Revival - A Holy Desperation

[0:00] Psalm 51. Have you got your Bible? Psalm 51. Talking about revival. Revival again. Revival again.

[0:11] The prayer of a contrite heart.

[0:33] The prayer of a contrite heart. I want to declare to you he is the giver and sustainer of life. Your life. And David pours out his heart here in this psalm.

[0:49] It declares to us God's reviving. That's David's cry. Psalm 51. We're just really concentrating on verses 12 and 13 here.

[1:02] David says, Let's pray.

[1:18] Lord, we thank you. Your word is life to our soul. Lord, we know it's a light unto our way. Lord, we pray that you would quicken us through your word.

[1:30] Make us a living, alive people. Spiritually alive. Lord, shake off, we pray, the shackles and the deadness, Lord, that we might be revitalised by your Holy Spirit.

[1:46] Lord, do a work in each soul that is here. In each one that is here. Lord, that you would do a work. In Jesus' name. Amen. David's crying out here for a personal restoration.

[2:01] It was a holy desperation. He sought for a reviving again. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

[2:12] Something had been lost in David. We know of the circumstance. It was the psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba.

[2:29] David sought for a reviving to restore the joy of his salvation, of God's salvation.

[2:39] Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He sought for his spiritual life and walk to be renewed. And of course, the circumstance is, as I say, that gross sin and failure before God, where David had the occasion of his sin with Bathsheba.

[2:59] What does David do? He cries out for a personal revival, a spiritual revival, a deep within revival, a cry for joy, for saving grace.

[3:17] Revival. What is it? What does it mean? How can we see that in our lives, in this fellowship, in this world, in this community? Revival.

[3:27] Revival. Revival. It's been variously defined and described. Revival. It means a renewal, a return of life, of spiritual consciousness, brought to life again.

[3:41] It's when we make something strong, healthy, or active again that's lost that. It can mean to recover, to return from a state of neglect.

[3:53] You know, we hear of really, even clothes can be revived. You know, you take them out of your cupboard and take them down the op shop and then the clothing is worn again.

[4:07] It's like it's born again. It's worn again. You hear some op shops have that kind of slogan, that it's worn again clothing. And what was once neglected and discarded, maybe it was put away and lost in usefulness, is brought back into use and back into action.

[4:29] And that can happen for us spiritually, can't it? Where we might be put on the shelf, maybe out of service, out of usage, and God draws us back into action, puts us back into service.

[4:44] Our soul and our spiritual life can grow lax and it can wax and wane. We have these times where there's peaks and troughs and sometimes we're in a trough, as it were.

[4:57] And God can breathe his new life back into us again. That's what David cried out for. Revival is when God shows up. It's when God takes action within.

[5:10] Revival, it starts really with the new birth. That is really the first reviving, isn't it? The revival of being born again, made alive, made truly alive.

[5:20] We see that in Acts 3 verse 19. You might want to turn to Acts 3 verse 19. Acts 3 verse 19. And this is Peter addressing the throng.

[5:46] In Acts 3 verse 19 he says, Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

[6:01] Revival comes from God. The presence of the Lord. From his presence. This is what revival is. It's a time of refreshing that comes from the Lord.

[6:16] Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. I put to you that as a nation, as a people, as a church, as a community, we have a need of revival.

[6:29] Amen? Do you believe that? We have need of revival. Really, we could do with reviving day by day. Moment by moment. Soul by soul.

[6:39] Person by person. We need a heaven sent revival. Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Andrew Murray said this, A true revival means nothing less than a revolution.

[6:53] Casting out the spirit of worldliness and selfishness and making God and his love triumph in the heart and life. Throwing out the spirit of worldliness and fleshliness.

[7:07] Selfishness. And making God and his love triumph in our heart. Where are we today? Where are we at?

[7:17] I put to you there is a decline in the church worldwide. It's not just in Australia or in our neck of the woods. It's global.

[7:28] A decline. As much as you see actually some difference from that. And see in some nations there is an openness and a receptivity to God.

[7:39] But certainly by and large I'll put to you in the western world that there is a proneness to drifting. To lifelessness. To lethargy. To weakness.

[7:52] To inactivity. Look at the church. Look at Christians today. Look at Christianity. It's been said that Christians are divorcing at about the same rate as unbelievers. Almost 50%.

[8:02] It's like there's not really a difference there. There should be, shouldn't there? If we are God's people. There is much pain and abuse even within churches.

[8:13] We know in church circles there's much sadness. There's much sad history. There's much sad goings on. That the media are constantly putting to us. The pain and abuse of churches.

[8:26] Pastors. Preachers. Ministers. Church folk. Gross things. Sad. Hurtful things. And we see too many churches.

[8:37] There's a decline in attendance. A decline. A lifelessness. That saps the strength and the spiritual fervour that we ought to have. As a people we need revival.

[8:49] Don't we? We need a revival. We need a revival here and now. Amongst you and me. Here tonight. It's imperative that a people return unto the Lord.

[9:01] You know some people would turn to politics to be the answer. And look there's much to be said for voting for Christian candidates. We're all for that. Where I can I would urge you to consider that.

[9:17] I know politics is a bit of a touchy subject. You don't want to step on anyone's toes by talking about political parties. But it's about the character of the candidate isn't it?

[9:30] Who is standing and what do they stand for? Do they care about Christian truth? Do they care about morals and standards and righteousness? Then they are the ones that should get our vote.

[9:40] But yet we know really politics is not the answer. We can have quasi-Christian or supportive of Christian principal candidates and still it's politics cannot do it.

[9:55] It's got to be a reformation on the inside. It's got to be in the churches. It's got to be the God's people. It's got to be a spiritual change. And we have need of God's deliverance, don't we? David saw that.

[10:07] He cried out, restore it. Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Billy Sunday put it this way. When is revival needed?

[10:17] When carelessness and unconcern keep the people asleep. When may a revival be expected? When the wickedness of the wicked grieves and distresses the Christian.

[10:29] Shouldn't the wickedness of the wicked grieve and distress the Christian? When it doesn't, we need revival. We need to be revived. Is there a carelessness and unconcern?

[10:42] Is there a sleepiness? We need revival. We have a need of coming back to life. You think of when you were, when you were first saved, when you were born again.

[10:55] That first revival of your soul. From darkness to light. From death to life. From blindness to sight. He wants to revive you again.

[11:09] Revive me again. We have need to ask of the Lord as David cried. Lord, restore it. Lord, restore it. Bring it back again. Make me alive.

[11:21] Quicken us. And we see that in Psalm 80 verse 18. In part. Psalm 80 verse 18. In part. As the psalmist there addresses the shepherd of Israel.

[11:34] He says this. Quicken us. And we will call upon thy name. Quicken us.

[11:45] Make us alive. Make us live alive. Quicken us, Lord. And this word quicken, and this appeal to quicken, is actually a repeated theme.

[11:58] You can check your concordance on that one. Henry Blackaby, another author of scriptural discourses, says this. When the holy God draws near in true revival, people come under terrible conviction of sin.

[12:15] The outstanding feature of spiritual awakening has been the profound consciousness of the presence and holiness of God. All revival begins and continues in the prayer meeting.

[12:27] Some have also called prayer. Some have also called prayer the great fruit of revival. In times of revival, thousands may be found on their knees for hours lifting up their heartfelt cries with thanksgiving to heaven.

[12:41] Prayer is a real feature. It's a real touchstone. And it's a real foundational aspect that we see where God has moved in times past, through revivals, through history past.

[12:56] Prayer was very evident. There was once a little church in rural Tennessee, and they had a revival meeting. They would have a, what they called a revival meeting. It's kind of an American terminology, where they have a revival meeting, special meetings to revive the church.

[13:15] And there was this old man who would come to these revival meetings, and every spring he would renew his life to God. He'd make some kind of rededication. And then as time went by, by autumn, he'd begin to kind of cool off a bit.

[13:31] Then by winter, he'd get cold. But then spring came again, first day of spring today, and he would get fired up again. You know, spring was the time when he got this revival.

[13:43] And then, so he would come on the first night of the revival. He'd sit right at the back there, maybe where Michael is. And he would sit right at the back. And then the next night, he'd be about two rows, maybe here where the tansies are, sort of in the last, in the two rows.

[13:57] And then by the fourth or fifth night, he was on the front seat. And that's where the blessing is here. But on the front seat, where the blessed ones are. And he would come, and then he would be praying, Lord, fill me.

[14:10] And there was this little lady who saw and who knew this man's pattern, that he would have this kind of reviving. And then he'd kind of cool off through the rest of the year. And then come back again and get revived again in spring.

[14:24] She prayed this. She said, careful, Lord. He leaks. He leaks. And that's true for all of us, isn't it? That we can leak. Our Christianity leaks out and we kind of need to be replenished.

[14:37] Our problem is that we all tend to leak. Let's be honest here. And the Lord wants to fill us with his Holy Spirit and to start a fire within our hearts, to set us ablaze, to set us alive and quicken us.

[14:52] That the fire can be revived again. That might be a bit of a smouldering pile of embers. That God can blow his bellows, the wind of his spirit, and set us on fire again, as it were.

[15:09] There was a man by the name Robert Robertson. And he was born in 1737 in England. And he grew up very poor. And his father died when he was just eight years old.

[15:21] And Robert Robertson used to run around with the local gang. And he got so out of control that it was hard for his mum to manage him. And one day the town held a revival meeting with the preacher George Whitefield.

[15:36] And the boy and his friends went there. They thought they'd go along to the meeting and cause a bit of a stir. Just stir things up a bit. And break up the revival.

[15:49] Well, Robert went. And when the preaching was so powerful, instead of breaking it up, God broke him up. And he got saved.

[16:00] He was converted to Christ. And he entered the ministry. At the young age of 23, he wrote one of the great revival hymns, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

[16:15] In the third verse, Robert Robertson tells that he knew that he had the tendency to kind of wax and wane for the fire to go out. He said, prone to wander.

[16:27] Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Revival is needed when we neglect to fuel the fire.

[16:42] And for many years, Robert Robertson was on fire for the Lord. But over the years, he proved somewhat of a prophet in that he began to wander. He began to wander.

[16:53] He left his God. He left his church. And according to history, late in his life, he was found in a carriage, you know, in a vehicle driven by a horse, a horse and carriage.

[17:11] And he was sat there sharing the carriage with a woman. And she was humming the same tune to that same song. Come thou fount of every blessing.

[17:24] She was humming that tune. And Robert was just sitting there kind of, it was moving him. He'd been quite despondent until the lady began a conversation saying, maybe what you need is the message of this song.

[17:38] And history tells us that he broke down in tears and said, Madam, I'm the one that wrote that song. And I would give everything, anything if I hadn't, because I would give anything to have those feelings again.

[17:55] He can revive you again, brother, sister. He can revive you again. What must we do? Pray through. Pray through. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

[18:07] Pray through. Pray on. Pray on. Pray with persevering prayer, with earnest prayer, with passionate prayer, with fervent prayer, with desperate prayer, with intense prayer.

[18:20] When God moved upon his church, it was when his people prayed. It was when they were all together in one place, praying. Pray through.

[18:33] And we need an earnestness in prayer. And we need an earnestness in witness too. May we know that increased burden for the lost, the burden for the lost that we once were lost.

[18:47] And we want no one to stay in that condition, do we? Do we care enough to pray to go? To go. To go to sow in tears.

[19:01] As it says in Psalm 126, 5 and 6, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his seeds with him.

[19:22] The sense of that one going out to sow the seed in the ploughed ground and then it strikes. And ultimately they come back, bearing the sheaves, the harvested grain.

[19:40] As we go forth weeping, sowing that gospel seed, we will doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us.

[19:52] And the end result is we can shout for joy when someone gets saved. What a joy in heaven amongst the angels and amongst the saints below and in especially the heart of the one saved and in the heart of the soul winner that for all eternity his praises shall redound of a soul saved from the devil's hell.

[20:16] Nothing can compare with that. People are dying without Christ. We should be moved. We should be concerned. We should be in earnestness for souls. This should concern us.

[20:26] We should have a holy desperation like David. May we look unto God. May our faces be turned upon him. It's been truly said when we look to man, we get what man can do.

[20:39] When we look to money, we get what money can do. When we look to organisation, organisation, we get what organisation can do. When we look to denominations, we get what denominations can do.

[20:50] But when we look to God, we get what God can do. Amen? Can't we? When we look to God. May we seek after God, seek after his face and seek his filling, his enabling, his empowerment for that deep, heart deep, personal revival, a filling of his spirit.

[21:16] We can do nothing without him, it says. John Hyde went to India as a missionary over 100 years ago. He left his comforts to go to this dark land of India.

[21:31] He felt this strong calling to this nation and he spent hours learning the language, the local language of the place he was going of India. And in 1892, he boarded a steamer in New York bound for India.

[21:49] En route, he received a telegram from a close family friend. Thought, oh, this is interesting. Grabbed the telegram and he opened it on the deck of the ship and the only words on the telegram were, John Hyde, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?

[22:07] John's response was one of heated anger. He crumpled the paper, put it in his pocket and he went to bed. Unable to sleep, he tossed and turned all night.

[22:18] He woke in the early morning again and he took the piece of paper and he read it again. John Hyde, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? He thought, the audacity of somebody to ask me a question like that.

[22:30] Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? Here I am, a missionary, sincere, dedicated, leaving my home and going to another country. How dare they ask me if I am filled with the Holy Spirit?

[22:43] Wasn't he equipped for his call? He'd received a bachelor's degree. He'd studied the language. He was even on his way and was determined to pursue his destiny.

[22:54] Yet, yes, he was on his way, but Hyde was challenged by the note. And after much soul searching, he fell to his knees before the Father.

[23:06] Oh God, he cried out, the audacity of me thinking that I could pray or preach or witness or live or serve or do anything in my own strength and power.

[23:18] Fill me with your strength. Fill me with your power. And as a result, John Hyde became one of the great missionaries of all time. you can experience God's greatness deep down in your own soul.

[23:34] There's a deep joy there. Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee?

[23:48] Psalm 85 verse 6. John Hyde was challenged there to think of his spiritual condition, to think, am I filled with God's spirit? Am I trusting in my own preparation and work and knowledge?

[24:00] Or am I trusting in the spirit of God to do his work in me? And friends, the source and rejoicing, the object of our rejoicing is God at work in you, in me, doing his work, his good pleasure.

[24:17] God is at work. May we seek and find and do his will. May we yield. John Hyde had to be challenged. And I put to you, I need to be challenged.

[24:30] We need to be challenged. Am I filled with God's spirit? Am I doing things in my own effort and strength? Or is God doing this work through me as a yielded vessel?

[24:42] And we can re-consecrate. We can come to that place of consecration like David. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. David had gone astray and he sought after God again.

[24:55] May we get that longing after God that David had. Our God answers. He answers by fire and he will do a work in our heart, in our very soul.

[25:07] Look at the world we're in. It's wayward. It's Christless. The darkness is deepening. The soul's damned. The storm clouds are threatening.

[25:18] We see woe and despair. I was just seeing one of my grandchildren was lamenting about climate change. I thought, I'm not going to say anything.

[25:28] But you think, there's despair. There's just this despair that's going on. It's almost a distraction, isn't it?

[25:39] The climate change. But the real need, the real despair for our world, for our children, for our grandchildren is their spiritual state. It's a spiritual problem.

[25:50] That's what it is. And this world is wayward. It's needing this message. We must communicate it. And the church, by and large, is failing, drifting.

[26:04] Friends, tonight, you belong to the one who was despised and rejected. And he is that still, isn't he? Don't they still despise and reject him?

[26:15] And you who identified with the rejected one, you will likewise be rejected. Don't be surprised when you witness for Christ when you are rejected.

[26:31] Even your own family, let's face it. We have to be bold and strong in such a time. Our witness must be resolute. We must be determined. We must be challenged like John Hyde.

[26:43] We must overcome like John Hyde. Am I filled with the Spirit of God?

[26:53] Or am I trusting my own strength? We must overcome pride such that we'll bow our will, our heart, and acknowledge our need of him.

[27:05] Be willing to be humbled. Isaiah 57, 15, it says, For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, his name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

[27:29] It's saying here the high and lofty one, the almighty, the omnipotent, the almighty, most high God, he dwells in that high and holy place.

[27:42] He says he dwells with him that is of a contrite and a humble spirit. And his work is to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

[27:55] David's cry was the prayer of a contrite heart. David knew his failing and he humbled himself.

[28:09] He became a contrite man. What will it take for revival in Elizabeth? For revival here, where we live, in this place, in this nation, in this state, this city, this town.

[28:25] What will it take that we can be a spirit-filled, Christ-filled, consecrated people, a praying people, a Bible-believing people, a spirit-filled, witnessing people, a go-getter, kind of, standing for Christ people, no matter what, kind of people, to be the church, truly Christ-centered, that he wants us to be.

[28:51] It's going to take the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's not so much the preaching or the sermon, certainly not the preacher, but it's going to take the people of God to be moved upon by God's spirit.

[29:06] Look at an example of biblical revival in Jonah's day. Jonah 3, verse 4. In Jonah's day, Jonah 3, verse 4, what did Jonah preach?

[29:18] It was a very short sermon. Now, sometimes I I do like to write out my messages to try to help me keep on track and have a bit of a logical start, finish, and middle point.

[29:35] And I look at the number of words that I type out. There's certainly much more words than Jonah had. He only had eight words in the English language.

[29:47] Eight words was his sermon. It wasn't Jonah's message. It was God's message. And in Jonah 3, verse 4, it says, And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

[30:07] Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Very short and to the point, wasn't it? It was God's message for the city of Nineveh.

[30:20] And we know Jonah was reluctant to even deliver it because he had to be severely detoured from his direction, which was the opposite one, to go God's direction.

[30:33] But Jonah took this message that God had given him to deliver. And we know the result was Nineveh came to repent. Nineveh turned to God.

[30:48] turned to God's from rebellion to trust in the Saviour. Effectively, there was a turning to God through the message of Jonah.

[31:02] And apparently the word overthrow has a double meaning. I'm told that in the Hebrew that this word overthrow! is linked to destruction as told of the overthrow of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for one, an overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah destruction, but it can also mean a total transformation or a radical change of heart.

[31:25] For example, in Deuteronomy 23.5, it says, nevertheless, the Lord thy God would not hearken unto Balaam, but the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee.

[31:39] There's a sense of turning, a sense of transforming, a radical change. And so, as Jonah was delivering this message, yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

[31:51] You could take it two ways. It shall be destroyed, or there shall be a radical change, a radical transformation. One way or the other, Nineveh was going to be turned upside down by God.

[32:04] Amen? Nineveh was going to be turned upside down one way or the other. That was Jonah's message. That was God's message to Nineveh. And I suppose it depends whether we turn from our fleshly, evil direction to the living, saving God God, then we can be radically transformed within and changed, converted, or whether we deny and reject the message of warning, we will be destroyed.

[32:38] And it depends on our heart response, doesn't it, to that? Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown, turned upside down.

[32:50] What happens with revival? God turns everything upside down, doesn't he? He turns our world upside down. He turns us right side up. That's what happens when men come under conviction.

[33:03] As David came under that sense of contrition, men come under conviction where the spirit of God points out where we've gone astray and the word of God quickens us.

[33:14] It makes us come alive. In Psalm 119, verse 25, it says, My soul cleaveth unto the dust. Quicken me, quicken thou me according to thy word.

[33:28] Psalm 119, all about the word of God. Verse 25, quicken thou me, make me alive, Lord. I'm asking you, quicken thou me, make me alive, Lord, according to thy word.

[33:45] And it's the word of God at work that makes us alive. It's the word of God that unleashed, has power to set us free, to turn us right side up and to save our soul and to trust this glorious message and to be messengers of it to others.

[34:04] It's a great and glorious working of God. Despite our weakness, we can be revived again. As with Jonah's small sermon, there wasn't anything flashy about it, there wasn't anything to make it glossy and glitzy and glamorous and there wasn't any bells and whistles and any slogans and marketing to accompany it or any showy stuff of men.

[34:34] It was just eight words. A small sermon, but a great God. Amen. A great God. Maybe I should preach shorter sermons that don't despise the day of small things, it says.

[34:48] Don't despise the day of small things. Don't despise what wonders God can do with people just like you and me. Humble enough for God to work in your heart.

[35:00] That God can work his wonders through the work of a humble church as we depend upon the sweet spirit of God to do that inner work that he wants to do in you, in me, in the hearts and minds of people.

[35:18] And our word to the lost, to our world, is short and sweet too. Be ye reconciled unto God. Be ye reconciled unto God.

[35:28] I know when we were out witnessing yesterday, there was a man there, 90 years old, and I thought, how much time has he got left, you know, really?

[35:39] God and he was pretty kind of offhanded in his response to the gospel. And look, I put it to him kindly, I said, are you ready to meet your maker?

[35:52] It's about getting the message across, isn't it? Time is short. Who knows how much time we have. If we're outside of Christ, be ye reconciled unto God.

[36:03] Don't delay, don't put it off, don't sit on the fence any longer, get right with God. Get right with God. I like to say how I saw in some old Salvation Army church that they had a slogan on the altar and it says, get right with God.

[36:19] Four words on this wooden altar, this wooden kind of pulpit raised platform, get right with God. It's the message we have for our world, isn't it? Be ye reconciled unto God.

[36:31] God's given us a promise of spiritual revival. Each one of you here, we can know that spiritual revival, that personal revival, like David found. We can see God do a work in us, in our situation, in our desperation, in our families, in our circumstances.

[36:49] God can do a work. We just have to get out of the way, don't we? I have to get out of the way. Sometimes I can be an obstacle. My personality, my mannerisms can be off-putting.

[37:02] I don't want to be seen. I want Christ to be seen. I want Christ to be the one that you leave having heard from him. We have to wake up from our slumber and sleeping.

[37:15] A lot of people are fast asleep spiritually, aren't they? They're sleeping. And the devil loves it so. He would just sing his sweet little lullaby to you and let you have your nap as long as he can, to be spiritually slumbering.

[37:34] But God is into shaking things up. It's as if sometimes we need to have a crisis, to come to a crisis point for us to realise our need and to turn unto him.

[37:50] Now sometimes we get so blasé and so flippant and careless such that we get comfortable, too comfortable.

[38:00] And sometimes we need God to shake us. As it were, I was talking today with my kids about, I felt like they needed to put a hammock up because I was feeling like a nice little afternoon nap.

[38:14] Just have a hammock. And I thought how nice that would be to be able to just lie back in a hammock and maybe they could rock me and send me to sleep. But you think, well, that's what the devil would love to do, to put us all in hammocks.

[38:28] But I think sometimes our Lord gets that hammock and he shakes the hammock and he gets us out of the hammock. Amen? I think that's what we need sometimes. We need that crisis point.

[38:39] We need God to shake us and wake us up and get us out of our comfort zones, from out of our spiritual sleepiness. And it's the revival work of God that he can sometimes be working right in the worst of times.

[38:55] We might feel at times it is the worst of times, but God is doing something. Amen? God is doing something and trust him, even in those times of trouble and those times of lack and of oppression.

[39:09] As in David's time, this couldn't have probably got much worse for David than where he was at in Psalm 51. God can intervene then in our circumstance.

[39:21] When we're at the end of ourselves, at the end of our own resources, it is then that God steps in and we can get out of the way. In our times when we're the weakest and we're most vulnerable, when we're desperate, there's a holy desperation, which is a good thing.

[39:38] In Psalm 138.7 it says, That's a promise, isn't it?

[40:00] In the midst of trouble, it could be just where God wants you to be. Hard though it can be that his right hand will save. He will revive us in the midst of trouble.

[40:13] That's a blessed verse, isn't it? What will we do in a time of trouble at such a time as this? Pray, pray through. As David, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

[40:28] May we return to the altar and pray. God, light the fire and be on that altar for yourself. Rekindle that fire. As you get on the altar, God will light the fire and he will consume your offering.

[40:44] He will consume you and you will be consumed with him. And it may be right at that time of crisis when the situation seems the worst. Then it is that God steps in.

[40:57] When we are troubled on every side, as Paul talked in his own testimony of the dire situations he went through, Paul himself.

[41:09] 2 Corinthians 4 verse 15, he talks about abundant grace. He talks about the glory of God. He says, For this cause we faint not. For though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

[41:28] For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

[41:43] For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Look not at the temporal situation, but turn your eyes upon Jesus.

[41:58] look upon the eternal God who is your refuge. Look at the eternal, not the temporal. In a world where everything is being shaken, and people are shaken, you know, there's terrifying news, there's alarm, there's desperation, there's no direction, there's no hope outside of Christ.

[42:28] People are shaken. Everything's getting shaken. We have an unshakable kingdom, amen? Unshakable. We as a nation, as a people of God, we need divine intervention.

[42:42] Everything is getting shaken, but the kingdom of God is not shaken. And you've got a divine mandate to fulfil. Every one of you, you are, I like to call every believer a sacred agent.

[42:58] Not a secret agent, we shouldn't be secret agents, but we are sacred, sacred agents. We are messengers of the holy word of God.

[43:10] We've got a divine mandate to take his message as these shining agents of light into places of darkness all around us. And this is our mission, to be God's sacred agents, taking his holy word to people drowning in sludge and confusion.

[43:30] The quicksand of the lostness, of the foolishness, of unbelief, of all the failing philosophies and the theories of men that are flimsy and flawed like evolution.

[43:46] They need a clear word and we must deliver it. Let's not settle for surface level Christianity. May we not be dry Christians, but flowing ones.

[43:59] To the backslidden, I urge you, get stirred up. Get stirred up. Be like David. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

[44:11] There was a holy desperation in David. Stir yourself. Stir up yourself. Seek his face. May our prayer be like this in Isaiah 64 verse 1.

[44:25] Isaiah 64 verse 1. Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, tear the heavens apart, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

[44:39] There was a holy desperation in this prayer. Isaiah 64. Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

[44:52] And then it goes on, verse 7. May it not be said of us of verse 7, there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.

[45:09] None that calls on his name, none who stirs up himself to take hold of God. Friends, we need to stir up ourselves to take hold of God. We need a holy desperation to take hold of God like David did.

[45:22] It took him a while to get there but he came to that place of holy desperation. Restore, lay hold of God, wrestle with God like Jacob wrestled, let wrestle on, wrestle with God, lay hold of God.

[45:41] Vance Hafner, an old time preacher, said the reason America and you could say Australia doesn't have revival is because while the situation is desperate, the saints are not.

[45:55] Friends, the situation is desperate, isn't it? Look at the world we're living in, the situation is desperate but the saints are not. We need a holy desperation, people of God.

[46:07] There's a problem with the climate, the spiritual climate. We have a climate crisis, apathy, carelessness. It's like when we can experience with our phones sometimes.

[46:17] You get the phone and you've lost the signal. You're out of range. What's happening? You need to reconnect. We need that spiritually too, don't we? Where we're out of range, we're out of signal, we're not getting reception, we need to reconnect.

[46:33] Reconnect. We need revival. We need to revive the connection. Are you burdened for your soul, for your nation, for your family? May we know the heart cry. For revival, for a refreshing of our spiritual zeal, of the vitality of our faith.

[46:52] Are we here just to have church? Or do we want to go further, go deeper, into his courts, into the most holy, into the holy place, into the holy of holies, to see the glory of God, to go into the veil, into the curtain, into the very heart of God?

[47:11] God, there's a price to pay for revival. There's a letting go, there's a humbling of soul. Some things have to be torn down so we can enter in. Some things have to be let go of.

[47:22] There needs to be conviction, a consecration. Restore unto me. God can restore. He can do that real work. We can know a divine visitation.

[47:33] We can have a solemn assembly. We can revitalise our deep, deep need. We need to go deeper. Like the man in Ezekiel's vision of chapter 47, the prophet Ezekiel is at the temple and he sees this little trickle of water coming down, flowing from under the altar, and then the river goes wider and deeper, wider and deeper, wider and deeper, till finally it becomes a stream that cannot be crossed.

[48:02] And it's a picture of the reviving work of God. It's a picture of the flowing of God's spirit as he goes wider and deeper, as we go wider and deeper in the things of God, that the dead things can be brought to life.

[48:18] Our Lord is in the work of making dead things live. Dry, dead bones, a living army. Spiritual life, born again, but then we kind of coast.

[48:38] God wants to do a work in us. Let us be like David. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

[48:50] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your people here tonight, that we are gathered here, Lord, not just to have church, but Lord, to meet with you. Lord, to be yielded vessels to do that.

[49:03] You have called us to be, to do. Lord, restore, restore unto your people the joy of your salvation.

[49:15] Lord, that we might know that divine visitation, dear Lord, that individually, personally, family by family, person by person, we might seek seek after you, Lord, your face.

[49:35] Convict us, Lord, of that we must let go of and draw us closer, Lord. Help us to renew our zeal.

[49:47] Reinspire, Lord. Let us be as living sacrifices on the altar. Help us, Lord, to seek and find your perfect will and to stand right there in the middle of it, Lord, no matter what the cost.

[50:06] Lord, let it be. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.