Steve Gaines' First Sermon at Bellevue

open your Bibles to the second chapter of the book of Joel the Old Testament prophetic book of Joel the title of my message today is God's wake-up call Joel chapter 2 and I want to tell you I believe that God is wanting to send revival to the United States of America I believe that we are in desperate need of a new wind and breath of the Spirit of God in our land for those of you who know a little bit about church history in America you realize that in the 1700s God blew a refreshing breath of spiritual awakening he used men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield John and Charles Wesley Francis Asbury Thomas Koch and others and he used the great preachers to take the gospel of Jesus Christ at the time of the Revolutionary War across this nation and while we were fighting for our political and our country's independence the Lord was sending great freedom and spiritual awakening among his people we call that the first Great Awakening about a century later our country was at a very turbulent time the south and the North read odds with one another but on Fulton Street in New York and just about three weeks ago my family and I stood on Fulton Street where a lament a layman decided to ask other businessmen in downtown New York to spend some time during their lunch time to pray for awakening to pray for a spiritual decadence that was spreading across America and lethargy apathy that was smothering the work of God in so many of the churches and these laymen started praying first there were just a handful on that first day at lunch when they started praying but soon there were twenty soon there were 40 soon there were 80 soon there were 200 and then other churches started praying there in New York and the revival spread and in the middle of the 1800s they call it the great prayer awakening or the Second Great Awakening there are 30 million people in America and one out of every 30 people in America ask Jesus Christ to come into their hearts to be their Lord and Savior 1 out of 30 people were saved in a period of only a few months I want to tell you a hundred years after that great experience a little bit more as we are about not only to enter into a new century but also a new millennium I believe God wants to shake this old country one more time with Heaven Sent revival that's what God wants to do and Joel wrote to a people in the eighth century BC I love his name it means Jehovah is God and he said to the very wicked nation of Judah it's time to wake up and I want to tell you today Bellevue Baptist church hear me it is time that we wake up notice what the Bible says in Joel chapter 2 verse 12 and I got saved 20 years ago and when I when I started reading the Bible somebody gave me a new American Standard Bible so that's the Bible from which I read I don't I hope you don't hold that against me but you know I just I read from and preached from it so here we go I hope you can follow along yet even now declares the Lord return to me with all of your heart and with fasting weeping and mourning and rend your heart and not your garments now return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate he is slow to anger he is abounding in loving kindness his relented of evil who knows whether he will not turn in relent and leave a blessing behind him even a grain offering and a libation for the Lord your God blow a trumpet in Zion consecrate a fast proclaim a solemn assembly gather the people sanctify the congregation assemble the elders gather the children and the nursing infants let the bridegroom come out of his room let the bride come out of her bridal chamber let priest the Lord's ministers weep between the porch and the altar and let them say spare thy people Oh Lord do not make thine inheritance a reproach a byword among the nations why should they among the peoples the Gentiles say where is their God several years ago The Associated Press released a story about a 20 year old man named Jean tips of Seymour Texas on May the 21st 1967 mr. tips was involved in a very serious automobile accident in which he suffered severe head injuries he was in a complete coma for three weeks following that three week period - after 21 days of being completely out of it he was for eight years in a suspended state of unconsciousness for eight years this was his daily routine his parents would come and they would prop him up out of bed they would put him over in a chair and put pillows around him so he wouldn't fall out they would feed him opening his mouth sometimes having to move his jaw to let him chew the food and then he would automatically swallow and then they would when they finished that they would perhaps comb his hair and and groom him a little bit and then they put him back to bed for eight years week after week month after month year after year that's was his experience until one day after eight years of slumber Jean tips of Seymour Texas woke up and his nurse was startled she was trying to give him some medicine and he just awakened and his parents came running they called the doctor everyone was so happy and they were shocked and he described what it was like to be asleep for eight years now some of you say boy brother Steve I'd like to give that a shot if I could just to have a shot at that one man I'm tired I'm worn out well he really did it and here's what he said it was like he said it's all very strange my girlfriend is now married and has children couldn't it be a blessing amen he said the war in Vietnam is over he said to everyone else I'm 28 but in my mind I'm only 20 you know I I started thinking about the time period he went to sleep and LBJ was the president he whoa and Jimmy Carter was smiling in the White House he slept right through Richard Nixon a bit I think the guy just slept can you imagine sleeping for eight years but I know a group I know a group dear friends that has been asleep five times longer than then I'm talking about the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the United States of America hear me today I'm not here in any way to talk down to anybody I'm part of what's going on in America I've not always been what I ought to be and I'm not today but I want to tell you God is saying to the church in America today it's time to wake up but since the 1950s we've been asleep some of you can remember back to the 1950s that's the last time God was really moving in a wholesale way on our on our country except for a little blip on the radar screen of revival we call the Jesus Movement at the end of the 60s in the early 70s the last time God really moved in this country was in the 1950s those were post-world War two days the economy was good patriotism was up and a young man named Billy Graham was filling stadiums preaching the gospel of Jesus and telling the world that Jesus can save even in the Southern Baptist Convention we were aggressive soul winners at that time you know back then we didn't have to worry about moderates and the Orthodox theology and liberals and all that man we were talking about a million more in 54 we wanted to see people saved and we were hot for souls but something happened after the 1950s something drastic happened the church said well we've worked hard we've had a good decade let's take a rest and while we were preparing for a what turned out to be a four decade hibernation the devil began to ravage our land then came the 1960s and who can look at the 1960s and not say that that's the hinge decade for this century was during that time that we expelled God and prayer and Bible from our public schools I can remember as a second-grade boy and mrs. Hart's class there Ginny Walker elementary school in Dyersburg Tennessee I can remember every morning she would start our little class there about 30 of us by reading the Bible and praying public school in Dyersburg and then we would say the Pledge of Allegiance but by the time I made it back to the third grade it was against the law to do those things and I never saw it happen in my school's again it was during the 60s also that the hippies ushered in the drug culture we heard about a place called Haight Ashbury Street out in California and we were sending our boys to the rice paddies of a little country called Viet Nam the Beatles brought modern rock-and-roll during the 60s to our shores racial racial violence as you well know was rocking our inner cities there were three drastic and important assassinations JFK in 63 RFK in 68 and Martin Luther King jr. in 1968 as well but the church said well we'll just sleep on and as we slept the 1970s showed up and with them the radical feminist movement emerged the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand there was the Watergate scandal Nixon lied to us all on television and I can remember as a high school senior listening to him as he resigned from the presidency inflation was at an all-time high morale and patriotism was at an all-time low our boys and girls had to come home from Vietnam almost a shame because we did not tell them to win the war you know we told them to do we told them to go into a defense mode now my daddy told me sons don't ever start a fight but if you get in one win it if you're going to get in one go ahead and win it and you don't win one fighting defensively man if you fight you ought to fight offensively and we ought to apologize for those people because we told them just fight defensively and that can't be done so they had to come home and then we had an energy crisis Japanese cars were coming in and a little country called Iran held some of our people hostage and consequently held the greatest nation in the world hostage and we tried to send two helicopters after them and in the broad open daylight out in the middle of the desert they crashed I mean nothing was going right everything was going wrong it seemed like in our country yet the church rolled over in bed pulled the covers over its head and slept on then came the 1980s the New Age movement came into our land and emerged it was already here but it started to emerge publicly widespread interest in the occult we started hearing about psychics more and more Dionne Warwick and others were saying this is the way yes you have a spiritual hunger you say God gave you that spiritual hunger and and that the devil's cashing in on that now with his 900 number psychic lines and the widespread acceptance of witchcraft in occultic movements and the entrance of demonology and demon demonic activity not among Christians fighting it but among people embracing it in our country and it's no accident that it while everybody started looking at the horoscope suddenly the church was rocked in the 1980s by the fall of Jim Baker in the PTL Club and also Jimmy Swaggart and if you don't think that affected every bible-preaching Church in America you're dead wrong those of us who are trying to preach the gospel we've all been hurt by the fall of those two men Church kept sleeping crack cocaine polluting our city's pornography polluting our minds gangs ravaging our country and the church refused to wake up and then we entered the 90s but rather than get up finally out of the bed we put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door we have elected a president my friends and I'm not here today trying to get you to vote for anything I want to tell you I don't believe God is a Republican I don't believe he's a Democrat I don't think he's any of those things I think he's not here to take science he comes not to take sides our God wants to take over but we have elected we have elected a president who is pro homosexual there are gays throughout his administration in it throughout the white house we have also elected a president who is pro-abortion likes to call himself pro-choice now I know we're supposed to pray for the president I do first Timothy 2:2 says that we're supposed to pray for those who are in leadership positions but you hear me our Senate and our house had passed a bill that would eliminate partial birth abortions and they're so gruesome they're so horrible I won't even describe them to you because I want to tell you it would make some of you sick to think about that horrible procedure but our president said no he vetoed that bill and I want to tell you this while I will pray for him I want to tell you something Bill Clinton will answer to God for the blood of those little children that are killed with partial birth abortions it will not work God will hold him accountable pray that God will cause him to repent and be revived or that God will remove him revival or removal he appointed a Surgeon General she didn't want our children smoking but she didn't mind if they engage in what she called safe sex there is no safe sex except sacred sex according to the Word of God one man one woman committed to each other in marriage for life that's it anything out of those boundaries is wrong and now we're flirting with same-sex marriages socialized medicine and one of the scariest things is this new world order that is coming out of the United Nations our boys and our girls in the military who take an oath to support our flag or having the fight on under a United Nations flag I think that's wrong and our choices for president this fall are not that encouraging to me it seems to be the lesser of the three evils and I'm not trying to here just to pick on people I'm telling you do you understand that we have a problem and that we have been asleep for 40 years and business as usual will not get the job done what we've been doing is not working and we can't do this anything and expect different results we've got to do something different and I just want to tell you all we've got to do is do it God's Way and God is still in the spiritual awakening business he is sending an alarm he is sending a cry he is sending a wake-up call just like when you go to a hotel room and you say give me a wake-up call at 6 or 7 or whatever time and they call and they wake you from your slumber God is sending a wake-up call to this nation and he's saying wake up now let's look at our text and let me just share with you briefly what God's wake-up call consists of there are three points that I'd like to share with you out of this text God's wake-up call is a gracious call it is a demanding call and thank God it is a rewarding call first of all we see that God's wake-up call is a gracious call notice what the Bible says in verse 12 yet even now declares the Lord return to me God was saying through His Prophet even now Judah even though your women have poured out libation offerings before idols made of wood and stone even though your men have taken your little children down to the Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem where the god of Molech was erected there a big shrine and they burned their babies in the fire I don't know what it is but the devil hates little babies he's always like he's always like to kill them even though you have been wicked even though you've been hypocrites even though your priesthood is corrupt even though your political scene is scandalous yet even now return to me with all your heart and notice the next verse verse 13 God's gracious attributes are mentioned it says in the latter part of verse 13 that God is gracious he is compassionate he is slow to anger if you're glad God is slow to anger same in aren't you glad he doesn't have a short fuse aren't you glad he is slow to anger he is abounding and loving-kindness he is relating of evil and notice verse 14 he said who knows if you'll repent he might he might forgive you he doesn't have - you don't deserve it but he might he said who knows verse 14 whether he will not turn in relent maybe he'll leave a blessing behind him even a grain offering and a libation for the Lord your God joel indicated to this people of juno that god's wake-up call was a gracious one and i believe god is saying the same thing to america when I think of the grace of God I think about another old testament prophet hosea it's his name is synonymous with the old testament name of joshua and the new testament name of jesus Hosea is a beautiful picture of the grace of God most of you know the story but the Prophet was preaching and one day he found out that his wife was unfaithful and she left him and she became a street harlot he had three little children and he was forced as a preacher to preach with a wife that had left him and in all of that shame and humility one day when he was praying God said I want you to go downtown Hosea and Hosea went downtown and as he was going through I can just pictured in my mind there was a certain street down and in one area there was a very dangerous part of town he didn't want to go down there that's where they sold slaves but the Lord said no I want you to go down this street today and he didn't ask questions he just obeyed the Lord and as he was walking down this dangerous street he looked up at that hearted side of people being sold like cattle human flesh being treated like animals and he looked and suddenly something called his eye could it be there was a woman there it looked a little bit like his wife Gomer could it be that Gomer was still alive could it be that now she was a slave and sure enough she was and the Bible tells us that this woman who had left in all her pride and arrogance in all her cockiness in all of a rebellious State now she had been humbled you know sin I heard Freddie gates say one time sin always fascinates but then it always assassinates and the devil will promise you gold but he gives you dirt and now she found that out she's got her head down she doesn't even see her prophet her husband the Prophet coming but God says I want you to buy her back Hosea I want you to go up there and pay whatever the price is I want you to buy her back and I want you to bring her back home Hosea and I want you to love her and I want you to protect her and I want you to be kind to her for even as she has been unfaithful to you my people Israel have been unfaithful to me even as she has committed physical adultery against you my people in Israel have been committing spiritual adultery against me and I want you to buy her back because I want to buy my people back and I want to use what's going on in your life as a prophetic example an illustration of my grace now before you get too mad at Gomer and before you say why he should have never done that you better realize friend you and I are gonna in that picture we're the ones that Jesus bought when we were nothing but slaves to sin thank God for the grace and forgiveness of God and you know what God is saying to our country today America you are wicked America you are secular America you don't pray anymore America you got in god we trust' all over your buildings all over your currency but you have turned your back on me yet even now though I am gracious compassionate slow to anger abundant in loving kindness I will relate of evil if you'll turn I will forgive you it's a gracious wake-up call second thing I would say to you is not only is it a gracious wake-up call but it's a demanding wake-up call you know God is not in the he's not in the asking business God's in the telling mode if you found that asking I tell my children and I I'm amazed sometimes I see kids brother bobbin in our church and I'm sure you don't have any of these in Belleview but some of our children are really not very not not mine I want to is something mine at least around me have to feign obedience they mean I'm telling it they have to at least act like they respect me anyway but I see parents and they're letting them their children hit on them and they talk back to their parents do you know what that kid needs he needs a good old spanking right on his bottom amen that's what he needs you say all but mine but my pediatrician said that's wrong well your pediatrician is wrong because the by says that they should respect and honor their parents and obey you see we're raising a generation that's another sermon I better not get too far on the matter I'll really get off on that I've tell my people at all the time I will tell you this may be the reason though some people don't invite you over for snacks is that recent just a thought okay maybe I want your kids tearing their house up just a thought that'll make some of you think anyway but it's a demanding call God was not asking he was telling and just as he as we are and we have the right to tell our children what to do I don't care what the government says we have a right to tell them what to do God has a right to tell his children what to do and he wasn't asking Judah he was telling them God didn't ask them to wake up he told them to wake up or else very specific notice he said here's how how I want you to wait how I want you to wake it notice what he said turn back to chapter 1 look at verse 13 very quickly he said I want you to gird yourselves chapter 1 verse 13 gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament Oh priest way hello ministers of the altar spend the night in sackcloth Oh ministers of my god verse 14 consecrate a fast underline the word fast proclaim a solemn assembly in other words sackcloth lamenting weeping wailing spending the night fasting solemn assembly it's very serious that's how he wants us to do it and look again in chapter 2 look at verse 12 one more time he said I want fasting weeping and mourning God said I'm ready for you to get serious about this and you underline those words fasting and weeping and mourning I'll get to them in just a moment that's how he wanted you to awaken and then he said who who he wanted awaken look at there at chapter 1 verse 13 again he said wail oh ministers of the altar lament Oh priests and the look at chapter 2 verse 17 he said let the priests the Lord's ministers weep between the porch and the altar so it was the leadership revival we'll start with the leadership revival we'll start with the preachers and the leaders getting right before God that's what he was saying to Judah but also the laity look at chapter 2 verse 16 he said sanctify the entire congregation assemble the old people the elders and the children and even the nursing infants get everybody together it's going to take pulpit and pew leaders and laity that's the who and when when were they to be awakened notice verse 12 in chapter 2 yet even now have you ever had to say to your children well I want you to do this and they say okay dad I'll do it and then they you come back in a minute and it hasn't been done and don't don't look up at me at that holy either I you're scaring me okay I have to say that once once in a while I'll go to my kids and I say Oh sweetheart I want you to do this okay okay dad I'll do it and I come back and it's not done so I have to come and say okay come around over here I want you to do it now oh now yes now now now now now and God is saying right here to Judah now how serious was how urgent was look all the way up at verse 16 let the bridegroom come out of the chamber and let them let the come out of his room and let the bride come out of her bridal chamber break up the wedding there's something more important even than two people getting married here and it's revival and notice where he said in chapter 2 verse 12 rend your hearts in our hearts and then he said in chapter 2 verse 17 in chapter 1 verse 14 we won't look at all those but in God's house notice he said in verse 17 wheat between the porch or porch and the altar I want you to it in your hearts but also at the at the place of prayer in your sanctuaries and what should you say look at verse 17 spare thy people o Lord don't make us a reproach among the nation's you know what God is saying the same thing to America today you hear me God is saying to America I want you to wake up I am commanding you to wake up I'm not asking I'm telling if you don't do it I am going to punish you and how are we to do it now folks hear me this is probably the more the most important things I'll say we can't just keep on doing the same old things and expect revival this is the difference here it is fasting weeping and mourning and asking God to forgive you say brother Steve I've never fasted in my life well it's time you learned how it's time you learned how God called me on a 40 day fast last summer and I fasted and got alone with God I'm not saying that to brag on you or to brag to you I want to tell you something I I'm like brother Sonny Tucker I like the way he says when somebody says how are you doing he said better than I deserve that's exactly right but man I fasted before God God got ahold of my life convicted me of some things and and cleanse my heart and I don't know how to explain it to you but I want to tell you when I came out that fast my associate pastor fasted for 40 days a guy that Jamie knows Russ Quinn that he went to college with he fasted for 21 days I had a lot of people fasting for 3 and 4 days at a time and I don't know how to tell you but the glory of God came down on our church when we fasted and we prayed and asked God to forgive our sins and the sins of this country that's how and who the leaders and the ladies the pulpit can I tell you what would help America if we could have some men who would stand in the pulpits and be more afraid of God than they are their congregations we could have revival in our country I pray that God will rid us of wimpy preachers man some of these little guys come up and they're so pretty and they're so polite and they're so sweet and they're telling about how good they are I just want to come up I heard Debbie a crystal say this one he said I like to just come up by him and say boo and watch him jump scare them to death man we need some men we don't need preacher Rhett's preaching sermonettes to Christian it's God give us some prophets who will preach and say thus saith the Lord and let the chips fall where they may if some Deacon doesn't like it good if some Sunday school teacher doesn't like it so what let's preach for an audience of one the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ and not only the leaders but the laity you're going to have to get filthy magazines out of your home you're going to have to get as your pastor says hell's box office HBO out of your home you say oh I just watched the boxing yeah we all believe that telling a lie you know that's a lot you get that mess out of your home you consecrate yourself unto God leaders but also lay it to everyone everyone involved when now break up the wedding we came in here last night there was a wedding going on whatever prophet of God had been commanded to come in here and say break up the wedding there's something more important than your getting married we need to have a revival we need to wake up and we're in our hearts and in these beautiful sanctuaries we call our churches thank God for for these prayer rails and I pray that God will let these beautiful wooden and carpeted steps and these rails be stained with hot tears for revival they'll be at Bellevue if if you would awaken do you realize if you would awaken if God could touch you and send revival to you God could send it to the whole convention the Southern Baptist Convention if you would just allow God to get ahold of your heart if you would rend your heart and not your garments if you would weep and fast and pray and say O God spare thy people I tell you he would do it he would do it well there's one more thing I just have time to to mention it you say you sure do yell a lot well I can't help it you know I get excited look at the last thing it's a gracious skull it's a demanding call and thirdly I love this it's a rewarding call look at chapter 2 verse 18 I've not read this text but I want to finish with it and look at the little word then thank God that words there then in other words after you've done all this then here's what the Lord is going to do it's time for him to show up in power he will be zealous for his land he will have pity mercy on his people the Lord will answer and say to his people behold I'm going to send you grain new wine all you will be satisfied in full with them I will never again make you a reproach among the nation's but I will remove the northern army far from you I will drive it into a parched and desolate land and its Vanguard into the eastern sea and its rearguard into the western sea and if stitch will rise and its foul smell will come up for it has done great things don't fear o land rejoice and be glad because the Lord will do great things don't fear beasts of the field for the pastures of the wilderness will turn green the tree will bear its fruit the fig tree in the vine will yield in full so rejoice those sons of Zion be glad in the Lord your God he has given you the early rain for your vindication he has poured down for you the latter rain the early in the latter rain is before and the threshing floors will once again be full of grain the vats will once again overflow with new wine and oil now look at verse 25 then I will make up to you I will make up to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten the creeping locusts the stripping locusts the knowing locusts my great army which I sent among you and you will have plenty to eat you will be satisfied you will praise and worship the name of the Lord your God who will deal bountifully and wondrously for you then my people will never be put to shame thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God there is no other and my people will never be put to shame you hear me my friend God will make up for the 40 years we've been asleep if we will repent and let God send revival I was in our some of our great cities just a little while ago we went on a two-week vacation and while we were there we were in Washington New York Philadelphia Boston and some of the larger cities when we got to Boston we were going up I think it's called the Liberty or the Freedom Trail we saw the home of Paul Revere we saw his statue we saw the Old North Church one if by land two if by sea but it was such a secular city I saw Church buildings but I saw precious little of the movement of God and by the time I got to Boston I was absolutely convinced that our nation is no longer a Christian nation and I'd been all over Washington and yes there are little pockets of where God's moving but as I came back I was pushing our little three-year-old in a little stroller and we were coming back to the parking lot we were about to go up to Plymouth Massachusetts where the Pilgrims landed and I started praying us at God what can we do I'd seen homosexuals I'd seen every kind of immoral person people with earrings all over their bodies and and I know those something else and I said Oh God our nation it seems so secular what can we do and I'm telling you I in the background in Boston Massachusetts I was down on the on the on the harbor walk and I heard I don't know where it came from one of those churches church bells started ringing and do you know what they started praying playing sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my Father's throne make all my wants and wishes known in seasons of distress and grief my soul has often found relief I've off to scape the tempters snare by thy return sweet hour of prayer is like the Holy Spirit brought that verse out of Ezekiel said he searched for a man God searched from among them in Ezekiel's day who would stand in the gap before the Lord for the land who would build up a wall standing the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy but in his equals day alas God had to say but I found no one and I said God I don't know if you just mean one there or not but I want to tell you God I'm going to be one I'm going to be one I'm going to pray for revival don't you want your children to come up in an America where Jesus Christ can be worshiped don't you want your grandchildren to come up in America where God is moving wouldn't it be wonderful if God sparked a revival even here today or someplace else today we don't care where we don't care how we just pray that it will be soon wouldn't it be wonderful if God sent another spiritual awakening today in America if it hit and this is the same of proportions is the Second Great Awakening one out of every thirty million Americans being saved there would be between six and eight million Christian new Christians in America in a matter of a few months if God sent another spiritual awakening I'm telling you it comes with fasting it comes with weeping it comes with brokenness it comes with repentance it comes with getting right with God and Church of God you hear me today God's not playing games God is not asking you to wake up I'd say and do it or else I'll give you over to my wrath thus saith the Lord he that hath ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

Views: 23,774

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Keywords: Steve Gaines, Bellevue Baptist Church, Pastor Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Memphis, Bellview, Bellvue

Id: P6BIkUEnWdg

Length: 35min 58sec (2158 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 03 2014