Text: II Chronicles 7:14
Introduction
Illustration:
1857 - Jeremiah Lamphere, 46 year - New York City. a burden for the lost - in July 1857 - passing tracts and talking but no success - Then burdened to prayer - invited anyone to pray from 12 to 1 on Wednesday - hundreds and hundreds of fliers and posters everywhere he could. Wednesday day came and at Noon nobody showed up. For 30 minutes prayed by himself – then 5 people came - next week 20 - next week between 30 and 40 people came. – then met everyday – servants of God came - "We need to start this at our churches” – 6 months - over 5000 prayer groups meeting everyday in N.Y. Soon the word spread all over the country. Prayer meetings were started in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington D.C. In fact President Franklin Pierce started going almost every day to a noonday prayer meeting. By 1859 some 15,000 cities in America were having prayer meetings everyday at noon and thousands were brought to Christ.
The great thing about this revival is that there is not a famous preacher associated with it. It was all started by one wanting to pray.
Just like the word trinity, you won’t find the word revival in the Bible. Yet in both cases we know what they mean, and the Bible describes them over and over again.
Revival can be described as a season during which God works in the hearts of men in a deeper and powerful way, as a result of which beleivers are revived, unbelievers are saved whilst others view the gospel with respect.
In short, revival is when God shows up. But God has already given the criteria for this. This is found in:
READ TEXT
2Ch 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land
It has been the heart’s cry of every true believer, like us, that the Lord would heal this country, that this country would turn to the Lord – At one point or another, we have beseeched our God that He would move through this land. Right? Yes, here in this verse, God gives us the characteristics of a revival.
I am going to share with you 3 basic characteristics of a Revival.
I. REVIVAL IS CHARACTERIZED BY BROKENNESS
“… If my people… shall humble themselves…”
Humility is emptying of ourselves at the feet of our Lord.
Brokenness comes from recognising our own weakness, that we cannot do anything unless God does it. Looking around we see people are totally lost and depraved and we also see that no matter what we do, nothing is happening… then comes the brokenness.. a sense of desperation…
“God, I can’t do anything that can make a difference, only You”
“… If my people will humble themselves…”
Humility is intentional… it is the surrendering of self to the Lord.
The modern world lays lots of emphasis on “Self” – Self confidence, Self reliance, self- sufficient, self, self, self… selfie…
Illustration:
Earlier, we used to get dressed up and go to a photo shop or studio to take a picture. I still remember the time when we took a family picture in 1979. We still have that photo. Later on, the camera became popular… we used to click away pictures of everything, whenever we go out, ask others to take photos of us when we were in a group… But now… What do we have…
“SELFIE” – The social media is filled with selfies – There are accessories that are created to take good selfies.
Infact the world has placed such importance on this that the Oxford dictionary has officially included this word recently.
But the church has to be different.
When John the Baptist said, “He must increase, I must decrease” – he meant that I, me myself, the feeling of ego that I have in me, the self in me, must decrease… and He must increase…
Galatians 2:20 says, “It is no longer I that lives, but Christ lives in me…” – I should be surrendered, the me in me should be humbled.
The brokenness that says, Lord, there is nothing that I can do, but you alone… with tears streaming down, a heart that cries in desperation for God to intervene in the history of this nation… that is humbleness…
The first characteristic of a revival is Brokenness – If my people humble themselves…
II. REVIVAL IS CHARACTERIZED BY URGENCY
D.L.Moody evagelist from Chicago, - vacation in England – invited to preach by a church – He wrote in his journal that they were the deadest crowd he had ever seen. But he had promised to go back that night and preach. He went anyway and a revival broke out. He cancelled his vacation and preached 10 nights. Hundreds accepted the Lord. What happened? – Mary Ann Adelard, 80 + year old, an almost invalid widow, heard about Moody, read his sermons in a newspaper and started to pray with a sense of urgency for revival in that church, everyday for many many months.
“…If my people… pray and seek my face…”
Continual and Never ending prayer
You don’t have revival by seeking revival but by seeking God.
Those who pray for revival are desperate, whole hearted, never ending petitioners of God. They never give up. They never quit praying.
Ezekiel 22:30 “I sought for a man to build the wall and stand in the gap that I might not destroy the city, but I found no one”
This is the heart cry of our God. He is looking for one person to stand in the gap, pray and seek His face… Are we going to be the one?
God delights in a selfless prayer – praying for people around us, people that we don’t know, the people of this nation.
The Bible talks about people standing in the gap and praying for the nation, asking God’s forgiveness for them.
Daniel 9 is the prayer of Daniel – He prays to the Lord for the forgiveness of his people. He is standing in the gap for his people.
Nehemiah 1 confesses the sins of his people…
How are our prayers? Have we at any time confessed the sins of the people of this land? Yes they are unbelievers – but that is standing in the gap.
The people we pray for will not even know that we have prayed for them, confessed for them, asked God to reveal Himself to them, But that is the selfless prayer that God desires.
His heart yearns for these people to know Him, His heart longs for the lost, His heart yearns for people to know and understand, see and comprehend the truth.
God longed for the lost people so much that He had to send His own Son to the cross just to redeem them. He didn’t want the world to pay the price. If we could only get a glimpse of His loving heart, love for the lost, love for the people of this country, then, we just can’t be still. Our prayers will be of a different level. Our activities will be of a different level.
Praying without ceasing is the revival prayer.
First Characteristic of a Revival is Brokenness
Second Characteristic of a Revival is Urgency
III. REVIVAL IS CHARACTERIZED BY HOLINESS
“…Turn from their wicked ways…”
If you will humble yourselves, that is brokenness. If you will pray and seek my face, that is urgency. And if you will turn from your wicked ways, that is holiness.
I tell you the chief thing that won’t let revival come to this country is that the church won’t confess their sins and get holy.
I am not only talking about individual holiness, but corporate holiness as well. As a church, we have failed in our mission to reach the people of this world. Most of our churches have become self centered, self suficient and self propogating – in that they propagate only their self.
We, as a larger body of Christ, need to turn from these ways, and confess to God that we have failed in this aspect of reaching people with the truth.
It is not “holier than thou” concept
As Christians we often compare ourselves with the world. We say, Oh we’re not like the world, we are saved, cleansed. But our measure of comparison is not the world, but the Word of God.
Sadly, many have forgotten about God's requirement of holiness. Instead of holding fast to His standards of attitude and behavior.
To counteract the worldly influence, keep the meaning of the cross before you. Then you'll be motivated to pursue holiness in honor of the One who gave His life to save you.
Yes, I need to say that no one is perfect. That is why the grace of God is ever present. If we fail in some instances, yes, we indeed can come to God in full confidence that we will not be turned down at all.
But that shouldn’t stop us from being pursuing holiness in our lives.
We all stray away from Him, from His will more often than we can speak about it. But no matter how far we go, we still can come back to Him. God’s love compels us and draws us closer to Him, helping us turn from our wicked ways.
God encourages us to detest sin.
Illusration: Big black sticker on the white shirt
It has been troubling your eyes for a long time. It’s the same way, that God feels when there is sin in our lives… He cannot look at sin… Turn to Him, His grace and forgiveness is always available.
True revival is characterized by Holiness…
CONCLUSION
If we want to see a true revival,
Brokenness
Urgency
Holiness
If this land the we live in has to be healed – healed from blindness to the truth, healed from demonic oppression, healed from centuries old of witchcraft, healed from the spirit of deception, then we, as a church of our Lord, throw away all the sin that entangles us, humble ourselves with a broken heart cry out to the Lord, pray and seek His face and beseech Him that He would sweep across this land even through our churches.
