[0:00] please, and we've got a meeting coming up, and I'm telling you, my heart's on that pretty strong and been praying about it. I hope you are as well. And I want to just kind of try to gear your minds toward the services and what the potential is for us, for you, for the church, or for you individually.
[0:21] And so I want to just preach some thoughts tonight to you about preparing for the revival meeting. And some people might say something like, well, you can't prepare for revival.
[0:32] Revival is a work of God. And God brings it or God doesn't bring it. He just, he has to show up or nothing's going to happen. And I'll agree with all of that truth. Some people don't, I've kind of for a long time in my life not liked the word revival, or at least calling a meeting a revival meeting.
[0:48] Like, you can't make it be a revival meeting. You can't force that. But I'm not going to be so against it tonight. And I want to read something to you.
[0:58] This is something that I was reading on revival years ago and then was searching some things. Came across an old Billy Sunday message. And I printed it out.
[1:09] And I'm just going to read kind of the introduction that he had in what he calls the need for revivals. Now, if you don't know Billy Sunday, he used to be a baseball player for a couple different major league teams.
[1:21] And then he was saved and got called to preach and preached all over the place. And there's some, I can't say how accurate numbers are, but some people accredit up to 300,000 souls to his ministry.
[1:35] And so, I'm sure you probably heard the name Billy Sunday, one of the preachers of the past. And so he preached this message called the need for revivals. And in it, he started by saying, someone asked, what is revival?
[1:47] And this is his definition. Revival is a purely philosophical, common sense result of the wise use of divinely appointed means. Just the same as water will put out a fire, the same as food will appease your hunger, just the same as water will slate your thirst, it is a philosophical, common sense use of divinely appointed means to accomplish that end.
[2:12] A revival is just as much horse sense as that. A revival is not material. It does not depend on material means. It's a false idea that there is something peculiar in it, that it cannot be judged by ordinary rules, causes, and effects.
[2:28] That is nonsense to think that it can't be. Above your head, there is an electric light. That is the effect. What is the cause? We all know the cause. Religion can be judged on the same basis of cause and effect.
[2:41] If you do a thing, results will come. The results come to the farmer. He has his crops. That's the end result. He has to plow and plant and take care of his farm before the crops come.
[2:54] Religion needs a baptism of horse sense. That is just pure horse sense. I believe that there is no doctrine more dangerous to the church today than to convey the impression that a revival is something peculiar in itself and cannot be judged by the same rules of causes and effect as other things.
[3:14] If you preach that to the farmers, if you go to the farmer and say God's a sovereign, that is true. But if you say God will give you crops only when it pleases him and it is through no use for you to plow your ground, plant your crops in a spring, that is all wrong.
[3:29] And if you preach that doctrine and expect the farmers to believe it, this country will starve to death in two years. The churches have been preaching some false doctrines and religion has died out. Some people think that religion is a good deal like a storm.
[3:41] They sit around and fold their arms and that is what is the matter. You sit in your pews so easy that you become mildewed. Such results will be sure to follow you if you are persuaded that religion is something mysterious and has no natural connection between the means and the end.
[3:59] It has a natural connection of common sense and I believe that when divinely appointed means are used, spiritual blessings will accrue to the individuals and the community in greater numbers than temporal blessings.
[4:12] You can have spiritual blessings as regularly as a farmer can have corn, wheat, oats or you can have potatoes and onions and cabins in your garden. I believe that spiritual results will follow more surely than temporal blessings.
[4:24] I don't believe all of this Tommy rot of false doctrines. You might as well sit around beneath the shade and fan yourself and say ain't it hot as to expect God to give you a crop if you don't plow the ground and plant the seed until the church resorts to the use of divinely appointed means.
[4:41] It won't get the blessing. And so his statement, his belief is that revival can be obtained. We just have to make use of what God has given us and get serious about it.
[4:55] And he goes on in his sermon to talk, to ask a lot of questions and answer his questions about what revival is and when is it needed and where is it needed and when can you expect this and that and things that I'm not going to discuss with you tonight.
[5:10] But I believe we can prepare for our upcoming meeting and that there are some things necessary that I think you and I can do in order to see results.
[5:23] To see those results. I'm not going to sit around and just wait for God to blow in here. And if he never does, say, oh man, and maybe Tommy Rot something or other like Billy Sunday did.
[5:35] I might put that one in my vocabulary now. I'm not going to wait for that. I believe there are some things we can do. And let me take you to the Bible a little bit here tonight. Go to Judges chapter 15. And here's a guy that you know well.
[5:47] Samson, this mighty deliverer, slaying a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. That's Judges 15. And here Samson gets, well, he gets a little revival.
[6:08] Take a look at Judges 15. I'll read verses 14. Down to the end it says, And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.
[6:19] And the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire. And his bands loosed from off his hands, and he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
[6:32] And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi.
[6:47] And he was sore of thirst, and called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
[7:00] But God claimed a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout. And when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and the Bible says he revived.
[7:12] He revived. There's revival. It's not the first time it shows up in the Bible, but this is a man who is, as you know, he's just fought a battle alone.
[7:23] He took a stand for God, and the Lord used him, and what a great thing, but in the end, he thought he was about to die. And so what did he do? Look at verse number 18.
[7:35] When he was sore of thirst, it says, and he was sore of thirst, and called on the Lord. That's the right thing to do.
[7:46] That's the right one to call on as well, when you're sore of thirst, when you need revived. And so the first thing I'm going to say tonight is, in preparing for a revival meeting, it's going to take prayer. It's going to take you calling on the Lord.
[8:00] You know, when you genuinely want something, when you genuinely want something from God, I should say, when you generally have a need, what do you do? And what do you want everybody else to do?
[8:13] You want them to pray, don't you? Because you want to see this fixed. You want help. And so you call on the Lord, and you want everybody else to do it, to stop what they're doing, and help me out here.
[8:26] And that's fine, and that's right. And I want to say that's what it's going to take to see any kind of revival in this church, or in your own heart, is you are going to have to call on the Lord.
[8:38] If you want it, if somebody's sick, it's please pray. If there's anything pressing, it's please pray. If there's a need for revival, that should be your same thought.
[8:50] Please pray. There's one way that we can prepare for God to do a work in our hearts, and in this church, and it's to pray for it. And one of the things we can do is pray for the lost.
[9:01] We can pray for the lost in regards to what we're trying to do this Sunday. Now, a couple of you asked me, why haven't we been inviting the whole community to this?
[9:11] And I'll just tell you, that's the first thought I had, was Brother Spurgeon's here, biker, huge testimony, invite the world, and see who shows up. And that was my first thought.
[9:23] And I just sat on it for a while, and I thought, now how would we do that, and what would we need to do? And I just didn't have any peace about it. I mean, we could have did it. We still could, last minute ditch effort.
[9:34] But the truth is, my heart was thinking, we need to invite people we know that are lost. I think it's far easier to hand out 200 flyers to people we don't know than it is to go up to somebody you do know, and that knows you, and you know they're lost, and invite them to church.
[9:52] I think it's easier to hide in the crowd. And I'm not attacking you with that. I'm saying, I think we need to take a step. And I told you Sunday about inviting my neighbors, and I went just, the other day it was, I guess it was Monday maybe, or was it yesterday?
[10:09] I don't even know what day it was. Yesterday? And I was praying about it before I left here, and just thinking, Lord, I want to be able to talk to them again. I don't want to just let that be it. I want to follow up. I want to connect with them. And so please make that available, and let me try to get them in church Sunday.
[10:23] I really want to see that if you'd allow it. And so I thought, I'll just take another flyer along. Who knows? And maybe somebody else I can give it to and talk to. And I'm at home, and neither the two, the couple behind me were there, but the one, the girl's son was there, and her mom was there watching him.
[10:41] And I just was walking around the back of the house, and I saw her sitting there. And it's just like before with the driveway deal that I told you about. It was like the Lord said, there she is. And I was like, oh, I can't give her a flyer because I already gave one to him, and she'll put it on the inside on the counter, and then he's going to come home and see it again and think this guy's really after me.
[11:01] And there was my flash. She said, dude, can't do it, can't do it. There's an excuse. And I was like, oh no. I recognized that right away. I said, nope. Went to the truck, grabbed the flyer, marched right out back there, and had a good, probably almost 10-minute conversation with the lady.
[11:16] Her name's Kenya, like the country, as she said. And so I talked to her and invited her, and I said, don't leave this lay on the counter, please. I don't want him to think. And so I said, this is for you, and I'd love to see you come out to church, and I'm glad to be able to talk with you for a few minutes and so forth.
[11:34] And now I got her name on that list, and I'm going to start praying for Kenya along with the other couple, Brian and Courtney, and their son. I want to see him come to church, and I want to see him sit there and be confronted from a man who has been in the depths of sin and in trouble and how God just took him out of it.
[11:55] I want him to hear that. And I wonder, do you have that vision too? Is there a lost person that you're praying for right now? Thankfully, praise the Lord, there's some people that wrote some names down, and there's some flyers that are missing.
[12:10] I can only assume that they've gone out. But I know that I'm just pretty certain that not everybody in this church took that serious or took that to heart or took that as like, this is my responsibility or God could use me, and you're just letting it go by.
[12:26] You're letting somebody else do that. If we're going to see anything happen, it's going to take prayer. And one thing we can do is pray for the lost. I'll just, thinking of this now, I'll read this to you.
[12:40] This is from Cynthia Thomas. She texted me yesterday, and she said, I handed my two invites to Sean and Edwin. Edwin comes from a pretty rough background and gangs.
[12:54] Sean is from Bangladesh, but he's been here for about 25 years. And so I said, praise the Lord, write those names down so we can start praying for Sean and Edwin that they would show up on Sunday morning.
[13:07] Maybe you've got somebody you've invited, they're not going to show up. That's, maybe nobody shows up. I'm not going to, I'll wait until that happens and just give it to God.
[13:18] But for now, I'm going in faith that the Lord's going to use this and do something with it. But it's going to take prayer, church. It's going to take prayer. And we're going to have to pray about it.
[13:29] We're going to have to pray for the lost because the devil doesn't want the lost to come and hear the gospel. And he's going to give them reasons not to come. You've got to give him a reason to come. So I hope you'll do your job on that.
[13:41] It's your job. So I hope you'll take that serious. You can pray for the lost. Something else you need to pray about is for your own heart to be stirred up. God would, he would love to do that, I'm sure.
[13:52] But it's going to take you talking to him and asking for it. Pray for your own heart to get stirred up about the Lord, about his word. Pray that the temperature of Bible Baptist Church would come up a little bit.
[14:08] That it would get a little hotter. A little warmer first and then maybe hot if the Lord would allow. Pray for other believers in this church to be strengthened, to be convicted, to be drawn and to respond to the word of God that's preached.
[14:24] But first, pray for yourself. Pray for yourself first. And I'm not worried if you pray for other people because if you're guilty of something, the Lord has a way of showing you, doesn't he? If you're praying for him and he says, what about you?
[14:37] I've heard that voice a few times so I know what that's like. But it's going to start with prayer. Church, we've got to pray. Don't wait until Wednesday night, guys, to show up here.
[14:47] Start praying now. Start praying. Invite and pray. And there could be revival. Samson got revived but he had to call on the Lord and the Lord did something miraculous.
[14:58] He brought him something that he couldn't get himself. Take a look with me at two places now. Go to, oh, I think I wrote the wrong reference down but I'm pretty sure it's 2 Kings chapter 4 and 1 Kings chapter 17.
[15:18] Yes, okay. So 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 4. Find those two places. Here's two prophets. One's Elijah and one's Elisha and they both have a similar story.
[15:36] And so let's just look. This is a lot to read and I'm not going to read it all. So for time I'm just going to highlight this. Start in 2 Kings 4 with Elisha.
[15:46] And so there's a woman that could not have a son and the man of God came by and she took care of him and he offered what do you need and so she gets a son out of this thing.
[16:04] In verse 17 the woman conceived and bare a son that season that Elisha had set unto her according to the time of life. The child was grown and fell on a day when our father of the reapers and if you remember the story here the young man in verse 20 at the end of the verse he died.
[16:19] And so she went up and laid him on the bed the man of God came and shut the door upon him and went out. So she lays him on his bed. So she sends for Elisha and Elisha tells his servant Gehazi in verse 29 he says Gird up thy loins and take my staff in thine hand and go thy way and if thou meet any man salute him not and if any salute thee answer him not again and lay my staff upon the face of the child and the mother of the child says the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee and he arose and followed her and Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child but there was neither voice nor hearing wherefore he went again to meet him and told him saying the child's not awakened in other words it didn't work it didn't work what Elisha said would happen or just go do this don't talk to him he followed the rules I'm sure nothing dead so here's what he did verse 33 he went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain just the two of them prayed unto the Lord that's a good start and he went up and laid upon the child and he put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and his hand upon his hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child notice this it waxed warm then he returned and walked in the house to and fro like just pacing the house back and forth what to do what's going on and I think he's confused and he went up and stretched himself upon him and the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes and he tells the mom take up thy son and he's back now come back to 1st Kings 17 now and see this happened in Elijah's ministry a very similar thing but a little different and I'll just draw the comparison here and make the point 1st Kings 17 and so here's a the widow and her son that was sustained by this barrel of meal that wouldn't waste if you recall that story from verses 8 down to 16 and now that widow whom the Lord sustained through this famine her son dies in verse 17 it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman the mistress of the house fell sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him and she said unto Elijah what have I to do with thee thou man of God art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son and he said unto her give me thy son and he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed just like the other one and he cried unto the Lord amen and said
[19:06] O Lord my God hast thou also brought evil upon this widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son and he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said O Lord my God I pray that you let this child's soul come into him again and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again and there it is and he revived he revived now I want us I want to think here was two stories two separate things but similar characteristics about them one time wasn't enough here he did it three times where he stretched himself and cried unto the Lord three times he did it once and nothing happened the second time nothing happened does he know the third time's the charm is that where it came from does he does he think that way he's crying unto the Lord O Lord my God I pray thee he's calling on God to do it one time wasn't enough and you know what
[20:07] I want you to think on this is that this in preparing for revival it takes prayer it also takes commitment it takes commitment because sometimes coming once nothing happens sometimes showing up once just feels like you're getting the staff to the head nothing happens just beat up a little bit and not happy but he had to lay down three times the other prophet stretched himself and you know what happened he started to get warm he stayed with it and something started to happen he stayed with it and there was revival but it took commitment it took commitment coming to hear a preacher that you like is not commitment coming to hear a preacher that is exciting and tells the big stories and entertains you and you leave thinking man that was great it's easy to come back to hear that again people can't wait to come back that guy was good and we all know what that's like but sometimes it's borders on entertainment and I don't not necessarily the preacher's fault but that's what some people get out of it is I like that but what did it do how did it change you how did it help you
[21:26] I've been around preachers all my life and church and meetings and I've seen a lot of different things and I'm very I always analyze everything and it's just the curse of me I don't know but I analyze it all and think on it and look at it and listen to the words and think what is he saying and I watch altar calls how sometimes in different places they're just they're so so slick that if you don't move you feel like you're the devil or you feel like you're the reason and so he guilt trips everybody to responding and the place thinks they're having revival when it wasn't really God breaking a heart or putting do you know what it's like to have that heaviness of the Lord just burdening you dealing with you you have to respond or you're just going to be miserable or you're going to get calloused and you know that and you're afraid of going that direction and you've got to respond it takes commitment in order to receive the results there's some preachers that are funny and sometimes just coming to hear them is your reward because it's enjoyable to be in church and it is and I love that stuff too some guys can thunder from the pulpit some guys can shell the corn or peel the bark they say and God has gifted some men to preach and he's gifted some men to minister and to travel and to do those things and it's easy to come back and hear them and it's refreshing sometimes to get stirred but then sometimes they just don't come to midweek service but they'll come four nights in a row to hear a guy who's special you know what it takes commitment church commitment like this my calendar at home has October 3, 4, 5 and 6 blocked off you know why it says
[23:32] Spurgeon you know why because there's nothing else going to be put in those dates not happening not in my family that's the way we've lived our lives when there's a meeting it gets blocked off on the calendar when there's church it's blocked off Wednesdays down the line Sundays down the line we're not making plans on Sunday we're not doing it on Wednesday we're definitely not doing it when there's special meetings at church that's commitment nothing else at least nothing that I can control I should say is going to take the priority in the lives of the Wolski family that were not in church turn with me to two places well we'll start with one Acts chapter 20 revival takes prayer Acts chapter 20 if you're going to see any results it's also going to take commitment here's a man that's committed and I want you to see his testimony of how much to the death he's committed
[24:42] Acts chapter 20 and I can't give you the whole context but verse 22 Paul says and now behold I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there well there is one thing verse 23 save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me and he's been told and we could look at the verses he's been told several times already that if you go to Jerusalem it's going to be bad news for you Paul and he said I am bound in the spirit to do this and look what his statement is in verse 24 but none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus Paul was committed we talk about commitment that's commitment this man's not moving he's got it set in stone that this is what I'm doing and I'm doing it even when he was warned not to do it that's a good attitude to have toward this upcoming meeting church
[25:46] Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday block it off somebody calls none of these things move me I've got plans I've got plans to be where God wants me to be in my place around the word of God in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58 a good cross reference there we're told to be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord come back to Isaiah 57 and we'll be done here with one more verse and one more quick thought here Isaiah 57 preparing for revival meeting it's going to take prayer it's going to take commitment and one more thing it's going to take it's going to take humility and I'll add to that honesty and here's why Isaiah 57 verse 15 it's a wonderful verse for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy
[26:50] I dwell in the high and holy place and notice with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit and here comes the revival to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones and he says I won't contend forever he's looking for somebody that's humble and contrite and he says I dwell with that person with that man in chapter 66 he said to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at my words that's who gets the reviving is the one who gets honest with himself gets humble and honest before God almighty and opens up and that's where pride is going to have to be just pushed aside because you and I are the same way we have the same makeup inside the old man we don't want to humble ourselves we don't want to be pushed we don't want in the flesh we don't want God to deal with us about our sin about our commitment about our service we're fine with who we are we don't like to be pushed and pushed and pushed and I'm calling on you to be humble and to humble yourself that's the ones that get revived you're going to have to abhor your pride like some of these men in this Bible did when God showed up it's going to keep you your pride is going to keep you from getting honest and open before God about yourself and it's going to keep you from the reward that God would give you reviving the Bible says let a man examine himself in the Psalms it's search me oh God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me that's an honest and that's an open evaluation and it'll do wonders and it's it's it's a decision you'll have to make yourself is to come humbly before God on your own one-on-one and say God what do I need
[29:09] I'm willing I'm willing to hear from you my ears are open speak to me you can't be filled unless you're empty you can't be fixed unless you're broken and maybe maybe just this these couple meetings can just be some routine maintenance for you and as you would take your car into the shop they find things they find things wrong with it that you didn't know was wrong with it and maybe that's just what you need so get your car in the shop hey get in here so please join me in praying for God to work in Bible Baptist Church please join me in praying individually on your own for yourself for your own heart for your family and be willing to obey when the Lord does speak please commit to being here and seeking the will of God in your life and please come expecting
[30:13] God to deal with you that's a big deal if you come expecting God to deal with you he just might do it but when you just show up to hang out with your friends and enjoy the speaker chances are you'll sing the closing hymn of invitation and walk out the same way you were there's a big difference when you come expecting and hungry for it and it's preparation is what it is it takes preparation there's nothing different about a revival service it's going to take preparation you can't just limp in and then God does something amazing if you get ready if your heart's primed and ready you'll receive it you'll get it it won't take three nights of chopping away before you finally get something and one more thing we'll close if God is going to work then I don't doubt that opposition will arise and I don't doubt that excuses will crop themselves up quickly for you to miss they'll be readily available to you so something will get in the way if you allow it to and I'm trying to warn you and trying to encourage you at the same time to be prepared for it and to be committed so there's a few thoughts tonight and
[31:37] I'd like this to really get inside your hearts and continue with you and take a serious about what we could be doing here for inviting somebody that's lost do your best to get them here again you can't make them come and if they come you can't make them respond and receive Christ you can't do any of that all of that's out of your hands right so what can you do you can invite them you can invite them don't drop the ball on that please so one more thing is I'm going to rehash this is if you've invited somebody I need you to write their name down I want us all to pray for them I don't want it just to be you I don't want it just to be a thing oh my friend if you're serious write that name down if it's something you're praying about let's pray about it together and then Saturday night men come back at 7 o'clock and we'll get together we'll copy that list off and we'll spend as much time as we need to and I'm kind of planning
[32:38] I'm not planning it I'm kind of hoping that I can show up early Sunday morning and do the same thing and go right back through the whole thing again before Sunday while people are getting ready while people are waking up and making their decisions of whether they can or can't get to church so I want to be praying at that point too so let's be dismissed with prayer and then Lord willing we'll have us a time I know Brother Spurgeon is coming because I've been getting his mail at my house so I know he's coming I'm pretty pumped about that alright Brother Gary would you close us in prayer please when you know we will have you you you you want to you you and you you you you you