A Plea for Corporate Revival

Would you read with me in Psalms 85 and verse 1, we'll read the first six verses. Psalms 85 and verse 1. The Psalmist is crying out to the Lord and he says, "Lord, you have been favorable to your land. You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger. Restore us, O God of our salvation and cause your anger toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?

Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?" Now remember friends that the scriptures, the Old Testament is written for the admonition of every born again follower of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Amen? So tonight on this Monday night, I believe the Lord would have me to do some remnant preaching because every Baptist church has a remnant. I've been in about 700 of them from this size to 5,000 and everything in between and every one of them has a remnant. And the remnant are the ones who have come to Jesus Christ on his terms.

The remnant are the ones who have left the big pen of their self-centered, self-directed, self-pleasing life and have savingly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's who I want to speak to you tonight. Now notice the passage that the psalmist is giving a passionate plea for corporate revival. He's calling on the Lord to turn the hearts of his people fully and entirely toward him. The psalmist is crying out. He's pleading to the Lord that the Lord would deliver his people from double-mindedness and grace them with a revival of a single-minded devotion to the Lord.

So he prays, he cries out, "Will you not revive us, O Lord, so that your people may rejoice in you. They may delight in you. They may exalt in you. They may glory in you as the number one obsession of their life." Now a lukewarm believer will never be a joyful believer, but a repentant and revived believer will be overflowing with the joy of God's salvation. Amen? The New Testament says the fruit of the Spirit is love and what? Joy, the very evidence that someone has been converted to Christ, that they have been truly born again, is that they worship God in spirit and they rejoice in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

This joy is a manifest evidence of a person who's been born again, who knows Jesus Christ and who is being moved along by the Spirit of Christ. Oh, but when King David was in desperate need of repentance and personal revival, he cried, "Lord, restore unto me the joy of your salvation." And here in this text, the psalmist fully understands the desperate need of revival among the people of God, which brings me to my first point tonight. Remember I'm speaking to the remnant. If you're here and you've never come to Jesus on his terms, you're eavesdropping tonight.

I'm speaking to those who are born again followers and the first point tonight is our desperate need of true biblical revival. Now you may be sitting here thinking if you know the scriptures that, brother Ed, that word revival is not even a New Testament word. It's not found in the New Testament. Oh, but there is a New Testament synonym for this word revival. It's the word the Lord Jesus used to five of the seven churches that he was speaking to in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation when he called on five of those seven churches to repent.

The church at Ephesus had fallen away from the fire and freshness of their first love intimacy with Jesus. And the Lord said to them, "You need to remember from where you have fallen, repent and return to that first love worship of the Lord." The churches at the Pergamos and Thyatira have become filled with doctrinal and moral contamination and the Lord of the church commanded them to repent. The church at Sardis was giving a hypocritical testimony of they said they were alive and in reality they were dead and the Lord of the church commanded them to repent.

The church at Laodicea was operating in self-deception and lukewarmness and complacency and lethargy and apathy. They thought they were rich and wealthy and had need of nothing, but they did not know that they were wretched, miserable, poor, naked and blind. And the Lord said to them, "Be zealous and repent." So when I used the word revival, I'm simply describing a genuine repenting of our subnormal, cold, lethargic, backslidden version of Christianity and a blazing return to a normal, living, vibrant, victorious Christianity. Now you may be thinking, "Brother Ed, I know I'm converted.

I know I'm born from above and I don't need personal revival." Well let's take a look at some critical issues and discover whether you're in need of personal revival. And the first issue is this. When you see a lack of passionate, persistent prayer going on in your daily life, when you see that lack, you can be absolutely certain you're in desperate need of revival.

When you don't find yourself having prayer as the supreme priority in your life, when you're neglecting daily time, quality time, priority time, consistent time, and worship of the Lord and praise and thanksgiving of the Lord, confession of your sins to the Lord if you're not involved in daily petitions to the Lord and daily intercession for others seeking the face of the Lord. Listen, you can be certain you're in need of revival because when your prayer life is inconsistent and weak, your walk with Jesus is inconsistent and weak. Prayer is spiritual breathing for the born again child of God.

So if a true disciple of Jesus is holding their breath, certainly they're in need of revival. But there's a second critical issue and it's this. When the biblical knowledge that you are receiving from these pastors is treated as just external facts to tantalize your intellect and not the word of God to radically be applied to your life and be transforming your life, if that's not happening, you're in desperate need of revival. The word of God is not given to tickle our minds. It's given to illuminate our mind and to renovate our thinking processes.

It's given so that we would be applying the word to every compartment of our lives so that we would be being transformed from one level of glory to the next so that you would be becoming more like your Lord and savior and less like this flesh that you're incorporated in. When the word of God is not being applied, renovating your mind, changing your life, you can be certain you're in need of revival. But there's a third critical issue, a possibility that you may need revival. I'm speaking to the remnant tonight and it's this truth. In corporate worship of the Lord loses its thrill and its joy and delight, you are in crucial need of revival.

When you find yourself just going through the motions of corporate worship without a blazing adoration of Jesus in your heart that is resulting in you weakly placing your life at the disposal of the Lord in response to that corporate worship, if that's not a reality in a believer's life, they need revival. You remember when the Lord Jesus was evangelizing the woman at the well and he said these words to the Lord Jesus. He said, "God is seeking more Baptist church members." Is that what he said? No, we've got at least 12 million too many. He's not seeking church members.

He's seeking worshipers who will worship them in spirit with a sincere heart that is boiling over an adoration of Jesus and allegiance to Jesus. He is seeking those who will worship him in truth and that is having a seven day a week lifestyle that is guided and governed by the truth of the word of God so that that born again believer is presenting the totality of their life to the Lord as a living sacrifice, as a holy sacrifice. And listen, if that is not a response that is taking place in your life to your corporate worship, you're in desperate need of revival.

I'm speaking about the possibility that there are born again disciples in this room who came on a Monday night who are in desperate need of revival. There is a four possible evidence that you may need revival and it's this. Listen closely. When entertainment, recreation, or sports has become a dominating and necessary part in the lifestyle of a born again disciple, they need revival. That current out of balance focus on worldly entertainment, sports, amusement, they realize it's not biblical. It does not magnify Jesus. It does not honor God. But if that is a dominating part of their life, they need revival. We weren't saved to play around.

We were saved to worship him. So we learned how to walk with him and work with him and reproduce fruit for the glory of God. But when amusements or sports have become a dominating focus in a born again believers life they need revival. Here's another evidence that someone in this room may be in desperate need of revival. It is this when fleshly sins of the body and the mind can be indulged in without a mighty uproar of the conscience, that person's in need of revival. Oh, you may remember a time that you were walking in such sweet intimacy with Jesus and you were so sensitive to any sin that would come into your life.

You'd be quick to confess it and renounce it and forsake it. But because that sweet intimacy has deteriorated, your sensitivity to sin has deteriorated. And when a saint has been desensitized to sin, they are in critical need of revival. But here's another possible evidence that there's someone in this room who's born of God but who needs revival. And it is this when the acquisition of money and material possessions becomes an all consuming focus in the thought life of a child of God, they are in desperate need of revival. Because the New Testament commands us to set our affections on things above and not the things of this world. Amen. Amen.

Our Lord and our master teacher, Jesus, says to us in Luke 16, he says, listen to this, make friends for yourself by unrighteous mammon, by money. Make friends for yourself by that money so that when you fail, when you die, when you leave this world, those friends that you have made with your money may welcome you into your everlasting home. You know what he's saying there? He's saying invest your excess money and wealth in things that have eternal value and not the temporary trinkets and amusement and junk of this world. And what has eternal value in this world? Well, there's only two things. The Word of God and the souls of man.

Paul says, we don't look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. All but dear friends, when a born again disciple finds himself or herself setting their affections on things below instead of things above, when they find their heart and mind fixed on the physical and the temporary instead of the spiritual and eternal, they are in critical need of repentance unto revival. But let me give you one more possibility.

And it is this, when your tears have dried up for the perishing people that are all around you, you can be absolutely certain you're in critical need of revival. I was recently in India, very near the place where Amy Carmichael, the missionary, gave 54 years of her life without a furlough. And she wrote this powerful poem that goes like this, "All for a passionate passion for souls, all for a pity that yearns, all for a love that loves unto death, all for a heart that burns." Oh, but when a born again believer finds themselves in such a spiritual coma that they can sit night after night and laugh at the idiot box while neighbors and friends and acquaintances and workmates and relatives are in danger of perishing in hell and there's no holy anguish, there's no tears, certainly.

That person's in desperate need of revival. We say Jesus lives in us and we find Jesus wailing over Jerusalem. But we know no tears, no passion, no anguish of heart. Now I ask you again tonight, remnant, do you see your personal need of revival? I'm submitting to you that this genuine, word-centered, Christ-exalting, God-glorifying revival begins with nothing less than a soul-searching of your heart and life, resulting in a deep and thorough repentance, a personal renunciation of any sin of omission and commission and a blazing return to the Lord Jesus and a fresh surrender to an unconditional submission to the Lord.

And that will always result, friends, in a new delight in the Lord, a new rejoicing in Him, a new hunger for holiness, a new submission to the Lordship of Christ, a new passion to exhibit an unconditional obedience to the Word of God and the will of God. And that believer will have a desire and a determination to be actively on mission with God. I ask you tonight, if you're converted to begin with, do you see your need for revival? What I'm describing is the condition of multitudes of professing believers inside churches. And you know what they're doing?

They're presenting a false picture of what authentic Christianity is to a lost and dying world. And this makes the testimony of the local church largely anemic and powerless for any ongoing spiritual good. Certainly we see our desperate need of revival. But that brings me to the second point, and we find it again in verse six, and it is the specific objects of revival. Did you notice it in verse six? The psalmist prays, "Will you not revive us, O Lord, that your people may rejoice in you?" Now, if you're here tonight and you've never come to Jesus and true Bible repentance and saving faith, we're so grateful you're here tonight.

But this message is not focused on those people. It is focused on those who have been converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice what we're seeing here. The focus of this needed revival is not the fallen culture around us. It's the born again believers in this room. According to these alarming words, which were initially written to a local congregation in great need of repentance, corporate repentance, we find them in 1 Corinthians 11 verses 31 and 32, just listen to them. These are born again believers. Paul's writing to a church, and he says, "For if we judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged, born again believers, we are chastened by the Lord that we might not be condemned with the world." Do you notice what he's saying? Oh, he's saying it's true. Condemning judgment is imminent for unconverted sinners all around us, but corrective chastisement is desperately needed for languishing saints. Who is the focus of this revival? Well notice verse 1. These are redeemed people. Of the psalmist says in verse 1, "You have brought back the captivity of Jacob." I'm speaking tonight to those who have already been redeemed from captivity to sin.

I'm speaking to those who've already been liberated from the tyranny to sin, who have been purchased out of the slave market to sin. And I'm saying that this needed revival begins with the converted, not the unconverted. It begins with the redeemed, not the unredeemed. Notice verse 2. The psalmist says, "They are a forgiven people." She says to the Lord, verse 2, "You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin." I'm speaking to those tonight who have experienced 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

All of the judgments you have deserved for your thousands of sins against the Lord, all of that sin has been imputed to Jesus' account. And Jesus' perfect righteousness has been imputed to my account and the account of every born again believer in this room tonight. We have been given the gift of imputed righteousness. Our sins have been forgiven. Yet it is this people who need revival. It's a forgiven people. Number 3, they are a rescued people. Notice at verse 3, "You have taken away all of your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger." You know for 30 years of my life, the wrath of God abided over my life.

John the Baptist says in John 6, 36, "The wrath of God abides over unconverted sinners." Not only over their sin, it abides over the sinners. And for 30 years of my life, the wrath of God abided over my life. I was living in a condition of condemnation. I was an object by my very nature of God's holy animosity and just hostility. But one night in New Orleans, Louisiana, I was converted by the grace of God. All that wrath was taken away and I'm no longer an object of God's wrath. I'm an object of his favor. I'm an adopted child in union with the beloved one. And yet it is this very people who need revival.

Now you're going to get mad at me for these comments, but you can repent and I'll forgive you. The supreme tragedy of the United States of America is not the militant homosexual movement. It's not the violence of Hollywood. It's not the liberalism in the universities. The supreme tragedy of America is not the drug epidemic or the alcohol epidemic. The supreme tragedy of America. He is not the abortionist or the pornographers. Oh, those are all terrible tragedies, but they're not the supreme tragedy. The supreme tragedy of America is not the healthcare debacle. It's not the border crisis. It's not the unemployment crisis.

The supreme tragedy of America is not the Congress. It's not even the president. It's a largely lifeless, powerless, anemic church. That is the supreme tragedy of America because the vast majority of the church is so backslidden and filled with their own ways. They become so worldly minded that they are of no heavenly good. I'm saying that it is us. That is the problem. It's not them. It's us. Now you may well be even thinking now, brother, and I know I'm converted. I don't need revival. Frank, you are the one who is in the greatest need of revival tonight. You need a revival of humility. You need a revival of reality.

So we've seen the specific objects of this desperately needed revival, but notice for a moment, thirdly, the sovereign source of revival. We see it again in verse six. Who's the psalmist praying to? He's praying to the Lord God when he says, "Will you not revive us again?" In verse four, he says, "Lord, restore us, O God." So what do we see here? This genuine revival, this desperately needed revival is a gracious work of a sovereign God in the midst of the people of God. Genuine revival is never a work of man. It's always and only a work of God.

It is a supernatural invasion of the awesome manifest presence of God among his church so that there is a profound awareness of God's nearness to us, especially in relationship to his majestic holiness. Dear friends, authentic revival is not the top blowing off. No, it begins with the bottom falling out. When the people of God have a sudden manifest awareness of the holiness of God, the awesomeness of God so that we, those who are the remnant, come under Holy Spirit conviction and contrition over our sins of omission and commission so that there is tears of godly sorrow producing repentance followed by an intense desire to live in unconditional obedience to our Lord, the greatest preacher of the last century, the 20th century, many would say.

Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones puts it like this. He says the revival is the days when heaven comes down to earth, when God bursts upon the scene and displays his glory and fills his church with his presence and power. Dr. Steven Ofer, who was another great preacher the last century, I had the tremendous privilege to spend a couple of weeks with him. He made this statement. People occurs when God breaks into the life of a community of believers so that nothing else matters except the person of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, the name of Jesus and the fame of Jesus.

Now it may be very likely that there's only a couple of people in this room, if any, who have ever been in what I'm describing as revival. God graced this pitiful preacher with the blasted privilege of being in a revival like this, but it was not in America. It was in the nation of Romania where I've been many times. And it was, it's called, there's been many books written about it. It's called the Repenters Revival. Christians are not called Christians in Romania. Boardigan Christians are called Repenters, and it's a word that the Orthodox Church people use to persecute, to deride genuine followers of Jesus.

They'll say, "There goes one of those Repenters down the street." But there came a time at Second Baptist of Oradia, Romania when the pastor began to realize that that church, Second Baptist Church, who had 300 members at the time, there had only been 10 baptisms the past year, but he came to realize that pastor did, that me, and I say, "As a Repenter, I need to repent again." And our church needs to repent about division and their passion and their purpose, areas of selfishness and sinfulness and warliness that had slithered into the church.

So the pastor began to seek God's face personally, and then he began to call those Repenters to repentance once again. And you know God invaded Second Baptist Church of Oradia, and this was under communism. This was under the ruthless dictator Ciao Chescu, who was mowing down Christians, and yet God brought a revival. And over the next four years, there were 800 adult Baptisms, and the baptism was this. The baptism was not, "Repeat a little prayer, raise your hand, take a walk, we'll pronounce you safe and baptize you tonight." No.

If someone was a university student or an adult working, and they testified they've become a Repenter, the pastors would pour four and a half months of fundamental Bible study into them, looking for fruit that remains, because they know at the end of that four and a half months they're going to have a meeting with that person, and they're going to have to tell that person, "Now when we baptize you, the communists are going to take your name, you may lose your job, you may lose your education opportunities, you may lose your life." And if they responded, "Well, Jesus died for me, I'm willing to die for him." And we baptize you.

They were 800 of those kind of Baptists. I had the joy preaching in the middle of that revival. I don't know how many times, 15 or 20 different occasions, I'm thinking about one morning where there was a blizzard going on outside, it was the middle of the winter in Aradia, and I barely made it to church myself, and I was being driven in a vehicle. Most of these people would ride a bike or walk or catch a bus that weren't running, so I thought nobody's going to be in this church this morning. Well when I got there, there were 1,500 people in the pews, and every aisle was packed with men. There must have been 500 men standing in aisles.

The balcony was packed, the stairs to the balcony were packed, and that was the 830 to 1030, sir. They prayed for a solid hour before this preacher got up and opened his mouth. The 1030 to 1230 service, totally different ground. It was a repeat, every pew pack, every aisle pack, balcony pack, stairs pack, and the pastor whispered to me, the pastors whose wife was martyred for the gospel whispered to me and said, "Brother Ed, there's hundreds of people standing outside in the blizzard. They can't get in, but we've got a speaker they can hear." Now that's revival, right?

And it took place when God invaded a local congregation in his manifest presence. The sovereign source of revival is God. Only he can ignite the fires of this kind of revival. This is a divinely initiated work. Only he, again, can plant the roots of conviction and contrition in believers who are resting in the lukewarmness and sinful contentment of their indifferent lives. Only God can manifest this mighty work so that we begin to see areas of conformity to the world that we never dream were an offense to God. Oh, when God comes in revival, he begins to reveal sins to the people of God that at this present time they're not even aware of.

Only God can break through and expose the formality and the lifelessness and the self-seeking that mark so many who claim to be followers of Jesus. Only God can give us a fresh encounter with his pristine holiness and his sovereign rights to be Lord of every compartment of our life so that you and I can say with the prophet, "Woe is me." I'll tell you all through chapter five, you know what Isaiah was doing? What were they? What were they? What were they?

When he had an encounter with the Lord, he said, "Woe is me." And when we have a fresh encounter with the holiness and the lordship rights of Jesus, we too will say, "Woe is me." Now, if God is the sovereign source, we're about to close, listen closely. Only God can ignite these fires of revival, then what do we need to do, the remnant that's here tonight? What we need to do is just sit around here in apathy and lethargy and complacency and wait for God to strike us with spiritual lightning. Is that what we do? Is he the only source of revival? No, that's not what we do. We have personal responsibilities.

And what are those personal responsibilities? If you're here and you're truly converted, you are personally responsible to repent of any and every known sin in your life. You are to ask the Lord to reveal to you any questionable habit, any questionable activity that may be grieving the Spirit of God or quenching the Spirit of God, you must be willing to take a personal examination of your life. This is why Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 7 in verse 1, and you know what he said?

"Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." Did you notice Paul did not say, "Let us sit around in lethargy and apathy and laziness and wait for God to strike us with spiritual lightning and cleansers." No, he said, "You're responsible." Let us cleanse ourselves from any sins of commission, anything we're setting before our eyes, any way we're using this tongue, anything we're listening to that's ungodly, any ungodly attitudes or ambitions or affections or actions or reactions. Ask the Spirit of God to search your heart or their sins of omission in your life.

Has there been prayerlessness in your life? Has there been lack of a daily priority, quality, time and personal devotion? Have you been dropping the ball on your witnessing to those who are around you who are lost? Are there sins of commission? That's what we need to do. We need to ask the Lord to search us and try us, as we sang, and see if there's any wicked way or worthless way in us. Have you been setting your life apart from your flesh's agendas? Have you been purposefully setting your life apart under God's agendas? Have you been losing the battle with temptation?

All you've become an expert at confession, but you've failed to become an expert at prevention. Are you fulfilling the 11th commandment? This is how the world will know that we're true disciples, that we love one another with a supernatural sacrificial servant love. Are you fulfilling that commandment? What about your tongue? Is it bridal to the lordship of Jesus Christ, or is your tongue out of control? How are you responding in this world? Are you being compelled into this world as a witness for Christ while at the same time not being conformed to this world?

What about the stewardship of the money and the possessions that God's allowed you to be a temporary steward of? Are you involved in supernatural, sacrificial, joyful, grace-giving? All searches. Try us, O God. I'm speaking to the remnant. I ask you as the remnant tonight, are you a disciple making disciple? Are you pouring your life and truth into others? Are you just sitting here hearing the word, hearing the word, hearing the word, but never multiplying what you're in? I'm not talking about your family. I'm talking about others outside of your family. Oh, I think about that sixth beatitude. Blessed are the pure in heart.

That sounds like revival. So they shall see God. That word pure there, it described in those days purified gold, purified water, or purified air. When air was said to have been purified, there was nothing in that air polluting it. When water was purified, there was nothing in that water contaminated it. When gold had been purified, there was nothing in that gold diluting it. I ask you tonight as the remnant, is there anything going on in your heart and life that is polluting your life, contaminating your character, and diluting your witness?

That word pure was also used to describe an army that had been cleansed from all uncommitted soldiers and every one of the soldiers were now uncompromised in their allegiance to the commander. Can you say tonight, remnant, that Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning as the undisputed champion of your heart? Or have you sinfully and subtly allowed some weeds of idolatry to slither in and grow up in the garden of your heart? To have a pure heart is to have a single-minded devotion to Jesus. And to be single-minded is the opposite of being double-minded. This is why James says, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." Listen to this.

This is how we began tonight. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Dear friends, when Jesus went to Calvary, he purchased the sovereign right to be the number one obsession of your life. And the Lord wants us, listen, he says, "You," I'm speaking to born-again disciples, "you are personally responsible to repent of any and every sin." And when you have, not only that, look again at verse 6, "You're personally responsible to be involved in passionate, persistent prayer for corporate revival." This is the very essence of the psalmist's prayer.

He is praying and exhibiting his express neediness of the Lord to sin this corporate revival, his total dependence on the Lord to sin this corporate revival. But that is resulting in an earnest pleading and a diligent seeking of the Lord to sin this corporate revival. All that some of us might get cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. And there might be a core of believers here at Nola Baptist Church that will begin to cry out to the Lord passionately and persistently for him to sin corporate revival. And one more responsibility, I'm going to move on.

Number three, you must be willing, you must be willing to be an instrument of revival to others. And how do you do that? By being open and transparent and honest about your own life. I've had the privilege to go to India many times for the last over 20 years. But the first time there were eight preachers going many years ago, over two decades ago. And I was kind of the unknown nobody in those eight preachers. But there were some of those Baptist preachers that if I mentioned their name, you'd know them because they're known all over this country.

And the most well known and the leader of that group, we had arrived in India, who we're just going to meet for a few minutes of prayer. Because you know what he did? He got open and honest and transparent before those other eight preachers. And he quoted this verse from 1 John, "My little children abide in Jesus so that you will not be ashamed of his coming. And this well known preacher began to weep." And he said, "Brothers, there's some things in my life that if Jesus came tonight, I'd be ashamed of his coming." And do you know God used his openness, his transparency, his honesty to move into that room?

And for the next four hours, all of us eight preachers could do is repent. And repent. We'd read scripture, God would break us, we'd repent. We'd get cleansed from that, we'd begin rejoicing, somebody would read something else, we'd start repenting again. And the manifest presence and the awareness of the holiness of God came into that room and us eight preachers. All we could do is humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our wicked ways. And the evangelism that over, oh, this went on every morning, next morning, same thing. God came among us hour after hour, repenting and rejoicing and repenting and rejoicing.

And the evangelism that overflowed from what God was doing, it was awesome. And us eight preachers, needy preachers experienced just a taste of a God glorifying Jesus magnifying revival. And that brings me to the last point that is very short, the results of revival. Do you see it at the end of verse six? That your people may rejoice in you.

When God graces a church or a person with corporate or personal revival, when the fire of reformation revival falls, they'll be revived hearts, repentant hearts, restored hearts, refreshed hearts, reanimated hearts, reinvigorated hearts, rejoicing hearts, the lives of that people, that local church will be overflowing with praise for the Lord and prayers to the Lord and a passion for the Lord and again an ignited power to proclaim the gospel to sinners. Oh, then God's people will return to Jesus as their supreme treasure and pleasure and a fresh and anew.

The things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace. And then I'll tell you what, every born again believer will be set apart from their flesh's agendas and set apart under God's agendas. We will worship him in a manner that's pleasing to him. We will walk with him. We will work with him. We will reproduce much fruit for the glory of God. Let's pray together.

Would you bow tonight and if you're truly converted, if you have the assurance that in the past you have come to King Jesus on his conditions, would you ask the Spirit of God that lives in you to search the compartments of your life and reveal if there's any areas of self-centeredness instead of Christ centeredness? Is there any compartment where you're in charge, you're directing and not Jesus? Is there an area of self-will and not his will being done? Is you ask the Lord to expose in your life any self-indulgence? Is there any area that is not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus?

Oh dear brothers and sisters, our natural tendency, the natural tendency of our flesh is to appear to be something that we are not in reality. And all of us tend to battle this self-deceptive tendency. But listen, the Lord will not stand with you on the platform of a false appearance. He only stands with repenting and revived believers. If we confess our sins and that means renounce and forsake them, he's faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, take your word tonight as only you can do Holy Spirit.

And I say with the psalmist, will you not revive your people that they might afresh in a new exalt in you, center on you and be consumed with you? Do it for your glory and for Jesus' sake. With our heads bowed, I'm going to ask our precious shepherd, Brother Chris, would you come and close as God would lead you?