Revival

Psalm 85, and we're just going to read one verse, and what I want to do at the beginning of this meeting this afternoon is speak a little bit about revival, revival. It's interesting, in this past week, a number of people, by way of conversation, by way of text, and various other ways, have spoken to me about the need of revival. And so, this afternoon, I want to speak a little bit about that subject.

Psalm 85, in verse 6, for one verse, it says, will thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Will thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? You know, when it comes to revival, it has the idea of improvement in condition or strength. It's the idea of becoming active again. It's speaking about life that is already there.

It's not the idea of being born again, but it's speaking to those that are born again, those that have spiritual life, and it seems that they need to have a stirring up, and they need to be awakened. And that's really what revival is all about, and I would agree that we need revival amongst us today. And there's five things that I want to notice with you this afternoon in relation to revival.

If there's ever going to be revival amongst us, we need, first of all, the Lord. We need the Lord. Secondly, we need life.

Thirdly, we need light. Fourth, we need liberty. And last but not least, if there's ever going to be revival amongst us, we need love.

We need love. But where does revival begin? Is it going to begin in the world? Is it going to begin in Christendom as we know it today? Is it going to begin in the community around us? Is it going to begin in the local church? Where is revival going to begin? It's going to begin in the heart of... Right here. It's going to begin in my heart.

It's going to begin in your heart. And if revival would take place, if there would be an awakening, if there would be again this desire for the things of God, a thirst for the things of God, certainly it's going to trickle out into the local assembly. It's going to have an effect upon each and every one of us.

It's going to have an effect on our communities. It's going to have an effect on Christendom as we know it. And yes, it is going to have an effect on this world in which we live.

We need revival amongst us today. I could notice with you a number of examples, but we're not going to do that in relation to the heart. But I want to notice, first of all, that if there's ever going to be revival amongst us, we need the Lord.

We need the Lord. We are living in such an independent world, a world that is self-centered, self-display, self-gratifying, self-satisfying, self-empowered. We're living in a world that says, I can do it.

We're living in a world today that says, I don't need the Lord. But dear brother and sister today, if there's ever going to be revival in your heart or in my heart, we're going to have to realize this. I need the Lord.

The Lord Jesus himself said in John chapter 15, he says, without me you can do nothing. Or you can do nothing without me. I wonder today, do we believe that? We don't act like that at times.

We look to ourselves rather than looking to the Lord. And so I just want to stir us up just a little bit at the beginning of this meeting, that if there's ever going to be revival in your heart, in my heart, in the local assemblies as we know them, we have to understand today, we need, we need the Lord. Secondly, there's a need for life.

You know, when I think of that, I think of two things. I think of spiritual life, and I think of physical life. Just last week, I was in Toronto having some ministry meetings, and I took up the the church at Ephesus, Romans chapter, Revelation chapter 2 rather.

And again, we took up the church at Laodicea, Revelation chapter 3. And of course, there, as the Lord Jesus is speaking to that church there in Laodicea, he says to them, you're neither cold nor hot. He says, I wish that you were either cold or hot. But he says, you're lukewarm.

Lukewarm. He says, I would spew you out of my mouth. In other words, he says, I would vomit you out of my mouth.

I wonder today, are we lukewarm? Do we have that zeal for God? Do we have that desire for the things of God? You know, as I think of that idea of being lukewarm, I think one of the things that the Lord Jesus is bringing before that church, it's this, that they have become like the world around them. There was no distinction between them anymore and the world. But they have become like those around them.

I wonder today, is that true of you and I? Have we become lukewarm? You know, it's interesting if you were to take a hot cup of coffee, and I like a hot cup of coffee in the morning, and you were to take a cold glass of water. And if you were to place that whole hot cup of coffee in this room, and that cold glass of water in the same room, what's going to happen after time? They are going to become lukewarm. In other words, they're going to take on the temperature of that room.

I wonder today, have we taken on the temperature of this world? We need spiritual life. We need to be not just simply churchgoers. We need to be God chasers.

I wonder today, are you a God chaser or just simply a churchgoer? There's a need for spiritual life, spiritual vitality, a zeal for the things of God. But not only that, we need physical life. I appreciated the word yesterday of all our brethren, and I appreciated the word that Al Christofferson gave yesterday afternoon in relation to our young people.

Can I say today, we need you, young men, young women, young families, young children. We need you. But can I say to the older brethren amongst us today, and the dear sisters amongst us today, we need you.

Can I say this today, that when it comes to the younger generation and the older generation, it's not the thought that, well, one is on this side of the room and another is on that side of the room. But no, we're in the room together. We need one another.

And I don't think we realize that sometimes. I don't think our older brethren realize that they need the younger brethren. Sometimes our younger brethren, they don't realize they need the older brethren.

Brothers and sisters, we need one another. We need one another. Physical life.

I was telling someone just the other day that there was an older couple in a local assembly back where I'm from, and they weren't happy in the local assembly. Because, see, there was a young couple there, and they had a baby about six months old. And that baby made too much noise in the meeting.

And it got to a point where they thought, well, we're gonna leave this assembly and we're gonna drive down the road to that assembly. Now, what was the difference between those two assemblies? Well, in the assembly that they were, there were young children, there were young couples. And the assembly down the road, there was no young children, there was no young couples.

I hope we appreciate our young people. And I hope we appreciate the old people, the older saints amongst us. You know, too many times, I'm just gonna say this for an encouragement to young mothers here today.

If your little child makes a little noise, that's okay. Don't stay home. You come and you bring them along with you.

But we need the Lord if there's ever going to be revival amongst us. We need life, spiritual vitality, physical life. We need one another.

But we need light. We need light. You know, when I think of light, I want you to think of the Word of God.

I wonder what place does the Word of God have in our lives? What place does the Word of God have in our local assembly? Is the Word of God the authority? You know, there's people today and they're making major spiritual decisions that not only are going to affect them, but they're going to affect their partner in life. And they're going to affect their children. And not just this generation, but the generations to come.

And I wonder today, is the Word of God the authority that we're going to go by? I'm not talking about personal preference or personal opinion. I'm talking about the Word of God. The Word of God must be an authority in our lives, in the local assembly, if there's ever going to be revival amongst us.

You know, sad to say, oftentimes we treat the Word of God like a buffet. I want to tell you, I love going to buffets. I just walk in and I just see those tables of food.

And the different kinds of food. And you know, I can take my plate and I can pick and choose what I want to eat. Not like at home, I have to eat everything on my plate.

And I can pick up a little bit of this. And I can pick a lot of that. And I don't like that, so I'm just going to leave that for Scott.

I love the buffet. But I wonder today, is that how we treat the Word of God? Like a buffet? Oh, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Oh, I don't like that.

Dear brothers and sisters, might we have a healthy diet of the Word of God? And might we be like Timothy? I believe he's been referred to over this weekend already. He put himself, as it were, under the sound of good teaching. He had an appetite for the Word of God.

I wonder, do you and I have an appetite? Do we feed on the Word of God? If there's ever going to be revival amongst us, we need the Lord. We need life. But we need light.

The light of God's Word. The fourth thing I want you to notice with me when it comes to revival is a need for liberty. You know, there's a couple of things that I'm thinking about when it comes to to liberty here, I'm thinking, first of all, of the need of the Spirit of God amongst us, allowing the Spirit of God to direct us, whether it be in our local meetings, whether it be in our individual lives, we need to be spirit directed.

We need to be filled with the Spirit of God. That's not the idea, as you know, of getting more of the Spirit, but the Spirit needs to get more of us. I wonder today, are we governed by the flesh and the desires of the flesh, even in our local meetings at times? Or are we being directed by the Spirit of God? You know, as I think of the need for liberty, I think of not only the thought that we need to have spirit directed lives, but we need to allow the Spirit of God to raise up gifts amongst us.

And we need to recognize gift amongst us. You know, too many times, too many times, God raises up a young man. He's got gift.

And rather than encourage him, we discourage him. You know, even when it comes to the sisters amongst us, I can tell you, God wants to use you. And in no doubt he has.

We need to recognize gift amongst us. We need to be praying that God is going to raise up men, that God is going to raise up women to carry the torch, as it were. And that these individuals, that you and I can be a blessing to others in the local assembly and those in our communities.

The assembly is a wonderful place to be able to exercise gift for God. You know, dear young brother, I want to encourage you. As we mentioned yesterday, come to the meeting with a little something to offer up to God.

When it comes to the local prayer meeting and the Bible study, come with an exercise to pray. Study that chapter out so you can be a help. I can remember when I was a young Christian, hadn't been saved that long in the local assembly.

I always tend to keep my mouth shut during a Bible reading. Now, you might have a hard time believing that, but it was true in the beginning. But then there was times, you know, when I would be sitting there and I'm looking at the sisters.

And I thought to myself, I know some of these sisters. And if they had the opportunity, if they were allowed to participate, they would have something to offer. And here I am, sitting in my seat with my mouth closed.

As a result of that, I got exercised. And I put time into the Bible reading. I put time into the different meetings of the assembly.

And I want to encourage each and every one of us here today to do the same. If there's ever going to be revival amongst us, we need the Lord. We need life.

We need light. We need liberty. But if there's ever going to be revival amongst us, we need love.

We need love. First Corinthians 13 and 8 says love never fails. Everything else will.

But the Bible says love never fails. You know, there's four areas that I want to notice with you in relation to love. We need, first of all, a love for God.

I'm sure today that if I were to go up and down the different aisles and ask you, do you love God? You'd be quick to respond. Of course, I love God. Is that evident in your life? Is that evident in your attitude when it comes to your priorities? Do you love God? Does, do you give God his proper place in your life? Do I give God his proper place in my life? A love for God.

We need to have a love for his word. Now you might think this is a strange question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Do you read your Bible? Do you know how many Christians don't? Oh, they might open their Bible when it comes to meeting time.

And maybe they may open their Bible, you know, after supper time. And if you do that, I want to keep, I want to encourage you to keep doing that. And if you don't do that, I want to encourage you to do that.

But we need to be into the word of God because the word of God is like a love letter. Do you treat the word of God like a love letter? My wife isn't with me today, but I can remember before we were married, she used to send me some love letters. Do you know I still have those love letters? They're tucked away in a little black box and she doesn't know where it is.

The word of God is like a love letter. You know, there's a dear friend of mine. His name is John Fleming back in oil Springs.

And he told me a story one time about letters that he had received from his wife to be Jeanette. And he lived about three, three miles from the, the post office uptown oil Springs. And he would get on his tractor.

He told me years ago, he would get on the tractor and he would drive to the post office. Bang. He would go to the post office and he was looking for a letter who from who from Jeanette.

And sure enough, there was a letter in the post box and he would pull it out and he would look at it and he would put it in his pocket and he would walk outside the post office and he would get on his old tractor. But before he could even turn it on, he had to open the letter and he'd read it. And after he was done reading it, he would fold it up again, nice and neat and put it in his pocket and he would start the old tractor and he'd start heading for home.

Bang. And then he would pull over to the side of the road. And then you know what he would do? He would reach into his pocket and he'd read it again.

He says, you know, there were, there were times when I read that letter three or four times before I even got home. Why? Because of the one that wrote him that letter. I want to tell you today that when it comes to your Bible, when it comes to my Bible, it's like a love letter from God.

Brothers and sisters, we need to be reading it each and every day. Not only do we need to have a love for God, not only do we need to have a love for his word, we need to have a love for one another. The Lord Jesus said, how is this world going to know that you belong to me? It's by your love towards one another.

Sad to say, you know, sometimes we can't even shake the hand of the person that's sitting beside us. Take a good look. Just turn to the side.

Can you shake that person's hand? Can you give that person a great big hug? Is it evident in, in your life, in your local assembly, whatever the case may be, that you have a love for one another? I've never been to Cedar Falls before. This is my first time. Met a lot of people this weekend and I don't remember your name.

But I wonder, does this community know that you love one another? Brothers and sisters, we need to have a love for God. We need to have a love for his word. And we need to have a love for one another.

But not only that, we need to have a love for the lost. I wonder today, do we have a love for the lost? Those that are in their sins? Do we have a concern for their souls? Thank God for those Sunday school children today. Wasn't it good to see him? Shake your head.

Amen! That's what I was waiting for. It's good to see him. Do we have a love for the lost? Are we willing to go out of our way for the lost? I'm going to tell you one story and then I'm going to sit down.

You know, we began the work there in, in Leamington, Ontario, back in 2002 and God blessed and we started meeting in a, in an old, old dilapidated building. Well, it's not quite that bad, but I can remember one Sunday morning when I came early to open up for the meetings of the Sunday, the Lord's Day, there was a woman and she was sitting on the front steps of the Gospel Hall. And as I drove up, I thought to myself, now what have we got here? Because to me, she was in her pajamas with a housecoat on.

And not only that, she was smoking a cigarette. So I parked my car and I walked up to the Gospel Hall. And I said to this woman, I said, can I, can I help you? She says, yes.

She says, I want to go to church today. I says, well, then you're in the right place. That's why I'm here.

I'm opening up the doors and, and come on in. And she can spend the morning with us. You can come to church with us today.

Her name was Joan. And Joan was ready to file in behind me. And I just said to Joan, don't do me one favor, finish your cigarette and then come on in.

And she did. But she was a little bit of a chain smoker. So Joan would disappear every five minutes and she was out beside the Gospel Hall smoking her cigarettes.

Well, you know, Joan was an interesting character. You know, there'd be times when I would be ministering the word of God. And, and as I was ministering the word of God, Joan would interrupt me.

She says, Bert, I don't agree with you. I says, well, Joan, I says, how about you and I talk about it after the meeting? She says, okay. And then she just was quiet and she was listening for the rest of the meeting.

There was times, you know, when, when Joan, she wanted to sit in the circle Sunday morning and, and we told her, no, Joan, you, well, you need to be saved and baptized and, and then you come into the fellowship. And, and one morning, you know, Joan, she came in and she charged for the front and she sat down right in the circle. And I'm thinking now, what are we going to do? I don't want to make a scene.

I don't want to make all kinds of commotion. I don't think that's necessary. And I don't think it's going to help a lot of times.

But one of the brethren, he, he said to Joan, Joan, can you kindly come back and sit in the seat here? And, and she complied and she did. Whereas one time, you know, Joan came and, and she wanted to give money to the church. She says, you know, I, I've set a little bit of money aside and, and she says, I want to give it to the Lord.

And of course we, we discouraged her a little bit from that and said, well, no, that's not necessary, Joan. We're, we're interested in you. We're not interested in your money.

And so Joan, on one particular Lord's day, she came and she sat right near the, the, the circle there. And she knew in her mind that the bag would go from this person to that person. And she strategically placed herself right there.

And of course the, the bag went around and as it was going from this person here to this person here, she got up and she, she put her hand in the bag and she dropped in her money and she kind of looked at me as if to say, gotcha. I want to tell you something. There was times when Joan got under my skin.

One afternoon, the majority of the Christians had gone home and it was just myself and a few others in the building and Joan. And I said to Joan, Joan, I says, why do you come here Sunday after Sunday, after Sunday, Joan, why do you come here? And you know what she said? She says, because I feel loved here. I feel loved here.

I said to Joan, Joan, we do love you and you keep coming. You know, Joan, she professed to get saved. Joan had led a hard life and sometimes I got upset with her.

But you know, God brought that woman into my life, not so I could teach her something, but God brought that woman into my life so she could teach me something. To love those from the outside. And I don't like that word.

People call me an outsider. I've been saved for 22 years in the assembly for 20 years, and I'm still an outsider. I'm a child of God.

I am. But when there are those that come in from from the outside, do they feel loved? I'm just gonna share this with you. You know, when I got saved, I didn't, I didn't come to the assemblies right away.

I tried to stay in my church. And I tried to share the gospel with those in my church. But over time, God made it very clear to me that my place wasn't there.

And he led me to the to the assemblies as we know it today. And I'm thankful for that. But I can remember one of the first meetings that I went to, it was to an assembly that I didn't, I didn't know anything about, and they didn't know anything about me.

And, and I came in, and it was a Sunday morning, and I sat back in the back seat, the seat of the unlearned, the seat of observation. And I witnessed the breaking of bread. And I thought to myself, this, this is, this is what it's about.

And after the meeting, I stood at the back of that big hall, and nobody, nobody welcomed me. Nobody took an interest in me. And when I left that day, I thought to myself, I'm never going back there again.

We need to have a love for the lost. We need to have a love for those that come in amongst us, whether they be unbelievers or other believers. And we need to show people that we care, that we care.

So I'm going to sit down and I apologize. I've taken 10 minutes and 30 seconds. If there's ever going to be a revival amongst us, we need the Lord.

We need life. We need light. We need liberty.

And we need, we need love. May the Lord bless His word.