Enemies to Revival
2 Chronicles 7:14
God wants and expects His church to be spiritually alive. God is in the business of reviving, restoring, renewing, healing and fixing that which has been broken notably our relationship with Him. Ephesians 2 tells us that that His Spirit quickens or revives that which is dead. However, within our lives there are enemies to revival which prevent us from experiencing God’s power working in our lives. These are pride, prayerlessness, priorities and our practices.
I. Pride – “Humble”
A. Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.”
B. Spiritual pride is a great hindrance to spiritual growth. When the saintly James Harvey was a young curate, he frequently talked with a wise old plowman named Clayton. One day the subject under discussion was this: "What is the greatest impediment to spiritual growth and happiness?" The curate said: "Surely to renounce our sinful self." "No," said the plowman, "the greatest difficulty is to renounce our righteous self." — Sunday School Times
C. Job 35:12 “…they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.”
D. Paul W. Powell once observed: “Pride is so subtle that if we aren’t careful we’ll be proud of our humility. When this happens our goodness becomes badness. Our virtues become vices. We can easily become like the Sunday School teacher who, told the children in her class about the Pharisee and the tax-gatherer praying in the temple (Luke 18:10-14). She said that the Pharisee prayed, “God, I thank You that I’m not like other people,” while the tax-gatherer said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The teacher explained how the pious, self-righteous attitude of the Pharisee caused him to look down on the tax-gatherer. At the end of her lesson she said, “Children, let’s bow our heads and thank God we are not like the Pharisee!” – copied
E. It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. - C. S. Lewis
F. 1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world.”
G. Pride stops one from seeing themselves as God sees them. It causes one to be blind like the Laodicean church which was unaware of their deep spiritual poverty.
H. 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
II. Prayerlessness – “Pray”
A. Revival does not come to people who seek revival; but to people who seek God! - copied
B. Prayerlessness is the enemy of revival! It is the first cousin to pride. Prayerlessness says, “I do not need to call on the Lord, I can make it just fine without His aid.” Prayerlessness does not say, “He is all I need”; but “I am all I need.” Prayerlessness relies on self and the resources self can produce and refuses to lean on Jesus alone. – A. Carr
C. James 4:2 “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
D. Over one hundred years ago James Ryle said: "I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of professing Christians do not pray at all." – copied
E. Prayerlessness renders us ineffective in the things that matter most. To be "too busy to pray" is to remain spiritually asleep.
F. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing”
G. John Stafford tells about an old well that stood outside the front door of their family farm house in New Hampshire. The water from the well was remarkably pure and cold. No matter how hot the summer or how severe the drought, the well was always a source of refreshment and joy. The faithful old well was a big part of his memories of summer vacations at the farmhouse. The years passed and eventually the farmhouse was modernized. Wiring brought electric lights, and indoor plumbing brought hot and cold running water. The old well was no longer needed, so it was sealed for use in possible future emergencies. One summer day, years later, John Stafford had a desire for cold, pure water. He unsealed the well and lowered a bucket for a nostalgic taste of the delightful refreshment he remembered. He was shocked to discover that the well that once had survived the severest droughts was bone dry! He asked local residents why their well had gone dry. He learned that wells of that sort were fed by hundreds of tiny underground rivulets which seep a steady flow of water. As long as the water is drawn out of the well, new water will flow in through the rivulets, keeping them open for more to flow. But when the water stops flowing, the rivulets clog with mud and close up. The well dried up not because it was used too much, but because it wasn’t used enough! Do you see the analogy to worship and developing a daily time of prayer and devotion? The consequence of not drinking deeply of God is to eventually lose the ability to drink at all. Prayerlessness is its own punishment. – Ray Ellis, Sermon Central
H. Charles Finney said, “Prayer is the essential link in the chain of events that leads to revival!”
I. James 5:16 “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
J. The church has many organizers, but few agonizers; many who pay, but few who pray; many resters, but few wrestlers; many who are enterprising; but few who are interceding. In the matter of effective praying, never have so many left so much to so few.” – copied
K. 1 Timothy 2:1, 8 “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men ...I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
III. Priorities – “Seek”
A. Someone has said that until God controls our minds and hearts, we have no real sense of what is really important. Christ wants a loving intimacy with Him to be the center of everything in our lives. Most people are so worn out by their work that they have nothing left for Jesus. Someone once said, “Most Americans worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship.” Some who cannot bear a long worship service feel cheated if the sports match is short. Perhaps no sin is greater than a long sermon! We keep trying to fit God into our worldly schedule when He is waiting for us to be willing to fit into His Heavenly one - copied
B. Wrong Priorities are enemies of revival.
C. Haddon Robinson points out that one old recipe for rabbit started out with this injunction: “First catch the rabbit.” Says Robinson: “The writer knew how to put first things first. That’s what we do when we establish priorities—we put the things that should be in first place in their proper order. – source unknown
D. Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
E. If we get the top button of a shirt buttoned wrong, all of the other buttons will also be off. The top button in life is to love God. The second button is to love people. Do that and every other button in life will fall into place. But the moment we stop loving God, we start loving ourselves. And then we get all the buttons messed up. (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, p. 159)
F. Jeremiah 29:13 “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart”
G. Haggai 1:1-6 In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel the son of Sheal-ti-el, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, (2) "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'This people says, "The time has not come for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt." (3) Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, (4) "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?" (5) Now therefore, thus says the LORD, "Consider your ways! (6) "You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to fill you; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes." (7) Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!”
H. Just like Judah we often get swept up in the world’s way of doing things… and when we lose our focus, we lose the blessings.
• How often have you experienced times where everything just seems like a leaky bucket?
• The harder you work, the less you seem to have; you work really hard, but your rewards are tiny in comparison;
• Your salary is good, but you never seem to cover your debt… it’s just never enough;
• It seems as if you put your money into a purse that has big holes in it….
• And Just when you think you’ve got a problem covered, something else pops up that puts you back to square one. There is never any progress.
• Whatever you do, there just seems a lack of satisfaction, of fulfilment… everything you do seems to be a waste of time.
• Has this ever happened to you?
If this has ever happened to you perhaps your priorities were wrong…
Usually our problem is not the lack of time, but rather the lack of values, the lack of proper priorities. We have time for the things that are most important to us. Is your relationship with Jesus Christ right on top of your list of priorities… where it should be? – (Elijah Ministries 21 Oct 2007)
IV. Our Practice – “Turn”
A. Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”
B. Without argument there is absolutely nothing that extinguishes revival fire like worldliness.
C. I John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that [is] in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”
D. Horatius Bonar said over 200 years ago: “I looked for the Church and I found it in the world, and I looked for the world and I found it in the Church.” A worldly Church will never win the world. Keith Daniel said: “If we try to win the world by being like the world the world will win you!” A peculiar people is a powerful people! God anoints a set apart Church with the Power of His Spirit, there is no other way. - Greg Gordon
E. James 4:4 “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
F. Every worldly Christian hinders the progress of the Gospel. Every member of a church who is living in secret sin, who is tolerating in his heart anything he knows is wrong, who is not seeking eagerly his own personal sanctification, is to that extent-hindering the work of the Spirit.
G. 2 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore ‘Come out from among them And be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’”
H. 1 Kings 18:21 “And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”
Pride, Prayerlessness, Priorities, Practice – enemies to God sending revival. Do any of these four characterize your spiritual life at this time? 2 Chronicles 7:14 “"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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Disclaimer: Source material for this sermon has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources whenever possible. Please feel free to use this message as God’s Holy Spirit directs your heart.
