I want you to personally experience a revival. I want our church family to experience a spiritual awakening. And most importantly, God Himself wants you to experience Him in all His fulness. A revival is a time when God hits the fast-forward button for you. It’s a time when you experience a personal spiritual explosion that leaves wanting more of God. It’s a time when you hunger for God and you long to speak to Him, to know Him intimately.
I invite you to find Psalm 85 with me, and I’ll be in Psalm 85 with you in a moment.
Would you give me your full attention as I tell you a story?
Go with me all the way back to just before our nation’s Civil War to a tremendous move of God in 1858. Our nation’s population jumped a third around this time to over 31 million people. For the first time, our nation’s population was greater than the United Kingdom. The Supreme Court handed down one of its worst decisions in the Dred Scott decision, where it ruled that American slaves and their descendants could not be citizens of the United States. Four million slaves' lives were hanging in the balance. Banks in Chicago and Philadelphia failed due to a stock market crash on October 10, 1857. Three days later, a bank run in New York City crippled the financial system. These were turbulent times, to say the least.
Right in the middle of all this, the North Dutch Reformed Church had a desire to reach the lower wards of New York City. Now, the church was located just a five-minute walk from Wall Street and one and a half blocks from Broadway. They did not want to move, even though members had been trickling away.1 So, the church employed a man history knows very little about, a man named Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier. This 40-year-old single businessman felt businessmen would appreciate a prayer meeting in the middle of the day.
“Going my rounds in the performance of my duty one day, as I was walking along the streets, the idea was suggested to my mind that an hour of prayer, from twelve to one o’clock, would be beneficial to business men, who usually in great numbers take that hour for rest and refreshment. The idea was to have singing, prayer, exhortation, relation of religious experience, as the case might be; that none should be required to stay the whole hour; that all should come and go as their engagements should allow or require, or their inclinations dictate.”
The placard outside read: “Prayer Meeting from 12 to 1 o’clock — Stop 5, 10, or 20 minutes, or the whole hour, as your time admits.” It was exactly 12 noon on September 23, 1857, when he entered an empty room, pulled out his pocket watch, and sat down to wait. At first, Lanphier prayed ALONE for nearly thirty minutes. It looked like no one had the time to pray. As the minutes ticked by, the young businessman wondered if had made a mistake.
Some people think that in the old days, everyone went to church in America. This is simply not the case. The city of Chicago had a mere 70 churches in the city but had 100 brothels to cater to the lusts of traveling businessmen.2
Back to New York City and Lanphier’s prayer meeting as he sat alone for thirty minutes. Finally, one joined him for prayer around 12:30, and by the end of the hour, there were six. Nothing extraordinary happened and they all went their separate ways to gather back again the following Wednesday.
But just three weeks later, over one hundred came to pray. Soon, three large rooms were filled, including men who did not know the Lord. Within six months, Lanphier’s little prayer meeting which saw only him praying for the first 30 minutes, had more than 50,000 praying in New York City. The revival spread throughout much of the nation and around the globe. Yes, around the globe.
The influences of this movement were felt everywhere in our country. This spiritual awakening not only captured the big cities but also spread through every town, village, and country hamlet. It also swamped schools and colleges, and it affected classes regardless of condition. A divine influence pervaded the country, the hearts of men were strangely warmed by a power outpoured in unusual ways.3 It was a tremendous movement of prayer.
But let me tell you one of the most fascinating parts of all this. Let me give you a slice of an account of what was happening during this great move of God.
“One of the most moving accounts out of the Prayer Revival came from the town of Kalamazoo, Michigan. At a prayer meeting there, a man in attendance related the following account: At our very first meeting someone put in such a request as this: ‘A praying wife requests the prayers of this meeting for her unconverted husband, that he may be converted and made a humble disciple of the Lord Jesus.’ All at once a stout burly man arose and said, ‘I am that man, I have a pious praying wife, and this request must be for me. I want you to pray for me.’ As soon as he sat down, in the midst of sobs and tears, another man arose and said, ‘I am that man, I have a praying wife. She prays for me. And now she asked you to pray for me. I am sure I am that man, and I want you to pray for me.’”4
Again, I want you to personally experience a revival. I want our church family to experience a spiritual awakening. And most importantly, God Himself wants you to experience Him in all His fulness.
I hope you have found Psalm 85. Psalm 85 is how we are to pray when we see spiritual decline around every corner of our lives. Again, I want you to personally experience a revival.
Today’s Scripture
“To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
Lord, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation toward us!
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way” (Psalm 85:1–13).
An awakening or a revival is a visitation of God’s presence. Revival is a time when God sends a heavenly rain. Revival is a time where God invades His people.5 Revival is a time when God hits the fast-forward button.6
Now, a revival for much of an older generation in the South was mass evangelism. I love evangelism but when I speak of revival and awakening, I am talking about a time when God becomes so real, so personal, and so intimate you think you cannot go on for another minute.
I am talking about personal spiritual renewal where God becomes more real than the Rocky Mountains and the love of even your mother, if you can imagine such a thing. Our nation has had five or six spiritual awakenings that have greatly impacted our nation’s history.
During times of great spiritual awakening, people who thought they were Christians understood how Christ is real.
Deacons, pastors, and Bible study leaders come to know the Lord in a marvelous personal way.
Yet, most of us don’t really know what a revival is so we don’t know if we want to passionately pursue this.
1. Lord, Turn Us Around
“Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob” (Psalm 85:1).
Psalm 85 begins by recalling the Lord’s favor on God’s people in days gone by. Remember that the name Jacob was Israel’s original name before the Lord changed his name. So, when the Bible says “you restored the fortunes of Jacob,” it means the Lord restored the fortunes of God’s people. Jacob’s name stands in for God’s people.
Then in verse 4, there is this request: “Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us” (Psalm 85:4)! In a time when the people of God were in turmoil, they cried out to the Lord in prayer. As long as there’s a God in heaven, there’s a possibility of revival.
1.1 The 100-Year Prayer Meeting
Now, as I said a few minutes ago, spiritual awakenings have shaped and rocked this country over and over again.
As we focus on Psalm 85:4 and developing a hunger for intimacy with God, let me tell you the story of the 100-year prayer meeting. Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf established a community of refugees, including Moravians, Reformed, and Catholics, on his estate in Germany in 1724. He had given the community the name Herrnhut, a word that means “the Lord’s watch.” Zinzendorf set up a famous round-the-clock prayer watch in which Moravians prayed for the revival of the church for one hundred years. In August 1727, the Holy Spirit took over during a communion service with this community of believers. So, they set aside a room and a place where they were going to pray for a mighty visitation of God in the world. They decided at least one person would always be in that room praying for that so the prayer meeting would never stop. It went on from 1727 into the 1820s and it’s called the 100-Year Prayer Meeting. When God’s people needed God to act, when they needed God to revive and restore His people, they cried out to God in prayer. When we find ourselves in a place of moral and spiritual decline, we need to emulate God’s people who have cried out to God. We need to pray that God would restore and revive us.
1.2 Restore Us
Back in verse one, the Psalmist remembers how good God has been in the past to God’s people: “Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob” (Psalm 85:1).
When he remembered how good things were in past days, he began to ask the Lord to restore God’s people. Psalm 85 is a plea for God to restore and revive His people in the midst of a bleak situation. We have lost the specific situation that called for this psalm. It’s likely that this was written after God restored His people back to the land of Israel after Babylon conquered them. But no matter the specifics, behind the psalm is a plea for God to do what only He could do.
They cry out to God continually to turn away His fierce anger: “Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us” (Psalm 85:4)! This plea is specifically for God to turn the situation around.
Let me show you how Psalm 85 instructs us to pray for God to turn us.
1.3 Overview of Psalm 85
In verses 1–3, God has in the past turned the fortunes of His people and has Himself turned away from His fierce anger. In the pleading of verses 4–7, He is asked to turn Israel again, and to turn to revive us. In the listening of verses 8–9, His promises of peace are heard, provided God’s people do not turn again to foolish ways. And lastly, in verses 10–13, there is a vision of a new age in which no more turning back to God will be needed.
All through Psalm 85, we are called to pray for God to turn us. Do you feel this is urgent for our day?
One of you told me about your crippling depression just this week. Your marriage is struggling, and your children are adrift.
Isn’t it time you turn back to God and pursue Him with an intensity that is more than Netflix binging? Another of you is grappling with a custody battle where you are fighting for your son and daughter. Isn’t it time that you show a spiritual urgency? You don’t just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to start a 100-year prayer meeting.” No, you have to feel a sense of urgency, a desperation to launch into something like a 100-year prayer meeting.
Prayer
“Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us” (Psalm 85:4)!
As long as there’s a God in heaven, there’s a possibility of revival. God has sent revival before in dark times, and God can send revival in these dark and desperate days in which we live.
1. Lord, Turn Us Around
2. Lord, Don’t Turn Us Away
“Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us” (Psalm 85:4)!
2.1 God, Our Biggest Threat
With laser focus, the psalmist mentions God’s indignation toward His people. Not only is God our hope, but God is also our biggest threat. The psalmist knows that God’s wrath or His indignation is the greatest threat to a turnaround.
2.2 Prayer in Desperate Times
Psalm 85 asks for the Lord to “put away your indignation toward us.” Why would God be angry with us? Do we sense the Lord is turning away from us? In times of desperation, personal revival happens when we are serious about prayer.
Do you recall Acts 4? It was the first time the Apostolic church had come up against any kind of resistance. Peter and John had been jailed and that’s where the text actually takes up. They had a prayer meeting and verse 29 tells us the way they concluded the meeting.
“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:29-33).
I didn’t read the entire passage, but it would reveal to us a church in crisis. You might say that the pastor and his associate had been jailed. Before they were released, they were warned in no uncertain terms that there would be dire consequences if they kept on preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus.
I find their response to be very intriguing. The Bible says that they circulated a petition, they got 10,000 names on it, and they sent it to Caesar in Rome, protesting this infringement on their religious liberties. Don’t look at me like you believe that. Doesn’t even say anything about them putting protest stickers on the bumpers of their chariots. Rather, the Bible says they lifted their voice to God in prayer. They knew that prayer linked our impotence with God’s omnipotence. They were aware of the fact that prayer links our finiteness with the plans and purposes of infinite God. They saw that prayer attaches our human weakness to God’s sovereign power. This church was on the verge of seeing afresh what happens when people really pray. But I wonder, are we desperate to pray like this?
2.3 Property Taxes
If you want to get a conversation going among Texans, ask them about property taxes. We complain that we are spending $5,0000 per year, $8,000 per year, or $10,000 a year for taxes on our home. And our state House of Representatives and the Texas Senate knows this. Texans have complained that the taxes are so high that we are “renting” our homes from the state on top of paying our mortgages. I bet I have struck a nerve with some of you by just mentioning this. Now, let me ask you a serious question: is lowering our property taxes a more urgent priority than raising our spiritual and moral climate?
Is spiritual renewal and awakening an urgent need for you and me? Are we more concerned with our pocketbooks than our family’s faith? A professor shared with me that many Christian parents have more focus on everyday matters than on spiritual matters just when their young adult children have this hunger for God. We desperately need a visitation of God in our day. Are you more urgent about economic matters or spiritual matters? Psalm 85 asks for the Lord to “put away your indignation toward us.”
2.4 The Frog in the Kettle
Many of us have heard the story about putting a frog in a boiling kettle. The story goes like this. You put a frog into a pot of boiling water, and it jumps right out. But if you put it in a pot of nice, comfortable water and then turn on the heat, the frog will complacently let himself be boiled. And you hear this story about everything from climate change to the erosion of liberties. The truth is this: when a frog is placed in a tepid pool of water, and then you slowly turn up the heat, the frog scrambles as soon as the water is uncomfortably warm. But what is a myth about frogs is, unfortunately, true about us Christians. We are the frog in the midst of a boiling kettle. Many of us are quite happy to sit in a boiling antichrist culture with little to no pleading for God to restore His people.
I detect a real lack of urgency from our church family. We need to be on the edge of our seats and on the end of our knees calling out to God to turn us, to restore us. We need to turn up the thermostat on our desperation for God to turn around our society.
2.5 The Knowledge Doubling Curve
Back in the 1980s, Buckminster Fuller created what is known as the “Knowledge Doubling Curve.” Fuller was an author, architect, systems theorist, inventor, designer, and futurist, and again, he presented the idea of the “Knowledge Doubling Curve.” Fuller observed that until 1900, human knowledge doubled every century. By the end of World War II the world´s combined knowledge was doubling every 25 years. IBM later published a report that by 2010, the world´s knowledge would be doubling every 11 hours. 7 Knowledge is growing faster than we can absorb. In some fields, what we learned 5 years ago is now obsolete. Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Quantum Computing, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality. 8 Do you really feel like Christianity doubling or our moral convictions doubling like we have doubled in technology?
2.5.1 Denominations in the USA
In 2022, 7 of the major denominations in America lost a total of 1.27 million members with the Southern Baptist Convention leading the way with the loss of over 450,000 members in one year.9 Yes, nondenominational churches are multiplying in this same time frame. Studies show that nondenominational church attendance grew by 6.5 million between 2010 AND 2020. 0 Yes, most of the top 100 largest churches in the United States are now nondenominational.
2.5.2 Living Together
According to the people at Pew Research Center, the number of unmarried people living together continues to be on the rise. In fact, for people between the ages of 18-44, the share of adults ages 18 to 44 who have ever lived with an unmarried partner (59%) has surpassed the share who has ever been married (50%). Most couples live together before getting married.
2.5.3 Relationship Sequence
In the past and this is true, especially for women, the relationship sequence that most ladies aimed to follow went like this: dating then marriage, which led to sex, then living together, and then children. Today, marriage comes near the end of the line. This relationship sequence is now sex, cohabitation, and sometimes children all of which precede marriage and this has become the norm in our society. Many young adults have developed a perception that marriage is miserable and kills their freedom.
2.5.4 Our Children
Did you know: 44% of children are raised by a single parent within 1 mile of our church. 1 40% of new mothers are unmarried. 2 Note this: half of all these unmarried couples are split up by the time their child is just 5 years old. We are living in broken times where everyone is doing what is right in their eyes.
Will you earnestly pray in these days? Will you faithfully pray in this day?
2.6 Complacency
Many find orthodox Christians are happy they know Jesus Christ and are on their way to heaven. But you have made little move toward God and prayer with any urgency. Do I really have to tell you how complacent you have become in your relationship with Jesus Christ? Isn’t it time that you show a spiritual urgency? Again, I want you to personally experience a revival. I want our church family to experience a spiritual awakening. And most importantly, God Himself wants you to experience Him in all His fulness.
1. Lord, Turn Us Around
2. Lord, Don’t Turn US Away
3. Lord, We Turn to You
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you” (Psalm 85:6)?
Psalm 85 ends with a powerful theme of hope. When we are on our knees in prayer, we unleash the most powerful force on earth – Almighty God.
3.1 I Believe in Prayer
I believe in the power of prayer because I believe in the power of God.
God can move mountains. And prayer moves God.
When we pray, difficult situations change.
And unexplained miracles occur.
Prayer opened the Red Sea and brought water from the rock.
Prayer called bread down from Heaven and made the sun stand still.
Prayer brought fire from the sky on Elijah’s sacrifice and prayer overthrew Sennacherib’s army.
Prayer has healed the sick and prayer has worked to save men’s souls. 3
Again, I believe in the power of prayer because I believe in the power of God.
3.2 Breakaway Ministries at Texas A&M
In 1989, Greg Matte was a sophomore down at Texas A&M. His roommates and he started a small Bible study named Breakaway in his apartment. By the power of prayer, Greg Matte says, Breakaway exploded, reaching more than 4,000 students each week. All these years later, it is still going strong today with even more students and is impacting college students' lives greatly. God is at work, and He is on the move. I want you to experience revival, and the beginning of this is to cry out consistently to God in prayer.
3.3 Hope in Prayer
Here is the prayer of Psalm 85 again, “Will you not revive us again?”
I began this message by telling you about the mighty move of God around the time of the Civil War. How the Lord moved and called so many to pray. The experience was so great that a Scottish medical doctor wrote these words as a result of the spiritual awakening of this time:
We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love,
For Jesus who died and is now gone above.
We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of light,
Who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.
Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above 4
You and I are to be people of tremendous hope. God has sent revival before in dark times, and God can send revival in these dark and desperate days in which we live. And as long as there’s a God in heaven, there’s a possibility of revival! God longs to send you a personal revival.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).
Jesus says He is with us every step of the way and will never depart from us or desert us, even for a minute.
I remind you that your Bible says, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
You can overcome your spiritual complacency. God wants to overcome your spiritual inertia.
3.4 Do You Want It?
My basketball coaches would ask our high school team, “Who wants it?” Again, I want you to personally experience a revival. Here is a fork in the road kind of question: Do you want to experience an awakening?
EndNotes
1 Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 80.
2 Ibid., 88-89.
3 J. Edwin Orr, The Event of the Century: The 1857–1858 Awakening, ed. Richard Owen Roberts (Wheaton, Ill.: International Awakening Press, 1989), 77.
4 Talbot W. Chambers, The Noon Prayer Meeting of the North Dutch Reformed Church (New York: Board of Publications of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 1858), 196-197; as quoted in Alvin L. Reid and Malcolm McDow, Firefall 2.0: How God Has Shaped History Through Revivals (Gospel Advance Books Book 4), 236.
5 Malcolm McDow and Alvin L. Reid, Firefall: How God Has Shaped History Through Revivals (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1997), 7.
6 Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2000), 9.
7 https://ia601003.us.archive.org/2/items/TheToxicTerabyte/The%20Toxic%20Terabyte.pdf; accessed September 29, 2021.
8 I am grateful to Tim Melton’s introduction for my introduction: https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/147142/grace-undeserved-1/; accessed September 29, 2021.
9 https://twitter.com/ryanburge/status/1673684122089267200; accessed June 28, 2023.
10 https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/august/nondenominational-growth-mainline-protestant-decline-survey.html; accessed June 28, 2023.
11 Source is a demographic study fromSources: US Census Bureau, Synergos Technologies Inc., Experian, DecisionInsite/MissionInsite.
12 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/beyond-marriage.html; accessed June 5, 2017.
13 These are adaptations from J. C Ryle, Dick Eastman, The Hour that Changes the World: A Practical plan for Personal Prayer (Grand Rapids: Chosen, 2002), 24.
14 Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1990), 306.
