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INTRODUCTION
ILLUS: What is Revival? “A restoration to use, to restore effectiveness, to renew.” This old house (Photo). Our farm
landlady owned two farms, ours and this (show photo of ugly big house) A few years ago dad took me by this house. Last month I took
Mom. What a transformation!
I want to talk about REVIVAL today. TITLE. Revival is an experience of renewal, restoration to use by the
Holy Spirit in our individual lives and our church life. This message is directed to the Christians at FBC, to tell us that we need
a spiritual restoration, we need to be renewed to peak condition. We need new passion in this church! For a few weeks I have given
you bad news in our culture, today we need good news. READ Text.
1. The Reason for Revival TEXT
- The reason for our need is our SIN. We have failed God.
- Psalm 85 was written by a Psalmist during some setback in Israel’s history. Israel had sinned, they
lost God’s blessings, needed revival.
- Sin is always the reason to be revival. When we sin we become spiritually weak and feeble, lose blessings and joy, get
worn out.
- Instead of great heights, we are trapped in deep lows.
- We have let Circumstances get the worst of us, not trusted God, not looked to our Savior as our hope.
Didn’t keep ourselves spiritually fit.
- We get so caught up in life we forget the reasons to live. We drift, we get busy - the epidemic of busyness. Shove God
to the fringes.
- Culture mixes us up. Try to live in two worlds, forgetting they are in conflict with each other. We
live in a moral freefall. Culture honors popularity over personal integrity, fame has replaced virtue, and people are
envied rather than respected. Know more about movies and music than message of gospel and ministry. We in the church
sometimes have wrong heroes.
- By our Choice we sin deliberately - commission or omission - we disobey God by doing what we are not
to do, and not doing what we ought to do. James 4:17.
QUOTE: Charles Finney, revivalist of 1800’s “Since a revival can never lay hold upon the world until it
has first laid hold on the church, the need is for the fountains of sin to be broken up in the church. Backslidden
Christians must be brought to repentance. They must have their faith renewed. Before the world can be moved, we
must renew the image of Jesus Christ in ourselves.” HOW?
2. The Request for Revival “Will You not Yourself revive us again.”
- We must seek God. Revival is not man-made, it is God inaugurated.
- How do we open ourselves to the work of God?
- Power of Prayer II Chronicles 7:14 Call on God, repent, humble
- Prayer is an unnatural act, thus we need God to make it supernatural. Prayer is 1st and 10,
not 4th down and punt.
- Begins with praise and repentance - Daniel 9:4,5
ILLUS: Gypsy Smith, English Revivalist around WWI: “Go home, lock yourself in your room,
kneel down in the middle of your floor. Draw a chalk mark all around yourself and ask God to start
a revival inside that chalk mark. When He has answered your prayer, the revival will be on.”
- Practice the Word Psalm 119 “revival” 11 x’s always the Word
- vs. 25, 37, 40, 50, 88, 93, 107, 149, 154, 156, 159
- Value God’s word, live out Biblical obedience
ILLUS: Ezra in Nehemiah 8,9 - Restoration of the Word
King Josiah 2 Kings 22 - found and followed the Scripture
- God can’t restore a church, until God’s people repent and seek to be spiritually fit more than anything
else. What must you repent of????
- God’s people need to live in obedience to the word. What are you knowingly disobeying? Unknowingly? Psalm
139:23-24
- Wake up, listen up, read up, fess up, pray up, get fired up.
3. The Result of Revival “that Your people may rejoice in You”
- Praise and joy. I am convinced that most unhappy people are not the unsaved, but the spiritually weak Christian. They
KNOW their life can be better. Thus, joy is a result of revival.
- When we are revived we know better how Great God is, and how much more blessed we are. Spiritual power gives praise.
- Praise gives excitement, sets us on fire, gives us zeal.
- Read Acts, notice the spiritual vitality - they set world on fire. They had power, dynamic, perpetually growing. Prayer
was exciting, word was obeyed, praise was inviting.
QUOTE: Erwin Lutzer Characteristics of Revival: Manifest Presence of God. Humility and brokenness. Opposition from
world and dead churches. Unity in families and churches. Generosity in giving. Purity and holiness. Evangelism
(Oct 17, 2005)
- Do you need revival? Does our church need revival?
CONCLUSION
Psalm 85:6. I hope and pray that is your request today. We can spend a lot of time raising and spending money, making
changes, remodeling buildings, debating Constitution, hiring staff - but what good are they if there is no spiritual fervor behind
the spiritual purpose of the church.
ILLUS: Church Purpose Statement - three: insert, back of bulletin, screen.
We try to start church 10:25 sharp, but do we end it 11:30 dull? Is God at work?
What you believe God wants to do here at FBC? What do you believe He wants you to do here at FBC? I pray Revival is on God’s
schedule for us here.
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