Revive Us Again

Write this down: The depth of our repentance will determine the depth of our revival.

Have you been playing around with sin? Repent right now. Have you been withholding forgiveness from someone? Stop acting as their judge and free them from ever having to pay you back. Do you have some dark secrets you’ve been trying to hide from God and your loved ones? Bring them into the light. Joshua 24:14: “Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped…and serve the Lord.” Admit your sin and then abandon it.

Leonard Ravenhill once said: “The world has lost its power to blush over its vice; the church has lost her power to weep over it.” This week, I was challenged by a quote from Lori Frank: “We can look at our culture the way Jonah looked at Nineveh or the way Jesus looked at Jerusalem.”

Lord, since you revived others in the past, do it again right now, and let it begin with me.

Let’s pause now to confess our sins and repent from them.

3. We need to be revived on a regular basis. We see this in the phrase, “revive us again.” In preparation for this message, I read a very helpful book called, America’s Greatest Revivals. Here are some of the notes I took.

• Revivals are Holy Spirit-inspired, unpredictable, and extraordinary.

• God uses various methods, but most revivals can be traced to strong preaching and protracted times of prayer.

• God uses different personalities. Jonathan Edwards was studious and reserved, while George Whitefield was expressive and passionate.

• Revivals often happened when things were at their darkest in culture and in churches.

• Many reported an “intense sensation of the presence of God.”

• Some revivals came about because of preaching about judgement and Hell (Edwards), while others can be traced to an overwhelming emphasis upon the love of God (Moody).

• Many revivals broke out among students and young adults. BTW, there were 84 in the Student Center Wednesday night!

• There’s always an emphasis upon personal salvation and sanctification.

• Waves of conviction caused people to repent of their sins. Often sinners would wander into meetings and immediately drop to their knees at the front of the church. W. Graham Scroggie writes: “There never has been a spiritual revival which did not begin with an acute sense of sin.”

• Christians often felt an urgency to share Christ with everyone because of the reality of Hell and judgment.

• Preachers from various denominations often partnered together in gospel proclamation.

• Some revivals had a sense of “holy stillness” while others were more spectacular.

• Many revivals had emotional excesses and strange occurrences.

• When revivals were going on, it was common for Christians to oppose, resist, and mock them.

• Many revivals led to God raising up missionaries and missions.

• Some revivals led to a theological and doctrinal resurgence.

• Revivals affected society and culture. In fact, you can’t understand the history of America apart from the influence of revivals.

• Revivals eventually end, but the results can last a long time. A lady once asked Billy Sunday: “Why do you keep having revivals when it doesn’t last?” He smiled and asked her, “Why do you keep taking baths?”