Revival or We Die Part 11: How Revival Can Shake a Nation

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Michael Brown, so glad to be here with you. As we stand together with you in the line of fire, on the front lines, here to equip you, empower you so you can engage your world so you can glorify Jesus. The good news is, in the midst of the tribulation, pressure, attack, Jesus is with us. We overcome in him.

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Thelineoffire.org and sign up for the front line newsletter. We continue speaking this week on the theme of revival. Revival or we die. We'll let you know how you can get a copy of my book, Revival or We Die.

A great awakening is our only hope. So again, my working definition of revival, the essence, the heart of it is that revival is a season of unusual divine visitation. It is God coming in unusual power and intensity over and above what he does in our lives on a daily basis to the point that you can mark these things and speak about historic revivals of the past and when they began and when they waned and ended.

It's that clear. It's like a hurricane came through at a particular time. You can say here's when it came and here's when it ended or you know we'll talk about the great depression in American history or the civil war in American history or this event or that event. God coming in revival power can be that distinct, that real that we can mark it. I want to take you over in the scriptures to Acts chapter 19 and then I want to go back through history in America and Europe and look at some examples of God coming in revival and get you thinking and praying and believing what would happen today?

What would it look like in my city? What would it look like in my church? What would it be like if God really came with revival fire?

What would it be like if America had another awakening? Now some of you may say it's too late for that. I would just challenge you to show me the chapter in the verse with all respect and recognizing as I do how dire things are in our nation and the terrible moral and spiritual decline that we have seen for many years in so many ways. I would just ask you show me the chapter in verse that says it is too late.

What would it look like? It's time to pray prayers worthy of the God that we serve. It's time to pray prayers that are in accordance with who He is. No, we can't do it. All of our best efforts can't do it. We understand that. That's our starting point. So we do what we know how to do every day. Every day we love the Lord. We love our neighbor. We care for our families.

We go to work. We seek to live godly lives. We share the gospel with our neighbor. We seek to make disciples.

We support missions around the world. We do what we know how to do on a daily basis and we cry out all God visit us. All God come in power. So Acts the 19th chapter it's one of these amazing pictures of God moving powerfully in a city. So Paul goes to Ephesus and it says he enters the synagogue. He teaches there and then extraordinary miracles begin to happen and do you know the account that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched the skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them. So there were some Jewish exorcists and they heard about what was happening and they said well let's try this out. Let's use this new power this new name that we're hearing the name of Jesus. So they go up to a demonized man and they say we we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches come out of him and the demon says I know Jesus and I know about Paul but who are you and demon leaps the man leaps on this demonized man seven of them they run out naked and bleeding and as a result of that everybody's talking about the name of what the name of Jesus Jesus who is this Jesus his power God begins to move so powerfully in the city it says this now after these events was Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and to go to Jerusalem but it says this about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way this is this is the way the movement was known that one of the ways it was spoken of as they called it the way Jesus being the way they called this new movement of Jews and Gentiles following this Jesus they called it the way and there's a disturbance because of it for a man named Demetrius a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis brought no little business to the craftsman these he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said men you know it from this business we have our wealth well what's the problem the problem is is more and more people are coming to faith they're not buying idols and the idols that's their business i've said for decades that good business for the kingdom of God means bad business for the kingdom of satan i've said for years that if christian men would stop watching porn that the porn business would take a hit i don't set it to condemn those that struggle i'm saying that it's no sign of saying that it's no surprise when the world lives like the world it is a surprise when the church lives like the world and when the church leaves lives differently and God begins moving it will put a dent in satan's business it will you have less people using drugs you've got less drug dealing some years back a few decades back there was a massive church in colombian bogata grown to over a hundred thousand members of praying church a soul-winning discipling church and the pastor had to travel with bodyguards because he was under constant death threat from drug lords because their business was being hurt so many prostitutes were getting saved so many drug dealers were getting saved even some of the drug lords were getting saved it was hurting their business and he was ambushed one day even with all the protection he had he was shot five times and survived the bullets did not hit any sensitive organs a friend of mine met him years ago four of the bullets had been removed a fifth they couldn't remove and my friend said you could actually feel it he put your hand where it was on his body you can actually feel the bullet still in his body but of course the kingdom of god advancing is a threat to the kingdom of darkness it's always going to be that way light is a threat to darkness so there is a big disturbance in emphasis and now this is dishonoring their their goddess and so on and so forth and and there ends up being a riot in the city because of this and and many come to faith and they burn their books of witchcraft it's a great picture of what happens when god comes in revival a student of mine from years ago from wales researched things in wales because of the great welsh revivals in the past 1859 1860 and the most famous 1904 1905 under evan roberts which started with evan roberts and god moved out from there 26 year old coal miner and god moved out from there and and he said that he researched the accounts and and men who were unsaved would go into into a bar to get drunk and their wives were praying for them and you'd read the accounts of the men went to they couldn't get the liquor they couldn't get the glass to their to their mouths and they ran out fell on their faces and got right with god even something more simple that rugby was the sport the the great sport of wales back then and he said you know every community was part of a rugby league and he said some places the the league shut down because there was so much interest in god so much so much interest in being in church services so much interest in pursuing the lord that they didn't care about rugby i mean oh boy could you imagine could you imagine god moving so profoundly in america that nfl games were canceled i mean it's it is unfathomable the one time that i'm aware that it happened was immediately after 9 11 that that next sunday football games were canceled and then it was back to normal but could you imagine and i'm not saying it's it's sinful it's the end of the world you have sunday football games or saturday football games etc although certainly it is saying something when there are churches that during football season they make sure they end at a certain time so people get home and watch the game talk about idolatry talk about split interests so that's when one competes with the other then it's a problem but could you imagine that could you fathom that for a moment but these are the kinds of radical and dramatic sweeping changes that take place when god comes in revival power but let me let me read you an account from from the life and ministry of of finney um this is uh in 1825 so finney lived from 1792 to 1875 and what's interesting when you read about the history of revival it comes through calvinists and armenians it comes through those over over the centuries we call charismatic and those non-charismatic it comes through presbyterians it comes through lutherans it comes through different ones it's the same spirit working through human beings where god finds hunger and thirst it's not about doctrinal perfection in fact revival comes when things are wrong revival comes to set things right so for the ministry of finney 1825 he's ministering in the town of new york mills his brother-in-law invited him to the local cotton factory of which he was in charge when finney was known for his preaching in the area entered the factory his glance fell upon a girl who had made a jestful comment to her friend the evangelist describes what happened next he said when i came within eight or ten feet of her i looked solemnly at her she observed it and was quite overcome and sank down and burst into tears the impression caught almost like power i take powder i take the mean gunpowder and in a few moments all in the room were in tears the feeling spread through the factory the owner said to the superintendent stop the mill and let the people attend to religion for it is more important that our souls should be saved than this factory should run the revival went through the mill with astonishing power and in a few days nearly all were converted now you read accounts like that and you say ah wasn't that just exaggeration but then you can actually do archival research i i know folks that have done that you know writing their master's thesis or doctoral thesis they've gone into a city and they've dug and they've gone into the libraries and or or state records and they've gone and researched things and found so many of these accounts just just verified and then in the midst of the browser revival when i was part of it no we didn't see that we didn't see everybody in the in in the whole building or workplace getting saved but things shifted so dramatically that that school school teachers could tell us about what was happening in school or principals could tell us what would happen what was happening or or the sheriff could tell the pastor of the church that the first year he saw 13 percent drop in juvenile crime and in his mind that was attributable directly to god moving in the city and revival all right i i'm going to share one of the most amazing revival stories i've ever heard and i share these with you to encourage you to build your faith you say well what if god did it again today why not is he not the same god and does he not come when things are urgent and desperate so gonna do that in a moment but a quick word 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broadcast so call now 1-800-771-5584 1-800-771-5584 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com all right one more reminder if you're not getting my frontline newsletter inspirational equipping challenging encouraging it'll bless you every month with fun features like the hebrew word of the month but a lead article that'll boom it'll speak to you and then testimonies that'll bless you and other great features go to our website thelineoffire.org go there now sign up if you're getting our emails then you've already gotten the frontline newsletter last week i pray it was a blessing to you at the end of the broadcast i'll let you know how you can get your own copy of revival or we die okay so one of my favorite accounts from the ministry of charles finney he gets an invitation from an old man to go into a town and preach on a sunday afternoon i believe it was a sunday afternoon and finney accepts the invitation but by the time he's going there he's he's already been going day and night he's exhausted he's he's kind of regretting that he had taken this invitation those of you who've been in traveling ministry as i have for decades know that exact feelings like why did i commit to do why do i can't believe it i just want to go home and sleep anyway so finney's going he's not particularly full of faith he's not particularly full of anticipation and in those days as he was always in the word of god and walking with the lord he would preach spontaneously and extemporaneously he also had a very clear legal mind that enabled him to lay out arguments and since 1973 that's how i learned to preach is without notes and just the outline just comes in your mind and you lay it out it's worked for me sometimes i'll take detailed notes pages of notes and those especially that are teachers it's very common you have lots and lots of notes if you have powerpoint things like that for people to follow wonderful but there is this grace that god gives to some of us to speak and it's and it's systematic and it makes sense and it's accordance with the text but that's because you're you're walking in the word living in the word all the time well that was finney's style and i'm telling you this because it's an important part of the story so he gets to this place and and in those days finney's meetings were largely outside of church buildings because he did not wear the the clerical outfit he did not wear what clergy would wear he he preached in regular clothes that was unusual and when he preached he didn't quote from classic greek sources and this and that he he really argued this case like a lawyer so the style and the look was such that he was excluded from any church buildings so the people gathered together in this barn and and as they gathered together finney feels to preach from genesis the 19th chapter genesis chapter 19 is the story of sodom and gomorrah in genesis 19 two angels come to lot to warn him and his family to flee from the city because god is going to send down fire and brimstone on this wicked city before he preaches though they they are singing songs of worship so you have to remember a lot of these people were completely unsaved but they grew up in church they knew the hymns they knew the songs and finney coming to speak well it's an event so they they were there as they were singing the singing was so horrific that finney literally covers his ears and falls to his knees he played bass viol as it was called so he was a musician and had a sensitive ear the singing something about it struck him as so horrific he puts his his hands over his ears and he falls to his knees yeah as they're singing he gets up to preach and begins to preach on genesis 19 god is going to destroy the wicked city of sodom god has looked for righteous man and has only found one righteous man lot god is going to destroy sodom as finney is preaching the people become enraged and he has no idea why he's just preaching a message from genesis 19 and god's anger with sodom and the sin of sodom and the righteous man was found in there a lot and he goes on and as he's preaching the people are outraged and finney literally has no idea why but he keeps preaching and suddenly something happens in finney's words he said if i had a sword in each hand i could not have cut them down quicker than they were falling they begin falling out of their chairs onto the floor weeping and wailing and crying out and repenting he still doesn't know what has happened except that the sword of the spirit has come the one thing he knows is that the sword of the spirit the convicting word of god has come and penetrated their hearts as guilty sinners so he begins walking through the crowd and saying you're not yet in hell you can still pray you can still repent you're not yet in hell you can still pray you can still repent that's how intense conviction can get during revival i mean we're used to just come to the front and pray this prayer okay prayers prayer what's the prayer lord jesus lord jesus forgive me forgive me i've sinned i've sinned you get to watch that's that's not a prayer of conviction that's a prayer of convenience oh i can get this better life eternal life all my sins forgiven guilt gone just have to say a few words that's not the gospel friends that's not the gospel maybe you've come from churches i've seen it not in person but i've seen it on on christian tv come and shake the preacher's hand that's how you get saved come and shake the preacher's hands like what in the world it's one thing if you say that's how that's our formal sign of committing to membership in our church that once you're going through membership classes come and shake the preacher's hand and that's our custom but that's how you get saved what in the world is that finny is so overwhelmed by what he sees the sight of people repenting and weeping and crying out that he now becomes overcome with joy but he doesn't want it to seem as if he's laughing at them he finds this this empty boiler unused boiler in the in the back of the building and he and he just puts like a handkerchief over his face and just sticks his head back there he's laughing spasmonically he's so overcome with joy at seeing these people repent you remember there's joy in heaven over one sinner who repents they're under such deep conviction he's filled with joy seeing it it's only afterwards he finds out that that town was so wicked it was given the nickname sodom everybody knew it as sodom except finny the old man that invited him was known as the only believer in the city so he was given the nickname lot so the people assumed that the old man that they nicknamed lot told finny that this is a a city city or town here everybody calls sodom so finny knowing that preached from genesis 19 to say god's going to destroy your wicked city god's going to destroy your wicked town god's going to send fire and brimstone that's why they were so outraged but the sword of the spirit the word of god boom cut and convicted them and and they cried out and repented and got right with god these stories sound outrageous they seem impossible but that's what happens in times of revival my book revival or we die will really inspire you because when you read it you realize well we've been in a mess before in america we've been messed up before in america but but change can come change can actually come transformation can actually come it'll give you a picture of what revival actually looks like and then the main principles to revival and then how to ignite hunger and thirst in your own heart what about me about god starting a work in me what about revival coming to my life from my family this is dr michael brown thanks so much for tuning in just a reminder that we are listener supported if we have been a blessing to you if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with god through this broadcast then stand with us so that we can reach many many more and bless many many 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