Pastor's Pulpit

God is good! Amen? Yes, all the time!!

We have experienced a touch of revival at Gethsemane Baptist Church, almost every service has been blessed with the Lord's presence and the altar filled with our people responding to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. To God be the glory. Last week we had one to join our church, and a number of visitors are still coming each week. Continue to pray with us that the Lord will send revival to our church this year. Here is a message preached last week, and God did bless with the altar full during the invitation. Thanks again to Bro. Mike O'Neal for the outline.



" God's design for Revival "

II Chronicles 7: 11-15

Vs. 14 Text: " 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 heal their land. "


How can we have revival? What will it take for God to bless our nation again? What is required for Christians to have victory in their lives? Is revival possible?

It seems we have grown so cold and indifferent toward spiritual things today. I can remember when folks would pray and beg God for revival and cry out to God for the salvation of their love ones. Dr. Lee Roberson in his book, " Diamonds in the Rough " said he read, " Dry eyes and empty altars seem to have lost their stigma; no longer do they disturb the great majority of believers. " We need revival. In our text- God gives us His design for revival.

I. The Providence of God

In verse 13, notice the three " I's " it's speaking of God. God is the One who opens and closes Heaven. God is the One who blesses or curses a nation. ( Isa. 22:22 ) speaking of the Lord Jesus, He opens and shuts doors. Since He is Sovereign and controls what goes on in the affairs of men, we need to first of all, Look to Him ( Ps. 121:1-8 ) ( Ps. 123:1-2 ) Our help comes from the Lord. The Bible says in Heb. 13:8, " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever. " Man changes, everything changes, but God never changes. He said, " I am the Lord, I change not. " Our confidence is in the unchanging God. We must look to Him for our every need. We must realize if we are to have revival-we must depend upon Him. God is the One who can bless you or take away the blessings. Let's look to Him.

2ndly, we need to Listen to Him. We need to listen to His Word. Our confidence is in the unchanging Word of God. ( Ps. 119:89 ) The Bible never changes, what do you mean preacher?
- God's Word never changes on sin. What was sin 10 years ago is still sin today. What was sin 100 years ago is still sin today. Sin does not change. This is the Word of God. " The wages of sin is death " " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." God's word never changes on sin.
- God's Word never changes on salvation. ( Eph. 2:8-9 ) Salvation is through Jesus Christ, Him alone. ( John 14:6 )
- God's Word never changes on security. Paul said, " For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. " Jesus said, " And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish..." ( John 10:28 )
God's word never changes on any of these things.
We need to listen to Him in prayer. We need to get alone with the Lord and wait on Him.
( Ps. 37:7 ) Simply wait on the Lord. No talking, no thinking, simply putting your mind in neutral and being quiet in God's presence. The words ' rest in the Lord " in Heb. mean " Be still in the Lord." Let's learn to listen to Him.

3rdly, we need to Learn from Him. ( Ps. 86:11 )
We have gotten away from His word. Our nation has tried to go on without God. but we can't keep going without Him. We need His word, no one can truly succeed in life apart from the principles given to us in the Word of God. God told Joshua, after the death of Moses to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. But He didn't give him that command without some wonderful promises in Joshua 1;5-9. In vs. 8, we have some good advice for us seeking revival.

" This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt have good success. "

If churches would get back to the Word of God and learn what to do from Him, and if parents would run our homes and raise our children according to God's training manual, we could make a real difference in this world.

II. The People.

( vs. 14 ) " My people " How does God use human instruments to bring about revival? My people here refers to Israel of course, but today it is referring also to the church. Saved people, so the position and condition of God's people affect the way God blesses a land. Abraham was told by the angel of the Lord that God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham prayed and pled with God to spare them if there were 50, on down to 10. ( Gen. 18:23-32 ) If 10 righteous were found He said He would spare the cities. This conversation shows us how important it is to have righteous people in a community.
1. God's people must see the need for revival. We must realize the condition of our nation, of our churches. We must realize why revival must come. We see the apathy of God's people toward the Lord Himself and spiritual things. We are void of God's power, and have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. When was the last time God moved in your life? When was the last time you had an answer to prayer?
So many are captive of the devil, addicted to sin, corrupt and wicked, full of carnality like the church at Corinth. ( I Cor. 3:1-3 )
2. God's people must start a fire of turning back to God.
Altars must be used, prayers must be prayed. We must obey God's word.
3. God's people must spread the fire and sustain the fire. ( Rev. 3:15-19 ) We need to receive God's rebuke, and repent, revive and return to the Lord. There was a church that was burning down, and a crowd had gathered to watch it burn. Among them was a man known to be a skeptic. One of the church members could not refrain himself from saying, " I never saw you near the church before! " " No, replied the skeptic, " but then, I never saw the church on fire before. " God says, " If my people, " if we will see the need for revival, and get on fire for God, people will come and watch us burn for God.

III. The Pride. ( vs. 14, " humble themselves" )
I believe God has humbled our country in recent years. 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, California fires, the recession of 2008, the problems with our economy, it is time that we wake up. ( Eph. 5:14-17 ) ( Acts 17:30-31) God is judging our nation, because every nation that forgets God He will turn into hell. ( Ps.9:17 )
If we want to avoid further humbling by God, we should humble ourselves. You who are unsaved, time and time again you go on in your prideful way, rejecting God, if you will not humble yourself to God, He will bring about events to humble you. You can either bow here, or one day confess to Him and bow at the Judgement. Payday is coming. Gal.6:7
We must humble ourselves enough to receive rebuke and correction. Thank God for His mercy and Love. He rebukes us and chastens us. ( Heb. 12:5-6 )
We need to recognize our sins before a holy God. As a nation, we have broken His laws, we've been ungrateful, we've taken the innocent life, our sins of adultery, sodomy and idolatry are a stench in the nostrils of God!
As a church, we've rejected the Word of God. We have gone so far as to change it, and we've failed to defend the Word of God as Jude 3-4 tells us to. Rev. 22:18-19 tells us that a curse is on those who change His word.
As individuals, our secret sins are killing the life of power, purity, and prayer. Judgment must begin in the house of God.
We need to reconcile with our brethren, forgiveness must prevail. ( Eph. 4:30-32 ) We have grieved the Holy Spirit so He cannot work in our churches. We wonder why no one gets saved, or why no revival. Its because of the envy and bitterness and malice in our hearts. We need to realize our insufficiency and request help from our God. We can't make it without God. We need Him. You and I need revival. Please pray for revival in your heart and in our church.

God bless you and may we see revival!

Pastor Taylor