If My People . . . (Part 2)

OPENING STORY: In 1904 a young ministerial student named Evan Roberts, began to feel that God was sending an urgent message that He was going to pour out a mighty spirit of revival on Wales, which is now a part of Great Britain. Roberts began attending various revival meetings and during one he was deeply moved by the Spirit. As he prayed at the altar he cried out to God, “Bend me o Lord!” This was a complete and total surrender of his will to God’s will.

Roberts soon returned to his home church to preach the message of revival but his pastor was reluctant to allow him to speak. In a compromise, the pastor announced that Roberts would be speaking following the regular prayer meeting and any who wished to stay were welcome. Only 17 people stayed to hear Evan speak and most of them were teenagers and young adults.

Evan Roberts spoke in that church for nearly two hours with a simple 4 point message that he was convinced could help God bring revival.

1. Confess all known sin to God

2. Deal with and get rid of any “doubtful” area of your life

3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly

4. Confess Christ publicly

When Roberts was finished speaking all 17 young people were at the altar on their knees crying out to God. They prayed until 2am that night and it was the beginning of one of the greatest movements of God in all history. By the end of the week, over 60 people were won to Christ and over the course of the next 1½ years revival swept through the nation of Wales. Over 1,000,000 people were led to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

The revival was so great that the national culture changed dramatically.

• A rage of bankruptcies took place - All of the taverns and liquor stores went out of business

• Work at the coal mines was brought to a near standstill - The mules who pulled the wagons were so accustomed to hearing foul language from the workers that after the men were saved the mules no longer recognized their voices or commands

• The entire police force was dismissed for almost 18 months due to a complete lack of crime

• One of the few court cases that was actually brought before a judge was unusual. The defendant came into the court and admitted his guilt, the judge led the man to Christ and the jury closed the case by singing a hymn.

What would revival look in our Hometown?

What would change in our culture?

What would community and school look like?

How would true revival change our church?

This morning I want us to look at what revival really is.

First – what Revival is not.

Revival is not a set of church meetings.

The salvation of lost souls in a big meeting is not revival.

A lot of us grew up saying that our church is going to have a revival on such and such date. It is part of the year’s schedule, like VBS, or a retreat.

Some of you can remember when the church would have two week long meetings.

Often the first week was just for revival. The emphasis was to get the church back on fire for God and then the second week they would focus on evangelism.

But somehow we decided that going to church for two weeks was too much so we cut it down to one week and went straight to evangelism.

When that became too much, we just cut it down to two or three nights.

And when that didn’t bear any fruit we quit doing it at all.

But that is not revival. It’s a good thing to do, but it isn’t revival.

Revival is not a crusade either. It is part of what we ought to be doing as God’s people, but it is not a revival.

Revival is not even church growth. You see a church can be growing but not have revival because revival implies spiritual declension and lethargy

The very word Revival says that something is alive but is about to die. It is struggling with life and needs to be awakened.

Revelation 3:1

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,

‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

If you’re not a Christian you don’t need revival, you need regeneration.

But if you are a Christian there is a good chance that during the course of your Christian life you’re going to need a few revivals.

Maybe when we look at lack of souls saved during revivals