Sunday Morning January 23, 2000 Bel Aire Baptist Church, Hobbs NM
GOD’S RECIPE FOR A REVIVAL
2 CHRONICLES 7:14
Introduction:
1. As we stop for a moment, I would like us to reflect upon what God has
done here at Bel Aire Baptist Church since the church was organized.
2. The church was organized January 31, 1960.
a. There were 22 members, which grew to 36 total in the first year.
b. That first year the total income of the church was $5419.00.
3. In the last 40 years the church has seen years of average attendance up as
high as 150 in Sunday School and 185 in Worship Service and as low as
18 average in Sunday School and 25 in Worship Service.
a. Over the last 10 years our average in these two areas has been up
and down a little, but mainly we have not really changed.
b. Our churches income has been blessed.
c. The $5419.00 income 40 years ago has grown to $95,000.00.
4. The church is now on its 11th pastor.
5. Out of all of these figures, I have not addressed the one that matters the
most.
a. After all, why has and is the church here?
b. In the last 40 years our church has seen 768 saved and baptized.
c. Now we might want to brag on that, but if you really look at that,
the number is not that great.
d. In the late 60’s the church was baptizing between 40 and 50 each
year, but since then we have been lucky to see more than 5 each
year.
e. Barna Research tells us that in 1999 that 37,000 Southern Baptist
Churches baptized less than 5 people last year, and 11,000 churches
baptized 0.
f. One might say it is because the people have changed; or the times
have changed; or the preaching is not as good; or many other
opinions; so what is the problem?
6. Evil is growing all around us.
a. We face either massive spiritual revival or total moral anarchy.
b. In the 60’s, there was a moral earthquake that shook our nation and we
are still feeling the aftershocks.
c. A philosophy called moral relativism was taught in our Universities.
1. No absolute creator.
2. No absolute truth.
3. No absolute right or wrong.
d. Our children today live in a morally confusing time.
e. Many say that our youth are a lost generation, but I am here to
tell you that they are not a lost generation, but the product of a
lost generation.
7. 27 million children will go to bed tonight without a father in the home.
a. Every 22 seconds there is a major crime committed.
b. Every 34 minutes there is a murder.
c. 250,000 high school girls attended school pregnant.
d. 100,000 students carry guns to school.
e. 1 million teenagers are alcoholics.
f. 1 out of every 8 babies is illegitimate.
g. As much as God has blessed our nation and our churches, God is not
going to continue to put up with this.
Psalm 9:17: “The wicked shall be turned to hell, And all the nations that
forget God.”
Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man
sows, that he will also reap.”
h. Many nations have turned from God and they have been destroyed.
i. We are no exception!
8. The Bible says we are the salt and the light.
a. We should be helping but we are no different from the lost.
b. The divorce rate is higher in the church than it is outside the church.
c. Only 12% of our nation 25 and under attend church and only 12% of
that group continues to attend after they leave home.
d. Out of 66 lifestyle categories Christians are no different in any area than the lost.
9. We have substituted programs for prayer and CEO’S for pastors.
a. God’s trying to get our attention.
10.Time out, Time out! Children of God we are at the point of destruction.
a. Let the past be dead.
b. It is time to wake up!
c. So what do we do?
11.It seems that nearly every Bible-believing religious leader is saying today
that what we need now in America more than anything else is a revival of
the old-time religion.
a. As I looked at the many people that left the church each year in
the last 40 years I was shocked.
b. In most years, for every 10 that joined by baptism or by letter, 9
left.
c. We do need revival but there is much more to it than just saying
it.
d. We have been saying it for 20 years but why have we not
experienced it?
12.What is a revival?
a. A revival is an awakening of God’s people, which causes them to
become active for God.
b. Vive means life and re means again.
c. So the implication here is that the life is already there, the life of
Christ in the individual Christian.
d. But that life is still and dormant and needs to be stirred up, that it
might engage in an activity for Christ for which the Christian was
formed.
13.But someone will say, "I thought we had revivals so that men and women
and boys and girls around us might be saved."
a. That is true, for that is the end result of revival.
b. But if the other takes place, if Christians wake up and live and
serve and witness as they should, we would not have to worry about
people being saved.
c. They would see such a difference in the lives of Christians that they
should say, "I need that which you have; tell me how I can get it."
14.God has a recipe for revival and it’s found in the Book of 2 Chronicles.
God says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves,
and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear
from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
10. Let us look at the text.
I. The Text Is Directed To God’s People
A. "If my people, which are called by my name."
1. That’s where revival must start, in the hearts of His people.
2. I would like to ask to you, are you one of His people?
3. Are you a real Christian or do you just bear the name?
4. Are you a child of God or just a church member?
5. Have you been redeemed or were you just baptized by
some preacher?
6. Jesus said, "Ye must be born again."
B. We are all saved by faith in Christ, although under different circumstances.
1. Paul was thrown to the ground; Lydia was saved at a prayer
meeting quietly.
II. The Text Tells Us To Humble Ourselves And Pray And Seek God’s Face
A. This simply means that we are to go down on our faces before God.
1. We are to acknowledge our sins, confess our shortcomings, and
put aside everything that stands between God and us.
2. How often does the average Christian pray?
a. He prays only when trouble arises.
B. There are four kinds of prayer that ought to arise daily from our hearts.
1. First, there is prayer of adoration, praising God for all He is.
2. Then there is the prayer for confession, asking God to forgive us
for our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
3. Then there is prayer of thanksgiving, thanking God for all He has done.
4. Then there is the prayer of supplication, asking God to fit us for
service and to fill us with the Holy Spirit.
C. Seeking God’s face means to form a relationship with Him.
1. We seek His hands.
2. Don’t do that, seek His face.
III. The Text Then Tells Us To Turn From Our Wicked Ways
A. Now here is where the problem lies.
1. There is wickedness in us, there is sin in us, and there are certain things
standing between God and us.
2. The psalmist told God to try him and see if there was any wicked
way in him.
3. We need to look deep down into our own hearts and lives and
acknowledge the sin that is there.
B. Let me give you some practical ways to turn from your wicked ways.
1. We need to turn away from our neglect of God’s Word.
David says, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee" (Psalm 119:11).
a. There are three things we ought to do about the Bible.
1. We should love it because it is God’s love letter to us.
2. We should learn it and that requires study.
3. We should live it and that’s the most important part
of all.
2. We need to turn away from our desecration of the Lord’s Day.
a. Sunday should be a "holy day", but we have made of it a
holiday.
3. We need to turn away from a Christless home life.
4. We need to turn away from a wrong attitude toward others.
5. We need to turn away from our indifference to lost souls.
6. We need to turn away from all sin and worldliness.
a. Our problem is our concept of sin.
b. To us if we did not murder or steal we have not sinned.
c. We try to water-down sin or rationalize sin.
7. If God’s Word calls it sin, then it’s sin whether you like it or not!
Conclusion:
1. Yes, this is God’s recipe for a revival.
2. If all of God’s people will get right with God, if they will go out to live
rightly before Him, if they will witness faithfully for Him, God will keep
His promise.
3. He will send revival.
4. The statistics I gave you earlier of the past, they are just memories.
a. There have been many wonderful accomplishments in the past, but
that is not going to heal our churches, our homes, and our nation...
b. Only God will do that when we humble ourselves before Him.
5. Are we truly starting this New Year on a note of revival or on a note of
the past?
