thing is, that many if not a most Christians believe is necessary to happen and what they are praying to happen, in order for our nation to return back to God? (WAIT FOR ANSWERS)

REVIVAL!! It’s a great move of the Spirit of God upon the church of America and upon this nation, that many, many believers are looking for, right?!

And is this wrong? I mean, are people wrong to want to see a great move of the Holy Spirit of God break out across this nation and even around the world, for a last great harvest of souls, as we approach the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ?!!

No, absolutely it’s not wrong!

We should very much desire to see another GREAT AWAKENING of the church in America in these last days!

Especially as we know and believe that we are still living within the perpetual prophecy of the prophet Joel, where the Lord God stated, “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.”

In this prophecy, we see and understand that the Lord God is saying that His Spirit will be poured out upon and empowering people (men and women) to accomplish His goals in the supernatural until His will is accomplished.

And having Holy Spirit active and empowering us, as God’s children, is very much something that we should long for and live for, praise God!

As we know that Jesus Himself said that we would need the Holy Spirit of God inside of us, to guide us and strengthen us and teach us of His will and ultimately to empower us to accomplish the daunting task of taking the gospel message to the entire world!

And all the while, being under the attack of the enemy in our lives!

So, yes, a great move of Holy Spirit in my life, to strengthen me and equip me further for the ministry that lies ahead, I say yes and amen to!!

PLEASE BRING IT ON LORD JESUS!!!!!

But, having said that, let me redirect you to another thought, or question that I feel compelled to ask.

And that question is, “Why do many people say that they want this ‘great revival’, this ‘great move of God’s Holy Spirit?”

In other words, what would this great outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit do to you and for you, that you feel you need?

Now of course, it only seems logical as a Christian to anwer this by saying, “Well I need more of Holy Spirit active within me, stirring me and prompting me and guiding me to do more for the Lord”, right?

But do we need to wait for the Lord to move on a large national scale for that to happen in our own lives right now?

I had a conversation recently with a friend who made the very statement that, “What the United States needs right now is a mighty move of the Holy Spirit through another great revival.”

Now the gentleman who made this statement, is genuine and sincere and he truly serves the Lord in his own life and I get the reason why he said what he said.

And I agreed that a mighty outpouring of Holy Spirit upon the church of America in such a way, as to wake up and stir men and women’s hearts to begin to boldly declare the truth of the gospel message is crucial right now where we are as a nation!

But I still come back to my question to the large number of Christians who declare that they want to see this happen, “Why do you want to see another great awakening”?

Throughout the existence of this nation, there have been several “great awakenings” that have transpired and that have had great impacts upon the church of America. Such great awakenings as:

The First Great Awakening that took place around the 1730-1740s and that started in England and then made its way to the colonies of our nation.

In a time where the church had become lax in its convictions about certain tenets of the faith, this great movement broke out.

People like Jonathan Edwards came onto the scene with his passionate and fiery sermons that stirred the hearts of people and brought about conviction.

Sermons like the still popular message entitled, “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God” and a host of others from Edwards began to draw people back to the saving grace of the gospel message and turn from wrong doing.

Other great men began to rise up in this movement, such as John and Charles Wesley, who started the Methodist movement and also George Whitfield.

Whitfield, who it has been said, in his lifetime, preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million hearers.

He was an amazing orator who spoke in front of large crowds, especially in that day and time; crowds up to 23,000 in size!

And even when he was facing health issues at 55 years of age, which is when he died, Whitfield had this to say about retiring from doing the ministry of the gospel, “I would rather wear out than rust out."

The Second Great Awakening that took place within the 1820-1850s and had such notable men as Charles Finney who offered a fiery message of repentance.

Finney spoke in large tent meetings that go on for weeks and weeks at a time, as people were drawn to repent and turn their lives around.

On the tale of the Second Awakening, came the third, which took place in Chicago, around 1875-1885.

This revival broke out, following the end of the Civil War in 1865 and following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which both served to prove the frailty of humanity and the need for the Lord!

An uneducated man by the name of D.L. Moody comes onto the scene and begins to teach the gospel, declaring that anyone can repent and come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior of their life

He founded the Moody Church and Bible Institute and he preached all across this nation, to millions and millions of people!

At the turn of the century around 1906-1915, in a church in Los Angeles, came the Azusa Street revival that broke out. This great movement birthed the Pentecostal movement that we know of today.

A man by the name of William J. Seymour was instrumental in starting this mighty move of the Spirit of God.

Seymour sometimes prayed for seven hours a day for months on end with an expectation that God would act in his timing.

This great movement brought back into focus, the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church.

And then of course coming from 1910 and going forward, you would see great men such as Billy Sunday, who was a professional baseball player, who turned to preaching.

He held tent meetings that would last for a month at a time all across this nation. Reaching around 1.5 million people’s lives.

Shortly after his death, another young preacher would come onto the scene by the name of Billy Graham!

Graham would become a juggernaut of a preacher and an evangelist, travelling all across the globe and preaching before countless hundreds of millions in his life time!

Out of the 60-70s, would arise a movement starting from the west coast, that would end up being called the “Jesus Revolution”, or the “Jesus People Movement”.

During a time where the young adults of this nation where experimenting with the lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and coming out rebellion against war, there came a movement, that has estimated that it saw over 250,000 people turn to Christ for salvation!

Men such as Chuck Smith came onto the scene, who formed Calvary Chapel church.

There were other revivals that took place throughout the years, such as the Brownsville ReviVal that took place at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida.

In these meetings, an evangelist by the name of Steve Hill, cried out to God for a movement of His Holy Spirit and for about 6 years, people from all over the world, were drawn to these meetings.

At the altar call, people would run down to the altar and bury their faces into the carpet and repent and turn to God!

People would line up in sweltering humidity and await the opportunity to get in to the next 7:00 pm service, which would sometimes go way past midnight.

TALK SOME ABOUT STEVE HILL’S DESIRE FOR THE LORD, AS SHARED BY HIS WIFE, JERI HILL.

And here we are today, at a time and a place within this nation where we have NEVER been before!

Even apart from the political differences that exist, (which many will argue have always been around, though I have never seen the likes of what we are witnessing today and during the election we just had), but aside from this, the level of HATE in this nation and animosity for others, is unlike anything that we have seen!

The levels of perversion and corruption that are prevalent in our nation today are unparalleled in our nation’s history!

And in the midst of this tsunami of sin and corruption and hate that flooded this nation, the Body of Christ, the church of America, seemingly went dormant.

The power of the gospel message became convoluted and watered down to attract and draw large crowds, which meant large incomes for many men and women.

Thus the “mega church” movement came into being!

A culture was set into place of pacivity and acceptance vs radical and dividing from the world’s ways!

The Lord said to come our from among them, and yet the modern church in America has said, we will embrace them and become a part of them. (The “them” being those who are acting in accordance with the god of this world and living in sin!)

Jesus said that he came to bring division. That is, He was going to separate those who were His from those who were holding onto this world.

A division that would occur at every level.

But with division from this world, within His kingdom, Jesus was establishing UNITY!

A unity that He prayed over and ordained and set into place, never to be undone!

And so here is the place that we, as the church, find ourselves in America today.

Looking and waiting for another “great awakening”, another great revival to come and lead us and move us.

We are looking for a move of the Spirit to lead us to a great harvest of souls!

But what are we doing as individual Christians right now? Which leads me back to my original question to the church of America, “Why do you want another “great awakening ?”

What are you doing with what He has given you right now in your own life?

The measure of faith that you have and the gifts that He has entrusted you with right now, how are you using them for the good of the kingdom?

Why would we sit and wait for a corporate move of Holy Spirit to happen, when we are called use the gifts given to us, as individuals, in serving the Lord?!

People are always going to be drawn to signs and wonders and movements of Holy Spirit, just as they were in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Large crowds followed Him everywhere that He went, because of the amazing things that He was doing!

Yet, how many of those in the crowd who followed Him and His miracles, were gathered at the cross the day that He was crucified?

Yes, it is true, the only thing that was different about the disciples before the ascension of Christ and after He went back, was the boldness and power that they received from the ourpouring of Holy Spirit.

Because of that event, Peter went from being squeamish and weak in his faith, to an unstoppable juggernaut for the Lord!

So, yes, we need Holy Spirit active within us to do what we are called to do!

But Holy Spirit and His presence was not withdrawn from us; rather we withdrew from Him!

Individually and corporately, people have withdrawn!

He is still with us and He will still move within us, if we are looking for Him to do so!

Just as we read of in Acts 4, where the church prayed and He filled them with His power and boldness to again, declare the fullness of the gospel message!

Let’s read that passage together real quick, shall we? Turn with me int your Bibles to the book of Acts 4:24-31. This whole event we are getting to read of, takes place because of the threat that that was being imposed on the disciples by the religious leaders. (Share about the event in Acts 3 and the lame man at the gate beautiful.)

And so, here we find, in the passage we are getting ready to read, Peter and John having just been released from the court of religious leaders and having been threatened to stop teaching this message they were teaching, the church members begin to praise God and there we will start reading in verse 24. (READ PASSAGE FROM BIBLE)

Now look at what happened in verse 31 as Holy Spirit quickended them all and reignited that boldness and power to take the gospel message to everyone, even in the face of arrest and persecution for doing so.

And let’s pair this verse up with verse 13, which states, “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

When you and I are filled with the boldness of Holy Spirit and we begin to walk in that boldness, even in the face of adversity, it shows the world something. It shows the world that we have been with Jesus!!!

And what does having a right relationship with Jesus impart to us, that is IMPOSSIBLE for us to have without Him?

Through Jesus alone, we are given the very precious gift of RIGHTEOUSNES!

And it is righteousness that I am proposing to you this morning as the very thing that we need, both individually as well corporately, to be pursuing if we want to see a change in this nation!

Revival and a move of Holy Spirit, I believe will come, as the church begins to seek and pursue God and His righteousness!