Title: A HEART FOR REVIVAL
TEXT: 2 Kings 22:8-10
Prayer
Throughout history revival has been THE means by which God sovereignly demonstrated His willingness to renew our hearts
And cleanse his church
Consider for a moment some historical reports.
They demonstrate what God is willing and able to do in His church through revival.
1. On New Year’s Eve 1739, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and some of their friends held a watch night of prayer. At about 3 a.m., Wesley wrote, "the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground."
2. In the spring of 1904 a young Welshman named Evan Roberts was repeatedly awakened to pray from 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. By November that year a powerful spiritual awakening was spreading through Wales that became known as the Welsh revival.
3. The Welsh revival really exploded through a single testimony of a young new believer named Florrie Evans. When her pastor asked for testimonies Florrie arose and with a trembling voice said, "I love Jesus with all my heart." God used this to melt the hearts of many others.
4. "To read the newspapers in 1906, one might have wondered about all the excitement in an old building on Azusa Street in the industrial part of the city. According to the Los Angeles Times, a bizarre new religious sect had started with people “breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand.” Furthermore, “Devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories, and work themselves into a state of mad excitement.” "William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival" by Gary B. McGee.
Revival had broken out at the Azusa street mission in California and it affected the entire U.S.
(You can add all kinds of historical data in this section)
5. Revival fires burned hot in Kentucky. In fact one Kentucky pastor reportedly died of overwork after receiving 1,000 new members in just two months.
6. In 1995 Revival broke out upon a church in Pensacola Florida, and more than 100,000 people have been saved
7. In Wyckoff New Jersey, on New Years eve 1995 the pastor prayed “Lord visit our church and I won’t get in your way”. In March 1996 the Spirit accepted the invitation. The 600-person congregation was turned upside down as revival struck. According to the pastor. “There is a passion to know the face of Christ” “This is a readying of the bride, and the church is now getting ready to view the
8. In Marysville Washington – The power of the Holy Spirit fell over the whole church on Labor Day weekend 1996. The first two weeks of revival drew 3200 people. During the Sunday evening service people ran to the altars; men, women, and children fell everywhere under the power of God.
1. WHAT IS A REVIVAL?
The following are some insights from the great revivalists of 18th, 19th and 20th centuries
1. Revival is the visitation of God that brings to life Christians who have been sleeping
2. Revival is an in rush of the spirit
3. Revival is times of refreshing
4. Revival is the when the dry and thirsty receive a drenching from the Lord.
There are similar perspectives on what revival is, but there are differing views about why revival comes.
2. WHY DOES REVIVAL COME?
(1) The first biblical reason is to save nations from judgement,
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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
(2) The Second reason is to awaken the church
• Awakened because they have walked away from God
• Awakened because they are in disunity
• Awakened Because they are in need of rebuilding
• Refreshing
• renewal
3. REVIVAL IS BIBLICAL.
• *The Bible records high points of revival among the people of God throughout both the old and the New Testaments.
Under Joshua. Joshua 5:2-9 Joshua 5:2
Under Mosos. Exodus 32-33
Under David 2 Sam. 6
Under Samuel. 1 Samuel 7:1-6
Under Elijah. 1 Kings 18:17-40
Under Jehoshephat 2 Chronicles 20
Under Jehoash and Jehoiada. 2 Kings 11:1-12:21; 2 Chron. 23:1-24:27
Under Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:1-7; 2 Chron. 29:1-31:21
Under Josiah. 2 Kings 22:1-23:37; 2 Chron. 34:1-35:27
Under Asa. 2 Chron. 14:2-5; 2 Chron. 15:1-14
Under Manasseh. 2 Chron. 33:12-19
In Nineveh. Jonah 3:4-10
• And At pentecost,. Acts 2:1-42;
and throughout the book of acts
• The impression these revivals made upon the participants turned their prayers toward regular petitions like,
Psalm 85:6
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Habakkuk 3:2
Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
They had experienced God’s presence
And wanted it again
THEY HAD A HEART FOR REVIVAL…
a woman once asked revivalist Billy Sunday, “why bother seeking for revival…Revival s come and then they GO but they don’t last.?
His reply, “well, why do you take baths”
They come and they go, and they don’t last…………….
We need revival because we need to be clean
We need revival in Parker because the church needs to be prepared
We need revival in our church because God wants the church to wake up!
I declare to you this morning that we can have revival if we have a heart for revival.
TEXT: 2 Kings 22:8-10
Tells us the story of young King Josiah
The king had come to the throne of Judah at age 8.
At 16 he began to seek the Lord
and then one day when Josiah was 20 yrs. old
I. The word of God was recovered (2 Kings 22:8-10)
In the process of repairing the temple, Hilkiah the priest had discovered a copy of the Book of the Law—that Book which God had given Israel through Moses, and which had been lost during the rule of a series of evil kings. When Shaphan, the scribe, read the book, he hurried to Josiah (2 Kings 22:10).
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. [9] Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: "Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple." [10] Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
Deut. 30:15-16
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; [16] In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
1. When the word of God was read Josiah’s Eyes were opened.
It contained not only the history of the nation’s call by God, but also gave explicit instructions on how to live.
And at the end of the lost Book, in the section we call Deuteronomy was a list of curses that God would call down on Israel if His people forsook Him and His Law.
• The king was TERROR STRICKEN.
No one living could remember a day when Judah had known and obeyed the commands found in this Book!
Immediately Josiah humbled himself before God and prayed for mercy.
The king had suddenly gained a new understanding of who this God whom he had been attempting to serve really was.
• Remember he had been serving the Lord for 4 years, from age 16-20
He realized that he had not been as completely faithful to God as he ought to have been.
• He had a new vision of God
Josiah had been serving the Lord to the best of his ability, but when confronted by the word of God he realized he was lacking.
He may have read these words
Deut. 28:15-20
if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
[16] You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
[17] Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
[18] The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
[19] You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
[20] The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.
2. The Truth Had caused him to be stricken
2 Kings 22:11
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
It’s like saying MY God Forgive ME!
And when the King, saw the truth the seeds were planted for revival to break forth.
• The same thing can happen here…
• When we see the truth
• Of who God is
• And who we are
• Revival can break forth.
Consider this story
Anthony Campolo Tells ---of a Junior High youth camp, Where a boy with spastic paralysis, was the object of heartless ridicule. When he would ask a question, the other boys would deliberately answer in a halting, mimicking way. One night his cabin group chose him to lead the devotions before the entire camp. It was one more effort to have some "fun" at his expense. Unashamedly the spastic boy stood up, and in his strained, slurred manner -- each word coming with enormous effort -- he said simple, "Jesus loves me -- and I love Jesus!" That was all. Conviction fell upon those junior-highers. Many began to cry. Revival gripped the camp. Years afterward, Campolo still meets men in the ministry who came to Christ because of that testimony.
When the conviction of the Holy Spirit Comes He is ready to change hearts forever.
And Josiah was ready to do whatever it would take to please God.
-He had had a heart attack
His heart was broken
So that God could work through him
And bring revival to his people
His first step is seen in
A. (2 Kings 22:13-20)
This passage Tells us that Josiah sought Guidance from The Holy Spirit
Vs 13 "Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us."
[14] Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.
[15] She said to them, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, [16] ’This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. [17] Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ [18] Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ’This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: [19] Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. [20] Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’ "
So they took her answer back to the king.
And Josiah acted immediately demonstrating the he had the kind of heart that is necessary for revival to come.
1. 2 Kings 23:3 - REPENTED renewing the covenant
2. 2 Kings 23:12 – sought RIGHTEOUSNESS tearing down the alters
3. 2 Kings 23:21 – RENEWED relationship with God by reinstating the Passover.
II. We can learn a lot from his great character.
Josiah had a committed heart (2 Kings 23:25)
Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did--with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
A. Josiah had a holy heart (2Kings 22:2)
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
B. Josiah had a repentant heart (2 Kings 22:11)
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
C. Josiah had a tender heart (2 Kings 22:19)
Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.
He wanted the dry and thirsty receive a drenching from the Lord
He wanted
He wanted a visitation of God that bring life to all those who had been sleeping.
He wanted to see a restoration of a deep sense of God’s near presence and holiness.
He wanted to please the Lord and avoid the Judgment of God upon his nation.
He wanted a new beginning
He wanted what God wanted for his people
And he got it
Because his heart was responsive to the word of God
And responsive to the Holy Spirit
How is your heart this morning?
Do you desire revival?
Are you thirsty
Do you want more than anything to please the Lord?
Are you willing to sacrifice? Like Josiah
And seek the Holy Spirits guidance
(2 Kings 22:19)
Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken
because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.
