Whatever It Takes for Revival Nehemiah 1:4-7 1205am...

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Whatever It Takes for Revival

Nehemiah 1:4-7

1/2/05am

Imagine, meetings lasting from 10a-midnight, everybody singing, no collection, no advertising, infidels converted, as well as drunkards, and thieve—5 weeks- 20,000 joined churches; not an hour a day 2000-6000 rallied at the sound of a bell, trembling, weeping, crying for mercy, thieves returning stolen property and 5244 joined the church in one year, 1705 baptized one Sunday in Hawaii; imagine the conviction of sin so great that the preacher had to stop preaching until the people’s cries subsides. I just briefly described 3 great outpouring of the Holy Spirit—revivals in our land –late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

   I ask you today—do we need this? What about the multitude who never enter the doors of a worship center? What about those who profess Christ as Savior but never worship, never get involved in His ministry? How many are being saved through the preaching of the Word? Where is the conviction of sin we used to know? Is this just a thing of the past?

 How can We Secure such an Outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

I. Turn our Hearts to God—Joel 2:12-17

We would all immediately say that we need to “pray”. That is true, but that is not the first thing needed. For us to experience revival, we need to deal with sin. Unless our lives are right in the sight of God, sin put away, we many pray all night but Revival will not come.

 “For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are”(Isa 59:12) “But there is a problem—your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore”(vs2)NLT.

Joel 2:12ff

Vs12-“all your heart”-whole heart.  God wants us to be wholly disposed to Him.

“fasting, weeping, mourning”- show God that you are guilty. Simply confess your fault.

Vs13- “rend your hearts”- God doesn’t want our insensible customs. He doesn’t want our ceremonies—

Vs15-“fast, solemn assembly”-a solemn confession of guilt, when men approach the throne of God, acknowledging themselves as sinners, asking pardon for their sins.

Vs17”where is their God?”- Lord, we need you to come down on us because your own glory is at stake.

Do you see, the trouble is not with God—it lies right here with ourselves. He is waiting but we are not ready! Could our problem be that we have a “form of godliness but deny the power thereof”?-(2Tim 3:5) Paul tells us to turn away from this.

We need to turn our hearts to God!!

II. Soul Travail- Isa 66:8

Can children be born without pain? Nothing short of soul paining, hard work, will bring forth a spiritual revival.

  Can we have pain when we lose a loved one? Anguish is spontaneous! But, what about the souls , precious souls, never dying souls, perishing all around us? Are we travailing? Are we sorrowing over them? Are we working hard for them?

How cold our hearts are! How little do we know the compassion of Jesus!

Jacob travailed until he prevailed—are we willing to do so? We often expect extraordinary results(and they are possible), but they will come only through EXTRAORDINARY efforts in the spiritual realm. It is going to take a concerted effort for each of us to agonize over our own souls before God—we need to confess our sins, repent, and get on board with Jesus. Then we must agonize over the souls of the lost, hour on hour, days and nights.

 Joel knew the secret—after turning our hearts to God, Prayer is the next step!

Prevailing Prayer is not easy!!

-1Thes 5:17-Pray without ceasing.   (KJV)

-Eph 6:12-For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

It takes time. We often find time for other things, but not prayer. Susannah Wesley said, “My friends, it is  not so much a case of finding time as it is of making time” The Apostles said, “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word”(Acts 6:4)

III. Changing our Agenda- Nehemiah 1:6-2:6

Nehemiah heard that the wall around Jerusalem had been torn down and the gates had been burned. Neh 1:4—“When I heard this, I sat down and wept, In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven”

--Nehemiah was stricken with the tearing down of the walls around Jerusalem. It was the place, city where God was worshipped. This had to do with the worship of God.

When was the last time that we mourned and fasted over the way our Father is being worshipped? The way things may be?

--Nehemiah prayed—Personal confession-vs6

                                      Corporate confession vs6-7

--Nehemiah’ priorities changed—2:1-6 He had it made as a cupbearer. He had all the luxuries of life that one could want. But, the worship of God was at stake! The church was at stake! Brothers and sisters were at stake! A world of lost people were at stake!

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to experience Revival in your soul today? In this church? Community?

Personal, corporate, soul-winning revival?

This is what we need—what a great way to start 2005—the path toward REVIVAL!

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