Revival Conference 2007 - Dean Taylor - Part 1

A.T. Pearson said this, But when do the acts of the Apostles stop? How long will he continue to work and teach in this manner, so long as he has a believing body of disciples who still go forth into all the world as witnesses bearing his message? The Wondrous Story, of the revival there in Acts, The Wondrous Story opens with the endowment of power, and throughout exhibits its effects in qualifying witnesses for their work. There is never any hint that this power ever was or will be withdrawn. The narrative stops, but the history goes on. Wherever devout disciples claim in prayer and by faith their full share in that Pentecostal fullness, they may go forth endued with power from on high. Throughout all the ages, wherever Christ's witnesses have gone forth in obedience to his word, the same essential marks have attended their service and explained their success. Amen. I'd like to talk a little bit about revivals in the Bible. Just a little bit. I'd like to focus down on perhaps two revivals, the revival there of Asa Jehoshaphat from the Old Testament, and see some patterns there of revival from the Bible, and also looking at those in the Book of Acts. I'm a pastor at a little church in the northern part of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. My name is Dean Taylor. They were sent out a few years from Charity Christian Fellowship. Living Hope Christian Fellowship was the name of our church. And I want what we heard about today that Brother Don just told us about. I want that. I don't want to just be nostalgic about it. I don't want to just think about the good old days. I want that in my life. I want it for my children, Brother Don, and I want it for our church. I want to see those things again. That's my belief, that God wants that even worse than I do. That in His Word, He's given us certain principles, certain things, certain promises. That if we come to those promises in faith and taking those for ourselves, we can experience what we just heard. That's my prayer. So if we could, let's pray just for a minute, and then let's see what God has to tell us about these Old Testament revivals, the book of Acts, and then look at our own life. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come here in the name of Jesus Christ. I want to talk about Your name, Your honor. Oh, Father, we want these things, Lord, but I know You want them more. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, can You speak through me in this little time slot here, Lord? And let us hear what You have to say. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we look at the revivals in the Old Testament, the first one I would like to look at is the revival there of Asa. I like this little summary I found by Wilbur Smith. He was a writer of revival, and he gave a summary of what he sees as nine characteristics that are found throughout the revivals in the Bible. And to distinguish this from perhaps other outworkings of the Holy Spirit, this wouldn't be including like the Mount Carmel where Elijah saw the manifestations of God there. But these are when revival comes out and affects the whole community, and there are certain characteristics that he noted there. I'd like to give them to you. I think they're precious. I like them. So you look at these nine characteristics. Wilbur Smith has this number one. Number one, that revival occurs in time of moral darkness and national depression. When times are bad, when sin is abounding, when these things that we've heard these different pastors here sharing about the burden and concerns on their hearts, like we experience here today, times of national depression. Number two, each of these revivals that we see in the Word of God began in the heart of a consecrated servant of God. Someone who themselves took these promises of God, took the Word of God in their own lives and became the energizing power behind those revivals. Number three, each revival rested on the Word of God, on the Word of God, and proclaiming the Word of God with power. Number four, Wilbur Smith gives us, that all resulted in a return to the worship of God. So we look through these patterns. It's not just a reformation of manners. It's not just a reformation of their own life getting back together, but a reformation of the worship of God. And each of these also, interestingly enough, there's a return to blood sacrifice. The worshiping of God and the blood sacrifice. We see both in the Old Testament, and I believe we see in the New Testament, and I believe we see that same blood sacrifice today as we have the blood of Jesus shed for our sins. Number five, in each we witness a destruction of idols. Idols. In each revival there was a recorded separation from sin. Recorded, put down in the Word of God, a separation from sin. In each revival we have people not only just separating from sin, but we see a returning of the people of God to following after God in His ways and His laws and obedience to God. A turning away from sin, but also a turning to God's ways is one of the things we see as a pattern. Wilbur Smith gives us here. We see in number eight, a restoration of the great joy of gladness. This is not a bad thing. This is not a sad time. It's a time of rejoicing for the people of God. That's a pattern we see all through the Scriptures. In number nine, he puts in there, we see a blessing of God upon His people. I added two more as I looked into these things. Looking upon maybe some of the ideas from Charles Finney, we see that each of these times it was on the brink of judgment. That God's hand of judgment was on the people of God, on the church of God, and there it was, and was there going to be judgment or was there going to be revival? In these cases we see here, there's revival, but sometimes there's judgment. Another one that I find precious and I hold on to is that in each of these things I've noticed that these people did not have to have their lives entirely perfect, or let's say their theology completely perfect for God to bring revival in their lives. That God saw a heart that at many times would say, and their heart was perfect toward God. And God saw that heart and brought revival there and then worked that revival amongst those people that are there. Asa is one of the ones that are a perfect example of that. So let's take those nine characteristics that Wilbur Smith gave us and let's look at some of those things that we see in those Old Testament and taking that into the book of Acts as well. Turn your Bibles, if you have them here, to 2 Chronicles. And we look at 2 Chronicles chapter 14. Asa's father was very zealous for the nation of Israel. He was one of the ones that fought against Jeroboam and trying to tell him that the worship of God was only to be through Judah and the proper worship would be that way. Very zealous. He did some wonderful things. But he was very zealous for that. But also during his time that he allowed idolatry. He allowed sin to be coming up and growing all around him. And it's interesting. But here's someone who's very zealous for religion and very zealous for the things of being very proper in his mind. But right underneath him was sin growing everywhere. But then his son rose up. And his son, as soon as he came to office, as soon as he came to being king here, suddenly had something within him that made him want to seek after the Lord and after revival in Judah in that time. As we see here in 2 Chronicles 14, verse 6 here. And he built thin cities in Judah for the land at rest and had no war in those years because the Lord had given him rest. And he went into many different things of putting away different gods and such. In verse 3 up there, he took away the altars of the strange gods in the high places and break down the images and cut down the groves. That's the Asherah, the gods that displayed the image of the female.