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  REVIVAL IS FAMILY
  by Malachi O'Brien
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of revival, calling for a
return to personal and national revival through unity, prayer, and a
deep hunger for God. Stories of miraculous healings and encounters with
God are shared to inspire faith and belief in the power of God to bring
about transformation. The message highlights the need for a genuine
family-like unity in the church, surrender to the Holy Spirit's
leadership, and a focus on the greatness of God's name above all else.

Topics: "Revival", "Unity in the Church"
Scripture References: Malachi 1:11, Luke 15:20, Romans 12:1, Acts 2:1, Revelation 1:14, Psalm 95:6

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of revival, calling for a return
to personal and national revival through unity, prayer, and a deep
hunger for God. Stories of miraculous healings and encounters with God
are shared to inspire faith and belief in the power of God to bring
about transformation. The message highlights the need for a genuine
family-like unity in the church, surrender to the Holy Spirit's
leadership, and a focus on the greatness of God's name above all else.

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CONTENT
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Malachi O'Brien, if you would please come. He is an associate pastor of
prayer and church revitalization at Connection Point Church in Missouri.
He has been called by the Lord for revival.

And I would like to ask Pastor Dr. Al Whittingill to please come and
pray for our dear brother. Thank you for doing that. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning. It's so good to have you.

I didn't know you were going to be here. Father, thank you for that
wonderful time of worship. And we come just as we are, by the blood of
the Lamb, in agreement of heart that you yourself have forged on the
anvil of your cross.

Thank you for the moment we're in. We ask you now to allow us to see the
bigness and the fullness of what you're doing here in these moments
together. May we seize these moments, and embrace them, and receive what
the Spirit of God is saying to the churches.

And we thank you that we can come by this new and freshly slain way
within the veil. We can come boldly to your throne. And we can come
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of the
Lamb, and our bodies washed with pure water.

And in full assurance of faith, we have such a high priest over the
house of God that we can come and consider your word, and consider one
another, and consider how great you are and what you're doing in our
day, and provoke one another to faith and good works. May we not forsake
these moments, these kind of assemblings. But may the name of Jesus be
exalted in our hearts.

Bless my brother Malachi as he preaches your word, as he opens his mouth
wide. Will you fill it? Will you anoint his heart? Will you speak to him
that which we need today? We need you, Lord, to speak to our hearts.
Living words, lasting words, loving words.

Lord, do it for the glory of your name. We're here for you. And we're
not concerned so much about outside this building, even today, outside
those that are listening.

We are concerned for everyone that gathers here to hear your word. And a
blessed brother, Malachi, as he opens the scriptures, and you take your
sword and pierce the hearts, plant the seed, crush the hardness, and
send forth light and truth in Jesus' name. Amen.

Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you, Brother Al. I love you. And this is a joy to be with you
again.

We were not too terribly long ago. And so it is a joy to be a part of
this conference. So I thank you, Greg, for the invitation.

I am honored to be here. And just knowing that there are people who are
joining in online. I was doing so yesterday as I was getting here via
Twitter.

And so just checking out what was going on, and just the testimony that
was given. And so I thank you for the kind introduction. I'm grateful.

And I feel like I'm in a room of friends, if that's safe to say right
now. And many of you, I don't know. Many of you, I do.

I'm so grateful to have Glenn Shepard right over here. And Glenn puts up
with me a lot. And so we live only 20 minutes from each other in Kansas
City.

But I am so grateful for Glenn and his influence in my life, and then
Dan, and just several friends. And then I know tonight, here in just a
few moments, Al's going to come up and speak. And so I just want to set
the stage well for you to come with what the Lord has put on your heart.

And then tonight, I know John Avant's going to be speaking. And so I
guess let me just say this. I'm sharing from the word of God, but I'm
sharing out of the overflow some things that God is doing.

And I just want to declare to you some things that I believe will edify
and build up the church. And so let me just first off and say that a
revival conference like this is rare, but it's needed. They always
haven't been this rare.

I mean, I know Glenn can go back and tell stories of a day that there
were conferences like these going on in the 70s during the time of the
Jesus movement. But a conference solely dedicated for the purpose of
speaking forth revival truth, that's not common. But it's needed.

And you know who it's needed the most for? Those of us in this room.
Those that might be tuning in online right now. Because those of us, I
said this before, that people that need revival the most think they need
it the least.

And people that probably need revival the least think they need it the
most. So at the end of my time with you and just exhorting you and
sharing the works of what the Lord has done, I will do what has been
done before. I will encourage all of us to have a time of prayer here at
the altar, just again to cry out, to say, Lord, use me for revival.

The greatest hindrance to revival today, in my opinion, is not a
different group that's out there doing their own thing. It's not
somebody in your own home. The greatest hindrance to revival is not even
the false teachers out there in the world.

The greatest hindrance to revival are those of us that know the truth
and have become bored with it. The only person stopping you from a
greater encounter with the living God is you yourself. And so today, God
wants to meet us.

God wants to reignite faith once again in your heart and my heart. And
here's what I do know. Encounter usually meets expectation.

If you think God will meet with you and you've come believing God will
meet with you, and if you're right now in your heart saying, God, speak
to me, I believe he will, because he's faithful to do so. Seek me, if
you seek me, you'll find me if you seek with me with all your heart. But
if you've come here today, especially those of us that preachers, we do
this a lot, we can easily check out of another person's message.

Because we can easily say, I've heard that. I could share that better.
But it's us.

It's us, brothers and sisters. It's us that need God the most. And so I
just wanna encourage you that God is doing a new thing in this day and
age.

And I believe we are on the precipice of the greatest spiritual
awakening in the history of mankind. I do, that's worth clapping about.
We can do that.

I believe it's coming. I believe it's coming. But I believe it's gonna,
somebody and a lot of people are gonna have to pay the price.

Because in order to receive what God has, it is going to cost
everything. If you really pursue God who revives, it will cost you
everything. It might cost you, it might cost some pastors and leaders
their church.

It might cost some of you a variety of things because revival is costly.
But revival is not the Christian lottery. It's Christian inheritance.

The more of God, which is already within us, the living Holy Spirit is
available now. There's a well that we can drink of any moment. Why would
we do what Jeremiah says and go to broken cisterns that can hold no
water when the living water is available to us any moment? I mean,
honestly, the worship was phenomenal.

And like, oh, if I could have that every day, you can. You can. You
don't have to go to a church building to experience the living water and
the beauty of what that time of worship was.

You can have it any moment. We have the bread of life, but we've become
very satisfied. We've become very satisfied with the crumbs of the
world.

Oh, brothers and sisters, there's so much more if we would go after it.
But you have to believe with me today that the person that needs revival
the most is you. It's me.

I wanna say today, I guess if I was to title what I wanna share with
you, it's this. And the God of heaven and earth is on the move, bringing
people together in unprecedented unity for the greatest moving of his
spirit visibly that we have seen. If you believe the Bible, that's what
my Bible tells me.

That's what my Bible tells me, that God is on the move. So I came here
today with a little bit different kind of message. If you wanna take
your Bible, take it to the book of Malachi, not because that's my name.

I do like the book. There's phenomenal truth there, but take your Bibles
there. I wanna unpack some of this truth to you, but let me begin by
sharing with you just some things that God is doing.

I'm living in the overflow right now of two of the greatest miracles of
God I've ever seen or witnessed in my entire life in the last 30 days. I
could just spend the entire time telling you about them, and most of it
will be that way. But let me tell you something that might encourage
you.

A few months ago, people say, is God really working? Is God on the move?
Yes, he's answering prayer. A few months ago, I was in San Francisco
area for a meeting at Facebook and Instagram headquarters. And did you
know that every single week there are 800 believers that gather at
Facebook for prayer and worship and Bible study? 800, 800 on this
sprawling campus there at Facebook.

God is on the move. There are believers there that are gathering and
they pray for the presidents and the vice presidents of Facebook to come
to faith in Christ. And there are believers there that are actively
sharing their faith while they are part of the team at Facebook.

We had a worship service at Facebook just literally last summer, and
they said this might be the largest worship service they've ever had on
their property. God's on the move. It started because there was a pastor
that went to that area and had a burden to reach college students.

But he found himself very unfruitful reaching college students and found
himself with a church of 25 people. But he began to disciple people that
were working in the Silicon Valley. The church today still runs about
25, 30, 40 people, but there are believers at Google, believers at
Facebook, believers at Slack, believers in all these companies that are
seeking the Lord.

Why? Because there was one pastor that believed that God wanted to move
and he did not care. Even though his church was not large, the God of
heaven was large. God wants to free a generation from believing that the
greatest thing in the world is having the largest church in town.

Heaven help us. Heaven help us. God is on the move.

So let's take a look at the book of Malachi here. If you love Jesus, we
say amen. Amen.

Again, I'm looking forward to hearing Al here in just a few moments.
Verse number six of Malachi says this. A son honors his father.

Remember, we're talking about revival as family and God is on the move
and God is doing a new thing and the spirit of God is doing exceedingly
abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine. Son honors his
father, his servant, his master. Feel the weight of this.

But if I am a father, where's my honor? And he says, if I'm a master,
where is your fear? Where is your reverence of me, says the Lord of
armies. To the priest, to the leaders, to those that have been in the
very near presence of God, those that have been there. He says, but
what's happened? He's not talking to the entire congregation at large
here, he's just talking to the leaders.

Because what God wants to do in this room today is speak to those of you
that are leaders. He wants to move on your hearts first. Let me just
time out here for a second.

Again, I've just got a lot I'm flowing with right now. The repentance we
want to see in the church at large we will never see unless leaders are
willing to lead the way. The testimonies we long to have of people
confessing of breaking through the chains of sin and bondage.

And we say, oh, I would give anything to see that in the church. If
brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so, they would just get right. But I
promise you this, we don't get right.

We get right because it's awkward, it's uncomfortable to be the man or
woman who stands up vulnerable, naked before a group of people and say,
it's me. It's me, it's me. Oh, if our people would just worship with
enthusiasm, if they would just understand.

But do we understand? Do we understand? If people would just move and
just begin to, listen, the reason why the church isn't seeing more
people saved and baptized, flat out reason, is because pastors don't
share their faith. And pastors don't share the gospel. And leaders don't
do what God's called leaders to do.

So we will be held the most guilty of all because we are the one that
know the great stories of revival. We are the ones that have seen God
move and work. And judgment, we will be responsible for so much more.

Everything that you're given here at this conference, you will be
responsible for. You will give an account. And if we can leave a
conference like this and not be prone to fasting and prayer and
brokenness and sackcloth and ashes, we better not expect it in our
churches.

It begins with leaders. It always has. It always has.

Because revival is family. The author here is just speaking of just the
relational aspect of this. He says, they ask him here, so but how have
we despised your name? Looks good to us.

How have we done this? Those of you that have kids know this very well.
What did I do wrong? You broke this. I didn't do it.

You're the only one in the house, you know? How have we despised your
name? He says, by presenting defiled food on my altar. How have we
defiled you, you ask? When you say the Lord's table is contemptible,
it's not worth a worthwhile sacrifice. He says, when you present a blind
animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? Yes, it's wrong.

When you present a lame or a sick animal, is it not wrong? The answer is
yes, it's wrong. Bring, would you bring it to your governor? Would he be
pleased with you or show you favor? Ask the Lord of armies and now plead
for God's favor. Pray for God's favor.

Beg for God's favor. Will he be gracious to us? I will tell you this,
God will be gracious to us because we do serve a loving father. He says
this.

He says, since this has come from your hands, will he show any of you
favor? Ask the Lord of armies. Now here is maybe one of the most
astounding, hard verses in all of scripture. I wish one of you would
shut the temple doors so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire
on my altar.

I wish one of you. I wish one of you would get sick and tired of being
sick and tired and say, God is worth so much more than he's getting.
I've gotta bring him the very best that I have.

According to Romans chapter 12, we know that the sacrifice that God
wants is us. It's us, it's me every day. It's me coming to that altar,
broken, barren, needy to the father.

Would one of you, would one of you, would one of you believe that
there's God is worth so much more than we're giving him now? Would one
of you believe that God's worth absolutely everything, that if he said
today, sell everything, give everything, you're doing a heartbeat. If he
said, go across town and talk to that person, you're doing a heartbeat.
Is he worth everything? The answer is yes, he is worth everything.

If you're asking this, am I getting somewhere? I'm getting somewhere,
brothers and sisters. Do you know why in heaven right now, right now,
right now, do you know why the angels can't stop singing? You know,
they're singing a song right now, right? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You know why they cannot
stop singing? They see him, they see him, and they see him, and they
only see part of him because they cover their face, but they see him,
and they cannot stop singing.

When you see him for who he is, and his glory, and majesty, and might,
you're like, God, I'll give you everything, whatever you want, and when
you see him, you're no longer concerned about the church across the
street, or the person across town, or the person on the radio, or the
preacher on the TV. It does not matter to you, because you've been
consumed with someone much greater, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. They can't stop singing, but you go to some churches on Sunday
morning, and like, well, they've been singing a little too long today.

They've been singing a little too long. Oh, but when you see him, we
could've, we just could've, honestly, we could've spent the next hour
singing the songs you guys were singing. That would've been fine with
me, because it was good.

You felt that. It was so good, it was so good. Do you know why the
elders bow in heaven? They see him, they see him, they see him.

Do you know that, like, in heaven, after a service is over, they don't
go around to each other, going, how was church today? How was it today?
You know, the lion-headed angel doesn't ask the other angel, well, it
was okay today. I mean, never, never. Do you ever think Timothy went to
the apostle Paul and said, hey, Paul, how was it today? Ah, so-so.

You know, a lot of people didn't show up to the synagogue today. It was
okay, you know. They're all on vacation, it's okay.

Never, because the object of our worship is not anybody sitting in a
chair or a pew. The object of our worship is the one in heaven, and
revival is family, and I wanna say, brothers and sisters, we must get
our eyes off of this, and our eyes on him, and him forever, and him
eternal. But there's two fires in this passage.

There's two fires mentioned in this passage. There's the useless fire.
It's for show.

It's not what it's intended for. It looks like the real thing, but it's
not. He says here in verse 11, here is maybe one of the greatest revival
promises in all of scripture.

My name. It'd be fun if we had time to go through all the names of God,
but we don't, but my name will be great among the nations. From the
rising of the sun to its setting, incense and pure offerings will be
presented in every place, because my name will be great among the
nations.

Useless fire from those that are not enthralled by the one on the
throne, and now we see a picture of a future promise of a God where
there's gonna be fire going up everywhere all the time, and he loves it
because his name is great. His name is great. His name is greater than
the name on the sign.

His name is greater than the denominational tag that we give ourselves
to. His name is greater than the style of songs we like to sing. His
name is greater.

The only thing that'll change our cities and communities is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. The only thing I have to give when I talk to
somebody is let me tell you about the lamb. Let me tell you about Jesus.

Let me tell you how good he is. Let me tell you how awesome he is. We
must be enthralled with him once again, and the church of Jesus Christ
needs to seek forgiveness for peddling a hollow gospel, a hollow gospel.

The Jesus we've peddled is the one to make us great, and that's never
how it was meant to be. When his name is great, I can just be the guy
holding the door open every week because his name is great, not me. I
can be the person just doing whatever, it's all about his name, his
name, his name.

Did you know a little over a week ago, across America, there was tents
in almost every state capital, and many, many, many college campuses,
and for three days, three solid days, day and night, it was called Tent
America, hundreds and thousands of young people were gathered underneath
a tent in almost every major state capital in America to declare the
matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What church were they from?
Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, they were making much about the one
who's great.

Some people see dry bones. You know, when some people see dry bones, you
know what God sees? An army. You see dry bones, I see an army.

You see the dead, he sees the living. God is up to something powerful,
amazing. So let me tell you something, because what I'm about to share
with you is so sacred to me that it's almost hard to talk about.

But I hope by testimony, because it's not mine, it's his, that God
bursts something in your heart. A month ago, I was at a prayer meeting
on a Friday night, we had a six-hour prayer meeting, and there was a
gentleman in that prayer meeting, he was a pastor in the area who comes,
and he just stood up and said, I've got a word from the Lord tonight I
wanna share. So I asked Pastor Lawrence to share, and he said, believe
the Lord is saying, believe me, for a miracle.

Believe me, for a miracle. We went to the six-hour prayer meeting, it
was a powerful time of worship and prayer and just waiting on the Lord.
That Saturday comes a month ago, and about three in the afternoon, I get
a text from a gentleman.

He said, he immediately says, please pray right now, my son has been
critically injured. About five minutes later, I get a text from the
grandma. She says, Xavier, Xavier has fallen from a tree.

He's fallen face down onto a metal stake. It's gone through his skull.
That grandpa was, that gentleman at the prayer meeting that for was
Xavier's grandpa.

Come to find out what had happened was three boys went into a tree
house, and they began to play, and they didn't know there was a bunch of
hornets in the tree house, and so Xavier tries to get out of the tree
house, and as he's swapping one of the hornets, hornets are different
than bees, hornets will keep on stinging, stinging, stinging, bees will
sting you and they'll die. He gets stung and he lets go, and he falls
face down onto a metal meat skewer. It was sticking up in the ground.

That metal meat skewer went through his entire skull. He gets up, it's a
miracle of God he gets up. He goes into the house, his mom freaks out,
like any mother would.

Throws him into the car, and there's still tons of hornets all around
him. Rush him to Cass Medical Center, and immediately they rush him to
Children's Mercy in Kansas City, and then when he gets there at
Children's Mercy, they say, we don't have what it takes to help him.
Like the best children's hospital of Kansas City, and they don't have
what it takes.

So they say, we're gonna have to rush him to a neuro unit at KU Medical
Center in downtown Kansas City. They did not know the extent of the
damage on Xavier. We come to find out later after they finally, and
again, the metal meat skewer sticking six inches out of his face.

What happened is the metal meat skewer completely severed one of his
jugular veins, completely. I didn't know you had more than one until
four weeks ago. They completely severed it.

But instead of bleeding, it clotted. Instead of bleeding, it clotted.
Just by the sheer angle to which he fell, and the weight of the meat
skewer, it clotted.

That metal meat skewer was exactly one millimeter from the main artery,
the main jugular artery, that if you nick it, you cut it, you bleed out
in moments. One millimeter. I have the x-rays to prove it.

One millimeter. Did you know there's a God in heaven who designs our
bodies so uniquely, so creatively, that the veins in your face and my
face run differently? That the way that my jugular vein runs in my head
is different than the way it runs in your head? That only the God of
heaven before time began knew what he was gonna do with Xavier
Cunningham, and knew how he was gonna put that main jugular vein in his
face, and he knew there would come a day that this boy would fall from a
tree, and he knew there'd be a day that this stake was gonna go through
his skull, so God says, I'm just gonna move this just here enough so
that it doesn't kill him. Because I serve a God of miracles.

We're there at the hospital, the parents are weeping, they rush into
Children's Mercy, the dad texts me that night, they don't know if he's
gonna live or die, but they just say pray, so we get everybody to pray.
And I mean, when there's an emergency, you text everybody. You text
every church in town, you text every pastor you know, you go after
everybody, because when it's critical, we unite, when it's critical.

By the way, Church of Jesus Christ, it's mission critical in America
right now. It's mission critical, we unite. They didn't know whether
they was gonna take him from, they thought they might have to take him
to Denver or St. Louis, but let me read you something the dad wrote, put
on Facebook in the middle of the night.

I don't even know if I could write this, but this is what the dad said
in the middle of the night. A heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching, soul-
wrenching prayer, at about two in the morning, literally just several
weeks ago. Shannon says, middle of the night, he said, my beloved Lord,
my God, I do not know the plans you have for us.

If it's your will to heal my son, I ask you to do it quickly. But if you
take him, I'll be forever honored that you let me call him my son, my
boy, my own bear. I will still worship you, my King.

I will draw strength from you as I grieve. I will rest in knowing that
you love me. I will not forsake you, my God, my King.

I will forever praise you. Please have mercy on us, your will on earth,
as it is in heaven. So I'm there with the family at the hospital four
weeks ago, on a Sunday morning.

We immediately just called up the entire church service, which I barely
showed up for any of it. It was just gonna be a prayer service, period.
We're just gonna pray.

That's all we're gonna do. We're gonna pray. And I'm there when it's
just me, the mom, and the dad in a massive, empty waiting room at KU
Medical Center, Kansas City.

All throughout the night, doctors had convened all around Kansas City
from different hospitals, specialists from different hospitals, all in a
room wearing their individual coat and colors from their hospital, but
united with one purpose to save this boy's life. All throughout the
night, they did not sleep. They did not sleep.

I think there's coming a day that when we wanna see God move in America,
some of us are gonna give up sleep and food to seek God like we've never
sought Him before. We're gonna fast and pray like never before. And they
say, we've got a plan.

We've got A, B, C, and D. We've got 30 doctors and surgeons in the room
ready to go. If something happens here and this goes bad, this team goes
in. And if something else goes different, this team goes in.

And if that goes bad, then the C team goes in. And if the worst of the
worst happens, the D team goes in. But we are ready for the worst
possible scenario.

But they told the mom, we cannot promise you that we will be able to
save your son. But we will try. We will try.

He was coming in and out of consciousness as they were driving him to
the hospital and in and out of consciousness while he was at the
hospital. And you know what he was singing when he was coming in and out
of consciousness? There's a song called Reckless Love. He was singing
the song, Reckless Love.

There ain't no mountain, there ain't no wall that my God wouldn't do.
They begin that surgery. Hour and a half later, they come in and they
just say that, okay, it's a miracle.

We've got the breathing tube in. I mean, they had to be, because his
mouth was, because they couldn't even touch the stake. It's still in his
face after all these hours because if we touch it, it may hit the
jugular and he bleeds out and he dies.

So I was there for that. They said it's gonna be about an eight hour
surgery. I was there about seven and a half hours in when the doctors
come out.

Dr. Ebersole, KU Medical Center, Kansas City, Missouri. I was there when
Dr. Ebersole came out of there in tears. He comes to the mom and the
dad.

Says it's a one in a million miracle that he was alive when you brought
him here to us. And we needed that same one in a million miracle to get
that out of his face without doing any further damage. He said, I've
never in all of my medical history seen such a miracle, never.

He goes, I can't explain it. When we pulled it out, every doctor on the
floor was celebrating. Because when God does a miracle and God sends
revival, I don't care if it's this church or that church or wherever
there, we celebrate.

Because only God can do the impossible. He's in tears, the families are
in tears, we're in tears. It's amazing.

He said, there's no human explanation. That stake went through his
skull. It missed every major nerve.

It missed the blood vessels in the back of your head that go to provide
blood to the brain. It missed those. He goes, there's no way to explain
this.

There's a miracle. It's unreal. The next day, I go to the hospital and
Xavier's out of surgery.

He's in a hospital room playing Xbox. Seriously, seriously, two days
later, metal stake through the skull, a millimeter from death. He's
there.

News crews are starting to come in. By the time this thing, it's still
circulating. Good Morning America, Washington Post, CNN, BBC, CBN News,
I have friends there that help run CBN News.

Inside Edition ran an exclusive story on the miracle boy from Missouri,
the miracle boy from Missouri. The city we live in just declared
tomorrow to be Xavier Cunningham Day for the miracle that God did for
him. The whole city celebrating that God did a miracle because when God,
God doesn't need our strategies.

God doesn't need our business plans. God doesn't need our fancy vision
statements because Revival's family, Revival's family. So, I'm gonna
say, but it gets better.

I was there that Monday with him, and Xavier said, pastor, I said, hey
buddy, yeah, what's going on? He goes, I knew I'd be okay. I go, well,
Xavier, how did you know you'd be okay? He goes, because before they
took me in for surgery, at the foot of my bed, I saw Jesus. He had his
hand on me.

He was praying for me. And his eyes lit the room. He said, I knew I'd be
okay.

What a God. What a Savior. What a miracle-working God.

They would do such a powerful demonstration that only God can get credit
for. No human being, no doctor, no nothing. If he would have fell one
inch higher, he would have been dead.

If he would have fell one inch to the left or the right, he would have
been dead. If he would have pulled that metal stake out of his face, he
would have been dead. Only God.

My friend from CBN News asked him, how come you didn't pull that out of
your face when you came out of the ground? He has a laugh at this. He
goes, well, I saw the movie Black Panther. And in the movie Black
Panther, when that guy pulls that thing out of his chest, he dies.

So I knew I better not take this out of my face. That was his logical
reasoning not to take this thing out of his face. But the human reaction
is just to pull it out.

I'm here to tell you that I serve a God who can part the Red Sea. I'm
here to tell you that I serve a God that can make the sun stand still.
I'm here to tell you that I serve a God that can take a nameless,
faceless group of people in the Middle East and declare them his sons
and daughters for all eternity.

A hated people that he still has a plan for. I serve a God that can
raise the dead. I serve a God that can heal the sick.

I serve a God that can make the blind see and can make the deaf hear. I
serve a God that can take dry bones and make them into an army. And I
serve such a God that when I know what he has done, I say, God, I don't
want useless fire.

I want your name to be great from now to the setting of the sun. That's
what I want. And I serve a God.

I don't serve a day of miracles. I serve a God of miracles. And what God
has done before, God can do again.

And we're about ready to walk in to the greatest era of human history.
Well, there'll be more miracles, signs, and wonders than we could ever
explain. How do you know that? Because my Bible tells me that.

My Bible tells me that. My Bible tells me that. My Bible tells me that.

So I'm here to tell you, revival is family. Revival is family. And I
don't know what your miracle is today, but I'm telling you, there needs
to be something in your life that if God did it, you yourself would know
God has done a miracle.

And I've been around this long enough that for some of you, it's a
prodigal son or daughter to come back. I've been around this long
enough, and not as long as Glenn, but a little while. But I know a God
that can do the miraculous.

But I fear the church of Jesus Christ has put God in a box. And we've
told God what he can do and can't do, who he can do it with, and why he
needs to do it this way. And just when you begin to say that God can
only do it this way, he'll say, I'll show you wrong.

I'll do it this way. I serve a God that two years ago did a miracle-
working revival in Burlington, North Carolina. Unbelievable story of a
church that prayed for ten years for God to move and work in power.

For ten years, they prayed. They had a season of revival, and a preacher
came in who was a dear friend of mine, and God didn't do anything that
week. But the preacher said, week two.

The end of week two, the church begins to fill up, and a few people got
saved. Preacher says, we're not done yet. Week three.

Week three turned into week four. Week four turned to week five. By the
end of week five, the church had no more room to sit.

There's people sitting all on the platform and all around. They had to
move it outside the church building, because when revival comes, it goes
outside the church building. Every time.

So much so, they set up a tent on the side of the highway. The first
night they were there, there was a guy setting up the tent. He was just
a paid employee to set the tent up.

He falls under conviction of the Holy Ghost and gets saved. So, I serve
a God that can do that. They had a first night under the tent, they had
close to 4,000 people under the tent.

Like week six or seven, they had a youth night, and they had five to six
thousand teenagers under the tent. In hot July, Burlington, North
Carolina. Surely, if God was going to send revival, it wouldn't be
Burlington, North Carolina.

But do you know, when God looks to do something great, He looks past
David's brothers, every time. And He looks for the least likely, the
least talented, the least expecting, the least flashy. He goes, that's a
man or woman that I can use, because their heart is after me.

And I guess what I want for you guys today, is that you have a heart
after God, that would refuse to offer useless fire anymore. That you
would care more about His name and His fame than whether anyone knows
anything about you. If people knew the deepest, darkest, ugliest parts
of your soul, it wouldn't bother you a bit, because there's a God in
heaven who loves you and forgives you, and you don't care.

Because He's glorious and worth it. That we don't have to come into
these buildings and put on a veneer, and kind of act like we got it all
together, because many times we don't. But, I serve a God that can
revive.

And His name is great. His name is great. I serve a God that can take a
10-year-old boy, Xavier Cunningham, from one millimeter from death, and
raise him to life.

And that can appear to him in his hospital room, and say, and pray for
him, and he'll be okay. Remember this, that encounter meets expectation.
Maybe the reason why we don't see powerful, wonderful, miraculous
workings of God as we flat don't believe it.

We don't. But just take a trip outside the United States, the Middle
East, and you'll believe it. You'll believe it.

There was a man that was working for Ravi Zacharias that died a year ago
of stomach cancer. Nabil, PhD. Phenomenal, former Muslim, came to faith
in Christ.

But do you know how Nabil got saved? He tells about it in his book. You
know how Nabil got saved? Do you know this story? I'll tell you how
Nabil got saved. He was a Muslim in the Middle East.

He had a vision of Jesus that told him to go to a town and speak to
somebody, and he got saved. You say, does God do that? God will do
whatever God wants to do. Because God won't be put in a box.

Two weeks ago in Kansas City, we had something phenomenal happen. We had
a thousand Chinese leaders descend upon Kansas City for an event called
the homecoming. They came.

They were there at the Convergence. They were there with some of the
dearest friends of mine in the entire world, and God poured out His
Spirit in revival. Unreal what God did.

These Chinese leaders that represent 20 million Chinese believers, they
came and they showed the prayer community how to love. How to love.
These Chinese leaders with their tears was wiping the shoes of the
leaders of the organization.

Because they just, they loved. Revival's family, beloved. It's family.

It's family, but we've got an orphan spirit in the church. We need to
get back to family. What did God do? Well, by the end of it all, there
was a word given, and next thing you know, the leaders are confessing
sin of the organization.

And one of the strongest points of confession, and they're still
unpacking this even now, and this is a word for all of us. They said, we
have for years fathered a vision, but we've not fathered a family. I'm
here to say revival is not as much about vision as it is about family.

The revival that we desire and believe in ought to be good enough for
us, it's good enough for the neighbor. For the school up the road. For
the person that we, the person we work with.

Revival is family. I was there when, a week ago at a testimony service,
when the gentleman who runs marketing went into the CFO's office, and he
goes, man, I missed. And he goes, you didn't miss anything.

You're part of the family. You didn't miss anything. And the CFO goes up
to this guy and gives him a bear hug.

It's like 90 seconds. That gets awkward, right? But when revival's
family we love, we love. He says, you didn't miss anything.

You didn't miss anything. You didn't miss anything. The gentleman who
runs marketing was later that day with his boys buying something from
Dollar Store or some, you know, high-quality place like that.

And he said, all of a sudden the Lord told him to pray for the person
behind the counter. So he prayed for him. Person got healed.

The person got saved. And then he went around and gave this person a hug
for 90 seconds. Transforming.

Transforming. Sometimes we're like that gentleman. We go to God.

God is the CFO. We go with our list. Okay, God, I need this.

I need this. I need this. I need this.

And God says, I'm just here to love you. I'm here to wrap my arms around
you. I love you.

Revival is family, beloved. The Father wants to say to those of you in
this room that feel like that you have an orphan spirit, that there's
there's an earthly father dynamic that I don't know and can't explain,
but there maybe there's a distance there or a lack there. God says, I am
your father and I love you.

And I'm not just your father. I'm father to children that you don't
think are in the family. And he's saying to the church of Jesus Christ
that we are the older brother in the house.

Looking down on the younger brother saying it's about time he come back.
But he better not get everything. No.

The Father is the one that can put the ring on the finger and the robe
around him. So I would say to the orphan spirit in the church of Jesus
Christ, we have a father and he's good. He's a good, good father.

Revival's family, I would say in light of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit
wants to do so much more through the church, but we've quenched the Holy
Spirit by not believing in what the Spirit can do today. Do we surrender
ourselves to the full leadership of the Spirit? It's not that we're good
listeners.

It's he's a really good teacher. He's a really, the Holy Spirit's a
really good leader. Holy Spirit wants to do so much more, but too often
times we've made it Father, Son, Holy Bible, not Father, Son, Holy
Spirit.

And the Spirit of God wants to do so much more. And I would say to some
of us in this room, the reason why we're anti some of these things is
because we've seen extremism. But I'm telling you, you study the history
of revival.

In every movement of revival, there's always been stuff that can't be
explained. We're here today because we've polished up all our revival
stories, and they look nice, neat, and pretty, and they fit in our box,
in our books. But there's not one revival that you can go to that
doesn't have stuff that can't be explained.

Is the enemy a counterfeiter? Yes. But the greatest threat to revival is
not extremism. It's not the prosperity gospel.

It's lukewarm, apathetic Christianity. That's the greatest threat to the
church. That's the greatest threat.

And God wants to move and work. And normally in revival history, God's
used young people. One person told me one time, I may not be old enough
to start a revival, but I may be old enough to stop one.

I may be old enough to stop one. Holy Spirit wants to encounter you in
great ways. And the greatest thing the Holy Spirit does is, yes, He
makes us more like Jesus.

More like Jesus. The greatest sign and wonder ought to be that people
have never seen people love like that. We've got to be a people who
stick up for the people that get beat down.

We've got to be the kind of people to say, we will not let the Spirit of
God be defamed, but we will not let Him be quenched. The Spirit of God
wants unity in the church. Unity in the church.

A divided church will never heal a divided nation. There's a safe unity
and there's a risky unity. The safe unity is to find the church most
like us in town and say, yeah, we kind of, we talk every now and then.

But the risky unity says, that's my brother. And I love him. I've got
brothers and sisters in the faith and I can't explain a lot of things.

But I'll go to war and back with them. Will one of you shut the temple
door and stop the useless fire? Will one of you do that? There's a safe,
the risky unity will cost you your reputation. It'll cost you other
things that people, that doesn't make sense.

Don't you know? Don't you know? I know that I love people. I know that
Jesus loves people. And I know that before I defame people, I want to
get to know them.

I want to look them in the eye and I want to say, you are my brother,
but can I ask you a question? Because you never change people by posting
stuff on social media. No one's ever said, thank you for pointing out my
deficiencies, Malachi, on social media. I am forever changed.

Never. But you know what does change people? Love. Love.

So I'm calling you guys today to risky unity. Boldly. Never to
compromise, no.

But the church has been compromised for way too long because we've done
it man's way, not God's way. We've become echo chambers that listen to
ourselves and those most like us, rather than the still, small voice of
the Holy Spirit of God. Father, Holy Spirit, and let me just again close
with this, the Son.

There's a beautiful man on the throne. His name is Jesus. But we're
about ready to enter into one of the darkest ages of human history in
the near future.

I don't know if it's 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 2 years from
now, but we're on the brink of unprecedented history. And good enough
church will not be good enough. Good enough discipleship will not be
good enough.

Good enough getting along on the surface will not be good enough. It'll
take a family, a revival family, that'll stick together when the trials
and tribulations come. But God in heaven wants to do so much more.

So I'm asking you guys today, will you be family? Will you be my
brothers? Will you be my sisters? Can I celebrate with you when God does
something supernatural in your midst? Will you celebrate with me if God
does something in my midst? Can we love one another enough that if we
have to privately talk, we can privately talk? Can we do that? Can
people around us go, that doesn't make sense, what happened? What
happened to you? We discovered family over vision. That's what happened
to us. Revival's family.

His name will be great among the nations. We need to go out of here as
lambs, with the faces of lions, in the midst of a world of wolves. And
watch what God'll do.

Stop peddling this hollow fake Jesus. Let's go to the Jesus that gets
dirty and grimy and gets made fun of and gets maligned and gets accused
because he's with the broken. He's with the broken.

Let's pray. Would you stand with me? Father God, I believe revival's
family. I believe revival's family.

And I believe that even just sharing a few stories of what you've done,
your word is the authority. But sometimes you let us experience the word
lived out incarnationally. That is an encouragement to us.

And Lord, those that need the revival the most is those of us in this
room. I'm asking you Lord to give us a spirit of hunger, thirsting once
again. Bring back that idealism we had when we were in our 20s and 30s.

That believed you could do anything before people told us you could do
really nothing. Lord, I love reading the revivals of old. But that's
just it, they're the revivals of old.

I want to live in the revivals of now. I want my grandkids to tell
stories of what the God of heaven did. I don't believe you're done with
the United States of America, God.

I don't believe you're done. I believe you've only begun. And I believe
there's a remnant of people that will believe that.

And if it costs them their life, they'll give up their life. Because
they're going to seek you. And they're going to seek you until they find
you.

Forgive us of our spiritual boredom. Forgive us of our spiritual
barrenness. Forgive us of our spiritual self-righteousness.

Holy Spirit, would you speak even now? Would you speak? I know you're
going to speak in just several minutes Lord. When Al comes to deliver
the word of God. And the cross of Christ.

Oh God, you're not done feeding us today. But Lord, we need you now. So
we declare this moment to be a holy moment.

Lord, we need to seal some things with you today. Here's what I want to
do, just for a few moments. Just for a few moments.

And then we'll transition on. I'm going to make it easy today. For us to
have a time of prayer together.

I'm going to invite you in just a moment to join me at the altar. And
we're just going to pray for a few minutes together. But I'm going to
ask you this.

What is that one thing in your life that if God did it, it would be a
miracle? That's what I want you to bring to the front. When I count to
three, that's your cue. When I count to three, that's your cue.

When I say, when I count, that's your cue. Join me at the front and
we're going to pray. For whatever that is to you.

If God can heal a ten-year-old boy. If God can bring a thousand Chinese
leaders at their own expense to Kansas City. There's nothing God can't
do.

So the invitation is yours today. Will you believe God for a miracle?
Will you be the one that lives in personal revival? National revival
never came because people talked about national revival. National
revival came because people were desperate for personal revival.

One. Two. Three.

Will you come? Will you join me? Will you come? Just before the throne
of God, open and bare, here we are. Oh God. Oh God.

Here we are, God. We humble ourself, God. We humble ourself.

Before your mighty hand. Oh Lord Jesus, with eyes of fire. With the eyes
of fire would you pierce deep within.

When those eyes of fire convict and yet would they heal. Oh God. The one
whose voice is like the mighty rushing water of many waterfalls.

Would you soothe us today? Would you heal us today? Church, today, here
we are. Just begin where you are today. Whatever that one thing is,
would you just go to the throne and say, God, here it is.

God, here it is. Please God, I'm asking for a miracle. I'm asking you
God for a miracle.

Would you do it, God? Would you do it, God? Oh God, I'm asking you to
remove the bitterness, God. The pain of that former. I left that church
hurt, God.

Hurt. It hurts. Oh God, remove the bitterness.

Maybe a marriage that didn't end the way you wanted to and it hurts.
God, remove the bitterness. Maybe there's a conversation you've had in
the last 24, 48 hours that you're not proud of.

Oh God, heal. Some of you in this room, there are definitely prodigals.
I'm asking you today, would you pray with me that the father would run
to them.

That they would turn to the father and the father would run to them. Oh
God, right now, we declare that you're gonna bring prodigals back to
you. Father God, we believe in the power of united prayer.

Prayer and agreement. So today, we agree together, God, for the sons and
daughters. That some of us feel like that we have been disqualified
because our sons and daughters are not walking with you.

And we've questioned the way we did our lives. Maybe we did too much
church or too much this or that. And maybe we were a little too strict.

Oh God, remove the shame and the guilt. And we say, God, go after the
prodigals. They are your sons.

They are your daughters, God. Go after the prodigals outside the house.
And God, would you rescue the prodigals inside the house.

They're close to the father, but they don't know the father. They're
right beside the father, but they don't know the father's heart. Oh God,
would you work? Even now, God, would you work? The prodigals, God.

Lord, I'm asking you today, God, that you would help us to believe you
again for the miracle of healing, God. It's by your will, but Lord, too
often times, we have tried to give you an option out of healing
somebody. Lord, we just declare your word and we're going to trust in
the character and nature of our God.

And when dark clouds come, we know they will meet mercy. It's because of
who you are. But God, I pray for those in this room that have a family
member, a friend.

And we're just a little afraid to pray, because what if you don't? But
God, what if you do? Transforming. Lord, when you work miracles, cities
know about it. Cities and states and nations know about it.

So what you did with Xavier Cunningham literally four weeks ago was not
for Harrisonville, Missouri. It was not for Pleasant Ridge. It was not
for anybody else.

It was for your glory and your name. But God, you gave it to these
people here right now and those tuning in. Oh God, we're going to
believe you for a miracle, God.

Deeply. Lord, for those that have been disillusioned towards a revival.
Like, yeah, yeah, I've prayed for that.

I don't really see it. Lord, we're faithfully going to stay on the wall
of intercession, knowing that you're always at work, God. Even when we
can't see it.

Even when we can't see it, the God of heaven is working. And God, would
you be gracious and merciful to let us see another great moving of your
spirit in our nation and the nations. Oh God, forgive us, Father.

Have mercy on us. We love you, God. Would you just take a few moments
and would you just declare your love for the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit? Just tell them you love them.

Tell them you're grateful. Oh God, Revival's family. Father, we love
you.

Holy Spirit, we love you. Oh, we love you, Holy Spirit. We love your
leadership.

We love your ways. Lord Jesus. Eyes of burning fire, feet as bronze.

Hair white as wool. Voice of many rushing waters. We love you, Jesus.

Does a son honor his father, his servant, his master? Where is your
honor, Lord? Here's what we bring to you today. Worship. Worship.

Lord, I love you and I thank you. I love you and I thank you. Let's just
stay here for a few more moments.

Just continue to let the Holy Spirit move and work as he's moving among
us. He's not done yet. Maybe there's a brother or sister in this room,
the Lord will have you pray with.

Whatever this is right now in your heart, don't let it go. Don't let it
go. Encounter meets expectation.

Holy Spirit. We love you. Lion of the tribe of Judah.

We love you. Alpha and Omega. We love you.

Beautiful one seated on the throne of the circle of the earth. We love
you. The Christ.

The deliverer. The eternal one. The faithful God.

The great high priest. The invincible God. The just one.

The king of kings. And the Lord of Lords, we adore you. The mighty one.

The never ending one. The omnipresent one. The omniscient one.

You are our inheritance and we are yours. And the nations are your
inheritance. Revival spills out to the salvation of the nations.

Oh God. You are the priest. You're the only one that could be a
sacrifice once and for all for sin.

And we thank you for that. You're the quickening one. In a moment, you
can accelerate things that took years.

You're the resurrection. Paul says, I want to know you in the power of
the resurrection. You're the savior.

You're the true vine. You're unique. Well, we could spend a lifetime of
lifetimes trying to know you.

And we'll only scratch the surface of the beauty of the knowledge of God
that can be known and can be experienced. You're the very God of very
gods. You're worthy of night and day prayer and worship and adoration.

Lord, that's who you are. We definitely know that you're Yahweh. You
keep your promises every time.

And you are that city to which we are going to one day. It's not about
the streets. It's not about the mansions, the rooms.

It's not about the gates. It's about you, Jesus. It's always been about
you.

Always been about you. Oh God. Love you, Jesus.

It's in your name.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Zy8wpHSnDOc.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/malachi-obrien/revival-is-family/
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