Isaiah Fifty-seven. Who does God promise? to revive. Who Does God Promise To revive. Isaiah 57 Beginning in verse 14.
And it will be said. Build up. Build up Prepare the road, remove the obstacles. out of the way of my people. For this is what the high and exalted one says.
He who lives forever Whose name is holy. I live In a high and holy place, right? Stop there. The exalted God. The one who is supreme overall.
The one who holds the universe together with this powerful word. The one who speaks. and whole planets can explode. The high and exalted one who lives in a high and holy place. Look at this.
But I also live with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit. To revive the spirit of the lowly. and to revive the heart of the contrite. And that Hebrew word contrite. comes from a a word Meaning to crush.
It can even mean to pulverize. There's another form of that word which even means dust, that which is completely pulverized. To those who are pulverized. To those who are crushed. To those who are broken in spirit, God says, Those are the ones I will revive.
Jesus said, I didn't come for the healthy. But for the sick. When he rebukes the church in Sardis in Revelation 3, he says, You have a reputation for being alive, and yet you're dead. And because of that, they did not recognize their need. He says to Laodicea in Revelation 3: You say, I'm rich.
Increased in wealth. And have need of nothing. That was their self-perception. He said, but you don't realize you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. It's terrible to be wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, but it's far more terrible to be wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, and to think you're rich, increased, and wealth, and have need of nothing.
It is a self-deception of so much of the American church because outwardly we can be successful. Outwardly, we can look good. Outwardly, we can have numbers. Outwardly, we can have big budgets and big buildings, and God can bless all of that. Being big doesn't mean wrong, but so many times, what seems like outward success does not reflect inward success.
And many times we don't recognize the depth of our own need, and God, in His love, will bring us into the wilderness to show us how much we need Him. I personally do not enjoy the wilderness. I do not think, let's go to the desert and have a vacation. The desert is the place of desolation. The desert is the place of barrenness and emptiness.
The desert is the place of need and dependency. When the children of Israel are in the wilderness, if God does not provide water, they die. If God does not provide manna, they die. And you could go for days looking and hoping and thirsting and hungering. That's the place God wants us to bring us to, not for outward things, but for Him.
So that we get to the place where we don't want other things, we want him. We get to the place that things that used to excite us and entertain us have no meaning to us because we have to have Him. He brings us to the end of ourselves. It's not comfortable. I do not like being pulverized.
I I'd rather Walk strongly. Then be broken. But it's often in that place of brokenness. often in that place of need. Often, when you come to the end of yourself, that hunger rises, and you say, God, I must have you.
In the late 1980s, I had I'd been feeling That God was doing great and amazing things in the church in America, and in many ways he was. And he continues to do. But as the years went on, I began to recognize: well, we are needy. And there's so much that's wrong. And so much that we're missing.
I remember sitting with Leonard Ravenhill, famous for his book, Water Revival Tarries. We were very close the last five years of his life. And I sat with him one day and he said, Mike. You know, they say that the church in America is 3,000 miles wide and one foot deep. He said, I don't agree with that.
I said, really? He said, yes, we're not that deep. And you go to other parts of the world, you see the devotion of the believers, and you see they live by life or by death. Every year, when I go to India 30 times now, and my colleague baptizes new believers there, every time it's the same question he asks them at the end of their confession of faith: Are you willing to die for Jesus? Give your last breath for Jesus.
That's just normal gospel. That's gospel 101. I was talking to a brother that works in the Muslim world. And he was saying it's common before they baptize new believers in the Muslim world to ask them two final questions. Are you willing to suffer for Jesus?
Are you willing to die for Jesus? And he said to me, picture if we added that to our list of questions for new members of our churches.
Okay, we see you filled out the new member form. Wonderful. You're ready, tithing. Beautiful. That's great.
Oh, and you love the coffee. It is the best coffee in town, that's true.
Okay, parking, excellent. Good that. Handle that. Love children's ministry? Yeah, we think pastor's very funny too.
Okay, we just have two more questions before you join. I mean, it's it's far in line. To us, but it's normal gospel. It's normal gospel. When other things are taken from us.
That's often when we realize how much we need him. When we go through difficulties and trials and tests and uncomfortable situations and things that bring us to our knees, that's when we realize how much we need God. And that's what happens in the wilderness. And that's what brings us to that place of brokenness. And that's what brings us to the place like Jacob in Genesis 32.
He's always had a plan. If God doesn't come through, he's got his credit card. By the way, it's not a sin to use a credit card. Just wanted to clarify that. But the point is: you know, we're believing he's going to come through, and if he doesn't, we'll find another way.
That's how Jacob lived. He depended on God and the flesh. Always find a way, always make it happen. And then he gets to the point where he hears his brother Esau is coming with 400 men. In Genesis 32.
And the last time he heard Esau speak, Esau said, When our father dies, I'm going to kill Jacob. Jacob stole his birthright, Jacob stole his blessing.
Now it's been simmering for years. He thinks we're all going to die. My wives, concubines, kids, everybody's going to die. And he comes up with a plan to send nine different groups with gifts bowing down before Esau. And in his heart, he must have realized it's not enough.
It's not enough. And that's when he's left alone with God. Friends, God will work things in your life. or allow circumstances to happen. Or even sometimes allow the enemy to attack to bring us to the point where you're alone with God.
To bring you to the point where you can't lean on anyone and anything else. As I was recently passing through the most severe trial and test of my life. And there were different colleagues. I just wanted to talk to them and get some counsel, or maybe someone have a word, and you get to the point and you realize nobody can help you but God. Nobody can help you but God.
Thank God for the body. Thank God for the support we have. Thank God for friends. But ultimately, it's you and God. Jacob is left alone with God.
All his conniving, all his planning, all his methods, they're not enough. And he gets to that point of absolute desperation. And that's when he wrestles with the angel, when he wrestles with, I believe, the Son of God Himself. And he says, I won't let you go until you bless me. We often do not live with desperation.
Often our prayers are superficial.
Sometimes, even going through hard times, I just rebuke myself. Your prayers are so superficial. Yeah, you shut yourself in to be with God and end up on social media. You shut yourself into prayer and end up falling asleep. Where's the desperation?
This happened to me. Where's the desperation? Where's that hunger and thirst that cannot quit? Because to quit is to die. He said, I won't let you go until you bless me because to let go is to die.
When we come to the point of desperation, That brokenness, where the only way out is God. The only cry in your heart is, God, then we're near. Oh, it's uncomfortable on the flesh. It's miserable on the flesh. It's painful.
You think of some of the images in scripture being pruned. My wife is a master gardener and landscaper. And as I was helping her in the garden, I just follow along and pick things up. Carry bags of mulch or get tools, and sometimes it takes me several times to get the tool because I don't know tools. But I'm following behind her, and she's pruning some trees in front of the house.
And bushes, you're pruning them down to nothing. I'm cutting all these branches away and dumping them. You're putting them down to nothing. Can you imagine me in a tree? Big ministry pruned down.
Successful is pruned down. Big eagle, prune down. Chip chip. Sure. I can't.
If trees could talk. What are you doing? What are you doing? There is not much left. But having stunned just weeks later, the thing through weeks later, it's thriving.
It's grown back in more. I'm stunned. Jesus says in John 15: every branch that bears fruits can be pruned. Lord, boy, am I going through this while you want to grow or not? You want to bear more fruit or not?
That means pruning. And listen, I just turned 70. I found out it doesn't stop when you get older. The Lord reminded me of days and weeks just laying on my face and crying out and seeking his face. And Lord, make me like your son, change me, make me like your son.
He goes, okay? Let's work on that. Oh. It's painful. We've been pruned in ways I never knew we could be pruned.
You think, Lord, this is more than I can take. And he says, Well, you're still here, aren't you?
Well, I guess we're not in over our head then. How about the refiner's fire? Malachi, the third chapter, God will come like a refiner's fire, superheated fire. And the gold and silver, which looks good outwardly, gets thrown into the flames. And suddenly, all the junk, the muck, the draw starts coming up to the surface.
That's why repentance can be so uncomfortable because suddenly God starts shining a light on who we are. Charles Spurgeon once said, Don't worry about critics because you're worse than people think. You know, when the when the Holy Spirit's Refining you, the fire is there. Lord, I'm rich. I'm not worthy to live.
I'm the worst person in the world. Many years ago, a colleague of mine He was on his way to marital counseling with his wife. And he said, listen, Mike. You recommend it, this ministry said, I'm willing to go because my wife wants it and she needs it. I'm willing to go.
And he calls me after a day or two. He goes, Look, Mike, he said, I think my wife's getting something out of it. He goes, I was really. Nothing for me. Yeah, but I I I think she's getting something out of it.
I thought It hasn't happened yet, but it will. Calls me a day or two later, goes, Mike. Mike, I'm worse than a murderer. You don't understand. I'm worse than a rapist.
Mike, you don't understand. I'm the worst person. I'm the worst person in the world. I said, now you're getting it back.
Now you're getting... The refinest front, it brings. Stuff up to the surface. All the unpleasantness, all we're talking last night in the season I went through in 88, and this purging, pruning, and God revealing pride and wrong motivation, things I didn't even know were there. Listen, when you ask God, do a fresh work in my life, He doesn't do it according to my standards or yours, but according to His.
He trust, listen, he will touch areas you did not ask him to touch. He will go to little hidden closets in your life and start messing around. But here's the question: Do you want God or do you want pride? Do you want God or do you want the praise of people? Do you want God or you want earthly things?
Oh, the fires. Unnerving. Being burned in fire is not pleasant on the flesh. And seeing all the impurities come to the surface, it's difficult. But why does God do it?
Because He loves us, it's not to hurt us, but to help us. Also says in Malachi 3, he'll be like a wanderer's soap. One of my trips to India We were in the early days we'd go for up to a month. And in those days, you know, preaching either with suits or dress shirts all the time.
So we bring like about a week's supplies and then in each city If they were there every second city, we'd just leave stuff outside the hotel room. and it would get cleaned and pressed and put back. And it's cost almost nothing. But I always would notice I'd get my white shirts back, my dress shirts. That'd be a button.
kinda smashed. Like cut in half. Or button on the the cuff missing. And I never knew what happened. One time We we didn't get picked up at our hotel.
there with a colleague. And we're waiting to be picked off in our room. And Nobody came. Days before cell phones and there was a Muslim festival cut the city in half. and transportation so all day we didn't get picked up we just stayed in the room waiting to get picked up And behind us There is A a fuller, a launderer in the old Style.
Normally, they'll work in like a little body of water, river, creek, or something like this, but here is in the back. In the blazing hot weather. And And there you had the guys working all day. And there they had things that looked like my white shirts. And I'd watch them first, they'd take the stuff and plunge it into this water.
The soapy water? And then you take it out and plunge it into this other water. And then they take the thing and beat it on a rock. That's how they drive him clean. Ff beat it on a rock.
That's what happened to my butt this time. Beat it on a rock. And we're just watching this by the hour. And God said, I'm going to be like the launderer's soap. Oh God, bring me closer to you.
Lord, I want to be filled with your spirit.
Okay. And then hung out in the sun to dry. These are some of the images used. This is how God brings us to the point of brokenness. This is how God brings us to the point of dependence.
Look, what does the word say? God gives grace to the humble. It's when we get low. When we recognize our need, that's when the devil comes in and says, you're worthless. That's when the devil comes in and say, God doesn't love you.
That's when the devil comes in to say, you've gone too far and God will never forgive.
So we reject the voice of the devil, but we embrace the refiner's fire. We reject the lies of the flesh and the world, but we embrace the pruning process of God. Why so we can bear more fruit? Why so we can be more like Jesus?
So Beautiful passage in Deuteronomy 8. Just as Moses looking back at the wilderness wanderings. It says in the eighth chapter, this is what the Lord does via ya ancha. And he humbled you. But Yari Vecha.
And he caused you to hunger. And he gave you manna to eat. Which neither you nor your fathers have known, in order to teach you. That man does not live by bread alone. But he lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
He strips us. He takes away all the things we were leaning on. He brings us to a point of absolute dependence. Either you feed us or we die. To teach us we don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from his mouth.
Oh, it's so basic. But it's the very thing we forget in the busyness of life. It's the very thing we forget with the abundance that we have around us. It's the very thing that we forget with all the things that are just dead. Push a button and have it.
The things that really matter are deeper than that, friend. Psalm sixty-three One of my favorite psalms. It says it's spoken by David when he's in the wilderness of Judah. When was he in the wilderness of Judah?
Well, there are two times. It's earlier fleeing from Saul. But then later in life fleeing from Absalom. And I believe it's the later in life account there that's being spoken of. And what does he say?
He's in the wilderness of Judah. He's not in the royal throne anymore. He he's not Surrounded by this entourage of people that just want to get near the king. He's not near the tabernacle where he can go and worship God. He's in the wilderness.
Let me say it again. If you're going to grow in God, you will find yourself in the wilderness. If you're going to be used by God, you will find yourself strength. If you want to see the move of God, you'll get to a point of desperation. Where you feel like you can't live any longer unless God comes through.
It's unpleasant, but it's the place where blessing comes. What does David say? Elohim! God, that's how he starts. God!
You ever been in that place that's why you can pray? God Sometimes that's how I'll journal it. All caps, multiple exclamation points. God! That's how I'll write it out sometimes, just so I see it in front of me, giant letters, giant G, giant O, giant D, multiple exclamation points.
I'll present the need to him, I'll present the crisis to him, I'll present the pain that someone's suffering, I'll present the pain in my own life, and sometimes just say, God! Elohim, Eliata. Oh God, you are my God. Ashacharacha, I'll seek you early. I'll seek you earnestly because I have nowhere else to go.
Because nobody else can help. Because I am in over my head. I hate that place, and I love that place. It's desperately hard on the flesh. I never want to live through the things I've lived through in recent months, but I also know I'll never get where I'm going without living through them.
Elohim Eliata Shakrecha. Samalekhanavshi. My soul thirsts for you. Thirsts Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty?
My body longs for you. In a dry and Weary land with no water. I was on a prayer walk near my house. A couple months back. And I was reciting the psalm as I was praying and walking.
I rebuked myself, I said, I'm not thirsty for you. I'm not at that point of just panting with thirst. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you. We didn't say the words, but are we really thirsty? And then I went further, I said, I'm not thirsty for you.
I want to see breakthroughs. I want to see answers. I want to see you move. I want to see you change circumstances. But I'm not thirsty just for you.
My wife Nancy, she just keeps saying the same thing: forget ministry. Forget it. I laid it all down, Lord. I don't have to preach again. I don't have to minister again.
I don't need a website. I don't need social media. I don't need anything. I just need you. And she keeps pushing me, she says, is that where you're living?
Because all the other stuff can go away. It's just God you have to have. Are you hungry and thirsty for him? He says, I have seen you, so I have seen you in the sanctuary. Gazing on your power and glory.
Your loving kindness, your steadfast love is better than life. That's why my lips will praise you. And then he says. Like the richest foods. You'll satisfy me.
You, you will satisfy me. God often brings us to that place where we come to the end of ourselves. It brings us to that place where nothing else will satisfy. Except him. And then what does it say?
Psalm 16. In your presence is fullness of joy.
Some years ago, I asked myself the question: what gives me? the greatest sense of satisfaction and joy. What brings me the greatest joy, and I thought, Seeing breakthroughs in the ministry. And I thought, that's secondary. The greatest joy should be the presence of God.
The greatest joy should just be knowing him. This is secondary.
Something's missing. And as I was praying during this wilderness season. Kind of a forced sabbatical. Literally seven months between messages. Seven months.
The last one being the first Sunday of November, and the next one being today for the record. What do you know? I had been doing Two Radio broadcasts a day. A year ago. A year and a half ago, early last year.
Not just one a day, a live one hour show, five days a week, but a pre-recorded one as well, five days a week. Pus Teaching at six different ministry schools. Plus writing on average one op-ed article a day. Plus, extensive traveling and preaching around America and overseas. I was not burnt out, I was not exhausted.
I was enjoying the blessing of God in ministry, taking a weekly prayer, a monthly prayer retreat, just one weekend a month, just to get alone and pray. But God suddenly stopped it all. No writing. No Arabia. No preaching.
No teaching. No ministry. Nothing except God. And I went back to some of the old hymns we used to sing. The church I got saved in in 1971.
There's a great Fanny Crosby ham. Draw me nearer and nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. One of the s one of the The verse says this, O the pure delight. of a single hour. that before thy throne I stand.
As I kneel in prayer and with thee, O God, I commune as friend with friend. I thought, Lord, that's what I need. Everything else just stops so I can recover just the intimate joy of being with you and nothing else. There's another old one. I come to the garden alone.
Maybe some of the old timers remember that. You said, I do remember, I'm just too old to raise my hand. I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses. You know, I hear the joy we share. As we tarry there, none other has ever known us.
Lord, that's what I need again. Not success in ministry, not blessing here, not growth in this, but Lord, just the joy of your presence. And I'm still working on it. I say this last thing. When our younger daughter got married 25 years ago.
It's on a Sunday afternoon in the midst of the Brownsborough revival. And I was there that Sunday morning for the message John Kilpatrick preached. And Pastor Kilpatrick, and as he was preaching, I knew what God was saying to me. Stop and smell the roses. Stop.
And smell the roses, because I'm busy, running, running, enjoying it, running, very driven.
So some months back I told Nancy, I said. I'm learning. to stop and smell the roses and she said But you have to enjoy smelling the roses. And I thought, I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet.
And in these more recent months, I said to her, honey, I said, I'm enjoying smelling the roses. I'm enjoying smelling the roses.
So I want to encourage you. Go home today and Spend some time with God. You've got family activities, other things, but many you've really set aside this weekend to encounter him. And go after him and say, God. I'm not hungry.
Or God, I'm not thirsty. God, I'm too busy. Or, God, I want you to work, but I'm afraid of what it means. Listen, He's a good God. He's not going to hurt you.
The enemy wants to destroy us. There's a devil who hates us and wants to destroy us. Our God is a God who delights in loving kindness. Maybe it's time to take you deeper. Maybe it's time an encounter with God that'll shape the rest of your life.
Maybe you've been praying and fasting and seeking him for months, even for years. And this is the weekend where change comes. through all the different messages, through the corporate prayer, through the corporate worship.
So I want to encourage you. Go home today. And say, God. Do whatever you want in my life. Make me like your son.
God, take me deeper. No, he's not going to smite your family with cancer.
So he's not going to kill you in a car wreck on the he's not going to bring some type of terrible tragedy on you, just so that you can love him. Trust him. Just say, Lord, I'm putting all my eggs in your basket. I'm jumping into your arms and I want nothing more than you and you alone. Do what you must do to bring me to that place.
And friends. It will be worth everything. Everything. There was a There was a woman Called our radio show once with an amazing testimony. She'd read my book, Can You Be Game Christian?
Her sister was in a lesbian relationship about to marry her partner. And when she shared the gospel with her and Her sister came under deep conviction. and got radically saved. And had an amicable separation from her partner and And then some time later, the woman herself calls. The woman who had gotten born again.
And she said, my entire life was in that community. She said, I literally lost everything I had for Jesus. She said, and it's been wonderful. And it's been wonderful. If God's dealing with something in your life, you're holding on to it, you're holding on to sin, you're holding on to disobedience or something that is not his will, let it go.
You'll be free. He'll replace it with himself. He'll be free. You'll be clean. Thank you, Lord.
Let's pray. Father, I ask you to take this simple word. and bring it deep into our hearts. And make us like your son. Strip us of everything that stands in the way of a deeper encounter with you.
and change us. Those in the wilderness, Lord, may we recognize the process. May we embrace the trial. May we rejoice in the midst of it that Jesus would be glorified. Do an amazing work in the years ahead.
I'm not sure if I can do it. In Jesus' name. Amen.
