[0:00] We'll begin our worship this evening by singing to God's praise. We're singing in Psalm 27 in the Singed Psalms, page 31 of the Psalm books. I'm going to sing from verse 1 to the end of verse 5.
[0:14] The tune is Jackson. The Lord's my Saviour and my light, who will make me dismayed? The Lord's the stronghold of my life, why should I be afraid?
[0:25] When evildoers threaten me to take my life away, my adversaries and my foes will stumble in that day. And so on. We sing from verse 1 to the end of verse 5 to God's praise.
[0:58] The Lord's the stronghold of my life, why should I be afraid?
[1:09] When evildoers threaten me to take my life away, my adversaries and my foes will stumble in that day.
[1:38] Although an army hence be in, my heart will feel no dread.
[1:54] Though war against me should arise, I will lift up my head.
[2:09] One thing I plead before the Lord, and this I seek always, that I may come within your sight, and dwell there all my days.
[2:40] That I know the beauty of the Lord, I constantly may raise.
[2:56] And in His heart may seek to know direction in His grace.
[3:11] For in His dwelling He will keep, be safe in troubled ways.
[3:26] Within His dwelling He will keep, be safe in that day.
[3:46] Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Let us pray. Lord our God, our Father in heaven, as we come to worship You this evening hour, we thank You that it is through You that we come.
[4:00] We approach You in and through the name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We come seeking Your glory. We come seeking Your presence with us.
[4:11] We come seeking not anything for ourselves that we may glorify in, but that we would seek to glorify more and more in You as our Lord and as our God.
[4:23] For You are the one who keeps us. You are the one who watches over us. And as the psalm in which we have been singing reminds us, when there are times when we can feel overwhelmed by the enemies around us, when we can feel, O Lord, the power of wickedness so surrounding us, we thank You that there is the promise that You are a God who surrounds His people, that You are a God who keeps His people.
[4:51] And we pray, Lord, that we will have that longing of the psalmist, that we would come into Your presence, gazing on Your beauty, and knowing what it is, Lord, to see Your power and to know it in Your own Son, Jesus Christ.
[5:07] We pray, Lord, that through Your Spirit and You this evening, we will know Your power ministering to us through word and spirit alike, that You will hear our prayers, that You will bless our time of worship, that You will be with us in the singing of our praise to You, Lord.
[5:25] We pray, Lord, that You will lead us in that and lead the one who is over us in the praise too, that, Lord, we would lift our voices together and unite our hearts in praise and worship of You.
[5:38] We thank You that You are the one who keeps us safe in troubled days, as the psalmist says, and that You raise us on a rock. We thank You that the rock of Your church, of Your people, is Your Son, Christ Jesus, and that in Him there is nothing that can move Your church, nothing that can overwhelm it.
[5:59] For we have the security of His finished works. We have the security of His victory over all things. And so we pray, Lord, that You will keep us as Your people, that You will help us to come, throw near to You day by day, that we would seek, Lord, Your reviving power in our own hearts and in all around us, that we would see Your glory in our land and in our people.
[6:27] We do thank You, Lord, for Your cause and how it is a cause that goes far and wide. It is not our cause to just people around us here, but it's Your cause, it's Your gospel, Your call to people of all nations and all tribes.
[6:44] And we do thank You and rejoice, Lord, that You have Your people in every corner of this world. And when we think of the vastness of the world and all that You have created, when we think of the universe that surrounds us and the wonder of it and how more and more, through the advancement of technology, we're enabled to see further into the galaxies.
[7:09] Help us, Lord, to see the beauty of the Lord in that, the one who has created it. For we know that so often we seek after our own ideas.
[7:21] And even in these scientists and all who are seeking to explore the universe and the galaxies, they seek to do it in a way that they will find an answer to that deep question of where it all began.
[7:35] They come at it with their own theories. They come at it with their own ideas, believing they have the answers already. But as You have so often done in the past, may You do so again in these days, that You would reveal Yourself to them through the wonder of Your creation, that as people seek in their own wisdom, that they would come to recognize that Your wisdom is far above and that Your ways are far above.
[8:02] And we pray, Lord, that it will minister to us as a people, from the least to the greatest, that we would see that behind it all is our Maker, our God, the one who spoke all things into being, and the God who cares for His people, the God who in the midst of the vastness of this universe sees each of us and knows us all by name.
[8:28] And we pray, Lord, that we will marvel at You, that we will come in awe of You for who You are, and yet Your intimate knowledge of us. You are God and Lord, and yet we can come and call You our Father in Heaven.
[8:44] And so help Your people far and wide to approach You with confidence to come through that name above every name, that every people who pray would come and pray through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that You will hear our prayers, that You will hear the cries of Your people, the cries, you know, the psalm that we will look at this evening, will You not again revive us, that Your people may rejoice in You.
[9:13] So may You bring glory to Your name throughout this world. May Your people praise You far and wide. May people, even on this day, even this evening, as Your Word is proclaimed throughout so many different places, may people come under the conviction of it and the power of Your Spirit and cry out, Lord, have mercy on me as sinner.
[9:36] So Lord, may You hear all our prayers and hear our prayers for one another too as we commit ourselves into Your hands, that as a people, as homes and communities, Lord, we would know Your blessing with us, that we would know Your great help with us, for we know, Lord, the many needs around us.
[9:56] We know, Lord, that so many are going through so many hard trials at this time, trials of illness, trials of mental health, trials with grief and sorrow and anguish, trials of so many different kinds.
[10:14] And Lord, when we feel our great weakness in these things, when we feel that we have no words to comfort or to help, we thank You that we can come to You as Lord and God and pray that we can come and call upon Your name, knowing that You can do abundantly more than all we ask or imagine.
[10:35] And that in every situation, Lord, even as we think of the course that is to run soon, hope explored, we thank You for that great word, hope.
[10:45] And in a world and a time when so much seems hopeless, we pray, Lord, that the life, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, would bring hope to many, that they would come to realize, Lord, that despite all the difficulties of this world, all the sorrows and pains, that here is but for a moment, but Lord, there is an eternity before us all.
[11:13] And for all of Your people, all who You have called, we know the wonder of that eternity, to be with our Lord and Saviour for it all, to see His beauty, to gaze upon Him, and to know, Lord, the blessing of that time when He will wipe away all our tears, when He will restore all His people, and when He will give the many blessings promised through His Word.
[11:42] And above all, Lord, that peace and that glory to see Him as He is. So, Lord, we ask that You will help us to look to You at all times, to remember one another, to keep on praying, not to lose heart, and not to lose hope.
[12:00] And so we pray for one another. We pray for Your church throughout our islands here. May You bless us, Lord, as a people, as we are encouraged, O Lord, with another new ministry to begin in our presbytery as well.
[12:14] We remember Your servant, Donald McLeod, who will soon be inducted into North Tolstair, God willing. We pray for him as he prepares for that, and as the congregation prepares too.
[12:27] May we continue to remember them prayerfully, seeking Your blessing over them, and upon that new ministry as it begins, that Your people will be encouraged, and that Your blessing will be on them all.
[12:40] Remember, Donald and Emma too, as they prepare for their marriage as well in these coming months, Lord. May You bless them and be with them in all that they need to do for that.
[12:50] We pray that together You will encourage them, Lord, and watch over them. So be with us, Lord, as a people. Look down upon us and go before us into the week ahead.
[13:01] May we seek to do all for Your glory, and may we know Your presence with us, Lord, day by day. Guide us by Your light, and keep us as the apple of Your eye.
[13:12] As we confess, O Lord, our sin before You and You, we ask forgiveness, Lord, and mercy upon us as a people, undeserving as we are. We thank You that in Christ there is much forgiveness.
[13:26] So bless us, go before us, and continue with us now as we commit all these things to You in prayer, in and through the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, for His glory.
[13:38] Amen. We'll further sing to God's praise, this time in Psalm 89 in the Scottish Psalter, page 345 of the psalm books.
[13:51] Psalm 89, singing at verse 13, down to verse 18, the tune is Tramps and Hawkers. Psalm 89 at verse 13.
[14:03] Thou hast an arm that's full of power, thy hand is great in might, and thy right hand exceedingly exalted is in height.
[14:13] We'll sing from verse 13 down to verse 18 to God's praise.ór and judgment of thy throne are made the wedding grace.
[14:58] Mercy accompanied when true shall go before thy face.
[15:10] O great we bless the people of the joyful Son that know.
[15:22] In brightness of thy face, O Lord, they ever on shall go.
[15:33] In thy name shall all the day rejoice exceeding me.
[15:44] And in thy righteousness shall lay exalted be on high.
[15:57] Because the glory of their strength doth only stand in me, and in thy favor shall form and power exalted be.
[16:20] For God is our defense and he to us the safety bring.
[16:31] king, the holy one of Israel is our almighty king.
[16:43] Amen. If we can come and read together now in God's word.
[16:53] We're reading in the book of Psalms. I'm reading in Psalm 85. Psalm 85. We can read the whole of this psalm together.
[17:12] Lord, you were favorable to your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin.
[17:25] You withdrew all your wrath. You turned from your heart anger. Restore us again, O God, of our salvation, and put away your indignation towards us.
[17:39] Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
[17:53] Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly.
[18:13] Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness meet.
[18:26] Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
[18:44] Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps our way. Amen, and may God bless that reading from his word.
[18:55] Before we turn back and look at this psalm together, we'll sing another psalm together, Psalm 126 in the Scottish Psalter, Psalm 126 on page 419.
[19:09] We can sing the whole of this psalm together. The tune is Denfield. When science bondage, God turned back, as men that dreamed were we, then filled with laughter was our mouth, our tongue with melody.
[19:24] They among the heathen said, The Lord great things for them hath wrought. The Lord has done great things for us, whence joy to us is brought.
[19:36] We'll sing the whole of this psalm to God's praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[19:46] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[20:21] Amen. Sweet enemies are reaping time of joy and joy they shall.
[21:05] But man who gave in precious sea in going forth the more he that blessed bringing back his she's rejoicing shall return.
[21:39] We can turn back together to a reading in the book of Psalms in Psalm 85. The Psalms which we have already sung together this evening they remind us of the way the Lord is able to do great things for his people.
[21:59] The way he is able to restore the fortunes of his people. And the way he can do this maybe so often as we see in the Psalms so very quickly how things can turn around.
[22:13] In many ways this evening we're picking up where James left us this morning. we're looking at the Gospel of John chapter 3 verse 19 to verse 21.
[22:25] There we were seeing how Nicodemus had come to the Lord and the Lord is speaking to him about the way to eternal life through his son the Lord Jesus Christ.
[22:37] But we saw too how the battle goes on between darkness and light. and how even in Nicodemus' own life he first came to Jesus in the darkness.
[22:49] But when we saw as James highlighted later on in his life he came to Jesus in the day in the light showing his trust in his Saviour. And we were left with the theme of our need as a land our need as a nation our need as a people to be revived and to be praying that we may be revived that we would see our land in all its disarray it is in just now with so many things that we would say are in darkness that we would see our land once more being brought into the light of the gospel.
[23:24] And I guess this evening where we're picking up from that point is to come and focus on Psalm 85 together and see how it speaks to us of a nation a people crying out to God and crying out in his deep prayer that the Lord will revive his people.
[23:44] That's where renewal begins that's where transformation comes from not that we would see those around us changed but that we ourselves too would be changed to be a people who are revived by God revived and refreshed in him and that we would see this spreading throughout our land.
[24:06] That's a prayer of this Psalm that we're going to look at this evening and especially verse 6. There it says will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you show us your steadfast love O Lord and grant us your salvation.
[24:29] Charles Spurgeon once preached on this text Charles Spurgeon the famous preacher back in the 1800s and he began his sermon on this very text verse 6 of Psalm 85 by saying this he said my people if you will pray this prayer it will be better than my preaching from it and my only motive in preaching from it is that you may pray it oh that at once before I have uttered more than a few sentences we might begin to pray by crying yes groaning deep down in our souls will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you powerful words that that would be our prayer that even this evening as we go away that we will go away with even just these few words but such a powerful prayer will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you and that when we look at this
[25:44] Psalm what we see is the focus is on God's people who is it that the Psalm is speaking to or who is it that is crying out to the Lord for revival it's not those who are lost it's those who have known God's favour those who have heard of his blessings those who have experienced it for themselves and they are crying out will you not again revive us whatever has come into their midst has left them distressed dismayed maybe losing their focus on the Lord but what they are doing now is coming together and crying out to God together for this reviving power that they would see days of blessing and days of favour of God upon them that's a wonderful prayer for ourselves to have and what the Psalmist is teaching us is to take confidence in all that the Lord has done all that the Lord is doing and all that the
[26:48] Lord can do and will do for his people God brings people to life through his word through the gospel he brings his people to life just as we were seeing with Nicodemus this morning just as you read of in the letter of Paul to the Ephesians where he speaks so powerfully to the people they are saying you know you were once dead in your trespasses and sins you were you were lost but God who is rich and mushy because of his great love towards us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ how he is able to bring life to those who are dead how he is able to bring life to those who are his people and we've been given so much through Christ when we begin to just look at the scriptures and look at them so closely we see all the blessings that are ours in Christ what he has done for us as that hope explored course we'll look at his life his death his resurrection what all these things mean for his people how he came to live among us
[28:07] God himself came to live among us how he died for his people but how he rose again and we should never lose sight of the wonder of that hope that we have in Christ and indeed as that course would aim to do to share it with others so that others would come to see the hope that is to be found in Christ but unfortunately there are always times in our life where maybe we feel we lose a sense of our spiritual vibrancy we feel a sense of maybe dismay we feel downcast because of certain things that are going on maybe in our own experience and the experiences of people that we're seeing around us if we're saved we don't lose our salvation but there are times when we can lose as David says in the psalm we can lose that joy of salvation we lose our focus on the
[29:07] Lord and so we can feel overwhelmed by the darkness of this world but we are not to lose sight of the light of the gospel of the light of the glory of God in our midst in the person of Jesus Christ and to gaze upon his beauty as Psalm 27 says to us to behold his beauty and to always keep our eyes on him and that's what this psalm seeks to do to help us to keep our focus on the Lord but pray this prayer remembering what God has done for us so the psalm focuses here on three different things I want us to look together at this evening three ways in which the psalm focuses on the blessing of the reviving power of God and the first is as we see in the beginning of the psalm verse 1 to verse 3 where it speaks about a past privilege a past privilege that the people have had then we see it speaking in verse 4 to verse 7 of a present need and then it goes on in verse 8 to the end to speak of a promised blessing so look at these three sections
[30:35] I've broken it up into three sections of the psalm a past privilege a present need and a promised blessing and so the first thing we want to see is a past privilege and we see this in verse 1 to verse 3 there's a theme running throughout this psalm and it's a theme that must be present in any sense of God's reviving power whether it's individually or for a nation for a sense of God's reviving power to be known there needs to be a sense of turning and that's something that we see through this psalm we see a people turning and we see a God turning and we see it in both a positive and a negative way we see a people who have turned away from
[31:39] God but who are seeking to turn back to God we see a God who has poured out indignation on his people but a God who is able to turn that into blessing God's anger being turned towards them but God's anger being removed from them turned away from them and the psalmist begins by looking to a past day and not looking to the past with as it were rose tinted glasses where everything was better and everything was wonderful it's not a case of that at all everything wasn't perfect everything wasn't good it never is where there are people because we are all sinners but there is something that they had in the past and that's what he makes clear in the beginning of this psalm what was it that they had they had
[32:41] God's favour Lord you were favourable to your land you restored the fortunes of Jacob you forgave the iniquity of your people you covered all their sin you withdrew all your wrath you turned from your heart anger there was a time in the past when they had enjoyed God's favour they had known it as a nation and they had known it as a people so the psalmist is looking back and what happened in the past experience of God's people that made a difference is they were convicted of their sin they turned towards God there was a time when he showed favour he restored fortunes but it says in verse 2 you forgave the iniquity of your people they had come to
[33:47] God in a sense of turning to him knowing their sin knowing their anguish and sin but knowing the favour of God the forgiveness of God God was at work as the people were convicted of their sins they saw God in all his power in all his glory and they recognised that before him they were sinners so yes there was great favour in the land there was times of blessing but that came from the people recognising their sin and in turning to God they knew his favour and so that's what the psalmist is making clear from the outset this past privilege was found in a people turning towards God and seeking God anew seeking God afresh convicted in their sins and knowing the favour of God of forgiving their sins covering all their sins withdrawing his wrath and turning his hot anger away the judgment that was upon them the darkness that they experienced is removed and it comes through turning to
[35:04] God looking to God trusting in God and where does this come from does it come from revival as we may speak about it well somebody once said this when talking about revival he said I don't talk a great deal about revival though in my very soul I long for it I don't talk much about it simply because I'm convinced that the thing God uses to bring revival to his church is not talking about revival but talking about his son and I think that's what's making clear in this psalm when the people are looking for revival they're not looking for the wonders of revival as it were itself they're not looking for the spectacular things or the supernatural things that happen at times of revival that's not what they're looking for what they're looking for and focusing on is who
[36:15] God is and the wonder of who God is and what he has done for us and that's what you see here the people are looking to the Lord and that is where we are to look as well we are a people who as a nation as islands have many past privileges of the reviving power God many testimonies to the reviving power of God but if you've ever heard people talk about the experience of revival locally or nationally or even internationally down through the years what do they talk about it tends to be those of us looking from the outside in who talk about the remarkable signs that there were in these times but those who are involved what do they speak about the glory the presence of God they speak about the power of
[37:16] God's word the power of prayer the working of the Holy Spirit God they focus on who God is as a reminder to ourselves we don't turn towards revival we turn towards God that is where we are to turn first and foremost we turn towards God so the psalm begins by focusing on past favor of God but in the sense of helping us to look at the glory the wonder of God who is able to forgive the glory of God that is able to cover our sins who is able to turn away his judgment from us as a people so that is the beginning of this prayer looking for revival we are looking to God the second thing we see in this psalm is their present need you see just how it naturally goes on into verse 4 having looked back the psalmist is now looking into their present we know
[38:27] Lord that you have done this in the past but now he is saying will you not do it again the present situation it's not a pleasant situation to look at when they've known the wrath of God it says here that they have the indignation of God towards us in verse 4 restore us again O God of our salvation and put away your indignation towards us indignation there's another word for anger what the people of God had experienced in the past past the wrath of God upon them the hot anger of God upon them that had been turned away the psalmist is now saying will you not do it again put away your indignation towards us will you be angry forever are we ever going to see days of your power in our midst again that's the cry of the psalmist here perhaps it can be our own cry at times as well will we ever see a day like we've seen in the past will we ever see this church full to capacity again it's not that long since it was will we ever see
[39:57] God's blessing on our islands in a great way again will the Lord be angry towards us forever as a nation as we go so far away from God and his ways will the tide ever turn again will things ever change for the favour of God's people again all these kinds of questions the same questions that the psalmist has here in verse 5 will you be angry with us will you prolong your anger to all generations is this going to carry on is this going to be the way from now on will we ever see days of God's blessing again well in the midst of this there is this prayer in verse 6 will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you we have our own image of what maybe revival looks like because of what we've read or what we've heard from the past but what does revival look like when you think of revival you maybe think back to the book of
[41:19] Acts and Peter's sermon at the day of Pentecost and 3,000 were converted that day there is revival for us it's when large numbers even into thousands turn towards God and you think that's what revival would look like maybe we think revival would be to see this church full again that would be to show God's reviving power God's favor upon us is that what the psalm is asking here is that what the psalmist is asking of God he's saying will you not revive us again those who are already there and what you see when you look in the book of Acts is revival isn't all about those 3,000 who were converted under Peter's sermon if you go back into the book of Acts chapter 1 the people there were looking and questioning what's going on and the question that they asked in verse 6 of chapter 1 was
[42:26] Lord will you at this time restore Israel what's going to happen are you going to restore your people again but what does it lead to it leads to a prayer meeting in the upper room in Acts chapter 1 verse 14 it says all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer not 3,000 together in the upper room if you look at it in verse 14 you can see everyone who was there was named it wasn't a large crowd it wasn't a large gathering everyone is named so a prayer meeting for revival isn't about thousands being gathered together it's about those who come with a heart towards God to see God's favour once again but the Lord putting that burden into the hearts of his people that's the prayer for revival here of the psalmst will you not again revive us revive all of us as your people revive us as preachers revive us as people revive us that we will cry out to you
[43:44] Lord in this way Lord revive us that we may see and rejoice in you that we may have a new sense of God's glory God's presence God's power in our midst how can we pray this prayer today in what situations can we pray this prayer today we can pray it every moment of every day in everything that we're doing we can pray this prayer when we feel we are under God's judgment we pray Lord will you not again revive us when we feel everything that we are doing is in vain for his cause we say Lord will you not again revive us if we feel weak in number if we feel weak in strength we feel weak in the presence of God we think Lord will you not again revive us when we're visiting when we're doing anything for the
[44:47] Lord be it meeting in the MA hall for all kinds of different purposes for Bible study for fellowship for reaching out to those around us we pray Lord will you not again revive us that we may rejoice in you that we may be glad in you that we may delight in you for you are God and there is no other Lord in the hopelessness of this world in the hopelessness that so many people feel in this world Lord will you not again revive us that people may rejoice in you what is this prayer well it's acknowledging first of all a dependence on God it's all about the Lord it's saying Lord will you not revive us again we depend on
[45:50] God for it nobody can revive us but you oh God so we cry to him but it also reminds us of our confidence in God that's what we see with the psalmist here will you not revive us again he's saying Lord you've done it you have done this in the past you have showed favor towards your land in the past and your people in the past will you not do it again so we come with confidence it's impossible for us but it's not impossible with you Lord will you not again revive us there's so much around us that can be discouraging but we should keep praying and remain confident and there's so many examples of why when we look at the scriptures we see a people the prophets in the
[46:53] Old Testament and so often things were dark and dismal for them yet they were trusting in God this psalm reminds us Lord you've done it in the past do it again Paul Peter the apostles in the New Testament they remind us of how things can change so quickly of how the gospel spreads with power even into the days following the scriptures and how they spread throughout the world how they came to our own land and the difference that it made how God showed favour to our own land many of you will have heard of William Wilberforce he was one who was so instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade in the early 1800s he was a Christian politician and he was so passionate for the Lord and for his cause but at the time when he became a politician the land then was so much like our own land today he surveyed the land and how morally corrupt the place was how spiritually dry the day was but he did not lose hope and he wrote this he said my own solid hopes for the well-being of my country depends not so much on her navies or armies not on the wisdom of her rulers nor on the spirit of her people as on the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the gospel of christ i believe that their prayers may yet prevail that's the confidence he had when all around him seemed so dismayed he believed that the gospel and those who believed in the gospel of christ those who were praying that their prayers may yet prevail this was when everything looked bleak within a few years after he made this statement the country he loved experienced one of the greatest revivals in modern times the abolition of the slave trade happened and there was a revival throughout the land transformed the nation lord you have done it in the past will you not again revive us our present and pressing need today is to be able to cry to god and say lord revive us again he has done it before he can do it again the third and final thing we see in this psalm is the promised blessing as we turn to god as we seek his face as we cry out lord revive us again that your people may rejoice in you show us your steadfast love grant us your salvation the psalmist goes on to show the transforming power of god there's so many things we could look at but we're not going to go through all the verses but
[50:27] I want to take verse 9 and tie it back to verse 6 verse 9 says surely his salvation is near to those who fear him that glory may dwell in our land salvation is near to those who fear him and when you look back to verse 6 and tie that in the glory that the psalmist is speaking of there is a people revived and a people rejoicing in you when we think of revival again we come back to think what that might look like when we think of our land we think of the day of the psalmist we think of the day of William Wilberforce what was the greatest sign of revival it wasn't wonders happening it wasn't supernatural things it was people praising
[51:33] God people whose hearts were so hard towards God and people who seemed so far away from God coming to praise God and that should be our prayer for today as well that people would come to praise God ourselves beginning with ourselves first that we would delight ourselves and praise God with all our hearts that we would be praying Lord revive us revive our king over us revive our prime minister over us revive our first minister revive all our leaders revive our people down through every level of society turn us again towards you that we may rejoice in you that your glory may dwell in your land in our land again revival is about people and people rejoicing in God and where do we see the reviving power it's when people turn to Christ when people gaze on his beauty when they hear the message turn and be saved look to me and be saved we look to Christ and rejoice in him and where do we see that but at the cross and there you see the reviving power of Christ in a day when there was darkness over the land when the in the middle of the day when there shouldn't have been any darkness there was darkness but what happened at the cross
[53:27] Christ was victorious and through his life death and resurrection we have hope and that transforming power is seen so clearly when you look at the cross and the people who were convicted there you think of two of them as Jesus was crucified there was a thief to one side of him who cried out to him but he was told the great words today you will be with me in paradise a thief on the cross was revived in the darkness of the cross a Roman centurion looked on one who would have been in charge of so many people he looked on and said surely this was the son of God convicted by what he saw but what was the focus on it was on Christ and that's what our focus needs to be on what Christ has done for us and the wonder of Christ that he came to die for sinners such as we are revival begins by looking to him convicted of our sin but turning to the
[55:01] Lord Jesus Christ there's a story told of the Ulster revivals back in the 1920s Ireland it was a very difficult and a very dark place to live as well there was so much dreadful things going on there and yet revival came God's power came down and one place where they saw the impact of it was shipyard workers hard men who had been so used to corrupt ways of life looking after themselves as number one there was a story told that when revival broke out many of these men were converted and one of the marks of transformation in their lives was that they brought back so many tools that they had stolen from the shipyard so many tools that new sheds had to be built to store them so convicted were they by their past ways and what God had done that they brought these back there was a deep awareness of sin but there was also a deep awareness of the gospel and the nearness of God and the spirit working and that's what this psalm is all about a deep awareness of our sin a deep awareness of our need of God but a deep awareness of the power that God is able to show and to manifest among his people the cry is
[56:48] Lord will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you as I said at the start Spurgeon said if anything else you take away pray this prayer that we might see the glory of God in our land through us as his people going out to all people that we may rejoice in him may we pray then Lord revive us let us pray Lord our God our Father in heaven we thank you that as you have done in the past you are so able to do even in our day at this time we thank you Lord that even though we so often say that there is darkness all around us that the days have been just as dark in the past the times have been so dreadful in the past too but we thank you
[57:53] Lord that just as we have a need today you have shown that the need is found in your gospel that light that glorious presence of you with your people and we pray Lord that it will be seen within us as your people and throughout our land that we may rejoice in you so we pray Lord may you revive us that we will rejoice in you may you show us your steadfast love may you grant us your salvation and that glory would be seen in your land once again so hear our prayers and continue with us in Jesus name amen we'll conclude by singing the psalm which we've been looking at and again we sing it as the words of prayer from verse one we sing down to verse nine in times past
[58:56] Lord you showed favor to your own beloved land the prosperity of Jacob you restored by your strong hand verse six says will you not again revive us that we may rejoice in you show us Lord your covenant mercy your salvation grant on you verse one to nine the tune is ode to joy in times past Lord you showed favor to you know we love at time the posterity of Jacob you restored by yours from hand you forgive your people's trespass you have these their sins to hide you withdrew all your dispassion from your wrath you turn aside
[60:10] God our Savior now restored us from us turn away your rage will you hang their burn against us will live us from age to age will you not again revive us that we may rejoice in you show show us for your calm and mercy your salvation grant and you I will hear what God the Lord says to this saints he offers peace but his people must not wander and return to foolishness surely for all those who fear him his salvation is at hand so that once again his glory may we sing with them our hand after the benediction
[61:45] I'll go to the door to my left now may grace mercy and peace from God Father Son and Holy Spirit rest upon and abide with us all now and forever more Amen All Mr Poble Father Come Xin momentos we 말을 were down and és