Can We Have Revival In Our Time? (With Greg Laurie)

he transforms you and you become a new creation in christ the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together that challenge is one that we're willing to accept and one we intend to win it matters little my friends how the headline provided the heart is right and the interesting thing about the jesus movement as reflected in l.a is now the church is filled with young kids sitting everywhere and really on the heels of that i came for the first time when this thing was in full explosion mode getting notoriety it's on the news and one of the big things that everyone was attracted to were these baptisms it happened at a beach called pirate's cove in newport beach in chrono del mar when i was baptized i just sent god's presence there and it was like a magical moment the whole thing we didn't know we're living history we're just getting baptized we didn't know this is going to be on the cover of a magazine it's going to be an iconic image we just thought we're getting baptized but but we were living in a little moment of time that was very special and it was just sort of drenched in the holy spirit i don't know how else to put it there was this tangible sense of the presence of god this revival was happening and for the churches that opened the doors to it they experienced revival and to the churches that closed their door to it they did not experience revival you know the first century church changed the world in a relatively short period of time and so we kind of felt like we were living in a time like that there's enough power here to go out and change the world and we pray that this will be the beginning of a spiritual awakening that will sweep the world grab your bibles turn to second chronicles 7 14 and the title of my message is can we have revival in our time by the way we have a very special announcement at the end of the service so you won't want to miss that but revival could it ever happen again could we have another jesus movement or are the best days of america behind us to be very honest with you after watching this political cycle that we're in right now i have less faith in political solutions than i have ever had at any time in my life i don't think the ultimate need of america is going to be solved by the new occupant of the oval office or new members of congress or the senate i think the real need for america is going to be met by a spiritual solution so we really need to pray america needs to pay attention because god may give us exactly what we want america this is your wake-up call i read about an interesting new alarm clock i may even go buy one i don't know you wake up in the morning to the smell of bacon i'm not making this up it's called the awaken in bacon alarm clock so that's fascinating to know how such a device works the way it works is you take a piece of frozen bacon put it in the special clock before you go to bed 10 minutes before you are awake the bacon starts cooking so you wake up to that amazing smell i love that now for vegetarians i don't know what to say maybe they have a amazing broccoli or probably amazing kale what is the thing with kale i don't why do something anyway so and by the way i love bacon how many of you love bacon raising oh yeah i do too i just love it i love the smell of bacon in the morning fact my favorite meal of the day is breakfast followed only by lunch and dinner but i do love that time so in the same way i think it's time for america to wake up and smell the bacon and here's why as we look at the prophetic scenario and by that i mean as we look at end times events it is alarming to not find the reigning superpower on the face of the earth in that last day's chain of events you can certainly find the nation israel you can find the nation iran i think you can make a pretty good case for russia and perhaps even china but where is the reigning superpower the united states of america where are we here's what we need to know every nation has a lifespan every nation has a beginning a middle and an end listen the might of ancient babylon only lasted for 86 years the powerful persian empire did a bit better 208 years the glory of greece was eclipsed after 268 years mighty rome ruled for almost nine centuries the powerful persian empire did better for 208 years already mentioned that sorry the british empire endured for some 250 years in her great power and the usa is around well 300 excuse me 235 years old in county but here's what we need to know every day every nation's days are numbered and the bible says righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to the people so if we turn from righteousness if we turn from god we're going to face the consequences listen to this knowledge brings responsibility america is not like just any other country out there i do believe in a miracle american exceptionalism i think we're a special nation blessed by god in many ways the only nation i think we could even compare ourselves to is the nation israel a nation that was founded on biblical principles a nation that was founded and the belief in a god who placed us here so i think there's a responsibility that goes to the great privileges we have in this nation in particular and if we abandon god if we forget god even worse if we rebel against god there will be consequences to pay but i have a suggestion a thought as to why we cannot find america in the end time scenario and here's what i think it may be we're not there because a massive spiritual awakening a fifth great awakening if you will or maybe a sixth or a seventh happens and it changes the course of our country you see well i don't understand why a revival would change us uh change our position in the prophetic scenario well listen if millions of americans were cut up to heaven we wouldn't be the super power we are today i mean how many americans are christians i don't know polls are taken and usually half of all americans say they're born again followers of jesus christ how many of you believe that by the way okay good because i had a bridge i wanted to sell you i don't believe it either so there's over 300 million americans let's be super conservative and say let's say if one third of america really were christians let's say there were a hundred million americans who believed in jesus in a in a correct way or maybe a revival or two happened and so our numbers swelled to a hundred million now imagine this if a hundred million people were caught up to meet the lord in the air if they just disappeared do you think that would affect our nation well of course it would imagine the effect on our country of 100 million people people in industry government military business agriculture education medicine suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth now hollywood and the press would be largely untouched but i'm talking about the rest of the nation it would certainly have a crippling effect on our entire nation and upon our infrastructure but this much we know all nations as we know them are going to change expand or shift to some degree or another as the whole global situation rearranges for the events of the end time so we need to pray for another spiritual awakening in the united states now as an introductory introductory video pointed out we've had four great awakenings in america the first great awakening in the 1700s led by such men as jonathan edwards and george whitefield it preceded the revolutionary war and the birth of america it lasted from about 1740 to 1742 with around 50 000 people added to the churches of new england now that may not sound like a lot but that was when we had a population of around 300 000. so it was significant the first great awakening the second great awakening from the 1790s to around 1840 was led by many including charles finney it was during the days of the wild west the law was disregarded sexual sin was rampant and they had these events called camp meetings you ever heard of those before wonder what they were they'd set up a tent up out in the forest put sawdust on the floor preachers would come and share the gospel and thousands and thousands of americans came to faith during that time and they would have huge crowds and uh so that was a significant awakening in our history the third great awakening was from around 1857 to 1859 and the way that began is unique there was a 48-year-old businessman named jeremiah lamphier who began a prayer meeting on fulton street in new york city and his prayer meeting was very small as that video pointed out but then it exploded why did it explode the stock market crashed and so suddenly thousands of people were showing up for this time of prayer within six months ten thousand people in new york city gather daily for prayer can you imagine such a thing like that happening today it's reported that 50 000 new yorkers were converted from march to may and there were 10 000 additions to church membership listen weekly and around that time around 1 million people came to believe in jesus now that brings us to the fourth great awakening and the last one in american history and i'm of course talking about the jesus movement now i was privileged to have a front row seat for it because i came to christ in 1970 and found myself smack dab in the middle of a full-blown spiritual awakening and by the way we did not know it was a spiritual awakening when it was happening i just thought it was normal christianity because i had no point of reference and in a way it was normal christianity normal in a new testament sense normal in the way that it's supposed to be as opposed to a watered-down version that we often see in its place today but i think it's a good thing to reflect back on what god has done in the past jonathan edwards who is a part of the first great awakening made this statement and i quote it has been found by experience that the tidings of remarkable effects of the power and grace of god in any place tend greatly to awaken and engage the minds of persons in other places end quote let me rephrase that stories of revival often spark other revivals so as we look back historically we asked the question is there anything we can learn let's consider the backdrop of the country when the jesus movement happened it happened in the late 60s early 70s now you know for those of you that have been around for a while like me uh you remember the 50s and the early 60s and the early 60s were a lot like the late 50s it was an idyllic time we had come through world war ii and people were building homes and starting families and there was an optimism and eisenhower was our president and and technology was sort of exploding one of the latest developments was something called color television up to this point in black and white i remember the first time i saw a color tv it was at a friend's house and we went over and looked in the window of his front room and watched with great envy the wonderful world of color the disney program so you know there was sort of this excitement this is a time when um elvis was the king of rock and roll and james dean was acting in films and marilyn monroe was in her prime so there was a poll actually taken by newsweek magazine excuse me cbs news and they asked people what decade would you most likely travel to if you could now most people chose the decade of their childhood but by and large the decade that went out were the 50s people wanted to live in the 50s cars were super cool i mean anything from 55 to 57 amazing cars so it was a great time and that was sort of the early 60s too but then we had a brand new president that really marked a change in our culture and really a change in the 60s john f kennedy was elected president we went from a 70 year old grandfather to a youthful senator with a young family occupying the oval office but kennedy was quickly put to the test by the leader of russia at that time nikita khrushchev and khrushchev was determined to expand the russian empire and so one of those things was he was putting missile sites over in cuba which is not far from our shores especially florida kennedy became aware of this and they had this uh this conflict that's called the cuban missile crisis and there was a moment where america thought we were going to engage in a full-blown nuclear war i remember in school when i was a kid we would have drills in our classroom where in case there was a nuclear explosion we went under our desks do any of you remember that do you think it would have helped being under your desk i know it's a nuclear blast but i'm under my desk i'll be fine right here yeah so kind of a scary time but uh everything changed in america when our president was assassinated on november 22 1963 television was pervasive at that time and the whole country found out about it in fact everyone remembers where they were when kennedy was assassinated it's as though we watched it in real time it was hard to believe that one man lee harvey oswald could kill the president of the united states and effectively the leader of the free world a lot of people thought there was conspiracies and others involved and they did a great report on it by the done by the warren commission and they determined there was one lone shooter but many experts believe that is the moment the 60s and shifted was shortly after that that four liverpudlians landed on our shore uh and we're on the ed sullivan show they're called the beatles and they were followed by a bunch of other bands known as the british invasion and then culture began to change before our eyes almost monthly certainly yearly add to this the fact that the vietnam war is raging young american boys are coming back in body bags and it was a draft back then and we all wondered are we going to be next and then the worst year of the 60s happened it was 1968 our president has already been assassinated and now martin luther king is assassinated as well robert kennedy the president's brother sort of steps into the gap and decides to run for uh the presidency and many are hoping that he's going to turn the country around there's sort of an optimism and it's gaining momentum but as he announced uh well yeah basically he was claiming victory in the california primary and uh he addressed the supporters at the ambassador hotel and a man named sergeant sergeant shot bobby kennedy three times only two months after martin luther king was killed now kennedy has been assassinated only five years after his brother the vietnam war is raging on watergate is about to happen an entire generation of young people are disillusioned there's huge protests there's riots in the streets kids were rebelling against society and turning to drugs sex and rock and roll the slogan at that time was turn on tune in drop out and you know the church was not effectively reaching this generation john lennon of the beatles was famously quoted to say the beatles are more popular than jesus and for many that was actually true in my case it was and so time magazine came out with a cover issue with these words on it is god dead and some liberal theologians announced that indeed he was so things are bleak things are dark things are desperate and god intervenes god intervenes and the jesus movement explodes on the scene suddenly seemingly out of nowhere but right on god's time schedule thousands of young kids are coming to christ so time magazine runs a different cover in 1971 with a image of christ on the front and the words the jesus revolution here's what happened the churches that open themselves to revival experience revival the churches that closed their doors to it did not experience it but one man opened the doors of his church and you all know who he is i'm talking about pastor chuck smith he let it happen chuck was you know he was not some hipster guy he was just your basic middle-aged balding man who was pastoring a church and you can see i admire him a great deal so i've taken after him and he saw these hippie kids and he wanted nothing to do with them he thought they all should get a haircut and take a ba have a bath right so but his wife had a burden for them his wife came and was praying for the kids to come to christ and chuck sort of opened his heart up a little bit and was wanted to meet an actual living breathing hippie and so one day his daughter jen came home uh with this hippie kid named john who was a christian and he told chuck a little bit about what was happening with the kids and then john introduced chuck to another hippie kid who happened to be a preacher and that guy's name was lonnie frisbee and lonnie was really used by god along with pastor chuck to bring the jesus movement uh to a place of complete explosion lonnie was sort of like nitro to chuck's glycerin the combination just boom it blew up and lonnie was this charismatic preacher that drew kids in so you might say the kids came for lonnie and they stayed for chuck because chuck stabilized things by teaching the word of god but this whole thing was happening and that's right when i came to christ in fact lonnie was preaching on my high school campus newport harbor high and i came to jesus and started going to calvary chapel and walked in there and i was just overwhelmed there were people everywhere there were people up the aisles and they were worshiping god and god was at work and lives were being changed and we saw contemporary worship born before our very eyes and you know it wasn't long after that that i came up to riverside from orange county and we started a bible study up here at turn into the church you're in right now harvest christian fellowship so listen yeah that's worth clapping for the church globally was influenced by the jesus movement there's a number of things that were prominent during this time that i remember i have a friend john irwin who was featured in that introductory video who's making a documentary film about the jesus movement and i'm going to help him with it and so he's been asking me a lot of questions and so it got me thinking a lot about those days and and sort of some unique traits that maybe we could learn from and i thought of basically five principles that i remember from that time about just a typical church service number one there was a sense of expectancy in the service no one was ever late for church because you wouldn't find a seed if you were and you came expecting god to work a sense of openness like what's the lord gonna do today number two the word of god was always taught the word of god was always thought that gave stability to us in fact i still have my bible from those days you can see it as an old beat up leather cover here's a better shot of it look at a little bit closer it's all beat up and you know i didn't want to have a bible with just black leather so i put it in this hippie leather because i thought it looked cooler it looks like something from biblical times now and uh i marked it up and so much so that some of the pages are coming out of it but the camera guy left okay there he is again um as you can see but anyway um i have a picture of what i used to look like back in those days this is what i looked like when we first started our church so that can you see that yeah that's that was your pastor back in 1972 okay i wish i had any of that here right now so the word of god was taught number three people participated in the worship we effectively saw what we know as just worship now we have worship bands now that was not happening in the late 60s by the way there were no electric guitars for the most part on church stages there were no drum kits it was a whole different thing of his choirs and there's nothing wrong with that but i'm just saying it was different culturally and this is when all of this started to happen things that we'd take for granted now but people engaged in worship they would lift their hands in worship they would participate in worship uh number four people brought non-believers to church and invitations were extended and kids were coming to christ not just kids people of all ages every week there was that sense that god wants people to be saved and fifth and lastly there was a belief in and constant teaching of the imminent return of jesus christ we believe that jesus was coming back again some of you are thinking well you got that wrong didn't you how many years has it been greg oh quite a few but hey we weren't wrong what is 40 years 45 years to god the bible says one year to god or a day it says a thousand years and a thousand years are as a day so what is it a millisecond and by the way the bible says god is not late as some men count lateness but he's long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance true we were praying for jesus to come back in 1970 but aren't you glad he didn't answer our prayer how many of you become have become a christian since 1970 raise your hand up well that's quite a few of you so you see god is at work god was at work and god still wants to work but we've all gotten older i mean you know it's a fact the kids of the jesus movement are now grandparents i went to grandparents day at my grandkids school recently that just makes you feel old to even go to grandparents day you know but there we are so you say well greg that's a nice little history lesson but uh you know so what so what listen we should not live in the past but we can learn from it we should not live in the past but we can learn from it now we can look at this generation and realize we need another jesus movement just as in the 60s and specifically 1968 we have riots in the streets we have racial unrest we have a drug epidemic there's a sense of hopelessness in the air how desperate are we for another jesus movement how desperate are we for another spiritual awakening the prophet havoc understood this when he prayed this prayer in habakkuk 3 2. i've heard all about you lord i'm filled with all by the amazing things you've done but in this time of deep need revive your work as you did in years gone by show us your power to save us and in your anger remember your mercy havoc saying lord i've heard all these stories about the old days do it again revive your work again the psalmist says in psalm 85 6 will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you how badly do we want to see another revival here's reality often we pray for prosperity in our nation and in our own lives but the fact is revival often explodes when there's calamity remember the first great awakening excuse me third grade awakening happened after the stock market crash i once asked chuck smith if he ever thought there would be another jesus movement and his answer was well people were desperate for revival back then and i'm not sure people are desperate enough right now that may be true how desperate are we so let's try to understand what revival is let's strip the mystery away from the word what is revival simple definition it's to come alive again revival is the spark if you will that starts the engine and you know what periodically we need a new spark the great evangelist billy sunday once said quote they tell me a revival is only temporary but so is a bath and that does you some good end quote so it may be temporary but we need one right now revival is like waking up from your sleep one person to find it revival is nothing more or less than a new beginning of obedience to god see we we're not praying that non-believers have a revival they don't need a revival they need salvation the church needs revival this is a church word this is for believers only who once were perhaps more alive than they are today and they need to be revived again c.h spurgeon said and i quote to be revived is a blessing which can only be enjoyed by those who have some degree of life those who have no spiritual life are not and cannot be in the strictest sense of the term subjects of revival a true revival is to be looked at and looked for in the church of god end quote so it's for the church one person put it this way if all those sleeping people will wake up if all the lukewarm people will fire up if all the dishonest people will confess up if all the disgruntled people will cheer up if all the estranged people will make up if all of the gossipers will shut up if all true soldiers will stand up if all the dry bones will shake up if all the church people will pray up then we can have a revival and i agree with that see the revival starts with us then it affects the church then the church affects the nation so let's go now to the passage i had you turn to a very familiar passage second chronicles seven and it tells us really a god's prescription for revival now initially it was given to the nation israel and applied to them but i think in principle it applies to our country or to any nation second chronicles 7 14. in fact to make it easier let's put it on the big screen here and we can all look at it together look here at the screen and i want you to read this out loud with me okay ii chronicles 7 14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven and i will forgive their sin and will heal their lad an amazing verse i love that [Applause] so we want god to heal our land we want our nation to change how does it happen god lays it out for us it starts off with his people a lot of times we want to point our finger at somebody else we say the problem is in our country it's due to washington d.c or we'll see it's it's due to hollywood or or it's the source of the problems or the white house god says the source of the problems are his house his house the church notice he says if my people which are called by my name will hum themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways god doesn't say a thing about secular culture he doesn't see a thing about garden variety sinners if you will he talks to his own people that's you that's me if my people see i think one of the problems we have in our nation today is we have a lot of folks running around who think they are christians that really are not in fact the bible says in ii corinthians 13 check up on yourselves are you really christians do you pass the test or are you just pretending to be a christian when you are not at all and then there are those who are living a double life you know they put on a good performance at church they say all the right stuff but they're living a life that's completely contradictory to what the bible says about how a christian ought to live so what do we do if we want to see a revival number one if you're taking notes if you want to see a revival you need to humble yourself and pray by the way the word used there for prayer is interesting of the 12 hebrew words employed in scripture to express a single verb to pray the one used here means to judge self habitually judge self habitually you know we're so quick to judge and criticize others habitually but the bible says we should be really judging ourselves if we spent less time criticizing others and more time examining ourselves maybe we would have revival it starts with you it starts with me notice jesus does not say we need to love ourselves that's what culture tells us jesus says we need to deny ourself and take up his cross and follow him and then here in ii chronicles we are to judge ourselves what does that mean it means that we realize we have a long ways to go let me ask you a question how many of you are completely satisfied with where you are at spiritually right now you don't think there's any more need for change or transformation in your life you're happy with where you were at at this moment raise your hand up i'm glad no one raised their hand because no one should any christian who really knows what it is to follow jesus will always realize they have a long ways to go the apostle paul said after years of walking with the lord in philippians 3 hey i don't consider myself to have arrived spiritually nor do i consider myself already perfect i keep going on grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which god has grasped me it's been said self-satisfaction is a death of progress so the moment i think i have arrived i've reached a plateau i'm here no you're really far off man you got to keep growing keep learning so we want to keep moving forward spiritually now we cannot organize a revival but we can agonize for one in prayer perhaps we can prepare the ground but better yet maybe we ought to pre-prayer the ground let me say it again yeah we can prepare the ground but let's pre-prayer the ground there's never been a prayerless revival in history so it does start with prayer if my people which are called by my name will hum themselves and pray and point number two if they'll pray and seek his face not just pray but seek his face you can pray a little prayer lord send revival amen let's get lunch or you can say oh lord lord we're seeking you lord we're calling out to you lord we're desperate for you lord we need you send an awakening to america it's effectively a prayer that will not take no for an answer you say well greg aren't you being presumptuous when you pray the way no jesus said ask and it shall be given seeking he shall find knock on the door will be opened and a different translation would say keep asking keep seeking keep knocking press on because listen when you're praying for revival you're praying according to the will of god when you're praying for the salvation of a loved one you're praying according to the will of god so we need to press forward in our prayer and seek his face not backing down number three there must be repentance from all known sin so first we humble or judge ourselves evaluate ourselves see we have a long ways to go secondly we pray with passion with earnestness with uh with a complete dependence upon god and thirdly there must be repentance from all sin again god says if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways listen all the praying in the world is not going to help you if you're living in known sin the psalmist said if i cling to iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear me and god says in isaiah 15 59 it's not that my ear is heavy i can't hear it's not that my hand is short i cannot save but your sins have separated you from me listen to pray and to then live in known sin is like hanging up the phone to heaven so it starts there say lord is there any wickedness in me and let me ask you be honest right now before god is there something you're doing you know you should not be doing as a follower of jesus if so you need to turn from it because you will never experience personal revival until you do and those are not only the sins of commission doing bad things they can be sins of omission too because you can sit there and think hey greg you know i'm living a clean life i don't lie i don't steal i don't get drunk i'm faithful to my spouse hey amen god bless you for all that for sure but then you could be guilty of the sin of omission right instead of commission doing what you should not do sin of omission not doing what you should do the bible says to him that knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin so if the lord's prompting you go share the gospel and you say no the lord is saying share freely of your finances and invest in the kingdom you flat out refuse the lord nudges you and chose you to pray more i don't want to do that study the word more no that can be a sin as well if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways let me personalize this insert your name there take out my people and put in your name i'll do it if craig will humble himself and pray and seek my face and turn from his wicked ways put your name in there god wants to do it for you first he wants to revive you first and foremost but know this having said all of this god wants to send revival isn't that good to know god wants to send revival but he wants us to participate in the process right you know god answers prayer how many of you agree with that god answers prayer right but often the reason we pray is because well we have a need we have a crisis something's come up i need a healing i need direction i i need uh financial provision whatever it is you need you pray because you're in trouble it's not like god just gives you everything you've ever wanted more and no problems no conflicts he'll allow conflict in your life so you'll see your own weakness and then see the greatness of god as you depend upon him and we can all remember situations in our life where things were looking rather bleak and we called in the name of the lord and he intervened right can you remember something like that i can many things so now here in our nation things are looking bleak god is saying check this out calling me and watch what i'll do pray right now follow my prescription for revival watch how i will intervene listen it's his desire to bless did you know god wants to bless you even more than you want to be blessed psalm 84 says the lord is a son and a shield he bestows favor and honor and no good thing will he withhold from those that walk with him so here's what god says call on my name pray turn from your sin i'll hear your prayer and i'll heal your land let me say a closing word to someone that's joining us today is maybe a non-believer you're thinking what are you guys even talking about well we're talking about our nation and we're talking about you you don't need revival if you're not a christian you need jesus you need to see how much he loves you and how he will forgive you of every sin you've ever committed and change your life this is what can happen for you my life was changed many years ago your life can be changed right now maybe your life is falling apart maybe you need god to heal your life heal your marriage you're in the throes of drug addiction or alcohol addiction or you're in despair whatever it is jesus christ has everything you're looking for and more and if you'll just ask him to come into your heart and life and ask him to forgive you of your sin you can know that you'll go to heaven when you die and then you will begin to discover god's unique and special plan for your life and that's why i'm going to give you an opportunity to believe in jesus and also an opportunity now to ask for personal revival let's all pray father we've heard your word and now lord we're praying for those that do not yet know you those that have joined us who don't have the hope of heaven they don't have jesus in their life we pray that your holy spirit will convict and convince them of their need for jesus and lord bring them to yourself now now what our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying how many of you would say today greg i need jesus i want my sin forgiven i want to go to heaven when i die i want to know the meaning of my life i want him in my heart right now pray for me i'm ready to say yes to jesus christ listen if that's your desire if you want christ to come into your life if you want him to forgive you of your sin if you want to go to heaven when you die would you raise your hand up right now wherever you are and i want to pray for you just raise your hand up where i can see it god bless you god bless you anybody else raise your hand up god bless you some of you are watching the video screen right now i want you to raise your hand up as well this is for all of us here it doesn't matter if i can see you the lord sees you just raise your hand saying yeah i need jesus wherever you are raise your hand up let me pray for you god bless each one of you that are raising your hand anybody else you want his forgiveness you want to be ready for the lord's return raise your hand up let me pray for you god bless you well our heads are still bowed maybe some of you would say man i need personal revival i need to turn from my sin there's things i'm doing i know i should not be doing as a follower of jesus and i'm ready to turn from that and recommit my life to christ if that's your desire would you raise your hand up you need personal revival you need to turn from some sin there needs to be that change in your life raise your hand up god bless you wherever you're hearing or seeing me raise your hand up if you would god bless all of you now i'm going to ask that every one of you who have just lifted your hand i want you to stand to your feet and i'm going to lead you in a prayer just stand up everyone who lifted your hand stand up now we're going to pray together even if you did not lift your hand but you want to make this commitment or recommitment to christ stand up and we're going to pray together god bless you that are standing if you stand you won't be alone others are standing wherever you are stand up there might be more of you you're watching the video screen stand up right now we're going to make this commitment or recommitment to jesus let's get this resolved i'll wait another moment anybody else you want to get right with god stand up and we'll pray together god bless you anybody else god bless all of you are you they're standing i want you to pray this prayer out loud after me again as i pray pray this out loud after me right will you stand pray this prayer lord jesus i know i am a sinner but i know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin i turn from that sin now i choose to follow you from this moment forward thank you for loving me and calling me and accepting me in jesus name i pray amen god bless you that just prayed their prayer god bless all of you hello and that that is our prayer that god will send another spiritual awakening to the united states how many of you think that needs to happen again raise your hand up i'll tell you what what's it going to take to wake our country up another terrorist attack it appears has now taken place in orlando florida upwards of 50 people were killed and as many as 50 more have been wounded and if this is a terrorist attack and it appears that it will turn out that way this will be the worst attack in american soil since 9 11. and you know we look to our law enforcement agencies we look to the military we look to first responders there's only so much these people can do here's what we need to be looking to we need to pray for all of them and we need to pray for our country that america wakes up and turns to god because we need him like never before so that's what i want to talk about on my message i'm calling it revival in our time part two and my text is jonah chapter two turn there with me if you would jonah two and my message is revival in our timer rather can we have revival in our time i want to look at one of the largest revivals in human history and this gives me hope for our own country because this nation we're going to examine together deserved judgment and in a way i feel as though our country deserves judgment you say but greg why because knowledge brings responsibility and as i mentioned in that video there in pompeii the only other nation we would be closely likened to would be the nation israel a nation also founded unbiblical principles that is how we started this country and that knowledge brings responsibility i think of the words of thomas jefferson who said quote i trembled for my country when i reflected god is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever but we're going to look at the story of a nation that had a revival just like america needs to have a revival the name of this city is nineveh but let me make a distinction between the word revival and awakening we often use them interchangeably but i think a distinction can be made america needs an awakening the church needs a revival an awakening is when a nation comes alive spiritually and sees its need for god and turns to god a revival is when god's people come back to life again that brings me to point number one what is revival we need to take the the mysticism out of the word and just see it for what it is it it simply means to bring back to life to restore to be revived as to wake up from a state of sleep i was c.s lewis who said quote a moderately bad man knows he's not very good a thoroughly bad man thinks he's all right you understand sleep when you are awake not when you're sleeping so in other words if you think you're a great person with no problems then you're really more asleep than you realize now uh sometimes i'll watch television with my wife and she'll select something that to me is well how shall i put it delicately boring and um we just have different tastes in general so i'll watch whatever it is she's watching and and i'll sometimes doze off and she'll say greg you fell asleep and i'll wake up tonight and why do i do that it's not a sin to sleep not to take a little nap but especially if something is boring but that's the way we are we don't want to admit we're asleep we don't think we're asleep but the person that is asleep doesn't necessarily know they're asleep it's when you're awake that you can say oh wow i was asleep that's what revival is it's coming back it's waking up this is the kind of faith that god wants us to have we need the faith of the christians of the first century the faith that changed the world the faith that turned the world upside down consider this everywhere the apostle paul went there was either a riot or a revival but there was always action it never got boring and g kimball morgan once said and i quote organized christianity that fails to make a disturbance is dead that doesn't mean being obnoxious or just creating a scene making the disturbance means getting some reaction to your faith i feel the time has come for the church to start making a disturbance again revival is when god gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented he shows up himself and that's what we need to pray for right now that that will happen so number one revival is waking up from sleep point number two biblical preaching can bring revival biblical preaching can bring revival and that's illustrated in the story that we're going to look at in a moment the story of the prophet jonah the reluctant prophet the chicken of the sea you might say the original chicken of the sea he did not want to go and preach to the city of nineveh but because he finally went with a little extra persuasion it resulted in the largest spiritual awakening in all of the bible god said go jonah said no god said oh god will always have the last word now why did jonah not want to go to nineveh because jonah was well a patriotic and the enemies of israel were the assyrians and their capital was nineveh and so when god said to jonah go preach to nineveh he thought this through and he thought i know your nature lord i know how gracious you are and loving you are and how willing you are to pardon and my fear is if i go and preach to those creepy people you'll forgive them and not judge them but if i don't preach jonah deduced then god will judge him and that will be one less enemy we have to deal with so he did not want to go and it is true uh the ninevites were really cruel people uh they were known for their savagery in fact when the ninevites would conquer a nation they would often torture the people they conquered before they executed them they were known to burn boys and girls alive and do torture others tearing the skin from their bodies and leaving them to die in the scorching sun and rather than hide this depravity they celebrated it and proclaimed it they even built monuments to their own cruelty it reminds us a little bit of the nazis during world war ii are in present day terms reminds us a lot of isis the size of nineveh was around one million that was a very big city for ancient times that would be about the size of san francisco they were the capital of mighty assyria which was the superpower of the day it required three days to circle metropolitan nineveh and those ninevites men they lived large they enjoyed the best chariots the finest food the most exotic entertainment and they had an extensive business and commercial system like none in all of the world and in addition they had been ruling out for 200 years and they were the reigning superpower on the planet at this time but unbeknownst to them their days were numbered it would not be all that long until babylon would come and come to overtake her so god was giving to nineveh one last chance and i wonder is god trying to speak to america right now is he saying to america you need to wake up and you need to turn back to me listen if god could use someone like jonah to bring about a revival certainly he could use someone like you or me one person put it this way if god could bring a mighty revival in nineveh with no better representative than jonah and no more gospel than he preached in their streets he can surely do the same for america end quote very true so god says that jonah go preach the nineveh jonah's response was lord no way they drink haterade in nineveh these people are wicked i don't want to go to them and truly as i said they were wicked because god said they effectively stink to high heaven so jonah you know the story got in a boat and went the opposite direction and a great storm came and all the sailors on the boat began to cry out to their gods for help and by the way that must have been a bad storm because most people i know that have their sea legs are pretty common storms but this was a really scary one so they're crying out to their various deities hoping one of them has the right one and they think about this mysterious stranger below deck and they bring them up of course that's jonah they ask him what the story is he goes well this storm is here because of me and i'm a hebrew and i'm running from god and he told me to go preach in nineveh and i said no they're looking at him and thinking uh so why would you run from a god this powerful then jonah says listen if you throw me over the side of the boat the storm will stop they're like really okay bye over the side he goes now the lord brings a great fish to swallow jonah and by the way the bible never says jonah was swallowed by a whale i don't know why we always say that sort of like when we say adam and eve ate the apple the bible never says they eat an apple says they eat forbidden fruit the bible never says a whale swallowed jonah now maybe a whale did but the bible specifically says a great fish and a literal translation would be a sea monster so maybe it was a custom designed fish just for jonah multiple rooms you know i don't know maybe it was a beast that is now extinct maybe it was a whale it's certainly possible but it really doesn't matter people fixate on the story of jonah and the whale and they missed the bigger story of the greatest revival in ancient history well you know the rest of the story he swallowed and inside i have to say jonah was stubborn he spent three days and three nights inside of that stomach and said i ain't budging wrapped in seaweed humidity like you can't believe fish smacking him in the face i'm not pudging finally he came to his senses and jonah had a personal revival and the belly of the fish and we read about that in jonah 2 verse 1. then jonah then went after three days and three nights then he prayed to the lord as god from inside the fish which reminds you you can pray pretty much anywhere you can pray from the inside of a fish you can pray anywhere else he said i cried to the lord in my great trouble and he answered me i called to you from the world of the dead lord and you heard me you threw me into the ocean depths and i sank down to the heart of the sea i was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves dropped under verse 7. when i had lost all hope i turned my thoughts once more to the lord and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple those who worship false gods turn their backs on all of god's mercies but i will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise inside the belly of the beast jonah had revival meaning he was revived and brought back to life and what god had called him to do so now that he had hope again as he turned his thoughts to the lord he was ready to go obey the lord we often make the topic of revival way too mysterious it's really quite simple ari tori an excellent writer who among other things has written on the topic of prayer put it this way he said he had a prescription for revival tori said if a church or a person followed it they would be revived there's three things tori said they should do number one he said let a few christians they don't even have to be many get thoroughly right with god if this is not done the rest will come to nothing a few christians not a lot get thoroughly right with god number two tori says let them commit themselves to pray for revival until god opens a windows of heaven and it comes down and number three let them put themselves at the disposal of god for his use as he sees fit and winning others to christ that is all tori says i've given this prescription around the world and in no instant has it failed it cannot fail so now jonah is revived and he's ready to do what god has called him to do and so the fish cruises up to the beach at nineveh and barfs out jonah so jonah was righteous and ralphed and he was revived and recommissioned by god listen to this first god sent revival to jonah then jonah brought revival to nineveh that's because nothing can happen through you until it first happens to you has to start with you you know you're saying i want to raise my children in the way of the lord great do that but make sure you're walking in the way of the lord because some things are caught and other things are taught yeah they'll listen to your bedtime stories and they'll listen to your little mini sermons but they're also going to be watching your life to see if mom or dad live that out sure we can go out into our workplace and tell people to work with us about jesus christ make sure you're a model of what it is to follow christ it can't happen through you until it is first happened to you that brings us to jonah chapter 3. let's find out what happened so he shows up in nineveh and here's this message look at verse 4. one ch one day joan entered the city and shouted to the crowds forty days from now and nineveh will be destroyed well that's not a very hopeful message is it no promise of forgiveness no way out basically you're all gonna die now that message surely wouldn't make a difference but look what happens verse five the people of nineveh believe god's message from the greatest to the least and they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow and when the king of nineveh heard what jonah was saying he stepped down from his stone and took off his royal robes and dressed himself in sackcloth and sat on a heap of ashes and the king and the nobles sent this decree to the city no one not even the animals may eat or drink anything at all so they were fasting everyone is required to wear a sackcloth and pray earnestly to god everyone must churn from their evil ways and stop all of their violence who can tell maybe god will have pity on us and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us and when god saw they put a stop to their evil ways he had mercy on them and didn't carry out the destruction he had threatened stop there is that not an amazing story what a stunning awakening an entire city turned to god they even turned from the specific sin of violence that they were known for god spared them and sent a spiritual awakening and after a sermon like this 40 days and nineveh will be overthrown but actually it's more hopeful than you may think because by the very fact that he was telling them they had 40 days offered a measure of hope 40 days until it happens 40 days for you to get right with god 40 days for you to wake up to what is happening around you you see when god judged sodom and gomorrah there was no warning 40 days and sodom and gomorrah will be destroyed it just happened but in this case god gave a warning just as i believe he's giving warnings to our country right now but if a city as wicked as nineveh could turn certainly our country can turn that brings me to point number four a revived person will be an evangelistic person a revived person will be an evangelistic person let me turn that around if you have no desire to share your faith you need personal revival why is a revived person an evangelistic person because their evangelism is a result of a christ-filled life you want to know an interesting statistic most people that come to christ do it because someone who is young in the faith shared with them 80 to 90 of people who have the gospel shared with them are from people who have known the lord for two years or less did you hear that 18 to 90 of people who have the gospel shared with them are from people who have known the lord for two years or less isn't that interesting why is that why is it not from 10 years or more the reason it's from two years or less is these are people who are often still in what we would call the first love relationship with jesus christ they're still discovering what god has done for them they're so excited about it but as we get older in the faith and we walk with the lord for a time sometimes we start taking these things for granted you know what that means it means we need revival we need to be brought back to the place where we once were where we realize how important it is to share with others what jesus has done for us listen you want to experience revival in your life get a brand new believer next to you and hang out with them see here's the problem if you hang around with a bunch of jaded christians some who have even become cynical and after church you critique the sermon you need some new friends hang out with some new believers who are hearing this stuff for the first time that are fired up and they have questions that will get you digging back into scripture again it's the best thing you can do for your own spiritual health you stabilize them and they re-energize you everybody benefits but you see sometimes we get away from that and we need to have a revival now that brings me to my last point number four and that is that if you are actually that is not my last point my last point is number five sorry already did number four which means even preachers make mistakes that's my point write that down my last point is even revive people need to be revived again even revived people need to be revived again why do i say this well here's this awesome spiritual awakening thousands of people are believing god is not judging them how does jonah react is he dancing in the streets doing a little happy dance no he's angry he's upset in fact he's hopping mad look at jonah 4 verse 1. this change of plans upset jonah and he became very angry and complained to the lord about it saying didn't i say before i left home you would do this lord this is why i ran away to tarshish i know you're a gracious and compassionate god slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love i knew how easily you could cancel your plans for destroying these people so just kill me now lord i'd rather be dead than alive because nothing i predicted is going to happen what a brat but look at how the lord reacts the lord replied is it right for you to be angry about this you see jonah is just having a pity party i wanted to see destruction in fact he was so excited he pulled up a ringside seat to watch it he had his popcorn and his milk duds and it was going to be great he's going to put it up on snapchat and instagram and facebook and everything else and nothing happened judgment didn't come so he's angry he's playing angry birds he was so angry lord is like what is wrong with you son i spared these people you should be rejoicing you should not be upset see the problem with jonah is he was preoccupied with himself here's a man who survived three days and three nights in a fish's stomach a man who repents and prays and preaches the truth of the people of nineveh a man that god uses to help bring about a spiritual awakening and yet this guy falls into sin it's a good reminder no matter how long you've known the lord you can still mess up no matter how long you've known the lord you still may need to be revived again you know sometimes people worry about new believers not changing quickly enough i'm more concerned with old converts who have stopped changing altogether let me say that again you worry about new believers they're not changing quickly enough i'm more worried about older believers who have stopped changing so we go to that new christian and say oh man they're rough around the edges and they haven't got all the verbiage right yet and okay we'll give them time be patient you know they'll get it but i'm more concerned about older believers that stop changing they've just settled in their ways maybe they've traded in their old vices like immorality and drugs and drinking and profanity and replaced them with new vices like pride backbiting gossip or even bitterness see jonah was an older saint who knew better and he was having a relapse and he was angry with god are you angry with god i mean be honest someone might be you might say well you know i i was hoping this would happen in my life and it didn't happen and i prayed this prayer and god didn't answer the prayer i wanted him to answer and the way that i wanted him to answer it and he blessed somebody else over here and i think i'm deserving to have that blessing and i'm mad at god well you need to let that go because jonah missed the whole picture now interestingly while he's sitting there waiting for nineveh to be judged the bible says the lord caused a gourd to grow next to him now that's king james gourd it was sort of like almost a palm tree uh with a leafy top that would give him shade so he's under his little gourd you know waiting for the judgment and then the bible says the lord brought a worm that ate the gourd that must have been one big gnarly worm you know it's funny in the book of jonah we talk about jonah and the whale no one ever talks about jonah and the worm that was a sizable worm who ate it and now jonah is literally out of his gourd in more ways than one and he's more upset with losing his shade than he is with the fact that god did not give these people a chance and so here he is wanting comfort more than the will of god this reminds me a little bit of the story of the prodigal sons remember jesus told that story and we often see the prodigal son but there was more than one one prodigal stayed home the other prodigal ran away one prodigal went out and consorted with prostitutes and drug the family name to the gutter and and lost all of his money and the other son never left home but he was filled with anger and you know it's interesting because jesus told this story to illustrate the fact that he was being criticized for sharing his love with sinners and ignoring the religious people so what he's really saying to the pharisees is hey check out the story and guess who you are in the story the sinners are like the prodigal who came to a sentence and returned home and the older brother well that's like you remember how the story went the boy finally comes home after he's wasted all of his money and the father runs to greet him and throws a big barbecue but a lot of times we don't finish the story it goes on luke 15 and this is a modern translation the older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in and his father came out and tried to talk to him but the boy would not listen the son said look how many years i've stayed here serving you never giving you one moment of grief and you've never thrown a party like that for me and my friends but this son of yours who's throwing away your money on shows up and you go all out with the feast the father said son you don't understand you're with me all the time and everything i have is yours but this is a wonderful time and a time to celebrate this brother of yours was dead and he's alive again he was lost he has found this brother of yours you don't even care about them do we even care about people that don't know the lord do we care about people who knew the lord but have stumbled we should because we're told over in galatians 6 brothers if another believer is overcome by some sin you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back to the right path and be careful to not fall into the same temptation yourself back to jonah god spared thousands of lives and jonah missed his shade he missed his comfort and god is trying to wake him up to the reality of what he is facing you know i think we all have a nineveh we are in effect called to some place where we leave our comfort zone someplace where we admit our need someplace where we reach out to someone we would not normally reach out to and we need to be obedient to the lord here's something i've been very interesting jonah wrote the book of jonah now if i was jonah i would have not written jonah chapter four it would have had three chapters it would have told the story of a man who runs from god a man who comes to his senses a man who does what god wants and then a man who plays a role in revival but jonah wrote jonah 4 and told all about his selfishness and his sulking and jonah even gave god the last word in jonah 4 verse 10 the lord said you feel sorry about the plan you did nothing to put it there and the planet is only at best short-lived but nineveh with more than 120 000 people living in spiritual darkness not to mention all the animals shouldn't i feel sorry for such a great city you see that's the truth god wants us to see our need and to act on it what is revival revival is getting back to the christian life as it was meant to be lived revival is being in the bloom of first love for a lifetime walking closely with the lord no you can't always have those initial emotions you can as a new convert any more than you can have butterflies in your stomach like when you first met your husband or wife to be if i still felt the same way toward my wife as i felt when i first met her and i told her i have a lightness my head feels a little dizzy she'd think i was having a heart attack or something that's unrealistic but your love can grow deeper your love can grow stronger and that's how we ought to be as followers of jesus revival is nothing more or less than the new obedience to god and then it's long obedience in the same direction listen only god can send an awakening to america but revival can happen right here right now what do i need to do well remember ii chronicles 7 14 said if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way then god says i'll hear from heaven i'll forgive their sin and i'll heal their land that can happen for you now the people of nineveh repented of their sin they called it what it was god sent his healing and god can do the same for you we need to get back to that again now i wonder right now the lord has spoken to your heart and i wonder if you feel as though you need to have a spiritual revival i wonder if you who have been revived need to be revived again you're saying i don't care about lost people i don't have a passion for the word of god like i once had i don't really care that much about prayer but i want to be revived i want to get back to that place where god wants me to be or maybe the lord has spoken to you and there are some wicked things you need to churn from listen if you want to do it i'm going to give you a chance to do it but i'm not going to make it easy i'm going to ask you to leave your comfort zone right now listen to what i'm saying to you if you want god to send revival in your life if you would be honest enough to admit you need to be refreshed again by god and need to turn from some sin i'm going to ask you to get up out of your seat walk down here in front of the platform and i want you to kneel in front of this platform i want you to get up and come down here and kneel and if there's no room at the front you kneel in the aisle just get up and come you say but greg why do i need to kneel because god says we should come and humble ourselves and i'm going to kneel with you so you get up and come you that want to be revived by god you that have had the lord speak to you get up out of your seat and come down here stand here and kneel and we're all going to pray together you that are watching this screen i want you to do the same thing wherever you are get up walk forward right in front of the stage there and you get down on your knees and we're going to pray and we're going to ask god to send revival to all of us don't do it if you don't mean it but here's your opportunity come on down repent be revived [Music] foreign time to [Music] confess [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] in me [Music] if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face the lord says and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land let's personalize it take out my people put in your name if john josh mary susan cathy insert name here will turn from her are his wicked ways and pray and seek my face thou hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their marriage heal their life what's broken god can heal it we have to come and say god i need your help they'll sing this chorus to one last time anyone who does have the lord speak to them this is not a call to salvation today folks we do that every week this is a call to repentance this is a call to revival there's anybody else that needs to come you come and then we're going to pray together [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] listen i'm gonna lead you guys in a prayer and as we kneel before the lord humbling ourselves you pray this prayer out loud after me mean it from your heart and i believe it's a prayer that god will hear and definitely a prayer that god will answer pray this after me now lord jesus i need revival i need to wake up i need to be refreshed i want to be passionate for you i want to be on fire for you i want a greater hunger for the word of god a greater desire to pray a stronger burden for non-believers lord revive me refresh me fill me with the holy spirit right now i receive it from you now oh lord you've heard their prayer you've heard our prayer as the psalmist says will you not revive us that your people may rejoice in you lord we ask for that revival in our lives it starts with us as individuals it starts with us as a church and then when revival happens the christians awakening happens in america so lord revive us you've heard our prayer now let us take practical steps to do what honors you each and every day we ask all of this in jesus name amen hey let's all stand up god bless all of you that prayed that prayer going back to what r.a torrey said about how to have a personal revival i think of what we just did remember what he said let a few christians they don't have to be a lot get thoroughly right with god let them commit themselves to pray for revival until god opens the windows of heaven and then let them put themselves at the disposal of god for his use as he sees fit in winning others to christ will you do that now you put yourself at the disposal of god say all right lord i'll do it see i think sometimes we're waiting for a big emotional thing i felt revival forget that stuff who cares what you felt or didn't feel maybe it's just a pizza from last night revival is just a new beginning of obedience to god and then it's long obedience in the same direction it's not rocket science it's knowing what is right and doing it and i pray that you are refreshed and revived and you go out and impact those that are around you the prayer we've prayed in this service all of you that have joined us could change a lot of people so let it start here and god bless each and every one of you

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 44,451

Rating: 4.8485641 out of 5

Keywords: harvest, greg, laurie, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Greg Laurie Sermons, bible study for me, bible study, youtube sermons, revival in america, revival in america 2020, revival, revival in our time, revival in our age, how to get revival, how to get revival in america, pray for revival in america, pray for revival, the jesus movement revival, christian revival, greg laurie live

Id: KGvFwxMrEZk

Length: 82min 8sec (4928 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020