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SERMON DATE AND TITLE: 2011-01-23: "Why Revival Tarries"This page streams the audio-only sermon in downloadable flash format. It begins playing upon opening this pageWant a download or CD copy? Read this. The sermon outline is below. |
WHY REVIVAL TARRIES SERMON STARTER Every summer in my Southern Baptist Church we would organize and plan a revival. The month before the meetings, we met in each other's homes twice weekly for "cottage prayer meetings." The Southern Baptists knew that the only way a real revival could happen was preceded by prayer. By the time the scheduled revival happened, we were exhausted. Occasionally, the pastor would say at the conclusion of the two weeks of meetings, "Let's go ANOTHER week!" During all that time, I never experienced or witnessed an "honest-to-God" revival. Curiously, I did witness a spontaneous revival at a Christian Junior Camp I was directing in the early seventies. We decided not to hold emotional altar calls to coerce the children into responding. We only held one altar call the night before we left for home. I had never seen before what happened there. The kids started gathering in small circles to pray for their "lost" friends at the camp. No adults organized this effort. It was all done by a genuine concern of the kids for their friends who needed to accept Jesus. I actually heard cheering as one by one those reluctant to respond made their way to the front of the church for prayer. Emotion? Yes, there was emotion. How can you not be emotional when that which is lost comes home? Kids were crying and praying. Afterwards, I shook my head. What did we do differently from our earlier attempts at revival? Everything was different. This time God showed up. America's religious history is filled with the influence of revival. This sermon explores one of the lectures of Charles Finney, a New York lawyer turned evangelist. His influence led to what was called the "Blue Collar Revival." He might as well have been lecturing to a contemporary audience. The sin that obstructs revival is the same.
Pastor Phil <><<
January 23, 2011 Sheepfold Ministries, Pastor Phil Roland
WHY REVIVAL TARRIES Luke 24:49 "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." "America and the world needs a new Pentecostal awakening of a Holy Spirit led revival. Sin is rampant at every turn. Come Quickly, Lord Jesus." Pastor Phil <><< "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." Matthew 24:12 I. FAILED - We have failed to maintain a relationship with God "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, " Romans 3:23 A. Life of Charles O. Finney - See America's Great Revivals p. 75-80 B. Finney's Lecture on Personal Hindrances to Revival 1. We are not willing, upon the whole, to have what we desire and ask 2. God has expressly informed us that if we regard iniquity in our hearts He will not hear us. But the petitioner is often self-indulgent. This is iniquity, and God will not hear him 3. He is uncharitable 4. Censorious (Hyper-crtitical) 5. Self-dependent 6. Resists conviction of sin 7. Refuses to confess to all the parties concerned 8. Refuses to make restitution to injured parties 9. He is prejudiced and uncandid. (Concealing or Secretive) 10. He is resentful 11. Has a revengeful spirit 12. Has a worldly ambition 13. He has committed himself on some point, and become dishonest, and neglects and rejects further light 13. He is denominationally selfish 14. Selfish for his own congregation 15. He resists the teachings of the Holy Spirit 16. He grieves the Holy Spirit by dissension 17. He quenches the Spirit by persistence in justifying wrong 18. He grieves Him by a want of watchfulness 19. He resists Him by indulging evil tempers 20. Also by dishonesties in business 21. Also by indolence and impatience in waiting upon the Lord 22. By many forms of selfishness 23. By negligence in business, in study, in prayer
WHY REVIVAL TARRIES, cont., p.2
24. By undertaking too much business, too much study, and too little prayer 25. By a want of entire consecration. 26. Last and greatest, by unbelief. He prays for this enduement without expecting to receive it. "He that believes not God, has made Him a liar." This, then, is the greatest sin of all. What an insult, what a blasphemy, to accuse God of lying!" C. We have settled for a Insipid, Bland, Tasteless kind of Christianity "So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth." - Rev. 3:16 D. Outward form of Godliness, but Deny the Power - 2 Timothy 3:1-5 "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"
II. FREED - We are re-connected with God thru Jesus, His Son "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36 A. Free from the Law of Sin and Death - Romans 8:1,2 "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." 1. The soul that sins shall die - Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. " 2. Christ's followers die only once - SLOGAN: NO JESUS, DIE TWICE KNOW JESUS, DIE ONCE 3. Physical Death / Spiritual Death - (Eternity without God) B. Wahhabist Islamists see our Liberty and Freedom as Idolatry 1. Islamists believe that they have but one choice a. Submit to Allah or Die b. Live or Die by the Sword of forced submission 2. Before Jesus came into our lives, we lived by choice a. We chose Sin and Death b. Jesus has set us free from God's Wrath over sin C. We are Freed by the Cross of Jesus - Romans 5:20-21 "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
WHY REVIVAL TARRIES, cont., p.3
III. FIRED - We are Continually Tried by God's Consuming Fire "John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." Luke 3:16-17 1. We are not energized by God's Holy Spirit 2. We are emboldened by the Spirit of Jesus A. We must stay close to Jesus, sin has consequences - John 15:6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." 1. Our God is a consuming Fire - Hebrews 12:29 "For our God is a consuming fire." 2. Trials are God's Test of Faith 3. Our Faith is Proved by Him C. Often we endure the Furnace of Affliction - 1 Peter 1:6,7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,"
IV. FILLED - We are continually being Filled with the Holy Spirit "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit," Ephesians 5:18 "We are like leaky buckets who need to continually be thrust beneath the fountain of God's love. . ." 1. Torrey often spoke before D.L. Moody as a "crowd warmer" 2. Moody asked him frequently to speak on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit B. Jesus Prayed for us to receive the Father's Promise - Jn. 14:16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--"
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION
"Heathen" Studies Law Charles O. Finney spent his boyhood in the frontier country of New York. He was, as he admitted later, "almost as destitute of
It was in 1821 that Finney was dramatically converted. He got interested in the Bible through references to the Mosaic laws in his' legal books. He bought a Bible and through reading it became intellectually convinced of the truth of Christianity. But the question remained-should he become a Christian?
One autumn morning he was on his way to his office when he was stopped in his tracks by an inward voice which seemed to say, "Will you accept it now, today?" Instead of going to his office he went off into the woods. Reaching a spot where he thought no one would see him, he knelt down.
He tried to pray but could not. He was' just about to give up when he heard a rustling and looked up in alarm to see if someone had discovered him. Suddenly, he realized how great was his pride. Remembering the words of Scripture, "Then shall ye seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart," he cried out, "Lord, I take Thee at Thy Word."
Finney left the woods in a lighthearted mood. He didn't quite understand what had happened to him. That evening in the back of his law office he was overcome with a sense of unutterable ecstasy. He later wrote: "The Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings." Finney dropped his law studies the next day and went about the town telling what the Lord had done for him. A revival began immediately. See "America's Great Revivals," p. 75-77
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