Pastor Paul Chappell: Revival Is Seeking God

if you would stand please turn to Nehemiah chapter 1 and we're going to read this morning about a man who was seeking revival I've entitled the message today revival is seeking God and I'm going to continue next week this theme of revival as we preach this series revival is and then in a few weeks we'll begin a brand new series entitled Jesus is and I'm going to preach for about eight weeks on some of the attributes of Christ leading into our Easter season and so let's stay focused on the subject of revival how many of you want to draw closer and closer to the Lord this year amen and that's what we're trying to do during these months of January and February as we begin this year Nehemiah chapter 1 and let's read beginning in verse 1 the words of Nehemiah the son of Hokulea and it came to pass in a month cheese lue in the month in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the palace that Hannah and I one of my brethren came he inserts in men of Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem and they said unto me the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire and it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven and said I beseech thee O Lord God of heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments let thine ear now be attentive in that eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which I pray before thee now day and night for the children of Israel thy servants and confessed the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against thee both I and my father's house have sinned we have dealt very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgments which thou commandest thy servant Moses let us pray father we thank you for the life and testimony of Nehemiah a man seeking after God and Lord may we seek you this year may we live in the constant awareness of your presence may we walk in the constant fellowship of your spirit and Lord may we be the church that you've called us to be as my prayer in Jesus name Amen you may be seated well a few weeks ago we had just come through the holiday season and that had been quite a busy season here at church and we'd had some challenges as well with my parents health it had just been a busy time and Terry and I were looking forward to taking a few days away to celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary and the day finally came and the Lord had arranged that we might be able to spend a few days over in Hawaii and so we got to Hawaii and we spent the first night in the hotel and and oh it was nice to get some sleep and we kind of woke up early with the time change and everything and we walked over to a Starbucks and we got some coffee we had our Bibles and our devotional journals and we sat there together as a couple and kind of looked at each other like this is great here we are got our coffee got our Bibles and and just looking at some beautiful trees the birds were singing and suddenly this strange noise came out of my phone and her phone and everybody's phone around us beep beep beep the noise was beeping and and we looked at our phones and on the phones was this message and the message said ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii seek immediate shelter this is not a drill and those last words for some reason just sunk in you know what I mean this is not a drill boy they were announcing things over the hotel speakers and people were running back and forth literally little children were saying I don't want to die I don't want to die one man had a heart attack people were rushing to the ballroom they told everyone go to the Grand Convention Center room and and wait there and I looked at Terry and she looked at me and she said well at least were saved and we know where we're going and I said amen to that I mean and I said I wasn't planning on going today you know but that that was her heart and and and I said honey I if we're gonna die I don't want to die in that room with all those people over there I said let's just go back to our tell room so we went back to the hotel room and I turned off the air conditioner so no radiation would come through the vents and shut all the doors you know you laugh it was not funny you're sick that's what you people are up there it's a good thing you're in church today that's all I'm gonna say boy I tell you what we texted the kids you know we said hey we don't know what's going on but there's a nuclear threat and you know we'll keep you posted you know and nice try called some military friends to see if they knew they knew nothing I got on the television there's nothing there I looked on the internet I found that it takes 20 minutes for a nuclear bomb to get from North Korea to Hawaii 20 minutes why we started timing in 20 minutes I was trying to comfort my wife I said now honey look at rocket man has never shot a straight rocket yet they always go the wrong way number one I said I was trying to encourage I said number two I said we're supposed to have our own missiles that shoot those missiles down and so I said that's that's good I said number three they're probably aiming for another Island not even the island we're on right now they probably probably won't even won't even come near us and and and I was trying to comfort her and so forth and and we waited we waited for 38 minutes 38 minutes finally another message came sorry it was a mistake your government at work no I didn't say that but sorry it was a mistake and we watched on the news that night and they asked the they asked the governor how could it take 38 minutes I mean literally public schoolteachers were putting children in the in the sewers people were hiding in in caves they said how could it take 38 minutes he said I'm sorry I I humbly apologize but I forgot my password for Twitter I couldn't open my Twitter account that was his excuse and and and and so he made his apology but I'll never forget what that phone was saying to me that morning this is not a drill would you say that with me this is not a drill now when something is not a drill you take it pretty seriously I mean if i've ever been right with god i got right in those 38 minutes because it wasn't a drill and what i'm trying to say in 2018 to our church with this theme revived life is not a drill it's not like we get a bunch of chances here to have a close abiding relationship with the lord and with our families and with one another this this this is not a drill and this morning i want you to see a man who lived his life with intentional purpose a one-man revival if you will it was the year 586 BC the children of Israel had lived in sin and they now had been taken away to a place called Babylon they were taken to Babylon where they were held in captivity because of the sin in their midst it was around 538 BC that a small remnant of the people made their way back to Jerusalem they were led by a man named zerubabbel and they were encouraged by preachers named Zechariah and Haggai the preachers preached the builders built and the temple was rebuilt and the city was coming back to order the problem was that the wall around the city had not yet been constructed and so it was that nehemiah heard about this need in December of 445 BC now as Nehemiah heard about the need God began to do a work of revival in his heart God began to break his heart personally about his sin and the sin of the nation that had taken them seven hundred miles away from their home did you know that revival can happen in the heart of just one person it was revival in Jonah's heart that ultimately brought revival to Nineveh it was revival in the young king Josiah's heart that ultimately brought revival to Judah it was revival in the heart of the Apostle Paul that ultimately brought revival to the city of ephesus revival doesn't take many people just one man can make a difference and nehemiah became that man today as i speak to you on this subject revival is seeking God I'd like to share with you three ways that if you sincerely want a closer walk with God three ways that you can seek Him this year and three ways that he can be found this year notice if you would first of all but Nehemiah teaches us to seek God earnestly to seek Him earnestly in verse 4 the Bible says it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven now as we open the Bible and look at Nehemiah today we are essentially looking at a broken man you say well that's not very exciting this is Super Bowl Sunday we only want prime physically fit specimens to study today but what we are looking at is a man that is broken and that is significant to the study of revival Roy Hessian wrote to be broken is the beginning of revival it is painful it is humiliating but it is the only way to blessing you see many times we want the blessing without the burden we want the crown without the Cross and we see in nehemiah's life that God was going to use a calamity to get him closer to God sometimes it takes a calamity sometimes it takes a hospital visit sometimes it takes a difficulty brokenness many times draws us closer to the Lord this has been the case in my life the burdens of life the broken times have caused me to open my heart to him sometimes another time that has been used if God is the Lord's table tonight as we consider the cross and the broken body and the blood and just looking to the cross reminds me of his love and brings revival to my heart but you and I will never meet God in revival until we first meet him in brokenness for your business isn't going the way you thought and you thought life was all about that business and all about making that dollar and God is trying to teach you that life is all about him perhaps a relationship is not what you thought and your heart is broken today God wants you to know that life is all about drawing closer to him and so we see Nehemiah in this moment of his brokenness seeking God and I see him seeking God first of all with a burdened heart he begins with a burden the Bible says in verse 4 when I heard these things I sat down and wept here he is 700 miles away but revival is not limited to your location you say whoa if I lived in Texas where there's a lot of conservatives and where there's no legal marijuana and where there's no gay marriage then I could have revival if I lived in Texas God can give you revival right here in California I know many in Texas who are not having revival revival is not about where you live and revival is not about where you work Nehemiah could have said I can't have revival I'm here in Babylon in the in the palace I I have a good government job I don't need revival he was not making excuses Nehemiah knew that he could have revival anywhere and so the Bible tells us that he sat down you ever say that to someone when you have bad news you ever say you might want to sit down for this and hear Nehemiah takes the seed because God is beginning to break him you see when revival comes to one person revival has come when revival comes to one person revival has come it might be one person in your family in your class in this church but God was bringing revival to nehemiah's heart the Bible says he begins to weep and he begins to mourn which is to express sorrow and grief and I wonder when was the last time that you expressed sorrow for your spiritual condition when was the last time that you did an honest assessment where you really are with God and what you really became aware of the fact that perhaps unintentionally you had drifted away and that you have begun to call what is abnormal normal and that God is calling you back to the normal Christian life like when you first got saved in nehemiah in this process of brokenness begins to weep before God his heart is burdened I'm afraid that sometimes we get too busy to feel a burden because just about the time God is doing something in our hearts we've got another errand and another appointment and another this and another that but Nehemiah in his broken state is listening to God and he is now beginning with the burden to seek God and notice secondly he continues in prayer as he seeks God the Bible says in verse 4 I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven now here we see a man fasting that is to deny himself meals and physical pleasures in order to say God more than I want to satisfy self I want my spirit my soul to be drawn unto you fasting is telling God nothing matters to me as much as you got I'm seeking you right now I'm seeking your power right now I'm seeking your presence right now nothing is as important as you the kingdom of God will not advance by churches being filled with men but by men in the churches being filled with God and Nehemiah was saying God filming more than I want to be filled with food I want to be filled with you I want you more than anything his grief caused him to fast fasting is often connected to a burden heart a heart that longs for God Daniel said I had no Pleasant bread or flesh or wine in my mouth for three weeks Daniel prayed and fasted jesus said to his disciples this kind cometh about only by prayer and by fasting there are some answers to prayer there are some needs that are only fulfilled when we pray with fasting jesus said and nehemiah teaches us that revival begins with a burden and continues with prayer and this was the prayer of a man who was humble before God he prays before the God of heaven you see here is a man that is persistently appealing to God if you do the math in this passage he was praying and fasting for four months before he ever asked his boss for leave of work before he would ever receive the materials and the permits before he would ever take a crew of men 700 miles away before he did one single thing he prayed for four months with fasting here was a man seeking God are a Tory said we are too busy to pray and so we are too busy to have power we have a great deal of activity but accomplish little many services with few results here was a man seeking God George Muller said the great fault of the children of God is they do not continue in prayer they do not go on praying they do not persevere if they desire anything for God's glory they should pray until they get it here's a man seeking God earnestly a broken man seeking God this was the beginning of Nehemiah's revival but notice secondly he was seeking God honestly you know we've got to get honest with God this year we've got to come to the Lord with a heart open and honest before him and I want you to see as he begins talking to God in verse 5 he said I beseech thee O Lord God of heaven and great the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments the first thing he does in honesty is he recognizes the character of God he recognizes God's character he says God you are everlasting and omnipotent the word Lord here is the word Jehovah it means the self-existent 1 God says in Isaiah 43 I am he before me there was no other God for him neither shall there be any after me God is the self existent God the all-powerful God and as Nehemiah prays he exposed the attributes of God sometimes when we pray we suggest that we should give adoration to the Lord as we pray to him and that we should speak of his attributes and of his character because Nehemiah knew that God had the power that was needed in his life for revival a couple weeks ago in Las Vegas they held the consumer technology show all of the companies such as Panasonic and LG and all these all these different companies came together Sony and they were gonna display their new TVs and their new computers and it was awesome until they had a power outage and now you have people from Sony and LG with flashlights trying to show everybody their computers and their televisions you see without the power they were useless and Nehemiah knew that without God's power his life was useless listless dead atrophied there was nothing that could be done through him without God working through him and so he says Lord you're the everlasting in omnipotent God and notice this phrase in verse 5 you're the great and terrible God great speaking of his magnitude of power the word terrible speaking of his astonishing displays of power have you ever seen lightning my friend come from the heavens and crack upon the earth have you ever seen the Grand Canyon or the Pacific Ocean oh I'm telling you we serve a god that is astonishing in his nature and terrible is his name and holy is his name and this is the prayer that Nehemiah was praying God you are a faithful and a merciful God he was recognizing the character of God in this honest prayer but I want you to notice secondly he was repenting of his condition you see when you recognize who God is suddenly you begin to realize who you are and suddenly the light begins to show what needs to be dealt with you turn the light on in the room the cockroaches start running and when you stand in the presence of a god that is omnipotent a god that is Almighty and pure and holy and when you're praying to him and in a broken spirit seeking him sometimes the Lord begins to show you in your own life things that need to be dealt with that's the second step of revival we call it confession or repentance notice if you would in verse six let thine ear now be attentive at night eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which I pray before the now day and night for the children of Israel thy servants and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against thee both I and my father's house have sinned now please notice me oh my tit and say God please forgive the sins of the city of the nation of the church he said that in one sense but then he says both I and my father's house have sinned he said God I must confess to you that I have sinned the confession of sin is vital if we're ever gonna get real with God the confession of sin is needed and I'm not talking about going into some booth and talking to some man with a backward caller I've seen people and you know Salvador and Mexico and the Philippines and even in Rome go into the little booze and and I've seen them pay their money and talk to the man in the booth about their sin I'm thankful today that I don't have to go into a booth and talk to a man who's a sinner just like I am I'm thankful that I can come boldly to the throne of grace and find mercy and grace to help me in my time of need I'm thankful that Jesus is my high priest and the Bible says if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness friend it's time for some of us to get real with God and confess and turn from our sin Nehemiah said I want God so bad I don't want to let anything come between me and the Lord now I've noticed in 32 years as the pastor here some will confess their guilt in the name of confessing sin that is to say they don't really like how they feel because of what they did and they don't like it when their wife's mad at them and they don't like it when their parents might spank them and so they say Lord I'm so sorry because Lord I don't want to get caught I don't want to lose my marriage I don't want to lose my job I don't want to get kicked out of school but they're not really sorry about what they have done they're mostly sorry that they have been caught do you know what I mean God is not calling us to confess our guilt he's calling us to confess the root of the guilt which is sin he says I want you to repent of your condition it's like it's like the story of the fella that had been a shoplifter and he went to church one day and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and he wrote a letter to the department store he said I have become a Christian I can't sleep at night he said so here's a hundred dollars that I owe you and then he put a little PS on the letter he said PS if I still can't sleep tonight I'll send you the rest there are some people like that they confess just what they think someone else knows about or just enough to make themselves feel better but Nehemiah was getting completely right with God you know why that's important proverbs 28:13 he that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy he confessed his sins and may I tell you this he named his sins look at verse 7 we have dealt very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgments which thou has command us thy servant Moses confession is more than admitting my sin it's acknowledging it's naming the sin it's saying lord I confess to you my anger I confess to you my covetousness I confess to you these specific things that I have done I think of one of the great revivals in the Bible that took place in the city of Ephesus and I believe it's in your notes there in Acts chapter 19 and verse 18 it says and many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver Ephesus is an amazing city even in the the ruins today you can walk down the the forum the shopping area and you can see the the remains of large in columns and even prior to that time during the days of Caesar large columns that were built and beautiful Corinthian architecture and and they had the Celsius library but they also had the temple of diana it was a large structure larger than this building and in that temple there were people that would cut themselves as they cried out to the demons and there were places where wicked sexual practices took place and and they had wicked witchcraft books and it was a city wholly given over to idolatry that were men whose entire business was made in selling trinkets and selling little items for the worship of the goddess Diana but when revival came men and women turned to Jesus Christ as their Savior and they brought their little trinkets and their little booklets and they burned them in the middle of the city and they confessed and they turned away from these things they literally repented by name of the sins in their life I believe private sins perhaps should be confessed privately between you and the Lord public sins perhaps publicly between you and a friend or a spouse or perhaps larger than that but confession and forsaking of sin is pleasing to God years ago one of our men drove a trash truck and he pulled up in front of a house and he's loaded in the can and then he saw some stuff on the sidewalk in him I went down and he put these boxes in the truck and there were rock and roll records Led Zeppelin Boop Blue Oyster Cult all these different heavy metal type rock and roll records and by the dozens and dozens and he put him in the truck and he said hey pastor he said funniest thing he said throwing the trash show and somebody had all this music I said what was the address he gave me the address I said the family in that home got saved three weeks ago and as they had the holy spirit now living in them they were coming under the conviction and the awareness of the fact you can't get close to God listening to the devil's music you can't love Jesus and love Blue Oyster Cult and you can't love Jesus and love some cursing rap star there's some things we've got to confess if we're gonna get close to God this year I was sitting yesterday over here and at the intersection and someone pulled up to me it was a lady and she was playing her music and I'm telling you it was in my car do you know what I'm talking about somebody thump thump thumpety thump you know and I looked over her and she's just having of one one woman concert in there you know and she was singing every word the problem was every other word was vile the most vile words in the English language she was singing him as she pulled away in her car I happen to notice in the back window they're laying right there on the little ledge of the back window a King James Bible this is why revival doesn't come no doubt the ladies in church somewhere today if she found her Bible there in the back amongst the the hamburger wrappers perhaps she brought her Bible to church but you see we're not going to have revival just because we own a Bible just because we go to church we're gonna have to get honest with God in 2018 there's some things that we're gonna have to confess by name you want God to bless your business while you hide that sin it doesn't work that way Nehemiah said here's my sin Lord we have to seek God earnestly we have to seek God honestly and then finally we must seek God biblically seek God biblically now notice in verse 8 he says remember I beseech thee the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses saying if he transgress I will scatter you abroad among the nations but if you turn unto me and keep my Commandments and do them though you were cast as though I had cast you out on the other most part of the heaven yet will I gather them from thence now here Nehemiah begins to pray to God and and he's praying literally the scriptures one of the ways we can pray to God is to remind God of what he said god you're a merciful God God you said that if we seek you will find you you said if we're thirsty you'll fill us and he says God you said to Moses and he's beginning here to quote one of the prayers of Moses and he's seeking God biblically he's saying God remember your word and we can pray God remember when you said if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear them and I will forgive their sin and then I will heal their land remember God you said if we would turn to you you would turn to us this is what nehemiah is doing he is praying according to the Word of God he is seeking God biblically he's repeating god's word in verse number eight he's saying lord you said these things he's quoting from deuteronomy chapter four some of the message that moses had given we must remember his word and then we'll repeat his word and then we will begin to reveal his word the more you spend time in the bible the more it makes a difference in your life you see we have a little saying garbage in garbage out if all you watch is the things on TV and if all you hear is the media garbage in garbage out but when you start putting the Word of God into your life it's like a purifying effect and your life begins to reveal that you are a Bible man you are a Bible woman you are walking with God what do you see that pastor notice in verse nine but if ye turn unto me and keep my Commandments and do them he says I will gather you now notice the three key words in verse 9 as we close turn keep and do if you will turn to the Lord not just feeling guilty but if you will repent godly sorrow worketh repentance if you will turn to the Lord and if you will keep his Commandments his ways and if you will do His commandments from your heart you will begin to experience the revival of the first love of your Christian life notice in Ephesians 6 6 not with eyeservice as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from your heart from this heart that is cleanse by confession from this heart that is awakened through brokenness this heart now is living out the Word of God on a daily basis and the Bible says not with eyeservice in other words we all know how to put on a show right oh here's my Sunday school teacher hi sweetheart come over here here's brother first so hi brother for so you heard about the lady who the pastor stopped by in a day of visitation he stopped by and she was shocked and know what to do it and she looked at her child she said Johnny go and get the book that mommy loves to read he came back a few minutes later with the TV Guide what book would your child bring you see when revival comes there's a turning and there's a keeping and there's a doing your life is different and it's not a show John Locke said I have always thought that the best that the actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you here today we see a man a broken man not a Super Bowl quarterback not a powerful popular man a broken man a crying man a repenting man a believing man a godly man one man having revival you can have revival you can see God you can confess specifically you can begin to live the real life because my friend this is not a drill this is your life only one life two will soon be past only what's done for Christ will last God's heart for the children of Israel was to redeem them back to Jerusalem God's heart for lost people in this auditorium who have never accepted Jesus as Savior is that you might be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb that you might come to the Lord Jesus that you might have a relationship with God and be saved if you have been saved God's heart is that you would come back to the joy of your salvation that we would live this year as though we had just been saved that is revival

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

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Keywords: lancaster baptist church, lancaster baptist, baptist church, paul, chappell, paul chappell, pastor paul chappell, revival, seek

Id: 3DMW0mBmHOA

Length: 33min 4sec (1984 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2018