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Sunday, May 3
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  • Gloria Patri
  • Doxology
  • What is revival?
    Revival is the process of bringing something back to life, restoring its vitality or usefulness. For example, after a medical emergency like a heart attack, we can revive a person by helping them breathe again or maybe going as far is performing CPR. Similarly, we might revive a neglected garden or yard by nurturing it back to health, and even everyday objects—like an old fan—can be revived to work once more.
    Whether it's a person, a garden, or an old object, revival means restoring life or purpose. Some people enjoy collecting old, unused things and working on them to revive their usefulness.
    This idea also applies in a spiritual context, especially within churches.
    When we talk about revival in a church setting, many think of events like traveling revivals, tent meetings, or special weeks when an evangelist visits and congregations gather nightly to seek renewal. During church revivals, congregations come together for special services focused on spiritual renewal. These events often feature passionate preaching, prayer, and worship, aiming to inspire individuals and the congregation as a whole.
    Historically, there have been many significant revivals, such as the Reformation, the Puritan era, the Evangelical Revival in England, and the First and Second Great Awakenings in the United States.
    Revivals are a work of God in which individuals and communities participate. They take place in a corporate environment but involve the spiritual revival of individuals. Revivals don’t happen in isolation; God works on the individual level, but the process unfolds within the community, creating a shared experience of renewed spiritual vitality.

    1. Revival Begins with the Heart

    How does a revival start in our lives?
    It starts when God awakens us from spiritual slumber and brings new life to our hearts. This process, often called “quickening,” refers to God stirring us inside so that we become more aware of His presence and purpose, and live with renewed energy and faith.
    We don’t often use the word “quickening” in daily conversation unless we’re talking about speed, but in a spiritual sense, it’s about being made alive. The Apostles Creed uses the term “the quick and the dead,” meaning the living and the dead. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget we’re truly alive in Christ, and sometimes people act alive but haven’t experienced this real revival.
    “Quickening” means God awakens our spiritual life, making us sensitive to His movement and transforming our hearts.
    According to the New Dictionary of Theology, revival is God’s special visit to His people, touching hearts and deepening His work of grace.
    It’s more than just feeling better—it’s a profound change that helps us live with greater purpose and passion.
    Years ago, I noticed my motorcycle engine wasn’t running right. It made a clicking noise, and the Harley mechanic discovered the crankshaft bearing was going bad. The engine worked, but not as it was meant to. If left alone, it would have failed. The mechanic didn’t just fix the bearing; he rebuilt the engine with new parts and gave it his special touch. When I got my bike back, it didn’t just work—it ran better than ever. Just as the mechanic restored my bike’s engine to run better than before, God’s revival renews our hearts so we can live more fully for Him, not just function but thrive spiritually.
    The engine is the heart of the motorcycle. Without it, the bike is just a piece of art. In the same way, if our spiritual “engine”—our heart—hasn’t been awakened and renewed, we might look good on the outside but lack true life inside. God’s quickening work of grace means we start to run better spiritually, living out our faith with energy, joy, and purpose.
    Revival is not just about fixing what is broken; it is about experiencing a deeper transformation that empowers us to live with purpose and passion. Let us seek God’s quickening work in our lives today, so we may truly thrive and reflect His love to the world.
    This happens because;
    Isaiah 57:15 CSB
    15 For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: “I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.
    God not only sits on His throne as the sovereign King over all, He also resides with the lowly, the oppressed. And living with them, He knows and sees what is needed and gives to them.
    Could you imagine a surgeon sitting in an office, watching a computer screen and then directing the arms of a robot so that from a few thousand miles away, he does a heart transplant or brain surgery? There are other Drs and nurses in the operating room but the one doing the surgery was in another country.
    Would you feel comfortable if you were the one having the surgery?
    Our God’s throne is in a place we cannot see right now. He is the Exalted and sovereign King. But He is also right beside us, inside us as He cleanses our hearts and prepares us for revival.

    2. Revival Requires Repentance

    Spiritual growth isn’t something that happens to us passively—we are active participants in the process. While God may quickens or stirs our hearts, we also have a responsibility to respond. Two key concepts in this journey are revival and repentance. Revival is a renewed spiritual awakening, marked by a deeper sense of God’s presence and a fresh commitment to faith. Repentance, on the other hand, means sincerely turning away from sin and seeking forgiveness, allowing us to restore our relationship with God and others.
    Many people desire the positive feelings and improvements that come with spiritual revival. They hope for a more vibrant life, greater joy, and stronger connections. However, there’s an important truth: real, lasting revival cannot happen without genuine repentance. Facing our mistakes and making a sincere effort to change can be uncomfortable, which is why some resist entering into revival fully.
    Let me use this illustration about revival. A woman once described attending a revival service, where the energy and hope in the room were palpable. At first, she was swept up in the excitement, feeling spiritually refreshed. Yet, as she spent time in prayer, she sensed God’s presence shining a light into parts of her life she’d tried to ignore—old grudges, hidden shame, and unresolved hurts. That spiritual awakening didn’t just make her feel better; it prompted her to confront those issues, leading her to confess, ask for forgiveness, and make amends. The result was a genuine transformation—she experienced newfound peace and freedom.
    When revival occurs, God reveals Himself to us in a powerful way. His presence doesn’t just energize us—it exposes things we’ve kept hidden. As His light shines into our lives, our shortcomings become more apparent, much like a flashlight revealing dust in the corners of a room. It’s in these moments that the need for repentance becomes unmistakable. The guilt and discomfort we feel are signals that change is necessary, and the only way forward is to acknowledge our sins and seek forgiveness.
    One issue we can encounter during confession is we just lump everything we feel bad about into one statement, God forgive me for my sins, or something similar to that. But forgiveness requires a bit more. To really repent from our sins, we must acknowledge our sins and that is more than simply feeling bad. It is a true acknowledgement that we have sinned.
    In the book Saved By Grace the author gives this concept of repentance:
    Saved by Grace The Concept of Repentance

    Repentance may be defined as the conscious turning of the regenerate person away from sin and toward God in a complete change of living, which reveals itself in a new way of thinking, feeling, and willing.

    The issue becomes that we have to recognize what sin we have actually done, we must admit to God it is a sin and then ask forgiveness for that sin. And in order to really repent, we must acknowledge the sin and not just feel bad about being caught. It isn’t asking God to get you out of the consequences of a sin it is acknowledging that we have sinned against God Almighty and because of that sin we must seek forgiveness.
    This is what David was feeling when he wrote Psalm 51.
    Psalm 51:10–12 CSB
    10 God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore the joy of your salvation to me, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.
    David cried for a clean heart to be created in him. Jesus went to the cross just so that can be possible. It is possible now because Jesus has paid the totality of your sin. It has been paid and forgiveness is there. Repent and ask for God forgiveness.

    3. Revival Demands Drawing Near

    Once we have repented and turned toward God again, we can then draw nearer to Him.
    Repentance opens our hearts to God's mercy, and experiencing forgiveness inspires us to seek a deeper relationship with Him. As a matter of fact, once we feel that forgiveness, that is precisely what we want to do—draw closer to God. Each step is connected: repentance leads us to God's grace, and that grace motivates us to pursue Him more intimately.
    James puts it like this in
    James 4:8–10 CSB
    8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
    I think a reason that repentance and confession are so vital to drawing closer to God is that when we recognize our sin, when we confess it to God we start to better understand our dependence on God.
    Have you considered that without God’s actions in our lives, without God the Son going to the cross, every single one of us would go to hell. I don’t mean this as a scare tactic. What I want you to understand is that God really shows His grace and mercy to those He calls in such a way that we should always live humbly knowing the grace God has shown us.
    But I want you to also remember what this passage is promising us. If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.
    If we truly repent, if we wash our hands, clean our heart, which means to confess all before God, then we can draw close to Him but He wil already be drawing close to us.

    4. Revival Leads to Refreshing

    Revival leads to refreshing.
    When we cleanse ourselves, when we confess our sins, seek God’s forgiveness of those sins, we will always draw closer to God and when that happens it brings in a new freshness that we haven’t experienced.
    Have you ever started to come inside after being outside doing some work or maybe even playing. You open the door and before that first foot can hit the floor … You better not come in here with those dirty shoes. …. You take the shoes off and come in. Going to the kitchen you want to get a glass and get some iced tea … Don’t you dare go into my kitchen and get it dirty with those hands and clothes … so you wash your hands and are careful.
    You walk into the living room and you get that look, the one that does not even need to say the words because you know that look. So you put your tea down, go to the bathroom, get out of your dirty clothes and take a shower.
    Now you come back into the living room, clean, refreshed and able to sit down in your favorite seat and sip on your tea. Once you get to the stage, the best way to describe it … about all you can say it, this is refreshing.
    It doesn’t matter what you were doing outside, the way you feel now is so much better.
    Yet at church, we want to sometimes just wash our hands, take off our dirty shoes and think we can sit and enjoy a time of refreshing. But God wants us to repent, to cleanse our hearts and minds of the sins that stain us and keep our clothes dirty. It is those times that we really come to Him in repentance and brokenness that we can really feel Him with us.
    Luke wrote this from Peter’s sermon in Acts:
    Acts 3:19–20 CSB
    19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.
    While we have looked at the points on an individualistic level, I have addressed this as each individual’s responsibility, it goes beyond the individual. We each must do these steps, we should be doing these steps daily but we each must do them.
    However, along with the individual acts of repentance, God also expects us as a church, as a community and family to do these things.
    Repentance is an individual act that will grow into a community act if we all spend time confessing and repenting. Peter thought it was so important that he expressed it with two acts.
    The first one is to repent. Agree with God what your sin was and then turn your back on that sin. Turn away from it. But it is also important in which direction you turn.
    Peter said we must repent and turn back to God. IT takes both of these steps to truly repent. Whatever you have done, or whatever you have not done, turn away from it and turn back to God.
    R. A. Torrey said this:
    I can give a prescription that will bring revival … revival to any church, or community, or any city on earth. First: Let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God. If this is not done, the rest will come to nothing. Second: Let them bind themselves together to pray for revival until God opens the windows of heaven and comes down. Third: Let them put themselves at the disposal of God for His use as He sees fit in winning others to Christ. That is all. I have given this prescription around the world … and in no instance has it failed. It cannot fail.
    R. A. Torrey
    What about you? Are you ready for a revival in your life? Are you ready to experience even more growth toward God? These four steps give you a path to follow for this to happen. And if we will all commit to following this path, then we will experience this.
    Let’s pray.
    1. Revival Begins with the Heart
    2. Revival Requires Repentance
    3. Revival Demands Drawing Near
    4. Revival Leads to Refreshing

      • Isaiah 57:15CSB

      • Psalm 51:10–12CSB

      • James 4:8–10CSB

      • Acts 3:19–20CSB

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