Will You Not Revive Us Again?

“WILL YOU NOT REVIVE US AGAIN?” Psalm 85

FBCF – 8/14/22

Jon Daniels

INTRO – “True revival is that divine moment when God bursts upon the scene & displays His glory” (Del Fehsenfeld). There have been times this has happened throughout history: 1857 – US in state of decline – politically, economically, & spiritually (sound familiar?). A young layman named Jeremiah Lanphier decided to have a prayer mtg at noon on Sept. 23 – 6 people showed up. 3 wks later – 40 people. Decided to start meeting for prayer at noon every day. Stock market crashed on Oct. 10. People began flocking to these noon prayer meetings. Within 6 months, 10,000 people were meeting in NYC alone. Spread to other cities. Thousands meeting for prayer in Chicago, Cleveland, & St. Louis. Some have suggested that between 500k & 1 million people were saved in 1857-58.

The Welsh Revival happened in 1904-05 – 100,000 people got saved. Move of Spirit started through the preaching of one 26 yr-old preacher, Evan Roberts.

1932 – Revival in North China came through the prayers of a single missionary woman, Marie Monsen. More people saved that year than ever before. One missionary estimated that 3,000 people got saved in his town alone.

1996 – Henry Blackaby preaching at Howard Payne Univ. for 3 days. On Tue night, 2 young men who were Christians & leaders on the campus, came to the platform & confessed that they had been in bondage to pornography & lust & how it had shut down their prayer lives. Broken over their sin & crying out for forgiveness & cleansing. Blackaby asked if there were others. An avalanche of young men came to the stage, weeping & crying out to God.

Suddenly, a beautiful young woman stepped to the platform. “You’re saying it’s just the men. Well, we women also have lust in our hearts.” Began to describe the brokenness in her heart. Blackaby asked if there were other young women who needed to come & let God heal & purify their hearts, too. Girls began to run to platform from all over the auditorium, weeping over their sins.

Adults in the auditorium also began to confess their sins & cry out in repentance. 3 ½ hours later, the meeting was still going on as God’s Spirit brought revival to many lives that night. (Told my Henry Blackay in his book, HOLINESS, p. 64-68)

1857 – 1904 – 1932 – 1996. What about 2022? Are WE ready for revival? A true revival? A revival that shakes us to our core, shows us our sin, & shifts our focus back to Jesus?

EXPLANATION – Psalm 85 (pg. 493)

The Psalms are awesome! One writer called them “a masterpiece of praise” (David Gunderson, Intro to Psalms, NIV Grace & Truth Study Bible, p. 688). Every emotion you & I have ever felt or will ever feel is found somewhere in these 150 chapters – grief, sorrow, joy, delight, anger, discouragement, peace, calm, worry, fear, faith & hope, praise, confession, thanksgiving – all woven into these Holy Spirit-inspired words. The Psalms are so useful to help us express what’s truly on our hearts to God. That’s why I encourage you all the time to wallow around in them.

And the Psalms also remind us of revival & our desperate need to return to the Lord!

- Psalm 80:19 – “Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.”

- Psalm 19:7 – “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”

- Psalm 22:27a – “All the ends of the earth will remember & turn to the Lord”

- Psalm 80:18 – “Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, & we will call upon your name!”

- Psalm 51:12 – “Restore to me the joy of your salvation & grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

Psalm 85: “revive” – v. 6 – This Heb word is ALL ABOUT LIFE! Listen to all the different meanings of this word:

- To live – have life, continue in life, remain alive, to sustain life, to live prosperously

- To revive from sickness, from discouragement, from faintness, from death

- To preserve alive, to let live, to give life, to restore to life, to cause to grow

- To keep alive, to promise life, to nourish up, to recover, repair, restore life

Revival is all about LIFE!

APPLICATION – We need to prepare ourselves for the revival that God wants to send to us.

Asked staff last week, “When revival truly comes to FBCF, what is it going to look like?” – more evangelism; people not content to be observers, but desiring to serve; fulfill Great Commission; deep hunger for the Word