E.A. Johnston passionately calls the church to forsake complacency and selfish ambition, urging believers to seek God with broken, desperate prayer as the true pathway to revival in a sin-sick nation.
In this prophetic sermon, E.A. Johnston challenges the church to awaken from spiritual complacency and embrace a desperate, broken-hearted prayer life as the foundation for revival. He highlights the moral decline of the nation and the urgent need for believers to seek God’s mercy through intercession. Drawing from biblical promises and contemporary realities, Johnston calls for a sacrificial response to God’s call, emphasizing that revival is both possible and necessary for the glory of God.
Full Transcript
Burdened, a broken prayer is the nerve center of revival. As a people, hungry for the reality of God, a cry out to God in desperation. But we must ask ourselves, friends, are we there? Are we desperate enough for revival? Are we sick enough of sin? Are we sad over the condition of our young people going to hell? Or are we content with what we have, with maintaining the status quo in our churches and continue to play church every Sunday while the nation sends its way to hell? We can't have revival if we want it for the wrong reasons.
All selfish ambition and self-recognition must go to the wayside. God is a jealous God, but God is still a God of revival. But we must be willing to allow him all the glory and not share in it.
Revival is not only possible, it is probable, as long as we are expendable. We have a generation of young people today who don't even believe in God or in the word of God. They are hell-bent on destroying themselves with sex and drugs and alcohol, and they have no morals nor any awareness of sin.
But God in former times has been pleased to save thousands of young people through spiritual awakenings in the land. The Second Great Awakening was instrumental in the salvation of many young men who would soon be cut down on the battlefield of the Civil War. God in his mercy sent revival before that war broke out so thousands wouldn't perish into a Christless eternity.
Our situation today in our nation is bleak as we live in a country that has turned away from God and a government that has legalized sin and legislated God out of the country. Our sin-sick society is in a moral landslide as society spins out of control. God keeps sending floods and fires among us to get our attention and to turn us back to him.
But the churches continue to fail to heed the warnings, much less recognize them. This is seen in an example. Just this week I was driving down the road right before a hurricane was on its way to Florida and I passed a church sign in front of a Florida church that summed up the sad spiritual situation.
The sign read, Mother Nature is busy. Stay safe. Listen, friends, a deadly hurricane is not Mother Nature.
There's no such thing as Mother Nature. Rather, God is angry with the sins of a nation and in his mercy sends us remedial judgments by way of natural disasters to turn us back to him. If a pastor of a church can't read the handwriting on the wall today in regard to the activity of God in the land through his judgments against us, how in the world can there be any hope for a godless nation? Yet God declares in his word of his willingness to send us revival refreshings.
In Ezekiel we read, I, the Lord, build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate. I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. But we must ask ourselves this burning question.
Are we, as the people of God, inquiring of God to send us revival? Or are we so sound asleep on our pillows of conformity and compromise that we will drown in our own spiritual vomit? There must be an agonizing supplication unto God for revival and a resolute desire on our part to do what's necessary to have a breakthrough to heaven, to gain God's ear and turn his face toward us once again. But to get that costs everything as true intercession is a sacrifice. God is a God who delights in sacrifice.
Did he not sacrifice his only begotten son on the bloody cross for sin? But when was the last time we prayed with broken hearts? Have any of us had our own personal Gethsemane? Are we prostrated upon our faces in intercession between God and the sins of the land? Or are we too busy with our sports and entertainments while souls perish into a burning hell of torments and fire? We desperately need the refreshing breath of the Spirit of God among us today. We need a God-consciousness in our churches once again, rather than what we presently have, which is the stench of death and decay. This is a call, a call to revival for the glory of God.
Will you join in on this call and call upon God in prayer for revival in our day? Or will you remain a spectator sitting in a stadium that is above a sinkhole ready to give way? Time is fast running out. It's revival or ruin. Let us pray.
Sermon Outline
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I. The Need for Desperate Prayer
- Broken prayer is the nerve center of revival
- Are we desperate enough for revival and sick of sin?
- Selfish ambition must be set aside for God's glory
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II. The Reality of Our Nation's Spiritual Condition
- A generation turning away from God with no moral awareness
- Natural disasters as God's remedial judgments
- Churches failing to recognize God's warnings
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III. God's Promise and Our Responsibility
- God promises to rebuild and restore (Ezekiel 36)
- We must inquire of God and seek revival earnestly
- True intercession requires sacrifice and brokenness
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IV. The Call to Action
- Reject complacency and entertainment distractions
- Pray with broken hearts like Jesus in Gethsemane
- Decide now: revival or ruin
Key Quotes
“Burdened, a broken prayer is the nerve center of revival.” — E.A. Johnston
“Revival is not only possible, it is probable, as long as we are expendable.” — E.A. Johnston
“It's revival or ruin. Let us pray.” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Examine your heart and cultivate a spirit of broken, desperate prayer for revival.
- Reject complacency and distractions that hinder your awareness of sin and need for God.
- Commit to sacrificial intercession on behalf of your community and nation.
