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  WHEN REVIVAL COMES
  by Brad Whitt
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Summary: This sermon focuses on the importance of revival, emphasizing
the need for a movement of God to transform individuals, churches, and
communities. It highlights the characteristics of a revived church based
on Acts chapter 2, including obedience, commitment, Christ-centeredness,
prayer, empowerment, generosity, joy, and respect. The sermon
underscores the impact of revival in turning ordinary individuals into
bold witnesses for Christ and leading to daily additions to the church
through transformed lives.

Topics: "Revival", "Transformation"
Scripture References: Acts 2:1, Luke 8:46, 1 Corinthians 1:18, Acts 2:38, Acts 2:42, Acts 2:46, Acts 2:43, Acts 2:44, Acts 2:47

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on the importance of revival, emphasizing the need
for a movement of God to transform individuals, churches, and
communities. It highlights the characteristics of a revived church based
on Acts chapter 2, including obedience, commitment, Christ-centeredness,
prayer, empowerment, generosity, joy, and respect. The sermon
underscores the impact of revival in turning ordinary individuals into
bold witnesses for Christ and leading to daily additions to the church
through transformed lives.

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CONTENT
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If you've got your Bibles with you this morning, turn to Acts chapter 2
really quickly, and we've been in a series of studies. We're finishing
up this morning on revival, and you'll see that we've entitled this
series of studies. It's real novel.

Just revival. What it is, why it matters, and how to have it. And as
you're finding your way there to Acts chapter 2, this past Thursday, I
drove up to Spartanburg.

You really can't get there from here. And I drove up to Spartanburg to
preach in an evangelism and a discipleship conference there in the
upstate where I served for almost 11 years. And I was preaching for my
friend Tom Tucker, and he was working, I think, with the South Carolina
Baptist Convention, because I saw Brian Sims there as well.

He's a friend of mine. And there was a guy that preached first. Now, he
was not on the flyer, and I'm Baptist enough that I don't like you
messing with my order, which really goes against everything I'm about to
say, but anyway.

There was this guy, it was supposed to be David Gallimore from Rock
Springs, and then Brian Sims with the state convention there, and then
me at the end. That's what it was supposed to be. And so I get there,
and they add this guy.

And I've got to be very honest with you, my attitude wasn't the best,
because I was ready to get home. I'd driven in early, and I wanted to go
home. And this guy named Tom Phillips, who's been the director of
Crusades for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for years and
years and years, decades and decades even.

He began to preach on revival. And I mean, he just, he blessed my heart.
He got ahold of me.

I mean, he just really blessed me. And so I'm listening to him there,
and he didn't just say it once, he said it at least twice. He said that
Billy Graham would often pray for an old-fashioned, Holy Ghost, heaven-
sent movement.

That was, he said, was Billy Graham's favorite word, movement of God
across America that would sweep from coast to coast. And I began to
think about that over the weekend. Man, that's what I want.

If there's anything that our world needs, if there's anything that our
church needs, it is a movement of God. We desperately need it. We need
it immediately.

We need it personally. As Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, that famous preacher
from Wales and the pastor of Westminster Chapel said so many years ago,
he said, I am profoundly convinced that the greatest need in the world
today is a revival in the church of God. And so I got to thinking about,
if that was true more than a half a century ago, how much more true must
it be today? The modern church, the American church, this church
desperately needs revival.

We need a fresh touch from God. We need a fresh outpouring of the Spirit
of God. We need a holy fire started that would consume this place and
spread to our homes, our neighborhoods, our schools, our city, our
state, our nation, and ultimately the world.

We desperately need revival. We need a movement of God. During my first
trip to Romania, I'm trying to put together a trip to go back there this
fall.

When we do, I want you to go with me. Come on, you guys, you can sit
down. When we do, I want you to go with me.

Now, the trip to Romania is a perfect trip for those of us who are near
and over 50, because it's not too hard. And my very first trip to
Romania, I had spent looking at churches. We were kind of touring, so in
the morning we would teach in the church, and we would do leadership
development, and the women would work, our ladies would work with the
women and encourage them and bless them and do Bible studies with them.

And then we would have the afternoon kind of free. And it was kind of
that day we were traveling around and looking, and one of the things
that I noticed is when you go around Romania, there are churches
everywhere. Big churches, little churches, I mean, there are just
churches everywhere.

And we had a little extra time, and I was in Cluj-Napoca streets, it's
in the northern part of Romania, and there was this big old church
building, I mean, a beautiful, beautiful church building. I mean, tall
steeples and spires and stained glass and beautiful architecture. I
mean, an absolutely beautiful, beautiful building.

And so, me being the history buff that I am, I said, I want to take a
tour of this thing. And so I'm going through it, I'm looking at it, I'm
walking through it, I'm walking around the grounds, and I'm taking
pictures of it, that sort of thing, and I'm talking about how beautiful
this building is, and then it hit me. It's just a building.

It's dry and dead and old and cold, beautiful architecture, steeples and
spires and stained glass, but it's empty. There's no life in it, there's
nothing there. And then we load up in the van, and if you have never
driven, or ridden rather, with a gypsy driver, your faith needs it.

And so, this gypsy driver drove us across the mountain over into Nassau.
We went down this little gravel road that turned into a dirt road, we
pulled up in front of a little gypsy house, not like the ones across the
river, but a little gypsy house. And we went in to this little gypsy
house, and they pulled the food out, and they started feeding us, giving
us Coca-Cola, which is a real treat over there.

And then we began to pray, we began to read the Bible, we began to
preach, we began to sing, and I mean just the Spirit of God came down in
that little gypsy house. And when we left, I began to think about the
difference between those great big magnificent buildings that we'd been
in earlier that day, and this little bitty gypsy house where we're
praising God. And so, on one hand, you have these massive buildings and
extravagant wealth, and millions of people down through the years, and
on the other hand, you've got this little bitty home, barely enough
money to put on the table, putting food on the table, and yet there are
ten or twelve or fifteen people that are in that house, praising God and
praying together, those sorts of things.

Over here, you have all the power and influence and position of the
state, and on this side, you have the power and the presence of God, and
that is exactly what we find here in Acts chapter two this morning.
Listen to what the Word of God says. The Bible says there, on the day of
Pentecost, when it had fully come, they were all in one accord.

By the way, they were all in one accord at one place. So this is where I
tell my really bad preacher joke, and you guys are just not going to
like it, and it's okay. Because for one thing, you don't even know what
it means, but look here, guys.

Do you know that the disciples, they drove Hondas? Because they were all
in one accord? Yeah, I know it's really bad, but I like telling it. When
the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one accord in one
place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing,
mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then
there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each
of them.

They looked like human candles, look down at verse four. And they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as
the Holy Spirit gave them utterance. I absolutely love that.

Fire to burn, wind to spread it, and tongues to talk and tell about it.
This was a church on fire. It was a church that was set on fire by the
Holy Spirit of God.

And what you have here is one of the greatest pictures in all of the
Bible that shows us what happens when revival comes. Fire burns, fire
consumes, fire attracts, fire transforms, and that's exactly what
happens when real revival comes. Ravenhill put it this way, he said,
revival is when God gets so tired of being misrepresented that he shows
himself.

Vance Havner said, we're not going to move this world by criticism of it
or conformity to it, but by combustion within it of lives ignited by the
Spirit of God. And I'm just going to tell you right now up front, I told
the other two services this, that I've been praying for a while now that
God would do something different. And I've almost gotten to the point
where I really don't care what it is, I just want to be different.

Because I'm so tired of church as usual, I want to be a part of an
unusual church. I'm so tired of an ordinary church, I want to be a part
of an extraordinary church. I want God to change us from the monotonous
to the miraculous.

I want him to start a fire in his pulpit and move to the pew. I want him
to change his pasture and then change his people because, listen, if God
were to set this church on fire, it will touch and transform this entire
town. The church sadly caught on fire one day, literally, like physical
fire.

Everybody rushed to look at it, folks trying to put the fire out, and
there's this guy standing on the sidewalk and he's just watching this
church burn. And there's a guy who walked up next to him, obviously a
church member, and the church member looked over at this other guy and
he said, I've never seen you here before. And he said, your church has
never been on fire before.

Something very much like that happened at my previous church. And so
Temple Baptist Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina had worked and
saved and served for years and years and years, during the Depression
even, to build a new building. And they'd just gotten into this little
whiteboard, wooden structure building.

They'd hadn't been there very long, six months or so, something like
that. They'd already had church there that morning, they'd gone home for
lunch. Somebody had left the stove on or something, the fire going.

They began to see smoke, everybody rushes out, see the smoke's coming
from where the church is, everybody rushes there, they're trying to put
the fire out. Two men go into the church, carry the piano out of a
burning church, which, by the way, years later, John, it's out of tune,
it can't be fixed, but do you think we could ever get rid of that piano?
No, because two men had carried it out of a burning building. And so, if
you were to go back to Simpsonville right now, and if you were to ask
people who were alive back then, Mr. P and others, hey, where were you?
They can tell you exactly where they were, what they were doing when the
church caught fire.

It has impacted them then, and it still impacts them to this day. Now,
if a real physical fire can have that impact on a church, imagine what a
spiritual church fire could do. I'm just telling you, when real revival
comes, it attracts, it affects, it changes, it convicts, it converts,
and nobody near it or around it will ever be the same.

That's what happens when revival comes. So you've got your Bibles open
there this morning, real quickly. As we kind of wrap it up this morning,
as we pray for God just to send revival, and students, I'm praying that
He sends it in your generation, on you, specifically.

When God pours out revival fire on His church, because remember, it's
not my church, it's not your church, it's His church. What happened back
then, so number one, notice down there in Acts 2, notice first of all
that Peter preached Jesus boldly. So get the picture.

The Holy Spirit of God moved in the upper room, and then the people of
God moved out from the upper room, and as they began to speak, the
people on the street began to hear them in their own language. It's very
important. I've got buddies of mine, Charismatics, Pentecostals, the
Sons of God, those kind of guys, and they'll say, Pastor Brand, do you
believe in the gift of tongues? I said, no, I believe more in the gift
of ears.

Because in Acts chapter 2, you're going to see here in a minute that
they're just speaking in their language, and the Holy Spirit's doing the
translating, and everybody's hearing in their language. Look at it. They
were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, look, are not all
these who speak Galileans, and how is it that we hear each in our own
language in which we were born? Those from Egypt, they heard Egyptian.

Those from Arabia heard Arabic. Those from Asia, they heard in their own
language. And the people began to ask the question, what in the world is
going on here? And this is the intellectual answer from the people on
the street, and here's what they said.

Oh, they're drunk. They are drunk. That was the answer.

And I'll go ahead and warn you, students, I'll go ahead and warn you. If
God does something supernatural in your life, in this church, you'll
have people who will say very much the same thing. They'll say something
like this, oh, that's just emotion.

That's just emotion. Or that's manipulation. There's really nothing to
it.

That's what they said a couple of weeks ago when Revival broke out at
Asbury University. You saw it all online. You saw, oh, it's just
emotionalism.

It's just manipulation. It's just the songs and those sorts of things. I
know people who got saved there, heard even reports about it this past
week.

The guy that I mentioned to you a few moments ago, Tom Phillips with the
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, was there preaching. He knows the
people. He's got granddaughters who were students there who know people
who got saved.

But whenever God begins to move and do something a little bit different,
people are going to say, well, that's just emotionalism. That's just
manipulation. That doesn't really mean anything.

Look, you'd better be very, very careful downplaying or denigrating the
presence and the movement of God. So what did Peter do? He began to
preach. And as a matter of fact, what you have in these next few verses
is the very first Christian sermon.

Now, I'm going to tell you in a few moments what he did preach because
it's a great sermon. But let me just talk to you for a moment real
quickly here today. And this is, again, students, I'm really glad that
you're right down front this morning.

We are living in a day and an age where many people, even pastors, they
are trying to do away with or they're downplaying the primacy of the
place of preaching. Some churches emphasize their home groups. Other
churches emphasize their drama ministry.

They emphasize their children ministry or their music ministry or their
homeless ministry or some other ministry. And look, all these things are
fine and good. I believe in them, that these things do a great job in
helping mentor those within the church or even reach those who are lost
outside the church.

But these things must never, can never replace the man of God standing
up in the power of the Spirit of God, preaching the Word of God to the
people of God for the glory of God. Can never take... By the way, Paul
ends the argument, in case you're out somewhere in some other church and
says, well, no, we just... Paul ended the argument in 1 Corinthians 1
when he wrote, for since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom
did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to
save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after
wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and
to the Greeks foolishness.

We preach Christ crucified. There was a church that built them a new
building and over the front of the door they put those words we preach
Christ crucified. Edged in stone, we preach Christ crucified.

And you know how things go, things begin to grow in a vine, ivy begin to
grow up the side of that church, which we all think is real pretty. And
that ivy began to spread out and a little while later it covered up some
of the words and all you saw was we preach Christ. And the vine began to
grow and grow and grow and it covered some more and all you could see
was we preach.

And it grew and grew and grew until ultimately all you saw was we, we.
And that's where a lot of our churches are today. The ivy branches of
apathy and indifference, they have dulled our senses, they have darkened
our eyes, they have desensitized our hearts.

And you can mark it down, when a Christian in a class or a church even
begins to focus on we, it's because they've lost sight of Jesus Christ
crucified. When revival comes, Jesus won't just be a word in our songs
and he won't even be just a character in our children's church. He will
be exclaimed and embraced and exalted as the King of kings, the Lord of
lords, the founder and the foundation of our faith, the church, the
author and the finisher of our faith.

And the reason why, you may have asked yourself this question. The
reason why that pulpit sits front and center in this church building and
not off to the side like you find it in some other churches, is because
the proclamation of the word of God is the center and the circumference
of everything we do. The first event in human, in church history was the
preaching of Peter, which by the way led to more than, led to 3,000
people getting saved and then the church getting sent out to the entire
world.

By the way, you talk about results, that's results. People will say, I
don't know that I like you talking so much about numbers. Why not? Luke
did.

Luke numbered and counted and then he began adding and then
multiplication and all sorts of things. Why? Because every single number
is a person. Every single number is a person.

And every single person mattered. And so what did he preach? One of the,
if not the greatest sermons ever preached in all the history of the
church. Let me show you what he preached.

Number one, quickly, look down there. Number one, he preached Jesus'
crucifixion, verse 22 and 23. He said, men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders,
and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves
also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified
and put to death. Peter stood up in the power of the Holy Spirit in
front of everybody and he preached Jesus Christ crucified.

But then number two, he preached the resurrection, verse 24 and 32, whom
God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not
possible that he should be held by it. This Jesus God has raised up, of
which we are all witnesses. And so Peter stands up, he preaches the
crucifixion of Jesus, he preaches the resurrection of Jesus, and then he
preaches the exaltation of Jesus, 33, therefore being exalted to the
right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the
Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see in here, verse 36,
therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made
this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

He preached the crucifixion of Jesus, he preached the resurrection of
Jesus, he preached the exaltation of Jesus, and then he invited them to
come to Jesus. Now when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart
and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for thee, literally, as a result of
the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who
are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And with many other
words he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this
perverse generation.

He preached the crucifixion of Jesus, and he preached the resurrection
of Jesus, and he preached the exaltation of Jesus, and then he gave an
invitation for them to come to Jesus. I wrote 361 pages on the
invitation, I just want to throw that, you want to hold this? And here's
what I'm going to tell you, Peter on the day of Pentecost is the prime
example of what you do at the end of preaching. You proclaim the good
news of the gospel, you ask people to respond in repentance and faith,
and then when they do, you invite them to make it public, and that's
what I do every single week.

In just a few minutes at the end of this sermon, I'm going to go back
through the good news of the gospel, and I'm going to ask you if you've
never done that, to give your life to Jesus, to repent, and then once
you do that, to let us know. Because that's what Peter did on Pentecost,
right? How did they know who to baptize? They said they added about
3,000 souls, how did they know who to do that? Repent and be baptized.
How did they know who to baptize? Because after they trusted Jesus and
they repented, so they went, I did that! I did that! Or maybe there's
some guy over on the side going, hey, over here's the baptistry, hey,
we're going to baptize.

He said they didn't have baptistries, all over the Temple Mount, ritual
baths, all over the Temple Mount, baptistries everywhere. How do you
think you're going to baptize 3,000 people in just that quick a time?
Because there's baptistries everywhere, and so he preaches the good news
of the gospel. People respond in repentance and faith, and then they go,
I need to be baptized.

That's the invitation. Peter preached Jesus boldly, number two, that
people receive the word gladly. What you have in these following verses
are the eight characteristics of a revived church.

So the last couple of weeks, if you're new this morning or a guest,
we've been talking about the biblical meaning of revival and the
practical steps of revival, the spiritual means of revival. And what you
have right here in Acts chapter 2 are the wonderful marks of revival.
This is what happens when real revival comes.

This is the kind of church that this church will become when we are
purged and purified by revival fire. Let me give you, real quickly,
eight characteristics, I may come back at a later time and preach a more
developed sermon on this, but if you're taking notes this morning, write
down just these eight characteristics. Let me just show you what kind of
church this was.

Number one, it was an obedient church. You say, why do you say that?
Because the very first thing that they did after they received the word
and were saved was to obey the Lord Jesus' command to be baptized.
Baptism is the first step of obedience.

After you come to faith in Christ, the very first thing that you're
supposed to do is to go public for a believer's baptism. And I'm going
to tell you again this morning that you will never grow in your faith,
you will never mature as a Christian if you are refusing to do the very
first thing that Jesus told you to do, the very first command. Remember,
Jesus said in Luke 8, 646, but why do you call me Lord and do not do the
things which I say? The very first thing that will happen in a church
when revival falls is that people will obey the word of God.

They won't try to debate it, they won't try to dilute it, they won't try
to argue in it, they will just simply and gladly say, like Peter said,
when Jesus told him to go out and cast his nets deeper, he said, we've
toiled all night and caught nothing, nevertheless, at your word, I will
let down the net. It's an obedient church. Number two, it's a committed
church, verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship.

In other words, they had a steady commitment and I'm really glad that
you're here this morning and I want you to come back because I'm going
to make a lot of you mad right now. So just kind of buckle your pew
belt. And it's alright because my mama always said you could get glad in
the same pants you got mad in.

But the one thing that I find right here in this revived church is that
they weren't hot one week and cold the next week, in one week and out
the next week, on one week and off the next week, up one week and down
the next week. They were steady, they were steadfast, and you could
count on them. But here's the question.

Alright, pastor, what were they committed to? Well, Luke tells us right
off the bat that they were committed to the apostles' teaching. They
loved to hear the Bible taught and preached. And then they were
committed to fellowship.

Let me make it, put it in layman's terminology for you here this
morning. They showed up weekly, eagerly, and gladly for Sunday school.
Now they didn't call it Sunday school, and I don't care what you call
it, Sunday school, life groups, I don't care what you call it.

But you didn't have to call them or coax them, you didn't have to write
them letters and remind them to show up, you didn't have to promise them
donuts and coffee in order to get them there. They were going to beat
the teacher there, even if they hadn't gotten a call, even if they
hadn't gotten a coupon for some Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donut. And the
reason why was, is because they realized how important it was for them
and to those around them to be committed to a time of fellowship around
the Word of God.

And I've told you for years, if you had to make a choice between coming
in here for worship or going to Sunday school, I'd rather you go to
Sunday school. I'd rather you go to Sunday school. Because that's where
you're going to have life together, that's where you're going to have
community together.

That's where we're going to minister to you. You're not just sitting in
rows, you're sitting in circles, you're living life together. And so
they were, they were, they continue steadfastly in the Apostle's
doctrine and in fellowship.

It was a committed church. Number C, it was a Christ-centered church.
That's what the Bible literally is talking about here when it talks
about the breaking of bread.

It's talking about the Lord's Supper like we're going to do tonight.
Christ, it was the center and the circumference. He was the foundation
and the focus of this church.

This was a Jesus church. And I can see y'all got really excited about
that. It was a praying church.

They not only believed in the power of prayer, they actually prayed.
They prayed corporately, they prayed individually, they prayed daily,
they prayed fervently. It was a praying church.

Also, it was an empowered church, verse 43, look at it. Then fair care
came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the
Apostles. Same trip to Romania, I'm coming back, flying back.

And there's this older English, British-English, English Baptist couple
who's flying back there with us and we get talking, they've been over to
Romania for a wedding or something. And we begin talking about revival.
And I begin to say that I've been studying the Welsh Revival, Evan
Roberts and the Welsh Revival.

And this guy, he said, I'm a grandson of the Welsh Revival. And he told
me a story about Evan Roberts that I had never heard before. He's about
empowered.

He told the story, he said his grandfather had told it to him, that Evan
Roberts was preaching in a town and there was a guy there in town, lost
his ball in high weeds. I mean, wouldn't know Jesus if he met him in a
10-acre field. And he is just lost, but he's got a wife who's a
Christian who has been bedridden for years.

She's getting weaker and weaker and weaker. She's about to die. They
tried everything they know to do to get her up and healthy and to heal
her.

Nothing has worked. And so finally, in desperation, this guy goes down
to the services where Evan Roberts is preaching. He begs Evan Roberts to
come and pray for his wife.

After the service, Evan Roberts and some of the men, they come there to
that house, they go upstairs, they go into that little room where that
little frail woman is laying there in bed. She's been there for years
and years and years and years. She's about to die.

They lay hands on her. They pray for her. And guess what happens right
then and there, right? Nothing.

Nothing but the next morning, she wakes up, she gets up, she puts on her
clothes, she goes down the stairs, she walks out her front door for the
first time in years and years and years, and she walks down through the
middle of town, I guess going to the grocery store or something, or
going to get her hair done, I don't have a clue. And half of the town is
following behind her, watching this woman who just got healed. You say,
surely you don't still believe that God still heals.

Why not? He's still God, right? God still heals. This is an empowered
church. And then F, real quickly, it was in a giving church, verse 44
and 45, now all who believed were together and had all things in common
and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as
anyone had a need.

Unlike a lot of church members that I know, they're not only giving
their heart to Jesus, they're giving him everything. Charles Finney, the
great revivalist, said, if you want to know how mean a man really is,
come at him with an offering plate. Of course, I was always told, if you
want to know where a person is spiritually, just check out their bank
account or their checkbook.

I don't have time for this, really, but I'm going to tell it anyway.
Thirsty at Spartanburg, Billy Graham Association guy, Tom Phillips, is
telling this story, I've never heard before. I knew that Billy Graham's
daddy and other men were meeting on the ground farm to pray for another
movement of God in Charlotte.

They had contacted a man named Mordecai Ham to come and preach. They
were also praying for a young boy named Billy Graham to be saved,
because evidently he was kind of a handful. And they were also praying
that out of that crusade in Charlotte, that the next preacher would come
who would reach the world with the good news of the gospel.

Mordecai Ham is over in Jackson, Tennessee, and he tells a businessman
by the name of E.B. Cox, he said, I don't think I'm going to be able to
go to Charlotte and preach. And E.B. Cox, not a pastor, a businessman,
he said, well, why can't you go to Charlotte? He said, I don't have the
money. I can't afford to go to preach in Charlotte.

And E.B. Cox said, I'll pay for you to go preach in Charlotte. E.B. Cox,
a businessman, paid for Mordecai Ham to go preach in Charlotte. And at
that Charlotte crusade quote revival, Billy Graham came to know Jesus
Christ.

And you may be here this morning and you're not a preacher, you're not a
pastor, but you're a businessman, you're a business woman, and you have
the ability to underwrite getting the good news of the gospel to the far
ends of the world. Where would we be today without Billy Graham? And we
would not have Billy Graham today likely if it weren't for E.B. Cox. It
was a giving church.

It was a happy church. Some of y'all need to read this verse like 15
times a day, verse 46. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple
and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with
gladness and simplicity of heart.

They were just satisfied with Jesus. Then lastly, it was a respected
church, verse 47, and having favor with all the people. It just meant
that everybody respected this church, everybody respected these folks.

They saw something different, something good, something powerful about
this church. They saw the hand of God upon these people, and as a
result, it was a respected church. And here's the result, number three,
the Lord added to the church daily.

Think about it. What did revival do in their lives? What did revival do
in the church? The Bible says that it turned a cowardly Peter into a
courageous preacher. The Bible says it took a group of folks who were
huddled upstairs in an upper room, afraid of their own shadow, and it
turned them into those who turned the entire world upside down.

And there were sovereign additions. Look at that. And the Lord added.

Peter preached the gospel. He pleaded for souls. And people responded.

But the whole time, it's the Lord doing the work. It was a systematic
addition, daily, it says there, daily. When the church is truly revived,
we're going to see people saved on a regular, weekly, even daily basis.

Did you know that? If God were to sit down here today and begin to work
like I'm praying that he does, we wouldn't go a service without people
coming forward and saying, hey, I came to know Jesus Christ. Hey,
pastor. Hey, this is Bob.

Bob's my coworker. And last week, during lunch, I led Bob to the Lord.
Hey, pastor, this is Sarah.

We go to school together. And last week, after track practice, I shared
the gospel with her, and she came to know Jesus Christ. Hey, pastor,
last Sunday, I got so convicted that I went home and I began to pray for
my lost loved ones.

And my neighbor, or rather, my uncle came to my mind. I went over to the
house after lunch that afternoon, and I shared the good news of the
gospel with him, and he got saved. That's what happens, the Lord added,
daily.

And then they were saved. That's a pretty neat word, right? Lives
transformed, marriages renewed, homes restored, and eternal destiny is
changed forever by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I got in
trouble for admitting this earlier, that sometimes I drive fast.

And getting back and forth, it's, well, last week was rough. Today was
like a vacation. It was awesome.

But let's suppose that next Sunday, coming back from West, I'm late. I'm
later than normal. So when I leave out at West, I send an ETA to the
guys, and so they know kind of where I'm at.

And let's suppose I'm running 15 minutes late. I mean, and Blair's got
to just extend and extend and extend, and Josh is afraid he's going to
have to come preach some sermon that he's got in the front of his Bible.
I told those guys, always be ready.

Always have one in front of your Bible. And I come in 15 minutes late,
and I look like this. I say, guys, you're never going to believe it.

I got hit by a Mack truck. I got hit by a Mack truck. How many of y'all
would believe that? No? You know why? Because I don't look like I got
hit by a Mack truck, right? You get hit by a Mack truck, you're going to
have the marks of getting hit by a Mack truck.

And I'm going to tell you this morning, when revival falls, it will have
lasting effects. You will have the marks, visible, prominent, long-
lasting effects. That's what happens when revival comes.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/hGRzYQFCjSI.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/brad-whitt/when-revival-comes/
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