DO YOU WANT A REVIVAL?
Preached 31 October 2004
Gregory W. Lee

The Passionate Election
-- Well, here we are at the cusp of a major presidential election -- I can tell you, I'm getting a little burned out by all the rheteric and campaign ads and calls for this election -- both from the presidential candidates as well as local and state candidates

-- I know I've not been involved in a lot of elections, but I have never -- in my life -- seen an election like this -- I have never seen so many people so passionate about their candidates and so passionate about keeping the other person out of office -- and that holds whether you're talking about Kerry or Bush or any of the other candidates

-- their supporters are making it sound like that if the other one gets in office, our country is headed right to hell and that the only way we will survive is to elect their candidate -- and I think they really believe that

-- but when you step back and you get past all the rhetoric and all the lies and all the campaign ads and all the debates, you can clearly see that all the people want the same thing -- they want to see America made strong -- they want to see America made prosperous -- they want to see Americans protected from terrorism and protected from financial catastrophe -- they want to see Americans taken care of

-- they may have different paths to get there -- they may think only their candidate can do it -- but both sides firmly believe that we must restore America

The Need for Revival
-- as I was thinking about this this week, it struck me what the nation is really calling for -- the nation is calling for revival -- they may not call it revival -- they may not even know that's what they are wanting -- but that's exactly what they are desiring in their heart of heart

-- when revival comes to a nation, not only is there a renewing of the spiritual, but there is a renewing of everything about a nation -- its morals, its ethics, its justice, its mercy, and its grace

-- if there is one thing this election has clearly shown, it is that America desperately needs a revival of heart and soul and body if we are going to survive and fulfill God's will for this nation

-- we talk about revival a lot in the church -- we schedule revivals and homecomings and come together claiming to seek a revival in our lives -- but are we truly seeking a real revival

-- in the Bible, there are two meanings to the word revival -- the first is from the Old Testament -- in the context of the Hebrew Scriptures, the word revival conveyed the idea of breathing -- breathing with the breath of God -- living in such a way that God's presence was manifested through us -- not only at church -- not only in our individual lives -- but in the lives of the community and the nation as well

-- revival was a means by which God restored and preserved and healed the nations -- it was a means by which God prospered the nations -- and I think that is exactly what we are seeking in this election

-- in the New Testament, the word Revival takes on a slightly different meaning -- it becomes more personal and it means to bring back to life -- to live again -- and as Jesus taught, true revival begins first at home -- in your heart and in my heart -- and then spreads out to the church and to the community and to the nation

-- Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter defined a New Testament revival as an extraordinary work of God in which Christians repent of their sins as they become intensely aware of the presence of God in their midst -- they say that a true evangelical revival is characterized by a deepening of their individual and corporate experience with God and an increased concern to win others to Christ

Real Revivals?
-- we have had scheduled revivals every year since I've been here -- how many of you really came expecting to see God work in that way -- how many of you really came expecting to see this nation changed through our revival?

-- I can confess to you -- I didn't -- and I expect you didn't -- you probably came to hear a good preacher -- to hear good singing -- to share in the fellowship -- to experience God outside of a normal Sunday morning worship service -- but you didn't really come expecting revival

-- let me get one thing straight with you this morning -- revival will not come on November 2nd when the polls close -- revival will not come just because we set aside a fifth Sunday or three-days in the fall or spring and bring in a guest preacher -- revival will only come when we seek it in accordance with God's word

-- in 2 Chr. 7:14, God gives us the requirements of revival -- He tells us how to bring it about -- we've been over these verses -- I've preached on these verses -- even Brooke has memorized these verses -- but yet we still haven't seen revival

-- why? -- it's because we have just read about it and believed in revival but we have done absolutely nothing on our part to take action and bring it about

-- if you want to see revival -- don't depend on Kerry or Bush or any of the elected officials -- don't depend on guest preachers or on me -- don't depend on it just happening -- if you don't take the steps on your own to bring about revival in your life, it will never happen

-- listen to me -- look at me as I proclaim this verse to you -- 2 Chronicles 7:14 -- "if my people, who are called by my name -- will humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land"

-- don't miss the order there -- God says if we do all of that -- if we humble ourselves -- if we seek His face -- if we turn from our wicked ways -- then and only then will He hear from heaven
-- how many of you did that before the last revival we had -- how many of you did that in preparation for Homecoming?

-- and catch what the rest of this verse is saying -- if we do that -- then God will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins -- He will forgive our sins first before He heals our land -- before America is made strong -- before America is made righteous and full of God's justice and mercy and grace -- before we see a spiritual and a physical and a material revival in America, we must first seek forgiveness of our own sins

-- revival doesn't start with elections -- revival doesn't start with democrats or republicans -- revival starts in your own heart and in your own household and in your own life -- and from there, revival will spread through this church and this community and this state and this nation

-- how do you know if you are seeing a true revival? -- you will know, because you will experience it starting in your heart and flowing out to the church like a living river and then flowing outside the church -- changing lives and society as it goes

-- when we talk about revival, we are talking about nothing less than the manifest presence of God in our lives -- forgiving our sins and healing our hearts and changing our very existence

A True Spiritual Revival (Luke 18:9-14)
-- I want us to take a few minutes and look at one of the greatest revivals in the word of God -- and I'm not talking about Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost -- I'm not talking Joshua leading the nation of Israel to repentance beside the Jordan River -- I'm not talking about Ninevah's revival under the preaching of Jonah -- I'm not talking about the restoration of Israel under Elijah at Mt. Carmel -- no, I'm talking about a different revival

-- look with me at Luke 18:9 -- we are told this is a parable of Jesus, but there is no reason to believe that it didn't actually happen -- as God, Jesus would have known of this situation, but He presented it to his listeners as a parable -- as a story -- so they would relate it to their own lives

-- verse 9. "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:"

Jesus told this parable to a group of people who were convinced of their own righteousness -- these were the upstanding church members of His day -- they looked at their lives and at their service to God and at their attendance at religious services -- and they believed that they were as holy as they needed to be -- they served as examples to others -- those people who were out there living a sinful life just needed to be like them to be saved

-- verse 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

-- Jesus is contrasting here two people on the opposite extremes of the spectrum -- one was a Pharisee -- a leader in the church -- the other, a tax collector -- or, as the King James says, a publican -- a sinner -- someone who was despised by the church because of the life that he was living

-- you want to put this in modern day words -- two men went up to church to pray -- one was a committee chair -- the other a good ole boy who liked to hang out at CJ's Pub and shoot pool in the evenings

-- verses 11-12 -- 11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
12. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

-- it was common in that day for the people who were praying to stand up and to raise their head and their hands to heaven -- they would pray to God with their eyes open -- so Jesus may mean that this Pharisee took that position -- or He may mean that the Pharisee took it a step further -- he separated himself from the others in the temple and prayed in the open so all would see him

-- and, honestly, this Pharisee was a great man of God -- he did above and beyond what the law required -- we would be excited to have such a person in our midst -- this was a man who didn't have obvious sin in his life -- he wasn't a hypocrite -- proclaiming to be holy and then going out sinning in the eyes of the world -- no, he says here he wasn't a robber or an evildoer or an adulterer

-- in fact, he fasted twice a week -- the law only required him to fast once a year -- this man fasted every Monday and Thursday -- 100 times a year -- 100 times what God required

-- he gave a tithe -- a tenth of everything that he received -- the law didn't demand that -- God didn't demand that -- the law only required that this man give a tithe from the corn and wine and oil and cattle, but this Pharisee gave a tenth of everything -- even the herbs of his garden

-- but look how he approached God -- Jesus tells us that he came and prayed about himself -- his prayer is more a boast than an expression of worship -- he gave thanks to God, but really didn't give God the credit for the goodness in his life -- he doesn't say "by the grace of God I am what I am" like Paul does -- he just talks about himself and his works

-- and he seems to want to show God just how righteous he is by comparing himself to the lowly tax collector standing there with him

-- we don't ever do that, do we? -- we don't ever look down on somebody -- we don't ever see someone with an obvious sin problem -- maybe alcoholism or drug use or adultery -- and think to ourselves, "at least I'm better than them" -- we don't ever compare ourselves with others, do we? -- we don't compare our church to other churches, do we?

-- look at how different the tax collector was -- vs. 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

-- Jesus tells us that this tax collector stood at a distance -- he stood far off -- he wouldn't look up at heaven -- he just stood there, head bowed -- eyes down -- beating himself on his chest -- too sinful to approach God -- too sinful to even stand next to the Pharisee

-- he had no deeds to express -- he had no good works to put up -- he had nothing -- no righteousness in his life at all -- all he could do was stand before the holiness of God and cry out with the heart of a sinner, "God, have mercy on me"

-- when was the last time you approached God like this tax collector? -- when was the last time that you were made aware of the sin in your life to the point where you just stood before God and cried out, "God, have mercy on me?" -- when was the last time you looked at the holiness of God and the sinfulness of your life and cried out to Him in brokenness for forgiveness?

-- every one of you -- whether you are a Christian or not -- is a sinner -- every one of you is no better than that tax collector -- 1 Jn 1:8 says "if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us"

-- that Pharisee was deceived -- he was a sinner -- and when he approached the throne of grace he should have done it just like the tax collected -- with humbleness of spirit and with true repentance in his heart

-- the passage in 1 John goes on to say in verse 9, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness"

-- look back at verse 14 in this passage -- "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

-- both men entered the presence of God -- but only one man went home justified -- only one man went home with his sins forgiven and purified from all unrighteousness

-- this was the man who sought a revival in his own heart -- who did what 2 Chronicles 7:14 commands -- he humbled himself -- in body and in spirit -- he sought the face of God through prayer -- and he turned from all his wicked ways -- he repented of his sin and cried out to God for mercy and grace -- and God brought revival -- God brought healing -- God brought restoration

Do You Want a Revival?
-- do you want a revival -- do you really want to see an extraordinary work of God in your life and in this church and in this nation -- then it has to start at the same place it started with this tax collector -- it has to start with your own heart

-- revival only comes through repentance -- through humbleness -- and through praying and seeking God's face

-- if we want a revival in this nation -- and I think the people are crying out for such a revival -- then we need to repent of all known sin -- we need to do everything that we are supposed to do -- and then we'll experience revival

-- can God work in a mighty way in our church? -- can God work in a mighty way in our nation? -- I believe and I know that He can

-- I want to close by telling you about a mighty work of God that happened last week -- that was brought about through prayer and through repentance

-- last week, a friend of mine went into the state prison at Autrey as part of the Kairos team -- almost half of the inmates -- 11 people -- were not Christians -- two of those were muslims, who were participating in the Kairos so they could fix the Christians and show them the error of their ways

-- one of the guys on the team sent out an emergency e-mail on Saturday night -- the last night of the event -- requesting prayer for the 11 people by name -- within two hours, he had received over 1,200 responses back and counting -- the team prayed for these 11 men all evening and through the next morning

-- the next day, as the inmates were coming back into the conference room and being hugged and greeted by the Kairos team, the first of the 11 people they were praying for entered the line

-- he made it past the fifth person in the Kairos team line and then fell to the ground, weeping and repenting of his sins and asking Jesus into his life

-- then two more fell down and did the same -- when the first Muslim came in, he made it to the 10th person in line and fell to his knees, asking Jesus to forgive him for turning his back on Him

-- the other Muslim came in and immediately fell to the ground prostrate, crying and asking Jesus into his life

-- while the team was praying with these men, a black female guard rounded the corner, crying and asking if someone could help her -- she said she needed Jesus in her life too -- out of the 11 prisoners they prayed for, 10 of them accepted Christ

-- the other inmates in the prison refused to walk past the building where the Kairos was going on because they said they got a tingling feeling as they walked past -- they asked the guards for permission to go a different way to the chow hall -- the power of God was so strong in that place that it was spilling outside the walls and into the prison itself

Closing
-- revival will happen anywhere that people humble themselves and seek God's face and turn from their wicked ways -- it happened in the heart of a tax collector -- it happened in Autrey prison -- and it can happen in your life and in this church too -- but, it's up to you

-- will you this morning seek revival in your life -- will you go home justified -- or will you go home like the Pharisee?

-- as we sing this last hymn, the altar is open -- God is here -- and if you want to experience a revival, then you need to respond

-- let's pray