Robertsdale church of Christ

Revival # 3

1. Brethren, revival is an awaking of God’s people which causes them to become active for God again. In our first lesson on revival I asked the question do we need to become active for God again. Do we need an awaking? Then I gave you some statistics, from the year 1990-2000 churches of Christ in America had declined 2.1%. We lost 70 congregations and 20,000 members. From the year 2003 to the year 2006, in that 3 year period we lost 101 church, 7 of which came right out of Alabama, our home state.

1. In the buckle of the Bible belt, Tennessee, in the 1990’s, it took ten churches of Christ, to convert one soul to Christ, per year, for ten years. Does we need a revival? Yes, remember I told you that the first lesson was for realization, to help us realize that we need to be revived. We need to be awakened.

1. Our second lesson I told you was for personalization, revival has got to be personal. We’ve got to stop looking around at others, and we’ve got start looking at ourselves. Do I need a revival?

1. And for our third lesson we will be talking about actualization, putting shoes on the revival spirit, becoming active for God, catching the fire of God.  You know, I’m sure that many of have noticed from studding the Bible, that fire played a special part in revival. For example, Moses was very discouraged, but was revived when God brought fire in that burning bush that would not consume, Exodus chapter 3.

1. In Daniel 7:9-14, Daniel saw a vision of a fiery throne, with its fiery wheels as “the representation of the burning zeal with which the holy God not only punishes and destroys sinners, but purifies and renders glorious his own people.”

1. And we also know that Peter said in 1 Peter 4, that the fires of persecution actually purify our faith like gold and when the Lord comes again He will come with flaming fire 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. But folks, before we meet the fire of judgment, we need to be fired with the purifying fire of God’s revival.

Song Light Fire-

I stand to praise you but I fall to my knees

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is so week.

Chorus:       Light the fire in my soul

Fan the flame make me whole

Lord you know where I’ve been

So light the fire in my heart again

I feel your arms around me as the power of your healing begins                You breathe new life right through me like a mighty rushing wind.

Chorus:       Light the fire in my soul

Fan the flame make me whole

Lord you know where I’ve been

So light the fire in my heart again

1. Lord help me to get active again, Lord wake me up! In the 1800’s J. J. Husband and WM. McKay put together a song that we sang this morning, “Revive us again.” And my favorite verse in that song is very 5….

Revive Us Again-

Revive us again: fill each heart with thy love; may each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah! Thine the glory; Hallelujah! A-men! Hallelujah! Thine the glory; Revive us again.

1. Folks, the first thing to actualize revival is found in 1 Kings chapters 16-18. Here God sees that His people has drifted away from Him. So He calls for Elijah the prophet, and tells Elijah to tell the people, that since they want to worship the idol Baal, the god of fertility, the god of the crops, that He will just turn off the water until they repent. And that’s what’s He did.

1. Because it didn’t rain for three years. And then there was this King Ahab and Jezebel who had brought the people into idolatry. And they saw Elijah one day and they said “Here comes that troubler who troubles Israel”. And Elijah looked at them in the face and said “No, you’re the ones who troubles Israel!  You and your wife have led God people into idolatry. How long will you halter between two opinions? If Baal be god follow him, but if Jehovah be God follow Him.”

1. Then Elijah turned and said, “and you priest’s of Baal, lets just go up on Mount Carmel right now, I challenge you. You built an alter and I will build an altar, you put a sacrifice on yours and I will put a sacrifice on mine, but no fire. Then, you pray to your god to send fire and I will pray to Jehovah God to send fire.

1. The bottom line is this, the God who sends fire is the one who reigns, is the one true God. So they built the altar, these priest of Baal, and began to cry out to their god to send fire, but nothing happened. So, they began to cut themselves, but still nothing happened. They began to dance and to chant, but nothing happened.

1. Well, Elijah wanted to have some fun, so he tells them, “Hey, maybe your god is asleep, maybe your god can’t hear you, maybe your god is on vacation.” Aren’t you glad our God never is? He says, “Maybe you need to call out louder.” Well they did, and finally after a long time, after the priest had given up, Elijah says now come over here.

1. And it breaks your heart when you read this text, because this where the people of God were suppose to have been worshiping God, but they weren’t. They had been worshiping Baal. And so Elijah had to rebuilt the altar of Jehovah. Well, after he got the altar of Jehovah rebuilt, he placed a sacrifice on it, then he had the people dig a trench and pour water all over the sacrifice till the trench was full, so that it would be impossible for a man to get that sacrifice to burn.

1. Then, after all the preparations had been made, Elijah prayed to God to send fire. And when God sent His fire, not only did it consume the sacrifice, but it burned altar, and lick up the water that was in the trench. And when the priest of Baal saw all this they said, “The Lord He is God, The Lord He is God!”

1. You see, the first step to revival is prayer. We have got ask God to bring the fire of revival into our hearts again. In 1 Kings 3, King Solomon is the new king of Israel and he also goes to offer a sacrifice to God. Well, that night God comes to Solomon in a dream and says “Ask what I shall give you.” In other words, whatever you ask from me, I’ll give you.

1. You know, when I was younger I used to love the story of the Aladdin and the magic lamp. Remember, when you rub the lamb, a Genii would pop out and give you three wishes. I used to think about what I would wish for if I found that lamp. First, I would wish for all the money in the world, then I would for long life, and for my last wish I would ask for a million more wishes.

1. But in this chapter it’s not a genii, it’s almighty God, and He’s talking to a real man. He says, “Ask what I shall give you”. And Solomon knew whatever he asked for, God would do it. Folks, what would you ask for? Would you ask for long life? Wealth, peaceful days, fame, fortune, good health, hair?

1. Do you know what Solomon ask for? Knowing what God wanted to do in his life, he said, “God just give your servant an understanding heart to judge so great a people.” In other words, he said “God give me the ability to do your will to the best of my ability.”

1. Folks, do you know how that made God feel for Solomon to say, not my will, but your will be done”? God was so pleased he said, first of all, I‘m going to give you more than you ask or think. Your going to be the wisest man to every live and secondly I going to give you all the things you didn’t ask for; long life, peaceful day, wealth, fame, fortune.

1. In fact: The Queen of Sheba said, “The haft has not been told about Solomon’s kingdom.” Also, historians tell us that of all three kingdoms, it was Solomon’s kingdom that was the greatest. God keeps His promises! “Well, Slate that was a wonderful story, man I wish that it would happen today.” Are you ready for this? Turn to Matthew 7:7, notice what Jesus says.

1. Matthew 7:7-10 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Then we are given an example) Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? (When they would cook bread, the bread was round and would sometimes look like a stone) Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

1. The power of prayer! Brethren, we need be on our knees praying for revival. Secondly, we need to get back to personal Bible study. You know, there was a time (for example, during the restoration) when members of the church were known for knowing their Bibles.

1. Do we know it today? In 2 Chronicles 34 we see the revival of Josiah. His grandfather was Manasseh, now Manasseh was an evil king who ruled 40 years and brought the people into idolatry. When Manasseh died his son Ammon took the throne, and he we was even worse than his father. Matter of fact, after 2 years they assassinated him and put an 8 year of boy on the throne. They said, “Hey, he’s got to be better than his dad.”

1. And the Bible says that Josiah walked in the ways of his father, but it’s not talking about Manasseh, and it’s not talking about Ammon, but his father David. Because he began to tear down the idols in the land and refurbished the temple and turn back to God. And guess what they found while they were redoing the temple? The Word of God! We think perhaps it was the book of Deuteronomy.

1. And when they read it to Josiah, the king, He tore his clothes and said were not following this at all, but were going to, starting today. And so they called all the people together, and read from God’s Word and had a great revival of God’s people.

1. Brethren, the Word of God is indestructible, the Bible tells us. Jesus says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away, Matthew 24:35. It’s absolute, and unchanging as its author, Hebrews 13:8. But it’s also, and this is awesome, it’s also irreversible, in this since.

1. God told Manasseh, 1 Kings 26, you’ve done so wickedly, and so one day your kingdom’s going to fall and I’m going to wipe it clean like a women wipes a dish. But because of Josiah’s revival, He said your not going to see that, oh it’s going to happen, but not in your life time.

1. Well, after Josiah died, the people went back to their old ways and the southern Kingdom fell and even when they came back they couldn’t find one stone upon another. It was wiped like a woman wipes a dish. Folks, God keeps His Word, we need to study His word.

1. Thirdly, we need to revive worship. You know, there are some folks up north and out west who say that we are patternist. That we are stuck on the order of worship, the five acts of worship. But they are passionist, instead of order they like the awe. But folks, this is what I argue, it’s not either or, it’s both. We need to put the passion back in the pattern that God has given us.

1. You see, it’s already there, we’ve just missed it! Listen to me, there is nothing more passionate than taking the Lord’s Supper. Paul says, “You shall remember the Lord’s death till He comes, the bread representing Jesus body, and the fruit of the vine representing Jesus blood.” Folks, you can’t get more passionate than that. It’s the center of our worship.

1. We wouldn’t have a problem with not using instruments in worship if we would put the passion back into the pattern. As one dear brother said, “It’s not the H-A-R-P it’s the H-E-A-R-T”.  We are to sing with the heart! The passion is in the heart! We wouldn’t have any problem if we understood passionate prayer. Folks, when we pray, do we get this, we are talking to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The creator of the universe. We wouldn’t have trouble with preaching, if would preach boldly God’s Word. The passionate Word of God.

1. And when we gave, we gave our first and best to God. God knows if we give our first and our best and He says, where your treasure is there your heart is also.” You see, we’ve got to put the passion back in the pattern. We’ve go to get on fire for God again!

1. Story: A story was told about an atheist who live in this small town and everyone tried to convert him. Well, one night the church building caught on fire and for the first time in his life the atheist pulled into the parking lot, got out of his car, and walked out on to the church lawn. And people began to ask, “What are you doing here now? We’ve been trying to get you here all your life?” He said, “Well, this is the first time I’ve seen this church on fire!” And as one old preacher said, “And when that church building burned down, all that’s left is the church, but is the church on fire.”

1. Story: Two skeptics went to a worship service and heard a preacher who was preaching boldly. Well, one turned to the other and said do you believe what he’s saying, the other man said, I’m not sure, but I know one thing, he believes it. On fire for God.

1. Kind of reminds me of Nehemiah 8:8 “So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. (And when they heard the word look what happened!) Nehemiah 9:3 “And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.” (Revival!)

1. Folks, we’ve had 2 to responded so far. Revival has begun. Do you need to be revived? Are you ready to wake up and serve the Lord again? Are you ready to catch the fire?

Revival

Psalm 85:6 Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in you? Or some translations say “that Your people may have joy in You”

1. You know, brethren when I read that passage, this week. I began to ask to myself, is it really important, to have the joy of the Lord in my heart? I know Paul says, “rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). I know the Bible tells me that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). I know that joy is important, but just how important is it? Well, I really didn’t know, till I studied Psalm 51:12-13.

1. Here David is trying to restore his relationship with the Lord and he says this words, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.” Folks there it is, all these years, I pass over the key. I mean it was right here in my Bible and I didn’t even see it.

1. You see, for years so many of us preachers have tried to be evangelistic, and we’ve tried to get our congregations to be evangelistic, but David says before we can do that, before we can go out and reach anyone else, we need to revive or restore our own spirit. You see, revival precedes evangelism, in other words, I’ve got to get the fire in my heart before I can go to anybody else. For example: How many of you have children this morning? How many of you have grandchildren?

1. Now, how many of you show off pictures of your children and grandchildren? And talk about them to other people?  We all do! Why? Because they fill us with joy, deep down in own hearts and we got to share it others.  Now, get ready for what I’m about to say this morning, if we as a brotherhood, we would have the same joy in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, the same joy in His precious church and His precious plan of salvation, that we do for our own children and grandchildren, today the world would know about Jesus Christ! Amen?

1. But they don’t. The world doesn’t know the truth about Jesus Christ. Why? Because we don’t have that joy, joy, joy down in our hearts. So what do we need to do? We need to revive that joy. Because let me ask you as question this morning. Is the great commission a command or a suggestion? Matthew 28:19-20 Go (Not if you want to) therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

1. Mark 16:15-16 “Go (Not if you got time) into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Again, is the great commission a command? Now if I don’t obey that command of Jesus, is that a sin? And if that is a public commandment, is that not a public sin? And how do you take care of a public sin?

1. James 5:16 “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Folks, I think there are probably several of us this morning that need to confess that we need revival.

1. And you say, “Well, what is revival? Well, revival is an awaking of God’s people which causes them to become active for God again. Matter of fact, we can draw its meaning from the word itself. Re-means “Again” and Vive-means “Life”. So literally a revival is to bring life again. In the church do we need to be revived?

1. Phil Sanders did a survey from the 1990’s-to the year 2000, and do you know what he discovered? He discovered that in that ten year period, that Churches of Christ in America, had declined 2.1 % we lost 70 congregations – and 20,000 members. A more recent study, from 2003-2006 showed that we lost 101 churches. 7 in Alabama. What happened?

1. In the buckle of the Bible belt, Tennessee, in the 1990’s, it took ten churches of Christ, to convert one soul to Christ, per year, for ten years. Folks, answer this question with me, what is the business of the church? The same business as the Lord’s, to seek and to save the lost.

1. Now, look at this congregation, how’s business? If you had ten satellites of your corporation and it took them a year to make one product, per year, for ten years, guess what, you would be out of business. Let’s make it a little plainer, what if Alabama or Auburn had a football coach who won one game, per year, for ten years. Well, I don’t think he would make it ten years!

1. Folks, what we need is revival! To make the main thing, the main thing again, to seek and to save the lost and so turn with me to book of Ezekiel, around chapter 33. Here Ezekiel the prophet was called to warn the people of Israel. And the Lord told him if the people of Israel will heed the warning, the people will be saved and so will you. If you warn the people and they don’t heed it you save yourself and they will be lost, but if you don’t warn them you are both lost.

1. Ezekiel 37:1-14 ¹The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ²Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. ³And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” ⁴Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. ⁶I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. ¹¹Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ ¹²Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. ¹⁴I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.

1. Folks, here in the text, we see that Ezekiel is confronted with a group of people, the Israelites, who were discouraged, displaced and spiritually dead. In other words, spiritually, they were dry as dust. Any of you feel that this morning? But the question was, could they live again? Could they be revived? Well, God gives Ezekiel the answer to this question by taking him up on a mountain and giving him a visual aid of revival.

1. On that mountain God shows Ezekiel all these dry bones in a valley, then he tells Ezekiel to preach to those bones, and when he does the bones come together, the tendons and muscles were reinstated and they were all once again encased in skin. Then God breathed his spirit back into these bodies, and once again God had a mighty army. Can we be revived? Can our country be revived? Can we live again? God says preach the word to those bones. That’s what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2.

1. 2 Timothy 4:2-5 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ⁵But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (Because I want to stir, 2 Timothy 1:6, the fire within you!)

1. Luke 24:32 (As Two men were walking to the town of Emmaus, Jesus appeared to them, then disappeared) And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Notice, preach the word and God said, I will breath my spirit back into those bone and they will live again. Revival, a might army for God. Are we a mighty army for God or are we a sleeping giant?

1. Illustration: A story is told about a Sunday school teacher who took her Sunday school class into the auditorium, they didn’t have an auditorium class. And so once in the auditorium she wanted to share with them how to worship properly. She told the children, now when we are having worship, you need to be very quit and you know why don’t you. One sweet girl raised her hand and said, “Yes, because the people are sleeping”.

1. That’s the problem, the people are sleeping, but how do you know you are asleep? How do you know that you are spiritually dry? How do you know you need to be revived? Well, you know your dry when there is no desire for Bible study and prayer. You know your dry when spiritual conversations embarrasses you. You know your dry when you rationalize sin. You know your dry when you quote scripture and attend services, but it doesn’t make a difference in your life.

1. You know, your dry when money motivates you, when your bank book and your calendar shows that you are an idolater because that’s your God, your dry. When you don’t have the excitement, the joy for Christianity, and you don’t have the blessed assurance, your dry. And you say, Slate that me, but how did I get to here? Look over to the book of Hebrews and check out chapter 2 around verse 1. Here the Hebrew writer is writing to a second generation of Christians who are falling away from God, and so the Hebrew writer’s trying to get them back. He trying to revive them. And so he says here in chapter 2 and verse one. “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”

Illustration: You see, we’re kind of like a boat that has been tied to a dock and the not slips and like that boat we begin to drift way.

1. Now, think for a moment, when you were first baptized, do you remember how you first felt when you came up out of the water? How you wanted to tell the whole world about Jesus. And how you read your Bible everyday. And how you prayed everyday. This morning, are you still doing that?

1. Do you remember how you were so excited about the church, and how you got involved in church activities and how you taught a class? But after awhile you kind of dropped away from teaching. Then you kind of dropped away from the activities. Then you stopped reading your Bible everyday, you also stopped praying everyday, and then pretty soon you started missing services. You began to come only once a week and you thought that was enough, but even then you were drifting away from God.

1. Then in chapter 3 around verse 19, the Hebrews writers says, this is what happens if you keep on drifting, you’re going to begin to start doubting. Folks, listen to me this morning, it wasn’t giants that kept the Israelites out of the promise land, it was doubt, unbelief. And there are some in the Lord’s church who are already heading down that road.

1. I’m talking about those who hear the preacher and say, “ah, I don’t know if that’s really right.” Or they read their Bible’s and say “You know, I don’t know if that’s always true.” They start doubting God. You see, it’s just a down hill spiral, and if you’re not careful, look at chapter 5:11. Next, you become dull of hearing.

1. How many of you have ever heard someone say this before? “I don’t want to hear it.” “I’ve heard that sermon a hundred times.” Folks, it’s God’s word, it’s fresh every time, but to too many it’s become dull now. So what’s going to happen? Well, look at chapter 10:39. After you become dull, pretty soon you start drawing back.

1. And you know who I’m talking about, I sure all of you have called someone or went to visit someone who has fallen away and they just flat out told you “I not interested in coming back.” Folks, there’s your spiral. That’s how we get there. Now how do we keep that from happening? How do we fan the flame again in our personal lives?

1. Well, turn with me to Revelation chapter 2. Now, while you’re looking there, let me ask you, did you know that this downhill spiral can not only happen to an individual Christian, it can also happen to a whole church? In Revelation chapter 2:1, here, Jesus begins to talk to 7 churches and the very first one, was the church at Ephesus.

1. And at first he’s really encouraging them, he say, “I really appreciate how you keep out false teachers and false teaching, that’s good.” But then he goes on to says, “But I have this against you, that you have left you’re first love.” So how do you restore that? Well, look at verse 5, here’s your first key. He says, “Remember!” Now, let me tell you folks, that not only works for churches, and individual Christians, but also this works in marriages.

1. Couples come to me for marital counseling. And I say here it is, “remember”, remember how you first felt when you met each other. Remember your dates, how you use to treat each other, how you use to open the car door for her and how she used to say you that were a big hunk?  Do you remember that? Do you remember your honeymoon? Do you remember those times? Remember!

1. Secondly, repent. Just repent of all that junk and all that laziness and how you got so hard and crusty in your heart. Repent of that! And return, and go back to those first works, in other words, return to those niceties you used to do. Or He says, “I’m going to come and remove the candle stick from you, that relationship, that fire, that flame, all together.”

1. Folks, there it is, there’s the key, if you’ve fallen out of love with your mate, your spiritual mate, God. You need, to remember, repent, and return. And when we return we’ve got to get busy. Because who’s job is it to save the lost? Well, Christ says it’s mine and it’s yours. Who job is it to follow up and make sure that people know the gospel? The Lord says, it’s yours and min and I will be with you. Do people need the Lord? How are they going to find Him if we don’t tell them? You know, one of the most haunting songs is the song, “You never mentioned Him to me.”

1. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone saying that to me one day. The Lord says, if you follow me, I will make you to become what? Fishers of men! How is your fishing? Are you catching men? 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If you My people who are called by My name (That’s realization, we’re God’s people) will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

1. In the book “Receipt For Revival” by John Stancy, it says, the church of Christ desperately needs a revival. We need a revival because many of our churches are as far from pure, simple, primitive, New Testament Christianity, as the Pope is from marriage. We must get back to the church of Christ that we find in Acts of the Apostles. Stacy characterized the church today as fat, lazy, out of breath and in need of a new diet.

1. In his recipe for revival he said, if all the sleeping folks will wake up, and all the lukewarm will fire up and all the dishonest folks confess up and all the disgruntled folks will sweeten up and all the discouraged folks will cheer up and all the depressed folks will look up and all the estrange folks will make up and all the gossipers will shut up and all the delinquents will pay up and all the dry bones will shake up and all the members will study up and all the preachers will speak up and all the true soldiers will stand up, then there will be a great revival. (Amen?)

1. Folks, let’s make the main thing, the main thing. There was a Dr. (the paper said) who was sued because he passed by an accident and did not offer assistance that he could have given them. You know, I wonder how many Christians could be sued by the world? We need to pray for the churches unemployment rate, we need to get back to business folks.

1. If we don’t evangelize we will fossilize. We need to pray for revival, to bring it to ourselves individually, to our congregations collectively. We need to pray for lost souls, we need to pray for our country, we need to pray for our marriages, we need to pray for our families, we need to pray that we will make the main thing, the main thing. We need to pray that we will all be about our Fathers business.

1. Illustration: A story is told about Robert Robinson, he’s an old man now and was walking down a dirt road feeling very dejected, when a young girl comes by in a carriage. Seeing how deject he was she stops the carriage and says, “Sir can I share a song with you, it goes like this, Oh, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.” Robinson stop her and responded, “Madam, I wrote that song and I’d give a thousand worlds to have that feeling once again.

1. Psalm 85:6 “Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You? Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinner shall be converted to You.” This morning, the lesson is yours. Do you need to be revived? Do you need the obey the gospel being washed in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 1:5. If so come as together we stand and sing.

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