Revive Us

Series: None

Message: Revive Us

Text: Psalm 85

Date: October 30, 2011

Pastor: David McBeath

PRAYER

INTRODUCTION

I have totally ditched the message I was planning for this Sunday. Let me tell you, it was hard to do, because I had already worked a good little bit on it. But God impressed on my heart that he wanted me to go in a different direction. I think God wants me to share what’s on my heart after the LEMA prayer retreat, the Kingdom Transformation Conference, what happened last Sunday, when I believe revival began to break out at our church. I am going to do this as we look at Psalm 85.

MY HEART—Last Sunday/About Him

Let me start with my heart. First, wasn’t worship this Sunday Great! And last Sunday it was awesome—wasn’t it! Our congregation was been whole-heartedly worshipping God! Our focus was been on Him!! It is like we’ve all forgotten everything and everyone around us and put our eyes on him! Man, it has been good!!!

Like we sang this morning: His Name is Great. His name is above all names! Because He is Holy! He is righteous or right and I am not, we are not—at least not on our own! But because of his Amazing Grace, because of the Lamb that was slain, sinners like you and me are made right. We get to stand on Holy Ground! We get to enter his presence! We get to experience him!

I’ve needed last couple of weeks! I needed new life breathed into me! I believe our church did too. I believe God is giving us a foretaste of the revival the renewal, the restoration he wants to bring to our lives and our church that may eventually spill over into our community! Wouldn’t that be great!! Wouldn’t it be great to see revival break out in Lockport!

MY HEART—Our Community

Revival has been my heartbeat. God has place revival on my heart since I was 11 or 12. I think I was in 5th or 6th grade. There was a speaker that came to my church and he talked about great moves of God (revivals) that had taken place. I remember God telling me that could happen again. I vividly remember that was the day God gave me a desire to get churches and denominations to work together for revival. After church, I went to the grocery store with my dad and told him I thought God was calling me to ministry.

The week before last—I had the desire God laid on my heart when I was 11 or 12 begin to become a reality. Seven pastors, from 7 churches got together for a prayer retreat to pray for a renewal in our lives, our churches, and the Lockport area. I am here to tell you, God has started to bring it. We saw it begin in our worship service last week!

MY HEART –Our Denom./Assoc.

I have also been praying that God would begin to bring revival to our denomination in our region and state. Last week, I saw God begin to make that happen. Several pastors from our association came to the Kingdom Transformation Seminar, where Larry Lane gave us a vision for how God could use us and our churches to bring true transformation or revival to our area. The Moderator and several other pastors came up to me and said this is what our association needs! They want to talk about how to maybe bring Larry Back to speak to our association of churches. If you know anything about NABA this is an amazing move of God because our NABA churches have tended to be cold, and lifeless! Revival fires are beginning to be stirred! Isn’t God Good!

REVIVAL BEGINS W/GOD

So how does revival happen? Well, we can’t put God in a Box. That would be like me caging my 55 pound boxer with tissue paper! …God brings revival! But that is kind of the point. Turn to Psalm 85 and let’s look at the beginning of verses 1, 2, and 3. How do they begin? They begin by saying You, Oh Lord do this! Revival, renewal, restoration, begins with God! It is GOD’s Work! I tell you what, that takes some pressure of me as your pastor. I am not going to bring revival to your life. I’m not going to bring revival to this church, or even Lockport—GOD WILL!! Revival begins with God!

REVIVAL TIED TO PRAISE

Moving to point 2, Revival is tied to praise. Notice the last half of verse 6: “Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?” Revival is tied to praise.

What does praise do? What should our worship songs help us do? They RETURN our attention to God by helping us praise him for who he is and what he’s done for us! Praise and Worship takes our attention off self. When we come to church on Sunday morning, we practice the discipline of corporate worship to help each other take our eyes of ourselves and put our eyes on God! That is what was so beautiful about last couple of weeks! Many of us have forgotten about ourselves and gotten lost in God. As a result we haven’t cared what people think of us if we raise our hand, or if we jump up and down for God, or if we started crying, because we knew we were in God’s presence. Our attention was RETURNED to God. It was off self. I was off others and only on God!