A Heart Ready For Revival
Fourth in the series: Revival – Reviving Me, Reviving the Church & Reviving Our Community
Perth Bible Church August 5, 2007 AM Rev. Todd G. Leupold
INTRO:
Show video: “A Man Fell In A Hole” (bluefish.tv).
I think it’s fair to assume that all of us, at one time or another, have and likely will again (perhaps many times) feel as if we too have fallen into a hole from which we cannot escape and nobody seems either willing or able to lift us out. We stop trying to jump out, or crawl our way up the sides. We give up hope and instead embrace despair and pity. Our focus turns from thriving in life, to simply surviving, to expectantly and statically just waiting for it all to come to a final end. Our lungs still breathe, our heart still beats, the sun continues to rise and fall, birds continue to sing, children gleefully laugh, but within we feel like the living dead. Our heart continues to pump blood, but it no longer pumps vitality, hope, dreams, or ambition. Like the elderly lady in the famous 80s commercial, we’ve fallen and we can’t get up!
At other times, we are not the one in the hole, but the potential rescuer who happens upon the scene. We have been presented the God-given opportunity to lead another to new life, new hope, new dreams and strength. However, rather than excited at this prospect, we find ourselves nervous and uncertain. Is it really my place? Who am I to help someone else when I have so many of my own problems? What if this person deserves or is meant to be in that hole?
What if I try to help but fail – won’t I just be making it worse by giving the person false hope? This person already obviously has enough problems, what if in trying to help I unintentionally offend or hurt her? What if I try to help and end up falling in myself? Surely someone else will come along who is much better able to help than I! So, like we saw in the video, rather than real help we give platitudes and advice that do nothing.
Consider with me, if you will, another story that Lois shared with me some time ago:
An out-of-towner accidentally drives his car into a deep ditch on the side of a country road. Luckily a farmer happened by with his big old horse named Benny. The man asked for help. The farmer said Benny could pull his car out. So he backed Benny up and hitched Benny to the man’s car bumper.
Then he yelled, “Pull, Nellie, pull.” Bennie didn’t move.
Then he yelled, “Come on, pull Ranger.” Still, Bennie didn’t move.
Then he yelled really loud, “Now pull, Fred, pull hard.” Benny just stood there.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, “Okay, Benny, pull.” Benny pulled the car out of the ditch.
The man was very appreciative but curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times. The farmer said, “Oh, Benny is blind, and if he thought he was the only one pulling he wouldn’t even try.”
Friends, whether we are the one in the hole or the one gazing upon the one in the hole, we need Jesus to defibrillate, or electrify, our hearts. We need hearts ready for revival!
PRAYER
Recite 2 Chronicles 7:14 (and repeat)
We learned last week that our biggest obstacle to a revived life is our unconfessed and hidden sin. We further learned that the key to hurdling this obstacle is our willingness to humble ourselves before the Lord. This morning, we will learn how we do this, how we can and must prepare our hearts to be ready for revival.
There are 3 very important things we must do in order to prepare our hearts for revival.
I know this is true, both because the Bible tells me so and also because I too have lived in that hole. I, too, have gone through times of giving up. I, too, have tried all the things that don’t help. And I, too, have experienced the joy and new life of being delivered from that hole. And not just once.
Some, but not most of you, know that I struggle with a few health issues that will remain with me as long as I inhabit this body. One of these is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A common and natural side effect when the fatigue is allowed to reach a certain point is clinical depression. Anyone who has ever dealt with this themselves or in a loved one understands how dark and dank a hole this can be. Those who haven’t, truly have no idea. Obviously, it’s not something I choose to dwell on or talk about much. I’m still far more blessed than ’cursed’ in my life! I mention it now, because I want you to know I understand what it is like. I am intimately familiar with that hole. I am also equally intimately familiar with being lifted out of that hole by Jesus Christ!
Friends, when I talk about revival I want you to know I’m not just spouting theory, principle and cliché. I, myself, need and – by the grace of Christ – experience revival on a regular basis. Yet, I also know all too well that it doesn’t ever just happen on it’s own. Before it can be experienced, there is much I must do to prepare my heart. Much we must ALL do.
I.Pray
Consider:
Matthew 18:19
Again, I assure you: If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.
1 John 5:14
Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
A. We Need To Fill Our Hearts With Constant Prayer
Pastor and author, Max Lucado, writes in his book Turn (pp. 46-47):
“Is any other spiritual activity promised such fruit? Did Jesus call us to preach without
ceasing? Or teach without ceasing? Or have committee meetings without ceasing? Or sing
without ceasing? No, but He did call us to ’pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17).
Did Jesus say, “My house will be called a house of study? A house of fellowship? A house
of music? A house of exposition? A house of activities? A house of political activists? No, but
He did say, ’My house will be called a house of prayer’ (Matthew 21:13).
God is not moved by men of standing, but by men of kneeling. He is moved by the humble,
prayerful heart. ’The LORD will hear your crying, and He will comfort you. When He hears
you, He will help you’ (Isaiah 30:19).”
But, with what are we to fill our hearts through prayer?
B. We Need To Pray For God To Search Our Hearts
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.
Notice how personal this cry is, how in just these two verses David uses the terms “me” and “my” six times.
If any of us is to have a heart ready for revival, it is essential that we know and confess ALL of our sins, all of our faults. Whether they be sins of commission (what we do, but shouldn’t) or omission (what we don’t do, but should), we must know, recognize and deal with it ALL before our gracious Heavenly Father!
Most importantly, notice WHO it is who is to do the searching. As George T. Stephens exhorts: “Not our friends or our loved ones are to do the searching, for they might be unsympathetic, unkind and cruel; nor is their knowledge perfect. God does not say that we are to search our own hearts, for we would excuse our sins and failures – or even conceal them from ourselves unconsciously. God Himself, by His Holy Spirit and through His Word, is to do the searching” (pg. 59).
In other words, (take out & use searchlight as object lesson), we need to both ask and grant the Holy Spirit permission to take out His spiritual searchlight and carefully examine every room, every nook and cranny of our hearts – even and especially the locked rooms and the dark and hidden crevices and hiding places!
We need God to search:
a.) Our Inner Lives
b.) Our Home Lives
c.) Our Social Lives
Psalm 51:1-2, 10, 12-13
“Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithful love; according to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Wash away my guilt, and cleanse me from my sin . . . God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. . . Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and give me a willing spirit. Then I will teach the rebellious Your ways, and sinners will return to You.”
1 John 1:8-10
“If we say, ’We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, ’We have not sinned,’ we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Our hearts need to sing and vibrate with the old spiritual:
Not my brother, not my sister,
But it’s me, O Lord,
Standing in the need of prayer.
Not my brother, not my sister,
But it’s me, O Lord,
Standing in the need of prayer.
It’s me, it’s me, O Lord,
Standing in the need of prayer.
It’s me, it’s me, O Lord,
Standing in the need of prayer.
II. Seek God’s “Face”
Isaiah 55:6
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call to Him while He is near.”
Lamentations 3:25
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13
“For I know the plans I have for you" -[this is] the Lord’s declaration-"plans for [your] welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
What does it really mean, though, to seek God’s ’Face”?
- Think about it. What does it mean to seek or study anyone’s face? What are you really looking for in that quiet exchange – whether a lover gazing upon his beloved, a child staring at her mother, a subordinate studying the expression of his boss?
- Max Lucado describes it this way:
“God’s face awaits our study. What makes Him smile? What furrows His brow or sparkles His eyes? When do His lips purse or eyes water? He wants you to know . . . But how do we do that? How do we seek the face of an invisible God? We read His letter. We read the Bible, because (as Jesus said) ’the Scriptures point to me!’ (John 5:39, NLT). Those who want to seek His face will read His word.” (pg. 61.)
I presume most of us have at least heard of the mutiny on the HMS Bounty. Some have seen one or more of the movies. Somehow, the part everyone seems to remember and focus on is the drama of the mutiny on board the ship. Yet, the most interesting, amazing and important part of this real-life drama is what happened after the mutiny!
In the spring of 1789, in response to the cruelty of the infamous Captain Bligh, the mutinous sailors physically took control of the ship, exiled Bligh and those faithful to him to float to sea on a dinghy and then themselves settled on a tiny, 2 sq. mile rock in the South Pacific known as Pitcairn Island. Knowing that they could never return to or be found by ’civilization’ without the risk of being hanged for their mutiny, they settled on this tropical island, burned the ship, took Tahitian wives and made what they anticipated would be their own paradise.
There was only one problem with their plan. You see, they were sailors who mutinied because they could NOT stand anyone else setting any standards or making any decisions for their lives. They valued only selfish individualism and hedonistic (self-pleasing) desires. They established a community with no standards, no morals, and no laws. A filthy, obscene community marked by adultery, violence, and drunkenness. Within a decade, the natives saw and endured more than they could any longer accept.
They attacked the settlers and killed all of them, but one: Alexander Smith. As the only survivor, forced to make peace and learn to live with the natives according to what they would accept, Smith stumbled upon and began to read a Bible that the crew members had previously salvaged from the Bounty and obviously put aside. Reading that Bible radically transformed Smith’s life. Later, he would explain to his superiors: “When I came to the life of Jesus, my heart began to open like doors swingin’ apart. Once I was sure that God was a loving and merciful Father to them that repent, it seemed to me I could feel His very presence, sir, and I grew more sure every day of His guiding hand.”
The story doesn’t end with Smith. Through the change it produced in him, others on the island became increasingly interested in the Bible, the Jesus it speaks of, and the salvation and revival it offers. In a short time, the entire island was transformed and enlivened! So much so that, when the British navy discovered Pitcairn Island in 1808, they were amazed by the orderliness, decency and godliness of the native society they found. Because of this, they later spared Smith’s life, pardoned him for his part in the mutiny, and for much of the nineteenth century used the word Pitcairn to refer to individual or societal godliness. All of this because Alexander Smith, and then gradually many others, sought after God’s “face” through His Word!
Will you? Today?
Steve Farrar, in his book Point Man, confesses:
“I need God’s commentary on my life every day. A Christian . . . in this society is swimming upstream. Without the constant nutrition of the Word, he will soon tire and be dragged off by the sheer force of the current” (pg. 111).
III. Turn From Our Wicked Ways
This is OUR RESPONSE to what we discover through our Spirit-led prayer and seeking of His Face through the Word! And, this is where we so often stop our pursuit for revival and instead make our home in the dark hole of our lives and circumstance!
Leviticus 26:40-42
"But if they will confess their sin and the sin of their fathers-their unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, and how they acted with hostility toward Me, and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies-and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled, and if they will pay the penalty for their sin, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob. I will also remember My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
Nehemiah 9:2-3
“those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the guilt of their fathers. While they stood in their places, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day and [spent] another fourth of the day in confession and worship of the Lord their God.”
Psalm 51:16-17
You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; You are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.
CONCLUSION:
Pray, Seek His Face, Turn from our wicked ways. How do you sum this all up?
Consider how these truths are illustrated by the lesson of the oil lamp. In an oil lamp, the light is ’kept’ by the wick. When the wick burns low, the light will eventually go out and the wick turns black. Do we then just throw the lamp away and replace it with a new one? Do we give up and use at as a non-working decoration? Do we curse it and throw it against the wall? (maybe). Would any of those ideas be wise or useful? Of course, not! Tempting, even fun perhaps, but neither wise nor useful. Rather, the wise and useful thing would be to trim the lamp so that it may be used again to the height of its ability.
So, what does it mean to trim a lamp? First, you need to recognize and confirm that the problem is indeed a burned-out wick. We do this through examination. Second, one needs to pull the wick up, cut off the black section and leave a new, clean extension of wick. Still, the job is not done. Next, to reclaim full effect, the globe of the lamp needs to be thoroughly cleaned and shined from all the burned-off carbon dross that has clung to it. Fourth, the supply of oil must be replenished. Finally, only after all of that has been done, the wick can be re-lighted and the lamp will again vibrantly fill the room with light.
If you were to see yourself as a lamp with a wick of purity and a supply of oil of the Holy Spirit, what condition would you be in? Is your wick white or black? Is your oil supply abundant and clean or sparse and dirty? Is your light shining brightly for Christ, or struggling just to stay lit and fighting to be seen through the grime on the surrounding globe?
