Flood This Dry Ground

It's an honor to be here, and I want to invite you to turn to Isaiah chapter 44, will be our text. Isaiah 44, 1 through 3. But now hear, O Jacob, my servant, Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb, and will help you.

Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, Jehoshua whom I have chosen. And here's the text. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, or on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground.

I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. Floods upon the dry ground. Let's pray.

Lord, this morning, incline your ear to us. We are gathered in your name. We love to worship you.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you're present. We love you. Our life is yours.

So as we are here, hear our cry, answer us. Be gracious to us, Lord, once again. Gladden our hearts.

Lift up our souls, because you are good. Lord, there is none like you. All the nations you are making progressively to come and worship you.

You're great, and you do wondrous things. So teach us this morning more of your ways, in order that we might walk in your truth. Unite our hearts to fear your name.

In Christ's name, Amen. Amen. The God of the Bible is a God who is always acting and moving.

Never static. Never not working. The Bible says He's working salvation every day to the ends of the earth.

He's saving and He's rescuing people in the darkness, whether in India or Dallas, Texas. He's saving and working. And in a very real sense, the main message of the entire Bible is about the sovereign, sudden, glorious activity of God.

The Old Testament, of course, we see that all the way through. So, what did the men who were filled mightily with the Holy Spirit talk about on the day of Pentecost? Luke says it was about the wonderful works of God that they spoke about. The Bible is the record of that.

Of God coming at times in history, in time, and in space, and intervening in the affairs of men, coming and surprising His people with His presence, with glorious salvation, and new increases of grace when they needed it. Awakening dead sinners, and even cities, all of Jerusalem was shaken, and then countries, divine, supernatural intervention. And what happens when God does that? Well, upon the church, whether a local church or the body of Christ more widely, it brings a fresh heavenly touch of the Holy Spirit upon the worship, upon the preaching.

Average sermons, hundreds have been converted when revival seasons are happening. And upon a community like Denton, Texas, where I live, upon a community like Louisville, in so great need of salvation. So the question is, that should drive our thinking on this, and it should drive our praying, do we need to see God intervene supernaturally again in reviving power today? The answer is yes.

Has God stopped working and acting supernaturally now that we have the canon of Scripture? And the answer is no. A thousand times no. And we feel the need for it in our day.

You know, the cultural things shift, the political climate shifts, men who've been used recently suddenly die back to back, and R.C. Sproul's gone, John MacArthur's gone, Votie Bauckham's gone, who's next, what are we to do? Well, the fact is, it doesn't matter who's next. Because our hope is not in any man, but in the living God, who uses men for their generation, and then He takes them, and His kingdom advances without a moment of interruption. God is the living God who acts.

And when He does, at different seasons, the Bible in the book of Acts calls them seasons of refreshing. Jonathan Edwards says, Revivals often are the means of God accelerating and speeding up the building of His kingdom, gathering in His chosen people. So what is revival? It's the sudden, sovereign, surprising activity of the Holy Spirit in empowering and energizing His children and His church.

Christ sovereignly pouring out His Spirit again. This is what Isaiah was speaking about when it speaks about pouring water on the one who's thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. So Friday, at our retreat, we focused on the working of the power of the Holy Spirit, in history somewhat.

The next day, which was yesterday morning, I walked outside on a beautiful morning, and a prayer came into my heart which came out of my mouth. Lord, You could begin another national awakening right here, not in Dallas or Houston or Atlanta, but in Frenchlick. Now think about that.

Wouldn't that be divine humor? The fifth or sixth great awakening starts in Frenchlick, Indiana. Why not? Do it, Lord. Why not Louisville? Why not in your heart and my heart? A fresh reviving of our soul, where the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and God is meeting with us.

Why not? The question is, are you a candidate for it? Are you a volunteer that would say, Lord, my heart is dry ground. My soul is thirsty. Pour Your Spirit out on me, even floods, until I'm filled with all the fullness of God, as the Apostle Paul said.

The fresh and new working of the Spirit of God in our lives and in our churches, a reviving of His people everywhere. God has done this in the earth since the day of Pentecost, thousands of times in different places, when He would say, it's time for me to act. The enemy has come in like a flood.

It's time for the Spirit of the Lord to raise the standard against the darkness. And God breaks into the darkness with glorious light, and He intervenes and He revives His work again. So a reviving of His people everywhere should be this, the desire of every believer is that your desire is a Christian.

It's a prayer for all occasions. In your prayer rooms, in your gospel community groups, in your men's study, in your women praying together, why not begin to ask, every time you're praying, Lord, sin floods. He knows how to interpret that.

You don't have to get eloquent. Lord, pour out the rain from heaven. Send the wind of God through here.

Let the fires of revival flame in our hearts for the glory of Christ. Revival is a hope at all times because it's a promise of God. It's a possibility at end times.

Acts 2, it comes and Luke says, and suddenly, there was a sound from heaven. It can happen at any moment. And listen, young people.

Listen, children. It is a cry, revival for Jesus to work is a cry that any child or teenager can pray. Luke 13, 11 is one of my favorite verses about the Holy Spirit.

It's given to Christians. It says, if you being evil that is fallen and limited and infinite, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, and I know you do, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who are asking? Right? How much more will He give the Holy Spirit? So how do we pray for revival? This is it. You pray for the Spirit to come down.

You pray for the sending of the Spirit by the Father through the Son to come again. You pray for the giving of the Spirit. You pray what Paul prayed in Philippians 1 for the fresh supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

You pray for the descending and outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the reign of heaven, for the wind of God to come. So I want us to go into a time capsule and go back in time and survey a few revivals because what God did in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th century, He can do again today. So the year is 1858.

1858 and 1859 became significant years for the British Isles, especially Northern Ireland and America. New York City, there was a young man, he was called a city missionary, but what he was was a staff evangelist of the North Reformed Dutch Church on Fulton Street in Manhattan, not far from ground zero. So Jeremiah Lanphier had this burden one day.

There had been an economic depression. People were anxious and burdened, and he thought, there's something I could do. I will start a noonday prayer meeting and I'll put flyers, I'll post flyers on the street, on the church.

I'll tell the church to spread the word and invite people. He set a date for a noonday prayer meeting every day. And businessmen and anyone really was invited to bring their lunch and they would pray for an hour.

It would start at 12 and it would end at 1. Just a prayer meeting. By the way, Spurgeon has a sermon entitled, Just a Prayer Meeting. Read it.

It's wonderful. So the first day there were three. And soon the word spread as God began to give a spirit of prayer where, as one brother this weekend reminded us, they prayed until they really began to pray from the heart.

Dozens became hundreds and the word continued to spread. And six months later, around Manhattan, there were 10,000 Christians praying at noon. Now that's the wind blowing.

That's floods being poured out. And it spread. Read about it.

To Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and westward. And it became the most extensive revival in U.S. history. More extensive than the First or Second Great Awakening.

The U.S. population at that time was 23 million. And in two years, 58 and 59, two to three million people became members of local churches after being examined by the pastors. So here's the percentage today.

What if in our nation, out of 340 million people, within two years, 50 million people were powerfully converted? What do you think? Is that attractive? It is. Greater Louisville area, a million plus. What if in the next two years, 150,000 real conversions happened in Louisville? We fall into unbelief.

We don't ask enough. We don't think that way. But God could do it.

He could do it. Alright, fast forward to 1904, the country of Wales. The west side of England, south of Scotland, on the Irish Sea.

Wales became known as the land of revivals because in its history, there were over 20 national outpourings of the spirit across Wales. The most significant one was 1904. A young man, 23 year old, Evan Roberts, who worked in the coal mines and then he became a blacksmith.

God's hand was on him. He was praying two or three hours a day, wanting to serve God, wanting to preach, wanting to be used of God. And he began to go out preaching.

23 year old. And God just chose to begin to bless his messages and his preaching with power everywhere he went. And a spirit, wherever he would preach, of humility and conviction and reviving poured out spontaneously.

And it began to multiply widely. And it lasted for two years. And over 100,000 in Wales were added to the evangelical churches.

Suddenly, spontaneously, organically, that's floods being poured out on the dry ground. Fast forward about 45 years later to Scotland. This is my favorite, Ryan, I think, in a way.

1949, in the Hebrides Islands, off the coast of the mainland, there were two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were 84 and 82. They had never been married.

One was crippled, one was blind. And their life was a life of prayer. They were intercessors.

And so, they... God spoke to one of them one morning, this promise, Isaiah 44, 3. I will pour water on him who is thirsty. And I will pour floods on the dry ground. And one of them began to pray.

God gave this promise sealed in her heart. And she began to pray, Lord, we are dry ground. The island is dry ground.

The young people, dry ground. We want it. We need it.

Pour the spiritual water from heaven on us. Well, one morning, one said to the other, God has heard our cry. He is going to send revival.

And I know who He is going to send. He is going to send Duncan Campbell. He was a well-known Scottish itinerant preacher.

God will send Duncan Campbell. So, they sent word to their minister to come to their cottage. He comes in.

And one of them says, send Duncan Campbell a word that he needs to come here. So, this man trusted these praying women. He sent Duncan Campbell a letter.

He got a reply. I couldn't possibly come for two years. The minister tells the ladies.

He leaves. And one of them said, that's what Duncan Campbell says. But God says he's coming.

How do we explain that? The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. And He will show them His covenant. Campbell was in England preaching.

He was set to preach the closing message of a big conference. He's on the platform. He comes under conviction.

He has this burden. I'm not supposed to preach. He remembers the invitation.

And he knew with certainty he was supposed to go. He had the invitation in his bags. He went to the chairman of the conference and said, I have to leave.

I can't preach. How about that pressure? The fear of man can be a snare. He didn't give in to it.

He leaves. He gets to a boat. The furthest most spot he could.

He catches a ferry to the town in the Hebrides Islands. It's early morning. He gets off the boat.

And a man is standing there. And the man says, Mr. Campbell. He said, yes.

The church is gathering to where the church come. And Campbell said, how did you know I was coming? The man said, how did you know to come? God's at work here, see? So Campbell came and he preached that night. Nothing happened in the meeting.

But he and the minister are walking down the hill. And he sees the people had left the building. But they were out on the ground weeping and crying out to God.

God had come to the island. And later Duncan Campbell said the island for two years was saturated with the presence of God. In fact, there's a wonderful introductory book to revival.

Brian Edwards wrote. The title is Revival of People Saturated with God. Does this scare you? If the Spirit of God were to come to your life and take over more than ever before.

He's not going to make you do weird things. He's going to make you more like Jesus Christ. He's going to make you love the Word of God, love your church, love the people of God, love to share the gospel, love to pray more and more and more.

Campbell stayed two years in the Hebrides preaching. And the two sisters, Peggy and Christine, would send for him. One of them said one morning, Tomorrow morning, you go down to the village and there will be a table of men smoking and having their coffee.

They haven't been to church in years. You go speak to them. So Campbell went down there.

The presence of God was in the atmosphere. And as he began to speak to them, all of them broke down sobbing and ended up being converted. Fast forward.

20 years later, 1969. 49, he's on the Hebrides. 1969, he comes to western Canada to preach.

And while he's there, while he was preaching, he said, I believe God has shown me that revival is coming to western Canada within two years. Two years later, 1971. Bill McLeod, a pastor in Saskatoon, had planned a series of meetings.

But before planning it, he had the church praying for revival for a year. Serious prayer. Young people's meetings in his church was praying for revival.

He invited two brothers from America who were evangelists. They came just to preach the gospel. Just to preach Christ.

And the first week, deacons in the church came under intense conviction. And they came to the pastor. They said, Pastor Bill, I'm lost.

I'm a wicked man. I'm a hypocrite. I'm not even saved.

And deacons and leaders and across the church began to be touched by God. And the meetings went on two weeks, six weeks, eight weeks. They had to move it five times finally into the ice hockey arena there where a couple of thousand, two or three thousand were in attendance.

And it spread all over western Canada, down into the states, into the Dakotas and Montana. God was... Many marriages were restored. Some who had divorced were remarried.

Truck drivers who were in the revival would stop for worship where they were going and they would go in church and they would be asked to give a testimony and the Holy Spirit would begin to move. So floods upon the dry ground. In that Canadian revival, many churches were touched and revived.

Many marriages restored. In some cities, most crimes ceased in the community for a year. The policemen were baffled.

So many people returned things they had stolen. They couldn't find enough storage places to put it up. Conversions numbering in the thousands across the prairies of western Canada suddenly, supernaturally.

Now, the great name in church history about revival, the theologian of revival was Jonathan Edwards. 18th century, 1735. An awakening came to his town of 500 in Northampton and he said this about it.

In the spring and summer, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. Almost the whole town seemed to be in great and continual spiritual commotion day and night. There was indeed a very great revival of religion.

How did that start? Edwards was preaching a series of sermons on regeneration to the children of his church and they began to be converted. A young girl, 8 years old, Phoebe Bartlett came under the deepest conviction and had a powerful, clear conversion and testimony. Children began to be converted and that was the beginning of the first great awakening in New England and Whitfield was a part of it and it was an astounding move of God.

Edwards said, our young people, when they meet together, they spend their time talking about the excellence and love of Jesus Christ. And he said, I know of no young person in the town who has returned to their former ways of sin at all. That is what you call repentance.

Go and sin no more. All the young people in the town, Edwards said, as far as I know, none of them have returned, have backslidden and returned to their old ways of sin. He said, some of the most rude and wicked people have become godly in their behavior in all things.

Private fellowship meetings are greatly multiplied. Now there is an extraordinary appetite for the sincere milk of the word. And then Edwards viewpoint was this, we ought not to limit God where He has not limited Himself.

He said, the influence of the Spirit of God is more abundantly manifested when persons have their hearts drawn away from the world and weaned off of the objects of their worldly lust and earthly pursuits. Now in every single one of these historic revivals, and there are multiple hundreds of others in history, you can read it if you want to, the history of revivals. One common factor was there, God came by Spirit, God intervened greatly in convicting and converting grace.

Heaven touched earth, in time, in space, and in human history. And He can do it again. Floods on the dry ground.

Now Isaiah 62, God pleads, and He says, On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen who shall never be silent, who put the Lord in remembrance always, take no rest, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. So brethren, cry out for floods, cry out in your homes, in your cars, on your work break, in your morning time, at bedtime, cry out, Lord Jesus, You're enthroned, You're ruling and reigning, get new glory in the earth that You're not getting now, pour water on Emmanuel, pour water on the dry ground, pour water on me, and floods upon the dry ground. Lord, we are candidates for revival.

God, He, the eyes of the Lord, roam to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself mighty and strong toward those whose hearts are perfectly toward Him. Are you a candidate? Are you a volunteer for revival? It may be time. But Matthew Henry said, when God purposes to do a new work, He sets His people praying.

Let's pray together now. Lord, here before You, all things are naked and open. Before the God with whom we have to do.

And You are our Father. We want to see the glory of God manifested in the earth again in this way. So we just do pray.

Lord, with the prophet, from our hearts, Lord, pour water on the thirsty land. Pour water on the one who's thirsty here. Streams on the dry ground.

Pour Your Spirit out on us and our children. Visit us, Lord, from on high that You would be glorified, that Christ would be honored, that Your kingdom would be advanced, and that Your church would be built. O Lord Jesus, would it not glorify You afresh to show up in our land? We don't care where You started.

We pray You'd start it.