Revive Us Again

1. What is Revival

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? –Psalm 85:6

1. Revive: khaw-yaw’; a prim. root [comp. 2331, 2421]; to live, whether lit. or fig.; caus. to revive:— keep (leave, make) alive, × certainly, give (promise) life, (let, suffer to) live, nourish up, preserve (alive), quicken, recover, repair, restore (to life), revive, (× God) save (alive, life, lives), × surely, be whole.
2. Revival is not meetings. The great meetings of the past: Moody, Sunday, Green. They were not revivals but evangelistic meetings. Reports say 1 million were saved under Moody. Sunday had such an impact when he preached that the liquor interests of Pittsburgh offered Billy Sunday 50K (and this was in the early 1920’s) NOT to come to Pittsburgh because when he came through things happened. Liquor stores and bars closed for lack of business. It is interesting that at Pentecost one sermon was preached and 3000 people were saved now we need to get 3000 sermons together to try to get one person saved.
3. Revival is brining back to life. To be revived one must have been vived at one time. And I do not mean animation, we have a lot of walking, talking corpses around. A boxer knocked out and brought back to consciousness is said to be revived. A drowning man in the ocean brought back to the beach by the lifeguard and given CPR is revived (and they cannot saved until they stop trying to save themselves and allow the lifeguard to bring them in. My first girlfriend was a lifeguard. She said they needed to wait till the person had exhausted themselves so they could safely bring them in and then they need to be revived. It would be so much easier if we just called for help when in trouble and then did what we were told!)
2. The Need for Revival
   1. We can look around the world and see thing like slavery in the Sudan or Hazbalat bombing innocent people then hiding behind their women and children like cowards and say the world needs revival but God does not start with the unsaved
   2. We can look at America and see where we have butchered millions of babies since Roe v. Wade under the pretence of freedom of choice and have promoted sin as a “lifestyle choice” and say America needs revival but not really. They need salvation.
   3. We can look to our schools. When my Dad was in school people went to the principals’ office for chewing gum. In my day we had fistfights. Now we have our kids killing each other (just think of Columbine or the NYC schools with their sneaker killings or Central High in Newark where a disgruntled student took a full sized garbage dumpster and dropped it off the roof onto his teacher’s car killing him. Why? We kicked God out of the schools and have sown a generation of children without God and we are reaping the whirlwind. While this is tragic and America will answer for her treatment of the children (And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. ⁶But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. –Matthew 18:5-6 and If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. ²³And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, ²⁴Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. –Exodus 21:22-25.) Let’s not fool ourselves. We are receiving our reward. As important as this is, this is not the starting point
   4. Well then how about the church: 81% of Americans classify themselves as Christians but only 25% say they actually attend church on a regular weekly basis (in the Catholic Church we were “regular attendees” if we went on Easter and Christmas) even less (15%) advised they read the Bible they claimed to believe on a regular weekly basis. We can say the church needs a revival. Now we are getting somewhere. How do we as a church go about getting revival
3. Preparing for Revival :If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; ¹⁴If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. –2 Chronicles 7:13-14
   1. The Problem: vs. 13
   2. If there is a blight on the land. We have just described several spiritual and physical blights on our land but God gives us instructions on what to do next
   3. The Conditions: Our Part, vs. 14
      1. My People who are called by my name: once again not the heathen or religious but God’s called out elect.
      2. Humble themselves: we cannot approach God in a proud, arrogant manner and expect this to work. (Humble: kaw-nah’; a prim. root; prop. to bend the knee; hence, to humiliate, vanquish:— bring down (low), into subjection, under, humble (self), subdue.)
      3. Pray: Notice the order pray after humility but before seeking His face. God commands us to pray without ceasing and always without fainting. This is not the half heart prayer of a child “now I lay me down to sleep stuff but going to God with importunity:
      4.  And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? ⁷And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. ⁸I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. ⁹And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. ¹⁰For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. –Luke 11:5-10
      5. Seek My Face:
         1. Seek: baw-kash’; a prim. root; to search out (by any method, spec. in worship or prayer); by impl. to strive after:— ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure, (make) request, require, seek (for).
         2. Face: 6440 (313), face; front
         3. A ten minute quick quiet time ok God I read a chapter and prayed will not do
         4. Aristotle example: When you desire God like you desire air underwater then you are seeking Him.
      6. Turn from their wicked ways
         1. God expects that his people who are called by his name, if they have dishonoured his name by their iniquity, should honour it by accepting the punishment of their iniquity. They must be humble themselves under his hand, must pray for the removal of the judgment, must seek the face and favour of God; and yet all this will not do unless they turn from their wicked ways, and return to the God from whom they have revolted
         2. This should be done as soon as the offence occurs. As Brother Lawrence Admonished us: To keep short accounts with God. There are 2 important reasons why
            1. One is the heart can become a hard ground. (Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for [it is] time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. –Hosea 10:12)
            2. The other is left unattended the offence can build to a root of bitterness (Heb 12:15)
            3. Fallow ground is one that was at one time a soft and fertile soil but form neglect has become hardened over and needs to be worked over and softened up again so it can be used. The root of bitterness is like a vile weed that needs to be yanked out by the root and the root removed completely lest it grow back. Both these conditions need to be examine by us and if they exist taken to the Husbandman to be removed. Don’t fool yourselves we cannot do this on or own
   4. The Results: God’s Part: vs. 14
      1. He will hear from Heave
      2. Forgive our sins
      3. Heal their land
         1. National mercy is then promised, that God will forgive their sin, which brought the judgment upon them, and then heal their land, redress all their grievances. Pardoning mercy makes ways for healing mercy
         2. Or more simply stated God has to deal with us as individuals before our land can be healed.
         3. Once we have dealt with our own issues we can go forth together united in thought, deed, and action (shall I say dynamically balanced?) and God can bless the actions of the church that has repented and going after Him and we can be the instruments God uses to heal our land.
         4. Just and example: What would happen to abortion clinics if they had no customers? They would close or go empty not harming anybody. They are basically a business and they go on supply and demand. No demand they do not need to be open. How can this happen? Evangelism. One gets saved, either no pregnancy or no abortion. But the big picture does not happen until we deal with the little one
   5. The Results: Our part (Psalm 85:6)
      1. Rejoicing: saw-makh’; a prim. root; prob. to brighten up, i.e. (fig.) be (caus. make) blithe or gleesome:— cheer up, be (make) glad, (have, make) joy (-ful), be (make) merry, (cause to, make to) rejoice, × very
      2. Gleesome, I remember growing up in NJ and one thing would make me gleesome as a child: waking up to snow on a school day. I would wait in glad anticipation for the radio announcement that school was closed. We would run out in reckless abandon to the yard and build snowmen and have snowball fights and come in and find Mom had hot coca ready and we would be glad, joyful, merry even rejoicing in the fun we had with simple pleasure. This seems to be lost on adults and when we seek God for revival we open the door to such a higher level of this brightening up. I remember the joy the day God saved me but I remember just as well the joy in my heart the first time God allowed me the privilege of leading someone Jesus. He did it but I was the vessel. We can have the joy again of taking America back for God one soul at a time. And the joy and brightening of us seeing Him work in our country, it is not too late but we need to start.
4. Application/Conclusion
   1. Lord, we need a revival and let it begin with me.
   2. We cannot judge anothers heart. Revival is prayed down from above to the person who does the praying.

P.S. As I was speaking to a Brother I respect about my sermon he indicated that while I was preaching on the need for revival I should have mentioned that everything else is the symptom and revival is the cure. Thanks Brother.