Wanted Alive (Not Dead)
Revival
2 Chronicle 7:11-15
> It was an old TV series entitled “Lost in Space.” I used to watch it when I was a kid. One of my favorite characters was the robot. When the Robinson family was in trouble the robot would wave his will arms and say, “Danger, Will Robinson, danger!”
> As a minister of the gospel and as a believer I almost feel like that robot. It’s like the calling God placed on me is to raise my voice, wave my hands, and let everyone know that danger is lurking. In this country, we are in dark times. If something doesn’t change, we may actually be in the twilight of our country.
> It’s easy to say that “the world is dark” and it is even easier to say that the world is darker today than ever before. However, that doesn’t really seem to be the case.
> A quick walk through the Bible reminds us that this world has been through some very dark days. After God created the world, placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and gave them a beautiful life, sin entered the world. It took only a little time, actually chapter 6 in the book of Genesis, God regretted he had made mankind. The reason for his regret was because man had become so wicked. The result of God’s regret was man’s demise through the flood. Only seven people survived the flood. From those people came the rest of the human race.
> The book of Genesis was not even complete when God again faced rampant wickedness. This time it was in Sodom and Gomorrah. Because Abraham couldn’t find 10 righteous men, God destroyed the land.
> In point of fact, we can spend the rest of the night noting the wickedness of man. It can be seen in our nation’s history. When will remember this 1960’s, we remember assassinations, riots, Supreme Court rulings, and much more which demonstrates the wickedness of man. Then come the seventies, the eighties, and nineties, and we have continued to see the darkness overwhelming us. But the truth is this, it is not that the darkness is so much darker, rather it is the light is not shinning as brightly.
> When this country was first inhabited, people stake their very lives on their beliefs, they were committed to the God of the Bible, and willing to sacrifice for the gospel. If this meant relocating their families, there would do it. If this meant changing jobs, they would do it. If this meant sacrifice, it was done. Is it any wonder that the light of the gospel has gone out when today’s believers won’t even sacrifice a week of vacation or schedule change for the sake of the gospel of Christ.
> Obviously, what is needed today is a great, Holy Ghost, Heaven sent, heart starring, soul changing revival. Revival, by definition, is not an evangelistic meeting. For sure, there will be many people saved during a revival. But the truth of matter is, the only way for a person or a church to be revived is to be restored to a former state. This means, to quote Peter, “It’s time for the judgment of God to begin at the house of God.”
> Turn with me if you will to 2 Chronicles. Let’s set up our study by beginning in chapter 5.
> To have a proper perspective of where we’re headed in chapter 7 and understand the message, let’s gain some historical perspective.
> Most of us remember King David. David was the shepherd boy who defeated the giant Goliath. He was the young man who was chased after by King Saul. David was later crowned King. It was David’s desire and dream to rebuild the temple of God. We know from scripture that God would not allow him to build the temple because David had blood on his hands. Most of the time we forget that David wrote psalms 23, yet will remember David as being the King who was out of place on a rooftop instead of the battlefield, he lusted after bath Sheba, had an affair, committed murder, and then lost a child in death. Additionally, he did not repent until Nathan said, “Thou art the man! “ For all of these reasons God would not allow David to rebuild the temple.
> As a side note, an offspring from Bathsheba and David’s marriage was a son named Solomon. It was Solomon who was given the privilege and the responsibility for the reconstruction of the temple.
> Chapter 5 brings us up to speed about the preparation for the dedication of the temple. There are many things of interest in this passage but for the sake of time noticed verse 11 through the end of the chapter.
> Chapter 6, almost in its entirety, is King Solomon either blessing the people or praying for the people. This chapter gives us a powerful picture of the King who fears God. To read this prayer is to really understand the heart of Solomon.
> I like the way chapter 7 begins. It says, “When Solomon finish praying fire descended from heaven.” What an impact! Now, jump down to verse 11 with me and let’s read the verse together & get to the crux of the matter.
> We can stay here all night dissecting this text, but now that we have some historical perspective in front of us, let’s talk about what it takes to have a revival, who is responsible to bring revival, and what happens when revival comes. Let me give you four thoughts tonight:
1) The Responsibility – because I believe so much in the sovereignty of God, it is my belief that God never gives a task without place in someone in charge, someone to be responsible. When we read verse 7, I believe God lays responsibility for revival at the feet of the redeemed.
a) Assigned – he begins with “if”. As you know, “if” begins a prepositional phrase which carries a condition. When we meet the condition, the action will follow. If my people. Think about that phrase, my people. God doesn’t place the responsibility for revival, for righteousness, or for anything else at the feet of those who don’t know him. Rather, he speaks to those who have been transformed, reformed, & conformed, like apostle Paul teaches In 2 Corinthians 5:17. In point of fact, just as surely as we had home-work at school we have been given the assignment of taking up our cross and following Christ.
b) Avoided – one of the reasons that the world has become so dark is that the believer has avoided this responsibility. It seems that believers want “play pass the buck.” The words we speak are,” if only they would come to church”, or “why don’t they come and get all we have?” I’ll suggest to this group that the reason they don’t come is because they see little difference in us than in them. I have a 26 year old daughter, her name is Christy. She used to work at Red Lobster, as a waitress. One of the things that she told us was that the Red Lobster in that location had difficulty getting servers to work on Sunday for lunch. The reason was that most people who came to the lunch came from Church in their coat and ties. It was amazing to hear my daughter tell about the people who would come directly from worship, enter the restaurant, and be totally unchristian in their behavior toward the servers. I submit to you that this is one of the ways we avoid our responsibility.
c) Accepted – However the responsibility is ours. We accepted that responsibility when we accepted his grace, his forgiveness, his mercy, and His eternal life. When we chose to wear his name, chose to become His, we chose to live like He desires for us to live. We must understand that all people are God’s creation but not all people are God’s children. Only those who have been born on the water and the blood. Jesus himself was very clear about these things. In John chapter three Jesus said,” Unless you’re born again will not see the kingdom of God.” Earlier in John’s gospel, John wrote these words “but to all who received him he gave them the right to become the children of God”. In the moment we accepted his offer of salvation thru the blood of Jesus Christ we accepted the responsibility to be Jesus in the world. I am reminded of the movie, “Mission Impossible”. In the opening scene, there was always a problem. The problem required high risk, special circumstances, and special training to solve. The problem, the mission, the risk, and the disclaimer, were always given to the leader. Just before the disclaimer was given this sentence always appeared, “your mission should you choose to accept it”. Candidly, we have been assigned our mission from the Father and the responsibility is ours. We’re not really given a choice in the matter. The decision was made a Calvary.
2) The Requirements – after giving us the assignment, verse 14 speaks to 3 tough issues. These issues must be addressed if revival is to come. The scripture says if my people were called by my name shall;
a) Our Attitude: it says “Humble themselves”. The question is “what does humble yourselves mean.” Could it mean the absence of pride? Could it mean not promoting oneself? It could mean doesn’t represent God or doesn’t consult God about decisions or does not worship and serve God. It Is characterized by selfishness, stubbornness, stinginess, or a myriad of similar characteristics? The Bible says,”God resist the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
b) Our Approach: next, it says, “PRAY”. I submit to you this could be one of the most neglected aspects in the life of a believer and in the life of a church. As a general rule, we spend more time talking about prayer that we do praying. We spend more time praying people out of heaven than praying people out of hell. We spend more time praying superficial prayers than we do pouring our hearts out to the Father. Today, there is a group of people who don’t care to participate in prayer meetings. In fact, if you announce a prayer meeting they won’t be there. I believe it was Vance Havner who said, “We should work like it all depends on us, pray like it all depends on Him because it does”. It is also been said, “We can do more than just pray, butwe have not done all we can do until we pray.”
c) Our Aim – Next, the Bible says, Seek His Face; that Hebrew language use the word here that means seek something afar off. I want to do this to draw you a picture. Have you ever attempted to feed a baby? The baby loves the fruits, He may love the vegetables somewhat, but when you feed him the meat for the first time, the baby turns its face. Now you’re chasing the baby’s face with a spoon and food. It is in this way that the God of the universe turns his face from sin. He demonstrated that he will not look on Sin when, as Jesus hung on the cross, the sun was blackened.
3) The Repentance – Next, scripture say, “turn from your wicked ways”. Repentance His best defined as u-turn, headed one direction and make an about face. Let me give you three thoughts about Repentance.
a) Misunderstood- this is the most basic, neglected, and misunderstood of all Christian doctrine. It is more than being sorry. It is more than reforming your life. It is about your life being transformed. D. L. Moody said this, “if you want pure water, don’t paint the pump, clean the well”. The Bible teaches this comes through transformation, the renewing of the mind.
b) Meaning – We learn what Repentance means from the story of the prodigal son. Scripture tell us he came to him self, this is intellectual. We are further told there was the sorrow, this is emotional. Finally, we’re told he made a decision & acted, this is volitional. He felt like it might not be like it was but it would be better than it is. He responded. That is repentance.
c) Mandate – to state it simply, there is no other way to find God’s favor or forgiveness. Additionally, there will be no revival until there is a wholesale Repentance. The words of Jesus still ring true, “except you repent.”
4) The Response – God is as good as his word! If we meet his condition, he will respond. This is how;
a) He Will Hear – there is nothing in the world quite like being heard. Everybody wants to be heard. But then to think that God will hear is an awesome thought. Now someone is listening who can respond and do something. For short period of time how was in sales. I was calling on people’s offices trying to sell them office supplies. I discovered very quickly that it did me a little good to spend time with someone who could not make a decision. So I always sought to find the decision maker. With God, we have access to the decision-maker. Please hear this; God is under no obligation to hear a straying, sinful, or selfish child. Candidly, Sin is like cotton in the ears of God.
b) He Will Forgive – I just completed a 5 month sermon series from the epistle of first John. It is in this letter that this great message is found: if we confess our sin, He will forget our sin.” There is no greater need among us today. We need to be forgiving and we need to find forgiveness. Candidly, one of the sins for which we need to be forgiven is unforgiveness. Jesus is pretty clear that the forgiveness we are given is directly related to the forgiveness we give. You see, unforgiveness hides our light. Forgiveness is written across every page of the Bible. When we come clean before God, & ask for forgiveness, he forgives & forgets.
c) He will Heal – Every time I read this text I get encouraged. This text reminds me that there is hope for America. We’re now shooting ourselves in our own foot. This country is a mess. Again, I don’t believe it’s because sin is so much worse, rather it’s because the believers have become such compromisers that there has to be a cleansing within the house of God. I firmly believe that he wants to heal us, if we will meet his conditions.
The responsibility? Mine. The requirements? His. The Repentance? Mine. The response? His. Just notice, it begins with me and ends with him. So what are we to do?
( Story of Alexander)
