Why America Needs Revival

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org.

So thanks for joining me for this podcast. You know back in the beginning of the new millennium there was a buoyant optimism among Americans about the future. A 28 percent of Americans said they were dissatisfied with the way things were. And 69 percent were very satisfied. That was year 2000.

Fast forward to today. Recent poll reveals that 90 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with our situation. Wall Street Journal did a poll that revealed that 73 percent of Americans believe the U.S. is in a state of decline.

This is interesting. Because we have this moral breakdown in our country and yet we have this belief in God. This is the amazing contradiction of America.

For instance the latest polls reveal what we have always known. 94 percent of Americans believe in God. 84 percent of Americans believe that Jesus is God. 66 percent of Americans say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. 31 percent of Americans describe themselves as born again. And more than three quarters of Americans believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

So that sounds good right? So what is going on with our culture? Because then another poll revealed that 69 percent of Americans believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth. How is it that almost 70 percent of Americans can say there is no such thing as absolute truth? Well at the same time the same amount of Americans say that the Bible is the Word of God. Houston we have a problem.

What is going on here? And this is why we see what we see today. I think many of the social ills in our country can be directly traced to the breakdown of the American family. You know there was a day when children being born out of wedlock was the exception not the rule. I read a recent stat that said more children are born out of wedlock now than are born in a family with a husband and wife. The whole American family is being redefined.

It is being challenged. Every single day people are saying living together. It is the same as being married or a homosexual relationship.

As long as it is loving and nurturing that is the same as a man and a woman together. And this great experiment that we are engaging in right now as a country is already producing a lot of problems. You know most of the studies reveal that the problems that develop in a young person's life go back to a broken family and specifically to the absence of a father. Listen to these stats. 63 percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. 71 percent of high school dropouts are from fatherless homes. 85 percent of all youth sitting in prisons today are from fatherless homes. The breakdown of the family that God established.

It has been said that a family can survive without a nation but a nation cannot survive without the family. So we have sown the wind as the Bible says. And now we are reaping the whirlwind.

So we have two options. We have judgment or revival. Now what do we mean when we say revival?

This is very important. Because we throw this word around a lot. For some people when you say revival you might envision a bunch of people in a church. They are hot and sweating and they are screaming and yelling and there might even be a few snakes being passed around.

Excuse me. For others. For others it might just be a sign out of the local church that says revival meetings this week only. Starts at 7.

Ends at 9. Now you may be having outstanding meetings and you can call them revival meetings if you want. But they are not in the strictest sense of the term true revival. Now what is revival? What do we mean when we say we need a revival? C. H. Spurgeon defined revival as follows, quote, It is to live again, to receive again a life which is almost expired, to rekindle into a flame the vital spark which was nearly extinguished.

End quote. It is to come back to life again. Another said revival is a time when heaven draws closer to earth. You see revival is for the church. When we say revival what we are really saying is God's people need to get back to living the Christian life as it was meant to be lived.

If we are revived it will then impact our country. So revival starts in the church and revival starts with you. Revival is only for the believer. Again to quote Spurgeon, To be revived is a blessing which can only be enjoyed by those who have some degree of life.

Those who have no spiritual life are not. It cannot be in the strictest sense of the term subjects of revival. True revival is to be looked for in the church of God. So the church as a whole needs revival. But Harvest Christian Fellowship needs revival.

And let's personalize it. You need revival. And I need revival. What is revival?

One person defined it as follows. Revival is a beginning of new obedience to God. Let's look at you and look at myself for a moment and ask the question how am I doing right now spiritually? Was there a time when my faith was stronger than it is today? Maybe a time where I just loved the Word of God. I loved to open it every day and read what it had to say. I couldn't wait to hear the Word of God taught. I just filled my heart and mind with God's Word all day long. All night long.

Is it still that way? How about prayer? Maybe prayer was something that you loved to do. You found yourself praying throughout the day. You would wake up in the middle of the night and you would be praying. Prayer to you was second nature. It was like breathing.

Is it still that way today? How about being a part of the church? You know there was a time when you loved to go to church on Sunday morning. And then you would go to a midweek study.

And then you would go to another study. You couldn't get enough. You were disappointed when the sermon ended. Now you are watching your clock. Ok Greg. Don't go long. And maybe you skipped church last week or the week before because oh you are so busy and it is alright.

Wait a second. Do you need revival? Do you need to come back to life and get back to a place where you were before that you have left? Martyn Lloyd-Jones defined revival this way. Revival awakens in our hearts an increased awareness of the presence of God, a new love for God, a new hatred for sin, and a hunger for His Word. Does that describe you right now? Do you have a hatred for sin and a hunger for His Word? Now some might say, well you know what Greg.

I am actually happy with the way that I am. I don't think America needs your revival and I don't think that I need revival either. Well you know what. That is your choice. You don't have to be revived if you don't want to be. Leonard Ravenhill said, quote, As long as we are content to live without revival we will.

End quote. But listen. It should be the heart cry of every child of God for the Lord to send an awakening to our nation. Habakkuk 3.2 says, I have heard all about you Lord. I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. In this time of our deep need revive your work as you did in years go by. Show us your power to save us and in your anger remember your mercy. So he is saying, Lord we want to see it again. We have heard about the good old days. We have heard about the great awakenings. We want to see it again Lord. Revive your work.

Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? Psalm 85 says, Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Yes America has two options.

Judgment or revival. Here is what concerns me. As I study the Scripture and I look at Bible prophecy I can't find America. The undisputed superpower at present on the face of the planet. We can find smaller nations like Iran and of course Israel.

Perhaps we can find China and Russia. But there is no passage that you could say clearly is speaking of America. And I have spoken with a lot of friends that are experts in this topic.

And we have looked at this in depth. And there really is no definitive Scripture about America in the last days scenario. So I think one thing is clear. We are not there as we are now. I am not saying there won't be an America in the last days. But it is going to be a different America than it is right now. So why is this? Well let's consider some options.

Number one. It is possible that America could be devastated by a nuclear war. As horrific of a scenario as that is.

You cannot dismiss it. We have always had our classic enemies like Russia and China and others. But now we have rogue nations like North Korea developing nuclear weapons. We have Iran that is developing and threatens to use that weaponry not only against Israel threatening to wipe her off the face of the earth. But they threaten to use those nukes against the United States as well. Then there are nuclear weapons that are unaccounted for after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

If one of those weapons or more ended up in the hands of a terrorist group and were detonated in a city it would make 9-11 pale in comparison. So we can't say it would never happen. It could happen. Let's pray it never will.

Number two. We simply decline as a world power. So the reason we may not find American Bible prophecy is we decline as a world power as we become more secular systematically and for all practical purposes eliminating God from our culture and our society. We have the collapse of a country. We have perhaps the collapse of our economy.

We know this much. The Bible teaches a new superpower is going to emerge in the last days. He is identified as the antichrist. And that antichrist is going to have ten nations confederated behind him. It could be that the United States is marginalized as a world power or an economic power and we just fall in line with the other nations along with antichrists.

But I have a third scenario that I tend to prefer. The reason we may not find America in Bible prophecy is because we have a massive spiritual awakening that spreads across our country. So many Americans believe in Jesus Christ that when the rapture happens a good portion of our country is gone.

And that explains why we are not a player. Let's play this out for a moment. 66 percent of Americans claim to be born again.

Right? Ok. Let's be conservative and round that off to 50 percent. Now there is approximately 311 million people in America today. So around half of that let's just say 150 million Americans are Christians.

But I think that is still implausible. So let's be super conservative and trim it down and just take one part of that. Let's say that there are 50 million Americans that are actual Christians and followers of Jesus Christ.

Ok. Here is the question. Do you think it would affect our country if in a moment in the twinkling of an eye 50 million people, people in industry, government, the military, business, agriculture, finance, education, medicine, and communications suddenly disappeared? Hollywood would be largely untouched. Other industries would be impacted dramatically. We can see why America is not in the last days scenario.