Herb Reavis - Pastors' Conference 2011

those who planned it and so appreciate the wonderful pastor of this church and the opportunity to preach in this pulpit i'm going to ask you to take your bibles please and turn with me to the book of first kings in the old testament the book of first kings chapter 18. first kings chapter 18 i'm going to begin to read in verse 20. and i'm preaching this morning on this subject revival fires revival fires from the book of first kings chapter 18 and verse 20. and the bible says in first kings chapter 18 and verse 20 so ahab sent for all the children of israel and gathered the prophets together on mount carmel and elijah came to all the people and said how long will you falter between two opinions if the lord is god follow him but if baal follow him but the people answered him not a word then elijah said to the people i alone am left a prophet of the lord but baal's prophets are 450 men therefore let them give us two bulls and let them choose one bull for themselves cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood but put no fire under it and i will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it then you call on the name of your gods and i will call on the name of the lord and the god who answers by fire he is god so all the people answered and said it is well spoken now i want you to move down to verse 29. the bible says and when midday was passed they prophesied unto the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice but there was no voice no one answered no one paid attention then elijah said to all the people come near to me so all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the lord that was broken down and elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of jacob to whom the word of the lord had come saying israel shall be your name then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the lord and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seals of seed and he put the wood in order cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood and said fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrificing on the wood then he said do it a second time they did a second time then he said do it a third time they did a third time so the water ran all around the altar and he also filled the trench with water and it came to pass all the time at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that elijah the prophet came near and said lord god of abraham isaac and israel let it be known this day that you're god in israel and i am your servant and that i've done all these things at your word hear me o lord hear me that this people may know that you are the lord god and that you have turned their hearts back to you again then the fire of the lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and it licked up the water that was in the trench now when all the people saw it they fell on their faces and they said the lord he is god the lord he is god and elijah said to them seize the prophets of baal do not let one of them escape so they seized them and elijah brought them down to the brook kishon and executed them there let us pray dear god i must decrease and lord jesus you must increase and lord it's all about you and it's not about us i ask you to put your words in my mouth and your thoughts in my mind and empower me to preach as a dying man to a dying world lord jesus i pray that the holy spirit will move into this place and manifest the tangible felt presence of our lord and savior jesus christ and i pray god because of our worship because of our sense of your presence because of our experiencing your manifested glory because of our exposure to your inerrant word i pray that we will never ever be the same and i pray this prayer lord in jesus holy name amen many years ago there was an organ grinder he had a old-fashioned crank organ that he would crank he would stand and park and he would play his music and he had attached to that organ on the end of a leash or a lead a little trained pet monkey that wore a hat and held a tin cup and people would tip the organ grinder for his music there in the park they'd put the money in the cup and the monkey was trained when they put the money in the cup that he'd take his hat off and sort of tip it in gratitude well one evening that monkey broke loose from that chain from that lead and ran off into the night as the sun began to sit it was a cold winter night and so that little monkey began to go from window to window from house to house looking for a place to warm his body finally that little monkey found a broken window pane he crawled through that window pane and saw a roaring fire in a fireplace he crawled down in front of that fireplace and he sort of curled up to warm his body and went to sleep the next morning the owners of the home found that little monkey dead in front of that fireplace the monkey had frozen to death for you see there was no fire in the fireplace there was only a picture of fire across america there are buildings facilities with steeples that point to heaven that say jesus is the way and the truth and the life that speak of pentecost tongues of fire and a rushing mighty wind but they're only pictures of fire there's no fire in the pulpit there's no fire in the choir loft there's no fire in the pew they're dead is a hammer and what we desperately need today is not another plan and not another program but what we need is a divine visitation we need the fire of god almighty to fall on our churches and to do something so supernatural and so miraculous that only a holy god will get the praise and get the glory i want to preach today about revival fires and if we're going to have revival fires in the church it's going to take three things first of all we got to have some revival preaching we got to have some revival preaching now elijah was not a communicator or a speaker he was a preacher he was a prophet of the almighty god of the universe and i want you to notice something about revival preaching here i want you to notice that he did not preach to the prophets of baal did you ever notice that he preached to the people of god because revival is not for lost people lost people don't need revival lost people are dead in trespasses and sin and they need a resurrection they don't need renewal they need regeneration and so he preaches the message of revival to the people of god because it's the vibe that need to be revived see i believe the great hindrance to growth and evangelism and outreach in the local church it's not all the unbelief out there because i believe the gospel is the power of god unto salvation and that the holy spirit is in this world convincing and convicting people of their sins i believe there is power in the simple gospel of our lord jesus christ i believe the great hindrance to awakening and growth and outreach to the church really moving out and really gripping this world with the gospel lies within the borders of the local church i believe what is quenching the spirit what is killing renewal what is holding back the flood tides of revival are all these dead head church members that are lifeless that show up sit like dead wood on a pew with their arms crossed with an attitude of bless me if you can who wouldn't know god almighty if they got hemmed up with him in a broom closet and he hit him over the head with a hammer can i get a witness on that now that may not be helping you but that made me feel better just to get that out of my system this morning revival preaching is aimed at the people of god and i'm going to tell you something about it revival preaching expects a definite decision notice what he says he says how long in verse 21 are you going to halt limp falter between two opinions if god's god get on his side if the devil's god get on his side but you cannot live your life in the middle see i believe revival preaching delivers people from their ifs i believe it will blast them out of their neutrality i believe it will rock them out of their routine i believe it will upset their spiritual apple cart i honestly believe what we need are some preachers who are getting a pulpit plug into heaven with an open bible and shuck the corn and shell the peas and rattle their cage i'm telling you what brother i believe these folks would wake up and they would perk up and if they get mad who gives a rip at least they're showing a little life if somebody would just stand up before and be a prophet of god and preach the eternal word of god revival preaching confronts people with truth it demands a decision it demands repentance right now not tomorrow can you imagine elijah standing up there before the the people of god who were in compromise and were flirting with sin and saying something good is going to happen to you god is going to turn your scars into stars problems are possibilities obstacles are opportunities possibility thinking will move mountains now i don't want to offend you or to make you nervous because i just want you to know that your problem is you're a victim you're not basically a bad person you're the product of your environment bless your heart you wanted nike air tennis use when you're a little boy and your parents bought you them cheap kids and you wanted frosted flakes and they went to sam's wholesale and bought that brandex corn flake that you never liked and that's why you beat your wife and you cut the tails off all the dogs in your neighborhood it's not your fault and what we want you to know is in this church we're not going to make you feel bad we're not going to make you feel nervous we want to help you get in touch with your inner child who is so precious so i'm okay and you're okay and you know all dogs really do go to heaven we just want you to go home and hug yourself and kiss yourself in the mirror kiss your poodle on the mouth and just just feel good and smile and think positive and i'm telling you god's in his heaven and all is right with the world are you kidding me are you kidding me elijah stands up there before the people of god ignores those false prophets and he doesn't tell them what they want to hear he tells them what they need to hear and what the church needs to hear today is this either get on god's side or be on the other side but stop playing games because we're never going to have a holy spirit revival and the fire is never going to fall until god's people can decide to stand up and speak up and say jesus is my lord and his way is going to be my way when i was a student at the moody bible institute in chicago many years ago dr george sweeting who was the president at that time used to tell those of us who were going to preach the word he would say gentlemen don't just fill them with the word thrill them with the word and that's revival preaching let me tell you something else about revival preaching revival preaching exalts the majesty and the grandeur of god now notice he refers to god as the god of fire he says in verse 24 the god who answers by fire he is god what does that tell me about god he is almighty it tells me that he is pure and he's holy it tells me that he does manifest his presence and he has so in the person of our lord and savior jesus christ it tells me that he is powerful it tells me that he is omniscient like fire he gazes into the human heart it tells me that he always was is and always will be listen god is not a genie out of a bottle god is not a group therapy leader god is god is not some kind of a magical icon god is not an emergency parachute you're glad he's on the plane but you just hope you never have to use him i want you to know god is the almighty god of the universe and let me tell you revival preaching does not compromise on who god is and i'm telling you today friend there's just one god and he's the god of this holy bible and he is father son and holy spirit and what a majestic god he is that's who we lift up that's who we exalt the god of the universe who created it all and holds it all together the father is the one who thought you the son is the one who bought you and the holy spirit is the one who caught you so hallelujah what a god we serve exalt who god is it's not about man that's what's wrong with these churches i don't like the flowers i didn't like that song i don't like our sunday school class you're asking me to move from this sunday school room to this sunday school room over here because you've come up with this crazy idea that we ought to maximize our facilities to make the best use of our space to reach more doomed and damn centers with the gospel of jesus christ and i'll tell you right now i made the cushions that are on the folding chairs in that room let me tell you what i preached our church if you made the cushions let me tell you what we'll let you do just time to your body and take them down to the new sunday school friend because we got to get over all this stuff listen god's god and he's not playing games most of this stuff doesn't matter listen it's not a committee chairman's that's the center of attention and it's not a a platform personality that's the center of attention it's jesus christ who is the center of attention and he deserves all the praise and glory well let me tell you something else about revival preaching and this is controversial revival preaching exposes the powerlessness of false gods now notice he doesn't let these prophets a bell off the hook he mocks them i mean think about that in this pluralistic society in which we live he didn't make nice with him he didn't have an inner faith get together with them he says where's your god do you sleep is he on vacation and the bible says that they get worked up into a frenzy and notice in verse 28 they cry aloud but there's no answer and then notice they cut themselves with lances and knives they do themselves harm it says as was their custom this was the custom of their religion now let me say something may i be bold about it there's only one gospel and it is the death the burial and the resurrection of christ salvation is of the lord we don't become sinners we are born sinners and we must be converted by the power of the spirit we must repent and believe that gospel i want you to know that all these other gods are not gods i'll tell you this about false gods false gods don't answer prayer false gods can't forgive sin false gods can't get you through the valley false gods false gods can't give you comfort when your loved ones die false gods can't let me tell you some false gods cannot take you to heaven and false gods cannot change your heart i'll tell you this about false gods false gods make harmful demands on their followers they're cutting themselves hurting as was the custom of their false religion let me tell you something my friend it's not the true god it's a false god that tells a man that he has to strap a bomb on himself and walk into a mall and blow it up if he's going to have a guaranteed place in paradise it's not the true god it's a false god that says if you want to really go to paradise you've got to strap yourself in an airplane ram it into a building and kill everybody in a holy war let me tell you that's a false god let me tell what america needs to hear they need to hear about the true god and this is what the true god says you don't have to cut yourself and you don't have to harm yourself and you don't have to blow yourself up or blow anybody else up i'm not asking you to die for your sins my son came and he died in your place for your sin and he went into that grave and he was raised from the dead so i am guaranteeing you a place in paradise if you just come as a sinner and fall at an old rugged cross and get washed in the blood and born again from on high that's a message worth preaching and that's a message america needs to hear for the glory of god we need some revival preaching tell you something else we need some revival preparation but if god's going to move in we got to get ready for it now the bible says the first thing that elijah did in verse 30 after they jumped around and cut themselves and screamed and hollered and their god didn't answer because he's not god as the bible says he repaired the altar of the lord he prepared he repaired it in preparation for the fire of god to fall now when i talk about revival preparation i'm not talking about advertisement nothing wrong with that i'm not talking about certain promotions to try to get people to come because baptist people man you've got to prompt them beg them bribe them you know to come to stuff and i can remember over the years and years past when we would have many years ago the old-fashioned revival meeting with a pack of pew night uh i couldn't even get them to volunteer to be pew captain so i volunteered them i'd just get them church and say now monday night is that's the rough night to get out a crowd and so here's the list of the pew captains and and i just want you to know your name is going to be on the end of a pew tomorrow night and so i'm going to meet with y'all and tell you what i want you to say that all gathered together i'd hold up a study bible and say i want to give you this study bible i want to give it to the one who puts the most people on their pew and i remember i was pastoring in live oak florida man it's been must have been 25 years ago and the the the coach of the wrestling team at the local high school had one high school he got so hyped up over that bible he told his students he said i'll give everybody extra credit if you'll come and sit on my pew well i'm telling you man we had wall-to-wall people that night now i heard about one church it was having one of those pack of pew nights and it caused a problem and i'm trying to think how to say this be politically correct there was a little boy and i'm telling you the pew was jammed the ends were about to pop off and that little boy was wedged in between two rather healthy ladies i mean you could barely see his eyes he was just wedged all the way back in there and that preacher was an old-fashioned hellfire preacher and he got all wound up and said if you don't get saved god's gonna paralyze your kneecap well that little boy reached down and pinched his kneecap and there was no feeling he thought oh my goodness my kneecaps paralyzed then the preacher got wound up and said if you don't get saved god's gonna paralyze your knee reach down paints fire out of his knee no feeling numb man he thought god has paralyzed my knee then the preacher really got bold got wound up said if you don't get saved god's going to paralyze your leg he reached down paints the fire out of his leg it was numb no feeling in despair he punched the lady next to him and he said lady god has paralyzed my leg she said kid i don't know about that but if you pinch me one more time i'm going to paralyze your whole body folks that's not the kind of revival preparation that i'm talking about i'm talking about preparing our hearts because revival is not something you work up it's something god sends down you don't get revival out of a kit you don't get it out of a breakout session you don't get it out of a book you don't get it out you don't get it off a clipboard don't get it off a dvd revival is a sovereign move of god god's always here but in in times of revival the spirit of god will literally charge the atmosphere with the manifested presence of god it was martin lloyd jones that great british preacher who spoke of it as god literally coming down and his presence hovering and his presence being manifested in the body of christ and then supernatural things taking place that the arm of flesh could never accomplish well if we're going to repair and prepare there's some altars that have got to be repaired in the church to prepare for revival first of all there is the altar of unity now i want you to notice a little detail here in the scripture the bible says in verse 31 he took 12 stones to build that altar did you notice that 12 stones now at this time in the history of israel the civil war had already taken place after the death of solomon the kingdom was divided you got the northern kingdom you got the southern kingdom and so they've got their place of worship in the north judah's worshiping in jerusalem in the south and so it's a divided nation and yet the bible says from god's perspective there's still 12 it says according to the number of the tribes of the sons of jacob and what god was saying i don't accept your division i don't accept your strife i see you as a body and we're never going to have revival until we have unity i mean until we stop majoring on our preferences and on our minors and just understand that we all have different tastes i won't belabor this but good grief man everybody argues over music and for the life of me i don't get that i have a eclectic taste in music i like all kinds of music as long as it's about jesus and it exalts christ i don't care what style that music is i i like if it's alive brother that's what stirs my heart and it doesn't it doesn't have to be my cup of tea because it may be blessing somebody else that's there and when i and this dates me but i've got three sons they're all grown married now and they're having kids but i remember when they were teenagers and uh contemporary christian music really began to blossom one of them began to play trap drums another one began to play a little drum you you sit on and you beat and then him and another brother they're playing uh guitars and writing songs but you know man i was raised up you know singing beulah land and watching sister vestal the happy goodman family and the beehive hairdo sing god walks the dark hills and sort of twitching every once in a while once you've got the holy ghost you know i mean that that's the kind of stuff you know i remembered and my boys came home and they were singing god's got a big big house and we're all going to play football in the yard and i thought man that's not in the baptist team no we're on earth did you get that but i didn't get torn up because they're singing about christ they're not at a crack house they're not at some kind of messed up mosh pit rock concert brother they're in the house of god so if they want to play their guitars and beat their drums and pay their tambourines hallelujah get with it man and lift up christ because i'm going to tell you right now and i'm very conservative you're not going to reach students with porter wagner the check wagon gang man it ain't going to happen you say whenever heard what do you do when somebody sings a song and it just you know it's just not ministering to you let me tell you what i don't write anybody an ugly letter i don't pitch a fit you know what i do and man i hear great music sometimes sometimes i'm some place it's weird and i i sit there i fix my eyes on the person i politely smile i intently look at them it's only gonna last three minutes folks it's not a kidney stone you know what i'm saying this this song is only going to last about three minutes i smile i watch them and i go to my happy place i went all the way to honolulu hawaii one night man listen folks i'm not being uptight i'm not spending my christian life getting mad and i'm telling you what when a bunch of young folks want to get up and worship the lord in their way i'm going to be cheering them on because i want to reach a lost and dying world with jesus christ's gospel let me tell you something we can't compromise the word we shouldn't stop preaching the word of god but you'll never make people happy with music because some folks like country music but let me tell you if you had some family and bib overalls beating wash tubs and singing the great speckled bird it wouldn't be country enough some of them like classical if you had a catholic choir with incense pot singing in latin it wouldn't be high church enough and let me tell you something it you said oh we like contemporary if you had a little guy and he had his belt buckle right here and his boxer shorts up here and his knees like that and his hands like that wrapping the gospel it wouldn't be contemporary enough what matters is the cross and christ and the gospel and let me tell you when you're filled with the holy spirit there's a sweet reasonableness about you and you've not been out of shape and mad and ugly all the time so some of you like this football team some of you like that football team some of you like ford some of you like chevrolets some of you like clapping some of you don't like clapping some of you like this kind of music some of you used to be church of christ and you don't like any kind of music you know what i'm saying i mean we got all these people there in the church but let me could we agree on this we may not agree on all the what color scheme to paint the ladies powder room what the new carpet ought to be like or what you know all the architectural details of the new building but could we not all agree on this people in this world were born in sin and they are hopelessly lost their only hope is the gospel and the gospel is christ died for sinners he was raised to give us life he ascended on high he's coming again without sin unto salvation the bible is the infallible inerrant word of god lost people are lost they can be saved and delivered and saved folks aren't going to hell we're going to heaven and when we go to heaven we're going to a place where we never die we're going to a place where we never cry and hallelujah we're going to a place where we never fry can we all agree on that well revival preparation we we also we also need as far as preparation is concerned uh we need to rebuild the altar of yieldedness and spiritual consecration notice the bible says in verse 32 he he built the altar in the name of the lord and the bible says he made a trench around it and then the bible says he put the wood in order and then it says in verse 33 he cut the bull in pieces and it was a holy place of sacrifice and i'm saying we're in the world but we're not of the world and we're distinctive and even though i've said we should not be uptight i do not believe you have to compromise with the world to reach the world i do not believe that you have to become like the culture to reach the culture i believe we are a culture of light that is a culture of darkness and to get people out of darkness in light is to let the light shine brilliantly and that means we need to walk in purity and walk in holiness and not a legalistic man-made holiness that's all about keeping rules but it's us getting us out of the way keeping me on the cross and letting a living jesus just live his life through me and when he's in control there's going to be holiness there's a third thing we got to have if we're going to have revival fires got to have some revival preaching got to have some revival preparation and we got to have some revival power revival power now two things are essential to having real spiritual power in the church first of all there's got to be prayer now now notice his prayer it wasn't long but he didn't just go forever and it you know he didn't use weird language nobody can understand the bible says he calls all the people he says now i want you to all get up here real close he says come near in verse 36 and then he begins to pray to the lord because when we pray prayer is not me talking to the people around me prayer is a conversation with god you know we've all been guilty sometimes preachers of making announcements during the prayer that we forgot to make earlier haven't you ever maybe done this or heard somebody do this no lord we're grateful for this great service tonight what a great crusade we're having now father we thank you that wednesday night is youth night and god just remind the mothers that we do need those peaches to be here at six o'clock instead of five we told them 5 30 but six o'clock is okay lord and that's that's not praying prayer is me in a conversation with god and it's two ways i'm speaking to him then i'm hush and i'm listening to god speaking through the word in the spirit to my heart look at the way he prays lord god of abraham isaac and israel it's a prayer based on covenant folks i have access into his presence because of the new covenant because of the blood of jesus not praying through a statue or a man i talk to god through the mediator christ the bible says let it be known that you're god in israel and i'm your servant prayer is not about me getting my will done prayer is about god's will being done and me understanding what his will is prayer doesn't always change my circumstances but prayer changes me in the midst of my circumstances and many times when i'm awakened in prayer to the purpose of my circumstances i see i need these circumstances because god's using those circumstances to fashion my soul into the likeness of christ and notice what the word says the bible says i'm your servant and i've done all these things at your word so our prayer must always line up with the word he says hear me o lord it's passionate hear me and then the bible says as he prayed have you ever noticed exciting things happen when god's people pray on the day of pentecost when the fire fell they were praying in luke's account of the baptism of jesus you'll notice jesus is in the water he's being baptized and the spirit falls on him luke says as he was praying they prayed and the place was shaken and they're all filled with the holy spirit ask and you shall receive seek and you'll find knock and the door will be open god answers prayer god does impossible things when people pray i believe right now many churches are paralyzed by the fear of finances they're paralyzed by the fear of lack they're paralyzed because of all the bad news they've heard on the news and i've been challenging our people to remember that you don't need faith when you don't need faith you need faith when you need faith and this is a time to prove your faith and god is a god of miracles so we gotta break out of the paralysis and we gotta plug into heaven supply and remember that my god an answer to prayer will supply all of my needs according to his riches and impossible ways so man he's praying his heart out and the fire falls and the people begin to do something baptist people are allergic to they begin to praise the lord i mean the bible says they begin to cry out the lord he is god the lord he is god you see what's happened revival zone they've decided we're on the lord's side all of a sudden they're enthusiastic about the things of lord all of a sudden they're not saying elijah's a great prophet they're saying the lord he is god you got to have prayer if you're going to have power and then you've got to have purity now there's one more thing here i want you to see in these scriptures what elijah did to the false prophets of baal the bible says in verse 40 he took every last one of them down to the to the brook kishon and he he killed every one of them now what does that say to us as believers it says that if you want a spiritual awakening in your life and to be dead center in the will of god you got to be ruthless with with sin you got to be ruthless with i mean you got to crucified you got to nail it to the cross you can't pet it harbor it accommodate it flirt with it it's got to be cut out you've got to do radical surgery on your soul forsake it and walk on with jesus christ i heard about a fellow he's like a lot of folks in our churches this thing of rededicating your life and they go out and live like the devil monday through saturday and then here they come trot down to the front of the church i'd like to rededicate my life how about dedicating your life and just staying dedicated i mean is that a radical concept does the bible not say in the tenses of the greek new testament in the book of romans chapter 12 that we are to once and for all present ourselves a living sacrifice but they go out and live like the devil and here they come down i just want to dedicate my life there's a preacher had a guy like that he just kept coming i want to dedicate my life i want to keep rededicating i want to rededicate my life and then he would he'd grab the preacher get on the altar and every sunday and say oh lord get the cobwebs out of my life oh lord get the spider webs out of my life well that preacher heard that until he couldn't stand it anymore and so one day when the preacher saw him coming down the aisle the preacher said hush listen to me he grabbed him by the hand jerked him down on the altar and the preacher began to pray and the preacher said god in heaven forget the spider webs kill the spider hallelujah kill the spider get to the root of sin at the turn of the century moving from the 19th century into the 20th century their at railroad crossings things were different they didn't have the electric lights they had a guy with a lantern and when the train was coming his assigned task at a busy intersection was to stand there and swing the lantern and warn the people that a train's coming one night a man was trying to cross one of those intersections and a train hit him and killed him and the family sued the railroad for negligence because they didn't feel like he'd been adequately warned and so it went to trial and they put the watchman the signalman the fellow that was supposed to warn people with the lanyard on the stand and the family's lawyer began to examine him and they said he said sir were you at your post on such and such night he said yes sir he said you were he said yes i was there he said did you have your lamp your lantern he said yes i did i said okay let me ask you this when you heard the train approaching did you follow protocol position yourself in the proper place and begin to swing the lanyard he said yes i did well what could they say the family didn't win the case the railroad won the case and the officers the executives of the railroad went by that signalman's house to thank him because his testimony saved them a bunch of money and when they got to his house they asked him this they said sir we want to ask you some were you afraid when that high-powered lawyer began to ask you those questions he said afraid afraid i was afraid at any moment he was going to ask me if i had lit my lamp you know what we need to do today we need to pray the words of this old hymn revive us again fill each heart with thy love may each soul be rekindled with fire from above hallelujah thine the glory hallelujah amen hallelujah thine the glory revive us again o god in heaven i pray you'll use the word to stir in all of us a desire to expect and anticipate in these last days a divine holy spirit visitation in our churches god help us to get out of the way and let you just be god in our lives in jesus name i pray lord amen you

Channel: Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference

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Length: 36min 54sec (2214 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 23 2020