Revival Pt 1
KING David writes that in times of my troubles, may the Lord answer your cry with a name of the God of Jacob. Keep you safe from all horror may seek. You help from a sanctuary, may strengthen you from Jerusalem, may he be remembered, Jordan with all your gifts and you look favorably at your offering offerings, may great you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy where we we where we hear the victory and raise the victory banner In the name of God. May the Lord answer all of your prayers. Now I know that the Lord rescues His anointed king. He won't answer him from a holy Heaven, and He tells us to give victory to our Lord as He answers our cry for help.
I know we just wrapped up a series called The Red Sea, but I believe that many of us may find ourselves still running towards victory. And I'm reminded that while we're running and the enemy is chasing us, that we're still called to hold on hope. In one hand, he may be hurting in the other, but yet you're holding hope with the heart while keeping focus on our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so even though that we are out of our series call the Red Sea moment, you may still be there, but know that God would never leave you, no forsake you. The God that brought you to this Red Sea moment is the guy that's still with you today. It's a matter of where you were at with this journey of your life that God is still with you.
Hey, man, let's give the Lord a round of applause. I want to thank our worship team for just letting us in to worship. And I won't be life fear when you get to hold your people for days on end. Right? So I'll be short and sweet. I'm a I've got to do what he normally does. So my challenge for today's this is now that you just sit and listen and get excited through the worship or anything like that and not experience change, because I believe it's tragic when we come into a setting like this and we encounter a holy God, a God that is set apart from any other God, and there's no change, there's
no transformation for my desires, that whatever that may be said today, whatever that is spoken today, that there is something is deposited deep within your soul, that's within your spirit. So when you leave here today, my prayer is that you have a burning desire to live out what is taught, what what is revealed, and that you take home and be change.
Here at one church, we desire to create disciples from the inside out as we begin to walk with one another, begin to do life for one another, that you're not alone in this Red Sea. Amen. Because I don't know if you've ever been in a valley. It's rough. And often times we have to find ourselves some people that can walk along with us.
And so if you have not yet found a community just a community of believers are brothers and sisters in Christ, I would encourage you today to get connected with one church or a church that's teaching, that's preaching, that's really just encourage you along the way, this challenging in such a way that you would live out what the Scripture tells us that we need to live out.
And I remind Mama about Apostle Paul. He says that my beloved brother and be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor, your paying your hurt is not in vain. It is in the Lord. And so today, if you need some joy, you can find it. If you need some peace, you can find it.
If you need some hope and some love, you can find it as well because it's only found in Jesus Christ. There's I'm thinking about some hope and just some stories of hope. You know, I'm reminded just about like this people who drive today, right? Like if you are a new driver, I'm not going to call anybody out. I don't think Trinity's here.
She's a new driver. We have some new drivers and people. I tell you this, some I've been behind, some people that just don't understand the common courtesy rules of driving. Right. There's some just some common rules of hope when you're driving. Right. There are some things that let me give you an example for those new drivers out there in.
Oh, because sometimes you forget to do the same thing. Please put a blink wrong when you're merging. Can I get a man church? Yes. Like when you're merging into traffic. Put a courtesy blinker on if you're making a turn. If it's right or left, doesn't matter. Put a blink. Wrong. Nothing burns me up more than a driver who's merging without a blinker.
Because I will have to quote Bishop Ludacris. Move! Get out the way! Get out the way. Come on now. Luda near me. I'm sorry. I'm safe. I'm gonna let you know, but I'm just. For those who don't know who Bishop Ludacris is, I just gave the name Bishop because his name is Ludacris. He played on Fast and Furious, the tech guy.
Okay? He's a rapper. He has a song that says, Move, get out the way. But how about people when you you know, when you're they're merging, they're they're trying to get into a lane and, you know, you get a sign that says two miles, please merge. Right? And then what they do, they wait to the very last minute.
They try to merge over like like what in the world is going on? I'm gonna let you know. You come across to be my pickup truck or any one of my cars. I'm not going to merge. Hey, man, I would get a scratch on my car just on general principles, right? Just because I'm not moving, because you waited to the last minute to try to merge into the lane.
I see some husbands and spouses call each other out, so. Hey, I'm just glad you're going to the marriage retreat coming up this weekend. I need prayer. I'm just gonna let you know What about this? Oftentimes when I'm driving in and I'm at a stoplight and I'm there waiting in a car ahead of me and the light turns green and they don't go, Oh, Jesus, take the wheel.
I'm center thinking and I'm waiting. What do I do? Do I blow the horn or do I gesture behind the, you know, the steering wheel because you can't blow your horn at everybody these days because you never know what's going to happen. And I'm thinking to myself, I'll just wait. Then the light turns yellow. But by this time, I'm upset because I have somewhere that I need to go and this person is sitting at a green light.
It went from green to yellow. Oh no, not yet. Then the light turns red and then they go. Then I ask myself, Jesus, do I go or do I sit at the stoplight that I have to remember on my truck? I have the sun in the back of my my truck. This is one church and I'm tempted to take it off just because of, you know, I don't want anybody to think that some crazy people attend this church.
It is right. It's too late. There's nothing more irritating than watching someone sitting at the light of life and it's time to move forward. And they don't move. There's nothing more disappointing as a leader of the gospel, when God's when I see God's children sitting at the stoplight of life at a green light. For those of you don't know, I've shifted already.
I'm not talking about drive. I'm talking about our spiritual life. When you're sitting at a green light that God is saying, My child, I need you to move forward. And you're hesitant. You're sitting at a green light where God is calling you to do something. You're sitting at a green light where God is calling you to do something new.
You're sitting at a green light where God is saying there's something better ahead of you, but you're hesitant to move forward. If life is full of people sitting at green light. Life is full of people full of Christians sitting at a stoplight where God is saying, My child, it's time to move forward. God is calling them to a revival.
God is calling you to a shift. And in that shifting, there's a transition that has to take place. But yet you're sitting, you're stagnant, and God is saying it's time to move forward. This year is the year for revival. This year is your year for revival. See, in 2020, many of us have been waiting for God to do something right.
2022 is going to pass. Now we're walking into 2023 or a month into 2023, and God to say it's time for revival. We've been waiting for an open door and answer prayer. We've been waiting for their product child to return home. We've been waiting for God to do something, He said. It's time for revival. But you're waiting and you're sitting 365 days out.
The year, 52 weeks, 12 months. You're you're waiting, you're frustrated, and you're asking, God, where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do? One of the ways that God has given us this work for this year, for many of you may not know, God gives our church a word every single year. In 2019, 2021, God has given our church the year to move forward.
I'm thinking, okay. Q Is the year for COVID to kind of get past certain things, to know what's going on and pick up the pieces and move forward, but know it's the year to move forward In 2022, God has called our church to go deeper and now, as we have embarked into 2023, the worry that God has given our church for this year is a revival.
I want you to really only I want you to begin to meditate on what you begin to figure out. What is it that you want to revive in my life? What is it that you want me to revive in my relationship with you? And we see revival all throughout the scriptures. We see it in Psalm chapter 8536. It says this Will you not revive us again?
Oh, Lord, that your people may rejoice in you. Joseph. Chapter six verse two says, After two days he will revive verse and on the third day he will restore us that we may live in his presence. Joel Chapter two versus 28 through 32. It says this after after, after words, I will pour out my spirit and all people, not just black or white or Asian or Latino, who say All people, then I will pour out my spirit upon you.
Your sons and your daughters were prophesy. Your old men would drink, drink as your young men would see visions. Even my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my spirit. I will revive them. Today. So what is revival? Right? What is what is revival? Revival simply a means to bring back to life was something was dead.
See, that's the two fold action there. The bring back to life is one aspect of it. But before you can bring back, you have to be dead. So there are some things that may that has died in your life, that has died in your relationship with God. You know what? I'm a bring. I'm a breath my breath into it.
I'm a bring it back to life. But revival requires change. Revival requires change. And in order to receive what God wants for you, what God has for you have to do something different. You can't do the same old thing. Expect to something new. You can't put new wine into a wine skin. Something has to be different. And in order to receive it, in order to receive this revival, God is asking you to make that shift and make that transition and we see this type of shift in Second Kings Chapter 18 with his king Hezekiah, Second Kings Chapter eight verses two through seven says this He was 25 years old when he began to reign and
he ran for 29 years in Jerusalem. Let me just stop right there were quick verse who says he was 25 years old. As I look out and seeing all of our young adults sitting in various spaces, don't underestimate what God was calling me to do. Know that God is called you in such a way that He has empowered you, has equipped you to bring about change, and not only change, but he's called you to lead as our young adult.
So I'm putting you on blast right now, putting you on notice. I need you to lead. I need you guys to to embody what God is calling you to do. It was 25 years old when he began to reign, and he ran for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother name was Abby and his daughter was Zachariah, if I can read that far.
Yes. And he did what was in right in the eyes of the Lord. According to all that David his father had done, he removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut it down from down the asher. And he broke and pieces broken into pieces. The bronze serpent then Moses had made for until those days, the people of Israel had made offerings to it.
In verse five says this He trusted the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there will be no other like Him among all the kings of Judah and after him, nor among those who were before him. Verse six says this for he held fast to the Lord and he did not depart from following him, but he kept the commandments of the Lord had commanded Moses in the Lord was with him.
Wherever he went out, he prospered. We see this. We see this type of shift taking place with Hezekiah. We see a shifting that took place with King has occurred because the Kings before him did not look like him, did not follow the guy that we believe who the God of Isaac and Abraham and Jacob, that we follow the God of all creations and the other kings before King Hezekiah did not do that.
So King has a K begin to make a shift. He began to make a transition. And I believe this revival requires removal. Revival requires removal. What do you mean, past reign? Well, let's look at verse number four. King Hezekiah removed the high places and broke the pillars, cut down the Ashur, and he broke into pieces. King has a car, removed everything that was not of God.
What God wants for you, for us to have revival in this place, for revival in your life, that God wants you to remove those things that does not please God. Some practices, some relationships. You may have to eliminate some things that aren't for you. You may have to, even in a season of fasting and praying, ask What is it that you want with me?
That you want me, that you desire for me to remove? Just like King has occurred, I begin to remove some things out for him to be doing what God has called him to do. In other words, church is time to grow up and get off the milk. I need you to grow up. God needs you to grow up now.
If you're a in Christ, I get that you can have Similac for a little while, but sometimes we got to have some something deeper that God wants us to get off of the the premature things that the simple things of the gospel thing, the begin to go deeper. And what God has called us to do, get off the milk and get on the meat.
See, revival requires removal, but revival also requires trust that we have to trust God for your life. Even as crazy as it may be, the trusting God always doesn't make sense. If you trust in God, God may ask you to do certain things that may not look, may not even be logical. Right? But that's where faith comes in.
One of the rules that we had to an arrestee rules that, you know, you take the next logical step. But in other words, what what we were saying in the RACI rules, when we say take the next logical step, mean put your faith into action and walk it out by faith. Because man's logic is not God's logic. Man's logic does not line up with what God wants us to do.
All the times see, revival requires change. Revival requires removal, and revival requires that we trust God. And I believe this. There's four ingredients for revival, four ingredients for revival. It's like baking a cake, right? Okay.
There you go. I got you. It's like baking a cake. Zalman gave you four ingredients. What God wants to really do with this in this next year for revival. And to see that we can go to second Chronicles Chapter seven verses 12 through 14, Second Chronicles, Chapter seven versus 12 through 14. Then Lord appeared to Solomon by by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place.
I think I'm reading a different version. It's all good reading your Bible. I've heard your prayer and I've chosen this place for myself. The house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there's no rain or command, the locusts devoured the land or to sin pestilence among my people. Verse 14 says, If my people are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my faith, turn from their wicked ways.
Then, then, and then only will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears will be attentive to their prayers made in this place. So that's a recipe, right? There is a recipe for revival. What God called us to do in revival has this to experience true revival, to experience what God wants for you.
God is asking you to have a holy heart, a heart that is set apart, To have a holy party says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, see if we want revival, we have to humble ourselves. We're not asking God. God wants our obedience and our programs. He doesn't want us to do the programs of just just busyness.
But he wants our obedience. He wants our sacrifice. He wants you. You know, he actually wants your availability and not your ability, right? He wants you to be available to be used by him, not your abilities. He will use your gift and talents because he's a giver of our gifts and talents. But he's asking you, will you make yourself available to me today?
The God wants our hearts and now our skills, Your God wants and holy heart for His children. So he wants a holy heart. He also wants a holy prayer. He wants a prayer, a lifestyle prayer. It says this If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I will tell you this prayer has gotten me through so many things in my life.
And I will I will say this We need to be proactive in our prayers versus being responsive in our reactive in our prayers. If we're proactive in our prayers. And, you know, you are putting first before everything that you're doing versus being responsive, like, oh my gosh, I don't know what's going on, God, what is going on in my life?
But you're being reacted to what's taking place. But better yet, a holy prayer. Pray that is set aside for a prayer that is actually mobilizing and moving forward before you even go. If we understand that prayer changes things and move mountains and pull down strongholds, I believe that we will pray more if we truly understand how prayer operates in our in a believer's life.
Prayer should be our first response, not a last resort. That prayer should be our first response and not our last resort. But oftentimes prayer is our last response. Flip flop. What I just said. Yeah, prayer should be our first response. Another last resort. So you have a holy heart. A holy prayer. But then also God wants us to have a holy hunger.
He said, If you will seek my faith, imagine every time that you eat that you begin to spend time with God. Are you hungry? You have a hunger for Christ. Do you thirst for righteousness? Do you thirst for who God is? The more you feed your spirit, the more that you will desire the spirit, the more that you feed your flesh, the more that you would desire the flesh.
There has to be a shifting. There has to be a transition of what you're feeding your spirit. Jesus, said those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. So I'll say, this church, you have a holy heart, a holy prayer, a holy hunger. And last but not least, a Holy repentance. I know what that is. Have you done it in a while?
Have you ever painted? Have you said, God forgive me of my sins, God forgive me for my shortcoming. The things that I've done that that does not please you in such a way. So God, if you truly are seeking my face, God, if you really are seeking me, that you return from your wicked ways. My prayer has been this the research me search my heart, see where I am short my shortcomings, my shortfalls.
God, those those wicked things that does not please you. How do you have revival? How do you begin to have a revival, a holy hunger, a holy prayer, a holy heart, and a holy repentance says if my people who are called by my name will have a holy heart, if my people who are called by my name will have a holy hunger, if my people who are called by my name will have a holy prayer, if my people who are called by many will have a holy repentance, then then my eyes will open.
My ears would be attentive to their prayers. Maybe your prayers are not being answered because there's something that you need to get right with the Lord. They are reminded of the story as begin to wrap up, just to kind of streamline our lesson today. Back in 1940, there was this professor in Europe and teaching some theology students, and he took these theology students to a tour of Europe where there was this this guy who really led the way of our denomination, this guy that this house that they went to was called John Wesley.
So these theology students went to go visit John Wesley's house and, you know, this is history, right? So I love history and begin to walk through and look at what John Wesley is doing. So they enter the home of John Wesley. And as they enter to John Wesley Homes and I can just only imagine their be in awe.
This is where John Wesley preaching. You get the teaching, you get to pray and begin to do his sermons, prep. They walk into his house, all of the students, and they walk in and walk into the kitchen and begin to imagine, this is John's Wesley's kitchen. This is where his momma made some eggs and bacon is some grits.
They made they begin to imagine how John Wesley woke up every morning to begin to come downstairs and talk with his peers and see what was taking place in John Wesley. If you begin to walk through John Wesley's house and you walk through his living room, he gets imagine this is where John used to sit before having those conversations with his parents.
And then they begin to walk upstairs. And as they're walking upstairs, they're checking out the bathrooms and the bedrooms, and they begin to look at John Wesley's bedroom. And then right beside his bed was these two imprints on the floor. And what we begin to see those two imprints that was on the floor was, as the Professor Ward tells them, that this is where John Wesley prayed for revival for Evelyn, that he prays the law he prayed for every single day, hours along and every single day that he began to pray and pray, pray God, please send a revival to England, but not only for England, but God sent revival to the U.S. with God,
not only for revival in England and U.S. were Sitting revival to this world. And so the students begin to leave, and then they begin to walk and get onto the bus. And then professor or we get to do a head count. You start counting one, two, with three and four day, he realized that he was short one student.
So professor or goes back into the house, he begins to walk through the kitchen, begin to walk through the study. He's looking for the student and he's you know, he can't find him anywhere. So let me just go upstairs and see what was taking place. And Professor Ward gets upstairs and he see this young man kneeling down in the scene to impress with this had been arms folded and his head down.
And Professor begin to hear this student say, Lord, please do it again. He leaned in and just lit it more. And professor or here's the student saying, Lord, please, please in revival will you do it again? Professor walks over and taps the student on his shoulder. He said, Son, it's time to go. We're waiting. So the student gets up, walks downstairs and gets on the bus, and the student sat down.
His name was no other name, but who was the great Billy Graham, the grandfather of revival. It's the church today. I waited to tell you that the the the title of my message is this revived me. Would that be your prayer today? Church day. God, do it again. But God, will you do it? Do it in me. The guy that you would begin to say Revival to our cities and to our schools and to our jobs and to our workplace to God.
Will you do it again? To me? To God? Will you have revival? God? Revival starts first in me. God do it again in church. Is that your prayer? Because we can have revival with cities and schools and a job for one that will have a revival first in you. So church today, will you take revival to your neighborhoods?
Will you take revival to your jobs? Would that be your prayer? God, please see revival began when you said Revival Sin in me first. Because once revival takes place in you, then it can touch other people. A God can do something miraculous, says our Our Praise Team choir. Make their way back up. My prayer is this for you today there are no longer want to be a Christian.
We've played it safe. If you're playing it safe, then I want to challenge you to take another step of faith and ask God to sin revival in your life in such a way that it may wreck you. Because to have revival, something has to die. So there are some things that God is saying God is asking you to lay down today.
Now he does know. He does want you to care that any longer for what he wants to do in your life, that he wants that to die in your life today. And it may be something small for you, but it's something big for God. God is asking you to lay it down because revival requires change. Revival requires to be removed.
A revival requires that you trust it. So today, as you stand and we worship together, I'm asking you to allow revival to start in your life. The Lord do it again. Do it again to me. But revival has to start with you first. There's nothing more disheartening sitting at a green light. There's nothing more disheartening where God is giving you the green light of life to go forward and you're stopping.
So if you are if you're that person where you have stopped at a green light, a life has got to see my child come towards me. I would encourage you to do that today because the season that you're in, God wants to do something for you. If you don't know, it's what you plant in the right season that produces a harvest and God wants to plant you in the right season to produce a harvest, there's only desire for you and you alone.
But the beauty of a harvest is this that so many other people benefit from it. So when harvest comes, we want to benefit from what God is doing in your life. We want to celebrate what God is doing in your life.
But only way to do that is to live a life with Christ. So if you're here today and you don't know this person by the name of Jesus Christ, I would encourage you to come forward. Maybe you need to rededicate your life. Maybe you've fallen off the wagon just a little bit. He's a guy, you know, wondering, I want to give back my life.
And, you know, I've been kind of doing some things the way that I haven't been doing. And believe me, I'm guilty. I've missed the mark over different times. But his grace is sufficient and his mercies are new every morning. And if you need a cup of new mercy, come on up. There's plenty there.