To Revive or not to Revive?
Exodus 32:19
In 1857 there was a 46 year old man named Jeremiah Lamphere who lived in New York City. Jeremiah loved the Lord tremendously, but he didn’t feel that he could do much for the Lord until he began to feel a burden for the lost and accepted an invitation from his church to be an inner city missionary. So in July of 1857 he started walking up and down the streets of New York passing out tracts and talking to people about Jesus, but he wasn’t having any success. Then God put it on his heart to try prayer. So he printed up a bunch of tracts, and he passed them out to anyone and everyone met. He invited anyone who wanted to to come to the 3rd floor of the Old North Dutch Reform Church on Fulton St. in New York City from 12 to 1 on Wednesday to pray. He passed out hundreds and hundreds of fliers and put up posters everywhere he could. Wednesday day came and at Noon nobody showed up. So Jeremiah got on his knees and started praying. For two weeks, he prayed, and no one came. The third week, he began to pray. For 30 minutes he prayed by himself when finally five other people walked in. The next week 20 people came. The next week between 30 and 40 people came. They then decided to meet every day from 12:00 to 1:00 to pray for the city. Before long a few ministers started coming and they said, "We need to start this at our churches". Within six months there were 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 downtown 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 man who began to pray.
What is revival?
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 and a time of refreshing
3. Revival is the when the dry and thirsty receive a drenching from the Lord.
4. It is when one believer gets right with God and allows the Spirit of God to fill His/Her life without waivering.
5. When each believer begins to realize their sin and turn to God.
6. I believe that we truly need a revival in our lives today.
a. A soul searching, heart wrenching, old fashioned, heaven sent, Holy revival.
Who needs revival?
Do we as a church need revival?
The old song says, "Revive Us Again. Fill ’each’ heart with Thy love. May ’each soul’ be rekindled with fire from above!"
We always need to draw closer to God on a daily basis.
Yes. We need to be revived.
But I’m so busy!!! We should NEVER be too busy to be revived for Christ.
a. Revival meetings help us to focus in on God and challenges us serve Him.
b. You might say, “I’ve got enough challenge in my life already”
c. But are you challenged in the right areas of your life? Do your challenges have Eternal value?
• I believe that there are people who are good at not doing the wrong things – so they think they are good people.
• But true revival is people not just staying away from the wrong things, it is being bold enough and close enough to the Lord with the courage to do the right things.
It’s time to pray that the fires of revival might spread to each of us. May we be drawn closer to the Lord.
Let’s look today at a story in the Bible that shows the People of God in a place that they needed revival,
Let’s look at their actions.
Background on the text:
• In our passage, we see Israel (the people of God) waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain with the word from the Lord. It had been 40 days of waiting.......
• As they waited they became pretty discontented with their situation.
• They wanted Aaron to give them a god to follow, since Moses is no where in sight. (Vs 1)
• So Aaron built a calf out of gold and they began to worship something other than God.......
• So Moses comes down from the mountain to see the results of the sin of the people
Read Text: Ex. 32:19-33
Key Verse: Exod. 32:26 (KJS) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who [is] on the LORD’S side? [let him come] unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
1. These people had sinned a great sin.
2. In Fact: The very sin they committed was the VERY FIRST commandment given to Moses on Mt. Sinai– “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”
3. They had put a golden calf in the place of God!!
4. Interesting Fact: Exodus 20:18-19,
a. They were in AWE of God’s power.
b. Ex 20:23 God had just told them not to worship any gods of silver or gold, yet they didn’t listen.
c. They weren’t in Awe of God any more.
d. What about you? Remember when you were saved? You were in awe of God.
i. What about This church? This community?
I. There Was A Need for Revival.
a. When Moses came off of the mountain do you think he saw a need for revival.
b. How do I know the church needs revival? How do I know that I need a revival?
I know I need revival when:
I become discontented with the way things are going. (shows that I have stopped looking to God) – (I’m not listening any more)
I start looking to other gods and I push God aside.
I’m too busy doing my work or playing with my toys and I don’t have time to get together with God.
I begin to make excuses for my Sin.
I begin to make decisions or do things that hurt or hinder the spiritual life and relationship of other people
I begin to have a disregard for the relationship that I have with the God
I need revival when I realize that my salvation no longer blesses me because my heart has gradually become hardened to the things of God.
Young boy loved to fish so one afternoon he went fishing. He began looking for worms but couldn’t find worms. Finally turned over a log and found several slithering around. He put them in his one gallon coffee can and started off to his favorite fishing hole. As he began baiting his hook, something pricked his fingers. He bagan catching fish - big fish! He would rebait his hook but still would feel a pricking on his fingers. He continued to catch fish until he caught his limit of big fish. He left and along the way home, he showed a policeman how many fish he had caught. By the time he got to the policeman, his arm was swollen up. The officer noticed there was something wrong. He rushed him to the hospital but the young boy died on the way there. Why? Why would you die from catching fish? He had been bitten by baby copperheads that he had mistaken for worms. Sin catches us with us one small bite at a time until we are so deep into it we don’t notice any more. The fish looked good. Our sin looks good for a while. Eventually, it will kill us.
SONG: I WAS SINKING DEEP IN SIN…Far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more.
But the master of the sea, heard my disparing cry
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.
That’s revival. When God lifts us out of the mire and sin of our lives and places us in His arms again.
Why do we need revival today? Because we had a need. We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
WE NEED TO BE REVIVED!!!!
II. There Was A Decision for Revival. V. 26 "Who is on the Lord’s Side?"
a. There needs to be a time in your life when you purposefully make a decision (commitment) for God.
b. There needs to be a decision to draw close to the Lord.
God will never force Himself on you.
c. This is a decision that we make daily for the Lord.
i. Question: Will we take time today for the Lord?
Who is on the Lord’s side?????
Matt 6:24 (KJS) No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Rev. 3:15 (KJS) I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
IT’S TIME TO MAKE A DECISION TO GET ON GOD’S SIDE....
c. As people of this church we need to see the Lord up close and personal.
i. We need to be revived. Why? To lead the people in revival.
ii. We need to humble ourselves before God.
iii. Acknowledge that He is God and we are all His servants.
d. As people of this church we need to love the people of this community and families enough to beg God for their pardon, but be tough enough to say to each other..., " Who is on the Lord’s Side?"
e. THERE IS A SERIOUSNESS IN OUR DECISION.
i. We will reap the results of our choices.
ii. Can you see the importance of staying on the Lord’s Side and the results of sin?
Rom. 6:23 (KJS) For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
f. It is so serious that God Gave His one and only son. Jesus died that we may know Him in a personal relationship.
Once we make a decision to have revival, there has to be a starting place...
3. There Was A Beginning of Revival V.29 Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD.
Consecrate: Webster -- to devote irrevocably to the worship of God
a. As the people of this church, we need to set ourselves apart to the Lord and choose this day, this month to devote irrevocably to the worship of God
b. Are you ready to move on out to the Promised the land and move into the place that the Lord can continue to bless you?
c. Just like the children of Israel, there has to be a starting point.
d. Move out today in obedience to the Lord.
It’s time to let revival begin.
It’s time to allow God to live out His will and promises within your life.
It’s time to allow the God of the mountain to be the one and only God of our lives.
It’s time to devote irrevocably to the worship of God.
