A New Year Revolution - A Message on Revival

[0:00] 2016. At the turn of the new year people think of all kinds of new year's resolutions.

[0:20] ! Maybe you've got some, or had some. Maybe give up smoking, start a new diet. Have you done! A new year's resolution? Start a new diet. Julie heard of one, she said, she heard of this story, my new year's resolution is to get rid of all the unhealthy food in my house. It was delicious.

[0:42] Now, new year's resolutions, sometimes it's quite a vain thing to do, isn't it? Have you already broken yours? Don't want to confess that today, but some of us, it's already too late. We've already broken them. And when it comes to making changes that are healthier for us, or such things, sometimes we may have the will power, but we don't have the won't power. The won't power for those habits and things that get a grip on us and do us harm.

[1:13] Of course, any time is always a good time to ask God to help us. Give up some things and start up some things.

[1:26] Take up some things that are bad for us and take up some things that are good for us. Some good habits. And the good news is you don't have to wait until the next, first of January. You might have these high hopes, but you think, well, I'll wait until next New Year. No. Now is a good time to make this New Year count for God. And I'm not talking about New Year's resolutions today, but about a New Year's revolution. A revolution. Now you can get excited with me this morning. I'm excited about 2016. I'm excited about what God can do in you, in me, in us, as a church. You can say amen if you believe that. Amen. I'm excited, aren't you?

[2:08] Amen. I'm excited that maybe this is a good time to decide to make this next, this present New Year count for God. And in case you didn't realise it, we need a revolution. A revolution. This is my prayer for us, for our church, this people here today, that we would have a New Year's revolution. Amen. A revolution. That's what we need. A revolutionary message. This is a revolutionary book. A revolutionary book. A revolutionary book. A revolutionary book.

[2:38] A revolutionary life-transforming message. A new year's book. A revolutionary book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book. A new year's book excited about that. These are eventful days that we live in.

[3:12] The Lord is coming soon. We live in a chaotic world. Bent on self-destruction. As a people we have forgotten God. This pagan nation called Australia is in trouble today.

[3:27] It's in trouble today. Why? Why is this so? The fault lies at the feet of the professing church. The churches of our nation. Australia is in trouble because the churches are in trouble.

[3:43] Apostasy prevails. There's a widespread spiritual darkness. We as a nation are ripe for God's judgment for destruction. Something is terribly wrong.

[3:56] The Bible says God is sick of it. He's sick of it, literally. He rebukes the Laodicean church. In disgust. And he expresses elsewhere his disgust.

[4:10] At the so-called solemn assembly. At the vain efforts of worship. That he calls vain and noise. What is going on in the churches these days?

[4:24] Sometimes it's a spectacle. It's a circus show. A side show. An effort of blending worldly entertainment with the atmosphere of a nightclub and putting the name of Jesus on it.

[4:35] I saw one disturbing video clip just last night of a new trend emerging in the mega churches.

[4:48] In the youth group ministries. It's called gross out games. Gross out games. It is sick.

[4:59] And it literally makes people sick. You ask what it is. I don't want to tell you. It's so disgusting. Gross out games. Look it up. All in the name of pulling a crowd. They drag the name of Jesus in the mud.

[5:13] I won't elaborate on it because it's so gross as it is. Claiming to be. Unworthy of the Savior's precious name.

[5:25] We have forsaken God as a people. Judgment is at the doors. And in this hour of crisis we need to shake ourselves from our spiritual slumber.

[5:40] Christianity is in a sickly state. You know I've been doing some travels these last couple Sundays where I've been away and seeing the state of the church.

[5:51] It's not a good state. It is a good time to reflect on the state of the church. What it is now and what it could be. What God wants it to be.

[6:03] What is the condition of the church. There is an indifference to spiritual things. An indifference and apathy and unconcern. A spiritual slumber.

[6:14] A paralysis. A paralysis grips the church. The church is asleep. Drifting. As it were a picture of a canoe drifting. Just go with the flow.

[6:27] Down the waterfall. Down the rapids to destruction. Asleep. Drifting. Led by blind leaders of the blind. And there is an appalling neglect.

[6:39] A neglect of meeting. A neglect of spiritual things. No wonder there is an evident biblical illiteracy. People don't know the word anymore.

[6:51] Or they just go with the latest TV preacher's fan or fashion. People don't know their Bibles anymore. Because they are absent from Bible study.

[7:04] There is a sham pretense of Christianity that prevails. That prevailing prayerlessness. Coldness. Worldliness. Carelessness.

[7:14] I ask you to be honest today. Be honest before God today. And consider where do you stand? Where do we stand?

[7:26] Australia. We have settled for a cosy Christianity. A complacent, comfortable Christianity. A she'll be right mate. Kind of Christianity. That is the condition of the church today.

[7:39] That is our condition. As a church. By and large. Broadly speaking. No wonder our nation is in trouble today. What is our condition meant to be?

[7:53] As the church of God we're meant to have that high and holy calling. The people of God undefiled, separated. Holy. This is classic Christianity.

[8:08] Historic Christianity. Wherever in the past the church was where it was meant to be. That is what we need for us today.

[8:18] To go back. To go back. To where God was at work. That is why I put to you we need a new year's revolution.

[8:31] Praise God. Our nation is in trouble. The church is in trouble. It's meant to be God's great instrument for the evangelisation of the world.

[8:42] It's meant to be a centre of blessing to our planet. Yet sadly how we have fallen. God's wrath is about to fall. We need to plead for mercy.

[8:53] How can we restore the sacredness of the church? Habakkuk 3 verse 2. Habakkuk 3 verse 2.

[9:04] O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid. O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make known. In wrath remember mercy.

[9:16] Revive thy work in the midst of the years. O Lord revive thy work. It was his prayer and it ought to be our prayer here and now in this 21st century.

[9:29] O Lord revive thy work. We need a revolution. A radical change. A fresh consecration to our Lord. A refreshing of zeal, of passion, of action.

[9:44] Revival. Revival. That is my subject here today. Revival is our greatest need. Our greatest need.

[9:55] A revival. A holy ghost revival. A Bible revival. That is what we need. That is what we need people of God today.

[10:06] A radical revival. A revolution. Through Bible times we saw such times of God's outpouring. In days of Jonah, of Nehemiah, of Josiah.

[10:20] Each revival rested on the word of God. And its proclamation with power. And each time there was a refreshing, there was a restoration of true worship and gladness and joy and a destruction of idols.

[10:40] People who know me know that I love books and I've got numbers of them and I've had some exciting times lately going to a place where there's many books and I was grabbing arm loads of them and I've been encouraged by reading lately some of the classics.

[10:58] Some of the classics. Some of the authors of yesteryear. People who saw revival. People who experienced revival.

[11:10] revival. And I read about what Christianity can look like. Where God worked in revival.

[11:21] Real revival. I'm talking real revival. And down through church history we see these signs, these awakenings of churches, of communities where whole peoples were saved.

[11:34] Where whole nations experienced the waves of God's blessing and His amazing saving work in transforming lives. Oh Lord, revive thy work.

[11:46] That's a scriptural prayer for you to pray. For us to pray as a people, we need a revolution. Andrew Murray said this, a true revival means nothing less than a revolution.

[12:01] Casting out the spirit of worldliness and selfishness and making God and His love triumph in the heart and life. Revival means nothing less than a revolution.

[12:16] I looked up a definition of this word revolution. Revolution. An overthrow or a repudiation and a thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

[12:33] You know, the US, they threw out the British Empire. That's where they went downhill from there. There was a revolution, wasn't there? There was a revolution.

[12:45] As we know, there was a despotic power there. There was an abusive power of sorts employed in the US. But we know that revolution is needed.

[12:56] Sometimes revolution is not so nice. But a revolution for the better is what we are seeking. Revolution, another definition, a radical and pervasive change in society.

[13:07] A sudden complete or marked change in something. We need a revolution, a revolution, a revolution, a revival in the church, in us.

[13:19] Revival. It's been variously described as an awakening, a restoration, a refreshing, a visitation, a people saturated with God.

[13:31] Revival needs to restore lost power, to revitalise. Revival, as I said, is simply New Testament Christianity. The saints going back to normal.

[13:45] Revival means new life from God. It is his outpouring, his quickening of life, a revitalising, a divine visitation of God's people.

[13:55] Evan Roberts, a revivalist of old, had a watch word, bend the church and save the world. He prayed 11 years for revival and he saw a mighty visitation of God in Wales.

[14:10] That was 1904. And God bent the church back into shape. Lord, bend the church. Bend the church.

[14:20] We are in desperate need of revival. Let us rise to our own responsibility here, people of God. We are the church. Let us seek him with all of our hearts. Lord, bend the church.

[14:33] Bend the church. There are some features of revival that have been evident in history, in the scriptures, when revival came. Let's look at them together.

[14:44] And we can seek the same God who can touch us and move us in the same way. and do the same work in us.

[15:00] The first feature of revival I know is this. Prayer. Prayer. We must get back to the upper room. We must have a praying church.

[15:14] It's been said many churches have replaced the upper room with the supper room. prayer. We try to attract sinners with hot food instead of red hot sermons.

[15:27] We try to engineer things by human effort but we neglect to pray. Oh Lord, revive thy work. We need a revolution of prayer, of believing prayer, of persevering prayer, of prevailing prayer, of fervent prayer, of agonising prayer, of soul, travailing prayer.

[15:50] Prayer is the heart cry of revival. Prayer acknowledges our helplessness and our dependence upon our God in faith that he is in control.

[16:04] Prayer. It says that you rely upon God. Why aren't you praying? Pray. Saints, pray. Pray.

[16:15] It's what we must do. Another quote, it's been truly said that the greatest power entrusted to man is prayer power. Prayer power.

[16:27] But how many of us are untrue to the trust while this strangely omnipotent power put into our hands lies so largely unused.

[16:39] End quote. The greatest power entrusted to man is prayer power. Pray, saints. pray, pray and keep on praying. We need as a church to have the spirit of prayer and for the spirit of God to make intercession through us.

[16:55] Pray, pray through, pray saints, pray. Refresh that fresh communion with your Lord. How we must pray. pray. Let us be in prayer for God to work, to God to move in us, through us, with us, by us.

[17:14] When we join in prayer, God will do this, this work, his work. Let us learn to pray biblically, pray with urgency, pray with desperation.

[17:27] A man called Whitfield prayed that the Lord would make him an extraordinary Christian. And he did. He did.

[17:40] What a prayer. That's a prayer you can pray. Whitfield was an extraordinary man.

[17:53] He preached an average of ten sermons a week. Yeah, you didn't hear that wrong. Ten sermons a week. God mightily used him.

[18:05] And God answered his prayer. Another good prayer that someone prayed is this, O Lord, teach us how to humble ourselves and to get out of thy way.

[18:18] In other words, maybe not be an obstacle to revive him. It's been said that some people are just like barnacles on the old gospel ship, just slowing it down.

[18:30] It were better that they leave. Don't be a barnacle. Get on board. Get on board. Get on board the gospel ship. Let's get on board. Let's be in prayer. Let's be a prayerful church, a prayerful people.

[18:43] How we need to pray and get out of God's way. Get out of his way so that he can do his work. Get out of God's way and let God use you.

[18:55] God's great strength. Why are there so many weak and sickly Christians? They've not tapped into the power of prayer.

[19:11] It's been truly said that prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence. God is omnipotent. In other words, all powerful. Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence.

[19:22] When we come to pray, we rely on God, we depend on Him to do His work. God can start the work as you pray that He move in your life.

[19:33] Another quote from Jonathan Edwards, another mightily used of God in revivals. Jonathan Edwards, I quote, nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as humility.

[19:47] Lord, humble us. Help us to get out of your way. humility. Oh Lord, revive our work. Pride is a barrier to God at work.

[19:59] We must remove it, crucify it, crucify it, let go and let God. Humble yourselves and pray. Prayer helps us to find God's will.

[20:12] Ouch. It's been said, prayer is designed to adjust you to God's will, not to adjust God to your will. pray God's will be done.

[20:23] And so wait on the Lord, seek after God, wrestle, travail, tarry in prayer. Our heart cry is for revival.

[20:33] It may take a sacrifice on your part to pray. Don't put it off. Don't put it off. Don't let sacrifice put it off. The word sacrifice, because it's been said that when the sacrifice is complete, the fire will fall.

[20:52] When the sacrifice is complete, the fire will fall. The fire will fall, as it was in Elijah's day. Maybe we don't see the fire fall in our lives because we neglect to pray.

[21:07] We neglect to pray. Brothers, sisters, saints of God, pray. Pray, saints. So it is clear that we need prayer. The next feature of revival that stands out to me is this.

[21:19] Power. Power. We're often too man centred in how we act as a church. We've got a lot of machinery, but not a lot of heaven sent power. Oh Lord, revive thy work.

[21:34] God needs to do the work. We need a revolution, a divine takeover. A divine takeover. We need a revolution of the old time power.

[21:46] Not just any power, but the power of almighty God. And so to set our sails as it were, as this picture of a vessel shows, to set our sails for God to move us.

[21:57] The breath of God, the wind of God, the spirit of God. In a revolution, there's a change of government. And we need to come under God's government, God's rule over our lives, that God will truly reign in us as king over his people.

[22:13] And friends, today, we need the spirit of God. The spirit of God. The power of Pentecost. And I'm talking about the real deal, not the sham, not the pretense.

[22:26] For God to flood us with that power of Pentecost, with his power, for an inrush of the breath of life, of divine life, the breath of heaven, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the spirit-filled life.

[22:39] We need that power, the real power of God. And God works as we yield. God moves by our willingness combined with his power. Notice those two things.

[22:50] Our willingness, his power. Our willingness, his power. Our willingness, his power. They work in tandem, they work together. And so let us resign and let us ask God to take charge and confess Jesus as Lord.

[23:06] That's a revolution, isn't it? That is a revolution. We must have power from on high. God's power, a fresh outpouring. It's been said that every believer needs a personal Pentecost.

[23:23] Every believer needs a personal Pentecost. Pentecost brought the church its real witnessing power and its purification. There's much that's called Pentecostal today that is not Pentecostal.

[23:37] It's not the Pentecost that's in here. It's a sham. Friends, we need the real deal. God moves by our willingness and his power.

[23:52] Let us resign and let God take charge. Pentecost brought that real witnessing power as God in his omnipotence is all powerful and as we draw from that.

[24:03] Micah 3 verse 8 it says, in part, but truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. You may not realise it, but you are full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.

[24:18] Our Lord said, go ye, but he also said, tarry ye. In other words, wait for the power. And the tarrying had to come before the going.

[24:29] So said Tozer. Our Lord said, go ye, but he also said, tarry ye, and the tarrying had to come before the going. We need his power. We need his power.

[24:40] Another preacher said this, there is nothing the church of today needs so much as spiritual power, but there is nothing which we can have so easily if only we are prepared to pay the price.

[24:53] Prepared to pay the price. Charles Spurgeon was one who knew about revival. It's been said that Spurgeon's church experienced a constant revival.

[25:05] His church was in a constant revival. What did Spurgeon say? He said this, without the spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind.

[25:19] We are useless. End quote. We need to mobilise the church, brothers and sisters. There was a great man of prayer called Bounce who said this, what the church needs today is not more machinery or better or new organisations or new and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.

[25:54] The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men.

[26:05] He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer. We could say women too, all of us. We need prayer, don't we?

[26:17] Don't you? Amen. We need prayer and we need the old time power, power from on high, that the fire will fall.

[26:29] The Holy Ghost power, the real Holy Ghost power, the real Holy Ghost power, the real Pentecostal power, power to witness.

[26:42] And another feature of revival is this, passion, passion, passion. One of the biggest problems in Christians today is a cooling off. We're not meant to have a cooling off period as a Christian.

[26:55] You trust the Lord, then you don't have a cooling off period. No! You're meant to be fired up. Cooling off should not be happening. In these last days we see that sin is abounding and saints are slacking.

[27:10] Matthew 24, 12, our Lord said such would be the case. And because iniquity shall abound, sin shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. He says sin is going to be so abounding that the saints are the love of many are going to be growing cold.

[27:26] Have we grown cold? General William Booth said he was not satisfied to see men converted.

[27:38] He longed to see them soldiers of the cross. warriors for God. Not just converted but soldiers of the cross.

[27:54] Warriors for God. There's a coldness, a dimness. Let us not be idle Christians. Let us join the war effort.

[28:05] Let's enlist actively under the command of our great commander-in-chief. and let us hearken his commands and enter in to the cosmic battle for souls and realise the spiritual warfare that we're meant to be engaged in.

[28:24] We are whether we like it or not and fight the good fight of the faith. And for this we need a renewed passion.

[28:35] A passion. Don't you want some passion? You need it. I need it. We need it. We need revival. Our Lord revive thy work.

[28:46] We need a revolution of God given passion. Our highest name should be God's kingdom and glory to advance it. So may we come to know a holy desperation, a Christ-like compassion, a divine imperative.

[29:03] Our Lord says that he has come to seek and to save that which is lost. and his mission is now our commission. How we need to rekindle that passion.

[29:17] The passion! A passion! A passion for souls, a passion for the word, a holy passion, a passion in prayer. As we consider the hell-bound men and women that are around about us, oughtn't we have some passion?

[29:37] I read a gripping truth lately, holiness is about more than what we don't do. Holiness is about more than what we don't do.

[29:51] In other words, holiness impacts us in what we do do. What we do do. True holiness is not so much a list of what we don't do.

[30:05] Holiness is about what we do do. Luke 6 46, our Lord says, and why call you me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say.

[30:19] The church has grown cold. And when we get this burning red hot passion for God, wild horses will not drag us away from fellowship.

[30:31] each and every time we can make it. When we get that zeal, when we get that passion, that constraining love, we'll be urged from within, from within.

[30:49] Not from without. You won't need the pastor to phone you up and say, where are you? The passion will come from within, from within, from within. As God's people, we'll get that passion in active, soul-winning efforts.

[31:05] A passion, a passion that will change us, a passion that will move us, a passion that will drive us. I'm not meaning to condemn anyone here today. I'm talking to me, in my shoes.

[31:16] We have much need of regaining, of refreshing that passion. I need it. I need to refresh it. I need that spiritual freshness. I need to seek God. I need to get the passion back.

[31:29] And lay hold on God. We all do. Oh Lord, revive thy work. We need a revolution of prayer, of Holy Ghost power, and of a God-given passion.

[31:42] Another feature of revival, the last feature here I'll talk on is this one, the presence of God. Revival.

[31:53] As God enlivens his people, as he refreshes us, one by one by one, with his spiritual life, we can know a foretaste of heaven, his presence with us.

[32:09] Revival has been defined as God in the midst of his people. In revival, there is a manifest, overwhelming sense of God.

[32:20] Acts 3, 19, it 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.

[32:31] Times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, as we sort ourselves out before God. How is our awareness of God? Do we know the sweet wonder of his presence?

[32:42] Do we sense God's presence? Times of refreshing will come from his presence. There's a preacher who said this, the most awful aspect of hell, is that God is never there.

[32:58] After a billion years in hell, the sinner has no hope that God will ever come, even for a moment. We want the opposite of hell, don't we? We want heaven, we want the presence of God, and we can have it on earth, in our hearts.

[33:13] The kingdom of God is within you, the presence of God. Sometimes we just go through the motions of church. church. We neglect God even as we worship and fellowship. We must have the reality, the reality.

[33:27] God is here, now. And this would shake us and shape us if we were to grasp this, the presence of God is with us.

[33:37] And we don't just come and visit him on Sundays, he's with us all the time. He says, I'll never leave you, never ever. It's the presence of God in your life. One of the big problems that Samson had was that a time came for Samson where he lost the presence of God in his life.

[33:59] And he didn't even realise it. Judges 16, 20, there are churches operating today that have lost the presence of God.

[34:37] They have lost the presence of God. They carry on still in their emptiness and form or in their empty noise and entertainment, completely oblivious to the fact that God never shows up there anymore.

[35:00] The king has left the building. There are churches that were once great tabernacles where the people of God used to gather in holiness and fervor, where the Lord once moved in great earth shaking power as they saw a great harvest of souls swept into the kingdom of God.

[35:23] And now those places are spiritually empty. Spiritually empty places. from where the glory of God has departed. There may still be activity and form.

[35:36] There might be a crowd there, but the glory of God has departed. there may be noise, circus show, disco beat, but God is not there.

[35:53] He's not there. Let us not settle for the shallow and the superficial. We can make that mistake. We're not immune to this disease that afflicts Christianity.

[36:06] We can be just as cold as the church down the road. I'm talking to you. Talking to me. Let us not settle for the shallow.

[36:19] Let's refresh that passion. Don't you want to? Don't you want to have that passion, that burden? Don't you want to make a New Year's revolution? God can do it.

[36:31] To know the reality of his presence. Let's regain that sense of God, that awful sense of his majesty, of his holiness. Let's be an active part of the church where God truly shows up and works amongst his own people.

[36:45] You know, friends, today, God has designed us to fly in formation. To fly in formation. What am I talking about? Fly in formation rather than solar.

[37:02] It's been said that Canadian geese who fly in the V formation, fly 70% further than the individual goose would on his own.

[37:14] God has established his church for us to support each other. Now, I'm not saying that you're a goose, but I'm saying it's good to act like geese that fly in formation, isn't it?

[37:28] Get in the formation. Get in fellowship and support each other. We need each other. I need duty. We need one another.

[37:39] Make it a habit to enter into God's presence. There's a joy there as we fellowship. And God's presence is here. And it's here tonight at 6pm.

[37:50] And it's here Monday night at 7pm. Get in God's presence. Do you want God's presence in your life? Don't miss fellowship.

[38:01] Don't miss it. You need it. We need it. Enter in. Into the holiest. Boldly so. Recognise the shortness of time.

[38:14] You know, I'm not preaching 10 sermons a week. I've got to pack it all into this little message for you who only come once a week. Please, fellowship, don't neglect it. I know there's many that have got reasons why they can't work, travel.

[38:30] If you're not here, pray. Pray at home. Or if you're at work, pray. Don't miss fellowship. We need it. We need one another. We truly encounter the presence of God as we open the word of God, as he opens our hearts and our souls to his word.

[38:49] We live in a time where truth is neglected. The truth has fallen in the street. It's like they're throwing the word of God on the floor and they're trampling and wiping their feet on it. That's what's going on in Australia today.

[39:02] That's what's going on in our nation. That's what's going on in churches today where they've grossed out games instead of the word of God. Instead of the precious word of God. That's why we've got these circus shows that call themselves churches today because they have lost the presence of God.

[39:22] He's gone. God's and we can be neglectful too. Seducing spirits are at work it says and I'm staggered to see what some churches and preachers across our nation are falling for.

[39:35] It's just mind boggling and it's sad to see some churches faithful churches just limping along. They're limping along. There's a slackness that seems to prevail.

[39:48] Churches are closing their doors. There's churches without pastors in our nation. There's churches without faithful attendance in our nation.

[39:59] Good preachers and good churches are dying in our nation. We need revival people. We need revival. I need revival. You need revival. And God worked in times of reformation in the past.

[40:11] As the people of God fired up. As they returned to the scriptures. As they returned to sound Bible teaching and preaching. Bible led living.

[40:22] And so can we too. Oh Lord revive thy work. Oh Lord revive thy work. He can. He will if we pray in faith. Does the Bible have its rightful place in your life?

[40:35] Or is it a neglected book? You know you kind of dust the dust off when you come along if you ever bring it. A neglected book. Do we truly believe the Bible is the word of God?

[40:46] The inspired word of God? No wonder we've lost the presence of God. Because we've lost the word of God. Back in King Josiah's time, Josiah heard the word of the Lord and he acted on it.

[40:58] So someone found the book. It was hidden away in some dusty little recess and they found where it was hidden. And they said, wow, we found this book. 2 Kings 22, 11, it says, and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law that he rent his clothes.

[41:15] You know those fine royal robes, he just tore them in shreds because he heard the word of the Lord and it tore up his heart. He just tore up his clothes. Have we lost our responsiveness to the word of God?

[41:29] We must hear the voice of our shepherd. He says, my sheep, hear my voice. He's talking to you. Can you hear him? Hear the voice of the shepherd.

[41:40] We have a trustworthy Bible. We have a trustworthy God. We have God's book. May we truly value his word. I exalt you as the people of God. Love your Bible. Bring your Bible into your life.

[41:52] Bring your life into accord with your word, with God's word. Live under the authority of the scriptures. It's been said we need to be wounded by the spirit's sword.

[42:05] You might think this guy's going on. He's going ballistic this morning. Pastor Andrew's finally gone nuts. I thought he was nuts but no. And you might think this guy's a fruit cake.

[42:19] I'm wounding you this morning. We need to be wounded by the spirit's sword. Don't we? A preacher said this, let us return to the basic things of the word of God and prayer and soul winning and revival.

[42:34] Let us pray, oh God, send a revival, let it begin in me. there is a famine in the land and we must have the faithful word.

[42:46] And friends today, I'm not just talking theory today, this is not just revival 101 that you've attended a lecture on revival and you can go home and file it away in your mental notebook and forget it.

[43:00] Revival is not just something historic that happened way, way, way back in history sometime. It can happen in the 21st century in you.

[43:12] It's not just something historic from the past. Revival is biblical. If it's biblical, that means it's timeless, doesn't it?

[43:26] And what is biblical is what is relevant. I'm preaching a relevant sermon to you today. what is biblical is relevant.

[43:39] It is relevant. There's nothing more relevant than what's written here. And this is what we need to hear and to act upon. So I'm coming to a close shortly. A preacher Roy Hessian said this, he wrote Calvary Road, he said, sin is the only thing that hinders the revival of his church.

[44:01] Sin is the only thing that hinders the revival of his church. In closing, let me present to you with a challenge. Consider these timeless truths, consider the tragedy of a powerless church.

[44:15] That means you and me. Our Lord says unto us, without me, you can't do nothing. We need the Spirit's work. O Lord, revive thy work.

[44:30] What is the time? No, it's not. It's time to seek the Lord. That's what time it is. It's time to seek the Lord.

[44:40] Say with me, it is time to seek the Lord. It is time to seek the Lord. Hosea 10, 12, it says, sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

[44:56] Sometimes our hearts can get so hardened towards God, they need to be broken up. But it hurt my hand again. Our hearts need to be broken up, because they're fallow ground.

[45:08] God needs to break the pride in us, to break our hard-heartedness. It's time to break up your fallow ground. When fallow ground gets broken, it can be fruitful.

[45:20] You know, my Lord is an, wonderful example of this. I love talking about my garden, because of those few and far between times that I get to do anything with it.

[45:31] I can see the state of my lawn was hard. And I had to get the pickaxe, whatever, the spiky spade, and make it, cultivate it, and break it up.

[45:46] And after turning the soil over, my lawn is now enriched. I broke up the fallow ground. How is the state of our hearts before God?

[46:00] Is that what it is? Get that pickaxe out, get that mallet out, that spiky spade, get whatever out to cultivate the state of your heart before God.

[46:11] Our hearts need to be softened and made sensitive to God. And then we can be fruitful for our Lord. It is to His will that He be bear free. A big problem these days is sleeping Christians, inactive Christians.

[46:24] Where are we at? Spiritual inertia. What's the time? It is time to seek the Lord. It is time to seek the Lord. Isn't it about time?

[46:36] It's time we make business with God, isn't it? Isn't it? A preacher said this, it is a desperate hour. It is a desperate hour.

[46:47] The trouble is the situation is desperate but the saints are not. It is too late in the day for half measures. The need is too urgent.

[46:58] The time is too short. A desperate hour. The situation is desperate but the saints are not. Friends, we're living in darkening days.

[47:13] What's going to happen next? next? Don't you think that? Every time you plug into the news and you think, whoa, oh no, what next? The situation is desperate but the saints are not.

[47:27] The need is urgent. We need to get right with God, don't we? We've been sleeping long enough, haven't we? Wake up! Wake up! It's high time to awake.

[47:38] It's time for a reality check. How about you? Dare you believe God for revival? Dare we believe God for revival? It is time to seek the Lord.

[47:52] Let me repeat what Quotus gave it earlier. There is nothing the church today needs so much as spiritual power. And there is nothing which we can have so easily if only we are prepared to pay the price.

[48:07] Are we willing to pay the price? Are you willing to pay the price? The revival we need is a revival of holiness.

[48:20] It is time to seek the Lord. Break up and fall ground. Thankfully one of the gracious activities of our Lord our shepherd is restoration.

[48:31] You might think well the pastor has beaten me up good and proper. I have to go home black and blue today after all this condemnation I pray not condemnation but conviction conviction but he is our great reviver.

[48:47] There's hope for us. There's hope for me. There's hope for us if we slipped and slided and fumbled and messed up. The Lord is our restorer.

[49:01] Psalm 23 verse 3 he restoreth my soul he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name sake. What is the time?

[49:12] It is time to sing the Lord. We're at the beginning of a new year. We're already in it. I want to urge you to a new year's revolution. A revolution, a revival, a restoration, a reenlistment, a renewal of your devotion, of your zeal, of your love for the Savior.

[49:30] A New Year's Revolution calls for revolutionary measures. A change of government, a change of society, a heart change.

[49:43] I heard someone say this, God wants total commitment, not token commitment. Isn't that true?

[49:55] God wants total commitment, not token commitment. It's like the story of bacon and eggs, isn't it? One of them gave a token commitment, they laid an egg, the other one was total commitment.

[50:09] They were the bacon. Friends, we need total commitment. God can revive us, one soul at a time, one by one, one family at a time, and ultimately his whole church, locally, right here and beyond.

[50:25] One soul, one heart, one spirit, one spirit at a time. And these truths are timeless people. I know I've taken some time here, but I pray you'll take this in, take it to heart today.

[50:42] We cannot have corporate revival without individual revival. Where does revival begin? It starts with the person walking in your shoes. Look at your shoes.

[50:53] shoes. It's the person sitting in those shoes that wear revival starts. It starts with the person who looks at you in the mirror in the morning. He doesn't look like he used to, the one that I look in the morning.

[51:08] I used to have black hair and a bit more hair. But the person that revival starts with is the person that looks at you in the mirror in the morning. I'm talking to you. are you ready to go to work for Christ?

[51:26] You can be restored. You can be revived. You can take heart this morning. This is not to put you down. It's to lift you up and to see what can be. You can get back the fire. Oh, for a mighty move of the Spirit.

[51:38] Send revival, oh Lord. Do it again. Do it again. Christian brother, Christian sister, we have need of courage. These are darkening days, desperate days.

[51:50] Do not faint and do not lose heart. You might say, preacher, you're talking to someone else today, not to me. I'm not ready. I'm not ready. A New Year's revolution.

[52:02] A New Year's revolution. Maybe you'll say, maybe next year, 2017. You may say to me, I want token commitment, not total commitment.

[52:15] I urge you today, I plead with you, I plead, I beseech you as Christ beseeching through me to you today, quit playing games.

[52:26] Quit playing church. Get real today. I pray that there may be a New Year's revolution on the inside of you. You might say, well, even if I wanted to, I'm not worthy, I'm not able, I'm not strong enough.

[52:38] Maybe next year, maybe next year, I'll stand for God. Maybe next year, I'll plan to do something for God. I'm not strong enough. God sent revival in the past, but I just don't measure up.

[52:51] God can use you. God can use the one in your shoes. God uses people, everyday people. We see that through the word, through history.

[53:01] the Lord uses the humble, the everyday, the ordinary, the inadequate, the unlikely, the average. If you're humble enough to be used of God, he can do that for his glory.

[53:16] And you can become a channel of blessing. Pray as Winfield did, make me an extraordinary Christian. Revival happened and it still happens as we see God still is at work.

[53:28] O Lord, revive thy church. Pray for a revival. We know there's much that's manufactured and called revival that's not. But we want a real revival.

[53:43] A revolution in prayer, in God's power, in that passion. And we'll see the presence of God truly amongst us.

[53:55] It is time to seek the Lord. Time to trust God with your life, with the rest of your life, starting now. From here on, from this day forward, trust God with your life.

[54:08] Trust this good shepherd, he'll restore your soul. Trust God now to set your hearts aflame. How we need an awesome conviction, a brokenness over sin, a breaking up of fallow ground.

[54:19] May I ask you this two questions, two quick questions. What do I lack and what do I need to get rid of? People think that New Year's resolution time, don't they?

[54:30] What do I lack? What do I want? What do I need to get rid of? What about spiritually speaking, just now? One quick challenge, just now, individually, before God, I urge you to set yourself to seek after God.

[54:47] Toss out your idols, repair the broken altar, plead the promises of God, put yourself at God's disposal. That's all these people did back then. And we can do that right here and now.

[55:00] That's all they did. Lord, use me. Revive thy work. Enlist today as a soldier of the cross.

[55:11] Tread the pathway of the cross. Turn and run to Jesus this morning. I pray, I've been preaching to Christians largely. I pray, if you're not a believer today, it starts at the cross.

[55:23] It starts at the cross. It starts when you see the bleeding and dying one in your place for your sin and receive his gift. It's simple faith.

[55:35] As you reject the old and you find the new life in him, as you turn aside and turn to the saviour, he receives you and embraces you as his own.

[55:48] Turn and run to Jesus this morning. And believers today, be encouraged, be enheartened. O Lord, revive thy work. Let us do it.