“Road to Revival”
When you hear the word, “revival” what comes to your mind? Well for most Christians today, the word “revival” describes a special service or series of services with renowned guest speakers, really good music, and lots of food and fellowship. And near the end, a few people may come forward to join the church and we call it a successful revival. But, is that in fact what a revival really is?
In my last sermon, I asked you if you thought that we needed a revival and most of you strongly agreed. I hope I made it clear that true revival is far more than a special service or two and a few new converts. This morning, I want to go into more depth as to what revival really is and the steps we need to take in order to actually be revived.
One of the best examples of revival that we have in the bible is found in 2 Kings chapters 22 and 23. Let me tell you a little bit about the state of God’s people at this particular time. About 640 BC a boy named Josiah inherited a kingdom that was so far from the ideals that God had for them that the bible describes them as more wicked than all the nations that God destroyed before them. How bad was it?
1. They had erected temples and shrines to false deities such as Baal, Ashtoreth, Asherah and Molech. Many of these shrines and objects of worship were placed even inside the Lord’s temple!
2. They had pagan male prostitutes working out of the temple grounds itself!
3. Obviously, they were sacrificing to these gods to such a degree that they all but forgot about the true God of Israel that had delivered His people time after time.
4. Some were even sacrificing their own children to the detestable god Molech! Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, who was perhaps the most wicked king Judah had ever had, even sacrificed his own son to Molech!
Here we have God’s chosen people. At one time, they KNEW who they were—their identity was certain, now they don’t even seem to have a clue. Instead of serving the one true God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength they now serve many gods—none of which have all of their heart nor are they even real. At this point in time, God’s so called “chosen people” are on the verge of total and absolute destruction.
And then a wicked king dies and 8-year old Josiah takes the throne. We are not told exactly why, but when he was sixteen years old the bible tells us that he began to “seek the Lord.”
No doubt led by the Spirit, he appointed a faithful and skilled crew led by the high priest to go in and begin making repairs to the Temple of God which had been terribly neglected. As they went about that task, the Book of the Law was found and read to the king.
I. When Josiah heard the words of God, he immediately tore his robes because he knew how far God’s people had fallen. (contrast his reaction with that of Jehoiakim who, instead of tearing his robe, cut off each section of Jeremiah’s prophecy against him and threw it in the fire!)
II. He was convicted by the words of God, repented, and wept aloud for God’s forgiveness and mercy.
III. He was moved to action: Tore down all of the high places, shrines to false gods, removed the quarters of the shrine prostitutes, got rid of the mediums and spiritists, and even had the priests of these false deities killed.
IV. Observed the Passover for the first time since the time of the judges (Symbolic of a recommitment to God)
Today, I’m preaching to a room full of professed born again Christians—born again Christians who are in desperate need of a revival both individually and corporately as a church. In my last sermon I made a statement that I hope you remember. I said that “if we are not growing spiritually then we are dying spiritually.” Over this last week, I have been uplifting each one of you by name, praying for two things: 1. That He would give me the message that we all need to hear and 2. That He would prepare all of our hearts to receive it—that it would fall on “good soil” as it were..
I’ve already asked you if you thought we needed a revival and most of you agreed. But now I have to ask you an even more important and somewhat more difficult question; do you want and are you ready for a revival?
Seven major Steps to revival:
1. Answer the door! (Revelation 3:20, “Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him..”)
a. Illustration: Have you ever had someone come to your door and knock… and you tried to make out like you weren’t home? Many times we do the same thing with God...
b. Take a second and listen for that still small voice saying, hey, I love you!!....
2. Seek the Lord or “get to know Him once you’ve let Him in”
a. (Bible study, prayer, nature)
b. Psalm 34:8-10 “ Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who fear the Lord lack no good thing.”
c. Thank God for the Sabbath! The Sabbath is all about tasting and seeing that the Lord is indeed Good!
d. Deuteronomy 4:29 says, seek the Lord and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.
3. Allow—even ASK the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin in your life.
a. Psalm 139 “search me O God..)
b. In John 16 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will “convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” and that He will “guide us into all truth.”
4. Repent (there’s a difference in merely confessing and repenting..)
a. Joel 2:12,13—“rend your hearts, not your garments..”
b. Illustration: In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior." He goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation, without repentance.")
c. Repentance is so much more than confession because repentance involves the sincere desire to flee from the sin that once held you captive.
5. Accept God’s Forgiveness. There is no way that we can be of much use to God or the kingdom unless we acknowledge and accept God’s forgiveness. We can’t move forward while we are tied to our past sins by a cord of guilt.
a. Jeremiah 31:34 ““For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
b. Micah 7:19 God says the He will hurl our sins into the depths of the sea.
6. Take action! Tear down some altars and shrines in our lives. ( What we DO doesn’t “just happen” rather it is the product of something that occurs first from INSIDE of us.
a. Jesus said, “first clean the inside of the cup or dish and the outside will be clean as well.”
b. Paul says the if we are in Christ we are a NEW CREATION, the old has gone and the new has come!”
7. Return to God with All your heart. Revelation 2 Jesus says to the church at Ephesus that they have “forsaken their first love..”
a. James 4:4-10
b. Hebrews 10:19-27
c. Malachi 3:6-10
d. Illustration: A Haitian pastor once told this parable to his congregation… A certain man was selling his house. He wanted $2,000 for it. Another man wanted the house badly but didn’t have enough money. Finally the seller said, “I will sell you the house for only $1,000 dollars under one condition, that you will allow me to retain full ownership of that nail above the front door.” The other man quickly agreed and the deal was done. Years later the seller came back and wanted to buy the house back but the new owner refused. So the other man went and found a rotting dog carcass and hung it on “his” nail above the door. The stench in the house soon became so unbearable, that the man and his family could no longer stay in the house and were forced to sell it back.
The pastor then said, don’t give the devil even a peg in your life or he will sooner or later come back and hang some kind of stinking garbage on it so that Christ will no longer be able to abide in you.
True revival is not some short-lived spiritual high but rather it is a reawakening of our desperate need for God and a determination to, as offer our bodies fully as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to the Lord. The thing so many people don’t realize is that in order to sustain that intimate relationship with the Lord, we need to have “mini” revivals every single day! That’s why bible study and prayer is so critically important to sustain vibrant spiritual health.
We must follow the advice of the apostle Paul to the believers at Corinth, when he said “examine yourselves to whether you are in the faith, test yourselves.”
Appeal.
“I stand at the door and knock..”
Paul says, “Today is the day of salvation”
Some of you may be saying Lord, I’m fighting a sin in my life but I’m just so weak… remember what Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…”
Hebrews 4 says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”
Closing Hymn: “I surrender all”
