March 1, 2009 - Pastor Tim

DOES REVIVAL EVER REALLY HAPPEN?

Psalm 85:1-13

When I was growing up, we religiously had what we called “revival services” in our church twice a year—services that were held every night for a week featuring the preaching of an “evangelist” who went from church to church holding revival services wherever he went. In years before my time, revival services might be scheduled for two or three weeks, and sometimes even go longer than that if things seemed to go especially well.

As a kid, I was glad we were down to one week!—but every night we were there! And since my dad was the pastor, we’d host the evangelist in our home and I remember that we’d always eat well that week at our house, even though I don’t know how my mom pulled it all off after teaching school all day long! Sometimes there were special services for the children every night before the main service, and there were special awards for the kids who memorized Bible verses and brought friends. Rev. Gene Clark was one of my favorites—and he’d give out a huge “Clark Bar” to the kid who did the best night by night! Rev. James Leonard was another personal favorite when I was a kid. He was part American Indian and would dress up in native costume for a picture with all the kids on the last night of the revival services.

And, surprisingly enough, people would come to those services in great numbers! The evangelists who came to preach tended to be more fiery and animated in their approach than most pastors. I’m not sure if most people could handle that kind of preaching week after week, but the evangelists seemed to be especially gifted in calling people to make spiritual decisions. And many people did make decisions to follow Christ in revival services. Others came to grips with pervasive issues in their lives that were keeping them from living a life of obedience to Christ. It was in revivals that some yielded the controls of their lives to Christ and sought to become fully-devoted followers of Jesus. It was in those settings that young people were sometimes called into a life of ministry.

Well, times have changed. As a pastor, I’ve still had some revival services in my churches in recent years, but our lives seem to be spread so thin that few people commit to come regularly to them. While it used to be that people outside the church would come for special revival services, it seems like culturally now we’re better able to encourage visitors to come when they have some idea of who’s going to be preaching and what they might expect. And we’ll likely have some revival services in days ahead, but when we do, I want to make sure we’re doing so intentionally and that our congregation is willing to buy into the purpose and the plan.

There are those who reflect cynically on revival services as times when the same people would come to the altar and get spiritual help, time after time. And I’ve watched that happen some, though I’m not willing to throw out the baby with the bath water. As a kid and as a teenager, I know I made more than my share of trips to the altar, but, in retrospect, I believe that God was keeping my heart tender, and the more I learned about what it meant to be a Christian, the more I saw how far I was from becoming what God wanted me to be and yet the more I yearned to become all He wants me to be!

This morning we’re beginning a series of sermons that’s going to lead us up to Easter, the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. (It will be a great day, and we’re already making plans for it and I hope you’ll invite others to worship with you on that morning!) But we have already now entered a period of time of preparation for that. In the Christian calendar it’s called “Lent.” It’s a season of prayer and fasting, preparing believers to enter into the events of Holy Week, the week before Easter, when we focus our attention on the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross. And, as a church, I’ve been encouraging you to join with me in using a daily prayer guide during this time, and my sermons are going coincide during this Lent season with the themes presented in this prayer guide, matters about which many of us will be centering our prayers.

And at the heart of it all is the cry for the Lord to “revive” us—to revive His Church that we might be all that He wants us to be. Perhaps we’re learning that it’s even more than being what God wants us to be. At the heart of that is the yearning to be in close relationship with the Lord—not just “doing” what He wants, but “being” in fellowship with Him, and thus allowing Him to change us from the inside out.

This morning, as we turn to Psalm 85, I want ask you a question. Does revival ever really happen? Were the week-long and two-week-long revival services of the past for nothing? Is that the only means of achieving what God wants to accomplish in our hearts and in our lives? Is there a biblical precedence for “revival” happening in our lives?

Let’s consider the heart-cry of the psalmist found in the 85th psalm—

[Read Psalm 85:1-13, NIV]

As with any passage of Scripture, we always do well to first try to understand what the passage meant to its original audience. In Bible times, the collection of psalms was the closest thing the Jews had to a hymnbook. The book of Psalms is a collection of 150 songs, prayers and sacred readings that the Jews used in worship. Often we think of the psalms as “songs of praise,” but nearly half of the psalms qualify as complaints—songs or prayers of grief, disappointment, or urgent pleas for help. They’re “songs sung blue”—songs of lament. But even in complaining, most of the poets wrap up their complaints with expressions of trust in God. That would be true of Psalm 85.

What was happening was that the people were crying out to God for deliverance from adversity. Israel had experienced a great loss—perhaps a military defeat…we really don’t know. It appears this was written after they had returned from their captivity in Babylon, having already experienced the mercy of the Lord. But now some kind of national catastrophe had them pressed against the wall again—and they knew they needed God’s help. But they also had an assurance that God would help them.

The psalm seems to be broken down into four sections:

1. Remembering how God has acted in the past (vss 1-3). Their praise and thanksgiving to God reminded them of how He had worked in their behalf in the past:

“You showed favor to your land, O Lord; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. You set aside all your wrath and turned from your fierce anger.” It wasn’t a matter of what they had done to help themselves—it was all about what God had done for them already. And it was all about God’s grace.

2. Crying out for God to restore them again (vss 4-7) The beginning of verse 4 summarizes it well—“Restore us again, O God our Savior!” The psalmist is lamenting the recent problems that have deprived them from experiencing God’s blessing upon them. Verse 6 refers to the concept of “revival” as they cry out, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” It’s the cry, “Help us again, Lord!…just as you did in the past! Do it again, Lord!” In verse 7 is the heart-cry for God to once again show them His unfailing love. They were dying in some sort of spiritual desert, desperate now for God to show them again that He loves them.

Say what you will, but revival is about our need to experience again the presence of God. That would often happen in weeks of revival, as people would devote time and energy in seeking the heart of God and often hearing God speak to them in new and fresh ways. It also happens in retreat settings, and in week by week worship services, and in private times of waiting before the Lord. When we find ourselves in the thick of the battle of life, there is a real sense of need to experience—to feel, to be assured again—that God loves us with an unfailing love. And we throw ourselves on the mercy of God!

3. Anticipation of God’s deliverance (vs 8). Three words seem to say it all: He speaks peace. God promises peace to His people. He pours out His peace upon His people. And we should also note the warning found in verse 8—“but let them not return to folly.” In other words, “lead us not into temptation”…now that you’ve cleaned us up by your forgiveness, Lord, help us not go out and dive right back into the mud pit where we were!

4. Celebrating the Lord as our Source of Hope (vss 9-13) In some ways, verse 9 answers the question of verse 6. In verse 6 the psalmist raises the great heart-cry, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” And at verse 9 we read, “Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.” Revival is in God’s hands. This God of unfailing love is our only Hope—but He is our marvelous Hope and we can be confident in Him!

So…what are God’s truths for us today from this psalm? And, specifically, can we ever expect from God the kind of “revival” it speaks of? How can we experience more of God’s love and grace in our own lives—wherever we are on the journey right now?

I think the psalmist has done well to remind us to begin with recalling how God has worked in the past—and specifically how your life has been impacted by that! The real essence of revival is restoration—to be restored to a previous condition or relationship. We often thought of revivals as evangelistic opportunities—and they were, no doubt. But the concept of “revival” is actually more for the believer—who is needing to be called back to a relationship he/she once had with the Lord, to an intimacy once enjoyed that has now faded in its luster. But God was the One who forgave our sins. He’s the One who accepted us into His family. He’s the One who sent His Son to die for us, that our lives might be redeemed! He’s the One who did everything significant when we came to Him—and we do well to never forget that!

And then, like the psalmist, we need to call out to the Lord for His help now! Our hope is in the grace of God and in His unfailing love! We can’t accomplish it on our own, so we desperately need Him to meet us at our point of need! We need Him! We throw ourselves upon the mercy of God! And we’re forced to do this when our lives are in upheaval—and I believe our lives find themselves in upheaval sometimes by our own sin and yet sometimes by our obedience to the Lord and sometimes by circumstances absolutely out of our control.

May I unpack that thought for a moment? Clearly, sin wrecks lives. No doubt about it. And I could go all around this sanctuary this morning and, if we were open and honest with ourselves and with one another, each one of us have experienced the train wreck of sin—sin that has thrown our lives into absolute turmoil! Often in the Old Testament we read of the cry of the people for God to forgive them and to help them—they were experiencing the consequences of their disobedience to God and they had been humbled to the point of recognizing that only God could help them make their way out of the mess they had created. And the story’s not just an old story…it’s pretty current, isn’t it? You know it is!

But I also believe that there are times in life when we need the divine touch of God to “revive” us because we’ve become depleted in the battle—as we’ve remained obedient to the Lord. As I said last week, obedience to the Lord isn’t always easy. Think about Elijah in the Old Testament. In 1 Kings 18, Elijah is obedient to the Lord and God uses Elijah to demonstrate God’s sovereignty and His mighty power as Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It was dramatic and powerful—no doubt about it! But when you turn to the next chapter, Elijah is hiding in defeat, physically, spiritually and emotionally exhausted and depleted from it all! And God responded to those needs and revived Elijah as only He could do!

I’ve also watched, across years of pastoring, as people have come to a point of desperate need for God’s personal touch of renewal and revival as they’ve dealt with circumstances of life which were absolutely beyond their control. They were depleted physically, emotionally and even spiritually as they had walked through weeks and months and sometimes years of brutal circumstances and heartaches…the burdens of life. And often they had nothing to do with what had taken place. And yet they cry out to the Lord, battle-weary, for Him to intervene, to revive them, to restore to them the joy of their salvation. And I believe that it’s absolutely appropriate for us to read Psalm 85 with applicable hope for renewal when we find ourselves in such circumstances.

Whatever our need for renewal, revival, and restoration, we need to hear the Word of the Lord to us today speaking peace upon our lives. “He speaks peace” to us—and it’s not just a one-time word of peace to His children. He speaks peace over and over again to us as we find ourselves buried beneath our own sins or buried beneath the cares of life. He speaks peace to His people!

I think that’s exactly what the hymn-writer had in mind when he wrote the words to an old hymn that reminds us of that wonderful peace—

Faraway in the depths of my spirit today

Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm.

In celestial-like frame it unceasingly falls

O’er my soul like an infinite calm.

Peace, peace, wonderful peace,

Coming down from the Father above.

Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,

In fathomless billows of love.

He speaks peace to each of us—and it’s such a marvelous thing! Oh, how we need him to speak peace into each of our lives, over and over again!

And as the psalmist did in the last section of Psalm 85, we need to consider the hope that we can find in the Lord. In the thick of the battle, in his darkest night, the psalmist is held by a great vision: God’s mercy and His righteousness will triumph. There is hope in the Lord—and thus there is hope for the future!

In what may seem like strange ideas—like righteousness and peace kissing each other—some very key dimensions of God’s character are personified. God’s covenant love and His trustworthiness meet. His covenant faithfulness and His peace come together. He brings peace and wholeness to those who call upon Him…and, when it all boils down to it, such grace is available to each one of us as we call upon Him.

One of my favorite story-tellers was a man named Bob Benson—who wrote down many of those stories for us to remember now that he’s gone to be with the Lord. Let me share my favorite Bob Benson story with you in closing—

Do you remember when they had old-fashioned Sunday School picnics? I do. As I recall, it was back in the “olden days,” as my kids would say, back before they had air conditioning. They said, “We’ll all meet at Sycamore Lodge in Shelby Park at 4:30 on Saturday. You bring your supper and we’ll furnish the iced tea.”

But if you were like me, you came home at the last minute. When you got ready to pack your picnic, all you could find in the refrigerator was one dried-up piece of baloney and just enough mustard in the bottom of the jar so that you got it all over your knuckles trying to get to it. And just two slices of stale bread to go with it. So you made your baloney sandwich and wrapped it in an old brown bag and went to the picnic.

When it came time to eat, you sat at the end of a table and spread out your sandwich. But the folks who sat next to you brought a feast. The lady was a good cook and she had worked hard all day to get ready for the picnic. And she had fried chicken and baked beans and potato salad and homemade rolls and sliced tomatoes and pickles and olives and celery. And two big homemade chocolate pies to top it off. That’s what they spread out there next to you while you sat with your baloney sandwich.

But they said to you, “Why don’t we just put it all together?” “No, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t even think of it,” you murmured in embarrassment, with one eye on the chicken. “Oh, come on, there’s plenty of chicken and plenty of pie and plenty of everything. And we just love baloney sandwiches. Let’s just put it all together.” And so you did and there you sat, eating like a king when you came like a pauper.

One day, it dawned on me that God had been saying just that sort of thing to me. “Why don’t you take what you have and what you are, and I will take what I have and what I am, and we’ll share it together.” I began to see that when I put what I had and was and am and hope to be with what He is, I had stumbled upon the bargain of a lifetime.

I get to thinking sometimes, thinking of me sharing with God. When I think of how little I bring, and how much he brings and invites me to share, I know that I should be shouting to the housetops, but I am so filled with awe and wonder that I can hardly speak. I know that I don’t have enough love or faith or grace or mercy or wisdom, but he does. He has all of those things in abundance and he says, “Let’s just put it all together.”

Consecration, denial, sacrifice, commitment, crosses were all kind of hard words to me, until I saw them in the light of sharing. It isn’t just a case of me kicking in what I have because God is the biggest kid in the neighborhood and he wants it all for himself. He is saying, “Everything that I possess is available to you. Everything that I am and can be to a person, I will be to you.”

When I think about it like that, it really amuses me to see somebody running along through life, hanging on to their dumb bag with that stale baloney sandwich in it saying, “God’s not going to get my sandwich! No sirree, this is mine!” Did you ever see anybody like that—so needy—just about half-starved to death, yet hanging on for dear life. It’s not that God needs your sandwich. The fact is, you need his chicken.

Well, go ahead, eat your baloney sandwich, as long as you can. But when you can’t stand it’s tastelessness or drabness any longer; when you get so tired of running your own life by yourself and doing it your way and figuring out all the answers with no one to help; when trying to accumulate, hold, grasp, and keep everything together in your own strength gets to be too big a load; when you begin to realize that by yourself you’re never going to be able to fulfill your dreams, I hope you’ll remember that it doesn’t have to be that way. You have been invited to something better, you know. You have been invited to share in the very being of God.

God’s got something better than what many of us are experiencing today. It’s time to give it up, to call upon Him, to confess our neediness for Him, to turn away from whatever baloney sandwich is proving to be second-best in our lives and embrace all of what He has for us. Does revival every really happen? Absolutely! And it begins when we realize how desperate we are for what only He can give!