Sermon Central
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Highway To Revival
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Apr 20, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Isaiah 40 reveals that God wants to bring us truckloads of blessing, but are we willing to pave the way and build the road? Link to Formatted Text and Powerpoint included.
THE HIGHWAY TO REVIVAL
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Text--Vs. 3, “...make straight in the desert a highway…”
The work of John the Baptist is foretold here, preparing/paving the way for God’s glory in the flesh to come on the scene. That’s what we’re looking for in revival!
INTRODUCTION: Some of the membership of GBC would reject real revival if it were to come. Many of us, when we pray for revival, do not really realize what we are praying for. If revival were to really come to us, that is, N.T. 1st Century Revival, some of the present membership would leave and go elsewhere. Because real revival will really change a church in a mighty way…and some like it how it is.
We’ve been sub-normal for so long that if ever we experienced what is truly normal, we’d think it was abnormal!
The word “highway” = “raised up”. It’s a “higher” elevation of living…to be spiritually raised up and to live above the status quo.
In these 3 verses the Lord is speaking through Isaiah and is giving instructions on how to pave the way for revival…for great things to happen! I hope that each of us would agree together that we need revival. I need it, and you need it.
God is telling us how to get from the place of need to the place of revival. We are all in the desert place. Revival is where the glory of God is. God is willing to come over to where we are and to bring revival to our souls and to our church. The people are to make a straight highway in their desert.
Ill.—NM highways…destination in the distance/comes slowly, like a mirage.
We are talking about Point “A” and Point “B”. Both of these points are the requirements for revival. Point “A” is in Vs. 3, and Point “B” is in Vs. 5; however, we cannot accomplish this without going through Vs. 4. In other words, we can’t get from Vs. 3 to Vs. 5 without going through Vs. 4.
He is talking about building a highway so God can come visit us.
This is saying that we won’t have revival just because we have scheduled one.
There must be preparation first.
Isa 40:3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. I want to challenge you to do that. We want to do all that we can to allow revival to happen.
Revival is a time of refreshing, renewing, restoring, and a time of rejoicing. Revival is God having His way in your life and in my life.
Revival is the return of the people of God to the Word of God in the house of God, by the power of God, according to the plan of God, under the direction of God, and thus receiving the blessings of God. It is possible that every person here could experience revival except you. Wouldn’t that be a tragedy?
In Vs. 4 we see what is necessary for building the highway, to the glory of God.
This is the formula for revival:
I. EVERY VALLEY SHALL BE EXALTED
This is the filling process.
A Valley Is A Crevice, A Gutter, A Low Place.
1. This would be the troubled spots in your Christian life.
2. The empty places. The lacking places. The places that seem bogged down.
3. Revival will fill these places up. When this happens we will begin to see the S/S class rooms filled, and this room filled.
4. There will be no more empty altars and no more empty hearts.
Once that valley is filled, that low place, that troubled spot is touched and made right by God, then you will be experiencing the glory of the Lord all of the time. That is revival.
What Is Your Valley?
1. Is it some area of failure?
2. Is it some hardship you are experiencing?
3. Is it financial?
4. Is it marital?
5. Is it your past?
No matter what it is, revival can make it right for you.
Like a tooth hollowed out by rottenness…sometimes we need a “filling” in our valleys. Food will stick in a tooth cavity, and the muck of this world washes down into the valleys of your soul…we need God to fill in some low places and revive us!
If we would just enter the revival meeting with every valley in every member’s life already filled then the ground would be level, the foundation poured and even, and real revival could come the first night.
Doesn’t this make you hungry for revival? It does me. I want revival. I know that it may cost me a great deal of the things that I consider to be precious, but I am willing to let go of them for the sake of revival. Are you?
