Revival Conference 2007 - Ralph Sutera - Part 7

And somebody brought us the article, look at this, and one paragraph said, the music, trying to describe what was happening in the revival, the music was below par. And it was! We had Dr. Virgil Brock was our song leader. Do you know who he was? The man who wrote the song Beyond the Sunset, and many other gospel songs. But he was 83 years of age. He had a natural vibrato, he was leaving a scene, he had a natural vibrato in his voice, you were never sure which note he was on. So the music was below par. It was. And then it went on to say, and the preaching was below par. Oh, now they went to meddling. And went to say, in both content and delivery. Now what's left? And I've got to get this in, I've got to get this in, my brother was doing most of the preaching at that time. And there's a reason why, there's a reason why I had to tell you that. Here's why, because when I looked at that article, I thought, I'm going to have fun with my brother on this one. And I showed him, I said, Luke, look what they said about your preaching. Look what they said. And I'll never forget, his eyes just began to sparkle, a great big smile, and he bursted out, Amen! Praise the Lord! Why? Because the rest of the sentence said, but one could not escape the fact that God was at work with his people. And when he said that, he said, Amen! Praise the Lord! It's about time something happens that nobody can get credit for it but God! 1 Corinthians 1, why did God choose the weak? So that if anything good happens, no flesh could glory in his presence. So that all the glory goes to God. I've learned that you can be too big for God to use, but you can never be too small for him to use. That's wonderful, isn't it? I've learned that revival must always be revived. It's not a once and for all, pure all, forever ill in the body of Christ. Does not your Bible say, Wilt thou not revive us? When? Next word, what? Again. The revival needs it again. There was a church where a revival broke out a number of years ago, and a visiting speaker was there. This is a true story. And he said, Where are the people who were here 25 years ago when revival broke out in this church? And the hands went up. Guess where they were? The Lastly Rose of the church. Lastly Rose. And the pastor said to the visiting speaker after, he said, Do you want to know where my problems are in this church? He said, The Lastly Rose. They've had their revival. My brother says it this way. Brother, if you've had your revival, you've had it. You've had it. They've had their revival. He said, You want to know where the life is in this church? First three, four, five rows. These new believers. These that are hungry for God. Those are the ones that sit and soak in sour and hope that everybody else will sweeten up and take care of them. Have their revival. Revivals need to be revived. And there are times of refreshing. There are cycles, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. So, if I could tie it all together, personal revival summed up in the commands of Jesus. To love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself, the first and great commandment and the second like unto it. The essence of revival. Falling in love with Jesus. And Dr. Sherwood Wirt, the editor of Decision Magazine, when he talked to Leonard Ravenhill, he said, Leonard, I've heard that a revival is broken out in Canada. What should I do? And Leonard Ravenhill said to him, Woody, Woody, get on the next plane. Get up there as fast as you can. By the time he got up there, the meetings were in the city of Winnipeg where the two pastors were holding the meetings. And he saw they were having afterglows where people were meeting God after the service. And he saw a bearded engineer and his wife whose marriage was changed. And by the way, God is involved in revival ministry and he now is in heaven and she's still going on beautifully with God. And when he saw these people meeting God, he said to this couple, would you come down to Minneapolis and I'll get some of the really great people and some other people in Minneapolis together and let's have what we call an afterglow where you sit in a circle, put a chair in the middle, and if anybody has a need, just kind of share your need and we'll pray for you. And that's what God was using in that revival in Canada. And so he did that. So this engineer and his wife go to Minneapolis and Sherwood Wirt says to the group there, says these folks are here and they've come to pray with people. Now who has a need? Come and sit in the chair and they'll be glad to pray with you. And Sherwood Wirt says nobody moved. Here I brought them. And he says, well, maybe I ought to start. So he says, I'll go. After all, a little prayer won't hurt, Sherwood Wirt says. And so he kneels at that chair. And he talks about this.