1. I am convinced that America is in an almost hopeless mess.
a. Our hope is not in a new POTUS or US Congress
b. It is not on a new focus of government
c. Our hope is where it has always been, "In God We Trust" -- not our schemes/ourselves
2. Revival Prayer
In 1857 there was a 46 year old man named Jeremiah Lamphere who lived in New York City. Jeremiah loved the Lord, but he didn't feel that he could do much for the Lord until he began to feel a burden for the lost and accepted an invitation from his church to be an inner city missionary. So in July, 1857 he started walking up and down the streets of New York passing out tracts and talking to people about Jesus, but he wasn't having any success. Then God put it on his heart to try prayer. So he printed up a bunch of tracts, and he passed them out to anyone and everyone met. He invited anyone who wanted to come to the 3rd floor of an old Church on Fulton St. in New York City from 12 to 1 on Wednesday to pray.
He passed out hundreds and hundreds of fliers and put up posters everywhere he could. Wednesday came and at Noon nobody showed up. So Jeremiah got on his knees and started praying. For 30 minutes he prayed by himself when finally five other people walked in. The next week 20 people came. The next week between 30 and 40 people came. They then decided to meet every day from 12:00 to 1:00 to pray for the city. Before long a few ministers started coming and they said, "We need to start this at our churches". Within six months there were over 5000 prayer groups meeting every day in N.Y.C.
Soon the word spread all over the country. Prayer meetings were started in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington D.C. In fact President Franklin Pierce started going almost every day to a noonday prayer meeting. By 1859 some 15,000 cities in America were having downtown prayer meetings every day at noon and thousands were brought to Christ. The great thing about this revival is that there is not a famous preacher associated with it. It was all started by one man wanting to pray. See only God can start a revival and God is quite clear about what He expects before He will return to His people.
3. 2 Chronicles 7.11-22 (focus on 13-14)
You don't have revival by seeking revival, but by seeking God. If you and I will pray and seek God's face, He will hear, forgive, and heal. If God is going to come and be with His people, He is not going to come until his people ask him.
Yet sometimes people may feel the object of prayer is to overcome God's reluctance. It is like God is taking a nap, He really doesn't want to be disturbed, but if you pray just right and say the magic words, He might do something for you anyway.
Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance; it is not saying the right string of words; prayer is: Seeking God in His Will; Trusting God in His Grace; and Joining God in His Purpose.
God is waiting to hear His people pray and ask for revival. And until some people get on their knees, humble themselves, seek God and ask Him to come, revival will not become a reality.
4. When the First Continental Congress met in September of 1774, one of the first actions of the Congress was. . . wait for it . . . to pray. [Pic of Chaplain Jacob Duche leading prayer; point out G. Washington
5. Dr. Benjamin Rush (PA) and John Adams (MA) became friends through the Continental Congress. After our War for Independence began, Dr. Rush came back from visiting the field hospitals of the Continental Army. Early in the conflict we had experienced massive losses. Rush asked Adams, "John, do you think we can win this war?" Adams replied, "Yes. If we fear God and repent of our sins."
6. Three Prayerful Actions for Reviving America:
I. In Prayer, Seek God in His Will
A. God's Will for Reviving the Land Begins with Us
1. My People/My Name (7.14)
2. IF Revival comes WE Must Start the Process through Prayer
a. Judgment begins with us -- 1 Peter 4.17
For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
b. How Much More Serious for People Outside of Jesus?
B. God's Will Displays God as Seen in Jesus -- see me, see Father
1. A Prayerfulness
a. Jesus is the most effective person of prayer we will know
b. He prayed all night (Luke 6.12); Mt. of Transfiguration (Luke 9.28); Gethsemane; John 17
c. "Teach us to pray. . ." Luke 11.1
2. A Holiness -- "Be holy" (Leviticus 11.44-45 cf. 1 Peter 1.16); Jesus was set apart for God
3. A Humility -- Matthew 11.28-30
4. A Seeking of God --
* [For almost 200 years, American public schools included the Bible as part of the curriculum; in fact, Congress authorized the printing of bibles for the schools -- then in the 1960's we eliminated prayer and the bible from our schools -- how's that working?
* John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
a. Not new and improved programs, activities to keep us busy or new methods to dazzle people away from "competitor churches"
b. Jesus' life was spent seeking His Father and His Will; Matthew 6.33
c. We can give up God -- Romans 1.21-24a
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, (also vv. 26, 28)
5. A Repentance in Brokenness
Psalm 51:16, 17, "You, O Lord, do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart..." Only the broken heart is big enough for God to dwell in. Broken hearts are rare today. Even more rare are broken churches.
a. Jesus had no sins for which he needed to repent (Hebrews 4.15)
b. He repented for us -- Isaiah 53.11
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
II. In Prayer, Trust God in His Grace
Dwight L. Moody, a famous evangelist from Chicago went on vacation to England. He wasn't planning to do any preaching; he was on a sabbatical. But he met a preacher there who said, "Mr. Moody you're so well know, would you come and speak at our church?" So he went to preach the next Sunday morning.
That afternoon Moody wrote in his journal that they were the deadest crowd he had ever seen and that the only thing worse than preaching to those people was that he had promised to go back that night and preach again. But he went back that night, and about halfway through the sermon something happened.
The people started to come to life, and he felt compelled to ask if anyone there would like to become a Christian and a lot of people stood up. He didn't know what to do. So he said, "Maybe you don't understand what I am asking. So when we are dismissed if you want to become a Christian come over to this little room and meet with me." When the service was over, he went to the room it was packed. Moody said to the minister, "What does this mean?" He said, "I don't know. But I think you need to preach again tomorrow night."
The next day Moody got on a train and went to Ireland to continue his vacation. But when he got off the train there was a memo that said, "Come back. Revival has broken out." So Moody got back on the train, went back to that church and preached 10 straight nights. And 400 responded to the invitation.
Moody couldn't understand. Those people were dead, and something changed it. Come to find out that an 80 something year old invalid widow named Mary Ann Adelard had read one of his sermons in the newspaper and had started praying every day that God will bring D. L. Moody to her church, and He did.
What does Paul write in I Thessalonians 5:17? He doesn't say sing without ceasing, or fellowship without ceasing or even preach without ceasing. He said, "Pray without ceasing." That's revival praying! In Luke 11:1, the disciples said to Jesus, "Teach us to pray." I.e., "Lord teach us how to pray, to pray like you do."
A. God is Anxious to Remove Our Sins
1. A new slant on sin -- "Sin brings tears to the eyes of God."
2. God is not anxious for judgment -- 2 Peter 3.9
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
B. God is Anxious to Hear Our Prayers -- 1 Peter 3.12
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
C. God is Anxious to Heal Our Land
1. In times past, people saw the hand of God in tragedies -- tornado; earthquake; fire sermons
2. Do we? Floods in Houston and W. VA -- from God?
3. Used as a wakeup call to us
III. In Prayer, Join God in His Purpose -- Ecclesiastes 12.13
A. Prayer is More Than a Wish List of Desires for God to Fill
1. Breeze in and out with shopping lists for God
2. Wonder why our prayers never rise higher than the ceiling
B. Prayer Involves Us in the Purpose of God
1. Thy Will Be Done. . . .(Not MY will)
2. Too often we make our plans in detailed minutia and ask God to "Bless our mess."
C. The Purpose (as the Will) of God Includes:
1. Knowing God -- Matthew 7.21
2. Knowing God's Word
D. The Purpose of God is to Fill Hearts and Lives with His Presence -- Why many are here today
1. To Reconcile -- Romans 5.10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
2. To Restore Eden Relationships
3. To Renovate Our Hearts with a purpose Greater than We Are -- Ecclesiastes 3.14
1. Stand Up for Jesus
The great prayer revival of 1857 moved from New York to Detroit, Buffalo, Washington D.C. and it moved to Philadelphia in a powerful way. One of the leaders in Philadelphia was a young man named Dudley Tyng. He started a noonday prayer meeting at the YMCA, and some days 5000 people would come at noon and pray.
In March of 1858, Dudley stood up and he read Exodus 10:11, "Go ye that are men and serve the Lord." He then said, "I would rather that this right arm were amputated at the trunk than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God's message." Later that week Dudley went out into the country to see some friends. While in a barn at his friend's place he got his arm caught in a corn threshing machine and the main artery in his arm was severed. They took him to a bed and tried to save his life but he had lost too much blood. So his friends gathered around him and asked him what he would like to say. He said, "Tell them, 'Let us all stand up for Jesus.'"
The next Sunday his good friend George Duffield stood up at church and preached in memory of his friend. He said, "I just finished writing a poem in honor of Dudley and I want to read it to you." Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, ye solders of the cross. Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory His army shall He lead, till every foe is vanquished, for Christ is Lord in deed. Stand up, Stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey. Forth to the mighty conflict in this His glorious day. Ye that are men now serve Him, against unnumbered foes. Let courage rise with danger and strength to strength oppose. Stand up stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle, the next the victor's song. To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be, he with the king of glory shall reign eternally.
All across America, city after city people would meet for one day and pray for their country, and sing Stand up Stand up for Jesus.
2. It's time to decide if we want to do business with God. Some of us need to decide if we are going to be baptized today.
3. Some of us need to pray for revival and courage.
