Do You Really Want Revival? Prepare Yourself!

And the Israelites, they built altars to sacrifice on high places. And over time particularly in the nation of Israel, those those altars, those high places that were dedicated to God became sadly places where people worshiped idols. Idols were set up around those places and sacrifices and offerings were brought to idols and God would bring revival to Israel. They'd have to tear down those high places and build new ones. Where they might worship the God, the true and living God.

That they might rededicate and consecrate themselves and their nation to the Lord. They needed revival. We've been going over series in the morning services on what do Baptist believe. Now, don't get me wrong. I think this is what every Christian should believe.

Why do Baptist believe? We believe what? Bible. And hopefully every Christian believes what? The Bible.

We're just teaching what the Bible says. And that's what baptist believe or they should. That's what Christians believe. What matters most is not whether you're Baptist or not. What matters most is if you have Jesus Christ.

If you have Christ, you have what? Life. You have life, eternal life in Jesus Christ and this is your, this is God's love letter to you. To share with you his love, to share with you his instruction so that we might live to the glory of the one who has given us life in Jesus Christ and that's for all of us. This does happen to be a baptist church.

So, we call it what do baptist believe? Ask you a question this morning. Do baptist believe in revival? Yes. Okay, I heard two people answer me, okay?

Do baptist believe in revival? Yes. Okay, I hope you do because otherwise, we're wasting a bunch of time and money bringing the Pelletiers and the Murrays here because we're not bringing em here just to have some nice meetings. We're bringing them here to have revival, okay? To be renewed spiritually, to be refocused, to become rededicated, to deal with some things in our life that are come between our soul and our savior.

Baptist believe in revival. Revival does not come with an evangelist. Revival comes by the power of the holy spirit. As the sword of the spirit is preached and as God's people pray. That's how revival comes.

It doesn't have to wait till next week. It could start today. It could start tomorrow in your life. As God shows us and reveals things in our life that need to change. That we might be drawn closer to our savior.

And used mightily in his service. I hope you believe in revival. Baptist typically do and I know the Bible talks about revival and we can read. We won't take the time to look at all the revivals in scripture. Next question is, do you really want revival?

Yes. Okay. I heard a couple answers there. Do you really want revival? Yes.

Okay, that's better. I usually don't ask for this much response from the crowd but thank you. I hope you do and that's what this message is about this morning. Do we really want revival? Do you really need it?

Does your neighbor need it? Does your brother, sister, and Christ need it? Does your church need it? Are you preparing for it? It's important to prepare If we really want something, then, we're going to prepare to receive it.

I am going to Virginia later this month. Every Thanksgiving, I and my family go to Virginia for our family reunion. I look forward to it. We have basically a a a Christian, Christian family. I have aunts and uncles and cousins and and cousins, kids, and grandkids and all kinds of show up at my parents' house for Thanksgiving.

We play all kinds of different instruments, guitar, and banjo and and you know, we're we're you know, country folk, alright? And we have a wonderful time at Thanksgiving and we look forward to that But in order to go, we have to what? We have to prepare. Now, sadly, the one who does most of the preparing is my wife. And so, my wife is the one who ends up doing most of the preparing to go and boy do I appreciate her else I would leave with not enough clothes to get through the week and and not the Christmas presents that we're supposed to take to hand out for them to take home and and everything else we do at Thanksgiving.

So, it's important to us. It's important time of the year and so we prepare to go. I hope I pray that you are prepared to meet the Lord. You put your faith in Christ, you've been born again. But I also want you to consider if revival is what you really want.

And if we really do believe in revival and we do really believe that God is in the business of saving souls and changing lives, uplifting Christians, getting them back on the right track then I hope you will prepare for revival. Look if you would in John Joshua chapter three verse five. Joshua, Joshua chapter three verse, sorry, verse eight. Joshua chapter three and verse eight. No, verse five.

Verse five is right. I was right the first time. Forget the screen. Verse five. Joshua said, unto the people, sanctify yourselves.

For tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you. Let me read that again. And Joshua said unto the people, sanctify yourselves. For tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you. Let's go to Lord in prayer once more.

Lord, thank you for your word. I pray Lord as we continue this morning that you would use it to work wonders in our church and in our lives today. And to draw people unto yourself. In Jesus name, I pray, amen. Sanctify yourselves.

Now, what does that mean? It, how often do you use the word sanctify in a conversation today? Probably not too often do you use the word to sanctify. The word sanctify means to make holy. It carries the idea of of these three things.

First of all, a consecration. As Joshua said, sanctify yourselves. He is saying, consecrate yourselves. That means, set yourselves apart. Set yourselves apart unto something.

Now, what was it unto that they were to set themselves apart? Unto the service of their Lord who was going to lead them into the what? Into the promised land. They were setting themselves apart unto the Lord to trust in him, to follow him into the land, and get the what? Get the victory.

They were to consecrate them. That's what sanctity means. Means consecrate. Set yourselves apart. Number two, that idea of setting yourself apart is separation.

Means to set your pearls apart unto something positive but to set separate yourselves maybe from something negative. To cleanse yourselves. There may be things in their lives, baggage, literal baggage, things they had collected along the way, spiritual baggage, idols they had collected on. Thoughts of doubt in their in their Lord. They needed to cast those aside.

They needed to separate themselves from the sins and the weights that were in their life. As they entered the land of Canaan and prepared for God to do what? Wonders. Consecrate yourselves. Separate.

Cleanse yourselves. Prepare. Prepare yourself. That's what he's saying here. Get ready.

Get prepared. Sanctify yourselves. We are going into the land. We are gonna conquer the land. Actually God is going to conquer the land for us and through us.

Let me read it again. Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders. Among you. Sanctify yourselves with great anticipation and faith to receive and experience the miraculous work of God.

Just as God had done in the past. He said, Israel, get ready. Sanctify yourselves be prepared to receive the blessing of God. As God had done in giving Abraham a son, and a promised land as God had done in redeeming Israel from the hand of pharaoh through mighty miracles, plagues, and dividing of the Red Sea. Is God did in bringing them to Sinai and giving them the 10 commandments and making of them a nation?

As God had done in sustaining them through forty years of wandering, had given them food every morning for four, every morning for forty years, they got up, they went outside in the desert and there was manna laying on the ground. To sustain them. For forty years. And then God brought them back. Why did they wander for forty years?

Because the previous generation got there and doubted and wouldn't go in. So, God said, okay, we'll we'll try again with the next generation. God now makes request by Joshua that they cooperate in this task laid out before them by setting themselves apart of their God and his service by cleansing themselves and by preparing for battle. We today are in a battle with an enemy. The Bible calls him a roaring lion.

Satan. He is a defeated foe. When Christ died on the cross and rose again, Satan lost. But like like other animals and on the verge of being vanquished like a cornered cat, they fight more vigorously. Do not underestimate our foe.

You are no match for Satan. But greater is he that's in you as a Christian than he's that in the world. For Satan is no match for God. This week and next could be pivotal in your growth and service for Christ. It could be vital in the life of another who might be saved or restored because you sanctified and prepared yourself to have revival.

This could be the week. That God does wonders in your life. This could be the week that God does wonders in your neighbor's life that you bring. Or in your family's life or in your church's life. Do not take these opportunities lightly.

Revivals, Sunday services, bible studies, any ministry could be the time that God does something wonderful. Thursday night. Now, I I am not big in the celebrating Halloween. However, every Halloween, we have a bunch of kids walking around this neighborhood and so, we set up some booths, some games, and hand out candy in the parking lot. We don't dress up as ghouls and all that kind of stuff.

But we always have forty, fifty, 60 kids, Some we will never ever see again, have never met, and their parents who passed through our parking lot. On on on Halloween night, on the thirty first. And this past Thursday night, we had a dad who brought his children. His children happened to come to our Wednesday night children's ministry. The dad brought them.

He only speaks Spanish. He doesn't speak English. I tried to talk to him. Well, couldn't talk to him very well because I don't speak very good Spanish. But brother Steve was here to help with Candyland and I asked Steve after a little while.

Said, do you know that fellow over there? He doesn't speak English. Steve speaks fluent Spanish. So, you know what Steve got to do? He got to go talk to that fellow for fifteen, twenty minutes.

His name is Jose and he trusted Christ as his Lord and savior. Don't take these things for granted because you never know. If we will sanctify ourselves and prepare ourselves for God to do wonders, guess what he'll do? He will do wonders. He will do wonders.

So, don't take revival for granted Don't be weary in well doing for in due season, you will reap if you faint not. And we need to sanctify ourselves and prepare ourselves for revival. That is if that's what we, if that's what we really want. Ephesians chapter six, if you want to turn there, you can. If not, you just listen.

Ephesians six. One of the things you can do to sanctify yourself is everyday as you get up and go about your day, you can put on your clothing. Now, I hope that's what you do everyday, okay? Physically, however, there's another set of clothing, there's another set of armor that every Christian should be putting on every day. We need not go out against the enemy spiritually naked and unprepared and without our armor to meet the foe.

We shouldn't come to revival that way either. Ephesians chapter six verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore. Having your loins gird about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all taking the shield of faith where with you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Sanctify yourselves. Put on the armor of what? Put on the armor of God. Put on that shield of faith.

Put on breastplate of righteousness. Belt of truth the sword of the spirit and stand before the enemy clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Prepared for battle. And he, not you, he, will quench the fiery darts of the what? The fiery darts of the wicked, the enemy.

That he hurls at us. Romans twelve one and two. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How do you sanctify yourselves? You put on the armor of God each day and each day you present your body what?

A living sacrifice. Lord, my life is yours. Lord, this body is your tool. Give your bodies a living sacrifice To be changed in the image into the image of Jesus this coming week and every week. Rather than being conformed to the image of the what?

Of the world around you. Present your bodies a living sacrifice To be molded in every way to be more like Christ and not like the world Redeem the time Buy up the time. Use the time wisely in service of your king How much time we do waste on things that are passing away? Love not the world Neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him.

How do you sanctify yourselves? By choosing not to be so enamored and caught up in the love of the things that are passing away in this world. By letting go of the trappings of this world that seek to carve out strongholds in our lives and hold us back. But choose instead to love God with all your heart. And love not the world.

How do you say how we sanctify ourselves? If we what? Confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You want to see God do wonders?

Don't wait till Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday night to confess the things you know God is working on you about. Confess them now. Confess them today. Don't put them off. That's what we do.

We say, God, yeah, I know. I should do better. Yes, I believe. I know. I should.

No, Lord. I know. It's wrong. I I really mean to quit. I really want to quit and and you do want to quit but you put it off till when?

You put it off till tomorrow and spiritually, we keep gaining weight because we put it off till tomorrow. Physically, I understand that. I've been meaning to go on a diet for six months but it always gets put off till when? Tomorrow, you don't lose weight that way. We don't lose spiritual weight that way.

We don't get revived that way. Don't put it off. Confess your sins. Put on the armor of God. Cast off the things of the world.

Embrace Christ to be conformed to his image. Sanctify yourselves You don't have to wait till next Sunday. You can start now and then when next Sunday gets here, you will be what? Ready. To have revival.

All of these familiar passages command and compel us to sanctify ourselves for the course that lies before us. For the moving of the holy spirit in our lives and in our church and in our community to do great and mighty things. Like he has done before. He's done it before. He's filled this church before.

He's done it before. He's brought in one day 3,000 people to the Lord on the day of Pentecost. He's done it before. He can do it again. Hebrews twelve one and two reminds us, wherefore, seen we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

Let us lay aside every weight in the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to cast off the sins and weights, the idols, and attachments, and pleasures of the world that have latched onto us. To keep us to slow us down in the race to make us ineffective in our service for Christ, to destroy our fellowship with the Lord and rob us of our joy. If we are to run the race effectively for Christ, if we are to be revived, you can't do it without shedding the sins and the weights.

I am not fit to run a marathon right now physically. I can't run a mile. I can't run a half mile. What's the problem? The weight.

How much spiritual weight are we carrying every day throughout our day that needs to be shed? If we're going to run the race. We need to be revived. We really do. We need revival but it's only going to come.

If we take this verse seriously and we lay aside every weight in the sin which does so easily latch on to us. Beset us. Revival comes only when we are willing to recognize these weights and cast them aside whatever they may be and prepare ourselves to receive a blessing. You don't bring revival. God brings revival.

But only God only brings revival to people that are willing and prepared to receive it. God didn't bring Israel into the land the first time because they doubted him and they didn't believe him and that generation died in the wilderness. God brought in the next one because they trusted him They sanctified themselves They prepared and boy, what a blessing Will you prepare your heart Are you going to be like the soft tilled good soil of Matthew 13 in the parable, the sower that received the word of God and it took root and it grew and produced fruit. Are we going to be more like that hard packed wayside that the sower sowed the seed of the word and it just bounced off and the birds came and whisked it away. What is your heart like?

I grew up on a bit of a farm. My dad farmed some and he worked for General Electric but you don't grow crops unless you go out there and you break up the ground and you till it and you prepare it. God's word is not growing and producing fruit in the lives of us if we're not preparing the soil of our heart to receive it. He's not going to do wonders in our midst if we are not sanctifying ourselves and preparing ourselves for God to do wonderful and mighty things. So, redeem the time Prepare, plan, anything worthwhile must be planned for.

Plan to make time to spend in God's word every day this week in preparation for God's work in your heart and life. Plan this week to spend time in God's word every day. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according thy word, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. We, how do you prepare for revival? Pick up the word of God this week every day and read it.

Let God break up that hard soil in your life. Make time to spend in prayer with your Lord. Asking him to bring revival to your heart and your fellow believers and to save the lost. Ask and it shall be what? Given unto you.

Seek and he shall find. Knock and it shall be open to you. For he that ask it receiveth to he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh the door shall be open but if you don't knock and if you're not seeking, you're not asking, guess what? We're not going to have what? Revival.

But everybody here in this room, every day this week, sincerely from their heart, praise and ask God to bring us revival. Will he bring it? Yeah. He will. Will he save souls?

Yeah, he will. We change our lives. Yes, he will. So, pray. Make time to tell others the gospel, to invite them to come hear the good news, the word of God, that God may do a work in them.

Offer them a ride if you can. Be loving, kind, but persistent. Don't miss opportunities this week. Take those flyers. If you run out, I'll make more.

People aren't going to come through those doors because that sign is out there on the side of the building. How many of you saw the sign out there with revival on the side of the building when you came in today? How many of Raise your hand if you saw the sign about revival. Okay? That's less than half of you and you're the church members that came here today.

So, how many of the other people you think, the thousands that pass that every day actually see and take note of that sign? Most of em don't. Most of the people that will come to revival will come because you invited them. What does the Bible say? It says this, and the Lord said unto the servant, go out in the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.

They are not for the most part just gonna wander in. In this day and age, when you put signs up for revival, say we are having a church revival. The community doesn't just turn out for revival. It did that. Century ago.

You know, there wasn't movie theaters, bowling alleys, and shopping malls, and internet, and all this other stuff to do. So, when a church had a revival, the community all what? They showed up. Well, that didn't happen today. They're not coming in unless we go out and what?

And get em and bring em in. And I can't get to em all. I need your help. Brother Mike's going to preach He's going preach the word of God but there needs to be people here to hear it. He's not bringing them with him.

We're going to have to go get em and make time to be in church particularly to come to revival. You need to be here. You can't get too much of God's word. You can't have too much revival. Be here.

Be here for yourself. Be here for others. It's disheartening when you walk into a big auditorium and you got 20 people. Praise God. We don't have 20 people today.

We got about 40 or 50. It would be great if we had a 100. Be better. We had a 150. I'm glad you're here today.

Come, be here. The feast of unleavened bread. Ever heard of that? The feast of Pentecost, the feast of Tabernacles. Three times a year, the Hebrews rest to converge on Jerusalem as a nation.

Setting aside all other things to focus on their personal and national relationship with God. It was a time of spiritual renewal and revival. We often need the same thing. So, we have special ministries and Sundays and revival. So, we can get out of our normal routine a little bit and focus on what's most important.

Prepare yourselves for what is before you. Very little worthwhile occurs without preparation. If it is important, you'll plan to be here. Now, I know some of you just can't be here every night. I I know that.

But plan to be here. Don't just say, well, yeah, if I feel like it one night, I'll come. Plan to be here. Prepare yourself to be here and to be revived. Second Chronicles seven fourteen, we sang it a few minutes ago.

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, will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Yes, God said that to Israel but yes, I think that still applies to us today. We are also God's people and if we'll humble ourselves and if we'll pray, We'll repent. We will see what?

Revival. We will see God do wonders. I hope that is your desire and I hope you really want revival. Ask two things in closing this morning. Number one, are you a Christian?

Have you been born again? If you hear this morning, you've never trusted Christ as savior. You don't need to be revived. You need to be made alive. You need to be born again.

You need to be saved. There's only one way to be saved. There's only one way to receive eternal life and that's through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, what he did for you on Calvary's Cross to save you from sin. If you're here today and you're not sure of that, I plead with you and we're going to give the invitation in just a moment. If you're unsure, would you come?

And trust Christ today. I'll meet you down here. My other question is this, are you ready for revival, not just meetings but true holy spirit sent revival. Will you with me this week? Pray every day for it.

Will you spend extra time in God's word? Humbly on your knees. Will you begin this week to examine your heart to identify those weights which have beset you? Will you plan to be here And bring others. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands because you don't need to tell me but what I'm asking is for you to tell who?

For you to tell the Lord and as we pray and as we give this hymn of invitation, would you talk to him today? You can talk to him there. You can talk to him up here. I can come down and talk to you if you wish. And if you've never trusted Christ, I plead with you to come.

Will you prepare yourself for revival? Let's pray. Dear God, thank you Lord.