======================================================================== WHAT IS REVIVAL by Tom Phillips ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the need for revival in the church and the importance of awakening to the power of the Holy Spirit. It calls for repentance, confession, and turning back to God's Word. The speaker highlights the impact of historical revivals and urges believers to be the light in a dark world, focusing on prayer, passion, and patterns of love and service. Topics: "Revival", "Empowerment of the Holy Spirit" Scripture References: Isaiah 60:1, John 8:12, Matthew 5:16, Philippians 4:4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the need for revival in the church and the importance of awakening to the power of the Holy Spirit. It calls for repentance, confession, and turning back to God's Word. The speaker highlights the impact of historical revivals and urges believers to be the light in a dark world, focusing on prayer, passion, and patterns of love and service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, hello everyone. We're coming to you from Charlotte, North Carolina. We're very grateful to have followed in the footsteps with Franklin Graham, his father, Reverend Bill Graham. Our hearts are not only for evangelism, proclaiming the good news that individuals may come to Christ, but our heart is also for an awakened church. Because we know, and you know, that if the church is thus awakened, the reformation of sinners will follow. So the greatest evangelism we could possibly ever have is when the church itself is completely awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's our prayer. Billy Graham, in 1949, prayed this prayer, and we have it on video. I am praying for an old-fashioned, Holy Ghost, heaven- sent revival that will sweep America from coast to coast. And we are so grateful to follow in those footsteps. In 2012, we were videoing Mr. Graham for the My Hope series, and we did not use this portion of the video, but he said, I am praying for an old-fashioned, Holy Ghost, heaven-sent revival that will sweep America from coast to coast. And in his latter years, when he couldn't preach, he couldn't even travel. Doctors had to come to him. He couldn't even go to them. He said, I only have one message. I am praying for an old-fashioned, Holy Ghost, heaven-sent revival that will sweep America from coast to coast. And I am so very grateful for him that he is the heart of revival. Now, what is revival? So we're going to have a bit of a study today on what revival is, if you don't mind. When I was in seminary, I was there wondering why I was there, actually, because my goal in life was simply to be an evangelistic Southern surgeon witnessing as I performed surgery on people who needed help. And I could help them with the gospel, as well as help them with medicine. And that was an amazing opportunity for me to see that because people were counting on me for their physical condition, they could also count on me to share Jesus. And I was so grateful for that opportunity. But one day God spoke to me in prayer and simply said, I'm calling you to be a preacher. And my heart broke, actually, because I didn't want to do that. Some of you have been in the same situation, but I was obedient. And when I got to seminary after going through my latter years of pre-med, continuing some of those courses, but then taking up a lot of the things pastors would need, I was studying under the great revivalist Dr. Louis Drummond and meeting people like Dr. J. Edwin Orr, whom we all know about his great message, prayer and the movements of God. And God spoke to me and he said, I made you for revival. Now, I didn't quite understand it at the time because I actually thought of revival was a Southern Baptist evangelistic campaign. And when I got to seminary, Dr. Drummond was teaching all of these courses on Revival 101, 102, 201, 202, 301, 302. And I thought, well, I want to take those. God called me to be a preacher. Therefore, I'll learn how to do what Billy Graham is doing. Little did I know that Dr. Drummond would share the history of the movements of the Spirit of God on his kids, the church. And the beauty of that was my heart was strangely warmed as was John Wesley's heart when God moved on it. And I realized that God would one day allow me to see what he was doing in the midst of his church to bring back his church to intimacy and love and joy and peace and compassion. And I began more than ever to pray and to study. And I won't give you the long, long story, but at the end of my seminary career, Mr. Graham's team asked me to be an intern with him. Of course, I'm thinking that that's the way to go into evangelism, not realizing that Billy Graham's prayer in his life was, I'm praying for an old- fashioned, Holy Ghost revival that will sweep America from coast to coast. So that's our prayer today. Doug Stringer's a great friend. Ronnie Floyd. I've just met Dan. Doug Small. And we're all together with you praying for God to move. And we all know the story, 2 Chronicles 7, 14, of what God has told us in his word. It's a big if. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then God says, I will hear them and then I will answer their prayers and I will heal their land. And of course, today you hear our vice president periodically talking about the coronavirus task force. And he says, we're going to see our land healed. Knowing his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I actually believe that what he's saying is we need God to work. Now, I was really brokenhearted, frankly, the other day when I came across the headline from our governor in New York, when he said this, New York Governor Cuomo, I don't really think he knows what he said, defiantly says that the coronavirus numbers are coming down because we, quote, we brought the number down. God did not do that. And you can't help but think back to Deuteronomy chapter 8, when the nation of Israel had moved away from God. And I think that breaks God's heart. Remember, as Jesus looked over the city of Jerusalem, he said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered you under my wing as a mother hen does her chicks, but you would not. Now, we know that a mother hen will literally put her wings over her little children and risk her life when a fox comes, will die for her children, as God died on the cross through Jesus Christ, and then the power of God was resurrected. So the God of love, 1 John 4, 8, God is love, says to us, I'm creator God, you are my creation. Some of you are walking with me, and I'm grateful, and I can give you abundant life, and you will have eternal life. Some of you, my creation, are not walking with me. Therefore, I'm broken. I died on the cross for you. So I'm sending others to tell you. It can be the evangelist who's your neighbor, the good news proclaimer. It can be the student in school who's your friend, the good news proclaimer. So the Lord says to us in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if the church, if my children who are called by my name will humble, pray, seek, and turn, then I'll hear you. I'll forgive you. And that forgiving opens up a conduit of explosive love and power that heals the land. And I think all of us would say our land needs a healing. Interestingly, a scripture that we don't often think about relative to 2 Chronicles 7, 14 is the one right before it. And in the one right before it, there's a list of things that could come upon a nation and cause it to go to its knees. And one of those things is actually a plague. And we hear our governmental leaders use that word plague, that we're in a plague. But it's not just America. It's also the world. And in my world through these years, I've been with Mr. Graham, as you can say, since 1974. So I started as the young man, and now I'm the old man. And during that time, I had 10 years plus of serving, coordinating our work in China. I love China. I love the people of China. I love the church of China. I've been in many, I preached in many churches in China. And prior to just a few years ago, we felt like the great next mission sending nations of the world would be Korea because of the great Korean Pentecost, which we hopefully will mention later. But also because of the Back to Jerusalem movement that was growing in the unregistered church, taking the gospel to the Muslim world and back to Israel at the risk of their lives. So whenever we see the plague that we have right now spreading around the world, started in Wuhan, China, and then going to all parts of the world, 185 countries, our heart wants to be God's heart, not a political heart, not even as much as we love our nation, an American heart. So I have several children in the American military and totally patriotic toward this wonderful nation that was founded on God's word. And God says, I may set the plague, but if I do, if my people call by my name, humble themselves, pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will, God's promise, not could, not should, I will heal the land. So sadly, I'm certain President or Governor knows the faith of the nation, has probably family faith as well, personal faith probably. And why he said that, I don't know, but we have to understand that a man or a woman is a mind, a body, and a spirit, that they go together. They're not three separate things, they're one. And whenever your spirit is touched by God, then that lubricates all the facilities of the body and the mind, which actually can be guided by the great physician to develop the proper medicines and to quickly find the shortcuts to the antibody usage to the vaccine, to leave God out. I remember several years ago, N. Graham Lotz said, it's as if America has turned its back on God. Another time she said, it looks as if everything's falling apart, but when God's in control, everything falls together. So this is the world in which we live. What is a revival? A revival from the Greek word anizeo, simply means to bring back to life that which is dead, comatose, or asleep. Now, that word anizeo is in the story of the prodigal son, and you know that one. Rich young man wants to get away from the farm, says to dad, give me all of my inheritance now. He goes into the city, wastes it all. He literally becomes a very deep sinner, profligate living, drinking, today would be drugs, may have been then, sex, wild evenings. Of course, he runs out of money because everybody comes to him to have a good time. And he finds himself in a pigsty, a young Jewish man caring for pigs, low of the lowest of the low. Now, don't get me wrong, I was raised on a farm raising cattle and pigs and other things, so it's necessary. And we're saddened right now that a third of our pork production in America has stopped because of COVID-19 in one of the largest pig situations, production houses in America. But here he is in a very small production house, and he says to himself, he's so hungry, if I go home, if I just go home and tell my father that I will just be a servant, I will just be a slave, that's what I'll do. He had not comprehended the love of his father. He did not know that perhaps every day his father had been going to the edge of the farm, looking down the road, praying for that figure of his son, walking back toward him. In our world today, that's called repentance, turn from sin, turn to the father. Then one day, as the father at sunset is looking through the shadows to the end of the road with the orange color of the sun going down the hill, he sees a disheveled, emaciated, filthy figure coming his way. And he says, could that be, could that be, could that be my son? The heart of the father, 1 John 4, 8, God is principled love, love of a father for a son, so principled that he wouldn't say no to him when he wanted to go his own willful way in sin, but so principled that he would stand every day, arms outstretched, waiting on a son. That day he saw him, arms outstretched. You may remember the story of Billogram's daughter after she had had a divorce and Bunny or Ruth came home wondering how her dad would receive her. She was embarrassed. This particular marriage had lasted just a short time. Mom and Dad had said, please don't do it, and I'm sure the prodigal son's father said, please, son, you don't know what you're doing, don't do this. So broken, she came home, and when she got out of the car, she looked up and saw tall, stately, loving Billogram, humble Billogram with his arms outstretched, pulling him around her and pulling her and simply saying, come on home, daughter, welcome home. So this father, looking for the son, does the same thing, runs to him, puts his arm around this disheveled, emaciated, filthy, stinky figure, poor economically, come home, welcome home, throws a feast, takes his authority ring off, puts it on the son's finger, takes his coat off, puts it around the filthy clothes, probably soiling his coat, and says, welcome home. Jesus looked over the city of Jerusalem and said, oh, how often I would have gathered you under my wings, but you would not. And brokenheartedly, God has been looking at this nation, brokenheartedly weeping over America and over the church, literally China or Italy, Latin America, Europe, USSR, Soviet Union, Russia, and saying, my arms are outstretched. So when I read the statement by the governor, my heart was broken for our nation, for ourselves. The nation of Israel had turned its back on God, in Deuteronomy chapter 8. And God said, beware. And we've had prophets tell us, beware. I just saw an advertisement on television two nights ago, literally, with a commercial by David Wilkerson giving a prophecy before he died in New York, Times Square Church, the author of Crossing a Switchblade, if you remember. For you that are younger, you may not, but he risked his life to bring the gangs in New York to Jesus, which he succeeded in, though they threatened him with his life. And he said, you can kill me, but if you even cut me up, the pieces of my body will cry out that God loves you. This is the man. And he said, there will be a great plague in New York, and it will literally devastate and shut down this city. And there's been a book written about that, talking about the awakening that's coming. And I was so shocked that on secular television, they were allowing that commercial. It's encouraging, actually. But God said to the children of Israel, as David Wilkerson was saying to us, beware. Now remember, this is the God who loves us. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God. In not keeping his ordinances and his statutes and his commandments, which I command you this day, lest when you have eaten and are full, and when you've built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when your silver and gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then, then your heart be lifted up, and you say in your mind, my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. And you forget the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage. Now think about it. Settlers came to America, and except for the Native American community that was here, and they didn't always treat each other well. I just got an article, just got this article, Native American leaders rise up to intercede for the end to COVID-19. And just today on my cell phone, I got a text from Randy Carruth, who works with Native American tribes all over this country. 178 days they've been praying together, the tribes, in Louisiana at the Coshutta tribe. And even after 178 days, he said we still had 8 or 12 people praying last night against the COVID virus in America, unitedly coming together, John 17, 21, unity, the Native Americans of America. So when we came here to a nation that was a frontier nation, a wilderness, God blessed us. We built a nation. We founded it on a constitution, on a declaration of independence that talked about inalienable rights that came from God. People talk about Benjamin Franklin as if he was not a believer, but before they began to work on portions of the governmental formula in those days, he said, we've prayed before, now we need to pray again. We founded this nation on prayer, and God is calling us to prayer today. Yes, prayer is spiritual. Yes, God does lubricate a city, New York City, a state, New York, Tennessee, Oklahoma. I've had the privilege of working in 50 states in this wonderful country. I've kitched the ground getting out of a coup in Latin America when I got off the plane. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his ordinances. What he gives us in the word of God, those principles of love, those principles of life, we reject them sometimes because we want other things sometimes called sin, sometimes called transgressions, and often they're what we want, and often they look good and smell good and taste good, but they're not what God intended because they don't end up being good. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his ordinances and his statutes and his commandments. Thou shalt not lie. We lie like crazy in Washington, D.C. Thou shalt not kill. Listen to this. How backwards can our minds be? We keep abortion clinics open. We stop unessential surgeries. That's people's heart. Can they live a little heart without the surgery? That's people's knees replacements, and we use N95 masks and PPE to kill children, and then we arrest the Venom Brothers who are keeping social distance, who are praying across the street from the Planned Parenthood Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, these godly young men. We arrest them and others, and the police officer that came out said, you know we have to do this, and they said, we're a 501c3. We have every right to be here, and we're not breaking any laws. He said, I've been told by the city attorneys to do this. Think about it, and then the Michigan governor, and God loves her as much as he loves anyone. God loves that police officer as much as he loves anyone, and she said that Planned Parenthood and the abortion mills, the murder mills are, quote, life-sustaining. Life-sustaining. Well, whose life? Whose life? Whose life? Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his ordinances and his statutes and his commandments which I command thee this day. Last, when you're full and your houses are beautiful and you're wealthy, then you forget the Lord your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt or from the persecution of the Scottish-Irish Presbyterians who fled here, or the Huguenots from Germany who fled here. This nation was built on people persecuted for their faith. They then built the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Half the men involved in this, and they were all men in those days, half of them had theological training. The vast majority of them were believers in God's word. It was the founding book, and our early law books had scripture references right beside of the principles and the commandments of this nation. So why shouldn't God, as Jesus did back then, say, O all country, whether it's Italy or France or America or China, O my nation, my children, how often I would have gathered you under my wings, but you would not. For thou think my power and the might of my hand and my strength built this nation. Excuse me. Excuse me. We were tools that God used to build this nation. We are vessels, muscles, minds. We're also spirits. And just a few verses later in Deuteronomy chapter 8 is redemption. Redemption, Old Testament. Deuteronomy to the nation of Israel. But, big word, I love that word, but, but, if thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, if thou shalt, big if, if thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, he is our God. Whether we believe it or not, he's still our God. He's created God. There's only one God. There's only one God. There are a lot of religions. There's only one God, and he's the God of love. But if thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, it is he, it is he who gives you power. Most powerful country in the world we're called. It is he who gives you power to get wealth. Why? Just to be rich? No. Why? Why? The Bible says that he may establish his covenant with you as it is this day. Israel, the nation of Israel, God's kids, were turning away from their own covenant. They were turning away from their own power. They were turning away from Creator God. My word. I don't know if you watch the news, but I watch it a lot because it tells a lot about revival. God made us for revival. There was a print article recently with a photograph, and it showed a lady in Venezuela with her child kneeling on a church altar with her face turned toward her child. And the headline above it said, when the economy collapses, people collapse before God. This was a secular article, not in a Christian religious magazine. So what God is saying to us today is actually the fulfillment of what Bill Graham prayed for all of his life. I am praying for an old-fashioned, Holy Ghost, heaven-sent revival. That means restoration, renewal for you young people, reset, awakening. I'm praying for God to move, Bill Graham basically said. Around the world, there is a pandemic. It's not just a pandemic of the China virus or the Wuhan virus or the Chinese Communist Party virus, CCP virus, or COVID-19 or the coronavirus. It's all that. It's also a pandemic of fear. Fear was made by God, actually. Once you burn yourself on the stove, you won't go there again because you're afraid. Fear is not a sin. But from the pandemic of fear can come the pandemic of faith. And the stories we're getting in the lighthouse of the Bill Graham Evangelistic Association, and people send them to us and they come to us, are overwhelming. For example, in a small town in Italy was a 38-year-old doctor. And this came from some Wycliffe missionaries to us. 38-year-old physician. His hospital started taking coronavirus patients. He said, they came by the dozens at first. Then they came by the hundreds. And pretty soon, we doctors, and we have a son and daughter- in-law dealing with coronavirus in Colorado right now, selflessly as young physicians. He said, we doctors became selectors on a conveyor belt, determining who we could treat and who we couldn't, because we didn't have enough equipment, and we didn't have enough medicine, and we didn't have enough doctors and nurses. You may know the stories out of Italy. The doctors and nurses who had the coronavirus kept working. They didn't stop. Unless a doctor or nurse was so sick to move, they kept going and helping people. You may have read the story of this very handsome 57-year-old doctor. He had a mask that he wore over and over, but he didn't have any gloves, none, no protective gloves. And everybody told him, stop, don't work with patients dying without gloves. And of course, today he's dead because he gave his life. He sacrificed his life. So this 38-year-old doctor said, we became selectors on a conveyor belt. And he said, in came a 75-year-old pastor, stricken with coronavirus, 75 years old. I'm 72. They say, if you're over 65, quarantine yourself. That man took his Bible. He went from dying patient to dying patient, reading his Bible to them out loud, praying for them and bringing peace into their lives through the Lord Jesus Christ, as many committed their lives to Jesus in their dying days. Now, of course, he died. But the doctors began to try to get close to hear what he was reading, according to this 38-year-old physician. They began to get close to hear the prayers that he prayed. And this 38-year-old physician said, I was an atheist. I had no need of God. But in the midst of this hell, this terror, he called it terror, that we saw every day, I saw peace in that man. And I saw peace in those dying who believed, and I wanted to believe. And now I do. Two of my closest friends' physicians are dead now, and I may go to be with them in death. But I know if I do, I will also find myself with this pastor, because I now believe. So I would say to anyone who hasn't thought it through, please don't say, God had nothing to do with this. He is the great physician. He changes hearts and minds. And a revived, renewed, restored, living 75-year-old child of God going into the terror of an inflamed hospital in Italy was so powerful in his humility and his reading of the Word of God and in prayer when he connected the human heart with the eternal heart of God, that not only have those who receive peace at his ministering hand gone on to be with God Almighty in heaven eternally, but can you only imagine the pyramid of life that will come out of this 38-year-old doctor if he hasn't died or doesn't die, because he's met Jesus. He's met the Eternal One. He's met the Creator, and his life will never be the same. Oh, Lord, help us to turn. Help us like that little lady in Venezuela, get on our knees at the altar and cry out to you. Matthew Henry once said, when God intends great mercy for his people, he, God, first of all, sets them to prayer. Think about that. God calls us to prayer. Think about that. Jesus said, I am the great intercessor. I pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week for you. I utter words you don't even know how to say for yourself. I'm the master prayer warrior. Call unto me. All of us have seen lightning. As the positive charge builds in the clouds through the water vapor and the dust particles, friction develops, a positive charge. And then a leader starts electrically coming out of the clouds toward earth. And then for some reason, the earth begins to build a charge, and a leader starts going up a negative charge. And it goes up just a short ways where the cloud charge comes down a long way. And when they meet, it's called propagation. And when that combustion occurs, we see it and we hear it. It's called lightning. But where that lightning strikes and where it goes through the air is purified. Could it be? Could it be that God is looking down from heaven, and he's the positive charge? And he's pouring out his leaders of love toward his kids, like the father going out looking for the prodigal son to come home so that he can in turn wash him in blessing and care for him? Is it possible that God is putting a leader of love down from heaven, a leader of light in the midst of darkness, dispelling darkness? As Billy Graham went out in his daughter's brokenness and put his arms around and pulled her in and said, welcome home. That little tiny snippet of Billy loving his daughter was cut out of the video when she gave her testimony at Mr. Graham's coronation funeral. And it was reproduced all through the media in India. Because people won't hope, they want a father like that. So as God propagates the heavenlies and puts his love down through his kids, like a 75-year-old doctor into a hospital, the men and women who go to their knees and cry out to God in prayer are building the leader from earth upwards. And guess what? We don't have to go up as far as God's leader will come down to us. God's leader coming down to us is called a cross. By the power of God, it became the resurrection, overcoming sin and death. So don't tell me God had nothing to do with healing. Let's don't lift our arms like we're weightlifters and show what strength we have and say, I did this. I built this economy. I made these factories. I made this powerhouse. God had nothing to do with World War II and the victory. Oh, how idiotic can we be? How blind, how backward can we be? When we say the meal that kills 135,000 babies a day in America, when this virus has killed 35,000 precious souls, but we're taking 135 a day and we kill that life sustaining. God says in the last days, we will see evil as good. And we will see good evil. We are there. We are there. But God also says in the last days, he will pour out his spirit, Joel 2 and Acts 2. He says it twice. So it must be very important. If he says it once like John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. He said that once. He said it a lot of different ways in other places, but he said that once. But in his word, in the Old Testament, Joel 2 and the New Testament Acts 2, God says in the last days, in the last days, wow, it sure looks climactic right now, doesn't it? It certainly looks like a Kairos moment right now, doesn't it? It certainly looks like there's a window for God's children to show light and love right now, doesn't it? But in Joel 2 and Acts 2, God says in the last days, I God, I God will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Isaiah says it another way, the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. America, we think that we are so strong, so smart, and we are forgotten that the blessing to be so smart and so strong came from above, so that we've begun to deteriorate. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. Thou shalt remember. Thou shalt remember the Lord. He's master, thy God. He's creator. He's eternal, and we're not without Him. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it's He who gives you that power to get well, not to revel in it, not to say, I did it. Oh God, forgive us. Forgive us. We thank you for the power. We thank you for the capacity to love. We're very unloving people. We're very selfish people. We're very self- centered people. We're very egotistical people. My, my, my, how we love the mirror of our own reflection. You promised us, Lord, that in the last days you would pour out your spirit. You promised us that it would be the young people who become the proclaimers, the prophets. And we see that today. I've never seen so many young people speak up for Jesus Christ like I do now. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. And you tell us they'll be the visionaries to win the world. And you told us when you were going to go away that we would do greater things, certainly by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also by technology and who knows, media, social media, proclamation tools better than the kids of the world. And I watched them do it. They're phenomenal. Just two weeks ago, I think it was, Charisma had an article on millions come to Christ through COVID-19. And it showed global media outreach. Walt Wilson founded that ministry. Campus Crusades, Jesus.net. Cruz, Jesus.net. The Bill Graham Evangelistic Association, Jesus.net. Tim Kainey, Mark Appleton. Oh, Lord, millions come to Christ through the great cutting-edge ministries and follow-up discipleship. You told us to go make disciples. That's happening. So here we are, Father, in the last days. Here we are, Daddy, with an economy that could collapse. 25 million has been the number of unemployed that would be called a depression, 25 to 30. We're at 26. Can we come back? Steve Moore, one of President Trump's task force for the revitalization said yesterday, thousands, thousands of businesses have already destroyed and they can't come back. We have no idea what's on the other side. But if we think we did it, then we have very little hope left. If we think Washington, D.C., independent, Democrat, Republican, how much we treasure our government, if we think that's the ultimate ends of accomplishment, how wrong we are. Yes, the mind. Yes, the body. But, oh, Lord, the spirit. Oh, Father, we cry out to you on our knees to build a propagation of truth that purifies a nation. Father, we know you put into Dan Bizer's heart this call for a solemn assembly and how desperate we are. Oh, Father, Father, loving Father, we are your rebellious children coming home. We know that prodigal child would have never ended up in the pigpen if he had known. The Father knew what could happen. The Holy Father knows what will happen. But finally, finally, at wit's end, that child came back home. Judges chapter six, finally, when the nation of Israel was broken before a neighboring warrior army that had 900 iron chariots. Finally, they went to their knees and said, God, if you don't help us, why should we have to wait till finally? If you don't help us, we are doomed. Why do we wait till finally, children of God? Revival. The Father then, when he wrapped his arms around the child, he said, for this my child was dead, dead to the family, dead to the world, dead to his economy, dead to quality lifestyle, and soon to be physically dead. For this, my son was dead. He's alive again. He's alive again. Why? Was he any different? No, he still had the same filthy clothes on. He still was as hungry as he had ever been. He still did not have his inheritance. He had wasted it. He still didn't have any security in himself. But when his father wrapped his arms around that child, he's alive again. He was lost. America's lost. America is lost. But now is found. When Ruth Bunny Graham was in her daddy's arms, she had been found. All the joy of that home with her mother standing behind her father was now hers again. In 1857, before the Civil War, America was like we were two months ago. Wealthy, self-assured, turning our backs on God toward pleasure, not evil. Some of the things we do today are evil. I mean, yeah, they had their alcohol and their fights and their anger and their ego. They dressed fine. They ate well. Their children were being educated, especially in the Northeast. There was a little church in New York City. Actually, it had been a big church physically, but around it, all of the industry had moved in and all the people had moved out. So therefore, there was no way to pastor the church because there were no people virtually. So they hired a businessman evangelist named Jeremiah C. Lampier. And Jeremiah C. Lampier came in and he was just simply told, figure it out. And as he looked around, he thought, well, the one thing we can do is pray. Now, ancillarily, a guy named A.T. Pearson once said, there has never been a movement of God that did not begin in concerted, united prayer, communication with God, prayer, talking to the Father, prayer. So Jeremiah C. Lampier, in a sense, didn't know what to do. So why not pray? That's why we often pray, isn't it? We have nowhere else to go. The nation of Israel, God, we're going to be doomed if you don't help us, we pray. God, our economy is going to collapse. We go to our knees and we pray. God, our child is in drugs now, so we pray. Well, that's a good place to start, isn't it? It actually can begin a movement of the Spirit of God in a nation. So Jeremiah C. Lampier went to a printing press, which was one at a time in those days, and printed leaflets and went to all the businesses around that old beautiful church. And he said, next Wednesday, next Wednesday, we're going to have a prayer meeting in the second floor of the consistory building behind the Old North Dutch Church in New York. Come pray. Let's pray for our nation. Let's pray for our families. He was there. Twelve o'clock, noon to one, he said, nobody came. Twelve fifteen, nobody came. Twelve twenty-five, nobody came. Twelve thirty, one. By one o'clock, there were about twenty, they said, history records. Let's do it again. Next Wednesday, forty came, history records. The next Wednesday, sixty came. Fairly soon, the upper floor of the consistory building did not have enough room for all the people coming to pray. And how were they praying? They were just reading a verse of a hymn or singing it, reading a verse of scripture, and then asking people who they wanted prayer for, for salvation. Within six months, the editor of what would then have been the New York Times sent a reporter around with horse and buggy for one hour. You've got one hour to count the number of people praying. He came back to the editor, horse and buggy, one hour, and said, I counted 10,000 people praying. Now, this was not the New York City of today. The population of America at that time was 30 million people. And America ended up, in terms of population, probably on the other side of Kentucky and down. That movement of the Spirit of God, of people praying for unsaved friends, spread like wildfire throughout America. There are stories in Chicago, for example, quite a distance from New York, with four or five thousand people in a major hall. And literally, they said every hall, whether secular or sacred, was full from twelve to one. In those days, they shut down from twelve to one for lunch. And people would either skip their lunch, but they started right on time. They took their bag with them, perhaps, with their lunch in it. And stories abound. Chicago, four thousand people. A woman stood up, explained the destitution of her husband, and said, I'm praying for his salvation. My family needs him. The money he's wasting, our family needs, and I need him. History records that four different men stood up in that congregation, hearing what that woman said. Whether they thought that was their wife or not, I don't know. But they said, I am that man. The number of people in those noontime prayer meetings, coming to Jesus, then going to the Word of God to find the principles and the commandments from Creator God to know how to live, changed the nation. Changed the nation. Changed the nation. Now, you may say, what happened? What caused that? How could that possibly occur? We don't know exactly how it all came about, but we know this. There was a bank collapse, starting around Hamilton, Ontario, and working its way down through America. We would call that today a word that's being bandied about right now, depression. Not inflation. Depression. Economic depression. So many women went from paying rent or buying homes to no money. They went from goodly clothes to worn clothes because they had no money to buy new. They went from plenty of food to very little food to no food. They went from private schools, perhaps, to public schools or public schools to no schools because there was nothing socially. There was no welfare. There was no Medicare, Medicaid. There were no state social services, but they had a God. And they went to their knees and said, Father, help us, just like the Israelis did or the Israelites did years ago, or Bunny did when she went to her daddy. Help us. And Father God reached down. This my son or my daughter was dead, is alive again, was lost, and is found. And the churches grew, society changed, the nation came back. It wouldn't be just like men and women to say two generations later, look what we've done. My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. But in those two years of lay led prayer, Charles Feeney, the great revivalist said he didn't know of a single preacher that ever led one of those. It was led by lay people. And Billy Graham said in America about 16 years ago, we could easily see the next great movement of God be in the marketplace. That's just men and women telling others about Jesus, living for Jesus among others. In those two years, 30 million people, 1 million made commitments to Christ. The nation changed out of brokenness, out of brokenness. No one wants brokenness. But if it takes brokenness, will it require our pocketbooks? Probably. Could it? Yes, it could. Would it require lives, that kind of brokenness when we've turned our back on God so long? My power. No, no, no. Lord, we need your power. 30 million people, two years of prayer, brokenness, 1 million, 1 million connected with God of love, God the Father, God the Redeemer, God the Restorer, God the Creator, not religion, forgive me, not the church as much as we love it, not Christianity as much as we love it. Jesus said, you put me first. Everything else falls into place. The call of God on America today, 2020, my children, I am your father. You've ignored me. I have all your provisions. I want to help you. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered you under my wings as a mother hen does her chicks, but you would not. If that happened today, and I believe it's underway, actually, 300 million people, that would be how many? 10 million, 10 million renewed souls, 10 million coming to Jesus and having the power to overcome sin and death. 10 million, 10 million. What would that mean to a world looking for hope? What would that mean if American capitalism was no longer greedy? What would that mean if American democracy was founded again on God's word of love and forgiveness and mercy and grace and integrity? What would it mean if a man's word was his bond, a woman's word was her character? What would it mean? What would it mean? Now, we have a lot of that coming through our system now because there's a remnant. There's a remnant. Oh, Lord, revive us again that your people may rejoice in you. In every great revival in the history of the church, in every great movement of God, in every reformation, in every restoration, in every reset, the first thing that happens is people meet Jesus himself and are saved, like the doctor, 38-year-old in Italy. They meet the Savior, not the 75-year-old pastor as much as we love him, but he pointed to the Savior. The second thing that always happens is we're going to the word of God to find out about this Jesus, and then we run into things like the Ten Commandments or principles of love, and we'll learn how to be forgiving and loving and kind. Then we go to God's word every day to learn more a little bit at a time, like we sip on the word of God. That's what Billy Graham said he did daily. That's called the devotional life. That's how we become disciples. Then we want to tell others. We want to tell others about God's love, about hope, about meaning, about purpose, and that's called witnessing. We give titles. We put courses and programs together, and it can organically come from the heart of God to the heart of man or woman. And then, and then joy fills the church. Joy, joy, a relationship with the Father. This my son was dead. He is alive again. My daughter was dead. She is alive again. It doesn't matter about age. Actually, it doesn't matter about gender. We're children of God. My son was lost, but now he's found. Shall we pray? Just take a moment where you are, cry out to God and say, Oh, Father, may it be so. Father, touch our hearts. You made our hearts. So the question, ask yourself, how's my heart? How's my heart? Father, we give you our hearts by faith. In Jesus' name. Amen. We've got a few minutes to go. In Christian history, no phenomenon is more clear than the recurrence of the movements of the Spirit of God. When these occur, repentance, unchange, unchains, passions to be pure, to be holy, to be like Jesus. It's a supernatural process that God uses. And when God comes close to us, at first, it's like terror to be so close to purity. Then it's brokenness and then it's joy. Conviction. Confession. Repentance. Conviction. It just means to see as God sees. Lord, show me Tom in light of the perfect mirror of Jesus Christ. Confession. That just means biblically to agree with God. Oh, God, I'm a sinner. In all the crusades I've been a part of in over a hundred countries, it has nothing to do with culture. Culture is the way we live in our country. We're all essentially the same. It's when God, the Holy Spirit, drives the truth of His Word into the human heart, and we're convicted lovingly. And we confess, I agree, God. And then repentance. We always think of repentance as turning from sin, which it is. But it also means turning to Jesus. It's a very positive thing, as well as a turning from. So what really is revival? Revival is a work of God's Spirit. First, moving upon His own people. What we call revival is simply New Testament Christianity. The saints getting back to normal. Tom, are you saying we're abnormal? No, I think God is saying we're abnormal. Holiness. Purity. The essence of revival is when the Holy Spirit comes down on a number of gatherings called churches. Provinces, states, cities, nations. It is, if you will, a visitation of the Holy Spirit. Spirit of God, fall afresh on me. We live in a wicked world, don't we? I find wickedness in my own heart. I can be angry. I can be evil. I can be lustful. I can be prideful. Oh, God, when I go to my knees and I pray about the wickedness in Washington, D.C., or what happened perhaps in other countries that have impacted our country, then one day when I'm on my knees, you hold a mirror in front of my face. And in that mirror, I don't just see Tom reflected, but I see my reflection in the face of the purity of Jesus. And the filth in my face, my being, is overwhelming. And I'm broken. And we can be broken through a bank collapse, a family crisis, or we can be broken through obedience, going to the Word of God and seeking Jesus and saying, show me, convict me. I pray, literally, I pray for conviction. Why? Because it's the best way to live. I want to see myself as God sees me and give him those parts of me that are Tom's, not Jesus's. When we look at the world, let's be very careful of our criticism. If society as a whole seems to be getting darker and darker, it may not be a problem with the darkness. The darkness is just acting out its nature. But it is that the light no longer dispels. That's us. Jesus said, you're the light of the world. And the salt no longer preserves where the salt of the earth. So it may be time for the light and the salt to say, if things are darker, the problem may be with us. I'm actually quoting Henry Blackaby, experiencing God. Is it possible that the church is not blameless in all of this evil in America today? Is it possible that God and his love is building a wave of cleansing? We used to live in San Diego, and I had buddies that taught me how to surf. Godly Christian buddies who've been drug addicts, part of the Jesus movement. Paddle out, wait on the next set of waves, wait for the best one. Power in that wave and take it in. How much fun. Whenever there was the tsunami in Japan after Fukushima, and Franklin came to me and said, would you go back and help? We had just finished a crusade in Osaka, Japan. He said, I said, well, you've got me going to Africa tomorrow for the crusade. He said, can you skip that? Let someone else do that. Can you go back to Japan? Now, not everybody wants to go where there's radiation and you have to wear a dosimeter, a Geiger counter on your belt. But I felt peace from God. This is God's work. And I know Franklin, who is my prayer partner for 25 years. We started over that. We started in 1975, praying for each other. Wouldn't ask me if he didn't tell us it was of God. We don't do what we do. We do what God wants us to do. Jesus said, if I'm speaking, it's because my father has given me the words. If I'm doing, it's because my father's guided me. Mr. Graham said, God, I'll go anywhere you want me to go. I'll do anything you want me to do. I'll be anything you want me to be. Just guide me. So I ended up on a beach in Sendai, Japan. Huge beach, hundreds of yards in depth, miles long. And when that tsunami came in, it went in about a mile and took away every home. I mean, every home. Every home. It's a wealthy area. Every home. There was one Frank Lloyd Wright concrete thing that had a shell left and one metal home somebody built that collapsed, but the rest were gone. But on that beach, there was not a piece of trash, not a piece of wood, not a piece of paper, not a piece of metal. The power of that wave had washed the beach clean as it came in and receded. When God moves, there's a wave that comes in from some unseen continent and moves with gathering momentum, which no one can comprehend. And it can move with unbelievable swiftness of conviction, bringing about confession and repentance. The Bible says in Habakkuk, Lord, I've heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew your deeds. Renew your fame in our day. In our time. In our time, make them known, O God. In wrath, remember mercy. When Bill Graham put his arms around Daughter, he didn't say, Daughter, what a mess you've made of your life. Mercy. Welcome home. When the prodigal's father put his arms around this filthy, disheveled, emaciated figure, he didn't say, see, I told you so. He said, welcome home. Will you not, Lord, revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you. Father, we've forgotten you. We've forgotten you. But it happened like a frog in a kettle. In 1954 was the Johnson Amendment. It wasn't designed for this, but people took it and the IRS used it, it seems, to shut the mouth of the church, talking about real things in real life. In 1962, Lord, for some reason, we allowed the Bible to come out of our schools in prayer in 63. 1971, we came up with something called no-fault divorce. First attack on marriage. Civil unions are secular. Marriage is from you, God. In 1973, we started killing babies. We called it Roe versus Wade. And we thank you, Father, that that young lady who followed that suit became a believer and was baptized by Flip Benham. And her best friend, a lesbian friend, was baptized as well when they came to Christ. In the early 1980s, we took the Ten Commandments out of public buildings. And we wonder what's happened. You told us in your word, Lord, we will see you work when your people get totally right with you. Lord, I can't get totally right with you. I'm Tom. Tom comes out sometimes and I'm embarrassed, my ego, my pride, myself. But we do know this and we believe this. When your kids are revived by you, the Reformation of sinners will follow. We will have the greatest number of people coming to know you, salvations, disciples, maturing, sharing with others when the church is thus awakened. So, Father, we believe your sovereignty is indicating that you are near. We believe that our wickedness grieves and humbles us. We also see a spirit of prayer today for revival. We believe we're in the greatest prayer movement the world's ever seen. We see the attention of ministers directed to revival. There are more books on revival. There are more preaching on revival. We know, Lord, that something unusual is occurring right now in the pulpits of America. We even see that in England. Our friends there are telling us that the more mainline churches who had become very erudite theologians and wonderful communicators of complex truth from the pulpits are now becoming evangelists again. I think of the one young pastor in England who said, I have 100 people in my congregation before COVID-19 and I had to start streaming and now I have 10,000 on Sunday mornings. We believe with all of our heart, Lord, that you will move when your kids, Christians, are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to carry it out, the movement of your spirit. We also believe, Lord, that when your ministers and laity are willing for you, God, to promote your spiritual awakening by whatever instrument you please. And, Lord, if it takes this kind of pressure that we're going through now, there may be more. We receive it. We think, Lord, of how petroleum ignites. In a gasoline engine, it takes a spark plug in a spark, and we believe in sparks of revival, and we believe in light. We also know, Father, that when it's done with the combustion pressure called a diesel engine, that there's actually more power that comes out of the pressure than comes out of the spark. And you're putting a lot of pressure on us right now. So, Father, by faith, we claim Isaiah 60 in verse 2. Oh, children of God, rise up. Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you. Darkness, you told us, and I believe tell us right now, darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth. You always put that wonderful bud in, Lord, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you. Father, we pray for that light. Little pinpricks of light where people say, may I help you in Jesus' name. Those pinpoints of light which are the lives of your kids, going through like a laser beam through life daily and touching others. Those pockets of light in wonderful Bible study groups, wonderful compassion ministries, ministries fighting against human trafficking. We pray for those pockets of light to continue to come out. Father, we pray for the passion of light, people who just get together and work for the better because they're passionate, that passion comes from you. And Lord, we pray for those patterns of light. I just think back to my buddy, Franklin Graham, going to 50 state capitals in 2016, calling people to prayer, calling people to go back to the word of God. Your psalmist tells us, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor seats in the seat of the scoffers, but his or her delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, that man or that woman meditates day and night, he or she is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither and all that it does prospers. Lord, we took credit for prospering. We come back to you and believe we can come back as your word tells us, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he who gives you power to get well. Why? That he may establish his covenant of love and salvation and redemption as it is in this day. We claim your word that tells us you uncover the deep things out of the darkness and bring the shadows of death, which is happening now, to light. Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Therefore, the light of life, therefore, let your light so shine before men and women that they may see your good works that come from your Father, your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. The Bible says the darkness is passing away, and we believe that is happening right now with COVID-19, and the true light is already shining. May it be so. We have just a couple of minutes for prayer, and so let's pray together, shall we? Father, we do pray for light. We don't think we're much, and maybe we're not. In the great revivals of history, you've used leaders of note. In this great revival underway today, you're using millions of light spots. Light is so powerful, Father. It doesn't destroy darkness. Where light is, there just isn't any darkness. There's no battle there. There's no victor and defeated one. That would be in man's terms. Light comes from you, and when light shines, there is no darkness. Jesus, you said, I am the light of the world, and then you told us to be that light. A pinprick stopping, helping a person pick up a packet that they dropped and saying, Jesus loves you. I did this for him, or may I do this for you in Jesus' name, or going to the elderly person next door with a bag of groceries and saying, I know you can't go to the grocery store, and I got these for you, or calling and saying, I know you can't go to the grocery store. May I get what you need, but in Jesus' name, a pinprick, a gesture of love in Jesus' name. A pinpoint. Your life, a laser beam through darkness with your spouse, your friends, your home, your family, your work. You're different because you love. Now, do you mess up? Sure you do. Conviction, confession, repentance. Get right back on track. I'm going down the freeway, and I mess up. I just pull off the next clover eight and go the other way. That's how quickly conviction, confession, and turning back to Jesus can occur. A pocket of light. Organize. There's so much organization going on right now. Streaming everywhere. National prayer groups everywhere. Will Graham had a Friday celebration. Good Friday. Nick Hall Pulse had a Friday celebration. Churches are streaming. One pastor, 100 in England to 10,000 that I told you about. That's amazing. That's just amazing. Are they getting the income they once got? Nope. I just read an article. God's renewing the church in different ways. Putting pressure on us in different ways. Passions of life. What's your passion for others? What's your passion for God? Do you have like-minded friends who are that passionate? Lastly, patterns. In this city, we have so many people working against human trafficking and for Jesus. Eighth human trafficking city in the world. Rising up. Young people, especially, since sonograms have come out. Rising up against the murder of the unborn. People just going to others and forgetting about their color and saying, God loves you. So do I. I heard an old evangelist once say, God says it's so, so act like it's so. So he can make it so. Do you love your enemy? God says it's so. You do. So act like it's so. So he can make it so. Father, bring your revival to your church. Allow your church to explode in your love, hope, purpose, meaning, and joy. That in turn will draw the unsaved. Paul's in prison in Philippians. The word joy and rejoice is used more than any time in the Bible. Why? Because as he was beheaded, his love, that was your love, Father, started a new church. And within 300 years, 50 percent, 50 percent, 50 percent of all the Roman Empire were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Couldn't have been more precious than that. Took his life. Like that 75-year-old pastor in Italy. May you reproduce your light and life and love in ways we've never seen. In the next three minutes, that's all we have. I'm going to be quiet. And let's pray for God to move. Every great movement of the Spirit of God begins in united, concerted, may I add, persevering, persistent prayer. Let's pray. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Jk0_BchfX0.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/tom-phillips/what-is-revival/ ========================================================================