A woman told of their family moving into a new house in town after years of living on a farm. Early the next morning, their 3 year old boy ran into the bedroom to wake them. “I dressed him and told him to play in the yard and to quit bothering us.” About 20 minutes later, he came running back. “Mommy, Mommy! Everybody has doorbells and they all work!”
Starting April 1st (NO FOOLING) we’ll be having our 1st Revival Meeting in nearly 30 years. When the Elders started talking about this (several months ago) I decided to ask several Revival speakers what to do to make this Revival successful.
One of those Revivalists (named Harvey Hacker) said this: “What you need to do is… pray, pray, and pray some more.”
Now frankly, I was looking for something a little more nuts and bolts. I thought to myself – prayer’s good, but there’s got to be more to doing a good Revival than that. And then I got to thinking… wait a minute! There’s more we CAN do. But unless we START with prayer and bathe the Revival in prayer, we’re gonna just be spinning our wheels.
You see, if we’re going to have a great Revival/powerful Revival, we’ve got to invite God to take part we’ve got to ring HIS doorbell - and ring His doorbell – morning/noon and night. We need to… pray, pray and pray some more.
Psalm 127:1 says “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
Unless the Lord is in this revival, all our efforts will be in vain. So we need to pray, and we need to pray seriously for this! But… what is it exactly that we should be praying for?
I had a wise old preacher once tell me that when you pray, you need to be specific. You need to tell God exactly what you want His help with. If you are not specific in your prayers, how will you know if God has answered the prayer or not?
ILLUS: Our family minister, Scott, shared the story about Hannah’s birth with me this week. He said: “Terri realized she was pregnant about a week after we had heard from 2 other couples we had known in college that they had miscarried. This made Terri nervous, so she began to pray, "God, help us to know that our baby is going to be healthy and strong and go full term." The next week, her morning sickness became all day sickness and she had to go to the hospital for dehydration. The doctor came in, checked over her vitals, and said, "You know, women who struggle like this in pregnancy tend to have babies who are healthy and strong and go full term." The nurse came in to change the IV and said, "You know, women who go through this tend to have babies who are healthy and strong and go full term." Two or three others came in with the exact same message. At that point, we laughed because we recognized that God had answered our prayers. Since then, we've encouraged people to be specific about what they're praying because God just might give you exactly what you asked for.”
So we need to pray… and we need to pray specifically.
And that brings us back to the question – what should we be praying for? What do we want God to accomplish for us with this Revival?
Now churches have held Revivals for a number of reasons. Some churches have Revivals… because they’ve always had Revivals. They don’t have any specific goals, they just like the IDEA of revivals. And so even if they have a small crowd, they feel good about the fact that they’ve done a REVIVAL because they’ve done their duty for the year. BUT WE’RE NOT GOING TO DO THAT!
Other churches have Revivals because want other churches to come & visit. They’ll have a role-call of how many people came from what churches. The more churches that show up, the better they feel, because that’s what they were aiming for.
ILLUS: Now we’ll probably have several area churches show up for our Revival. Aaron Davis is a popular and powerful preacher… and I’m suspecting we may have as many as 50 to 100 people come - he’s that well liked. BUT THAT’S NOT THE REASON WE’RE HAVING THE REVIVAL.
A third reason churches have Revivals is because… they’re struggling. They’ve been damaged or hurt in some way and they need to heal and be rejuvenated in their faith. That kind of church needs to be revived, and so they need a preacher to come and encourage them.
ILLUS John Rigle (a Revivalist and one of our former preachers here) told of doing that kind of doing a Revival for a church down south. He spent a whole week preaching to them, and they got excited about Jesus that - when John had finished, they asked him to stay ANOTHER week, and about the kind of Revival we’re going to do here.
But that brings us BACK to the reason why WE’RE having THIS Revival. We’re not checking a box to say we’re having a Revival; We’re not just having a time for other churches to come & take part - although they will; And we’re NOT really in need of healing or renewal… this is a great church.
This Revival will be all about reaching people in our community. That’s why we’re going to advertise.
We’re going to advertise in the Newspaper/ AND on radio; We’ve bought ad time on FACEBOOK for the next three weeks (we’ll reach between 200 and 350 people every day; We’ve signed up on Google to have our church advertised through them; We’re going to do a radio interview on “Talk Of The Town” (a local talk show);; I’m going to have FLYERS you can pass out to people - I’m going to take to the families we bring to JAM) and pass them out at the free lunch (about a week before the Revival); And we’re going to have YARD SIGNS!
ILLUS: When I attended Bible College up in Lansing, MI, some friends and I decided to drive to the other side of town to get a bite to eat. As we were traveling down the road we saw a yard sign advertising a Revival (it had an arrow pointing the way). Someone said “Hey, let’s go to a Revival!” and so we did. We went to a church building we’d never attended and hear a preacher we’d never heard before, just for the fun of it… because there was a sign just like the ones we’ll put up!
In addition, we’re going to have a FRIEND DAY on the Sunday before the Revival so you can invite people here… and get them to know us We’re showing videos of Aaron Davis every Sunday nite so you can get to know this man; And we’re setting up at least 5 BIBLE STUDIES starting this week with the goal inviting friends to the studies and THEN to the Revival.
So, that’s some of the stuff we’re going to do to prepare for this Revival. But, if we don’t pray, it’ll all be in vain. If we don’t ring God’s doorbell - if we don’t invite God to the revival - if we don’t PRAY for Him to take charge of this Revival - all our efforts will be in vain!
So… we need to pray. But what should we pray for? You may want to write this stuff down:
1st – pray for our evangelist. Aaron Davis is good… but he’s not nearly as good as the Apostle Paul. And Paul begged the church at Colossae to pray for him: “Pray also for us, that God may open unto us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ...” Colossians 4:3
Paul talks about this a lot. I mean, Paul was a good preacher… but he repeatedly talked about how much he depended upon God to make his message WORK. In I Corinthians 16:8-9 he wrote “I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has been opened to me”; and in II Corinthians 2:12 we read: “When I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ (I) found that the Lord had opened a door for me”; and then in Ephesians 6:19 he see: “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.”
Paul, one of the greatest preachers who ever preached, KNEW how much he depended upon God for the success of his ministry. So we need to pray for Aaron Davis. Pray that God opens a door for him here at Logansport; and Pray that God gives him words so he can fearlessly preach the message of the Gospel;
SO, WE’RE GOING TO PRAY FOR AARON… RIGHT NOW! (I asked one of the men in the church to pray).
2ndly – we need to pray for workers. Jesus said: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Luke 10:2
Now, I have to admit, I’ve always been a little confused about this. I’ve always wondered why Jesus didn’t say “HEY! YOU GUYS! Get up out of your seats and get into the fields and get to work!” I mean, that’s what a lot of preachers today would do. There’s a lot of preachers who will harangue their congregations because too many people aren’t doing anything. Not inviting people to church; not sharing their love for Jesus.
But… Jesus doesn’t do that here. He doesn’t harass His audience. Why not? Well I think He didn’t do that because he’s talking to 70 of His disciples that He’s sending out NOW! He has handpicked them because they’re ready NOW to witness about Jesus. … But, there are others who weren’t quite ready yet.
So Jesus says --- PRAY FOR THEM! PRAY FOR THE ONES WHO AREN’T READY YET!
If someone loves Jesus, sooner or later they’ll witness about Him… when they’re ready. But the ones who are ready NOW shouldn’t look down on those who aren’t. The ones who are ready should pray for those who aren’t ready so that those potential workers will get ready and will help with the harvest.
So what I want to do now is have another of our men come up and PRAY for those who aren’t ready yet, that God will get them READY to invite their friends and neighbors to this Revival.
LASTLY, we need to pray for those who NEED to be at this Revival. In your bulletin you’ll find a “wanted poster” with 10 places to write down the names of your “Ten Most Wanted” who you will commit to praying for that they should want to come to the Revival. Now, you can invite them… but FIRST you need to pray for them to be prepared to come.
Did you realize that God is already working behind the scenes to make this Revival a success? Some of the people you’ll talk to over the next 3 weeks may have already been primed by God for this revival. Jesus said that when the Spirit comes “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: John 16:8
You don’t have to worry about convicting people, or guilting them, or harassing them to come. If you pray FIRST for them, the Spirit will do His work in their hearts… and by the time you talk to them, they’ll be ready to come, because they’ll already KNOW they need Jesus. In Acts 16:14 the writer of Acts tells us “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”
ILLUS: A member of the church told me he’d already been inviting people on his staff to the Revival… and one of the girls said “A Revival! My mom and I have always wanted to go to a Revival, but no one seems to do them anymore. We’re coming!”
Right now, we’re going to have a 3rd member of our congregation pray that God will convict people of their need for Jesus and of the need to come to this Revival!
CLOSE: In 1997, there were 2 funeral homes in a certain city and one of them bought the other when it’s owner died. One of the two morticians in the funeral home that had been bought was a man named Eric. Eric had come from an abusive, dysfunctional family and had been an alcoholic since he was a teenager. He’d lived on the top floor of the funeral home and had been there for 18 years. He was 6’3” and weighed about 240 lbs., an ex-professional baseball player… and a very worldly man. He was a womanizer who was loud, obnoxious and arrogant.
At the 1st funeral home was a young man named Chris and he wasn’t anything like Eric. He was a Christian. When Eric noticed the difference in Chris’ life, Chris told him he was a Christian. Eric stopped and looked hard at Christ: “That’s fine for you, but don’t go preaching any of that Christian [expletive deleted] to me.”
Chris said “That day, I decided to put him on my prayer list. I thought OK God, let’s see what you can do!”
As time went by, Eric had real battles with his alcoholism. It finally got to the point where he went into a clinic to get cleaned up. His job was on the line and he knew he had to do something. He was gone for a month. When he returned he apologized to everyone, and proclaimed he was ready to work and stay away from the alcohol.
The program told him he needed a spiritual focus to help him combat his alcoholism. Chris tried to tell him at that time what a relationship with Christ was and how God could change his life. But Eric still didn’t want any part of it and quickly shut Chris down claiming that the spiritual focus could be anything or anyone. “Besides,” he said, “I’ve done way too many rotten things for Jesus to love me.”
Eric stayed clean for a year. Then he had a relapse. Eric told Chris that he had started drinking again & was not sure what to do. Again, Chris told him where he could start. But once again, Eric ended the conversation, not wanting to hear about Jesus.
In May 2001, Chris prayed faithfully every day for some of his friends and family members to be saved - and Eric was one of the persons on his list. Chris prayed for Eric faithfully, not missing a single day, for 8 weeks.
But while the praying did not change Eric much… it did change Chris. He became more sensitive to opportunities to witness to Eric, and because Eric was specifically on his mind… Chris was on a mission!
On the 8th week, Chris went in to work like normal and was met at the door by his boss, a non-believer. “Chris, you need to get over to Eric’s, he is at home not doing good. I think he needs God and I figured you are the one to go visit him.”
Chris went to the funeral home, where Eric lived, and knocked on the door. He heard a very feeble, “the door is open.” Eric was still in his pajamas and looked very depressed. He would not look at Chris. Instead, he just stared straight ahead.
“What’s going on?” Chris asked. “I don’t know,” Eric said, “my life is a mess and I don’t know what to do.” “How can I help?” Chris asked. Eric responded, “For the past 4 years I have watched you and your family and I’ve noticed that you have a peace and joy that I have never had.” Then he said, “I want that.” “The answer is simple,” Chris said, “You need Jesus.” Finally, Eric said, “Tell me about Jesus.”
For the next hour he sat and listened, with no sarcasm, jokes, or teasing, and when Chris finished giving the plan of Salvation Eric said, “I want Jesus in my life!”
Today, Eric is a different person. The crudeness is mostly gone, and his language is cleaner. He has read through the entire NT and has been faithful at church. After Chris baptized him, Eric whispered in his ear 2 simple words-- “thank you.” (Transformations, p. 64-66)
INVITATION
