Why Revival Tarries Series, Part 1
Series based on Leonard Ravenhill’s work Why Revival Tarries
You Cannot Function Without Unction
May 11, 2011
A Why is it when we have a prayer meeting or a call to prayer, people feel as if that is a pass to stay home or stay away?
1 What could be more dear to the Lord than His children on their knees in prayer?
a Not as loud as worship, not as philosophical as preaching...doesn’t wear an evening gown or pearls.
b Plain, humble, non-glamorous
2 You don’t have to plan a prayer service, prepare for a guest speaker to come in & do a prayer service.
a Not a lazy or slothful service
b Prayer & prayer services are spiritual
3 You don’t need to be “spiritual” to preach, that is, to deliver sermons.
a Study, good skill set, know hermeneutics, know how to exegete a text, good memory, smarts, ambition, charisma/personality, have a good library, self-confidence...you can get in the pulpit nowadays somewhere.
b Preaching affects people; prayer affects God.
aa Tragedy in the church is there are too many dead preachers in dead pulpits preaching dead sermons to dead people.
bb No unction!
c Maybe structurally sound, doctrinally accurate...I think we get away with being half as intellectual if we were twice as spiritual (phony spirituality).
d What’s unction? When someone is anointed with oil or ointment as a religious rite, or when someone is instilled as king.
aa Fervor, covering with the Holy Spirit
bb Excited, passionate about Him
e I would rather hear a preacher excited, full of unction, passion rather than a dead, polished & poised orator.
4 Unction doesn’t just land on the windowsill.
a Unction is personal, won, gained, earned-by prayer.
aa For preachers & for laity
bb Dynamite is dynamite no matter whether it’s in a cave, canyon, car, in the dark or the light...it has power!
cc Unction is the same way...it isn’t affected by how you feel, if you’re cast in prison, preacher hits a homer, the music isn’t to your liking...unction prevails wherever & whenever logic fails.
b We need unction to truly function.
B We live in a time when there are more churches than at any other time in history (altars empty, pews half-full, baptistry never used). These things won’t happen without unction.
1 Churches have multi-million dollar facilities, first-class audio/visual systems, lighting that would make Pink Floyd drool.
a No one comes to the altar! Incredible smart pastors as communicators-stop offering invitations. (IL) boat with new depth finders, rods, & reels...always comes back to the dock empty. No excuses for empty live wells.
b Misapply “My Word...shall not return to me void.”
c Ugly truth is altar fires are cut or burning low.
aa Prayer meeting are dead or dying.
bb If I announced on Sunday morning that there would be a prayer meeting that night, I can guarantee you two things:
• Attendance would be down
• I’d hear, “I guess the preacher wanted a night off.”
2 Our attitude toward prayer tells God what was begun in the Spirit we can finish in the flesh.
a I’ve never been asked as a potential pastor candidate how much time I spend in prayer daily.
aa Preachers who don’t spend an hour or two in prayer daily are not worth a dime a dozen, regardless of their degrees.
bb The church is on the sidewalk watching the world cartwheel itself to hell, & we act like we’re helpless to counter the tide-can’t protest!
cc Roman Catholic Church doesn’t even call us Protestants anymore-we’re referred to as non-Catholics.
b Churches/pulpits who should be fishing for men are now fishing for compliments from men.
3 We can preach & perish, but we cannot pray & perish.
a The church could do with a little less preaching & a little more praying.
b But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit...Jude 1:20 (NASB)
4 No man is greater than his prayer life, no church is greater than their prayer meetings.
a The pastor who is not praying is playing.
b The people who are not praying are straying.
aa If people are sinning, they stop praying.
bb If people are praying, they stop sinning.
5 The church needs fewer interferers & more intercessors...fewer organizers & more agonizers...fewer payers/players & more prayers.
a Less fashion-more passion
b Less fear-more tears
C The ministry of prayer/intercession is open to all.
1 The ministry of preaching is open to few; not everyone can preach/not everyone can pastor...but everybody & anybody can pray.
2 Most Christians know little of binding/loosing.
a "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." Matt 16:19 (NASB)
Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Matt 18:18 (NASB)
b The onus is on us! We bind & loose.
c God’s not stingy with His power: to be much for God we must be much with God.
d (IL) Story of Don’s little old lady who put him in her will, then removed him for not spending time with her.
D Praying is simple, the simplest form of speech that a baby can try...but it’s bigger than our vocabulary, when we exhaust our words.
1 One of the most profound prayers in Scripture has no language. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. 1 Sam 1:13 (NASB)
a No linguist, no interpreter
b In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words... Romans 8:26 (NASB)
c Your interpreter is the Holy Spirit.
d Personal prayer language
2 Prayer should be to the church what money is to the bank.
a When was the last time you saw a prayer meeting last longer than a business meeting? (Shows priorities)
b The modern church spends most of her time worrying about money (the New Testament church didn’t).
aa Their emphasis wasn’t on paying, it was on praying.
bb And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31 (NASB)
cc When we pay the place is taken; when they had prayed, the place was shaken.
3 This kind of prayer is no longer an option-it’s either we do it...or die!
Conclusion
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