INTRO
I have to tell ya, I hunger and I thirst for God. I desire his movement in my life; and I desire God’s restoration, and his reformation for our community, the valley, and nation. Let me ask you: Do you desire that too?
For many years now, God’s being stirring the hearts of countless Christians to seek the Lord for spiritual renewal. Since coming here, the area pastors and I have sensed a prevailing pull from God’s heart to ours saying, “I want to come and shatter the darkness in this valley, and bring a great light to lift the hearts and burden of those in bondage and captivity.” Do you want to that too? I pray you do.
Like many others I know, I pray often to God that he moves in the hearts of all those in our community, and for a local and national breakthrough of God’s working in us. Daniel prayed for his community too -- that God would break them free out from their captivity.
As we heard last week, Daniel’s prayers were affective. He trusted God would protect him all the days of his life. And with such a heart for his people, Daniel, Chapter Nine records Daniel’s turning to God and pleading with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes, so that the Lord God would deliver his chosen people out from captivity in Babylon, and back to the Promised Land.
Daniel’s life and ministry of presence was so powerful that he affected the heart of mind of his King — Darius of Persia. Darius, more than any world leader today, decreed that all needed to give their hearts and minds to the God of Heaven. He said, as recorded in Daniel 6:25-27: “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. “For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.”
My friends, what you just heard was the softening of a pagan nation to release the captives God desired to set free, and the beginning of revival. But none of that would have been possible had not Daniel, and those who followed him, prayed for God’s stirring in the hearts and minds of others.
Leonard Ravenhall wrote about this kind of stirring in his book “While Revival Tarries.” He said: “No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.
Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players, but few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”
My friends, Christianity has been failing America as America has turned from God and his Son Jesus Christ. We are in desperate times, and we must become a desperate people of faith. Many are praying from revival, and our nation needs a renewal of heart, mind and soul, and to turn back to God. That turning needs to be led by us.
This morning, we’re going to begin a three part sermon series called “the Road to Revival.” We’re going to follow along with “The Story” in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, and learn how Judah sought God with the fullness of their beings; watched for God’s stirring; prayed, fasted and sought God for protection; and began a journey along the road of revival.
And in our learning, we too must see God for a new stirring of our hearts, so that we too can walk the road to revival. For, like Daniel and Jesus, we too must become a people of prayer so that God can move in our lives, and usher in a time when the captives that God desires to set free, are led into his promised land. Please open you bibles to Ezra Chapter One.
GOD STIRRED HEARTS -- TWICE
READ EZRA 1:1-5
We don’t see it plainly in the NIV, but in the most literal translation — the New American Standard Bible — the word “moved” we see in vv 1 & 5 is better translated as “stirred.” This word “stir” means to awaken, or to open the eyes of our heart to God’s willful redemption. This stirring, this awakening, this opening of the eyes, was — and still is — the first step in the heart of renewal for the children of God. Friends, it has to start with us, and from us, it will pour into the community at large.
We know Judah wanted nothing more than to return home and establish Godly worship in a newly rebuilt temple. Most had never seen the glory of the Lord’s temple. A few had, but the vast majority had never seen or known the Promised Land, Salvation, or freedom with God. Most were born in captivity, but then given a chance to live in freedom and to start a new life with God.
Like Judah, we were all born into captivity — we’re all born captive to sin, and in bondage to a life of selfishness away from God. Yet, through Jesus Christ, we who confess God as our Lord and Savior have been set free from a life of sin and eternal death. But let me ask you, are you grateful for your freedom?
Are we serving God with all our being? Or, are we too comfortable in our faith? Judah became comfortable and Babylon took away their livelihood, chained them, and hauled them on a 543-mile journey into captivity.
Ya know, our country is going downhill quickly. All we have to do is open the paper or web, or turn on the news to see the unrest in our nation. Millions are screaming for a for a savior to free them from the burdens we’ve created. Most are looking to the government; but the government cannot save!
But you, me — we’ve been set free. We’ve been given new life, and it’s our duty and obligation to share that new life with others. We have a Lord and Savior who desires to stir the hearts of the many — beginning with us — so that He can set the captives free.
As Christians, I pray that we would desire a release of those the Devil is holding captive. It has been my hope and prayer that thousands in our valley would come to know Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, King, Comforter, and friend. Do you desire that too?
Is God stirring your heart? Is God awakening your heart to his desires? Are your eyes open to see the hopelessness and despair of the many who are muddling through life and holding onto something, but not God?
If we are not broken for the lost, than we have become too good at being organizers, but not agonizers. If we are not broken, we are playing Christian, but not devout pray-ers. Maybe we’re don’t have enough passion. Maybe we’re interfering because we fear change and the moving of God’s Holy Spirit. Is your heart stirring?
God is here — right now within our midst — in this church, and in our valley, and he’s stirring the hearts of many. Yet, if we hesitate and fail to open our eyes, we will not be able see that which God desires. Friends, we need to open our eyes to God’s stirring, and get radical for God by becoming a people of prayer and fasting, and a people willing to travel the road less travelled.
JOURNEY STARTS WITH PRAYER AND FASTING
Let’s jump to Ezra 7:1-10. READ EZRA 7:1-10. Like Jesus 600 years later, Ezra would have been devoted to prayer and fasting. Ezra 8:21-23 says: “There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”
Like Moses, David, Ezra and countless others, Jesus fasted.
First of all, prayer and fasting were vital aspects of the Jewish Faith. Consider: The Pharisee’s questioned Jesus about the fating practices of his disciples, over those of John the Baptist (Matt 9:14). But unfortunately, the Pharisees boasted about their twice-weekly fasting observances — then Jesus rebuked them.
Anna the daughter of Phanuel, an elderly widow of eighty-four “never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. (Lk 2:37). She prayed and fasted until Messiah came. And we know that before Barnabas and Paul left on their missionary journey, they prayed and fasted as the Holy Spirit stirred their hearts before sending them off.
Jesus, like the others, knew the combination of prayer and fasting was (and is) a powerful means to kick-start a revival of one form or another. It’s in this way — when we fast and pray — that we’re able to hear from God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, without anything getting in the way. Like us —although He is the Son of God —Jesus was FULLY human, and tempted in all the ways you and I are tempted. But his wilderness fast gave him a clarity of mind and spirit, spiritual strength, and an unbridled ability to minister for God the Father.
Let us consider the fruits of Jesus’ fast. His faith became emboldened. Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness: Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” From that point forward, Jesus began to preach, called his first disciples, healed the sick, and performed signs and miracles that controlled the elements of this earth.
If Jesus thought it was good to fast and pray, and taught about those things in the sermon on the mount, is it not good for us too? Jesus knows revival begins with the stirring of God, but then moves from there into prayer and fasting, so that the Kingdom of God can blossom.
Now, we should know that fasting isn’t easy. The bible records that Jesus hungered after 40 days, and that he was tempted in many ways by the Devil. Despite the discomfort in fasting, it is vital for our faith and for the renewal of our nation and the Kingdom of Heaven.
I want to urge for the next ten days leading up to Ash Wednesday —seek God in diligent prayer, and if you hear him stirring you to begin a fast, then obey. For if you do, you shall not be alone. Lent is a time for us to reflect upon Jesus’ path, and to seek God in the mold of Jesus Christ with prayer and fasting. It’s time we seek God with greater meaning for our lives, and those around us. Is God stirring your heart towards revival? I bet he is, but know that the road ahead to renewal may not easy.
THE INCONVIENENT ROAD AHEAD
The bible says it took Ezra and the exiles 4 months to reach Jerusalem. Their journey would have taken them over 500 miles of desert terrain, inhabitable wilderness, up mountains and down valleys that consistently rose and fell by thousands of feet.
Now, Imagine having to walk from here to Boise by going the way of Washington and Oregon. This road travelled is about 484 miles — but that’s along interstate. Imagine if we had to walk that road, without the convenience of pavement or automobile.
But this was the journey Judah made. They prayed and sought God with fasting, and asked for protection for their journey. They took all they owned and all the temple treasures, and headed out for the Promised Land. They didn’t look back, they just went, despite the inconvenience, for the reward and destination ahead was more desirous than they comforts of Babylon and a continued existence in bondage and captivity.
We have to believe that their journey was worth it. Upon arriving, the people set out to do God’s will as a people called by God to be lamplighters for the world. Over 2500 years ago, God stirred the hearts of his people to return to the Promised Land and revive godly worship. Judah was willing to allow God to stir their hearts; as they sought the Lord in prayer and fasting; and as they travelled the road less travelled, so that —in time — our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Messiah could be born to set the captives free.
Now, in this time, in this place, God is stirring us — his children — to travel the road of revival -- so that through Jesus others too can be free from their bondage of sin. My question is this: are we willing to travel the road less travelled so that Jesus can set the captives free? Let God stir your heart today, and ask him to open your eyes to that which he wants to do in our valley in a new time of life-giving renewal. Amen, let us pray.
