Are We Seeing Another Spiritual Awakening? | Sunday Message

Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you, if you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Let's pray together. Lord, we want to just give you the glory and the praise for all that you did. And all of those people that made that profession of faith to follow you even now, Lord, wherever they are.

And there's probably even more beyond them. That prayed that prayer. We ask you to be with them, that you would strengthen them, that you would help them to be seeds sown on good ground that would bring forth spiritual fruit. Thank you, Lord, that you've allowed our church. To have a role in something like this for all these years, over 35 years.

And we're so thankful for that. We ask you to bless our time as we look at your word together and we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Why don't you grab your Bibles and turn to Nehemiah chapter 9? And the title of my message is: Are We Seeing Another Spiritual Awakening?

You know, I've told you before that sometimes when I walk with my wife, I'll say to her, Kathy, it's beginning to rain. She'll say, Greg, it's not raining. You go, no, it's raining. Because bald men always know when it's raining first. It's true.

Her hair is so thick, she won't know for 20 minutes. But I'll feel the first drop and the second and the third.

Well, the reason I bring that up is I think we saw more than a few drops of rain, if you will, at Angel Stadium. of the work of the Holy Spirit. You know, you stop and think about what happened there.

Now, we've been doing this 35 years, but this was a standout event, I have to say, for a number of reasons. First of all, last year they locked the doors too and there were people who couldn't get in. But what was unique about this year is when the invitation was given, how many people went down on the field. Generally, at a crusade, we'll hopefully have around 10% of the crowd respond to the invitation to accept Christ.

So, a normal response would be 4,500, and I might add a really great normal response. But this year, we had 1,000 more people, so it was 5,500, and that's why the fire marshal shut down the field. The only other time we saw that happen in our history was when we went for the first time to Dodger Stadium. Fire Marshal told us we couldn't bring any more people down in the field than either.

So incredible. And we heard stories of people that wanted to get in. One very resourceful guy, I wouldn't recommend this, but I kind of admire the guy. He was told he couldn't come in. He climbed over the fence.

And then went down and gave his life to the Lord at the invitation.

So, hey, you know what? You gotta do what you gotta do, right? I'm just so thankful he was able to get in there. And of course, ultimately, it was 5,500 responses and a thousand more online.

So, here's my question that I want to raise in this message: Are we seeing another spiritual awakening? You know, it dawned to me in the back room before we went out for the event that night that every one of these musicians that was performing that night. was not even born when we started doing these 35 years ago.

So, this was a new thing to them. Many of them had never seen anything like this before because this isn't a concert, though it involves music. It's not a conference. We call it a crusade for a reason. It's sort of the tradition established by Billy Graham, and before him, D.L.

Moody, and before him, Billy Sunday. I got them out of order. And before him, the Apostle Peter, the Apostle Paul. This is called proclamation evangelism. Where the event from beginning to end is designed to present the gospel and call people to follow Christ.

But to a whole new generation, this is a whole new thing. God says in Isaiah 43, 19, Behold, I will do a new thing and it will spring forth. Shall you not know it? God says in the book of Revelation, Behold, I make all things new. And this is very reminiscent of what we saw in the Jesus movement.

That was a revival among young people. In fact, back in those days, we would often cite this verse to explain what God was doing. It's Acts 2:17. Where Peter on the day of Pentecost said, In the last days, God says, I'll pour my spirit out, and all flesh, your sons and your daughters, will prophesy, a youth emphasis, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

So I came to Christ during the Jesus movement.

So I was one of the young men seeing visions.

Now I'm one of the old men dreaming dreams. And I have a dream. And my dream is that God will do it again for this generation. Psalm 85, 6 says, Will you not revive us again that your people can rejoice? In you.

And here's what's really amazing. We are seeing a revival and a resurgence about Jesus happening among young people, specifically Gen Z and millennials. And by the way, that marks a dramatic shift from previous data, which consistently showed elders and boomers were the more. committed Christians than their younger Counterparts.

So, as they say, okay, boomer, but you know what? It's not okay, boomer. The boomers are missing it right now, but the young people are not. This revival, this spiritual awakening, is happening with young people and specifically younger men. In fact, recent data has shown that younger men are more likely to become Christians than younger women.

That's unprecedented. Among Gen Z, commitment to Christ has jumped 15 percentage points since 2019. While millennial men show a similar spike of 19 points over the same period, this is incredible. This is something new.

So I would describe that as a few drops of rain. starting to fall. Add to this the fact that Bible sales are up dramatically. They're up 22 percent in the last two years. See, this is a recent phenomenon: 22 percent.

And I saw grandma buying the Bibles. God bless grandma. It's young people buying a Bible for the first time.

So instead of leaving the faith, they're reaching for the scripture. And this spiritual movement and momentum is showing up in pop culture too. For the first time since 2014, two Christian songs are simultaneously charting on the Billboard Top 100 hit parade or whatever you want to call it, the hit songs, Brandon Lake and Forest Frank.

So that's unusual. Add to this, add to this incredible success of streaming shows like The Chosen and House of David. For many weeks, House of David was the number one program on the Amazon streaming platform, outperforming everything else that they were offering. Then they have millions and millions of people on that platform. And don't forget the global impact of the Jesus Revolution film.

I told you this story a while ago about a young influencer from Ireland named Jed. And Jed was sponsored by a bunch of booze companies to promote their product on his social media. And so he was just kind of a party guy. And he heard this movie was showing at his local theater called Jesus Revolution.

So he said to his friend, let's go see it for a laugh.

Well, instead, he had a good cry. He said, I was moved to tears, and it ultimately got him to attend a local church where he gave his life to the Lord.

Now he's using this platform for the gospel. He's just one of many stories of unexpected people that were reached to that film. There has been a phenomenal baptism movement. It has happened in the last few years as well. And many have traced it to the scenes from Jesus Revolution, saying that that was a unique mark of the last great spiritual awakening.

And when you take the baptisms we've done and others have done in Southern California alone, 30,000 people have been baptized in California from 20 2023 to 2025. That's incredible.

So you gotta put this stuff all together. You put this all together and you start seeing a pattern, a good pattern. You start seeing a picture that God is painting. This is not coincidental. I think these could be the first few drops of a revival.

So, are we seeing another spiritual awakening? My answer is: we are seeing a spiritual awakening. Will this become national? I don't know, but I pray it will be. It will.

And what other hope is there for this young generation? As I mentioned, Gen Z has the highest suicide rate of any generation. This is a generation, 42% of them, the high school students experience constant sadness. 22% of high school students have contemplated suicide. And I know the answer is Jesus Christ.

They need their own encounter with God, and that's what we need to pray for. You know, I think as we're seeing these drops of revival today, so to speak, among young people, it's helpful to look back at how God has moved in our past, in our nation. America has had four great spiritual awakenings historically. The first one happened in the United States before we were officially a country in 1740. This revival shook colonial America.

And one of the main figures of this revival was named George. Not George Washington, but George Whitfield. George Whitfield was a preacher from England, and he had a tremendous voice. that could be heard for miles. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote about how he went to hear George Whitfield preach, and he said that he felt his voice could reach upwards of 30,000 people without amplification.

Now by the way, I tried this once. I was at Angel Stadium preaching. And all of a sudden, the sound went out, the power went out. And I tried to keep preaching. It was ridiculous.

No one could hear me. There was a little microphone on the stage that one of the bands had used for one of their songs for some little effect they were doing.

So I picked up this tiny little megaphone and I tried to speak through it. It was not working. Finally, they got the sound back on. And it was just someone unplugged the cord. But I can tell you, there's no way my voice would have carried to that many people, but George Whitfield's voice did.

And thousands of people came to Christ under his preaching. From 1740 to 1742, 50,000 people came to Christ out of a population of 300,000 people. And it was in this soil of revival that America was born. You see, the first great spiritual awakening didn't just change hearts, it helped us shape the moral DNA of what would become the United States. Our country.

despite what some people will tell you, is unique. And I believe it has been established by God. In our unique document, the Declaration of Independence, it stands alone for its acknowledgement of God, in which it says, and I quote, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, end quote. There is no other nation in history with a statement like that. Effectively, our founding fathers were saying, God gave us these rights.

Uh A king did not give us these rights. Government does not give these rights to us. They've been given to us by God. America is exceptional. America is unique.

And America has been established by God. America was born in revival. And America needs another revival. to sum it all up.

So there was George Whitfield, the great preacher. Our spiritual founding father. And then, of course, there's George Washington. During the Revolutionary War, General Washington leading the Continental Armies had a special flag prepared. And on the flag were the words, appeal to heaven.

And it was a reminder to all of the troops that the only way that they could possibly win this war as they took on the most powerful military in the world at that time, that of Great Britain, would be if God intervened. And Washington was quick to give credit to God. For the success on the battlefield, and ultimately, of course, he became our president.

So that's awakening number one. The second great awakening was in the 1790s to around 1840. It was during the days of the Wild West, and they called it the Wild West for good reason. It was just rampant lawlessness and chaos. But they would have these huge camp meetings out in the forests and people would walk the so-called sawdust trail.

and make that commitment to follow Christ. The third great awakening was quite different from the second and the first. It happened in New York City from around 1857 to 1859. It started with a 48-year-old businessman named Jeremiah Lampier that decided he wanted to start a prayer meeting. Initially, hardly anyone came.

Then something dramatic happened. The stock market crashed. Suddenly, his prayer meeting was full and more prayer meetings were starting throughout New York. And within six months, 10,000 New Yorkers were gathering for prayer throughout the city on any given day. And it was reported there were 50,000 New Yorkers converted from March to May.

And then it became 50,000 New Yorkers a week coming to Christ for about two years. When it was all said and done, 1 million people came to Christ through that. Powerful prayer meeting started by Jeremiah Lampfier. And so it started so simply. David Jeremiah summed it up this way, quote, revival is the rekindling of a flame, and when the fire is lit, it doesn't just warm the church, it lights up the world.

And the last great spiritual awakening was called the Jesus movement. And that was around 50 years ago. I was privileged to come to Christ at that time at the age of 17. I did not know that I'd walked into the middle of a revival, but I certainly did. And many historians say that the Jesus movement may have been the most significant and far-reaching of all the American revivals.

Okay, so what is revival? Revival is coming back to life. It's simply coming back to life. It's refreshment, it's restoration, it's returning to its original condition. In Psalm 80, 19, it says, Restore us, O God, let your face shine on us so we might be saved.

Let's say you're out working hard in the sun. And you're dehydrated and you're feeling fatigued. Hey, some cold water and a little something to eat can bring you back to life, right? Or let's say you have a little plant that's beginning to wither. Which is pretty much the case with any plant that I'm in charge of.

If there's A brown thumb, that's what I have, not a green thumb. But let's say your little plant is beginning to wither. A little water can bring it back to life. When I was a little boy, I had a turtle, a little pet turtle. And I had this little plastic Enclosure I kept him in.

It had a little green palm tree in it, as I recall. And he poured a little water, and that was his little home. And one day I came to give him some food, and my turtle was gone. Where did the turtle go? I looked everywhere in my room.

I searched for the turtle, could not find him. I'm not kidding you. Three weeks, maybe a month later, I found my turtle in the sock drawer.

Somehow he had got in, fallen into the door. He's all dried up over in the corner. I thought, surely this turtle is dead. I put him back in his little enclosure, poured some water on him, and he came back to life. And that's a picture of some Christians.

You're feeling kind of dead. And you need refreshment. The Bible says times of refreshment come from the presence of the Lord. Take a Tired, worn-out Christian, feed them the word of God, get them filled with the spirit, and you'll see them be restored again. A revival is coming back to life again.

And listen, revival can happen individually. You can have a personal revival. You can have a revival in your family. or in your church. or in your community.

So revival can be personal, it can be local, but in awakening, that's different. That's when God does a huge work across the board.

So, my question is: are we seeing an awakening? I know we're seeing a revival of sorts. here in Southern California. But will that turn into something larger? I don't know.

but it can start with you. It's called returning to your first love. You know, to the book. In the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks. to the believers in Ephesus.

And he commends them, loose paraphrase. Hey, you guys are doing great. I know you're discerning. I know you work hard. I appreciate it.

But I have something against you. You have left your first love.

So he says, remember from where you have fallen and do the first works. quickly And in the same way, as Christians, we can start off with a lot of passion and excitement and following the Lord. He just can't go to church too often. You love to study the Bible. You delight in prayer, evangelism just flows out of you.

But as the years pass, sometimes that passion can begin to fade. If that is the case, you are leaving your first love.

So Jesus says, remember from where you have fallen into the first works quickly. You see, You need to learn how to grow and mature in your faith, and every now and then we all need to be refreshed. Billy Sunday, the great evangelist, said, They tell me revival is only temporary.

Well, so is a bath, but it does you some good. And every now and then we all can use a little revival. And a little refreshing in our life. But how badly do we really want to see it happen? Often we pray for prosperity.

But it's often during times of hardship that we see spiritual awakenings happen. I once asked Pastor Chuck Smith. Who is regarded as the father of the Jesus movement and certainly one of the primary leaders of it? I asked him, Chuck, do you think we'll ever see another Jesus movement? And he said, I don't know, Greg.

I don't know if we're desperate enough.

Well, I think maybe we are desperate enough now. And we need to be calling out to the Lord. One person defined revival this way, and I like it: revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented, he shows up himself. That's good, isn't it? He gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented, he shows up himself.

So, revival is being refreshed, and revival is waking from sleep. and turning from sin. Romans 13 says, it's urgent for you to know how late it is. Time is running out. Wake up for your salvation is nearer than we first believed.

We need to wake up.

Some Christians are asleep spiritually.

Sometimes I'll watch television with my wife. We have very different ideas of what is entertaining on television. I like excitement, I like adventure. She likes cooking shows. and people having extended conversations with British accents.

And this puts me to sleep.

So we'll be watching whatever we're watching. the great British bake-off or whatever it's called. And uh And I'm sleeping. She'll say, Greg, are you sleeping? I'll be like, no, and I've been snoring even.

Why do we always deny it when we're sleeping?

Someone calls you at 3 in the morning. Did I wake you? Oh no, I was awake. No, you weren't. He woke me up with this stupid phone call.

Sometimes you're the last one to know you've fallen asleep. One writer put it this way, and I quote, If all the sleeping people will wake up, If all the lukewarm people will fire up, If all the dishonest people will confess that. If all the disgruntled people will cheer up, if all the estranged people will make up, if all the gossipers will shut up. If all true soldiers will stand up, if all the dry bones will shake up, if all the church people will pray up, then we can have a revival. And I agree with that.

God lays out his prescription for revival in 2 Chronicles 7:14, not unlike a doctor writing a prescription for you. Do this. and you'll get better. God says, do this and you'll be healed. 2 Chronicles 7, 14, a verse we all should commit to memory.

And somehow I've forgotten it. No, I remember it. God says, if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then the Lord promises, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.

So we think, yes, Lord, we would like you to heal our land. Look at America today. Look at the crime, look at the violence, look at the breakdown, look at all of the problems we're facing. God could heal our land. How does it happen?

If my people, God says, Will humble themselves and pray and seek my face. See, we're so quick to point our finger at secular culture or at Hollywood or at Washington, D.C. But when God's looking for the problem, He doesn't point His finger at the White House, He points His finger at His house. If my people, which are called by my name, that's you and me. will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.

Then God says, I'll hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

So we're looking at Nehemiah. And this is a story of revival among God's people. As you recall, they had been exiled to Babylon for their constant idolatry.

So now they're Returning to their land. They've rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem under the direction of Nehemiah. Ezra the prophet preaches this sermon to them, and they want to get right with God, so they prayed. And what follows is the pattern. walked in after that.

So Nehemiah chapter 9. Verse 1, on October 31st. The people assembled again. And this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners and they confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors.

They remained standing in place for three hours while the book of the law of the Lord their God was read aloud to them. And for three more hours, they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord. If you want to see revival, You must pray with passion. These people were praying with passion. Look at verse 1.

They assembled themselves and fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. This would be an indication of repentance. It reminds us of the story of the woman in Matthew 15. who had a demon possessed daughter. And she cried out to Jesus loudly and aggressively.

And she said, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is possessed by a demon. The disciples said, Pipe down, quiet down. You're creating a scene, stop it. This woman would not give up.

She kept crying out to Jesus. Finally, Jesus turns to her and says, Dear woman, your faith is great and your request is granted. I think one of the reasons we don't see our prayers answered is we don't put any heart in them.

Sometimes we just say our prayers. We repeat petitions we've said so many times. God really wants to hear your heart in prayer. He doesn't need eloquence. He needs you to cry out with passion and call on him.

And the book of Acts is a story of. Simon Peter being arrested. and he was going to be executed by King Herod. But I love what Acts 12 says. It says constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

And that word constant could be translated, they prayed fervently to God. for him. And that's how we need to pray as well. Fervent means to display passionate intensity. This is the kind of prayer that Elijah the prophet prayed.

And by the way, he was an ordinary guy like you and me, but this boy knew how to pray. And when he went up on Mount Carmel and faced off with the prophets of Baal and called on God, He prayed with intensity and passion. And giving some commentary on that, James tells us in James 5:16, the fervent prayer of a righteous man has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, but when he prayed fervently, and no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years, and he prayed again, and the sky sent down rain. What did he do?

He prayed fervently.

Sometimes they'll say, I prayed about it, but nothing happened. Did you pray a fervent prayer? A fervent prayer for the salvation of your family. A fervent prayer for A spiritual awakening in America. Number three, or four, rather, if you want to see revival, you must confess your sins.

We read in verse 3: For three hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord. This comes back to 2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people, what you call by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. We all have sins to confess each and every day. That is why Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer to pray as follows: Our Father.

What in heaven? Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us. Our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Just as surely as I need to pray for God's daily provision, give us this day our daily bread, I need to also pray for daily forgiveness, forgive us our sins.

Why? Because I sin every day. You say, Greg, I don't think I've sinned today. Oh really? No.

I haven't stolen anything. I haven't lied that I know of. I haven't had an impure thought. The Bible tells us that there are sins of commission and omission. A sin of commission is when you do something you should not do.

A sin of omission is when you don't do something you should do, you see.

So I might pride myself in the fact that I've not done a sin of commission, I haven't broken a commandment, I haven't done this wrong thing. But, however, maybe it's a sin of omission because the Bible says to him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. You say, I'm in sin today, but maybe the Lord spoke to you this morning and said, Why don't you open your Bible instead of looking at your phone? You said, yeah, maybe later. The Lord said, why don't you go to church?

And you said, maybe I'll sleep in. Lord said, Why don't you pray about that? And you said, No, I'm going to worry about it instead. See, we sin more than we think we sin.

So these people confess their sins to God. The next thing they did is they separated themselves from ungodly influences. Look at verse 2. They separated themselves from all fluences.

Now, these would be non-believers basically. who worship false gods. And so they're separating themselves from those people. We all know people that can drag us down spiritually. Listen, you show me your friends.

and I'll show you your future. You influence people, people influence you. Spend time with godly people that will build you up, not tear you down.

Someone tells us, Happy is the man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. Also, they heard God's word and they acted on it. Go over to Nehemiah 9, look at verse 3. They remained standing in place for three hours. Three hours while the book of the law was read aloud to them.

Three hours standing listening to the word of God.

So don't complain when I go a little long on my sermon. Greg, you went 48 minutes instead of 45 last Sunday.

Sorry about that, it wasn't three hours. And I didn't make you stand the whole time either, right? But how important the Word of God is to each of us. We need to discipline ourselves to study the scripture and allow it to permeate into our life and affect the way that we live and the way that we think and the things that we do. God told Joshua The secret to success in Joshua 1.

He said, be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Don't deviate from them to the right or the left. And then you will be successful in everything you do. Study this book of instruction continually. Meditate on it.

In the day and in the night, and obey everything written in it, and then you will have success. That's a secret to a successful Christian life.

So perhaps. Revival is coming. What should our response be? My last point. Revival always leads to evangelism.

Revival always leads to evangelism. Revival is when God wakes his people up, but it doesn't end there, it overflows into evangelism because a revived believer. cannot keep the good news to themselves.

So we see this pattern. Historically And we also see this pattern biblically. For instance, on the day of Pentecost, After the Holy Spirit was poured out. And 3,000 people believed. We see that was a response to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Revival didn't just stay in the upper room, it spilled into the streets. When Isaiah was in God's presence, He wrote about it in Isaiah 6. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne. He was high and lifted up, and his glory filled the temple. What was his response?

He said, Lord, here I am. Send me.

So there was a cause and effect. I encountered God.

Now I want to do something about it. In that first great awakening, In the United States, Benjamin Franklin talks about After Whitfield preached, people would be standing in the streets discussing eternal things. And we need to see the same thing happen today. You know, during the Jesus movement, If you were around on those days, it wasn't uncommon. To see people just out on the streets talking about Jesus.

Wherever you went, you just see people out there talking to the Lord. And you're saying, Well, Greg, that's great. Let's pray it happens again. Why do we have to pray it happens again? Why don't we just do it?

Why don't we just do it? What are we waiting for? Right? Listen, if you want to see revival, do revival-like things. Let's say your marriage is having some problems.

Let's say there's some strain on your marriage. What I would say to you is, you need to be proactive, not merely reactive. It's like a fire. If the fire starts to go down, throw another log on the fire. In the same way, do things to strengthen your marriage, to let your mate know that you love them.

You can do romantic things. And in the same way, if you want to see revival, go do revival-like things. You say, Greg, give me a break. We just had the Harvest Crusade. Sixty five hundred people made a profession of faith.

Aren't you satisfied? No. I'm not satisfied. I want to see more people come to Christ. This last crusade was a glimpse of glory.

It was a taste of heaven. It was awesome. How many of you were there? Raise your hand. Oh, almost everyone.

How many of you didn't make it? Missed out. You gotta watch the video. It's still amazing even to watch on video. But here's the thing.

Wow, look what the Lord did. You think God's done?

Well, I'll see you guys next year. And we pray there will be one next year. And we'll try to put one on, maybe even more than that. But that's not the point. This is now, and we can do those things today.

We don't have to wait for it to happen. Jesus says: open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest. A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Adam Eaton spoke. And uh He spoke actually the day after the crusade, the Sunday after. And he was standing around and met a young man that had come to the crusade named Jesse.

Who had given his life to the Lord.

Now, Jesse had lived a pretty hard life, he served some prison time. He had committed some crimes. And now, here he comes to the crusade and he hears the gospel. And the way that Jesse. was invited to the create satellite.

Kind of funny, I wouldn't recommend this, but It's kind of funny what happened.

So, his guy who is his boss said, I have a job for you to do, okay? He said, go to Angel Stadium.

So Jesse shows up at Angel Stadium. sees all these people, calls this boss, says, boss, what do you want me to do? Go to the crusade, that's your job. A little misleading. But Jesse goes in to the crusade, hears the gospel, gives us life to Christ.

Okay, so Pastor Adam meets him and they start talking. He just went to church the next day, which I thought that was great. And so Adam said, Hey, I'm going to go to the men's event. Why don't you come with me? And Jesse said, Okay.

And Jesse's all fired up like new believers are. And I love the passion of the new believer, don't you? And so he goes to this men's event and the men are sharing. And one of the men says, Yeah, I'm kind of struggling with complacency. I am having a hard time.

dealing with it. And Jesse, the brand new convert. Turns to the guy who's dealing with complacency and says, There are people like me dying on the street every day. We need people like you, we need what you have. Complacent dude, you need revival.

We need to be inspired by people like Jesse. I'm going to give you my RX, my prescription for your personal spiritual revival. You ready? Get a new believer in your life. And they will help to energize you.

New believers need older believers in their life to stabilize them. Young, older believers need newer believers in their life to energize them. It's sort of like going to Disneyland with adults or with kids. What's the deal with the adults going to Disneyland and dressing up like Disney characters? Little weird.

And you're an adult now. But you know, that's okay, whatever if you want to do that do it, but It's so much better if you take a child, don't you think? And see it through the eyes of a child. How amazing it is. I do remember one year I...

Years ago, I took my oldest son, Christopher. to Disneyland. I've told you the story before, but um So I knew one of the characters who went to our church and he invited me to the back there where the characters were taking their costumes off. And I'm not so sure I should have taken Christopher back there. He's a very little guy still.

And when Donald Duck suddenly took his head off, It's like, whoa. And then when one of the other characters is smoking a cigarette, it's like... This is ruining the Disney magic big time, okay? And I'm like, and my son's like, eyes like saucers, like, what's happening? You've traumatized me, dad.

So I don't recommend that. But to see it through the eyes of a child, and there's something so beautiful about. Sharing something with a new believer who's never heard it before. and seeing their excitement. And then as you see their excitement, you get re-excited about it again.

See you're dealing with complacency Jesus says, remember from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works quickly. What did you used to do when you were passionate and on fire for Jesus?

Well, I bet every day you read the Bible. I bet every day you committed things to the Lord in prayer. I bet you were actively involved in the church, probably serving in the church and more. Do you still do that?

Well, I don't know, not as much as I used to. Go back and do the first works quickly. That's what Jesus says. As the Apostle Paul says, get back, get back. Get back to where you once belong.

That's Paul of the Beatles. Never mind it. A lot of the kids are like, who? The Beatles. They were a very good band, kids.

Listen to them. But anyway. We need to get back and do those first things again and rediscover these things for ourselves. This is not rocket science. Just do what God tells you to do.

Follow his word and you will be blessed. Disobey his word and your life will be a mess. God says it this way in Deuteronomy 30, 19. I have set before you life and death. Blessing and cursing.

Therefore, choose life that you and your descendants may live. It's your choice. You don't have to do this, live the way you want to live. God's given you a free will. You can disobey him, you can break his commandments, you can chase after all the things this culture tells you you should chase after, and you can face.

the consequences. Or you can obey the Lord. And watch what happens. He wants to bless you.

So, to summarize and to conclude, And I have not gone three hours. The people prayed with passion. They confess their sin. They separated themselves from ungodly influences. They heard God's word and they acted on it.

Do that. Do that, and let's pray. for another great spiritual awakening. Let me close with this thought.

Some of you have joined us, and we've been talking about wanting to reach people just like you. Because maybe you have never made that personal commitment to Jesus. You've not asked them to come into your life and forgive you of your sin. But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross for your sin and rose again from the dead. And now he stands at the door of your life and he knocks and says, If you'll hear his voice, And open the door, he'll come in.

So, my question for you is: have you asked Jesus to come into your life? Do you have your own relationship with him? And do you know that you'll go to heaven when you die? If you don't, You can know that today. You can walk out of harvest today a different person than when you came in.

a forgiven person. Imagine that forgiven of all of your sins. Coming back to a statement Jesus made, behold, I make all things new. I love that. God can make all things new for you.

The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is an altogether different kind of person. Old things have passed away. everything becomes fresh in you. That can happen for you, but you must ask him to come into your life. and forgive you of your sin.

We're going to close in prayer, and I'm going to extend now an invitation for anyone that wants to ask Jesus Christ to come into their life. Let's all pray. Father, I pray for anyone here or listening, watching, wherever they are, if they don't know you yet, If they don't have this relationship with Jesus, Help them, Lord, to just take this next step and receive you into their life.

Well, our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying. If you want Jesus to come into your life. If you want him to forgive you of your sin. If you want to know that you will go to heaven when you die, if you want to find the meaning of life now in a relationship with him, Just pray this simple prayer with me right now. Just pray.

Lord Jesus. I know I'm a sinner. But I know that you're the Savior. who died on the cross for me. I repent of my sin.

I turn to you. And I choose to follow you. from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray. And Lord, as we Close down.

We pray for a spiritual awakening in America. We are praying for a fifth. Great awakening. We've seen four. We're asking for another, Lord.

And we're asking for it soon. We're asking for it to happen before our very eyes. And Lord, we're also praying for revival. not just for us as a church, but for us as individuals, that each of us would be walking in the bloom of a first love relationship with you. doing the things you've called us to do.

Use us, Lord. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. We commit ourselves to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God. Yeah.