What Is Revival?

Let's take our Bibles this evening and let's go ahead and stand out of respect for the Lord's word. And I'd like us to turn in our Bibles to second Chronicles chapter seven this evening. Evening. Second Chronicles chapter seven. And can you guess which verse we're gonna read?

No. Did you did you know there's another verse in that chapter? Yeah, I we often will preach on that and we probably will get to that but I want us to look at second Chronicles chapter seven and we are going to back up and begin reading at verse 11. Thus, Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house and all that had come into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house, he prosperously affected and the Lord appeared unto Solomon by night and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself as an house of sacrifice. Let's have a word of prayer.

Our heavenly father, we do thank you for the opportunity again to have these meetings and Lord, we realize that sometimes we approach these meetings with our hearts open and expecting you to do great things and other times. Lord, people can come out of duty. And that's the time when they need reviving more than any other time. When it's just out of duty. And so, Lord, whether we're here in expectation or whether we're here out of duty, we want revival.

We need revival even if we don't know we need it. And our father, we ask you to give us what we need. Lord, I cannot work it down. I cannot work it up. But I must be led by you.

And so, Lord I trust you in Christ name we pray. Amen. Thank you and you can be seated. Sometimes when we look at the subject of revival, there is a difference of opinion on to what a reviving really is. Some people think that a reviving is if you have people saved and added to the church.

And I believe that when that happens, that's exciting but that's not itself a reviving. Reviving has to do with God's people getting revived, not unsaved people getting know Jesus. Though we want unsaved people to get to know Jesus, we, as the people of God, need to be revived. Now, in this passage, it's a commonly looked at passage related to revival but even as you look at this, we often look at second Chronicles seven fourteen and that's pretty much the only place that we look. But when you look at it in the context, you can see there's a lot going on before we get to verse 14.

The context is in chapter six, God just used Solomon to build the temple and he completed the temple. And when he did, when he was done, he got on his knees in front of all the people and began to pray a prayer to God. And as he prayed his prayer to God, he brought up the idea that the Israelite people would get away from God. God would judge them perhaps for it. Problems would come as people got away from their God and he prayed if they ever come back to you, will you take them back and restore them and will you forgive them?

And so Psalm is basically praying in the future, there will be times when people will need a spiritual revival. Now, in this, after he prayed, they had some celebrations and after celebrations, everybody was sent home and when they all went home, Solomon went home and when he went to sleep, God appeared to him by night and in the verse that we read, I believe it was verse 12, God said, I have heard thy prayer. Now, as you look at this passage, then, the insight to understanding it is the prayer. Second Chronicles seven fourteen, the only way to really understand it is you've gotta look at the prayer that was made in chapter six. So, in this, we're going to look at what really is a revival and we're gonna look at how we can have a revival.

We're gonna look at can we have a revival and we're gonna look at why we wanna have a revival and I'm gonna preach this evening on this subject of what is revival. Now, as we do this, first thing I wanna look at is the essence of revival or what really is revival. We'll call it the presentation of a revival. Alright, so the essence of revival, what are we looking for? Why are we even having revival meetings?

What is the thing we're looking for? Now, sometimes, as I mentioned, people think that we're looking for big crowds or we're looking for people to be saved. But the essence of revival is not in crowds or in necessarily people being saved, but it is when a man's relationship with God gets revived. It's our relationships with God that are and renewed and they are brought to a strong, good, healthy relationship with God. Now, there are two parts to this and that's found in the verse that we frequently read chapter seven and verse 14.

Let's go ahead and look at that. It says, if thy people, my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from the wicked way then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now the first part for revival to happen, man has to turn to God. If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face. Now, have you noticed there aren't a whole lot of people out there that are seeking God's face?

They are seeking everything that the world has but not God's face. And even if you look in the church, there are not a lot that are sincerely seeking God's face. They want God's favor. They want a few good things from God but God's not the pursuit of their life. Now, in reviving is when God becomes the pursuit of our life.

He's who we live for. He's who we desire and we want more than anything in all the world. Now, like it or not, revival cannot come if God's people don't decide they want a better relationship with God than they presently have. They realize that they have needs that only God can meet. They realize that they get a satisfaction and deep in their soul that they can't get anywhere else but from God.

They understand that they might need forgiveness for sins because of the sins that they've done but the key is we seek more of God than what we presently are experiencing. So, it's gotta start there with us seeking more than what we've got. Look, if we're okay with where we are, if we're okay with just throwing God a bone once in a while, if we're okay with just going to church on Sunday and being done through the week until next Sunday where we never would pick up a Bible, we never would pray, then fine. We will not find anymore of God when we're okay with our spiritual condition. So, we've gotta decide.

I'm not content with where I'm at. So, I'm going to seek a deeper relationship than what I've got right now with God. That's where it kind of starts. Now, the first part is man decides he's not content. So, he decides to something more with God.

Then, the second part though is that God has to turn back to man. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, seek my face turn from the wicked way, then, will I hear from heaven? So, God responds, I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land and it's similar to that James four eight, draw an eye to God and he will what? Draw an eye to you. So, man has to turn to God.

Yes, but we also need to meet the conditions so that God will turn to us. Now, let me ask you a question. Have any of you ever prayed before and felt like God probably didn't even hear what you said? I have. Have you ever prayed before and still felt like you were ten, zero miles away from God?

But then are there other times that you pray and you just feel like you and God are so close and so sweet. You don't ever want to leave your prayer need that you're on at that moment. Well, that is the reviving when we get connected back to God again and we sense and we experience a close walk with God. Now, as we look at God turning back to man, here's something to consider. We can seek God and then God can look at us and say, I don't care how much you seek me.

You're not going to find me. Now, why would we seek God and God not then reveal himself to us? There are reasons that God won't turn back to us. One, it's not with all our heart. It's not with all our heart.

Alright, you shall find me when you search for me with all your heart, not part of your heart and as I mentioned, we have to give God everything and say, God, take it all. We have to say, God, you're the center of my affection if we're going to really experience him, okay? Now, you're going to want to if you understand the value of it but you cannot say, Lord, I kind of want to do this. We've gotta want to do this. We've gotta want this.

A close relationship with God that's alive, vibrant, and real. Not surface, substance. Now, when we look at this, there are reasons God will say no and not respond to us. One, because we don't search for it with all of our heart. Two, because of sin that we've got in our life.

The Bible says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. Now, what would iniquity in our heart be? A number of things. One of the first things that comes to my mind would be bitterness and that is iniquity in our hearts. I've heard a preacher say, adultery has slain its thousands but bitterness has slain its tens of thousands and that's a good statement because when we look at our lives, we're not drinking and cussing smoking but we are allowing ourselves to have division among the brethren.

And when there's division among the brethren, God says, you can pray all you want, you can fool around all you want with your revival meetings, and you can act all spiritual and all righteous and everything but I see and try the hearts and he says, you're just talking but you're not really meeting the conditions. So, I've been guilty of that and I know that we all can be guilty of this and we have to be people with the right kind of lives if we're going to have fellowship with God. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews twelve fourteen. So, sometimes, it's because we're not doing it with all our hearts sincerely.

Sometimes, it's because we've got sin in our lives. Other times, we're not going to find God because we are turned to other gods and this could be part of that halfway thing. Now, the Bible says, in Deuteronomy thirty one eighteen, I will surely hide my face in that day for they are turned to other gods. Now, when I think of a god, I think of something maybe that I worship. You know, you think about as you go to foreign countries, maybe you've been in a foreign country and maybe you've gotten to see what I've gotten to see.

You see these Hindu temples. Now, in the Hindu temples, they've got decorations. They've got gold. They've got silver. They've got jewel jewels and you look at some of those places just like, wow and it looks like some thing that they're, you just gotta, you gotta have a big God here.

Look how beautiful in silver and gold and all of this jewelry. It's just so amazing and so what they do is they're mesmerized by those gods. Hear me. We are mesmerized sometimes by the gods in America. And we're not so impressed with God who is our creator but we're impressed with the things, the material things And I know that people preach on that, but aren't we kind of materialistic?

Are we kind of listening how stupid this sounds? Absolutely stupid. Can I tell you how stupid this sounds? Okay? Somebody's got a 48 inch TV.

And then, God blesses them so then they could buy a 60 inch TV. And it's like they just won a million dollars. Why? Because now I can see the football game this big instead of this big. That is stupid.

And we're so mesmerized and these things have become something that we adore more than we adore Jehovah God. And the fact is, we'll pick up the remote control and love it. We'll pick up our Bible and hate it. And the problem is, we are turned to other gods and we're impressed with these things instead of being impressed with the God who made everything. And so listen, revival cannot come when we do not have the heart to meet the conditions.

Now, if you will turn back in your Bible to second Chronicles chapter six and I want you to see this whole thing God said, Solomon, I have heard thy prayer and what prayer is that beginning at verse 12. And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation and spread forth his hands. Verse 14 and said, oh Lord God of Israel and he begins to pray and he prays all the way through the end of the chapter. Look at verse 42. Oh Lord God, he's still praying to God.

Turn not away the face of thine anointed. God, you're not looking on us. You're not there. You're not blessing us. You're not connecting to us.

You're withdrawing from us. Oh Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed. Remember the mercies of David and he's saying, we're separated and we want to be connected with you. Now, these two parts for reviving. Our relationship with God.

How's your relationship with God right now? Do you feel like you're close to God or do you feel like you're just obeying God so you'll be good? Do you feel like you're connected to God where he's working in your life? Are you just again learning about God and being a good person? We have to be people that are walking and connected to God if we're going to be having revival and these two parts are there and you'll see it in the prayer.

Man turning to God and then God turning to man. I noticed verse 19. He says, have respect therefore to the prayer of thy servant and his supplication. So, the servant prays and supplicates. What's that?

Man turning to God and then have respect to my prayer. What's that? God turned to me. And the two parts are there. Notice verse 21, hearken therefore, listen God to the supplication, that's man turning to God of thy servant and thy people Israel.

Verse 24, if thy people Israel you put to lures before the enemy because they have sinned and then it says and shall return and that's man turning to God then notice verse 25 then hear thou from the heaven their prayer and that's God hearing the prayer. And these two parts are in verse 26, 27, 29, thirty, thirty two, 34, 35, 37, 38, 40 and it says, now my God, I beseech thee, let thine eyes be open and thine ears be attent to the prayer that is made in this place. So, the man prays but Lord, let your eyes look on us and God, let your ear be attent and so these two parts are there. Now, what is the revival then? It's when we are reconciled with God.

We are brought to that full relationship again. Now we go through times where we get away from that fullness and we get away from that oneness with God and we need to get back to that. That's what we're looking for in this week of meetings. Now, I want to see people saved and I want to see the church grow and I want to see other good things happen but we get connected to God. That's going to be revival.

If we get closer to God than we presently are. Right now, the first thing is the presentation of a revival. Now number two, I wanna look at the possibility of a revival. Now isn't even possible for a supernatural act of God isn't even possible for us to have a reviving. Now I remember being out in a restaurant with a man of God, great preacher and I asked him do you think it's possible that we could ever have a revival in America?

He said, no. I said, really why? He said, once a country goes into apostasy, it can never come out of it. I thought, oh no. What am I doing going into evangelism if it's not even possible to have a revival?

I thought, well, that's kind of a wasted life pursuing something that you cannot even attain. And so as I looked at that and I decided to think that over for myself and not just believe what he said, if a nation goes to an apostasy, it can never come out of it. I began to think about the nation of Israel. Did Israel ever go into apostasy? Did they ever worship idols?

Did they ever come out of it and get back to Jehovah God? They did. They had their times up and their times down and their times where they restored their relationship and their times they fell away. And so what that shows is that hey, just because somebody's gone into deep sin and apostasy doesn't mean that they cannot be revived. Now who does the bible say can have a revival and why do we wanna even know because if we can't really have a revival there's no sense in really seeking one this week.

Alright. Now first, let's examine who can have it. First, look at verse 29 and let the bible speak for itself. It is available for one person, you or it is available for all of us. As many people who would seek him.

Verse 29. Then what prayer or what supplications so ever shall be made of any man, that's individual people or of all the people of Israel. And that's everybody in Israel. So it could be for one or it could be as many people as seek him. Then what prayer or supplications so ever shall be made of any man or of all thy people Israel when everyone shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands in this house.

Then hear thou from the heaven thy dwelling place and do and forgive and render unto every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest. Now he is praying this, God if we get away from you, if one person will seek you, will you hear him? If all the people will, will you hear all of them? And God said, Solomon, I heard thy prayer. And you know what that meant?

I've heard it. That meant yes. And so this is something that we can claim that we can have a relationship with God and it doesn't say only the preachers. It just says if any man. So that's any man, any woman, any boy, any girl.

So anybody can have supernatural relationship, a genuine relationship with God. Now number one, it's for one it's for all but then somebody says well these promises were written to the Israelites and that's not really applicable to us. I want us to see it's not only for the Israelites, it's for Jew and it is for Gentile. I don't want you to look at verse 32. Moreover, concerning the stranger which is not of thy people Israel but has come from a far country for thy great name's sake and thy mighty hand and thy stretched out arm if they come and pray in this house then hear thou from the heaven from thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for.

Get it? That all the earth may know thy name. Now, a Jew and a stranger, what is that talking about? A stranger is anybody who's not a Jew. Now probably there are no Jews here that are Jew by birth, but most of us would be strangers.

And here's what God's word is saying. Solomon says, Lord, if one of us comes to you, if all of us come to you, will you respond to one or to everyone? God said I will. And then he said, if the Jews come to you or strangers come to you, will you respond to them? And God said I have heard thy prayer.

In other words, yes. Jews can have a relationship with God. But yes, Gentiles can have a relationship with God. And it says this, if they come from a far country. Now folks, America is pretty far away from Israel.

Would you agree? And when people have revival meetings, there are some that will make it like silly. They'll say there goes again those religious people trying to get all worked up. Listen, if we're just trying to get worked up, then let's just watch a football game. But if we're trying to see something supernatural and there's something supernatural that we can experience and if it's better than even football, then let's pursue it.

If it's better than cars and houses and lands, if there's value in a relationship with God, and if there can be a supernatural relationship with God, then let's pursue it. And so it says that even Americans can have a revival. It is for one, it is for all, it is for Jew, it's for Gentiles, and even those in a faraway place. Now then somebody says, you're claiming a promise that was given three thousand years ago, it's not meant for us and we're just establishing it is. Alright, please look at verse 34 and I want you to notice the pronouns.

It says, if thy people go to war against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them and they pray under thee toward this city which thou hast chosen and the house which I have built for thy name, then hear thou from the heaven, get the pronoun, their prayer and their supplication maintain their cause. Now why do I wanna emphasize the pronouns? How many of you when you pray for your family to God? How many of ever prayed for family? Now I say Lord, bless my children.

Lord, help my son. Lord, help my daughter. I don't say Lord, bless thy daughter. Bless thy son. I say, bless my son and sometimes, when I'm preaching, I say, Lord, bless my preaching and Lord, I'm sure your pastors pray.

Lord, bless my church. Now why? Because those are ours that God's entrusted to us and we love them and we pray for them. Now why did Solomon say, Lord if thy people go to war against their enemies, why isn't he his king saying, God if my people go against our enemies and we are under besiege, will you respond to protect us? Why does he say thy people they, here's the reason, he's talking about future generations.

Now this is a future generation. Yes. Three thousand years future from the timing of the writing. But in this future, it says, if men will go to God with a right heart and God sees that, God will respond to those men. And it can happen to Jews, and it can happen to Gentiles and it can happen in all generations as long as the earth continues.

If people will seek God, they can find him when they meet the conditions with all their heart and with no sin to get it right. And they pursue God as God and something that they desire more than anything in the world. Now, first thing we've talked about is we're going into this pursuit of revival that it is when our relationship with God comes to full strength and restored and we sense his presence again and we experience it, not just feel like we do, but we actually actually experience it. Then we have the possibility of it, we can absolutely experience it. Any one of us can.

Now the third thing that I want to draw our attention to is the prophet of a revival. Now why do we want a relationship with God restored to full strength? Right? There are some reasons. Alright, let's look at second Chronicles now chapter seven and we're gonna look at verse 14.

Second Chronicles seven and verse 14. Here's where we'll go a little bit more into this verse. It says, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then this is what'll happen. Then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now, there are many blessings that a person gets when a relationship with God is fixed.

Now, the first blessing that anyone would ever get when their relationship with God gets fixed is they get heaven instead of hell. Heaven instead of hell. Now, somebody says, I don't want anything to do with God. Well, then, you don't want anything to do with heaven because the only way we can get to heaven is through Jesus who is God, the son. Now, after heaven though and being on the way to heaven, there are so many other wonderful things that God does for those whose heart is perfect toward him.

Now, people will say, it's wrong to seek a relationship with God for personal benefit but here's what God said, Hebrews chapter 11, God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So, it says that God will reward people that seek him and so, is it wrong to recognize that there's benefit when we walk with God? No. It's absolutely good to understand the benefits of walk with God. That's why we want to walk with him.

Okay? When we walk with God, now, it is about the glory of God. Solomon said that all the earth may know thy glory and the Bible says, whether therefore we eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all the glory of God. Glory of God first. But the way it really works, when we get right with God, God gets glorified but we get edified.

God gets glorified but we get blessed with our relationship with God. Now, one of the first things that God says he'll do if our relationship with him gets strong, it says, then will I hear from heaven? Now, answers to prayer are wonderful Answers to prayer are amazing. Now, how many of you have ever had an answer to prayer before? I think we could all share testimonies and probably many, we probably have a good night tonight just sharing how God answers prayer.

But yet, I read about people in the past and as I read about them, they had great answers to prayer, people that walk with God. I read about how one man named George Mueller had 50,000 answers to prayer that he recorded. Now, 50,000 dated definite answers to prayer. Now, when you consider that, if he was a preacher who preached for fifty years and I don't know how long he preached, 50,000 divided by a thousand per year would be by fifty years would be a thousand answers to prayer every year. Now, a thousand answers to prayer every year so dynamic that he wrote them down.

How many think that would be a pretty amazing life? To see that year after year after year after year. That is an example of what could be experienced. Now, if I have three dynamic answers to prayer in one year, I think I'm Moses. But these were a thousand on the average year.

Amazing. I know maybe we don't always stop to recognize when God moves and maybe he did and even if we don't stop to recognize when God moves doesn't mean that God doesn't move and it would do us good to recognize when God moves. All that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his sung the song, showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we played. Mercy drops around us are falling but for the showers, we plead.

Now, we've all seen mercy drops but what we could be seeing is showers. Now, in my life, I've had some things that indicate to me that there is the possibility of seeing big answers to prayer. I share them. Some of you have heard them. I share them.

I can remember when I had a need for a rather large need when I was trying to do a ministry. I needed $50,000. And I remember thinking, Lord, this is not a want. This is a need. And I got on my knees, and I began to pray.

And I prayed, you did it for George Mueller. You could do it for me. And then the Lord reminded me or actually the devil, I think, reminded me of something. You're not George Mueller. So, I quit praying and then I panicked and I thought, what am I going to do?

I've got all these churches that are counting on me and I don't have the money for it and I'm going to look terrible and this is going to be financial disaster and the whole thing's going to come caving in and I needed it by the end of that month. So, I gotten on my knees and I said, God, what do I do? And then I got up walking around in total doubt and total fear and then it was in a little bit that the Lord reminded me of something. He said, brother, it never was George Mueller. It was George Mueller's God.

Amen. So, I got back on my knees and I began to pray and I prayed for about one hour. Lord, it never was George Mueller. It was George Mueller's God and I said, I need this. This is not a want.

This is a need and I said, I need it by the end of the month. I need $50,148 and I said, I need it by the end of the month and at that time, we were only bringing in about $2,400 so we were only short that month about $47,600 So I was praying about that and I prayed for one hour and I said, Lord, if I don't have it by the time I go to bed tonight, then I'm gonna consider this must have been my idea not yours and I'll eat crow and I'll tell all the 187 churches involved that we're gonna shut this down before we get out of get into financial crisis. So, anyway, I prayed that for about one hour that it would come that night and if it didn't come, then I would shut it down. Well, that night, I had a friend come to visit me, hadn't been in my home ever. He lived an hour and a half away and I had invited him for supper and he's not a wealthy man.

He also was in the ministry. So when he came in, he said, by the way, I get to be bearer of good news. I said, what's that? And he said, do you know so and so and he gave a name of a guy? I said, yeah, I met him Sunday.

He said, well, he asked if I was going to be seeing you and he told me to come by his office if I was. So, I went by his office. He gave me an envelope. I guess it's for you. I opened up that envelope and I thought, could it be $5,000 Could it be $50,000 Could it be 5,000?

I was trying to get my expectations. Could it be 500? And just whatever it is is great. Whatever it is is great and this is way I was thinking and I opened up that envelope and out fell a check for $50,000. Now, it never happened before that and what I'm saying is, it was a need.

And I saw that this was not a want, this was a need, and I just saw that God could do these things. You see what I'm saying? I'm just Mike but it happened. I'm telling you, there are other times. I can remember when I was preaching a group of young people and there were about 200 teenagers there and 12 of them wanted to be saved and when I was there, all of a sudden, at the invitation, it began to rain so heavily and nobody could even hear me for the rain and in the emotion of the moment, thinking of these 12 young people that need to be saved.

I raised my hand in the air and I said, God, there are 12 young men that want to be saved and they can't hear me. God, stop the rain. And then I thought, what have you done? You just put God on the spot in front of 200 people and God's not going to make the rain stop and now these people aren't going to believe in God and now they'll think what a joke and then I thought, this is destroying everything but then I began to think a little bit more, is this a want or is this a need? And it is a need.

It was a need. They could not be saved unless they got someone who could show him the scriptures which was in a counseling room about two football fields away and all that rain. Nobody want to walk outside in that deluge of rain. So, knowing it to be a need, I raised my hand again the second time and I said, God, stop the rain and the way I remember it, within five seconds, it came to complete stop. Not even a drizzle.

Greg was there. Heather was there. My wife was there. My kids were there and it stopped. And do you know that when that rain stopped, all 12 boys went outside and they asked Jesus to be their personal Lord and savior and a few years back, I went there and a couple young men came up to me and one of them said, hey, brother Mike, do you remember when you prayed and God stopped the rain?

I said, how could I forget? He said, I was one of those 12 year old boys. I was one of those 12 boys who got saved and you know what he said? When I saw God stop the rain, I figured there had to be something to God. Now, follow me.

If we have a restored relationship with God, it's not that God is a genie in a bottle that God does whatever we want and here's what people think. God's gotta serve me because I've been good. God's gotta serve me. After all, I'm his child and after all, God's gotta do this because he said, if I pray, he's gotta do it. No.

Listen, God is not our servant. He doesn't serve us. We serve him, right? But here's the thing, he does promise that he is a rewarder of people that diligently seek him. Question, do we believe that?

Do we really believe that he rewards people that seek him? Yes, he is God. Yes, he doesn't have to do anything but the character of God is, he said, I will reward those who diligently seek me. So, there'll be divine supernatural intervention in that one, God will hear our prayers again. Alright, number two, it says, God will forgive our sins.

Now, think about this. God will forgive our sins is implying that our sins may not be forgiven if we don't return to him. Now, here is the basic issue and this is why we need revival and our our peace with God. Either when we're in sin, we get forgiveness for sin or else we get judgement for sin. Right now, I don't know if there's anybody here doing this but if there's a lady here who you're living with someone you're not married to, guess what God calls that?

Adultery, fornication. We try to cover it up and say, oh, it's just a sexual relationship. It's called fornication. It's called abomination. Now, if you're involved in something like that, here's your alternative.

You either get forgiveness for that sin or you get judgement for that sin. Now, the forgiveness of sin would give you a home in heaven. The judgment of that sin would give you a place in hell depending on if you've been born again or not. Now, as a Christian, you can be a Christian who genuinely is born again but you can get in sin. Don't forget, Hebrews twelve five three, you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto his son his sons.

My son despise not to chase in the Lord nor fain without rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasten it and scourge it. Get it. Every son whom he receiveth. Everyone of us. So, if we're Christian people and we're living with someone we're not married to, if you are, I don't know anything about it.

Please don't think anybody told me. If your telephone rang, pick up the phone and understand that God's dialing you because he wants you to get out of it. Okay? Now, if you're somebody who's involved in some kind of a sin, you gotta recognize it. You either get forgiveness for pornography or you get judgment for pornography.

You either get forgiveness for adultery, you get judgment for adultery. And there's never been a sin that God's not gonna judge unless it gets forgiven. Now, either we get judgement for our sins or we get forgiveness for our sins and that is true of an individual and that is true of a nation and that is true of all of us. Now, then, God says, he'll hear from heaven, answer our prayers, forgive our sin, and then, thirdly, he'll heal our land. Now, healing the land has to do with in the Israelites having their nation restored and I think that sure, there will be some ties to the condition of America if we don't get right with God.

I think we'll get the judgment from God and I personally believe United States has been under the judgment of God. But then, we also can give forgiveness and get restoration as a nation but I think it's also true since revival is for one, it's for all, it's for Jew, it's for Gentile, it's for all generations. I think it applies to us individually and I think God can work in ways where he chastises us but God can also work in supernatural ways to to build us and to bless us and as I mentioned, he's not trying to make us all millionaires. He's not a genie in a bottle. We rub him and he gives us everything we want but I'm saying, how many of you really do believe that if you are close to God, it will be better for you than if you're not.

Are you confident that walking with God will lead to blessing? Or is it just talk? It doesn't matter if we're physically healthy or physically sick. That's not necessarily the blessing he gives. My brother was physically sick but there was supernatural divine intervention that took him all the way through that thing.

And eight years later, he went on to heaven but there was a strength in the inner man. There was a joy on the inside that could not have come any other way than with God and I wonder how many of us really believe that a relationship with God is valuable. That he will heal our land. Now, when we understand the value of a relationship with God and when we understand the possibility of a relationship with God and we understand that this is the pursuit that we want. What is a revival is when our relationship gets close to God.

It's not distant and we've come out here tonight and we've come for the purpose of wanting a reviving. I don't think majority of us came tonight with the idea that hey, we just want to come because we have to. I think we've come because we want to but we have to understand. There is something supernatural that can happen. It is a supernatural relationship with God.

It can come to full life and get better than what it presently is. Now, how does this all happen? Let's take a look at this in closing. Let's look at second Chronicles chapter seven and again, verse 14. But we have already shown the two parts to it.

Man turning to God, God turning to man, man turning to God, God turning to man. But second Chronicles seven fourteen as a reminder, it tells us the path in a nutshell. How do we get it? Well, somebody says, we'll be saying a service and it'll hit us. No, that's not how it happens.

Some people say, well, revival will only come when God deems to send it according to the calendar that he scheduled before the foundations of the earth. In other words, they're saying that God already determined who will have revival, when they will have revival, and all of this stuff. That's somebody's theology but it's not Bible. It's not true. Here's what God says.

We can have it anytime that we seek the God and meet the conditions. Alright, let's look at this in second Chronicles seven fourteen. Now, maybe you've heard this before and we hear these words and maybe somebody even says em but we just gloss over and move on. Don't do that right now. For your own sake, don't do that this time.

Think when I ask you this question. Alright, what is the very first word of verse 14? Let's read it out loud. Ready? Go.

If, again, if. Alright. Now, you know what that means? That it is conditional. It is.

God says, if my people which are called by my name, shall. Then, he says what it is, okay? But here's what it has to do. If we will, then, he will. Now, if you look at it from this perspective, you know what we find?

Now, don't kick me out of here and call it heresy just yet. Just follow me because I'll explain a little bit more. Revival according to what we're reading here is initiated by man. Now, many people say revival is initiated by God which is true. Actually both in a way.

How do I mean it? It all got started where man could have a relationship with God because God so loved the world. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to reconcile himself us to to God. So, God initiated this thing. We didn't seek the Lord.

He sought us and that's how it all began because of his love but then, God also initiated this possibility of a relationship with God coming to full life by giving us the scriptures that tell us how to have a relationship with God. So, yes, in that sense, God initiated it and here's how God initiated it. He said, now, if you ever get away from me, if you'll humble yourself and you'll pray and you'll seek my face and turn from your wicked way, I'll hear from heaven. I'll forgive you. I'll heal your land and if you draw an eye to me, I'll draw an eye to you and he initiated in that.

He put it on the table at any time, anywhere, anyone recognizes they've gotten a far from God. He's initiated this thing of restoration by saying, okay, here's what we'll do. If you will humble yourself and you will pray, if you will seek my face, if you will genuinely seek me, genuinely seek me. Not surface genuinely seek me and humble yourself instead of being so self righteously proud. Content with your spiritual plateau, looking at others and saying, come not nigh me.

Stand by thyself. Thou art a stench in my nostrils and here's what he's saying, I am holier than thou. This is somebody in the book of Isaiah and instead of looking at I'm better than all those people out there, come to the Lord like Isaiah did and said, Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips and recognizing where we are wrong. Starting with us and humbling yourself instead of being so self righteous and so content with our spiritual plateau and too often, frankly, we don't have revival. You know why?

I how many agree that if we're gonna have revival, genuinely revival, we are going to have to care what God thinks. How many would agree with me? Alright. So, you know why we don't have a reviving? You know why?

Because we also care what he thinks and she thinks and they think and we're too worried about what other people think about our spiritual condition that we surely don't want to ever walk down an aisle and tell God we're bad. Because somebody will think that we're bad Well, you know what? If everybody thinks we're good and God thinks we're bad, who cares? Right? And so what has to happen is God says, if if you'll do this, if you will humble yourself and pray, we don't spend any time in prayer that's and meaning we're not pursuing God.

If we humble ourselves and pray and then see God's face, we seek him more than a 60 inch television set. We seek him more than we do the money and more than we do the things that are here if we will do this, humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and a willingness to turn from our wicked ways. Now, how many here would say, you have some wicked ways? Okay? We have to be willing to turn from those things.

Now, what are wicked ways? It's what God says and we're just getting started in the week but as we look at this, this is a requirement. Men, if you have a 60 inch TV and you're watching good things on that TV, then fine. But if you're allowing things on that TV that God would say are sensual things that is not ever going to make you a candidate for revival. And then you got away.

Do I want dancing with the stars or whatever that popular thing is? Do I want that more than I really want God in my life? Do I want those hot cheerleaders in my distress cheerleaders doing the gyrations Can I have that and God and these are not little trite things? These are true. Can I really have a relationship with God and these things?

And then, let me ask you something. Ladies, as Solomon, as Isaiah said, I am a man of unclean lips. You have to ask yourself, are you a woman of unclean lips? You say, no, I'm not a cusser. No, but are you a gossiper?

That's unclean lips. And what happens is we come to these things and we say, I want revival and then, we talk about it. We need revival and yes, we see the value of revival but if we do not meet the conditions, we will not ever have a revival. And so God says the path is understand you must humble yourself and you must pray and you must turn from your wicked way and when you meet the conditions, I will hear from heaven. I will forgive and will heal your land.