Revive Thy Work -Part 2

[0:00] This message follows on from part one from this morning which talked about revival. And I know it's a bit of a theme I've touched on of late.

[0:11] And we saw the prayer of Habakkuk. He said this. He said, He talked about asking God to enliven his work, the work of God.

[0:29] And that's revival really in a nutshell, isn't it? God reviving his work. And where is his work? It's you and me. We're all a work in progress, aren't we? Every one of you is God's people.

[0:42] Some of you might think, I've arrived. You might have reached perfect entire sanctification. I'm not there yet. But I know some of you might be closer to that mark than me.

[0:53] You look so much like the Lord. And you've got so much of the work of God and the look of Jesus on your face. God's working in all of us, isn't he? He's doing a work.

[1:04] Amen. And we're all a work in progress. And revival is that. It talks about, as I touched on this morning, we talked about some of the features of revival. We talked about prayer. We talked about God's power.

[1:16] We talked about passion. Now, another feature we could present tonight to think about of revival is the very presence of God. That's what I'd like to touch on really tonight.

[1:29] The presence of God. That's what we need. Amen. We don't want anything else. All of that. We don't want any of that stuff that will distract us from who our God is.

[1:40] And we want his presence. We want to know him personally. And the living God, that's who we're talking about. He makes us alive. He enlivens us. He refreshes us one by one by one.

[1:51] His life comes and lives in human vessels. And his presence is what we need. It's really a foretaste of heaven. And revival's been described just as that. It's been defined as God in the midst of his people.

[2:05] That's what we want, don't we? We want God in the midst of us. And that's what the children of Israel knew when they traveled through the wilderness. And they had the very cloud, a sign of God's presence in that visible form of the cloud, of the pillar of smoke and the cloud of fire by night.

[2:24] And they had to fire that cloud. Whenever it moved, they had to move. And so it's a bit like that for us, isn't it? It ought to be like that. If God says move, you move. You follow the cloud.

[2:34] The Lord wants to be in front of us, leading us and guiding us. And that's what happened with the children of Israel. Through all their wanderings, as soon as that cloud started to move, they had to pull up stakes and, you know, pack the tent, the tabernacle, and take it to the new place.

[2:52] And the Bible talks about God's presence, his abiding presence, God's glory. It filled the tabernacle. It filled the temple, the meeting place, wherever they were. It was filled with that presence of God.

[3:04] It wasn't so much the beauty of the meeting place. It was that God was there. That's what mattered. And as the people of God, it's the same for you and me, that we need to follow the cloud, follow the cloud, follow his leading.

[3:18] And friends, tonight, I put to you that we can, we can personally know the presence of God, his presence. It's real. It's that indwelling spirit of God.

[3:30] He lives in every believer. Every one of you that believe, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you. And that inward witness that he gives to you. Now, it says in Romans 8, 14, For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

[3:46] And there's that inner witness. Now, we need to be careful because some say, you know, they read the Book of Mormon and they say they've got a burning in their bosom. No, we're not talking about that inner witness.

[3:57] If it's not biblical, we're not talking about having goosebumps or, you know, warm and fuzzy feelings about some religion that is false. But it's that inward witness that is in accord with the word of God.

[4:12] That's what we need. That's what we must have. And that guiding, that sense of his peace, that restraining, that residing presence of the Lord. Believers today are still able to have that residing presence of the Lord.

[4:28] He does not reside in some cloud above the church building. Well, last time I looked, it wasn't there. But now he dwells in the lives of you and me, his people. Amen?

[4:39] That's where he is. He is here by his spirit. And in those travels through the vast wilderness, the children of Israel, they were totally reliant upon God for every step of the way, for his supply, for his guiding.

[4:52] And they learnt an absolute dependence upon him, a subjection to divine guidance. And we have that same like trust that God can guide us through life, through all the turmoil and the ups and downs and the valleys and the mountains.

[5:11] God guides us. Amen? Even through tough things. God is there. We can have that confidence as we have our delight in him. And the pilgrimage of the children of Israel, it's a graphic picture for us of how we should likewise have that utter dependence upon him.

[5:30] Think of it. God was their very supply, their daily bread. Whether it was water from the rock, whether it was the manna from heaven, whether it was the quails, they were totally reliant upon God.

[5:44] And as much as we might not always register that, we are too, aren't we? We are totally dependent upon him. The Bible says in him we live and move and have our being.

[5:56] If God wants to say, time's up, that's it. He calls the shots. Amen? He's the one who says your time is up. You've reached that final moment, the final breath. He'll take it from you.

[6:08] It's in his hands. We're utterly dependent upon him. And the children of Israel had that same thought as they followed God's leading through that amazing travelling time, through that uncharted desert, as we too pass through sometimes a moral wilderness.

[6:25] See the places we've got to walk through. It's a wilderness out there, isn't it? It's a jungle out there. The place we live. The community we're in. A godless wasteland.

[6:37] But God will guide us through the travels of life, through the tests of life. He will guide us if we will follow. That's the point. Follow him.

[6:48] So look to God. Look to his word. Have that heart that says, I will follow you, Lord. I will follow what you're saying. And here's the instructions right here for us. The guide is our Bible that lights the path for our life.

[7:03] It's great. Some of these youngsters got a Bible last Sunday. It's great to see them opening it up. I know it's kind of a bit daunting when you first open the pages, isn't it?

[7:14] That God will show you. God will give you light. You young people there, as you open that Bible, good on you. We look to God. We look to his word, to the Bible, to guide our life, our paths in life.

[7:25] And it brings light. It takes up blindness. It gives us understanding. And in revival, we see there's this overwhelming manifest sense of his presence. As we read in Acts 3, verse 19.

[7:38] As Peter said, repent ye therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Where does the refreshing come from?

[7:49] From the presence of the Lord. It's having that awareness of God, that sweet wonder, to sense his presence. And sometimes it's not in some conjured up kind of atmosphere of some manufactured thing.

[8:08] But it's just that quiet, still voice, isn't it? The presence of God. Times of refreshing. If you need refreshing, come before the presence of the Lord.

[8:20] Come before him. Times of refreshing. Don't we need that? Sounds good, doesn't it? Who would like some times of refreshing? Amen? Amen, I'd like some. There was one preacher who said this, The most awful aspect of hell is that God is never there.

[8:37] The absence of God. What a thought. After, you know, countless time, there's no God there in hell.

[8:49] He's never there. As in personally with someone. But for us, we have the opposite of hell, that God is with us. We have the presence of God, not the absence of God.

[8:59] I put to you tonight that we can have that reality personally. And as a church. Not going through the motions, but that God is with us to grab a hold of that truth.

[9:13] God is with us. Not as some. It seems like God is not in it. God's not in it. It's not there. God's not there. But God is here. He is here.

[9:25] By faith, we trust that. So it's important to consider personally, is the presence of God in my own life? And we read of Judges 16 verse 20, tells of Samson, Samson, that as he was lying there in Delilah's lap, it says, and she, Delilah, the one who tricked him to reveal the secret of his strength, to have the dedication that was manifest, that was evident with his hair, was a dedication to God.

[10:01] To have that shorn away, that separation that it represented of him unto God, to take that away would take away his strength. And so she finally got it out of him.

[10:15] And when he woke this last time, as the Philistines came upon him, she said, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And it says, and he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go as at other times before and shake myself.

[10:30] He thought, okay, ready for another challenge because he got through numbers before. He said, I'm going to shake myself and I'll beat these Philistines. And he did not know that the Lord was departed from him.

[10:42] He did not know God had departed from him. And I put to you today that some churches operating as they always have done, but they've lost the presence of God. It's dry, it's stale, they carry on.

[10:54] And some with empty noise and entertainment, missing the fact that God is not present. God does not show up there anymore. God has left the building. God has left them.

[11:06] What a sad thing it is when you see, I know we read and see, of churches that now are converted into all manner of things. And I know one thing that really rocks me is to think, the Gawler Baptist Church, still got the name on it, is now Dan Murphy's.

[11:26] So there's a different spirit there now, that's for sure. A different spirit. God has left the building. Those churches that once were great tabernacles, raised up by the people of God for the worship of our Lord, and now there's nothing there.

[11:43] God's left them. Churches that once had earth-shaking power. I know there's some old buildings in Munta, isn't there, where they had revival in Munta mines. Old churches now, they're just no longer filled with people.

[11:57] But they once knew numbers, swept into the kingdom of God. Now they're spiritually empty places. God has left them. The glory of God has departed. And some, there's much activity and form and noise, and even a circus show, as I talked earlier, and a disco beat, as if they can kind of drum up some kind of atmosphere.

[12:17] But God is not there. He's left them long, long ago. Friends, tonight, let's not settle for the shallow and the superficial, as we touched on today.

[12:31] May God refresh the passion, the presence of God, that we can seek after God as his people of this day, to seek after the presence of God. And know it personally in each heart.

[12:43] Let's be an active part of the church where God truly shows up, where he works amongst us. God's designed us to fly in formation.

[12:54] There's a story told of, as you may have heard this illustration, of Canadian geese. And they fly together in this V-shaped formation.

[13:05] And apparently they have 70% more flying power. They go 70% further than an individual goose on its own. And like the geese in this formation, we should fly together.

[13:18] We should be together. The church has been established that we support one another. Now, I'm not saying that you're a goose tonight, but I'm saying it's good to act like a goose, as far as to get in formation.

[13:30] Amen? To fly in formation, to support one another. It's a good thing to be a goose, all right? So let's get serious about that wanting to be together, longing for his presence.

[13:41] It's when the people of God got together, the presence of God was more evident. And likewise too, as we meet, even in the little meetings that we have, the seeming inconsequential meetings, when we get together, he says, I'm in the midst.

[13:58] That's something, isn't it? Praise God. So be encouraged in that. So do you want God's presence in your life? We can know that. The Bible tells us we can know that presence of God.

[14:10] As we open his word, there's truth here that feeds our soul, and that lifts us. But the Bible says there's a time when truth will be neglected such that it's fallen in the stream.

[14:22] You know, the word of God has fallen in the stream. It's like it's just papers on the floor like that. Just flying down the road, papers flying down the road, fallen in the stream. People treat the Bible like that today, where the truth is neglected.

[14:36] And we see seducing spirits at work. I've been shocked at some of these video things. And I know Julie says, don't watch it. It's just so shocking. How you see some things going on, and you think, oh, is that church now?

[14:50] That's church now. You think, that doesn't look anything like church to me. But we see in every kind of church, there's a need for that reformation of the people of God to return to the scriptures, and have that heart's cry as Habakkuk had, O Lord, revive thy work.

[15:10] And that's where the word of God is given its rightful place. When the word of God has its rightful place, God is there. God is there in the preaching, in the ministry, in the worship, in the fellowship, as we believe the Bible, as God's inspired word, as we give the Bible its rightful place in our own lives.

[15:29] This is God's word for us. It oughtn't to be a neglected book, but one we love and treasure. But there's a time told where the word of God was lost. It was missing.

[15:41] It had been so forgotten that the people of God no longer had it. We read of that in 2 Kings, chapter 22, where we read of King Josiah, and he finally got word of the word.

[15:55] He heard about the book. They'd found it, and he heard it, it says. And when he heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes. There was this time of shame, of repentance, of tearing up of his clothes in show of the shame of it, of coming before God, ashamed that they had failed to heed the word, to read the word, to follow the word.

[16:25] And when he found the word, revival came. And we must hear the word, the voice of the shepherd. He says, My sheep, hear my voice. This is his voice, to hear that, to have the trustworthy Bible in our hands, to value it, to love it.

[16:40] And the authority of it. And how can we know the word, such that it really touches us? The Bible talks about, the word of God, as being the sword of the spirit.

[16:54] We need to be wounded, by the word sometimes. You know, don't you get that sometimes, when you get, Ouch! The truth hurts. Doesn't it? When something from the word, speaks to us personally, it kind of prods us, and there's that pricking, that cutting of the heart, as the Bible speaks, about the word wounding us.

[17:13] And that's a good thing, because it's the wounding, of the cancer doctor, cutting it out, that needs to be taken out. Amen? That's a good thing. It's a good thing. I'm going to see the cancer doctor, this week.

[17:25] Because it's a good thing, to get some things cut out. It's going to hurt. But it's like the word, isn't it? The piercing, the dividing asunder. That's what we need, the word. The word will wound us sometimes, but it's for healing.

[17:37] And so, live in your Bible, read it through. A preacher said this, let's return to the basic things, of the word of God, of prayer, of soul winning, of revival. He says, oh God, send a revival, let it begin in me.

[17:52] That's Dr. Lee Roberson. It's a good prayer, isn't it? God, send a revival, and begin it in me. That's what we need to pray. And for the meantime, it seems there's a famine, in the land, the word's forsaken, it's kind of got lost somewhere.

[18:08] We must get back to it. Because what is biblical, is relevant. There's a lot of talk about relevance. This is the most relevant thing we can have. It's timeless. It's outside of time.

[18:20] And we can cry like Habakkuk did, oh Lord, revive thy work. So, as I touched on earlier, and I'm endeavouring to amplify a little more, we need a genuine revival.

[18:32] That God would truly move, and live amongst us, the living God. That he would work, a work deep down within, each one of us. I heard someone say, God wants total commitment, not token commitment.

[18:46] And we can make a commitment, just a token one, or we can make a total commitment. What does that look like? It's a thought, isn't it? Where does revival begin?

[18:58] It starts with the person walking, in your shoes. That's where it starts. It starts with the person who looks at you, every morning in the mirror. That's where revival starts.

[19:09] I'm talking to you. It's each one of us, getting revived, one by one by one. Each one of us, catching that fire, as it were. That we can be enthused, we can be revived.

[19:20] That we can regain our zeal. Get back the fire. for a mighty move of the Spirit. Christian brother, Christian sister, God wants to revive you.

[19:32] Revive you. Amen? Yeah. So, take courage. Don't lose heart. You might say, preacher, you're talking to someone else here, not to me. I'm not ready.

[19:44] Maybe you will say, maybe next year, I urge you, don't delay. Quit playing church, if that's you. Quit playing games with God.

[19:54] God, get real today. Get real before him. And only you know your heart before him. I'm not condemning you. I'm just as needful of God to get a hold of me.

[20:07] And you might say, well, even if I wanted to, I'm not worthy. I'm not able. I'm not strong enough. Maybe one day. Friends, we can have that attitude.

[20:17] It's like, I heard a salesman talking, how they say, if someone says, I'll call you back, you know, basically you've lost the sale. You know, they're not going to revisit it. They're just going to put it off, and put it off, and put it off.

[20:30] Now, I'm not meaning to compare Christian commitment with some kind of me being a salesman here. But there is a sense where you put things off, and then you put it off again.

[20:40] Don't you? And then you put it off again. Friends, how long are we going to put it off to get right with God? You know, God sends revival through people.

[20:54] And I know I said a similar thing last week, where it's the humble, it's the untrained, it's the weak, it's the inadequate, the average. That's who God uses. He doesn't wait for some extraordinary person to put their hand up.

[21:11] He wants to use every individual believer for his glory, to be channels of his blessing, I'm not meaning to repeat a thought that I had last week, but it's the ordinary ones that God uses.

[21:23] He has to use the ordinary. It means you. It means me. And revival happened through history with people just like you and me. You know, I've been seeing some videos of biographies of missionaries of old, of revivalists and reformers of old, and reading some books along that line.

[21:44] And we see the stories of God's working, one soul at a time, one ordinary person at a time, one person willing to say, Lord, send me.

[21:58] O Lord, revive thy work. Amen. Think of the presence of the Lord. What does he want for you? May we ask ourselves, what do I lack?

[22:10] What do I need to get rid of? What's stopping me? It's time to toss out our idols, to trust him, personally trust him.

[22:24] And it might mean, well, it always means to tread the pathway of the cross, to tread the pathway of the cross, to turn and run to Jesus.

[22:35] That's what we must do. We must follow the cloud. People of God, if the cloud moved, they had to move.

[22:46] If we have God's direction, impressing us, then we must do what he's impressing us to do.

[22:59] And that doesn't mean lightly, have some fanciful thoughts, but prayerfully, scripturally, in that personal walk with God, to have that sensitivity.

[23:15] How is God leading me? Where does he want me to put my energies? How can I know his will and surrender to it? That my plans are under his management.

[23:29] That we follow the cloud. So he must wait upon our God. And have that attitude, as it reads in James, if the Lord will, that we have that sense, I'm not going to make plans without really checking in.

[23:47] If the Lord will, I'll do this and that. To be sensitive to the spirit of God. And friends, it says in Psalm 25 verse 9, the meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way.

[24:01] And we can just willy-nilly do our own, you know, unthinking things without checking in with God.

[24:12] It's the meek that he will guide. It's the meek that he will teach his way. And many will do their own thing, and it gets them into trouble. Think of Jonah, for example. God said, go to Nineveh.

[24:23] He wanted to go to Tarshish. Tarshish. And it seemed what circumstances favoured him doing that. Of course, we know, if God says go that way, and you go that way, then you're in trouble.

[24:39] And so, and Jonah, he found himself in the belly of the whale, seaweed wrapped around his head, and he came to the place where he learnt the bitterness of going his own way and following his own will.

[24:51] He had to be taught in the depths of the ocean, how do I obey God? In the belly of the whale. You know, let's not get so, let's not be like Jonah and have to be taught such a serious lesson.

[25:04] But God will teach and guide us, and if only we'll listen to him and be sensitive to him. He watches over us, it says, and he keeps our way.

[25:19] And he will guide. Amen. I'm just hopping through some of this because I'm not wanting to labour the points here, but just to make it clear enough what we ought to do.

[25:32] To be men and women of prayer. Think of Moses. He inquired of the Lord. When the pillar of the cloud came down, it says that he inquired of the Lord. Maybe we need to pray more.

[25:43] Wouldn't that be a good thing? Wouldn't that be good? And as Israel was in the wilderness, they were blessed with this literal cloud by day, this pillar of fire by night. What about us?

[25:55] We don't have that to look at. But we have his truth. And this is his voice. And we have his presence. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

[26:09] Think of that. There's no time in your life, good or bad, joyful or sad, in victory or defeat, when the Lord abandons you. Know that today, sister, brother.

[26:22] The Lord never abandons you. Amen. Can you say amen to that? Amen to that. I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's what he says. And like Israel of old, we can all have our blessings.

[26:34] We can have the cloud, the pillar of fire, the heaven sent food and drink, the presence of Christ the rock, and still fail God. Now the children of Israel, what a classic example of the backsliding, of the proneness to fail God.

[26:52] When granted all the blessings they had, they still set their heart on evil things. And I was talking to a brother lately, talking about, you know, the minute they came down, when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments from the mountain, and all the manifest blessings they'd enjoyed, and there they were dancing around some manufactured God of their making.

[27:14] You know, what a woeful thing. And it reflects to us human nature, isn't it? Our human nature is often contrary to God's will. So, let's learn to follow the cloud, not our own human impulses.

[27:29] We've got to deny the flesh. We've got to say no. We've got to follow the cloud. And like Moses, seek God in prayer. Friends, tonight, I want to put to you that by God's truth of His Word, that you can know God's abiding faithfulness to you.

[27:49] He is faithful. God's cloud, God's truth, will enlighten your way. He'll show you where to go, what to do. And God is present with His people still.

[28:03] We don't have a tangible cloud or a glory cloud, but we have that promise of our Saviour that He is with us.

[28:13] God is present with His people. Oh Lord, revive thy work. It's a good thing to have that heart cry today.

[28:25] And friends, as we think, how can we put this into action? The Bible tells us this in Hosea 10, verse 12. The prophet says, sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground for it's time to seek the Lord till He come and rain righteousness upon you.

[28:50] The time is now. Now. God needs to break pride in us, the hardness, our hard-heartedness.

[29:00] And He represents that by fallow ground. Now, I don't know what your garden looks like, but sometimes ground gets hard, doesn't it?

[29:12] And nothing grows. It's like it's a wasteland. The fallow ground, that hard, rocky ground, needs to be broken up to be fruitful. That unplowed ground has to be worked over and cultivated.

[29:26] And there's one time where my lawn was looking really dry and dead. And so, I borrowed some spikes and turned the soil over. I stuck the spikes in to break up the ground that was hard.

[29:40] And then it was enriched and it came green. Why? Because I'd broken up the fallow ground. And it's the same spiritually, isn't it? Brothers and sisters, what are those things that we've got a hard-heartedness, whether there's a hard shell, whether we've hardened our heart in some department of our life, the state of our heart.

[30:00] Is it hardened? Let's seek the Lord. It's time to seek the Lord, that He would soften our hearts, make us sensitive to His Spirit.

[30:11] And so then we can be fruitful for our God and bear fruit. It's easy to get spiritual inertia. It's easy to let the battery drain out.

[30:25] It's like a dear brother's car and it seems there's something wrong with it. Whether it's the battery, I don't know. Maybe it's the nut behind the wheel. No, the battery drains down, doesn't it?

[30:38] In some cars, you get that? And it comes out of the blue. You're driving along, you park it, and then you just can't start it because the battery's gone. It's gone. It's fit for the bin and you've got to get it replaced.

[30:50] And, you know, I'm thinking, just being figurative here, the sense of spiritually wise, the battery drains, doesn't it? And this need to pray the prayer, O Lord, revive thy work.

[31:06] Revive thy work. These are darkening days. Friends, this world's gone berserk, hasn't it? You think? I think it used to be normal like 20 years ago, didn't it?

[31:19] Now it's gone, like it's just going worse and worse. And it seems like the church, there's a spiritual inertia, there's sleeping Christians, there's people that are just playing church.

[31:36] Friends, we must mean business with God. we must realise the times we're living in. A preacher of Ann's happiness said, this is a desperate hour.

[31:48] The trouble is, the situation is desperate, but the saints are not. It's too late in the day for half measures. The need is too urgent and the time is too short.

[31:58] It is time to seek the Lord. I just love that scripture really. And it's a challenging one for me and for us, isn't it? There's no time like the present to seek the Lord, to seek His presence.

[32:14] What is it that's stopping revival? It's a good question. A preacher said this, sin is the only thing that hinders the revival of His church. It's sin, isn't it?

[32:26] It's sin to not seek the Lord. It's sin not to want more of His presence. It's sin not to be wanting to have more of that prayer that passion, that power of God, that reviving again.

[32:42] It's sin for us to not break up our fallow ground. Rather, let's know blessing. I'm not meaning to condemn.

[32:53] I'm looking at this man here. There's much more that ought to be done in this man. Friends, the darkening days that we're living in, they call us for action.

[33:03] There's a call for action today because it is a desperate hour but the saints are not desperate. We've not got desperate enough. One of the prayers for revival was, Lord, along the lines of, rend the heavens and come down.

[33:22] Lord, we want you to visit your church. We want your presence. Let's not be part of the blockage, whatever it is. There's no better time than now to get right with God.

[33:34] God, and, you know, I urge you tonight, I know that some have had some personal decisions this last week gone by. They're wanting to recommit their hearts. They're wanting to get back on track and God will bless you for that.

[33:47] God will bless you for that. Dear saint, and don't let the devil drag you back.

[34:00] You know, sometimes we make a profession, we make a commitment, we make a resolution, and we say, yeah, I want it, I want God, I want his way, I want to follow him, and then something upsets the apple cart and we're back to the old Andrew Craig again.

[34:17] You know, this ugly man, Andrew Craig, he keeps showing up again. I keep nailing him, dying daily, and he comes up, he just keeps getting resurrected.

[34:30] I'm just kind of, it's a figurative thought, but it's the reality, isn't it? Sometimes the old man starts to show his face again, and we've got to crucify him daily, die to self.

[34:44] Friends, how can we be more like Jesus? It's the presence of God, that's what we need, his presence. And dare we believe God for revival?

[34:56] A quote I gave this morning was, we need spiritual power along that lines, and we can have it so easily, if only we are prepared to pay the price.

[35:11] There's a price for revival. It means we've got to crucify the flesh, it means seeking hard after God, and that daily attentiveness to his voice, that eye to what the cloud, where the cloud is, and being willing to follow the cloud.

[35:37] I'm using this figurative language of as the children of Israel followed the cloud, God, so too we ought to have that sensitivity to what his word is prompting us to be, to do.

[35:48] And don't miss that. Are you willing to pay the price? Thankfully, one of the gracious activities of our shepherd is restoration. Don't you love that?

[36:00] I know as the church ought to be for backsliders or people that are in false doctrine or in sin, that we should restore such a one.

[36:12] And friends, the psalmist cried this, he restoreth my soul. Elsewhere it talks about restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Psalm 51.

[36:23] He restores my soul. This one of whom we speak, the saviour, the shepherd, the great shepherd, the good shepherd, the best and ultimate shepherd, he says, he restores your soul.

[36:36] And he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He is our great reviver, isn't he? That's what is the ultimate of revival. It's the restoration of God, of our soul.

[36:51] The ultimate reviving is his great work of restoration because he knows that perfect image that he wants to create that is his ultimate best for you.

[37:05] He knows what that looks like. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you that your word is your voice to us. We don't have voices that are contrary to that.

[37:18] Lord, we pray, let us be a people that will seek hard, after you, that we will know this time is the time to seek the Lord.

[37:30] We know that this is the time that you can restore, restore unto us the joy of our salvation, restore our soul, when we know the world would wear us down, wear us out, and the devil would dog our steps, and we know we can be inclined to keep slipping and sliding.

[37:48] Lord God, revive thy work, revive thy work in each individual soul. Lord, that passion, that power, Lord, that wonderful person of Christ, the very presence of God, that's what we need.

[38:07] Lord, help us to be such a church that despite all the failings and all the distractions of life, that we won't miss that, that we'll have an eye to follow the cloud, as it were, Lord, we'll have a heart sensitivity to know your will and to do it.

[38:26] Lord God, put on our heart what you need us to do. Give us wisdom, Lord, for life's decisions. Help us through life's battles.

[38:38] Help us to know that you are with us, as was often your promise when your people faced a time of battle, that we are told to trust in you, that you are with us.

[38:52] You will not fail us. You will not forsake us. And we pray for every believer here tonight for that restoration of spiritual life, that if that battery's got drained, Lord, that you'll refill, as it were, with spiritual life.

[39:12] Lord, if there's any yet to know that new life that is in Christ, that they can. Simply trust you to know that saving that makes an eternal change of destination, as we simply trust that at the cross everything was done and we receive that gift by your merciful hand.

[39:37] Lord, we pray for every family, every heart, every home. Lord, there's turmoil, there's tests, there's much need, but there is much supply from your hand.

[39:55] Let us be like the children of Israel, not to take for granted that merciful provision that you give us each new day, that we sometimes can miss that, that in you we live and move and have our being.

[40:14] We are entirely reliant upon you. Lord, help us to always have that sense that we are in your hands. And dear Lord, help us to be a people that will cry out, Lord, revive thy work.

[40:29] Let it be our hearts cry. Make us alive to live the Christian life in victory and strength and knowing your constant presence.

[40:40] In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.