Introduction
1. A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture.
Suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a designer suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban
sunglasses and fancy tie,
leans out the window and asks the cowboy,
"If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"
The cowboy thought about it a minute and said, "Sure, Why not?"
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,
connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone,
and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet,
where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an
exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.
Within seconds, he receives an email on his palm pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored..
He then accesses a spreadsheet on his blackberry and,
after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."
"That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the
cowboy.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on
amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you
exactly what your business is, will you give my back my calf?"
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"
You’re a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says the cowboy.
"Wow! That’s correct," says the yuppie, "But how did you guess that?"
The cowboy said, "You showed up here even though nobody called you;
you want to get paid for an answer I already knew,
to a question I never asked.
You tried to show me how much smarter you are than me...
and you don’t know a thing about cows...
this is a herd of sheep.
Now give me back my dog.
2. In 3 short weeks, Larry and Tamla Leckrone will be here to hold revival services...
In large part, what you do during the next 3 weeks in preparation...
will determine whether or not you experience revival in your own heart...
Often we will lament about the condition of the world...
the prevalence of sin and greed...
war and strife...
I submit that the needs of the world would be greatly addressed by a mighty revival...
Revival doesn’t begin in a political revolution...
Revival doesn’t begin in an embassy where leaders hash out peace agreements...
Revival begins in the church...
Revival is for the Christian...
Dr. Lewis, one of our former General Superintendents in the Church of the Nazarene has said, “whatever will happen will happen within the church”...
Leonard Ravenhill a great British evangelist said,...
“As the church goes, so goes the world”...
And, I might add...
As the Christian goes...so goes the Church...
Revival MEETINGS seem to come and go...
But true revival is seldom found...
3. This morning, instead of telling you what to do to facilitate revival...
I would like us to look at why we have revival meetings...
but we AREN’T having true revival...
Read Text: 1 Samuel 12:23 “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right.”
This morning, I will be speaking to you about the 7 “uns” of Revival...
or, “why Churches have revival MEETINGS...but Christians seldom have true revival”...
1. Churches have revival meetings....but Christians seldom have true revival...because of Unbent knees
A. Our text tells us that prayerlessness is a sin!!...
Ouch!!!
Sometimes we just call it forgetfulness...
or we get too busy to really pray more than just for meals...
but when was the last time you really KNELT in prayer?...
When was the last time that you prevailed in prayer?...
The revival that swept through the Hebrides (HE bri deez) Islands off the coast of Scotland in 1949 began in a prayer meeting...
Rev. Duncan Campbell, the minister involved in that revival,
wrote:
“Baffled and frustrated in Christian work and witness, I prayed on my face in my study at five o’clock in the morning. The past 17 years had been spent in a barren wilderness, but that morning I came to know the recovering power of the blood of Jesus Christ.1
B. Revival began in Rev. Campbell’s heart during his own private prayer meeting...
Revival came later to the Hebrides Islands when Rev. Campbell and a group of about 30 Christians gathered in a farmhouse and spent the night in prayer...
That’s how true revival starts...
it starts in the prayer meeting...
whether private or public...
whether only one is gathered to pray...
or 100 have gathered to pray...
Why do churches have revival MEETINGS...
But Christians seldom have true revival?...
Because of the unbent knee
2. churches have revival MEETINGS..
But Christians seldom have true revival because of unkept promises
A. At various points in time...
all Christians make some sort of promises to God...
Every Church Member who has joined the Church...
has stood before the altar and made vows of membership...
People make vows during their wedding ceremony...
Christians make vows regarding their spiritual disciplines...
vows about our prayer life...
vows about reading the Bible...
vows about attending church faithfully...
vows about giving 10% of our income as a tithe unto the Lord...
Vows about witnessing and sharing our faith...
B. And the reason that Christians don’t experience true revival...
is because they don’t keep their promises before God...
In Deuteronomy chapter 23, the Bible says,
If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.
And, in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, the Bible says,
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.
C. Christians fail to experience true revival because they have failed to keep their vows...
they have unkept promises...
3. Churches have revival MEETINGS..
But Christians seldom have true revival because they are Uncommitted
A. Commitment is when we surrender ourselves to God...
Commitment is when we say with Christ...
“Father, Not my will, but Your will be done”
Commitment is entrusting ourselves, our lives, our livelihoods, our everything...
to Jesus Christ.
B. A person makes their way to an alter of prayer...
and, in the presence of God...
they make a commitment to live for Him...
to serve Him...
C. Unfortunately, some people figuratively go back to the altar... to take something from off the altar of commitment...
People will sing, “I surrender all”...
But in reality...
if the truth be known...
they should more properly sing, “I surrender some”.
D. Illus?
4. Churches have revival MEETINGS..
But Christians seldom have true revival because of UNPAID Tithes
A. What in the world does paying tithe have to do with us experiencing revival?
Really, it has EVERYTHING to do with it...
when we are faithful to God...
He rewards our faithfulness with spiritual blessings...
and our faithfulness must extend to our wallets and our purses...
B. In the Old Testament, the people thought they were living for God...
and when the prophet confronted them...
they cried out, “where have we robbed God?...
And the prophet answered...
“in tithes and offerings”...
And then God says, in Malachi 3:10:
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house.
Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty,
"and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven
and pour out so much blessing
that you will not have room enough for it.”
Sounds like a spirit of revival to me...
Revival was needed in Malachi’s day...
Malachi was serving people 2 and 3 generations from the revival led by Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel...
Sounds familiar, doens’t it?...
2nd and 3rd Generation Nazarenes...
and perhaps even 4th Generation Nazarenes...
I’m a 3rd Generation Nazarene...
and my kids make the 4th in our family...
The Church of the Nazarene was built upon the fires of revival...
But where is the revival today?...
Perhaps some of the old timers remember fondly the revival fires burning hotly through the Church of the Nazarene...
But where is the real revival today?...
In Malachi’s day, one of the reasons that they hadn’t experienced revival...
was because of unpaid tithes and offerings...
Tithing is not just an obligation...
it is a love gift unto God...
Scripture tells us that “God loves a cheerful giver”...2 Cor. 9:7
One of the reasons that churches have revival meetings...
But Christians seldom have true revival...
is because of unpaid tithes and offerings.
5. Another reason that churches have revival meetings...
But Christians seldom have true revival is because of Unread Bibles
A. Some people admire the Bible...
but they don’t read it...
Some people read it...
but they don’t let it speak to them...
Some people read it, and they let it speak to them...
but they don’t allow God’s Word to bring changes into their lives...
But other people, they read it, they let it speak to them...
and they allow God to guide and direct their actions and thoughts and behaviors.
B. In Ezra’s day, the revival began through the study of God’s Word...
In Josiah’s day, a revival began when they began to read the scrolls again...
The Reformation in England was largely due to God’s Word being available to everyone...
In 1526, Tyndale had completed the work of an English language Bible...
And it was available to everyone for the first time...
people were buying...
they read it...
they kissed the covers...
they gathered in groups in read the Bible together...
C. The Bible needs to be read and lived by...
When we read the Bible...
When we allow the Bible to change our way of living...
then we are on the way to a revival!
6. Another reason that churches have revival meetings...
But Christians seldom have true revival is because of Unsaid Prayers
A. The Bible says, “you do not have because you do not ask”...
Perhaps the reason that Churches have revival meetings...
But Christians seldom have true revival...
is because we have failed to pray to God...
and to put into words the deep desire of our heart to have revival...
B. We know that God hears and answers prayer...
however, God cannot hear the prayer that is never prayed...
and thus He cannot answer that prayer either.
7. Another reason that churches have revival meetings...
But Christians seldom have true revival is because of our Unspoken Witness
A. If our brand of Christianity has become just an exclusive club...
That our Church is only for certain people...
that only Christians are our friends...
and we don’t care about the lost...
we don’t care about the multitudes who will spend eternity in hell...
then we will not experience revival...
B. We must have a burden for the lost...
we must have a compulsion to share our faith in Jesus Christ...
C. Let me illustrate it like this...
I have become a Mac convert...
I used to only use Windows PC....
Bill Gates and Microsoft was my company...
But, after much research and agonizing over the decision...
I decided to buy a MacIntosh computer...
And the more I use it...
the more I love it...
I happily share with other people my love for my Apple Computer...
And one day it hit me...
I’ve become an Apple convert...
I don’t plan to ever go back to my old life with PC...
And then, something else hit me...
I am already a convert...
I have invited Jesus into my heart...
and my life is so much better...
as good as my life is with Apple...
my life with Jesus has hugely affected my life...
But do I tell other people about my excitement about Jesus...
Like I tell them about my excitement about Apple?...
Do I encourage them to make the change?...
If we have become a convert to Christianity...
if we have invited Christ into hearts and lives...
If we have experienced the excitement of knowing Jesus...
How can we contain it?...
How can we keep it to ourselves?...
D. Jesus has challenged us to “go and make disciples”...
but, if we just keep it all to ourselves...
then we may have revival meetings...
but we won’t have revival...
Conclusion
1. Well, we have scheduled a series of revival meetings...
But that’s all they will be...
if we don’t experience true revival in our hearts...
and I see 7 reasons why Christians don’t experience true revival...
1. The unbent knee...
Christian prayerlessness is an oxymoron...
but I fear that it is much to prevalent in the church...
2. The unkept promise...
Some of you have made promises to live for God...
but you have not kept that promise...
3. The Uncommitted Christian...
We need to be able to sing that song, “Whatever it takes, to draw closer to you Lord, that’s what I’ll be willing to do”...
4. The Unpaid Tithes...
You will find that as you get your tithe up-to-date...
That your relationship with the Lord will be up-to-date as well!!
5. the Unread Bible...
Some of you need to shake the dust off the Bible sitting on your coffee table...
and fall in love with God’s Word once again.
6. The Unsaid Prayers...
Have we asked God to bring revival?...
Have we made our hearts desire known to God?...
Until we do, God won’t hear and answer that prayer.
7. The Unspoken Witness...
Have we kept the joy of our salvation to ourselves?...
or have we indeed become an excited convert to Jesus Christ?...
2. I don’t want to just have a series of revival meetings, do you?...
I want us to experience true revival!!!
Life changing...
Church changing...
World changing revival...
Open altar
1 I got the idea for this sermon from one of my dad’s old sermons. Not sure where he got the original idea. 2.http://www.ywamwoodcrest.com/ywamtv/godeep/heb_rev/hebrides.htm
