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  WHEN REVIVAL COMES THERE IS JOY!
  by Roger Ellsworth
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the characteristics of true revival,
highlighting the joy and testimony that accompany a genuine moving of
the Spirit of God. It discusses how revival naturally attracts attention
without the need for promotion or advertisement, and how the revival of
the gospel brings great joy to the people of God.

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the characteristics of true revival, highlighting
the joy and testimony that accompany a genuine moving of the Spirit of
God. It discusses how revival naturally attracts attention without the
need for promotion or advertisement, and how the revival of the gospel
brings great joy to the people of God.

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CONTENT
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Powerful. The circumstances were all against Judah, and now here they
are going back to their homeland, and the nations are compelled to say,
God has done great things for them. And this psalmist adds his own word
of testimony there in verse 3. He says, the Lord has done great things
for us, and we are glad.

And I suggest to you now, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we have
here in these characteristics of that time, we have here a picture of
true revival. I would go so far as to say that any time that there is a
genuine moving of the Spirit of God, you will find these things to be
present. Anytime there's true revival, you will find the people of God
saying, it's just too good to be true.

It's like a dream. It's too good to be true. You'll find the people of
God filled with joy, inexpressible and full of glory.

Most of you have read enough of the history of revivals to know that
anytime a revival breaks out, this is one of the most prominent
characteristics, one of the most prominent features, is joy among the
people of God. And true revival does not fail to catch the attention of
people around. This is another characteristic, I say, of genuine
revival.

It causes people around to take notice, unbelievers, and to say, God is
really moving among those people. He has indeed done great things for
them. We today know all about churches promoting their ministries, and
we know all about churches including in their budgets great sums of
money for advertisement and promotion.

I say to you, when genuine revival breaks out, you never have to
advertise it. You never have to promote it. People know about it.

You can't keep them from from knowing about it. And the people of God
themselves give their own testimony. They say, the Lord has indeed done
great things for us.

I hope just reading, and there are many other characteristics of as
well. This man is characterizing what was true of the people of God when
they were released from captivity, and I'm simply saying to you that you
will find these same things to be true anytime God moves in power upon
his people. In times of revival, the people of God can join their voices
to the voice of this psalmist and say, yes, it's like a dream.

Yes, joy inexpressible is ours. Yes, the nations have been have been
arrested by what God is doing in our midst. These things are always
found in every true revival.

And I want to just say a word about this thing of joy for a moment. One
of the reasons that joy is so characteristic of a genuine moving of the
Spirit of God is because invariably, ladies and gentlemen, Christians
get the gospel back in times of revival. I say to you that this is one
of the reasons that we should be earnestly desiring God to move
powerfully in our midst, is so we can get the gospel back.

And when the gospel comes back to the people of God, it always brings
great joy. You may find this hard to believe, but there is today, even
among evangelical churches that profess to believe in the gospel, there
is a large-scale abandonment of the gospel. It's almost impossible to
hear the gospel in many so-called Bible-believing churches.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/-xltzJVGbZA.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/roger-ellsworth/when-revival-comes-there-is-joy/
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