“Lord, Do It Again in 2010”

Three men were walking on a beach one afternoon when they came across an old lamp. The first man picked it up and began to rub it and out popped a genie. The genie said, “I am here to give each of you one wish each.” The first man did not hesitate he said, “I want a million dollars.” POOF! Instantly a million dollars appeared before him. The second man said, “I want a mansion here on the beach.” POOF! A beautiful mansion appeared right before his eyes and the genie handed him the keys. This got the third guy really thinking about his wish. Finally he stated, “Make me irrespirable to women.” POOF! The genie turned the man into a large box of chocolate What are you wishing for?

Many people have a great deal of misconceptions about God. God is not a celestial vending machine that gives what we ask, when we put money in the offering box. God is not a heavenly genie who grants us three wishes when we rub Him in the right direction with our prayer. However, if we belong to God, we are His children, and He, our Heavenly Father. He doesn’t run out of compassion and He’s not short on power! God will still manifest His power in our day if we have the right relationship with Him.

Consider this verse in Habakkuk 3:2, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” If He did it for someone else He can do it for you. If He did it before He can do it again.

But let’s be honest. To many of us, the Bible is almost a book of fairy or tall tales. Think about it: The Red Sea parts before Moses and the Israelites walk on dry land, the Sun standing still for Joshua, then Gideon and 300 men defeating 130000 Midianites with trumpets. Elijah is called to heaven in a chariot of fire. Three young men survive a fiery furnace, and another, a night in a lions’ den.

Perhaps you do believe, but maybe you just assume that is the God of the Old Testament. But then you remember there was a child born to a virgin, who is God in the flesh. He grows up to walk on water and heal the sick of incurable diseases. He is killed but then he resurrects from the dead. He leaves behind these uneducated men as his apostles, who could also heal people and cast out demons, speak in languages they had never studied and pass along those gifts to others.

Perhaps you think that was just God in the early church and He does not display such power today. That is what Gideon thought when God found him hiding in a cave from the Midianites.
“Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian" (Judges 6:13).

Brothers and sisters Has our God changed? Habakkuk says, “no.”
“3 God came from Teman,the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
4 His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.
5 Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.
6 He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal. (Hab 3:3-6)

The New Testament confirms the notion be telling us our God does not change like shifting shadows and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. So, dear children of God, who has changed? All true religion is the work of God as His power is displayed amongst and through us: it is pre-eminently so. All of God’s activities are purposeful not random or haphazard. You see, you might not need your sea parted, or the sun to stand, or to survive the lunch buffet at the Lion’s club, but God can, still, and will do great things to you, with you, and through you!

But have we so changed that God no longer has a platform to use among his people? We stand in amazement as the first church started with a bang of 3000 souls and grew to 5,000, 10,000, and eventually 100,000. Eventually, the entire world was turned upside down by first century Christians.

Do we have the same faith as they? Do we do as they did; grow as they grew? Are we a body as they were a single body and a team as they were? Is God our priority and leader? Are we meeting and growing and praying and giving sacrificially as they did: EVERYDAY? Are we conquering the world? Or are we waffling in our faith and struggling with the same sins as we were five years ago? Are we but weekend Christians, who frolic in the Devil’s playground all week? Are we stagnant in our joy, questioning God’s leading at every turn and resisting God’s plan to redeem the world? Are we conquering the world as they did or is the world conquering us? I ask again, “Has God changed since the glory days, or is it we.” Jesus seems to hint at the answer when he asks the question, “When the Son of Man returns, will he find THE faith on the earth?”

So my dear friends, join we me in uttering Habakkuk’s plea, “ Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2).

At this dawn of the new year, I am going to challenge you. Dr. Phil is going to challenge you to lose weight. Oprah may challenge you to join her book club and some may challenge you to get out of debt. All may be good endeavors, but as the Lord’s evangelist, I challenge you to revival; revival in which God will do it again in our midst, as he has to others in the past.

Beloved, trusting that the Spirit of God will help me, I shall endeavor to apply the text to our own souls personally, and then to the body of Christ at large, for there is a need that the Lord should revive his work in its midst.

Brethren, He will do it again in our life. It starts with us. Having firmly established that it is not our God that has changed, but his people, we should begin at home. Too often we point the fingers at others, when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders. We drag the “church,” government, and world like a colossal culprit to the judgment seat. But, I directly charge every professing Christian (and I take the charge to myself also) with a need of a revival of piety in these days. For revival to happen and for His power to once again to be displayed his power more vividly upon the earth, God is looking for fertile ground to plow.

For that, we must first examine our conduct. We live in a country where 80% of the people claim to be Christians(one of the highest in History). However, are there fewer cheats than there used to be? Are there less frauds committed? Do we find morality more extensive and vice entirely at an end? No, we do not. The age is as immoral as any that preceded it and now even less cloaked and hidden; there is no longer any shame. Sin has come out of the closet. For all the claim of Christ’s name, society is not one whit improved. It is a huge criminal, full of sin; and I say this, that if all the profession in America were true profession, it would not be nearly such a wicked place as it is; it could not be, by any manner of means.

No consider that if we, as God’s people, were all full of the Spirit, as we are commanded to be, our communities would not be the same, but as it is, they scarcely know who we are. This is a profoundly hard truth, but if we do not utter it, God may not see that we are ashamed of it. Listen to the apostle Paul, “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity” (Col 4:5).

Do we act and talk as dying men to dying men or are we but wearing the camouflage of the world? Why that reaching after money, why that covetousness, why that following of the crafts and devices of a wicked world, why that clutching here and clutching there, if men are truly what they profess to be? As God is my witness, these things ought not be.

"God will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" (Malachi 3). The smith puts the silver in a hot spot and holds it there. He must watch it very carefully. He cannot take my eye off it, because if I leave it too long it is ruined. How does he know when it is purified? When in it, he can see his reflection. God may be holding us in that hot spot waiting to see Himself in us. For the church to experience God’s transforming power, a revival heart must be in the persons of her members. It is fashionable to be spiritual today, but it is not to be preaching, holy living Christian. Why is it, I can walk through this life and identify Muslims as I go” I can easily identify Hindus, Buddhists, cultural Jews, but I cannot discern a true Christian in a crowd. Sadly, there is nothing that separates them from the world.

We must also be sanctified in our conversation. We are in the world, but must not be of the world!

A donkey found a lion skin left behind by a hunter and decided to don it to scare all the other animals. He was having great success and had the animal kingdom running for the hills. Then he saw his great adversary the know-it-all fox. He hid behind a tree ready to jump out and really give his enemy the scare of his life. As the fox drew near, he jumped out and let out a healthy bray, “Heehaw!!” The fox stood looking at him, unmoved; then he replied, “you had me until you opened your mouth.” Has your mouth ever made a donkey out of you?

Does your conversation separate you from everyone else, or does it blend in with them? We talk of the weather, of TV and movies, of work and our health, but what of the things of God? The apostle Paul continues, “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person” (Col 4:6).

I cannot see that a man can be a Christian, thoroughly in earnest, without winning for himself the title. Can we be a Christian without living the life Christ purchased for us? We have need to pray unto God, "O Lord, revive thy work in my soul, that my conversation may be more Christ-like, seasoned with salt, and kept by the Holy Spirit?"

Such sanctification of conduct and conversation can only happen through a holy communion. If it be God who is doing a great work within us and through us, how can it be without a close communion with him? How long since you could say, "My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies?" How long is it since "he brought you into his banqueting house, and his banner over you was love?" Perhaps some of you will be able to say, "It was but this morning that I saw him; I beheld his face with joy, and was ravished with his countenance."

If you can’t say those things expressed by Solomon’s bride to the bridegroom, what have you been doing, then, and what has been your way of life? Have you been groaning every day? Have you been longing for it? Have you been weeping every minute? "No!" Then you ought to have been. How can live without the sunlight of Christ, and be content.

How is it that God lives in you by His Spirit, but you have not talked to him for a month. I mean really talked to him. You might be saying, “I need no revival in my heart, I am everything that I wish to be.” You, dear friend, are the one who needs revival the most. Brethren, let me not condemn you, let me not even judge you, but let your conscience speak. Mine shall, and so shall yours.

Great is the difference between those who know they need a revival, and those who want one. Do we want it enough to come to Bible studies, both Sunday Services, pray every day, get a discipleship partner, or start serving in the kingdom? These are but the tools that God has for you, for they must strike upon a soft malleable heart.
"Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and his Word?
"What peaceful hours I then enjoy'd!
How sweet their memory still!
But now I find an aching void
The world can never fill."

Oh how it used to be. Where are the miracles? Oh how a sermon would change me; oh how the songs would life me up, but now the messages are dry and my spirit no longer sings. Shall I blame the preacher or the musician, or can it be that I am lacking in my communion with the Lord.

I will not longer labor the point, but simply ask you, if your love and faith in Him is not what it ought to be, do you groan over it? And if this be the case, you must turn your groaning into prayer.

Christian brethren, I leave these matters with you. Give them the attention they deserve. If I have erred, and judged you too harshly, God shall forgive me, for I have meant it honestly. But if I have spoken truly, lay it to your hearts.

And now I come to the second part of the subject: He will do it again amongst His people. The church itself, taken as a body, this prayer ought to be monolithic in the litany of Hababbuk: "O Lord, revive thy work! Do it again amongst your people."

Accordingly, we must stand on sound doctrine. Paul warns the evangelist “be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following” (1 Tim 4:6). Then, in his next letter, he fortells, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (2 Tim 4:3). Friends, the “they” of which he speaks are those in the church. This is all too true today.

Brethren, we must be the people of the book and who live by the book. We have to love the Word of God. Love it when it encourages you and love it when it corrects and rebukes you. You have to love it even if no one else does; even if they scoff and mock you for it. Jesus said, “If you are ashamed of me and my Words, I will be ashamed of you on the day of Judgment. You have to love it enough to read. You have to love it enough to obey it in your daily life. “Don’t be merely hearers of the Word, do what it says” (James 1:22). Our “amens” must turn into action. We must stand firm on all of it because God rules the world through his Word.

I am impressed by the Magna Carta and the US Constitution for their brilliance and foresight, but in the end these are only the products of men. I might fight the perserve the Constitution, but I will not waiver or give up a single word of a single verse of Scripture, because it is the very bread of life. We cannot expect God to work powerfully among as he did among the people of old if we will not all stand firmly upon His Word!

Also the body of Christ must grow in vitality. Vitality is life. A Muslim convert to Christianity was asked why, “If you were at a fork in the road and had two men pointing the way, whose directions would you follow, the dead man or the alive one? Life is a central theme in Christianity. “I came to give life and life abundantly.”

Perhaps God has done many great things through us, but as in all churches who do not hold guard, there is a danger of merely drifting along. Four times the church is warned thusly “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Gal 6:9).

We cannot lose heart. We must wake up, press on, work hard, pray hard together. The first church was a working machine… a team fighting the spiritual battles, sharing the gospel, fellowshipping daily…A live and vibrant body of Christ.

If we want God to give us the success he gave them, we must be that congregation. We cannot give God those victories if we grow wear. We cannot do it with half of the team on the sidelines. We must come together and fight together or Satan is going to continue to win in our community and continue to claim our loved ones to an eternal Hell. Satan is going to continue to rule our children’s schools, and our governments, and our neighborhood businesses. The first church was alive and active and they turned the world upside down for Christ.

Finally, the church must demonstrate commitment. How apropriate that we should talk about commitment at the dawn of the New Year. 75% of New Years Resolutions fail to last. God is not expecting mere sentiment.
God will not work His mighty power among a people who have no commitment. Consider the adjectives that describe the early Church: commitment, dedication, steadfastness, and continual devotion. Imagine what your life would be like if you lived in the first century church? What would it be like to be a part of the early church. What would be the normal commitment level found there? Now compare your current level and ask, why is it different?

We live in a world who thinks that being part of the church is optional and an elect that has relegated their religion to a weekend hour that is barely tolerable for them. How can God work among a people with such lack of commitment? I am calling the church to a commitment to God that will affect every aspect of her existence; that you will be the church and not just go to one.

Lord, do it again in 2010.

Revive us. Help us to be that fertile soil so you can once again display your mighty works, that we might take back our families and communities for you. If our heart is hard, break it. If our tongue is frozen, loosen it. If our mind be in bondage, free it. Let us hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let us hunger for your Word. Let us be filled with the Spirit. Let us be steadfast in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, Lord’s Supper, prayer and stewardship.

Lord, do it again! Let us reach hundreds of people and even thousands with the Gospel message. Let us be a city on a hill. A beacon of light and truth and love and hope. Lord, do it again, do it again!

Give us power, like you gave David over Goliath.
Give us victory, like you gave Gideon over the Midianites.
Give us strength like the mighty Samson.
Give us separation from our enemies like you gave Moses.
Give us the effect on this generation that you worked among the early church over theirs.

Renew them in our day, in our time make them known!