In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of revival and the need for God to turn His people back to Him. He references Psalm 80, where the psalmist cries out to God to visit and revive His vineyard. The speaker highlights the impact of hearing stories of past revivals and how they stir a revelation of need in our hearts. He also mentions the responsibility of pastors to continually preach in the spirit and burden of revival to keep the people of God on fire. The message concludes with a prayer for revival and a reminder that the congregation shares the same longing for spiritual renewal.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, Ephrathieh, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Well, we greet you in Jesus' precious name this morning, this beautiful Sunday morning. I'm grateful that I get to be here today, that God, in His loving mercy, allows me to be here this Sunday morning. We also had a blessed opportunity last weekend. We were up in Bainbridge, New York. My son Daniel and I, we went up there together, our families, and had a little missions conference there. It was a real joy. We had a beautiful weekend. It was an extra blessing to me to preach with my son. He stepped on my toes a few times over the weekend, and I'm very grateful for that, that I have a son that will step on my toes. I'd like us to open our Bibles this morning to Psalm 80, is where we're going to be reading. The title of the message this morning is a very simple one. It's a prayer. It's a prayer. Lord, send revival. Lord, send revival. It's a prayer. It's a prayer that God's people need to pray. It's a prayer that God's people have prayed. It's a prayer that, if neglected, God's people will hurt for it. It's a prayer that many of God's people, down through the centuries, have prayed. Those who prayed that prayer with a sincere heart found God to be a covenant-keeping God. The burden of this message is fourfold this morning. Number one, it seems to be the cry upon my own heart, and therefore, it seems like a right time to give a message like this, because the burden of the message is on my own heart, for my own life, and for my church. Number two, our weekend of meetings will be here in three weeks. I don't know if you realize that, how quickly July is speeding by. The weekend of meetings will be here, and a message like this is good heart preparation for a season of meetings like we're going to have. Number three, reason for this message, I believe, periodic revival preaching is part of the responsibility of a pastor. Someone said to me some time ago, OK, revival's great, it's good to have revival meetings, it's good to have beautiful things that God does, but what about all the rest of the Sundays of the year? And I answered that person in their question with these words, I believe it's the responsibility of the elders of the church to be continually preaching in the spirit and burden of revival to keep the people of God who are on fire, on fire. And lastly, I know that you all long for the same things, so let us long together this morning. Let us long together. We're going to be reading in Psalm 80, which is one of the revival psalms in the book of Psalms, and there are several of them, and I have them marked in my Bible, but this is one of them. Eight times in this psalm we hear the cry of the psalmist's heart, a broken-hearted cry, a cry for revival, a cry for a return to reality, a cry to turn their hearts back to God in His ways, a cry to bring back former days of blessings, and a cry to save them, to come and personally deliver them. I don't know if it ever dawned on you, but we're not just supposed to say, Lord, save me one time in our life. It should be the cry of our heart continually, Lord, save me! Have you cried that lately? We find this cry in Psalm 80. Four of these eight times flow like the refrain or chorus of a song. It's beautifully placed. After a bit of instruction, doctrinal singing, then the chorus comes. Then some more teaching, then the chorus comes, which is a repeat. Then some more teaching, and the chorus comes again. As I was meditating upon this psalm, I realized that it flows a bit like the song that we sing many times, Pentecostal power. Lord, as of old at Pentecost, Thou didst Thy power display, With cleansing, purifying flame, Descend on us today. That's the teaching. Then, Lord, send the old-time power, That Pentecostal power, Thy floodgates of blessing on us, Throw open wide. Lord, send the old-time power, That Pentecostal power, That sinners be converted, And Thy name glorified. So we see the same pattern here in Psalm 80, that we see in that song, Pentecostal power. And there's a reason for that. There's a reason why God breathed out this psalm. It's a psalm of Asaph. You know, Asaph was a prophet. He was a musical prophet. He was a man who prophesied. He was a man who was burdened over the ministry of music, the singing of the songs of the people of God. And here we have Asaph. God breathed out by the Spirit of God through Asaph, this psalm filled with history and then prayer. More history, then prayer. And down through the psalm we go. So with that introduction, let us read this revival psalm this morning and see the beautiful prayer that God has placed here for Israel to sing. And by the way, they didn't just sing it in the bad times. They sang it in the good times. So this morning, if you're sitting here and the grace of God is beautiful upon your life and you love the Lord Jesus with all of your heart, then sing the psalm and meditate in the psalm in the good time and let it be a cry that rises up out of a pure heart. But if you sit here this morning and your heart is in despair and you find that there are needs there, then let your heart unite with the psalmist and the cry that the psalmist gives to us to sing. Let's read the psalm. It begins with such beautiful words. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel. I thought, you know, broken hearts delight in names of grace, don't they? Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel. What a tender word. Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims, look at the plea there, shine forth. Lord, it's not enough that you dwell on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies between the cherubims, but we plead with you, Lord, shine forth. That's the plea of the psalmist here. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. Notice those words. Lord, stir up thy strength and come and save us. Can we pray a prayer like that this morning, brothers and sisters, as we sit here in the glory of the beautiful service that we have? Lord, stir up Yourself and come and save us. I believe we can. I believe it's a healthy thing to pray. I believe it's time to pray it when you're not in despair. Oh, the brokenhearted, humble prayer of a man or a woman who recognizes that without me, ye can do nothing. That person will come to God in the midst of the beauty and glories and blessings of a vibrant Christian life and say, Lord, stir up Thy strength and come and save us. Amen, Lord. Send revival, Lord. And then in verse 3, we see what seems to me to be the chorus of the song. Look at this beautiful chorus. Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine and we shall be saved. What a beautiful prayer. What a beautiful prayer, brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters, I want you to notice here, there's a twofold action in this little prayer which is the refrain of the song in this song. Twofold. One, turn us, Lord. Two, turn Your face toward us. Beautiful prayer for all of us to pray. Turn us, O Lord, and turn Your face on us. And then in verse 4, this psalmist goes into some of the reasons why such a prayer could be prayed. Some of the reasons why a cry from the heart would come. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? How long will You not answer the prayer of Your people? Says the psalmist. Thou feedest them with the bread of tears and givest them tears to drink in great measures. Maybe that's where you find yourself this morning. Drinking a cup of tears. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Oh, what an awesome statement that is. If we look at the church, if we look at the church here in the United States, we would have to say that the church in the United States is a reproach to its neighbors. Yea, that the enemies of God laugh at the church in this day that we live in. The church is not reverenced. The people of God are not reverenced, because the hedge has been broken down. So there, the statement of fact is given. And then again in verse 7, Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause Thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Beautiful prayer. Look at this. Verse 8. Giving some history. The history of Israel. But also we could say this morning the history of the church. Yea, we could even say the history of the church in America. And we could even say the history of the church right here. And I believe it should be the history of every church. For when God births a church, it prospers. Look what it says. Thou hast brought us. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparest room before it and did cause it to take deep root and it filled the land. The hills are covered with the shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river. Beautiful history. History that from Israel's perspective, God wanted Israel to sing about her glorious history. Imagine. Imagine what it's like to be sitting there, to be an Israelite, to be sitting there maybe in the days of Isaiah when people have departed, when they're going through the motions of their religious life, but their hearts are far away from God and yet here they are. God is requiring of them to sing this song, to remember their history. Oh, it's good for us to remember our history also. It's good for us to remember the history of the church as we look into the book of Acts. The beautiful history that we find there is stirring and stimulating to our hearts and it ought to cause our hearts to cry, Turn us again, O God! Turn us again. Look at verse 12. Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges? So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her. The boar out of the wood doth waste it and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine again. Again. That's the third refrain. In the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. Look down and visit this vine, this vineyard, this branch which You made strong, which You caused to prosper. Oh my! There are so many ways that we can apply it. Every one of us sitting in this room can make the application as we sit here today. We can remember the days gone by, the glory of the early days of our salvation, when grace overflowed in our lives, when prayer was easy, when the Bible was exciting every time we opened it up to read it. Those glorious days! Lord, return and visit this vine again, says the psalmist. Good for all of us to consider this morning. Why, verse 16, it is burned with fire, it is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will not we go back from Thee. Quicken us. And that word quicken is in the Hebrew. It is the word revive. Revive us, and we will call upon Thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. I would like to look at this psalm in eight ways. If we can do that quickly here this morning. First of all, I want us to consider the beautiful memory of revival. In verse 1 we have the memory of how God led the children of Israel. He led them out of Egypt and He led them through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. But during those days, between Egypt and the promised land, God was their tender shepherd. He led them through the wilderness. They followed Him. A pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. If you could just imagine what that would be like this morning, brothers and sisters. You get up in the morning. You go outside your tent. You look and see that the pillar of fire is moved away from the tabernacle, and it's sitting on the mountainside. And everyone realizes, oh, it's time to go. Let's pack all our things. We're going to move again. Why? The Shepherd of Israel has decided to lead His sheep a little further on in the wilderness. The beautiful memory of revival. And also we see it in verse 8-11 where we read, the glorious memory of God working in the hearts and lives of the children of Israel, leading them through the wilderness, then planting them in the land of Canaan. Truly, one of the most amazing exploits that the history books could ever record, that two million people would move from Egypt all the way to the land of Canaan, move all the people out of that land, and establish themselves to be the strongest nation on the earth. Truly, a great exploit that God did with Israel. Ah, the beautiful memories of revival. How good they are for us to consider what great things God has done in days gone by and allow those things to stir our hearts to seek God and believe God for more of the same, brothers and sisters. For the church, we look to the historical memory of the book of Acts when God was mighty in the midst of His people. And don't you doubt it, brothers and sisters, that's why the book of Acts is recorded. It's part of the Holy Scriptures. God wants it there because of the beautiful memory of revival. But for us, we also must remember what great things the Lord did in the past, even in our midst. And cry for more. And not be satisfied where we are, but try for more. I was just sharing with Brother Dean Taylor yesterday morning about a little season of refreshing revival that we had, I think it was in 1993, at the end of three weeks of God dealing with us, the people of God. We baptized 26 church members. 26 church members. That's 26 people who stood up behind this little pulpit up here and gave a testimony that they had been born again, that they loved the Lord Jesus, that they had been washed in the blood of the Lamb, but in the midst of the heat of the revival atmosphere that God poured on this place for those three weeks that we met night after night after night, they fell like flies one after another, crying out and saying, I have nothing on the inside. I don't have what you have. And it's a sad commentary to us that they were allowed, that they were able to sit in our midst and get up and give those testimonies and say all the right things, but have nothing on the inside. But it's also an awesome testimony of the grace of God that when God comes and visits His people, no hypocrite can stand the atmosphere very long. Oh, I wonder how many sit here even this morning who came in the enthusiasm of their heart, wanting to be a part of what's going on here, but never been regenerated by the Spirit of the living God in their heart. I wonder how many. Oh, the beautiful memories of revival. Psalm 44, verse 1 says, we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their day in the times of old. Oh, there's something stimulating about accounts of revival, brothers and sisters. There's something good and healthy for our own hearts to sit down and read an account of what God did in some other place or in some other time in Christian history. There's something very healthy about that. It creates hunger in us. It builds faith for us today. It encourages us to believe in prayers instead of just prayers. So here, Israel, they were to sing the memory of their blessed times with God. They were to sing those memories as a song over and over again with a refrain that echoed a cry from the heart. Do it again, Lord! Do it again! Oh, it would be like unto somebody sitting down and writing a song about things that God did in our church's history in days gone by, and we would be singing it Sunday by Sunday. We would sing the song, remembering what God did so that we would never be complacent and settle down or get high-minded and think that we've arrived, that we've got the answer to everything. But oh, it would keep us low to the ground, yea, with a cry in our heart, blessed are the pouring spirit, saying to the Lord, Do it again, Lord! Do it again! I believe it's supposed to be that way. The beautiful memory of revival. The revival in Wales spread around the world. I don't know if you've ever heard the account of the revival in Wales and how it spread around the world, but it went from one country to the next to the next just by simply hearing the story told from one place to the next. The fires spread. In October 1904, a deep hunger caused many to pray for revival in Wales. And revival came through the ministry of several ministers and preachers, and the news began to spread. There's one thing about revival. When revival comes, you don't need any announcements. You don't need a sign out on the church building. You don't need to even send out any announcements. You don't need an advertisement in the newspaper. When God comes, people just show up. The news spread. By November, after October, the news had spread to London and a hunger and a prayer meeting began, and the people in the streets of London started gathering together and praying. Why? They heard. They heard. Hey, did you hear? What? They're having revival in Wales. Really? Yeah. It's even in the newspapers. The newspapers are recording it. The people are staying up half the night. The service gets over at 5 a.m. Souls are being saved on every hand. Really? Yes. Let's go see. They go. They hear. They see. They listen. They go back. They tell the stories in their little congregation, and guess what happens? Hey, if God did that there, God can do that here too. Let's pray! Let's pray! Lord, send revival! That's how it works. That's how it works. All over Wales, the stories of revival spread by the common people, just simply sharing the beautiful things that God was doing. No great sermons. No great eloquent dissertations on theology, but just simple common people who saw and experienced the reality of God in a way that they had never known before. And they went everywhere they went just telling the stories of what God was doing. From that revival came what they call a decade of revival. The beautiful memory of revival stirred flames of desire in many parts of the world. The news spread fast, and prayer meetings began with earnest seekers. The flames leapt to India, first in the north, and then six or eight months later into the south part of India. From there they landed in Korea and in America. From there they moved to China where a mighty revival broke out. Then Scandinavia, South Africa, Indonesia, South America, and Australia. All these places were stirred with the memory of revival. They heard with their ears, and they were stirred to believe God, that God could do more than what He's doing in this our day. They were stirred because they heard the accounts and they began to pray. And they didn't just pray. They prayed believing prayers. They prayed desperate prayers. They were jealous. They were provoked to jealousy by those whom God had visited, and they were not going to be satisfied until God would also come and visit them. Oh, what a beautiful jealousy to have in our own hearts, that we will not be satisfied, that we will not let God rest until He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Second of all, I'd like us to notice the great need of revival. In verse 4 through 6, we looked at these, we read these verses already, but we see the condition that the people had gotten themselves into. God was far away from there. The blessing was not on them anymore. Their neighbors were being reproached by them. And the enemies of God were blaspheming God and God's people. We can see the great need of revival. Revival is always preceded by a revelation of need. Revival is always preceded by a revelation of need. If we have no need, we are not going to pray. But if we have need or we see our need, we are going to come to the One who can meet our need. Revival is always preceded by a revelation of need. Many times the stories of the memory of revival stir that revelation of need and hearts begin to cry. You see, when you hear the stories of people staying in the church service from 7 in the evening till 5 in the morning, then you start thinking, I'm not there. I mean, I don't want to be there till 5 o'clock in the morning. No way, I've got other things to do. And the need begins to bear upon your heart. And you realize, I'm not where I should be. I'm not where I should be. With Israel, they measure their present situation with the recorded blessings of the past and a cry began to rise out of their heart. With the church, we have acts to measure with. And we know, we all stand in great need when we measure with acts, which is the historical record. With us here locally, all we have to do is look around us and see our needs. Look around us and see the community that we live in. Look around us and see how many are lost and going on in their deluded religion or in their fleshly ways. All we need do is hear some of the discouraging stories of those who go to the streets of Lancaster City week by week after week and see very little happening for us to grasp the reality of the need that we have. It's there. Consider the fact that we seem to need another reviving. That's a need also, brothers and sisters. We have yet to meet God in a deep way that will sustain us and stabilize us in our Christian life that we don't always need another reviving. It would be the heart of God that we don't need another reviving. It would be God's heart. Oh, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man in such a way that we don't so easily slip away and grow cold, being distracted easily by other things. Number three, I'd like us to consider this morning in this psalm the strong cry for revival. Eight times in this psalm, which is a prayer, there is a strong cry for revival. Eight times. As we looked at them here in my Bible, I have them marked in yellow just so that I can see them. And this psalm is marked with yellow. Give ear! Shine forth! Stir up your strength! Come, save us! Turn us again, O Lord! Cause Your face to shine on us. Look down from heaven and behold. Oh, what a privilege that God would look down from heaven and behold. What a privilege! And visit this vine which You have planted. Visit this vine which You have planted. The strong cry of revival. These pleadings are the essence of this psalm and the secret of every genuine revival. Prayer, earnest prayer, believing prayer, broken-hearted prayer, persistent prayer, is the secret of every heaven-sent revival from Pentecost on down through church history. That's the way it started. That's the way it is continued all the way through church history. And that's the way it starts in every local New Testament church or every individual life. Know this of a truth, brothers and sisters, there is no recorded place that I know of in all my studies of church history where a people were just sitting there in the status quo at ease in Zion and God stepped down one Sunday morning and shook them all. No, that's not how God works. You won't find one record like that. But it's when the people begin to see their need that they start to cry to God. And as God's people cry to God, God visits His people. The strong cry of revival is clearly revealed in the Scripture here. Oh, that God would bring the burden of that cry upon our hearts as a people, as a church. Listen to Daniel's powerful prayer in Daniel 9, verse 17-19. After Daniel... Note this now. After Daniel, one of the holiest men you'll ever find in the Bible as far as I know, there's not one spot recorded about Daniel in all of the Scripture. After Daniel confesses his sins and the sins of Israel for 16 verses, hear his prayer, his cry to God. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant and his supplications and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. For the Lord's sake, brothers and sisters, O my God, incline Thine ear and hear. Open Thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by Thy name. For we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies. Oh, there's a wisdom of theology in this prayer. O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do. Defer not for Thine own sake. O my God, for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name. The cry of Daniel's heart 500 miles away from where Jerusalem was, but the cry of his heart is the cry of God's heart. For the testimony of His great name in brothers and sisters, every local church, is to be a testimony of His great name in this earth where we live, in the community where we live. As I meditated upon Daniel's powerful prayer, I thought, you know, it sounds just like the prayer that they prayed in Acts chapter 4 where they were threatened and they boldly prayed and the place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. It's the same kind of prayer. The desperate cry for revival. David Brainerd wrestled with God day and night that God would take out a people for His namesake among the Indians. The day came when the savages were on their knees crying to God for mercy. The day came. Thomas Charles of Wales, 1850-something, said these words, Unless we are favored with frequent revivals and a strong, powerful work of the Spirit of God, we shall in great degrees degenerate and have only a name to live. Religion will soon lose its vigor. The ministry will hardly retain its luster and glory. And iniquity will consequently abound. Therefore, let us pray. Beautiful word of exhortation from Thomas Charles of Wales, 200-year-old exhortation. Therefore, let us pray. The revival in Wales was preceded by many people praying. They prayed from 1897 to 1904. Are we ready to pray for seven years? They prayed and they prayed. They wept before God. They pled with God for a visitation that would shake their whole nation. Many ministers gathered to pray for a visitation of God at times they were in utter desperation in their prayers. But they kept on praying. And sure enough, in 1904, the Spirit of God descended upon the churches in Wales. And the rest is history. What about the Moravian revival this morning? It is a glorious segment of history. Why? Because Count Zinzendorf and many others in the community gathered for prayer many times a day. Why did they do that? Because they knew that they were lacking. They knew they needed a visitation from the Spirit of God. So they coveted together. Let's you and I, let's meet at noon over here by those trees and we'll pray for revival. Let's you and I meet at 3 o'clock when we get done with our work and we'll pray for revival. All over Hernhut, the people gathered and prayed for revival. That's why we know who the Moravians are today. Because there was a bunch of simple people who were bold enough to believe that God could do miraculous things in their midst and they prayed and they cried to God for it. Spurgeon testified of the hidden group of desperate prayer warriors who stormed heaven for a visitation in their church. And he said, at times the burden and presence of God was so intense that no one dared to speak. There were meetings when they would gather together on a Sunday morning and the presence of God was so strong that he wouldn't dare get up and say anything. They just sat in the presence of God and they were dismissed an hour and a half later. You have heard from the Spirit of God, Spurgeon said, go home and do what you've heard. And he sent them away without his eloquent sermon. Wise man. Wise man. James McQuilken in 1856 gathered three others to pray the night through on Friday nights. Every Friday night, they prayed the night through. Finally, six gathered. Then fifty. And then revival came to Ulster in Wales in 1858. And 100,000 souls were saved. Born again into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Oh, we just want to emphasize this morning the strong cry for revival. It is a cry. I think it's very clear in here as we look at this little refrain that comes four times. It is a cry. When our heart becomes a cry before God, God will answer. Number four, I'd like us to notice the angry enemy of revival. The angry enemy of revival in verse 12 and 13. It speaks about the hedge being broken down and the boar out of the woods coming in to destroy the vine. As I pondered and studied that, it came to me so clearly, this is not a pig like we understand. This is not a domestic pig. A boar out of the woods is not like a domestic pig. It's a wild boar. It has sharp teeth. It's a ferocious animal. It can run as fast as a horse can. You don't want to get in its way if it's angry with you. That's the picture that we have here. And if there was ever a picture of Satan, the destroyer of our souls, the destroyer of revival, it surely is a picture of the boar that came out of the woods. But how did the boar come out of the woods? How did the boar have such freedom to come out of the woods and go in and destroy this beautiful vineyard? Ah, it says in verse 12, Thou, God, hast broken her hedges. Awesome thought, isn't it? That God would break down the hedges of His heritage. Awesome thought. Oh, God, have mercy on us, Lord. Don't let us in our foolishness lose Thy sweet blessing that You would tear down the hedges and the boar out of the woods come in and devour some of us. We must watch for his wiles. We must keep our hearts clear, brothers and sisters. We must not give him any place, for he would destroy us. He would distract us and get our focus on lesser things. He would demolish our unity and get us fussing with each other. He would deceive us into a little sin and open up our hedge for all kinds of destruction. The angry enemy of revival is alive and well on planet Earth, brothers and sisters. But rejoice this morning, greater is He that is in you and me than he that is in the world. Oh, listen. When the hedge is around the vineyard, no boar can get in and do anything. Just like the example of Job. He couldn't get in. He couldn't. Satan even complained to God and said, it's because You put a hedge around him. Hallelujah! That's right. You put a hedge around him and I can't touch it. What a rejoicing that is this morning, brothers and sisters. Let us stay on our faces. Let us keep our hearts clear so that the boar out of the woods cannot come in and destroy any of us. Number five, I would like us to look at the powerful reality of revival. And oh, there's so many places here where we can look at this, but verse 1 and 2 and 3, also in verse 14, we see the powerful reality of revival. What do I mean by that? Oh, how about a shepherd who leads you? How about a shepherd who leads you? Like it says in Isaiah 58, you shall call and the Lord shall answer. Here am I. Here am I. The Lord shall guide thee continually. These are the beautiful realities of revival. A shepherd who leads you. A pillar of fire to direct you. God's manifest presence to bless you. These are the things that are the result of revival. God working in you, both the will and the do of His good pleasure. And according to verse 14, revival is a visitation of God's Spirit. Once this occurs, what else is needed, brothers and sisters? Once this occurs, when God visits His people, hundreds of hours of counseling vanish from sight. Hundreds of hours when God visits His people. Return, verse 14, return we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine. Revival. The powerful reality of revival is a visitation of God. For the church, for Israel, she remembered the reality of the living God in their midst. This stirred them on to cry to God for a return to the former days of blessings. For the church, we see this clearly manifested all through the book of Acts. This is what we, as a local congregation, should cry for. I am totally convinced when we stand before God and the books are going to be opened, the book of Acts is going to be opened, brethren. Not only 1 Corinthians chapter 11, but the book of Acts is going to be opened. The powerful reality of revival, men and women weep under conviction of sin. Even the good and the holy break down under deeper revelations of their needs in the midst of revival. The power and presence of God is felt in amazing ways. God's presence transcends the church and flows out into the community. You can't keep Him in the buildings. Hallelujah. In the Hebrides revival, the presence of God swept into a dance hall and hundreds of youth fled like fleeing from a plague and ran to the church house at 11pm. The service lasted until 4am. Can you imagine such a thing? Oh, one of these... What do they call them, Emmanuel? One of these things the youth do on Saturday nights? Hoedowns or whatever. Can you imagine two or three hundred of the youth in this county all of a sudden in the middle of their big party and all their drinking and all their carrying on and all their immorality? The presence of God sweeps into that place and all of a sudden they flee like as if the plague had come into there. And they all jumped in their buggies and ran to a church somewhere only to have somebody waiting there for them at 11 o'clock at night. And they have a service until 4am. And you'll be sure almost every one of them was converted by 4am. Why? Because the presence, the manifest presence of God transcends church buildings and reaches out into the community in ways that we could never do. I want that! You may sit here this morning and say, ah, that's for some other age and that's for some other people and that could never happen here. But I'm telling you, as sure as God is still the same God that He was in 1952, that can happen here. I believe that. That can happen here. Large numbers get converted. Hardened sinners get right with God. And the Holy Spirit becomes the soul winner. There's so many to lead to the Lord. You can't go through all your little plan of salvation. But you don't need to go through the plan of salvation because the Holy Ghost is there and He brings them under conviction of sin. And He helps them to see their unrepentant heart. And He shows them that they must sacrifice their all on the altar. And He moves them to see the precious Lamb of God with the blood spilling down out of His veins onto the ground. They see it with the eyes of their heart. And break under the mercy of God and get converted without having a soul winner there to tell them what to say next. Lord, do it again. I'm tired of leading them to pray this prayer. Say these words. O Lord, send the Holy Ghost, the soul winner, into our midst. In the Hebrides, restitution was made in amazing ways. People worked a solid year to pay back that which they had stolen as soon as they came face to face with God in revival. All of a sudden, it didn't matter how much money it was. It didn't matter what I had to pay. I just wanted to get clear with God. In the Hebrides, every bookstore sold out of Bibles in just a few days. Can you imagine such a blessing as that? Everywhere you'd go, could you have a Bible? Sorry, sold out. Finally, they just put a sign on the door. All Bibles sold out. Hallelujah! How come? Everybody wanted a Bible. Everybody wanted a Bible because they wanted to read the Bible. Hallelujah! That's the way it was. Every bookstore sold out of Bibles in just a few days. Drunkenness dropped in half after the revival. The church becomes a vibrant testimony of consecrated believers in the midst of revival. And listen to this last one. Family worship is revived. The beautiful testimony of revival in Africa in 1973. The missionary that was there gave this testimony. Early in the morning, you could hear the families gathering one by one into their little huts for their morning devotions. And you could hear them, all the families gathering into their little hut, reading the Bible, singing and having prayer. Every family hut was doing that after revival came. Oh, brothers and sisters, maybe we need a revival more than we realize we do. A revival of stability. A revival of consistency. A revival of determination that we're going to seek the right things and put them first in our lives and in the lives of our families. Number six, I'd like us to notice the glorious person of revival in verse 17. The glorious person of revival in verse 17. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. That, dear brothers and sisters, is speaking about Jesus. And in Israel's context, they were looking ahead. They were believing God for the promised Messiah. They didn't know what it meant, but they knew it was good. They didn't know exactly what reality was going to be, but they knew it would be a great blessing. And so they cried, Lord, let Your hand be upon the man that is at Your right hand. Hallelujah! Even the Son of Man. And that's one of the names that Jesus gave to Himself as He walked upon the earth. And look what it says in verse 18. So then... I'm putting the word in there. So then will not we go back from Thee? Yes, Lord! Yes. The glorious person of revival is the Lord Jesus Christ. This was their glorious hope. He is our glorious hope. In the early church, He was there with them. Christ was building His church, and the church all stood in awe as they watched Him build. Amen! I mean they stood in awe as they watched Christ the Messiah build His church! They just got out of the way. Praise the Lord! Oh, God, would You send some times like that when no man dared to stand up and give the thoughts that he has to share? I can remember some times like that. You remember, Brother Aaron? We didn't want to say anything. We didn't want to open our mouth. We thought, what if I say the wrong thing? God is here. I don't want to say anything. I don't want to say anything. Why? Because Christ is here and He's the head of the church. What does that make me? Just a little under-shepherd. Just a little under-shepherd. Lord, do You want me to say anything today? Just a few words? You are the shepherd. I am the under-shepherd. The glorious person of revival. For us, we should long for an overwhelming love for the person of Jesus Christ. When that comes, He will be preached about. He will be worshiped. He will be the topic of conversation in life. He will be the song on the lips of His people. And the history of His life will be rehearsed repeatedly. In seasons of revival, men and women come with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. And they are changed into the same image. That's the beautiful person of revival. Number seven, I'd like us to notice the longevity of revival. We read it already there in verse 18. So will not we go back from Thee? Brothers and sisters, consider it. How many times we go back from Thee, Lord? How many times we rise up in our hearts? We are blessed by a meeting like this. We are blessed at a weekend of meetings. But go back from Thee, Lord. Oh, when revival comes, there comes a stabilizing in the hearts of God's people. There comes an establishing, a taking root downward that holds, brothers and sisters, that holds. It's interesting to me to study some of the investigations. You know, I don't know what the motivations of those who were investigating were. I don't know if they were all pure motives, but they decided we're going to investigate the conversions that took place during this revival or this revival or this revival. Guess what? Where there were conversions in true revival, they found them ten years later and they're still just going on for God with all their heart. Why? There's a longevity in revival, brothers and sisters. A longevity. It's not just a trip to the altar. It's a stabilizing forth. It is a strengthening with might by God's Spirit in the inner man that moves you forward, that carries you forward. God begins to be the God who writes His laws upon the tables of our heart and moves us by the Spirit of God to do them. Yes, just like it says in Psalms. I don't know what Psalm it is, but I know the verse, Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. You ever see that verse? Thy people shall be made willing in the day of Thy power. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, brothers and sisters. That's the longevity of revival. I agree with one of the men I quoted earlier in this sermon. We must continue to have seasons of the pouring out of God's Spirit, or we will become a church that is a name only. And brothers and sisters, don't you think that we're exempt from that. We can become a name. Just a name. Just a historical record. Just a name that people talk about of how it used to be. Lord, deliver us from that. Listen, brothers and sisters, we are just beginning to face where the rubber meets the road. We are 21 years old as a church. What will the next generation know? It depends on us. The longevity of revival. Brothers and sisters, and I know I've said this before, but it's worthy to be said again, we owe our children a revival. We owe them that. We owe them a revival. A visitation of the Spirit. Not so that they can have just a frame of reference to follow, but all for the stability that it brings into our everyday lives. This is what affects the next generation more than anything. A beautiful memory of something that happened five years ago is nothing compared to the stability, to the strengthening, to the establishment of a mom and a dad who live it out every day in their home. Lord, send revival. We owe our children a revival. The church at Jerusalem was a vibrant church from 33 A.D. until the destruction of the city in 70 A.D. That's a lot of years. And the churches were the same for nearly 200 years. Lord, send revival. And lastly, we want to look at the unchanging way of revival. This is expressed throughout the psalm. Through undoneness, through brokenness, through sometimes even failure. It's here in this psalm. Yes, even through failure, God can take and make something beautiful. He's a God of mercy. Through strong crying and tears, through repentance and restitution, the unchanging way of revival is thus. All through the Holy Scriptures, we see the same clear pattern to follow. We see also examples of those who did, who followed this way. Psalm 107. Psalm 85. Psalm 86. James 4. Matthew 5. Oh, we could go on and on, and every time it's the same. The unchanging ways of revival. God has written the book. He's the one who determines how He is going to work. He's the covenant-keeping God. And don't you doubt it, the new covenant is more powerful than the old covenant. Don't you doubt it. God wants to do all the beautiful things that He promised He would do in this new covenant, New Testament day. He wants to do that. But the unchanging way of revival does not change. Israel sang this psalm when things were going good and when things were falling apart. They sang this psalm. Let us never get too far away from the heart attitudes found in this psalm that we cannot sing the psalm ourselves. In closing, I want to read over in Psalm 81 just a little bit from verse 8. Let's look there. Hear the heart cry of God. Psalm 81, verse 8. Hear, hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee. This is God speaking. Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it, says God. I am the Lord thy God, which saved your soul from destruction. I saved you from the wrath to come. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it, says God this morning. But look at the sad story in verse 11. But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would none of Me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts. What a fearful thing to happen! So I gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsels. Listen to the heart of God! Listen to it! Oh, that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned My hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him, but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied Thee. God's beautiful promise, not just to Israel this morning, but each and every one of His children, He says, follow Me. Do it My way. Don't stop seeking Me. I will soon subdue your enemies. I will feed you with honey out of the rock, says God. And finally, a little poem, which I think is a song, but I couldn't find the meters to sing it, so we're just going to read it to you. Written by Wesley Duell. He's an old man. I think he's still alive. Maybe 86 years old. He wrote it in 1964 on his knees in a prayer meeting in Moriah Chapel in Wales, which is the church building where the Welsh Revival started in 1904. Listen to his words. The title of his little poem is called Come Suddenly. Come suddenly again, O Lord. Your temple waits for You today. Come in accordance to Your Word. Come suddenly in while we pray. O blessed, blessed Holy Ghost, bring the revival we need most. Most graciously our hearts prepare for Your great work in this our day. Help each of us to do our part. Remove each hindrance from Your way. O Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire. Descend in all Your holy fire. We need You more than we can tell. We need You more than we can say. Our worldliness and our sin dispel. Cleanse and fill us all, we pray. O Holy Ghost, come upon us now as we in need before You bow. We pray, Lord, light the flame once more of Holy Ghost revival fire. Come now as in days of yore, for You we wait with great desire. Come suddenly upon Your own and make Your holy presence known. Come suddenly and do much more than we can do in months and years. We plead Your mercy o'er and o'er. We praise You that revival nears. Come, Holy Ghost, descend today. Come suddenly on us, we pray. That's the burden. That's the burden of my heart this morning. It just didn't drop out of nowhere. But it's been on my heart for a week, for a week and a half. God just brooding over my own heart. Lord, send revival and let it start with me. Let us make this cry the prayer of our hearts. You know, brothers and sisters, as we move ahead to a weekend of meetings, let's come to those meetings seeking God with earnest expectations of what God will do. That's my prayer.