Famine in the Land
Joel 1:8-13
Revival Sermon
July 19, 2005
Introduction
Why do you want revival? Why does your church want revival? I believe that the answer to your question is going to determine whether God answers your prayer. Are you praying with the right agenda? Our church attendance starts falling off, so we talk about needing revival. People aren’t sharing the gospel with their friends, so they must need revival. Church members may be living in open sin or tolerating it in the lives of others. We need revival, but folk, if that’s why we want revival then perhaps it will not come. You see, when we pray like that we’re really praying that God would fix the symptoms of our problems. What we really want is better attendance or offerings or for people to come to Sunday School.
But the problem in our churches is not that people aren’t coming. That’s not the problem. The problem is not that you don’t read your Bible. It is not that you won’t love your wife. The problem is not sexual immorality in town. If you’re holding grudges, failing to forgive, withholding mercy, being mean and hateful and backbiting or gossiping, you’ve got a problem alright, but those aren’t the problems; they’re only symptoms of the real problem. I don’t mean to undermine the importance of these things. When I am bleeding I need it to stop, but blood is only a symptom that I’ve been cut.
Do you know why we need revival? We need revival because there’s a famine in our land for the glory and the greatness of God. Your greatest need is not church growth; not more money; not enthusiasm; not motivation. Your greatest need is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ: a genuine, life-changing, intimate and dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. I don’t care whether you’re lost or saved; you need a relationship with Jesus Christ. The people “out there” don’t know they’re starving for God’s greatness. They don’t know they’re starving for His holiness. They don’t know they’re starving for His righteousness, for His presence, for His purpose and for His power. They’re literally starving to death and don’t know it.
Now it’s one thing for the people “out there” to be starving for the glory and greatness of God. It’s a whole other thing for God’s own people to be starving for it. Our very own people are starving for God, and that is why we need revival. It must begin here. He is the Bread of Life for the starving soul. He is the Living Water who can quench the thirsty soul, and when you and I eat and drink from the well of a deep relationship with Him then all those other symptoms I mentioned will begin to be corrected.
People don’t come to church because they’re starving. People don’t love their families because they’re starving. You don’t read your Bibles because you’re starving. We’re living in a time when spirituality is at an all time high. It’s on television, on the radio, in print, on the Internet, in the book stores, and everywhere else you turn. The problem is that it’s not the spirituality of the Bible and the only thing that is going to change what is going on “out there” is a change in here as you address the famine that is taking place right here in our own churches. Brothers and sisters, there’s a famine in the land today.
The trouble I’m talking about has to do with the lack of spiritual vitality among God’s people and a great love and zeal for knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and living for Him! In the book Why Revival Tarries, Leonard Ravenhill said, “People who are not praying are straying; and preachers who are not praying are playing…We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers, lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.”
What has happened to us? What has happened to God’s people? You look around our churches and our men are bored to death. The ladies are exhausted. We’ve traded the Christ of the Bible for some effeminate, Mr. Rogers wimp, then we tell our men to be like Him and our women to follow after Him, and then we come together and wonder why more people aren’t excited about the whole thing. Folk, where are the dynamic changes of life that were witnessed in the book of Acts? Where are the great numbers of people being saved and getting right with God?
God’s not interested in filling up your empty pews or filling up our empty churches. What He wants is to fill up eyes that have no vision. He wants to fill empty hearts that have no passion and empty wills that have no purpose. There’s a famine in the land today – people are starving – we are starving and do not know it. I’d like for you to read with me the words of Joel 1:8-20, then I’m going to give you three things we are lacking today and what we must do about it.
“Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.”
Here is a nation in trouble. God has allowed judgment to come to their land and devastate it. The land had been wasted and devastated. The barley and wheat harvests were gone, so the people couldn’t eat, couldn’t trade and couldn’t worship. The nation was in disarray and God’s house was a disappointment. What was wrong? What was missing? The same things that are lacking today.
We Lack Spiritual Passion
When you think of people in the Bible like Elijah or Moses or Paul or even Jesus, what comes to mind? If there’s one thing that stands out in the life of these men it is passion. Think of the movies about Jesus that we’ve seen. With the exception of Mel Gibson’s recent version, they all make Jesus out to be so passive and mild. While the world is in an uproar around Him, Jesus acts like He’s on Prozac. I don’t read about that Jesus in my Bible. In fact, I don’t read about any of His followers who acted like that. I read about men who were marked by passion – who loved God and people and expressed it by their actions.
When Jesus went into the temple and overturned the moneychanger’s tables, He was outraged at how they were taking advantage of other people and over what they had made His Father’s house. Paul didn’t get up from all those beatings and whippings because the job paid well. Peter and John didn’t take whippings and then rejoice because they were gluttons for punishment. Steven didn’t preach that sermon and then get stoned to death with a smile on his face because he was high on Jesus. These were common people just like me and you who had normal jobs with normal lifestyles, but were passionate about the Savior who had called them. Jesus wasn’t just concerned about dispensing truth – He was revolutionizing the world, ushering in a new kingdom, and He was looking for men and women who would follow Him in that venture.
Have you ever watched Christian people at a ball game? I was playing softball in our church league, and after a questionable call, the pastor of another team came alive and argued with the umpire. He was passionate about his game. I lived in a small community of about 300 people for a while where basketball was the primary sport. I would watch as crowds of 300 or 400 people would pack into that gymnasium and scream their lungs out. They would yell at the referees with great passion. They would scream at the boys. I would watch in amazement as ten sweaty boys would run back and forth on a court bouncing a rubber ball so they could throw it through a metal hoop only to make those 300 people stand and yell themselves hoarse for a shot scored.
Let me ask you something, why aren’t we as passionate about our relationship with Christ? We get all worked up about whether people are singing the right songs or dressing a certain way. We get all worked up about clapping and using the right version of the Bible and being Missionary Baptist, which are all important things, but where is our passion for souls?
There was an occasion when Jesus walked up to a man lying at a pool. He walks up and heals this man, asking nothing in return: not faith, not love: nothing. He just heals this man and leaves it up to him to respond in faith. The man walks off and the religious folk scold him for carrying his bedroll. They’re so worried about their religion that they don’t even realize he is walking around! I am afraid we have become too much like that. When someone gets saved, all we can muster up is a weak “Amen.” When someone scores a shot that doesn’t make a hill of beans we scream ourselves hoarse. We lack spiritual passion.
We Lack Prayer
If our churches are experiencing a famine in any place it is most evident here: in the place of prayer. A few years ago I painted a 1970 Mustang fastback for a friend of mine. We had been restoring it for several months, and I was doing the work for free. He had bought an extra Mustang during the process, and when my work was done, he gave me the second one. Man I was proud. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was classic 1970 Mustang fastback! I told my friends about it, dreamed of cruising the drag in it, showed it to my girlfriend and all that good stuff. So far as I was concerned, I had a show car. There was a major problem with the car though – it didn’t have a motor! I never moved that car off the blocks it sat on. I moved out of the area and so far as I know it still sits there. It wouldn’t have mattered how awesome that car could have looked – I learned right away that what matters most may not always be the most apparent.
You know what I mean by this. Pastor, it doesn’t matter what kind of shiny accessories you have to dress up your preaching or your pastoral ministries. None of those things have the power to drive anything you preach into the hearts of your congregation. Sermons can look good on paper, they may sound good in the pulpit, we may live good and have everybody call us pastor or reverend or whatever, but you can bet that your words will never sink into the hearts of your hearers the way they ought to without prayer. I have a seminary degree – but the driving force behind my ministry doesn’t have anything to do with what’s hanging on the wall.
What about the rest of you? Are you praying? For all our talk about it, how much do we really do it? What did Jesus say? “Without me you can’t do anything.” If Jesus taught us anything about prayer, He taught us that prayer is nothing more than our admission of absolute dependence on God. “Give us this day our daily bread?” Pray for two or three slices of bread? You’ve got to be kidding! I can dig enough change out of the sofa for that! I don’t have to pray for bread. But what Jesus said really had nothing to do with bread. He was trying to teach us that we need Him for every single thing in our lives, even the most basic things.
You may look good to all your friends and be well respected in the community, but I want you to know that if you’re lacking in this area of prayer, you’re nothing more than a white-washed tomb full of dead men’s bones.
We Lack Unction
You don’t hear much talk about unction today. In fact, we don’t really know much about what it is. You may be like the man I heard about. He says to his preacher one day, “Preacher, you need some unction!” The preacher was caught off guard. He said to the man, “Unction? What is unction?” The man looked at him and said, “I don’t know. But I know you ain’t got it!”
Unction is hard to define. The dictionary is vague and talks about being anointed. I’m not talking about charismatic stuff here. What I’m talking about is that there are too many times that we are simply going through the motions with our religion without the presence and power of God directing and moving our lives. I read in the Scriptures verses like Acts 4:8, which says,
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them…”
Or Acts 4:31,
“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”
Paul told the Thessalonians,
“For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.”
How our world is starving for men and women who are filled with the Holy Ghost: people who are surrendered to and filled with and led by the Spirit of Almighty God! King Saul was severely lacking in this area – he stripped himself, rolled around on the ground, did his best to work up the anointing that God had removed from his life. But all of his efforts were in vain. He had refused to surrender to God, so God left him to his own devices. What a sad commentary on a man who had begun so well. Can the same be said of your life? Are you surrendered to God? Or do you grow impatient with Him and take matters into your own hands? Do you trust Him? Or are you turning to the world’s imitations for spiritual leadership?
Now, what’s the real problem? Why is it that we lack passion and prayer and unction? Why is it that we lack urgency and purpose and vision in our lives? It all boils down to one thing: we lack personal intimacy with Christ. So long as we fill our schedules with endless meetings and ball games and work and play and on and on and on, forsaking our daily need of intimacy with Jesus Christ, our lives are going to be little more than flickering lights in a world of darkness when Jesus wants them to be blazing torches for Him. Who wants what you’ve got when it looks just like what they already have?
Conclusion
What’s the answer? The answer is revival: real Spirit led revival that is going to result in a changed life. I want you to look with me again at Joel 1, and while there are many elements that lead to revival, I want to draw your attention especially to these two.
Brokenness
Notice the words Joel used. Verse 8 tells the people to lament, to cry like a virgin who is mourning the death of her newlywed husband. In verse 9 the priests are already mourning over the condition of the land. Join them as they weep. Verse 13 says to gird yourselves and lament; howl and lie all night in sackcloth.
Look at chapter 2:17,
“Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?”
I know this is written primarily to the priests of Israel and by implication to the ministers of our day, but God has called every one of you to ministry. Don’t relegate this to your pastor alone. Look around you! In the midst of this most spiritual of generations, the field is wasted and the land mourns, and I ask you this: when was the last time any of us wept about it? Why do we watch the heresies of false preachers on television and laugh when we ought to be weeping over the multitudes who are held captive? When the Lord pointed out the condition of the land, what was God’s answer? “Gird yourselves, weep, howl, lie all night in sackcloth.” It’s time we began to weep, not for our people alone, but for our own apathy and uncaring hearts.
It’s time we wept between the porch and the altar and begged the Lord God for change – not for change out there – but change in here, in our own hearts. It’s time for a spirit of renewal concerning our personal relationships with Jesus Christ, for us to realize our desperate need for a fresh encounter with the God of the Word,
• For us to have our cups filled so that others might drink from them…
• For us to come alive with purpose and passion…
• For us to be filled with the person and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our personal and public lives…
• For you and I to quit being posers, to quit being fake and shallow and instead be broken before the Lord.
I don’t care how young or old you are, how rich or poor you are, how long you’ve been a Christian or how sanctified you think you are. Your need is the same need I have, and that’s to be broken over our condition before God.
A man walked into the doctor’s office and said, “Doctor, I have this awful headache that never leaves me. Could you give me something for it?”
“I will,” said the doctor, “but I want to check a few things out first. Tell me, do you drink a lot of liquor?”
“Liquor?” said the man indignantly. “I never touch the filthy stuff.”
“How about smoking?”
“I think smoking is disgusting. I never in my life touched tobacco.”
“I’m a bit embarrassed to ask this, but—but you know the way some men are—do you do any running around at night?”
“Of course not. What do you take me for? I’m in bed every night by ten o’clock at the latest.”
“Tell me,” said the doctor, “the pain in the head you speak of, it is a sharp, shooting kind of pain?”
“Yes,” said the man. “That’s it—a sharp, shooting kind of pain.”
“Simple, my dear fellow! Your trouble is you have your halo on too tight. All we need to do is loosen it a bit.”
Years ago Samuel Chadwick said,
“Go back! Back to that upper room; back to your knees; back to searching of heart and habit, thought and life; back to pleading, praying, waiting, till the Spirit of the Lord floods the soul with light, and you are endued with power from on high…”
David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” The spirit we long to see in our families and in our churches must first be present in our own lives.
Communion with Christ
Somebody said one time that men are looking for better methods, God is looking for better men. I don’t know if you’ve been looking for better methods or not. Maybe you’ve not been looking for anything, you’ve grown content to go through the motions with God and that’s it. You go to church, you give your tithe, and you teach your class or whatever you do. You read your Bible daily and even offer up a prayer or two throughout the day. Now all of that sounds good. In fact, that’s the kind of church members most of us are happy with, but are you in communion with the Lord? The Pharisees did all those things and even more, but they were lost. Jesus said He didn’t even know them.
I don’t know what you have or haven’t been doing, but I know this: there’s a famine in the land today, and while we’ve got all the outward sins of religion, we lack all the life-giving force of real communion with Christ. I ask you again tonight – have you been spending time with Him? Are you encountering Him in a close, daily relationship?
We have become either too busy or too concerned with recreating that we are neglecting our personal relationships with Christ. We have become so entangled in our web of religiosity that we lack the power of relation. Put the tools down, turn off the TV or computer, put down the phone, park the car and spend time with your Savior! If Jesus, the perfect, sinless Son of God took time to be alone with God, what makes us think we can get by without it? In the words of one preacher…
“I urge upon you communion with Christ, a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn aside in Christ that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him. I despair that I shall ever win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it. Therefore dig deep, and sweat and labor and take pains for him, and set by as much time in the day for Him as you can. We will be won in the labor.
There’s no question that we need revival. There’s no question that our churches need revival. We lack the spiritual passion, the prayer and the unction that ought to characterize our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. We have grown so content with life as usual that we have trouble recognizing the famine that has swept our churches. We live in the land of plenty – it is not a physical famine, it is a spiritual famine. People are starving for the glory and greatness of God. You may be starving as well.
Do you know Christ? Do you really know Him? Have you ever trusted Him as your personal Savior? Have you ever repented of your sins and come to Him for salvation? Have you been feasting at His table? Drinking from the well that never shall run dry? It is time for some weeping: some brokenness at the altar of God. Will you allow it to begin with you?
Works Cited:
Ravenhill, Leonard. Why Revival Tarries (Bethany House Publishers: Bloomington, Minnesota) 1979
Story is by Anthony De Mello, retold by Brennan Manning. The Ragamuffin Gospel (Multonomah Publishers: Sisters, OR) 1990 p. 72-3
Samuel Rutherford, as quoted in EM Bound’s Classic Collection on Prayer (Bridge-Logos Publishers: Gainesville, FL) 2001
