Purpose of Revival

            Today I am going to preach about revival. This is not a foreign or unfamiliar subject for this church. This church has a keen knowledge of revival. Oh that we would realize the need of revival!

This won’t be new. You know what revival is. But oh the need for it that exists today!

That we would learn to pursue it.

That we would desire it.

As a deer seeks the water…so my soul seeks you Lord!

 

Nothing will replace it.

Not programs.

Not ideas.

Not ministries.

Not personalities.

Our platform for revival is the book of Acts.

What God has done he will do!

The God that came still comes.

The God that poured out his spirit, still does today!

The God that healed still does!

Isaac new the value of reviving something that was dead.

When he had to leave Abimelech’s land, he went back to his father’s land.

But he encountered a great problem. Each of the wells that his father had previously dug were filled with debris and waste that the Philistines had stopped them up with.

Those wells were his claim to the land.

He could have said, “I have lost it all” and left.

But he realized this land was his. It was his by promise. God gave daddy this land. Its mine!

I’m going to tell you today that its time to redig some wells around here! The wells of apostolic ministry and power!

We could give up. We could say that there is not a hope. But I know that this church is where she is by promise!

 

When all you have is a promise from God, it’s enough! God is forever faithful to his word!

The blessing of God is not conditioned upon where we are now and what we are currently encountering.

The blessings and promises of God are based on his word! That word that does not fail! That word given for a season and a reason!

I want you to know that we are seeking revival and its purpose!

Redig some things in your life today that have been made obsolete!

Isaac ended up digging a well called Rehobeth. The name meaning, there is enough water here for everyone that is thirsty to drink from!

Don’t you want to have enough here for everyone to drink from?

Jesus told of the ten virgins waiting on the bridegroom.

            The setting of the parable is a Jewish wedding. The parents arranged most weddings and when an agreement had been made, the engagement period began. Later the couple would be betrothed by exchanging vows before witnesses.

After this ceremony, the groom established himself in a trade and prepared a home. Finally, often months later the wedding feast was held. It was only during the wedding feast that the marriage was consummated.

The wedding feast often lasted for a week and the whole community was involved. It began when the groom led his groomsmen through the city to the bride’s father’s house where she waited with her bridesmaids.

Together, the whole party moved through the streets in a wedding parade announcing to everyone that the wedding feast was about to begin. This procession usually took place in the evening and torches and lamps were used to light the way.

After the feast, the best man would put the bride’s hand in the groom’s hand and then they would enter the bridal chamber to consummate their relationship as husband and wife.

The idea is that they were waiting on the bridegroom to come for his bride. He had delayed his coming.

Hey! Jesus is coming soon. He is not tarrying his coming. He had set it for an appointed time!

All ten fell asleep because the bridegroom was later than they had expected! Don’t fall asleep in this hour! Jesus is coming!

Suddenly, a call went out, He is here! All ten virgins jumped up. They frantically began trimming their lamps. They had waited and waited, now they are finally getting ready to meet him.

Five of the lamps lit immediately. Their light began to shine.  The other five tried furtively to light theirs. They didn’t want anyone to know that they had let their oil supply run out.

They looked right. They were in the right place at the right time. They had the accouterments of being ready. They simply did not have enough oil.

Personal revival is not an option!  You gotta be ready! Can’t wait until he appears to get ready!

He will appear like a thief in the night! It will catch you by surprise! It will ruin your day!

Now I want to you to consider something for a moment.

When the five without enough asked the other five for a little oil, what was there response? We only have enough for us. If we give you some, we won’t make it.

Let me ask a question, how wise were the wise? It is the responsibility of the church to have more than enough!

There is a world out there that needs the church to be in revival! They can’t wait for us to pray through! They can’t wait until we get it right!

The times are shouting that Jesus is coming! This world needs what you have!

That is why every service must be revived! Come on! We need to get more than enough today! This world can’t wait on us!

When someone comes here they need to feel, con-viction, power and deliverance!

Passion for Revival.

When excitement is artificially generated it becomes difficult to find anything to be authentically enthusiastic about.

When you can’t be really enthusiastic about something, when you can’t become so excited that it ignites you to values, good beliefs and patterns of good behavior.

Apathy then sets in. In America apathy is one of our greatest enemies. In the church as well.

When apathy takes hold of us, we become lulled into a comfortable, sensate, permissible, appetizing form of slavery. Its just going through the routine. Its just doing what we’ve always done.  The way we’ve always done it and just putting up with what we’ve got.

But if we always do what we’ve always done, we will always get what we’ve always gotten.

In the church we were not born again to be a slave. We were not born again of water and spirit to be a slave driven into that dull routine drudgery of life.

We were born again with a need to win and a need to conquer. Slavery in the church is unnatural. We in the church function from the view of the predator and not the prey.

We in the church possess an obsession to grow, expand and to improve.

We were born again for the high place. We want to grow toward the increase.

Spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially, we must become what God wants us to be.

You are here today on a purpose that is designed and equipped for the function of discerning and developing that God given ability that he has invested in you.

You are not here just to sit on a pew. To hear another sermon. You are not here just to shout sometimes on a Sunday night or two.

You are not here just to walk in, shake someone’s hand and say I’m a child of God. But you are here with a purpose designed by God. You have been equipped by God!

The thing which separates the victim and the victor is passion.

Its not money, ability and pedigree. I have seen those with fail. Those without succeed. All in all, it is passion that separates the victim from the victor.

It’s not your inheritance from your earthly lineage that God is looking at.

God is saying, I’m just looking for a man, or a woman, that will let me use them!

Somebody shout passion!

Your attitude is how you think. Your passion is what you feel. Sometimes we don’t feel anything, but we still have to praise him.

 

We don’t feel like going to church but we still got to go. We don’t feel like praying, but we got to pray. We don’t feel like studying but we gotta study.

We got to keep it going.

On the outside there can be no victory. On the outside there can be nothing really happening.

And when you’re grading like men would grade everything seems like it’s a failure.

But if on the inside you’re saying there’s a fire, there’s something shut up within me, something that refuses to be silenced, and something that refuses to remain calm.

Are you hearing what I am preaching today?

The greatest tragedy that can happen to your soul is for you to lose your passion about what Jesus has done for you! When you forget the wonder of what it is to be redeemed!

Come on, it ain’t about what we see around us. There may not be the crowd here that we want. The family member that you are praying for may not be here yet, but if you have it on the inside, if you have it on the inside of your soul, you can praise God!

They bound em up, the fire was so hot it killed the ones that were throwing them in the fire. But there was a greater fire on the inside of them than the one that was burning in the furnace.

You may not be where you want to be, you may not be experiencing what you want to experience, but its time to kindle that fire of your passion!

You may not have victory in your situation, but if you have it on the inside, hold on, its coming!

It is a passion, its what you feel!

Passion will cause you to do things that you never should have done! You will say things that you never should have said.

He was just a message boy! He was sent on an errand for daddy. Just to find out why the battle wasn’t over.

But he went down there with a passion.  He had already conquered the bear and a lion. Can’t you just see him pretending to fight?

He got there. How’s it going? Hide boy.

Story. Hiding.

Samson killed a thousand of them with a bone, why are we hiding?

Shhh! Even the king is hiding in his tent way back there, be quiet boy!

You got a whole army here what’s the deal? Shhh!

Is there not a cause? What was that? Passion!

Passion motivated him.

Passion will propel you into situations and cause you to do things that you aren’t supposed to be able to do!

Those three Hebrew boys never should have been dancing in that fire. What happened? Passion!

What happens when a congregation stands to their feet and says its’ not happening like I want it to, but I have a passion for a move of God? God moves!

Passion is an eager desire. Not just wishing. There are too many wannabes. Not just wanting it. But it consumes you.

You become like Hannah of old. I know I can’t have a baby, I know I can’t. but ohhh! I’m going to hang onto the horns of the altar and get drunk on my passion.

Hey church, when you get drunk on your passion in an altar, God will step in! God will take notice.

Where are you Joseph? I’ve been locked into a dungeon but I’ve got a dream. I’ve been sold as a slave, but I’ve got a dream!

She lied on me, but I have a dream!

When you are consumed with a passion its like a fire shut up in your bones! It won’t let you quit!

Its not a mere interest or with. It’s a fire in your bones. Its not in spite of!

Its saying, hell, come against me if you want to, but greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

You will be remembered for what you have a passion for. Obituaries tell the tale.

If you have a passion for cars, car lover. Passion for gardening that is what you will be remembered for. If you have a passion for the zoo that is what you will be remembered for.

But if you have a passion for the holy things of God…I’m not going home like I came. I’m not leaving this place like I was…I’m going to be different! Why? I have a passion for God!

Revival here does not depend solely on me. It depends upon men and women like you and me that have made up in our minds…

I don’t care what anybody thinks, I don’t care what anybody does…I don’t care… I have a passion for revival!

Why don’t you forget about what anybody else thinks about you! Don’t worry about what they say, what you look like! Break out of your box! Break out of your rut!

We act like we’re too cute to dance! We’re too cute to worship God. Might muss my hair. Might mess up my new suit.

You ought to shout and give God praise!

You have the opportunity to be a pew warmer or a bench jumper! You can be cold and luke warm or you can be fire hot!

Pastor, I don’t think all of that is in order. Some of that stuff ain’t in the spirit….no none of it is. It is all in the flesh!

We have enough wet blankets! Why don’t we allow the holy ghost fire to burn us all the way through!

I’m not waiting till next week, or Sunday night, or camp meeting. I have right now to praise God and I’m going to give him my best!

Somebody get on fire! If you are on fire stay on fire. If you’re not on fire, get on fire!

No don’t worship here! No don’t praise that loud here! You ain’t supposed to do that!

Hey! It’s a fire! I can’t sit still, I can’t sit down. It’s a fire!

You want to know what will bring revival? Your passion!

Passion runs through the doors for every service. Passion is wondering who will be the next to get the holy ghost. Who will be the next to be delivered.

One pastor was talking to his church board and said our problem here is that we are a church full of ignorance and apathy. What do you think? One board member spoke up, I don’t know and I don’t care!

Hey! Aren’t you ready to get beyond what’s expected!

Ask someone without passion if they are going to be in church Wednesday; they will say, Well, if the Lord is willing I will be….huh?

Like God would not be willing for you to be in church! For all of you that lack passion, the Lord just spoke to me and told me to tell you its his will for you to be in church tonight, Wednesday night and every time the doors are open.

In fact he said that its his will for you to be here early to pray!

Oh, I need to move on and bring this to a close don’t I?

Ps 69:9  For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up!

David didn’t have the holy ghost, all he had was God in a box. But he was eat up with passion.

            Power for Revival.

Only God gives it. Only God provides it.

If that is so, none can take it away!

It is his pleasure to give it….little flock.

o   He works the miracles.

o   He fills with Holy Ghost.

o   He changes lives.

o   His name.

o   His blood.

o   His power.

o   Not might. Not power. His spirit!