Introduction: Have you ever gone out to eat at a fancy restaurant, and even though your food looked and smelled great, it didn’t satisfy you?
Or maybe someone talked you into trying a new soft-drink combination at Sonic. You know they will add flavors like vanilla or lime to your soft drinks or fruit flavors like peach or apricot to you ice tea. Anyway someone told you how good it was, but when you took that first drink you were disappointed, because it just didn’t satisfy your thirst like you had hoped it would.
Hunger and thirst are two very powerful cravings that we have all experienced at some point in our lives. Some of you may be hungry or thirsty right now, and can’t wait until this sermon is over so you can go to McDonalds, or Captain D’s or Cracker Barrel and get something to eat.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6 (New American Standard).
Luke recorded what Jesus said slightly different. In Luke 6:21 it says, “blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.”
Both of these verses seem to indicate that it is possible for those of us who hunger and thirst after righteousness to be satisfied.
So that’s my question to you today. Are you satisfied with your relationship with Jesus Christ, and more importantly is He satisfied with you?
I’m afraid that the majority of people today have become satisfied with just ‘knowing about God, rather than knowing Him, and having a personal relationship with Him.
I’m afraid that most of us are satisfied giving God one or two hours a week rather than devoting our lives to Him, and being available to Him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It’s sad to say but I believe many Christians today have become satisfied with simply having Fire Insurance rather than being “on fire” for the Lord.
That’s why I believe it is so important for the church in America to experience another Great Revival. In my opinion our nation and our churches are in desperate need of Revival. Despite the fact that pollsters report that the number of people who classify themselves as Christians is up, the morality of the country continues to decline.
Judge Robert Bork, who was nominated for the Supreme by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 wrote a book a few years ago entitled: Slouching towards Gomorrah. In that book Bork says, that the forces of evil are so deeply entrenched that any cultural shifts will only be superficial unless they are accompanied by another spiritual awakening.
William Bennett in his Index of Leading Cultural Indicators gives the following statistics for the past 30 years.
• Despite increased funding for law enforcement and stricter laws violent crime has increased 500%. (The mass murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech last week is a good example of this.)
• Sex education programs have proliferated and at the same time illegitimate births have increased over 400%
• The divorce rate has quadrupled during the last 30 years.
• Single parent homes have become the majority, rather than the minority.
• During the last 30 years there has been more than a 200% increase in the number of teenage suicides.
The United States of America desperately needs what the book of Acts refers to as “times of refreshing.” We need God to pour out His Spirit on us like He did during the 18th and 19th Centuries, when thousands of people repented of their sins, cried out to God, and were saved. People’s lives were changed, marriages were restored, and entire communities were transformed.
But I’m afraid it’s not going to happen. Not because God doesn’t want to ‘pour out His Spirit upon us.’ In fact I would argue that it is God’s greatest desire. But it’s not going to happen, because “We, God’s people don’t want it to happen.”
Now, why would I say such a thing? Some of you think I’ve lost my mind. You’re thinking to yourself, why in the world would he say that. Well, here’s why.
I believe that most Christians in America are ‘satisfied’ when it comes to their spiritual lives. I’m afraid the majority of us just don’t have and don’t want the kind of commitment and dedication that is necessary to experience Revival.
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 is a passage of Scripture that we often use when talking about Revival, because it very plainly tells us what will be required of us in order for God to ‘Heal our Land.’ So let’s take a minute and look at this passage of Scripture and remind ourselves of the 4 requirements for Revival.
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will 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.”
So according to this passage of Scripture in order to experience Revival we must…
1. Humble ourselves before God
2. We must Pray
3. We must Seek His face.
4. And we must Turn from our wicked ways
Now that’s pretty straightforward don’t you think? On the surface it doesn’t sound all that difficult, but one of the things I have learned over the years is that most things are much more difficult than they might first appear.
With that in mind I want us to take a little while and examine these 4 requirements for Revival, and then I think you’ll understand why I said what I did before about us not really wanting to experience Revival.
1. The First Requirement is that we as (God’s people) must humble ourselves before Him.
James 4:6-10 says, “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:6-10
God wants to send a Great Revival upon our land, but it won’t happen until we, his people reach the point of desperation where we cry out to him the way the Israelites did when they were in captivity in Egypt. James uses the words, “Lament, and mourn and weep” in this passage of Scripture.
Until we come to realize that we don’t know it all, and cannot do or accomplish anything of any significance on our own. Until we surrender our pride, and we get down on our knees and admit that we are sinners then God will not allow Revival to come to our land.
As American’s we are a proud people. We are proud to be American’s, we’re proud to be citizens of Franklin and Simpson County. We’re proud of what we have overcome and what we have achieved in life. We’re proud about the fact that we are free, and that no enemy has ever overcome us.
I wonder, is that what its going to take. Is it going to take a nuclear bomb going off in New York, or Los Angeles, to wake us up and cause us to humble ourselves before God and cry out to Him.
I’m convinced that in order for Revival to come to our land, we as God’s people must humble ourselves before Almighty God, and plead for Him to intercede on our behalf.
So the first thing God is looking for from His people is a spirit of humility.
According to 2 Chronicles 7:14 the Second requirement for Revival is…
2. For God’s People to pray.
Now that sounds simple enough, after all most of us pray every day don’t we. We thank God for the food, and pray for those who are sick. But that’s not the kind of prayer I’m talking about. The kind of prayer that I’m talking about is the kind that James describes as being powerful and effective. In James 5:17 it says, “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.”
That’s the kind of prayer that we need to pray, Concentrated, fervent prayer; that’s the same kind of prayer that an invalid woman who lived in London, England had in the 19th Century. This woman had prayed for several months that Revival would come to her church and her community.
One day she was reading the newspaper and came across an article about the ministry of D.L. Moody and the Revival that was taking place in the United States. Even though she had never heard of him before, she began to pray and ask God to send Moody to her church in England.
Some time later, Moody decided to take some time off and go to England on Vacation. He really hadn’t planned on doing any preaching while he was there. But he met a pastor in London, who persuaded him to come and preach in his Church one Sunday.
That afternoon the invalid woman’s sister came home from church and told her that D.L. Moody had preached during the morning service and would also be preaching in the Evening service. When she heard this, she spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in prayer, praying that God would do something special.
In his journal Moody made the statement that the people of that church were the deadest group of people that he had ever preached to. But that night, as He stood to deliver the message he could tell that something was different. That night several people confessed their sins to the Lord and accepted him as their Lord and Savior.
Moody left town the next day to go to Ireland, but received a telegram from the pastor of the church begging him to come back and preach some more because Revival had broken out. Moody got back on the train and went back to London, where He preached 10 consecutive nights, and hundreds of people were saved.
All because of the powerful prayers of one invalid woman who couldn’t go to church, but wanted to see and experience a Revival.
But unfortunately most of our prayers are not powerful or effective. In fact if we were honest with ourselves this morning we would have to confess that most of the time we don’t take time to pray, much less pray for Revival.
God will never send revival to those who don’t want it enough to even bother asking for it.
The great British theologian, Charles Spurgeon once said something like this; "Prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so feebly, or lethargically. Others give but an occasional pull on the rope. But he [or, she] who wins with Heaven is the man [or, woman] who grabs a hold of the rope boldly and pulls continually, with all [of] his [or, her] might."
We need to have the same attitude when it comes to praying for Revival that Jacob had toward the angel that he wrestled with all night. The angel told him to let him go because it was getting daylight, but Jacob refused to let go of him until the angel blessed him. We need to pray for Revival, and continue to pray until Revival comes.
3. The third requirement for Revival is that we as God’s people will seek His face.
Which I believe is another way of saying that we need to spend more time with God, developing a stronger more intimate relationship with Him.
One of the ways we do that is by reading His Word and allowing Him to speak to us through that Word. But like prayer, most of us don’t see the need, or don’t take the time to read God’s Word anymore. Too many of us have settled for knowing about God, instead of knowing Him intimately and personally. That’s one of the attitudes that must change before Revival will break night. We must once again hunger and thirst after the Word of God
We need to be more concerned with spending time with Him, and reading His Word than we are about watching the latest episode of “American Idol” or “Dancing with the Stars,” or CSI.
We need to be more committed to being in his presence and worshipping him than we are about playing golf, or talking on the telephone, or hanging out with our friends at the Mall.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
That’s the kind of commitment and dedication we as Christians need to have when it comes to seeking God and spending time with Him.
According to 2 Chronicles 7:14 the last requirement for Revival to take place is for us…
4. For “God’s People” To Turn From Our Wicked Ways.
One of the things I think that we need to realize this morning is that we are the ones who are responsible for the spiritual condition of our churches, our community and our nation today.
As Christians we have failed to be the Salt of the Earth and the “Light of the World” that He has called us to be. Consequently instead of making a positive impact on our society. Instead of making this world a better place to live, we have sat in our padded pews and watched as the “Secular Progressives” and “atheists” have taken over our nation. Things like “Homosexuality” and “Abortion” which are abominations to God aren’t even considered wrong in the eyes of many Americans today.
We need to repent of our sins. We need to agree with God, that we have failed to do what He has required of us, and we need to turn away from our sin and turn back to Him before its too late.
Acts 3:19 says “Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (NKJV)
Conclusion: I’ve shared this with you before but I want to share it with you again before I close. The Great preacher R. G. Lee once said this about Revival: He said:
If all the sleeping folk will wake up,
If all the lukewarm folk will get fired up,
If all the dishonest folk will confess up,
If all the disgruntled folk will cheer up,
If all the depressed folk will cheer up,
If all the estranged folk will make up,
If all the gossipers will shut up,
If all true soldiers will stand up,
If all the dry bones will shake up,
If all the church members will pray up...
Then we can have a revival!
--R. G. Lee
The question is not whether God wants to send Revival to Sulphur Spring Baptist Church next week. The question is do we WANT it bad enough to do what He requires us to do.
If we want to see the windows of heaven opened, and the blessings of God poured out upon our lives, then all of us who are called by His name, must humble ourselves and pray and seek HIS face and turn from our wicked ways. He has done it in the past, My prayer this morning is that He will do it again!”
Gypsy Smith, a British Evangelist, during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century said the way to have a revival is to draw a circle around yourself, get down on your knees and pray, Lord send a revival and let it begin inside this circle. That’s what we need to do this morning. We all need to get down on our knees draw a circle around us and pray Lord send a revival and let it begin with me.
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