What to Expect When Revival Comes - Part 2

[0:00] Welcome and thank you for joining this message by David Entry at Carish Church.! In this season of Great Awakening, may God pour out His Spirit through His Word, refreshing! your heart and awakening you to His will.

[0:13] ! And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you?

[0:53] And the man in whom the evil spirit was lifted on them and overcame them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

[1:05] And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus. And fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

[1:18] And many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds. Many of them also, which used curious acts, brought their books together and burned them before all men.

[1:31] And they counted the price of them and found its 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.

[1:43] And after these things were ended, Paul purposed in his spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome.

[1:58] So he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus. But he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

[2:09] In the same time, there arose no small stare about the way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation and said, says, you know that by this craft we have our wealth.

[2:35] Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but also throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away much people, saying that there be no gods which are made with hands.

[2:52] So that not only this aircraft is in danger to be set at north, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence shall be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshipeth.

[3:10] And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion.

[3:22] And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companion in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater. And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.

[3:35] And certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he should not adventure himself into the theater.

[3:46] Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused. And the more parts knew not wherefore they were come together.

[3:57] And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with a hand and would have made his defense unto the people.

[4:08] But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

[4:21] Here ends the reading of God's word. Shall we please pray? Father, thank you for the privilege to hear your word. As we get into your word, we pray, give us circumcised hearts and ears.

[4:32] Give us open ears for you. You awaken our ears morning after morning. You awaken our ears to hear. And you teach our tongues to speak.

[4:44] Father, we pray that as your word comes, let it find a place in our hearts so it can find a ruling in our lives, so it can find an impact in our days.

[4:54] We thank you. Let every demonic entity, demonic hold, demonic machination be crushed by the power of the gospel. To the glory of your name, let your word grow.

[5:08] Let it grow in the united kingdom. Let it grow and prevail in Great Britain. Let it grow and prevail, O Lord, in Europe. To your glory in Jesus' name.

[5:20] Amen. So, in our last session, by the special grace of God, we spoke about what to expect when revival comes.

[5:30] And we spoke about, number one, unusual and supernatural occurrence. As we saw in Acts chapter 19 from verse 11, the Bible talks about how God wrote special miracles by the hand of Paul.

[5:45] And then we saw, number two, when revival comes, we also see satanic imitation. Satan tries to mimic and copy what the church does so as to sway people away from Christ.

[6:01] Because the essence of Christian miracles, Christian testimonies, Christian teaching is that Christ will be elevated. And the Bible said, if I be exalted, I will draw all men to my side.

[6:14] The purpose of Christian teaching, Christian testimony, Christian miracles is for people to come to know Christ. The purpose of imitations is to block people from knowing Christ.

[6:27] So people can get what they are looking for, which seems like Christ can provide. But you can't really get it. When Christ provides, the Bible calls it signs. The things Christ does, they are signs pointing to something, you know, whilst the enemy can copy.

[6:43] And you saw here, exorcists going around, casting out devils. And the Bible calls them some vagabond Jews.

[6:55] And they said, we command you by that Jesus who Paul has been preaching. So they wanted to use the name of Paul as a leverage. Because they think, okay, let me copy how they are doing it.

[7:08] If I copy how they do it, then I can also get the results. No, if you follow the results, you will not get the results. You have to follow the process.

[7:20] And the process gives you the results. And so I was sharing, I think last week in Birmingham, that Jesus told the disciples that when Acts chapter 1 verse 8, you shall receive power.

[7:37] He said, don't go out to try and do anything. Wait in the city. For you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And he said, ye shall be.

[7:49] Ye shall be. Not ye shall do. Ye shall be. And who you are commands certain results in God.

[8:01] It's not what you do that commands the results, but who you are. So sometimes people look at the results a person is producing, which is born out of his work with God.

[8:16] And you look at it. I can also do it. Okay, you copy the way they do it. Well, I can also do it hoping that, you know, it's just scientific. If I do it the way they do it, I'll get the results they get.

[8:27] And you realize that you can't even overdo or outdo them and never get a fraction of the results they are getting. Because the source of God's work. Because the source of Godly product is not activity.

[8:40] It's personhood. Based on a personal relationship with God. So I was teaching some people, I said, ministry, genuine ministry is not based on what you do.

[8:52] Genuine ministry is an overflow of your relationship. Genuine ministry is an overflow of your relationship, your intimacy with God. So as you have intimacy with God, the overflow of the intimacy is what is called ministry.

[9:05] Because then it's really God who is at work in human vessels, changing hearts and touching lives. So it's very easy to see the works and say, well, I'm also going to do the works.

[9:20] Only to realize that the strength is not in the doing, but the strength is in the being. So you shall be witnesses of me. So it's not only just what you do.

[9:32] Because of who you are, it will influence what you do. You shall be. They asked Jesus in John chapter 6 verse 28. What must we do to do the works of God? Verse 27.

[9:43] Jesus said, the works of God is to believe. We want to do. You also tell us believe. You also tell us. Jesus answered and said to them, the work of God.

[9:55] This is the work of God. That you believe on him. No, we want to do something. Tell us. What must we do? He said, the work of God is to believe. As you believe, you're actually doing the work. That is interesting.

[10:07] And so they didn't realize that. That is the strength of resource Paul was churning out was based on who he was in Christ. It wasn't based on just what he was saying.

[10:19] Shout, hallelujah. So it's very easy to look powerful, but really powerless. A lot of people who are doing ministry are just copying and they look very powerful.

[10:33] They think it's in their suits. They think it's in their attire. They think it's in their oration. So they learn the art. They learn the art. See, when you are preaching, you need a red Bible.

[10:46] And you have to hold it like this. And make sure you have a type P. None of those things matter. You can't even do dreadlocks and not hold a Bible. And the power can flow based on your work with God.

[11:00] They said, we command you. Come out in the name of the one, that Jesus. That same one. Demon said, Jesus, I know. Paul, I know you. And the demon said, you have really irritated me.

[11:14] Now, Bible said, it charged on them seven men. One man. You know, when there's a demon or a person, they can also produce some supernatural activities. Sometimes even while people get some ideas to create certain strange horror movies, strange images, some artwork.

[11:38] And where? No, this is inspired. So there's godly inspiration and demonic inspiration. You know, so there are things that come from the occultists.

[11:49] There are some policies that people can make the policy. Like a policy like abolition of slave trade. No, it came from a biblical source. Other policies that people can make, you can tell, this person has been occult.

[12:04] If this group of people are annoying occult, they can't make such. They can't just make such policy. You know, so it's important to know that supernatural influences come from both positive and negative.

[12:18] Right? And this man, one man, was able to catch seven men. None of them could escape. How? Finish beating them before they left.

[12:29] And stripped them naked. Come and see, naked men. Men. Seven. All running out of a house. Crying. Please, please, please, please.

[12:41] Sorry. We won't do that again. Demon-possessed people can do amazing things. There are some things that are demonic sources. And some of us, we really need to believe God for deliverance.

[12:53] Because you've already been compromised by demonic influences. You are a very good person. You are a genuine person. But demonic influences have come. In the days of your innocence.

[13:05] Because of what you are exposed to. So that's the benefit of when we talk about the word of God growing. And we'll get into that. So, satanic emissitation. Number three. Look at verse 17. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus.

[13:19] And fear fell on them all. And the name of Jesus was magnified. Fear fell on all who heard about this.

[13:35] That means they must have known that, you know, these demon-possessed people. People are casting them out. But this whole thing was fear. This is not paralyzing fear, which is a phobia.

[13:46] This is a positive fear. Reverence towards God. So then sometimes when someone was even about to use the name of God, they'll be careful. They'll be very careful because, please, I don't want to go there.

[13:58] So, when they say fear fell on people, they became very careful. And a reverence towards the name of Jesus was upheld. Sometimes we have to believe God for the fear of God to fall in the church.

[14:13] It's necessary. It happened in the days of Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts chapter 5, verse 5. In Acts 5, verse 5, it says that Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost.

[14:24] And great fear came on all them that had these things. They didn't have to see. They had it. Great fear. Look at verse 12. Acts chapter 5, verse 12, it says that. And by the hand of the apostles were many signs and wonders.

[14:35] See the signs I mentioned. Signs. Many signs and wonders wroth amongst the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon. Look at the next verse. In Solomon's porch.

[14:46] And great fear. That's the verse 11, I'm sorry. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as had these things. Why? Because Ananias and Sapphira came to church and died.

[15:00] And everybody was careful. And in fact, the resultant effect in, I think, the verse 13 found a very interesting. And give us New King James, please, if you don't mind, or any other.

[15:13] And none of the rest dared join them because they're afraid. People can't get up and say, I'm also part of the church. No. So God himself put a filter on the early church.

[15:25] Because the church was so fresh. He was concerned that infiltrations would weaken the impact of the church. So he had to do this to put a filter. People were not joining the church.

[15:36] However, the verse 14 says God was adding. It's interesting. Believers were increasingly added to the Lord. Multitude, both men and women. So it doesn't mean that the church was not growing.

[15:47] The church was growing by pure impurity. Proper believers were joining the church because the unbelievers said, no, no, no, no, no, no. I won't go there and die.

[15:57] This is too scary. You understand that. So the point I'm making here is that the fear of God that came upon people in the verse 17, it says that, and the name, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

[16:09] Did you see the impact? It's like they revered the name. Our Father who acts in heaven, hallowed be thy name. May your name be highly exalted. In the Lord's prayer in Matthew chapter 6 from verse 9, Jesus taught the disciples.

[16:24] He said, when you pray, pray after this manner, our Father which hath in heaven, hallowed be, hallowed be thy name. Theologians say, is that a request or a declaration?

[16:39] May your name be hallowed. Or they are asking, Lord, glorify your name amongst us. It's both. It's both. So the first request in the Lord's prayer is that the name of the Lord must be exalted.

[16:53] He says that, for thy name's sake, thou leadeth me in the path of righteousness. God is interested in how his name is represented. God is interested.

[17:05] So for those of us who are Christians, we must always strive for the sake of the name of God. We must strive for the sake. You are married and your husband is really annoying.

[17:17] Your wife is really annoying. It can happen. How many of you understand what I mean? Even though you are very much in life, there are times that that person is not a robot. You know, it does things that really gets on your nerve or something.

[17:31] But you feel like, I'm going to tell him my peace of mind. But you just finish reading your Bible and doing it one week faster. You know, so some of us sometimes remember you bear the name of Christ.

[17:46] Remember. So the Bible says the name of Christ was magnified. And then number four, when there's revival, number three is fear of God.

[17:57] Number four is reverence for the name of Jesus. People really get to know what this Jesus thing is about. And they choose not to believe. But they know when there's revival. And then number five.

[18:09] I like that verse 18. Let's look at verse 18. It says that, And many that believed came and confessed and shielded their deeds. What's the meaning of that? You know, sometimes believers have things.

[18:23] There are people sitting here, you are a believer, but you still have some things in your life or at home somewhere or an app. It's the believers.

[18:34] They have been believers. But when the name of God was moving, they realized that, you know what? I'm done with this place. I'm done with this place.

[18:44] Some of them started moving out of the homes of their boyfriends. They just, I'm done with this toxic relationship. If we are going to marry, let's marry, then we come and live together.

[18:56] But I'm done with this place. There are people who unsubscribe. They unsubscribe because during this fast, there are a lot of people unsubscribed.

[19:08] Yeah, because people really met God. Yeah. It's a good year. You know, when we say, I'm done with this place, some of you don't know. Some people are really serious about it. And they really, so it's not just about material possession and opportunities.

[19:22] They really dealt away with something. They really were dumb. Great Exodus. You see, some people cannot say it now. You see. So, when Bible says that believers came, those who are many who had believed, came confessing and telling their deeds.

[19:44] Confessing to who? Listen to this very carefully. Christian confession, true Christian confession is not to man. You don't need to tell somebody what you have done in order for God to forgive you.

[19:57] It's God you talk to. Do you understand that? So, that you've gone to do something that you believe or you know, scripture says you shouldn't do, and you know you've sinned against God.

[20:07] You don't need to look for somebody, okay, a special priest, pastor, to go and confess, Pastor, I've done ABC.

[20:18] God, I want God to forgive me. Then he prays for you for God too. No, that's not Christian. That is, in the information, it is called sacerdotalism. Sacerdotalism is where a certain special group of people have private access to God.

[20:35] So, they have to be between God and you. They have to go to God on your behalf. No, in the New Testament is the priesthood of all believers. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16, Therefore, let us come boldly.

[20:48] The us is talking about we who are with you. And in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 18, it said, We have access to the Father by one spirit. We both, Greeks and Jews, through whom we both have access.

[21:01] But access, in Hebrews chapter 10, 19 and 20, it talks about the blood of Jesus has made the way. So, let us, having the blood, let us come, having therefore breading, boldness to enter into the holies.

[21:13] Where only the high priest used to enter. Now, we have boldness to enter through the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. So, if we confess our sins to him, buddy, read James chapter 5.

[21:26] James chapter 5, from verse 14. It says that, Let's go to the next verse. It says that, Confess your faults one to another.

[21:48] This is not so, it says that, and pray for one another that he may be healed. Okay. That confession is not so we have access to God. It's fellowship. Accountability.

[21:59] We are accountable one to another. Okay. So, for instance, a typical example is, can you imagine Christian husband, Christian wife, and everybody's hiding things. Their wife is hiding some things from their husband.

[22:12] Christian husband, Christian wife, should be able to tell their wife that, babe, nowadays, that's how they call it, right? Babe. A husband and wife should be able to confess without fear of being held to ransom or, you know, being blackmailed.

[22:32] That is very important. And, so when you say, confess your faults one to another, talking about what you know, maybe you could have done it better. You could have. When people are genuine, they are willing to risk.

[22:45] Bible says that the rebuke of a friend is better than the cases of an enemy. Enemy within. That's how you discover who an enemy is. So, and, let God be responsible for the consequences of your confession.

[23:00] Even if they will attack you, they will understand you. Leave it in the hands of God. God will show you how he's sovereign. In our attempt to obey God's word, it's beautiful to risk our convenience.

[23:11] In 1 Peter chapter 2, I believe, verse 19 and 20, somewhere there. Yeah, that's 19. It said, for this is time worthy. If a man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully, if because of God you go through, the Bible says it is charis, it's grace, it's thank-worthy.

[23:35] That's a powerful scripture, isn't it? If your wife would not even understand you for going to watch those images again, you just tell her. So, when we say confess, back to the text, many who believe came confessing, you can tell, this confessing.

[23:53] They came admitting that in fact, you know, we've been laughing together but I've been a very bad person doing this undercover. You understand that? And they came and confessed. Not for forgiveness of sins but for relief of conscience and purity of heart.

[24:09] To be authentic, genuine, and sincere. So, they came confessing and telling they are this. People didn't know that you were in church but you were a different person out of church.

[24:23] You were in church and after church, you were in the ghettos selling drugs. Yeah, selling drugs. So, five, believe in Jesus and confession of sins.

[24:37] When there is revival, people really believe in Jesus and they are willing to confess their sins to God and also come clean. Number six, I like number six, renouncement or denouncing.

[24:51] people denounce or renounce evil practices. I don't want verse 19. Let's look at verse 19. Can we all read here from New King James?

[25:03] Let's all read here from the New King James. Let's go, please. Also, many of those who have practiced money for the rest of the day and burned them in the sight of all.

[25:14] And they counted up the value of them and it took out 50,000 pieces of silver. Yeah. many people have been practicing magic so that as you see there are books you can use for things and there are objects people use for spiritual activities.

[25:30] In Christianity, there's no object that has power. Not even the anointing oil. Not even, it doesn't have power. It's your faith.

[25:43] When they were taking Paul's aprons, he didn't know it was going to work. It's the faith of those who took it. You know, so, God has intentionally not captured himself with any image or any physical thing, any physical object so that our worship of God is not based on a particular location, is not based on a particular posture that if you don't kneel down in a setting where your prayer will not be answered.

[26:15] You can sit and pray, you can be in the laboratory and pray. So, at work, sometimes you have an interview, you go to the laboratory and just you are inside that small cubicle and begin to shalom, shandal, shandal, shandala.

[26:32] I mean, pray God as I'm going back to speak. Give me wisdom. We can pray anywhere. That's how the scripture can tell us to pray without season or in Colossians, pray continually.

[26:47] All right. So, God has not captured himself with objects. So, if I pray over this and I send it to you and tell he's going to pay, maybe pay only 200 pounds and to work miracles, it might be from a genuine heart but I've learned some bad tactics.

[27:08] I've learned some. as long as it's free, maybe, but God told me I should pray and give it to people. Well, if God told you, go ahead. But, listen, you don't need to be buying things from Israel.

[27:24] You don't need a holy water from Israel. You don't need, listen, the anointing oil from Israel is nothing special than the one you bought from Tesco. No, the truth is the power is not in the object.

[27:41] It's in the God you believe by faith. Now, these things are very important when I watch this. So, it says that people denounce, they renounce certain magical practices and they brought their books together and burned them in the sight of, they said, no, let's destroy this.

[28:04] It's costly. It's a 50 piece of silver. And silver was equivalent to, yeah, 50,000. A silver in those days was equivalent to average day's wage.

[28:16] And what's the average day's wage in the United Kingdom? Chad Dippity will tell you. It's 153 pounds averagely per day.

[28:28] And that is one silver. And how many silvers? 50,000 pieces of silver. When I was trying to do the calculation, it's 7,650,000 pounds equivalent.

[28:48] Magic boxes and stuff like that. Yeah. But they know we have changed. I'm going to let this thing go. Some of us, it's only perfume they bought for you.

[28:59] Somebody's husband bought for you when you were dating him. Now you have changed. And he said, this perfume is too special. But every time you take the perfume, it reminds you of so many places you have been secretly.

[29:13] Let it go. If you don't want to spoil it, give it to somebody else. So, no, no, but this is so expensive. It might be expensive, but it's connected to something demonic.

[29:28] They renounce and denounce. when there's revival, you see people giving away things. They denounce. I don't belong to this cult again. So, when people become Christian, they leave some secret cults.

[29:39] They leave some secret practices. Some people have talisman. They have all kinds of Ouija boards and crystal balls, skill-reading horoscope, horoscope, filling your life with horror.

[29:57] You are born again. Let it go. You are now genuinely in Christ. I know you still struggle with some things, but let the means, you know, let's say, if you're struggling with nicotine addiction, some word of addiction, you have an app, and you know it's a sin, and you have the app that makes you do it.

[30:20] Delete the app. Denounce the app. It helps you be weaned off. Even though the inclination still might be there, you are taking practical steps to block yourself from going back into it.

[30:35] So some of us must delete some app. Don't smash your phone, but take an action. Some people might have to block them or delete their number.

[30:47] You might have to make a vow after this fasting that no more FaceTime call with this person. No more because you know it's not helping you. It's having a toxic impact on your life.

[31:00] You don't have to do it for the pastor. Do it because it's great Exodus time. Do it because you are genuinely don't try to do things to make the pastor happy.

[31:11] You'll be sad. Let me just add the last two. When there's revival, oh I like the verse 20. We will have to read it out loud together.

[31:22] Let's read it out loud. So let's go. One more time. For the last time.

[31:37] When there is revival, the word of the Lord grows and prevails. The word of the Lord grows.

[31:47] that phrase means that more people were becoming increasingly familiar and aware of God's word and what God said and the gospel.

[31:58] Turn into God and you always know somebody when there's revival in a community. You know somebody, even if you are not born again, you know somebody or two or three that are also going to church.

[32:09] And they have always been talking about this. You wouldn't be familiar with that kind of terminology and familiar. When there's revival, the word of God is not scarce. He said the word of God grew.

[32:21] In Acts chapter 6 verse 7, after they have appointed the first set of leaders, apart from the outside of the apostles, and the word of the Lord spread.

[32:32] Okay, it's the same thing. Some other translations will say the word of the Lord grew. So, it's the same word. It spread, it grew. In Acts chapter 12 verse 24, it's that, but the word of God grew and multiplied.

[32:45] Now, I want to just take a little bit of time to comment on the word of God growing, because let's look at it technically. I explain it figuratively, because it's a figure of speech. But really, it's not just figure of speech.

[32:58] It's a reality of fact. The word of the Lord grew. How does it grow? How can the word, not the Bible, the word of the Lord? You know, the understanding of scripture.

[33:09] In Mark 4, 14, it says that the sower, let's go. One more time. What does that mean?

[33:20] In light of the word of God grew. Did you see that? There's a seed. The word of God has life. Nothing that doesn't have life grows. Anything that grows has life.

[33:32] So, we are now, the word of God is being represented here as a manner of life. It's only life that grows. And so, the word of God is living. Hebrews 4, verse 12.

[33:42] The word of God is living. When it comes into people's life, it begins to grow. It begins to dominate. It begins to have influence. So, it's not just became widespread, but it's also began to increase in people's life.

[34:00] The word you heard is beginning to have an increasing impact and effect on your day-to-day life. You realize that this word has really influenced me.

[34:11] I'm changing. I'm changing. In the past, my husband says that, and I also beat him with that. But now, I'm surprised. My husband said that, I said, oh, don't worry, don't worry, babe, don't worry, it's fine.

[34:24] Me? How many of you have ever caught yourself on a word that, wow, you are changed? Because your previous reaction would have been different, but you can tell that the word of the Lord is growing and prevailing.

[34:40] What makes the word of God grow and prevail is when it is taught in its purity. It is taught in its truthfulness and context. It's called the word of truth.

[34:51] It's called the word of life. It's called the word of grace. It's called the word of faith. When it is taught, it brings life. It grows. It prevails. The word of God begins to have a definite impact which can be traceable to the word somebody had.

[35:09] Glorious impact. Godly impact. Then you can say, wow, this guy has really heard the word of God. When you live with people and the word of God begins to grow in their life, you can tell, wow, my husband has changed.

[35:22] My wife has changed. My mom has changed. My daughter has changed. My brother has really changed. My sister has changed. My boyfriend has changed. Your girlfriend will change if she keeps listening to Pastor David A.

[35:36] Your boyfriend will change. There's one more point, but I just want to be disciplined. No, let's leave it. Are we not in church? Are we not in church?

[35:48] How about me? I'm here by the grace of God. So we can continue, isn't it? Put your hands together for the Lord. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

[36:03] So point number seven is the word of God grew and prevailed. So mightily it grew and prevailed. I see God's word growing in somebody's life, growing in somebody's family, growing in somebody's ministry.

[36:16] When there's revival, the word of God grows. I see the word of God growing in your life. In the name of Jesus. We're so glad you joined us for this message by David Entry.

[36:31] We pray the word has inspired and strengthened you. You can connect with David Entry on Instagram, LinkedIn and other social platforms. And you can listen to more messages on all major streaming platforms and the Karish Church app.

[36:46] Remember to like, share and spread the blessing. Thank you.