The reason why we on witness is we're not revived. Dr. Tony Evans says when Christ comes alive in you, you've got to say something. I won't need the pastor to tell me to tell. I'll just be so overwhelmed I can't keep it to myself.
This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
Sometimes it can feel like there isn't as much life in our Christian walk as there used to be.
Well, today, Dr. Evans shares ways to reignite our spiritual passion in order to bring about a revival not only in our lives, but through our lives as well. Let's join him as he begins. Let me just say a few things about... Fasting for revival.
Remember, our theme is fasting, and we are not only concerned about what happens with. us but what happens through us to others. in reaching others because you see. It's hard to talk about stuff you yourself are not excited about. The reason why we don't have much to say about Jesus is because.
We've lost our excitement. And so there is a need for a Freshness. A fresh move of God, it's called revival. One of the great illustrations of revival really doesn't have anything to do with people. But it has to do with creation.
All the way back in the book of Genesis, chapter one, the very first book in the Bible, we read about revival. We read in verse 2 of chapter 1, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. And God said, Let there be light. And there was like That's revival.
Revival is when God breaks through the darkness of your life and says, let there be light. You know, there is great concern when metal workers work with metal. They have this thing called bellows. You've seen them. Bellows are these things that they squeeze together.
Over fire. And that's because if they don't do it, the fire will get dim. And weak. It won't be as hot. And so in order to keep it hot and alive.
They press the bellows to heighten the flame. And to make the flame more exuberant, that's revival. Revival is when God comes into your dry spirit and bellows it. When God comes in and squeezes new life. A lot of couples want to get out of marriage when what they need is not a new home.
They need a remodeling job in the home they live in. First place is they want to go to greener pastures. only to discover that when winter time comes, it doesn't matter where you live. Grass is gonna get brown. And when the time comes, it doesn't matter where you live.
It's going something gonna go wrong there with winter. And I've never yet seen a Christian. or our physical or human relationship where winter time didn't come. You don't live on cloud nine. for the whole of your Christian life, because we live in a sinful world.
We live in a world where circumstances, sin, people, and most certainly the devil can take the energy out of your Christian walk. or out of your Christian relationship. The first thing people want to do is leave. You don't need to leave, you need some bellows. You need something to reheat the flame.
That's revival. the reheating of the flame.
Now Coupled with this reality. is the nature of God. God must judge sin. Ma must. God does not have temper tantrums.
He does not go off the handle. He doesn't just get ticked off. Like we do as humans. Romans 1 says, The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness, or to put it another way. God's judgment is his necessary response to sin.
Not his emotional reaction to it. It's not just that he gets upset because he saw you do this. But it is just the natural response of his holiness to anything that is unlike himself.
So, when staleness sets into our spiritual lives, and that leads us then to. Begin to live independently of God on whatever level that takes this place, there is always a divine response. And when that divine response comes, what we begin to discover is God seems further and further away. And the further God is away from us, The more deterioration sets in. The law of thermodynamics.
Well, That means there's a need for revival. You don't have to get saved all over again. You just need to get renewed. You need a new excitement. And that's why the passage in Joel is our passage today.
Related not only to our own lives, but to our emphasis of reaching others. Because it's a call for revival. The people of God, the Israelite. had departed from God. They had left God.
They walked away from him and walked away from the dynamic of the relationship. They were not willing to keep the love affair going on. And they were paying a heavy price. For walking away from God, you always pay a heavy price for walking away from God. What was the price?
Verse 4 of chapter 1. What the locusts have left, the swarming locusts have eaten. And what the swarming locusts have left, the creeping locusts have eaten. And what the creeping locusts has left, the stripping locusts have eaten. Awake, drunkards, and weep.
And well, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has invaded my land, mighty without number. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
Now, God is referring here to the locust invasion. That he allowed as the necessary response to the people's rebellion against God. The people had gotten used to God. God had become taken for granted, and as a result, God did not hold back. Judgment.
Now, the reason why you and I don't get what we deserve is because God holds back judgment. Many of you in this room right now know you should have been dead now. If you would have gotten what you deserve for the mess you put yourself in, you wouldn't be here today. But the grace of God. Has allowed you to remain here today.
When the locusts come, they eat up your food, they eat up your fruit, they destroy your productivity. God has allowed the locust to come because of our departure from Him. Dryness sets in, staleness sets in, emptiness sets in.
So what does he say, verse 14? Consecrate a fast. Proclaim a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord, alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is near and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
So this takes us to our theme, doesn't it? It tells us that one of the ways you get revival is through fasting. He says, consecrate a fast. When staleness sets into your spiritual life. Or when the Doppler radar lets you know that judgment is near.
You all know what the Doppler radar is, don't you? Listen to your rather report, they give you the Doppler radar report. The Doppler Radar Report is a sophisticated meteorological surveillance system that lets you know trouble is on the way. It lets you know a storm is coming from the west, or a hurricane is coming from the east, or major weather changes are coming from this direction or that direction. Why do they give a Doppler radar report?
They give you a Doppler radar report so you can get ready.
So you can prepare. God will say, consecrate a fast because the Jehovah radar report. Says the judgment is on the way. It is time to get you to be serious about God. But many of us are watching the locust eat up our lives.
Everything we touch gets eaten up. We try to save money. God keeps letting stuff get broken down.
So we don't save a thing. We try to make ourselves happy, come up with pseudo-happiness. This has created happiness. You always know people who aren't happy. Because they're always having to spend money to get happy.
Pseudo-happiness. See, if you have to spend money every day to get happy. That's because it means nothing is happening on the inside.
Okay. If you always need the external, to make your internal happy rather than the internal making your external happy. You don't need a new movie, you need a revival. You don't need a party or a club, you need a revival. You need something light bursting forth on the inside to give fresh aliveness there.
Which means that you're not dependent on the outside and you can save some money all at the same time. Let's look at it a little closer. The nature of this revival, chapter two. Verse 12, yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart. And with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rent your heart, not your garments.
What he says is this is a very serious exercise. And since we want revival or should want revival, it's a very serious thing. He says, weeping. And morning. Or to put it, if I would put it another way, coming to the end of yourself.
Here's what brokenness means: it means God stripping you of your self-sufficiency. See, God created you to be dependent upon him, yet it's very easy as human beings to become independent of him.
So what God must do is break you. Dr. Evans will have more on fasting for revival when he returns in just a moment. Don't go away. Many of the stories of the Word of God were depicted in artistic forms, and some of the most magnificent pieces are still available to us today.
On the Unbound Podcast, Dr. Tony Evans and his guests explore how we encounter the spirit in everyday life, including art. I love that you are looking at the art and the architecture and really tracing that line. It must be true above all else, right? Why not make it beautiful, like I added?
Listen to the Unbound Podcast. Look for the new Unbound podcast with Tony Evans on his YouTube channel. or on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Today's message from Dr. Evans is part of his series on fasting.
a two volume collection that digs deep into the surprising relationship between food and faith. Bible-based fasting could be the key you need to unlock revival, free you from burdens, and guide you successfully toward the future. There's a lot packed into this series, and all 14 messages are our gift to you. When you make a contribution to help support our work here at The Alternative, And for a limited time, along with the audio messages from this series, We'll also send you our Hope for the Herding leader kit. including the Hope for the Hurting book, study guide, printed material for six study sessions, teaching videos, and more.
This study unveils God's purpose and power during times of suffering. and helps us realize God is working on our behalf in ways we might not easily see. This is a great package for a small group study or even for your own personal growth. To request your copy of Fasting and the Hope for the Hurting bundle, Visit us today at tonyevans.org. or call us at 1-800-800-3222.
where one of our friendly team members is ready to help with your request. I'll repeat that contact information after the second part of today's message. Here's Tony once again.
Some years ago, my wife and I were trying to decide. We were debating about maybe moving or maybe remodeling, and we went back and forth of moving versus remodeling, moving versus remodeling. We decided to remodel. And so we remodeled our home. as an inconvenient thing.
I'm going to tell you now. That's a very inconvenient thing. One of the things that got remodeled was the kitchen.
Okay. How to make a grown man cry, all right? We had to remodel the kitchen. From top to bottom. And that meant a lot of breaking went on.
They tore out the floor, they tore out the cabinets, they tore out the wall, parts of the walls, they tore out, things were in shambles.
So let me tell you something. When you go on your face to God to revive you. He must break you first. The process of remodeling, or let's call that reviving my kitchen. Meant things got worse before they got better.
Are you praying with me? If you fast and go before God, don't be surprised if things get worse. Before they get better, because in order for God to make you new, he got to rip out the old. He's got to tear out that old way of thinking, that old way of walking, that old way of talking, that old way of acting.
So don't be surprised if your world crumbles. And you say, but I was fasting for revival, but he can't remake your kitchen till he tears down the one. That's there already. In fact, the only reason you coming is because the one that's there already doesn't look good anymore. The one that's there already isn't working anymore.
And I like this because the text says that when he does do this, Who knows, verse 14, whether he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind? When they tore down my kitchen, they didn't put back up the cabinets they tore down. My wife got blessed. But new cabinets. We don't have the same refrigerator anymore.
We don't have the same stove. Because, of course, as ladies go. You don't remodel the kitchen and repaint it and put in the old stuff. She want new stuff. The point is, he says, not only might God relent.
But leave you some bonuses behind. But make no mistake about it. If you need a revival, things may get worse, remodeling. before they get better.
Now How would you feel about A construction person. And you want a remodel kitchen or remodel the living room or whatever. And all they do is put something on top of what you already have. See, a lot of us don't want a revival, we just want a code. Please just want to put another coat on top of this.
In fact, a lot of us have been coating for years. And all we got is stacks of stuff on stacks of stuff when what we need is something to be torn out. Rip the pot, rip the shreds. Let me tell you a secret. Everybody who God ever used in the Bible in any great way, everybody who God ever let him see in a deeper level got broken first.
There's no way around it. I wish there was an easier way. But there is no way around getting to the next level through brokenness. God had to strip them. Bring them to themselves.
Peter said, I'll never leave you. Jesus said, you're going to leave me before tomorrow morning. Paul in Romans 7 said, The things I don't want to do, those are the things I do. I don't want this problem in my life. He was a broken man.
God gave him a thorn in the flesh he couldn't shake. And he said, the reason I'm going to give you this throne is so that you stay humble. God is going to break you. That's good news. God says, fast and pray, and throw yourself, and weep, and wail, and rent your heart, not just your garments.
For this revival, for this new awakening of God, for this fresh experience of God.
So what does this require of you?
Well, this whole concept of fasting for revival is fasting for repentance. It has to do with a repentance. Repentance is the restoration of fellowship. the renewing of fellowship. Let me make sure we're on the same page here.
There is a difference between relationship and fellowship. When you trust Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. You enter into a formal legal relationship. But when you are intimate with your Savior, that gives you a relationship. You can have a relationship and not enjoy fellowship.
What you need is the renewal of fellowship. And what's the result? What can I expect? This is good stuff. Back to Joel.
What can I expect? If I fast for revival. If I give up the physical to gain the spiritual. Verse 18 says, The Lord will be zealous for his land and he will have pity on his people. That's mercy.
Mercy. Mercy is when God doesn't give you what you do deserve. which is his justice and his just retribution for sin. Verse 19 says, I'm going to send. You grain, new wine, and oil.
And you will be satisfied and full with them. I'm going to give you. New stuff.
Now, we just read in chapter one: he took away their grain. He took away their oil. He took away their grapes. But the same God that took it. Can replant it.
Yeah. But oh, do I like verse 25? And then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locusts have eaten.
Some of us in here today have lost many years of life. Fooling around, wasting time, not serving God. God says, if you get right with me. I'll not only give you new stuff, I'll give you the old stuff that you lost when you should have been home. Isn't that good news?
I will give you what the locusts have taken. I'll plant new stuff. But then I also give you what the new, I make up the old. That's how much God wants to have a revival in our hearts. He wants you so bad, he'll make a promise to give you what they took and to make up what you lost.
Isn't that something? That if I lost 10 years with God. And I get right with God today. he will not only replant my life for tomorrow but start working on retroactive goodness Retroactive blessing. Retroactive grace.
That's what I need. I need retroactive grace. Then look at verse 28. And it came about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. I will pour out my spirit in those days.
Now you know where this was quoted, right? It's quote in the book of Acts. It's called in the book of Acts when they were waiting on the spirit to come. And Jesus said, And when my spirit comes, you shall be my witnesses. To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Now, watch this now. Watch this. God says, when I revive you, you will have a new experience of my spirit. I will become alive in you, and my spirit. will bring not only his presence, but his power.
You will have a power in your life operating that was not there before. How do you know when that power is there? Let me tell you what Jesus told his disciples. And you will be my witnesses. Yeah.
You will be my witnesses. You will be my witnesses. When you've been revived, you're going to talk. Yeah. Well, you've been revived.
You're gonna have something to say. The reason why we don't witness is we're not revived. When Christ comes alive in you, you got to say something. They try to shut you up because he's too real. He's real, real in my soul today.
And when it's real in my soul today, I want to know, do you know him? I want to know, have you met it? I'm going to want to tell it and I won't need the pastor to tell me to tell it. I'll just be so overwhelmed I can't keep it to myself. Because that's what happens when you fall in love.
You can't keep it to yourself. Dr. Evans will return in a moment with a final thought to wrap up today's message. First though, I want to let you know that this lesson is called Fasting for Revival. and is available both individually and as a part of Tony's two volume series simply titled Fasting.
As I mentioned earlier, you can get all 14 full-length messages in this collection as our gift in appreciation for your donation to this ministry. along with a special bonus, our Hope for the Herding leader kit. That includes the Hope for the Hurting book, Bible study, study resources, teaching videos, and more. Visit TonyEvans.org today to get all the details before time runs out. Again, that's tonyevans.org.
or call us at one eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two. Our resource center is open 24-7. That number again one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. We often admire those whose talents are easily recognized. But doctor Evans reminds us that God has given each of us unique gifts.
On Monday, we'll explore how to identify those gifts and discern the best ways and times to use them. Right now, though, he's back with these final comments for today. I love the story of the prodigal son. He got lost and he needed remodeling job. He got tired of the pigpin.
And came on home. He said, My father's servants do better than this. Let me go home. But you know why what I like about it? It says, while he was afar off.
While it was way out there. Hadn't even seen daddy yet. Daddy was at the front door looking. Because when you draw near to daddy, daddy draws near to you. Daddy runs and meets him along the way.
And that should have been enough. It should have been enough that Daddy hugged him and kissed him and said, Welcome home, son, and I'll accept you. That would have been enough. Oh, but that's not the end of the story. Story says, somebody bring out the fatted calf.
We go. Body. Bring out the golden ring. Bring out the sandals and give him the robe. of dignity He gave him a blessing that he wouldn't even have if he stayed at home.
Now that doesn't erase the misery of being in a pig pen. But it does say if God needs a pig pen to bring you home. He'll bring you that low. He'll bring you as low as you need to go. To see there's no place like home.
There's no place like home. There's no place like home.
