Prayer & Revival: The Essentials of Spiritual Rejuvenation

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. To find out how to know God personally, go to knowgod.org. K-N-O-W knowgod.org. Hey, would you do me a favor?

Share this message with someone who needs to hear it. I've heard people say, I read 10 chapters from the Bible today. Fantastic. What chapter is worthy?

I have no idea. I remember nothing. You'd be better off to read 10 verses with comprehension than 10 chapters without it. Especially when we're working to reignite our faith, Pastor Greg Laurie says the purposeful study of God's Word is imperative. So you read it, you think about it, you meditate on it. It's just getting back and doing those things we should have been doing all along. We know we put on our socks before our shoes and our shirt before our jacket.

We all know that the order of things is important. Pastor Greg Laurie says a spiritual awakening will come to our culture after a spiritual revival comes upon the church. God described that dynamic in 2 Chronicles 7-14. Today on A New Beginning, we're learning about the components that lead to revival among God's people.

It's a part of Pastor Greg's enlightening series called Jesus Revolution. This is the day, the day when life begins. I want to talk about prayer and revival because that's really what needs to happen. We need to start praying like we've never prayed before. You know it's interesting that one of the great awakenings that happened in America that I mentioned last time was what is called the prayer revival in New York City. It started as a prayer meeting on Fulton Street in New York and it started very small but then the stock market crashed and everyone basically was freaking out and calling on God. You know when things are going well, when the economy is good, we might say, well we don't really need God all that much.

Oh trust me. We need God. We need God badly.

But maybe we're just not willing to realize how desperate the situation really is. Often in the Bible lethargy, laziness, and sleep is used as a picture of a person that is complacent in their relationship with God. In Romans 13, 11 it says it's more urgent right now. The day of the Lord is closer than it's ever been. Time is running out so wake up because our salvation is so close. So God wants to send a revival. One person wrote it down this way and I quote, If all the sleeping people will wake up, if all the lukewarm people will fire up, if all of the dishonest people will confess up, 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 the dry bones will shake up, if all the church people will pray up, then we can have a revival. I like that.

So here is point number one if you are taking notes. If you want to see a revival you need to confess your sin, humble yourself, and pray. You need to confess your sin, humble yourself, and pray. And in a moment we are going to look at a passage of Scripture where that happened.

Where God's people began to pray like never before. But there are things that can hinder our prayer life. The Bible says that if we have idols in our heart the Lord will not listen to us.

So what is an idol? Well it can be anything. It could be a car. It could be a house. It could be your body. It could be some device that you have. A phone or whatever else.

It could be a career. It could be so many things that you are more passionate about than God. So the idea of not having another God before him is make God number one in your life. The first commandment is put God first and have no other God before me.

And then he says don't make any graven images. So if we have an idol in our heart God won't hear us. Another thing that can hinder our prayer is unconfessed sin. You know because the Bible says that if we have iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us. So I think it is really important for us to confess our sin.

In fact that kind of brings us to the text I want to look at. Nehemiah chapter 9. And this is the story of a massive prayer meeting that happened. And this prayer meeting took place after the people of Israel who had been held captive in Babylon for 70 years were free. And talk about idols. They were like an idol central.

They were idols everywhere. In fact the reason they ended up in Babylon is the Israelites kept taking God for granted and turning to these stupid false gods. So the Lord said, ok you guys want false gods and idols.

I will send you to a place where you have more than you can shake a stick at. After 70 years in Babylon they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They were led by Nehemiah. So after the walls were rebuilt and everybody was back in the land a prophet priest named Ezra gave a powerful message. And after he was done speaking the people prayed. So Nehemiah 9 verses 1 to 4.

I am reading from the New Living Translation. On October 31 the people assembled again and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust on their heads. And those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors. They remained standing in place for three hours while the book of the law of the Lord God was read aloud to them. And for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshiped the Lord.

So that sounds like revival to me. So what do they do? They prayed with passion and they confessed their sins. The Bible says if we will confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You sin more than you think you do.

Let me restate that. We sin more than we think we do. And so they confessed their sin.

Number two. They separated themselves from ungodly influences. They separated themselves from ungodly influences.

Verse 2 says they separated themselves from all foreigners. Our modern context would be getting away from bad influences. We all know people that drag us down.

Don't we? And we all know people that pull us up. Some people when you are with them you are just a little bit closer to Jesus.

They inspire you to be a more godly person. Other people they are always mocking you, challenging you, arguing with you, pushing back on anything you say regarding your faith. You know you need to think about who you hang out with. Now I am not suggesting you only hang out with Christians because how can we lead people to Christ if we don't hang out with nonbelievers. But at the same time the Bible says that we are to flee youthful lusts and follow faith, righteousness, and peace.

Listen. Along with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Find godly people. Hang out with godly people. When I was a young Christian, just a kid like some of you are, I hung around with a lot of older people. I knew some people my age as well. But I found people that were old enough to be my parents who could be good role models for me so I could learn how to be a more godly version of me.

I would recommend you do the same thing. Thirdly they heard God's Word and they acted on it. That was after three hours of listening to the Word. And by the way when we listen to the Word of God it is not for us to pick and choose what parts we like and what parts we don't like. But you know some people will kind of edit things out.

They will say things like this. My God would never say that about a person. My God is all loving and my God, well I don't know who your God is but he may not be the God of the Bible.

He might be just a figment of your imagination. There is only one God and he reveals himself in the Scripture. He says lo in the volume of the book I have come it is written of me. So you want to know again the mind of God, the nature of God, the will of God. Open this book. In fact everything you need to know about God is found in the Bible.

You don't need to look anywhere else. So they did those things. You know Jesus said you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. He didn't say you are my friends if you do whatsoever you agree with or whatsoever you find easy or whatsoever is culturally cool.

He said you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. So it is very important for us to understand the Bible is a package deal as is the Christian life. And we do it God's way or we are not doing it the right way. Do what God tells you to do. Listen to what God told Joshua in Joshua 1. He says be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you.

Don't deviate from them turning to the right or the left. Then God says you will be successful in everything you do. Study this book continuously. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.

And then you will prosper and succeed in all that you do. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody Greg Laurie here personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a Bible study. It's a worship service. It's church in your home. Maybe you're not able to get out to your church right now. If so join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world.

Listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. And now Pastor Greg continues his message prayer and revival from his new series Jesus Revolution.

We're looking together at Nehemiah chapter 9 today. Do you know what it means to meditate in the Word? It means to chew something over. This is a gross analogy but I will use it. You know how cows chew their cud. They chew. Then they swallow. Then they regurgitate it. I guess they figure hey if it was good last time I will have it again. Right? And it's a warm meal too by the way.

Hey just saying. But they chew it over. They chew it. Chew it. Chew it. Ok. That's how we should study the Word of God. Not regurgitate it.

But read it. Contemplate it. Ponder it. You know we use the word meditation in an eastern sense. It means to empty your mind.

When you use the word meditate in a biblical sense it means to fill your mind. But it's not just jamming as many chapters in it that you can get in there. I have heard people say, I read ten chapters from the Bible today.

Fantastic. What chapters were they? I have no idea. I remember nothing. You would be better off to read ten verses with comprehension than ten chapters without it. So you read it. You think about it. You chew it over. You meditate on it.

You consider it throughout the day. This is not rocket science on how to be a strong and growing Christian. Revival doesn't have to be overly mystical.

It's just getting back and doing those things we should have been doing all along. Here is a really interesting statement from a man that worked very closely with a great evangelist known as D.L. Moody. This guy was named R.A. Torrey. Back in those days they liked to use initials instead of names.

So R.A. Torrey who worked with D.L. Moody made this statement. He says, I can give a prescription that will bring a revival to any church or any community or any city on earth. Number one. Let a few Christians, it doesn't have to be many, get thoroughly right with God. Again let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God. He says this is the prime essential.

If this is not done the rest I say will come to nothing. Number two. He says let them bind themselves together in a prayer group and pray for revival until God opens the heavens and comes down.

Number three. Let them put themselves at the disposal of God for Him to use as He sees fit in winning others to Christ. Then he says that is it.

That is all. It is sure to bring a revival to any church or any community. I have given this prescription around the world. It has been taken by many churches and many communities. And in no instance has it ever failed. It cannot fail. So I need a revival. Lord send a revival. Why don't you just do the things we just talked about. Remember from where you have fallen repent.

Do the first works quickly as I said earlier. Get right with God. Pray with others. Pray for revival until you see it in your life, in your family's life.

We don't have to worry about the whole planet or even the whole nation. Let revival start with you. Let it start in your home. Let it start in your life. It starts with you. The Jesus revolution starts right here in my heart. It starts in you.

It starts in me. And then I love how he says ask God to use you to win others to Christ. When is the last time you shared your faith? You just start doing those things alone and I think you will be surprised by what God will do in your life. God gives us a choice in Deuteronomy 30 19.

He says I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life that you and your descendants may live. You know you decide what your life is going to be like. You can't control the circumstances of life. Oh I wish we could.

Trust me. But we can. But I can control the decisions I make in life. I can't control what happens to me but I can control how I react to it.

Right? So every morning when I get up I have decisions to make. Choices to make. I went to Cheesecake Factory the other day. Their menu was too big. I was overwhelmed.

I thought come on. There are too many versions of chicken. There are like pages of chicken. Chicken. That is why I like Chick-fil-A.

It is just chicken sandwich spicy chicken sandwich fries the end. Goodbye. You know simple straightforward.

Same with in and out. We make choices. And then our choices make us. And if we make the right choices we will live a blessed life. Not a pain free life.

Not a trouble free life. But we will live a blessed life. And Jesus will be with us walking through it through thick and thin.

And sunny days and stormy nights. But listen all these things I am saying these are for people that have put their faith in Jesus. And I wonder if you have done that. You know what we care about more than anything else is our relationship with God. And I wonder if some of you have joined us here and you would say to yourself I don't really know God in this way. You know the thing that got me to believe in Jesus before anyone talked to me and actually no one ever invited me to church.

No one even invited me to the Christian meeting where I ended up getting saved on my high school campus. What drew me to that meeting were Christians that loved Jesus. And I thought they were crazy. But I wanted to know why they were crazy.

So I went and sort of sat at a distance so I could figure out why I didn't have to be bothered by them anymore. And I ended up hearing the gospel in a way I understood for the first time. And that is the day I believed in Jesus Christ. I heard for the first time in a way I understood that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was sent from heaven to earth to die on the cross for my sin.

Because I have broken God's commandments and we have all fallen short of God's glory. And I was told if I would turn from my sin and believe in Him I could start this new relationship with God. And the statement that really got my attention is when the guy who was speaking said Jesus said you are either for me or against me.

You are with me or you are opposed to me. And I looked around at the Christians and I thought well I am not one of them. Does that mean I am against Jesus? I don't want to be against Him. But I didn't even know I could be for Him and know Him.

This is all new to me. And then He said if you want to ask Jesus in your life I am going to ask you to pray a prayer with me. And I did it. And that was the day I became a Christian. A long time ago. 1970.

That is really long ago isn't it? But ever since that day from 17 to today a Jesus has been faithful to me. Jesus has been there for me. A Jesus has made Himself even more real to me.

And I want that to happen for you. Because Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the dead is here with us right now. And He says I stand at the door and I knock and if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in. And I wonder if there is someone here or someone listening. It has not yet opened the door of their life to Jesus.

But they would like to do it. He wants to come into your life. He wants to forgive you of your sin.

But only you can open the door of your life and ask Him to come in. In a moment we are going to pray. And I am going to extend an invitation similar to the one that was extended on my high school campus. For you to believe in Jesus Christ. For you to be forgiven of your sin.

For you to start this relationship with God and have your own Jesus revolution. Let's all pray. Father I pray for every person here.

Every person watching or listening wherever they may be. Help them to see their need for You. Help them to come to You.

Help them to believe in You. We pray. Amen. If you would like a replay of today's study or for a permanent copy on CD call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. And then we want to make available Pastor Greg's outstanding book called Jesus Revolution. The subtitle is How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today. You know Pastor Greg, my son and his family used to live pretty close to some railroad tracks. And trains came through quite a lot. I noticed that you can feel the rumbling before the train gets there.

That's right. Let me ask you, is there a revival coming down the tracks? Are you feeling some rumblings right now? My response would be, I hear the train coming. It's coming.

No it's Johnny Cash. Okay. I pray so and I hope so. Because there's a lot of turmoil and trouble in our nation right now. And if God doesn't step in, I don't know how we're going to heal this nation of ours. But God does give us a prescription for the healing of a nation from 2 Chronicles 7-14.

Which I've quoted before and I'm sure I'll quote again. Because God says of my people which are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my faith and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and heal their land. We need the Lord to heal the nation. And we need to pray for a spiritual awakening. The last great spiritual revival in the history of our nation was the Jesus movement also called the Jesus revolution.

By the way Time magazine coined that phrase. And it was a revolution. It changed the church. It changed the nation. And I can tell you it changed my life and the lives of thousands of other people. Many of them young though it wasn't limited to young people. It was primarily a youth revival. Well since I was there I wanted to tell people what it was like.

I want to sort of take you back in time and try to put you in that place. But then I have take away truths that I've written in this book that you can apply in the hope that you can have a spiritual awakening. In your life or in your church or in your community and in our country. And indeed in our world. The Jesus movement was not confined to the shores of the United States.

It spread around the planet. And we need to see it happen again. And now with all of our social media and instant communication. It would be so exciting to give some good news to people instead of all this bad news and all of this fake news. We need God in America. We need God in our lives. We need to be returned to our original state. You know I think sometimes we over spiritualize the word revival.

Let's just use another word. Restoration. If I were to take an old beat up 57 Chevy sitting around in a junk yard. And restore it to original condition. Get the engine running. Redo the upholstery. Give it a new paint job. Put it back out on the street.

You'd say that is a beautifully restored car. We want to see our nation restored. We want to see our lives restored. We need to see a revival.

Let's pray for that together. And to help you learn more about what God did in the last great spiritual awakening. I want to send you a copy of my book simply titled Jesus Revolution. I hope that it will inspire you to pray that you will have your own personal revival.

And I'll send you this book for your gift of any size. Whatever you send will be invested into this ministry. So more people can hear the word of God.

And so more people can come to know Jesus Christ. So order your copy of Jesus Revolution. Yeah we hope you'll do that today. We have a copy waiting for you. We'll get it on its way to you just as soon as we hear from you. Hey Dave don't forget to tell him that. There's also a study guide that will send them along with their copy of Jesus Revolution. Again for their gift of any size.

Yeah that's right. It's a great tool to help you study these insights on a deeper level. And even lead a small group study. Learn how your Bible study group or home fellowship group can help pave the way for the next great spiritual awakening. So we hope you'll send a generous gift today.

And that you'll ask for Jesus Revolution along with the study guide. You can write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We're here to take your call 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Pastor Greg you spoke today about having a relationship with the Lord. Yes. Someone can enter into that kind of a relationship with God right now can't they? Yeah they really can. That's the amazing thing. I think people are surprised that it doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months. It doesn't take weeks. It doesn't take days.

It doesn't even take hours. You can believe on the spot. And I would like to lead you in a prayer where you can ask for His forgiveness. A prayer where you can receive Jesus Christ into your life as your Savior and Lord. So if you want Christ to come into your life. If you want Him to forgive you of your sin. If you want a second chance in life. If you want to go to heaven when you die. Stop what you're doing and pray after me.

These words. Lord Jesus I know I am a sinner. And I'm sorry for my sin. And I turn from it now.

And I choose to follow you from this moment forward. As Savior and Lord. As God and friend.

Thank you for loving me. And calling me. And forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Amen. And listen if you have just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg. The Lord has heard you and forgiven you of your sin.

The Bible says Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. And cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we'd like to send you some materials to help you begin to live this new life. We call it our New Believers Growth Packet. Just ask for it and we'll send it free of charge.

If you prayed for the first time today with Pastor Greg. So write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to Harvest.org and click on Know God. Well next time an enlightening discussion about matters of the end times. As Pastor Greg invites Bible scholar Don Stewart to join him. Be with us next time here on A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners. Helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org