Personal Revival

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   I come to you this morning, Lord, and I just pray for your grace to help me share this word that I feel you speaking this morning. Cuz Lord, I just I just know that we sing songs like that, Lord, and for the most part they're lip service. Most people that come to church would rather be somewhere else. And Lord, that's just the way it is. American church, even some of the even better churches, we're still so far away from really wanting you. We say we want you, but our actions prove differently. God help us. Jesus, you know, you can be seated this morning. I'm feeling that I don't have a real happy word to share for firing Grace Church this morning. Because frankly, to whom, you know, Jesus said this, to whom much is given, much is required. Now, I can say this about this church, one thing I do know, is that I've been in Christianity long enough now. I've been a pastor, I've been a minister, I've been in different parts of the world. I've studied the Bible intensely for 26 years. And I've tried to give you guys the whole counsel of God's word, like Paul said and he did to the church of Ephesus. He was 3 years at the church of Ephesus preaching and teaching in Acts chapter 20, and he said, "You know, I've been here these 3 years with you, and I have preached to you. I've given you the whole counsel of God's word. And you know, one thing I can say without not being a prideful issue and not being arrogant or anything that matter. I know I have given y'all the word of God. Everything from what it means to be saved, what it means to repent, what it means to live for God, what it means to seek God, what it means uh you know, to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, um the fear of God, the judgment of God, the grace of God, the second coming of Jesus, the prophecies, all these things, but you know, last week the Holy Spirit completely changed my message to talk about the need for us to have revival, the need for us to see the glory of God come, and

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   and to see many people convicted of sin and saved and delivered and healed and and I and and truly I think as a church, we are still giving lip service to some of these things. Because frankly, we can miss church for minute reasons. Um we don't you know, we miss prayer meeting. We we can't even we can't even get a a prayer meeting that everybody will come to. And frankly, I just know that there's I know in my spirit. I just know there's not a lot of praying going on in this church. Now, and those that may be listening to us, I know that if you compared us to churches kind of on a broad sense all over America, we're probably doing a little better. But the problem is is that Paul said if we compare ourselves among ourselves, we are not wise because guess what? It doesn't matter if we think we're doing things a little better. Sometimes that becomes an enemy. Sometimes you think you got it all together, but God has required more of you. You know, we may be a church of five talent church. We may be required to make five more. Other churches may only be two. They may only be required to get two. Is what is what is God require of us? See, I know some things that are going my my heart's kind of heavy this morning because I've been seeking the Lord about this. And what y'all don't know is that in I'll I'll share this. You know, when Jesus there would be times that Jesus was teaching, preaching, ministering. Sometimes just to his disciples and sometimes to crowds of people and sometimes, you know, the Pharisees would be around. And it would say this in the in the Gospels. Jesus knew their thoughts. Sometimes I know your thoughts. You know what that's called? It's called a word of knowledge. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. It's called I know your thoughts. I know I know sometimes what you're thinking. And I don't say anything, but it troubles me. Because we we we we got to uh we got to make up our mind what we want. We sing this song, Set a Fire. Do we want the fire of God? Do we want the glory of God? Do we want the power of God to come down? Do we want revival? If you want revival, you have to want it in your personal life first. You have to be revived. But I know there are those of you do not study your Bibles. You do not even read your Bibles regularly. You don't pray regularly. You don't come

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   to prayer meeting regularly. Some don't even come to church regularly. And I'm sitting here going we say we want God, we want the presence of God, we want the anointing of God, we want revival, we want the church to grow, we want people to be saved, but we don't do it. We don't do anything to really bring that about. You know, the saints of old, and this is what, you know, I've studied revival history, and you go back to the Charles Finney, you go back to John Wesley, you go back to the great revivals, the Moravians, and you know what what what characterized them was that they were willing, if need be, to pray for hours and hours and hours. They were willing to stay up all night in prayer. They were willing to have prayer meetings that lasted a week. Do you know that the Moravians started a prayer meeting I think it was in 1724. A prayer meeting with the children and all their their people in Germany, I think it was in Germany. Don't quote me on that. Count thinking about it. Count What was his name? Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf. But the Moravians started a prayer meeting that went 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and lasted for They became the church of what we know as the the missionary church that reached the world. The Moravians were the ones who sent out missionaries that literally ran into John and Wesley and led him to the Lord. Their example, their witness. John Wesley thought he was saved, thought he was a Christian. Probably lived more holy than most Christians do today. And yet he was not born again. But through their example of the Moravians on a ship when he came over here, through the example of that of the way that they they didn't fear death, they sang in the midst of of facing death, they were willing to lay down their lives to go anywhere in the world. Some of the Moravians actually sold themselves into slavery so that they could win the slaves to Jesus. And it was I mean a life of suffering and hard labor and mistreatment, and they willingly sold themselves into slavery so that they could reach the American Christians. We have no concept of sacrifice for the gospel. No concept. And if pastor doesn't visit you or call you enough, you get your little feelings hurt.

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   I'm telling you, we was got to grow up. There was a man who was a missionary to India. John Hyde. He actually was a man of prayer. He prayed so much they called him John Praying Hyde. But this man would agonize. Sometimes he would be in prayer for entire month. Meaning he would just pray. They said he prayed so that when he finally died that the doctors examined him and said that his heart moved from this side of his chest to this side of his chest. Because he is would constantly intercede for the lost until he was in agony and groanings that the Bible talks about intercession and groanings that cannot be uttered. But you know, he didn't just pray. He would He would take that time, those seasons of prayer and fasting and groaning and intercession, and then he would go out on the street and he in in in Hindu India. And he would lead people to the Lord. See, let me just say something. If your prayers if your prayer life is not changing you and enabling you to win the lost, don't be criticizing anybody else. What are you doing? Don't worry even what pastor's doing. What are you doing? Oh, boy. Yeah. Feels like I'm getting scolded. Well, maybe so. Problem is we we we settle for so little. I want to show you something that the Lord This is what the Lord showed me last night. And it just kind of blew my mind, but we're going to start in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 to lay the foundation here. Just go to 1 Corinthians 10. Then we're going to back up to the book of Numbers. Cuz the people of God can blow your mind. I was just reading this again in Numbers and last night and just I was like, "Wow, really?" 1 Corinthians chapter 10, let's look at verse verse one. We're going to read a few verses here. He said, "Moreover the brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ." He's talking about them when they were in the wilderness with Moses, the children of Israel. But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the

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