Sermon - How To Define Revival And Be Revived Personally Series

This past Sunday I preached on revival. You can download the audio at

http://www.adrian.warnock.info/2006/11/sermon-knowing-god-philippians-3.htm

I have shared my notes almost exactly as I preached from them. They might not make a great deal of sense to someone else, for which I apologise. Hopefully the audio is easier to follow. This was a hard sermon to prepare, but one that I really felt assisted by God as I preached.

1. Why do we need revival?

“we begin to die @ birth” ...Death since Adams sin – sickness “half dead”, relationship break down, bad things =“I died on the inside” I needed reviving

God is in the business of reviving, restoring, renewing, returning/bringing back, fixing. GOD IS AN EXPERT IN REVIVAL

God wants this earth to mirror heaven

2. What is Revival?

DEFINITIONS OF REVIVAL

a.dictionary = “the restoring of a near dead being to life” ---

b.web = “a powerful intensification of the Holy Spirit’s normal activity”

NOT DIFFERENT..

- The Spirit of Revival always available – Jesus is the same…

-episodic or WAVES different extent geog and depth…PROGRESSIVE…

"Revival is a sovereign work of God the heavenly Father, manifesting his glory on the earth. It consists of a powerful intensification by Jesus of the Holy Spirit’s normal activity of testifying to the Saviour, accentuating the doctrines of grace, and convicting, converting, regenerating, and sanctifying large numbers of people at the same time. It is therefore a community experience.

It is occasionally preceded by an expectation that God is about to do something exceptional; it is usually preceded by an extraordinary unity and prayerfulness among Christians; and it is always accompanied by the revitalisation of the Church, the conversion of large numbers of unbelievers, and the reduction of sinful practices in the community. Stuart Piggin"

c.My own way to define revival is:

“The return of the church to something of the experience of the book of Acts”

Different Perspectives of Revival Let the bible shape our view…PACKED in but few mentions of the word God revives us –eg Eph 2….

>>>>READ>>> ACTS 2 is the model revival.

Judges, etc, OT finishes then 400 years silence….no prophecy then NT Jesus Church is birthed- amazing a revival…. In the upper room – prayer, 3000 people come to Christ. Scared denying Peter had woken up – HE was revived!

Acts 2:1-8, 12-18, 37-41

A simple MODEL pattern (not just a story!) , repeated in revivals – episodic in bible…BUT AVAILABLE NO CONCLUSION – headlines – bad times too!

•Acts 3:19-20 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”

•Acts 18:10 " I have many in this city who are my people.”

•1 Thess 1:5 ‘Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.’

•This is not something that man can manufacture, but learn to ride the waves!

“Its just the bible” but how do you explain what happened in days of

SPURGEON - (why not now…?)

•Preached over 600 times before age of 20.

•20,000 copies of his 3500+ printed sermons sold per week. Translated into 20 languages. Longest ever set of Christian books by a single author

•Led the first modern “mega church” with some 5,000 members. Peak congregations up to 23,000. From 1854 to 1864, the church recorded 3,569 baptisms

•By age 50 had founded 66 organizations.

Shaftsbury said “more than enough to occupy the minds and hearts of fifty ordinary men.” ONE EMPOWERED LIFE…..

1. “I remember, when I have preached at different times in the country, and sometimes here, that my whole soul has agonized over men, every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears, if I could but win souls.”

2. “If Christ commands me to hold up my little finger, and I do not obey Him, it looks like coolness in my love to Him.”

3. RESULT “The Lord gave the people more and more a willingness to hear, and there was no pause either in the flowing stream of hearers, or in the incoming of converts. The Holy Spirit came down like showers which saturate the soil till the clods are ready for the breaking; and then it was not long before, on the right and on the left, we heard the cry, ‘What must we do to be saved?’

We were busy enough, in those days, in seeing converts; and, thank God, we have been so ever since.” CHS 25 years of PERSONAL revival….

•ALSO John Knox, Reformation “God did so multiply our number that it appeared as if men had rained from the clouds.” Almost the whole nation of Scotland converted in 10 years.