Revival Begins with Repentance

Thomas Alderson

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Introduction:

Throughout history God has stepped out of Heaven to pour out His Spirit of His people.

In Acts 2, we read of the story of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell and baptized 120 people who were part of a 10-day prayer meeting with the Holy Spirit.

This was the event that started the building of the New Testament Church.

The followers of Jesus then were baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire not to just be touched by God and to celebrate that, but to be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

In the 1730’s and 40’s we look back on history we see what is referred to as the 1st Great Awakening.

During this time, we see how God used people like George Whitfield, Charles Wesley, and Johnathan Edwards, just to name a few.

God used these men at that time to change lives and the course of history because they had a heart for Him.

During the 1790’s through the early part of the 1800’s, God again poured out His Spirit on the earth through what we refer to as the 2nd Great Awakening.

So notable names during this time were people like the great Charles Finney.

Finney would send people ahead of him to a town that he was about to go to.

People everywhere would cry out to God in repentance and then Finney would come in a few days and revival would break out to the point where the bars and jails would be emptied.

People all over the town would be touched by the power of God.

He went to one town to preach and when he did it troubled him that there were no young people there.

He went back to his room and prayed that the next day God would send young people.

The next morning in the nearby school in one of the classrooms a student began to cry and then another student also.

The teacher asked what was wrong.

One of the students said that they felt bad for some of the wrong things that they had done.

The other student said that they were afraid of the eternal destination of their soul.

The teacher went out in the hallway to get the principal and found out that other teachers were in the hallway with the same issue.

The principal knew Finney was in town and requested that he come and preach to his students.

He said that the salvation of his students were more important at that time than anything.

Another story says that Charles Finney entered a cotton factory in the northeast to visit the owner.

One of the workers there mocked Finney as he walked by but he only made eye contact with her.

As he passed by she instantly felt a conviction fall upon her and she fell to the floor in tears.

As he passed by another worker the exact same thing happened until much of the factory were on their knees weeping under the conviction and power of God.

The factory owner stopped all business to have Charles Finney preach because he said that the eternal salvation of his workers were more important than anything else.

One of the well-known revivals during this time was the “Cane Ridge Revival” in Kentucky in 1801.

This was a time when social media was not invented, but people were just attracted to the presence of God.

Stories of thousands of people attending this revival that seemed like rather than being in a church it changed and took place in the entire town.

People preached on horse back and on hilltops, jails and bars were emptied, and people were reported laying on sidewalks and in grassy areas under the power of God.

Revival fell on Cane Ridge Kentucky and changed people forever.

In 1901, Charles Parham was teaching at his school in Topeka, Kansas on the baptism in the Holy spirit and speaking in tongues.

A lady from the school named Agnes Ozman who was in his school recieved the baptism in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues.

After that, the Holy Spirit fell on the school and many others recieved the Holy Spirit.

Charles Parham began this same teaching at a school in Texas where he met an African American guy who was a son of a freed slaved family.

His name was William Seymour which he too encountered the Lord and was baptized in the Holy Spirit.

William Seymour was asked to move back to California and lead a small Bible study on 216 North Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, California.

William Seymour began to teach on the baptism in the Holy Spirit and people began to be touched by the Lord.

They quickly grew out of the small house they were on and moved into a building on Azusa Street.

On April 18, 1906 God began to move mightily of the services on Azusa Street where William Seymour would preach with a box on his head so that he wouldn’t receive the glory.

That revival lasted for about 5 years and is labeled by many people as the greatest outpouring of the Spirit since Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost.

Many miraculous stories came out of there and many pentecostal movements were birthed from the Azusa Street revival like the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee with Perry Stone.

Also, the Assembly of God, which we are part of, was birthed from the Azusa Street revival.

In 1995, beginning on Father’s Day, God began to pour out His spirit on the people of Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida that lasted about 5 years.

Pastor John Kilpatrick tells the story of the day that God began to move where he felt something like a wind across the ground and he could not stand up.

He laid on the ground for hours as people all over the church wept under the presence of God.

Many lives were changed forever during those 5 years.

God can do it again and I believe He wants to.

We never want to try and duplicate something that happened years ago, but this gives us the excitement and expectation for God to pour out His Spirit again.

While there is no formula for revival, I do believe that there are things that we can do cooperatively and personally that can position us in a way to receive what God has for us.

In 3 weeks from today, on February 4th and 5th, we will have Robby Mitchell here for revival services.

I want to preach these next 3 weeks on revival and ways that we can be ready when our Evangelist comes.

Again, I don’t believe that we can schedule revival but we can be ready.

Point 1:Repentance comes before revival.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is a passage that many of us are familiar with, but it is a passage that has so much meaning for us today.

Can you open up with me this morning to: 2 Chronicles 7:14 “14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

This is a great passage that is very familiar and quoted a lot, but lets back up and read the entire passage to get the full meaning in the context it was written in.

2 Chronicles 7:11–16 NIV

11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. 13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

As I was preparing this I was thinking about hearing about and reading stories of past revivals and outpourings of God’s Spirit.

I was thinking about the fact that sinners are not going to just repent of their sins because they do not see a need to change. They are not going to do this on their own.

I believe, as we can see from Outpourings in the past, even non-believers will be weeping in repentance when the Glory of God falls.

I believe that it is a sense of the love of God like never before and people realize that they have went against that love and now they feel guilty.

It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.

The New Testament teaches us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We a the place where God chooses to dwell.

As God said to Solomon back then, I believe He is saying for us today.

I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place as a temple for myself.

When we cry out to God in repentance and ask Him to forgive our wrongdoings He will choose to dwell in you.

His desire is to live through each and every one of us.

I have chosen and concentrated this temple so that my name will be there forever.

He will never leave you or forsake you.

He loves you that much.

God chose before to live in the Tabernacle before, and then later the Temple, but now He chooses to live in us.

Christ in us the hope of Glory.

I truly believe that we are the only answer to the problems happening around us in the world we currently live in.

The world is not going to humble themselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from their wicked ways.

Only God’s people can do this.

We need to do this so God will heal our land.

The only answer to the world’s problems is not a president but revival.

I also believe that when we do these things, when we fall on our faces in repentance to God, He says over us, “I have chosen this temple for myself. I have consecrated this temple and my eyes and ears will always be there.”

What if the next big revival, outpouring, awakening, whatever you want to call it, happens in a way that its no so much in a building but in me and you?

What if we can get to the place where we come to God with such a repentant heart that revival flows from us everywhere we go instead of just being confined to a building?

What if we are so saturated with the love of God and and the Holy Spirit has complete control of our lives and we begin to walk into places and people begin to weep because of the presence of God that is all over us.

What if God wants us to take Him to lost people instead of waiting for them to come to us.

I’m super excited for Robby Mitchell to come because I believe that it moves something inside of us that says, “There is so much more”.

When I am touched by God in church services it truly revives me to the point that I do have an excitement and a desire for more.

I takes me to a point where I hunger and thirst for righteousness.

I believe this all begins with God’s people having a repentant heart.

In Acts 2:38 “38 Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The word in the Greek for repent is “metanoéō” which means to change the way you think.

It does also mean to turn around, but we cannot go in a different direction with the same mindset.

I could not have accepted Jesus, quite the life I was living, lived for Jesus, but thought the exact same way.

For example: Before I was saved I did not have very high expectations of myself.

I thought who I knew was who I would always be.

After I accepted Jesus I now had purpose in life and a new identity.

I am now a child of God and I know that when I pass away I will be in Heaven.

I can live a life free from fear.

So, when I repent I am changing the way I was going, but I’m also changing the way I think.

I repented of drinking alcohol and will not do it anymore.

I can now drink from what God has and will never thirst again.

If repented of putting my money above God.

I will not worry about any of that anymore because I know that everything will be gone in the end anyway and if my Heavenly Father supplied the grass of the fields and the birds of the air what they need then surely I have nothing to worry about.

I need to just seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and that stuff will all work out.

The world is not my supplier, but God is.

Change the way we think!!!

In Psalm 51, I encourage you to write that down and read it at home, David cried out to God in repentance.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then has her husband put on the battle field to be killed.

David was guilty of adultery, murder, and lying.

He really messed up, but he knows that only turning to God will he ever feel a release from what he had done.

We can see from David’s reaction how much His relationship with the Lord meant to him.

Cleanse me from my sin, wash me whiter than snow, create in me a pure heart, renew a steadfast spirit in me, do not cast your Holy Spirit from me or take your Holy Spirit from me, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

We need to understand the importance of crying out to God in repentance for the wrongs that we have done.