Text: Ps. 85:6, “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?”
Intro. Today I want to talk to you about “Revival – God’s Gonna Do It Again“ and over the next couple of weeks we will note “What Revival Is” & “The Promise of Revival”.
In truth since the creation there has been a continual backsliding by man and a continual reviving by God. God has never given up on those created in His image.
Can Messenger Church become a Centre for revival? Or is it already a Centre for revival? Is that what we are and have always been but just didn’t realize it?
Once you find your true purpose you must prepare to become the best you can become. (Revival Centre versus a Centre for Revival)
We must become a place people are drawn too because of what they can receive.
(Feeling versus receiving) Many that come will not remain but will return to where they came from and be a catalyst for revival in the lives of others.
Revival doesn’t remain simply because we want and even feel the need. It must be nurtured. (to feed and protect: to support and encourage, as during the period of training or development;)
We have what we need…we need to embrace it and see more of it. We must not allow a depletion of what has been given.
One constant that must be realized…the Holy Ghost only dwells where He is welcomed.
Intro. to this segment sermon: A misunderstanding of the primary subject….REVIVAL. It is not as simple as inviting a preacher to come to MC and preach 4 or 5 of the sermons in his repertoire…sermons that are good and or great. Sermons that stir and inspire. Revival is ‘bringing back to life’ that that was alive but is now dead….simply put…REVIVAL IS HUNGER….A hunger so great until there is nothing nor anyone that we will allow to cause us to become distracted.
REVIVAL IS ALLOWING GOD TO DO IT AGAIN!!
A Prophetic Word: “There are many today that are tired of the uninspired, lifeless services that are being replicated across the country that we call having church. There is being birthed in many a desire for something that gives substance to the time that men are giving on Sunday morning to God. Something that will help them have faith in God…faith in themselves…faith in others…faith that they will be able to overcome the obstacles that inevitable come their way every day.
The church is not producing it! We have ended up with misdirected pursuits. Our pursuits today are self-driven not God-driven. These self-focused pursuits are depleting, diluting and destroying the church instead of reviving it.”
2 Tim. 3:1-5….”having a form of God but denying the power.”
History bears out there are people who have made a mark on their generation because of great moves of God but through time they became so caught up in their organizations they ceased to function as an organism that God could work through to bring life and light to a spiritually darkened world. I pray today that we, the church of this hour, will not allow itself to follow the paths of self-destruction that so many have chosen to follow.
I. Revive – “the process (there are no over-night successes) of bringing somebody back to life.”
There are two facts about revival we need to note…
Fact 1: In the process of reviving or resuscitation there is one constant…you must breath fresh breath into him/her. Without this breath he/she often doesn’t make it.
In Eze.’ valley of dry bones God tells the prophet to speak to the wind (ruah=breath) and tell it to blow across the valley of death.
Fact 2: There is more than one process to revive someone. It is important that we don’t make the process/method the primary message. How we do it is not the focus…it is the results that count.
II. The Steps To Revival: Ps. 85:6, “Will You not revive us again, (A Request)That your people may rejoice in You?” In this we see the ‘first steps’ for Revival.
Step One – The Need: The desire itself is the admission of need. There must be an admission of need to see revival. In this verse we see that David has looked
around and determined they needed something they had experienced in the past…they needed ”God to do it again”.
I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, that if we look around we see evidence that we need re-viving. We need God to do it again!!
Note with me The Evidence…We live in the time of the “Cultural Christian”… someone born into a Christian family, raised going to church, but without any personal relationship with Jesus. A main stay for the Christians in the past, and must still be, is knowledge of the Word of God. The “Cultural Christian” rarely if ever reads the Bible. This has resulted in gross Biblical illiteracy and the un-doing of doctrine.
The Word some are preaching today is nothing more than a diluted version of what God has said. The results are visible in that what we are seeing produced is a debilitated church who offers people nothing more than a ‘country club’ environment of feel good moments. Sadly, salvation, healing, the miraculous, deliverance or hope of coming out of the stifling life of bondage they live in is a message relegated to the past.
Note a survey by the Barna Group that reveals the results of this lack of Word among many Evangelicals today…
* 37% do not believe the Bible to be totally accurate.
45% do not believe Jesus was sinless.
52% do not believe Satan is real.
* 37% do not believe the Bible to be totally accurate.
45% do not believe Jesus was sinless.
52% do not believe Satan is real.
57% do not believe Jesus is the only way to eternal life.
This simple survey and what we are seeing happen on our watch shouts loud and clearly we need revival….we need God to do it again!!
The needs of humanity around us shouts…there must be more!!
Step Two: Desire, “Will you not re-vive (Latin re=again or again and again; vive=long live, up with) us again (another time; once more)”.
Step Three: The Purpose…… “that Your people may rejoice (feel or show great joy)
in You.
Conc. The question begs to be ask….Can we have this kind of move today? If the Word be true, and I know it is, we can and we will!!