So much in the church, worldliness in the
church.
Secondly, distorted world view.
Not only devastation in God-consciousness, but a
distorted world view.
Many of our people, and many of us,
really do not see how God really relates
to our society.
We do not even understand Him as a
God of history, as well as a God
of life.
We do not see His patterns, and therefore
we are victims of seeing the world having
to make it only in human solutions.
We do not see God related to what's
happening around us.
And so therefore there's a distorted view of
the world.
The world's got to find its own solutions.
That's what we heard last night, reform.
Because there's a devastation in our minds, we
are thinking like the world thinks.
And then thirdly about that, we've had, can
I say, the effect of the world is
that it has destroyed our biblical self-image.
Where are the Christians who revel in the
fact that we are sons of glory?
We don't see ourselves as people with royal
blood in our veins, and we don't revel
in that.
We've been so brought down to a human
level of the world's thinking that we merely
see ourselves as neighbors to the neighbors next
to us, even though we say that there's
something within us.
But we don't revel in the fact who
we really are in Christ.
And as long as we live like that,
we will never see the moving of God
in our midst.
God has to break through all of that
in a real way.
Well, let me get to this one.
Who then needs revival?
Who needs revival in your church?
Well, you say, I know my wife.
She knows too.
Who needs?
Who needs revival in the church?
I like to suggest there are three levels
of revival needed.
One is what I call the prominence level.
The prominence level that needs revival.
The prominence level.
Those are the church leaders.
The prominent people in the church.
The ones who make the decisions.
And it is tragic to realize that many
of us who say we are doing the
work of God and the work of the
King, do it now with Madison Avenue technique.
All from a human reason perspective.
And we fill our boards with people who
can fill the bill because they've got brains,
they've got clout in town, they've got money,
they're good builders and we've got to go
into a building for them so we put
them on the board.
Every other reason but that which is spiritual.
Remember this.
You can always borrow brains, but you can
never borrow spiritual character.
And you're better off having people who know
nothing but God than have everybody on who
knows everything but God in places of leadership.
And the leaders, the prominent people in the
church need to be revived.
So that we are delivered from the attitudes
of this world culture and the world process
of thinking.
And we begin to live by faith.
And we begin to exercise faith.
And we are made of spiritual vision.
That's why leaders need to be revived.
And can I suggest that in our ministry
primarily, in our revival ministry that God has
given us, we take time with church leaders.
We have special sessions, special seminars for church
leaders.
And on the relationship of the leaders to
the leadership and the principles of spiritual leadership
in the local church.
That's a part of a crusade ministry.
We recognize that unless God does something there,
not much is going to last in the
long range effects in the church.
Then the second level is the preaching level
in the church.
The preaching level.
And all the pastors said?
Amen.
And all the laymen said?
Amen.
The preaching level.
You know, any of us who are stupid
enough to think that we don't need to
be revived are just out of it spiritually.
You might as well forget it now.
You might as well start digging ditches or
doing something else.
And there's nothing wrong with doing that.
Doing those things.
If you think that you're not a candidate
in the ministry as a pastor to constantly
be in need of refreshing oil and a
cleansing of the blood of Christ, you need
to be revived.
If you don't think so, just ask some
of your people.
They'll tell you whether you need it or
not.
And then thirdly, there's the people level.
The congregation.
That has very strong influence in a church.
By their attitudes.
By what the average general people think and
their attitudes.
You need to be revived.
Now, why did I put it that way?
Because here's the problem.
In some places we have seen where the
prominence level, where the leaders recognize the need
for revival, but the pastor didn't.
After all, he's got it put together.
He was taught in seminary how to do
it.
And not belittling what he was taught.
And the leaders recognize it.
God has to do something.
But here's a man who's got it all
put together.
And if you just do it my way,
it'll happen.
Then there are problems where a pastor recognizes
the need for revival, and the leaders do
not.
They are so humanistic in their thinking that
they have no conscious awareness of what their
need really is.
So there's that problem.
And then there are times where both of
those two groups recognize the need, but the
average congregation part, the people could care less.
And they just boycott it.
You see?
I'm saying that a revival ministry needs to
relate to all three areas.
And in our ministry, God has allowed us
to be able to do that.
We have special sessions for pastors and wives
during a crusade.
The public meetings are for the people in
general.
As well as ladies' meetings, men's meetings, youth
meetings, so on that go on the crusade.
And then the special sessions on church leadership.
We believe that God has put us in
a place that in a revival ministry, we
are responsible to seek to minister to all
three levels so that there can be a
revival in all levels in the local church.
Now let's stand for a change of position,
and I want to get to the real
heart of what I believe is the philosophy
of revival.
Let's stand and stretch before some of you
fall asleep.
Touch your toes, or if you can just
reach your stomach.
Whatever you can reach.
Do that.
This is revival.
A brother wants to know if I can
get a copy of that letter.
Would some of you like a copy of
that letter that I read?
Okay, we'll have to see if we can
work on that.
Make it possible.
I just trust that in sharing some of
this, we are basically helping us to get
a frame of reference as to what we're
talking about when we're talking about revival in
the church and in our hearts and lives
specifically.
I think it's absolutely necessary.
Or else we just go shooting off in
the dark, and we're not sure exactly what
we're after.
Along this line, we've been with groups of
people who said, We're praying for revival.
And you know soon and begin to pray
with them.
And guess what they're praying for?
They're praying for all the women of the
street.
They're praying for the crooked politicians.
The mayor needs it.
And this one, that one, that one.
And they're just calling God.
And Washington needs it.
And Ottawa needs it.
And everybody, and their neighbors need it.
And everybody needs it.
And whenever I get in a prayer meeting
like that, I try to stop it as
quickly as possible.
Say, Brethren, folks, we have missed the mark.
Yeah, I'm going to have to mark which
areas.
You know, that's only part of the letter.
And you see, that's why we need to
make sure we understand what we're talking about.
That it's me, O Lord.
Not good English, but good theology.
It's me, O Lord.
Not my brother and my sister.
Not the deacons in the church.
Not the elders.
Not some of those that I'm monitoring now.
By the way, I think it's a good
time to say, that in one pastor's conference,
one pastor came with the idea that he
was going to get some new ammunition to
go home and straighten out his board.
Why?
Because they had just asked him to resign.
And he was going to come to a
conference like this, and he was going to
get some real ammunition to go home and
really straighten them out.
Well, you know what happened.
Of course you know what happened.
God broke his heart.
He saw himself.
And he went back, alright, straighten out the
board.
You know what he did?
He went back, and he called for boarding.
He thought, now they're going to get it.
He asked them all for forgiveness.
He said, I want you to know God
showed me what the problem was, and who
the problem really was.
And on he went, and he said, by
the way, I've given my ministry back over
to God.
So now it's not mine, it's His.
And now I'm ready to do whatever God
wants me to do.
And go wherever He wants me to go.
And if He doesn't want me to be
here, that's alright.
I'm not to be here anyhow.
And he just went on and on like
that.
And please forgive me.
And guess what they did?
Those guys got so excited.
They said, wait a minute, we better reconsider
this matter.
We may not get another one like it.
That's exactly what happened.
God broke their hearts.
And they saw that they now had a
man who was ready to let God be
God in his life.
And he stayed on for several more years
and had a tremendous ministry.
And then God moved him on in peace.
And he saw what it really was all
about.
And I'm really saying that if we think
that we've got to begin to pray about
everybody else, for revival, we're too far.
It's right where it has to begin.
Right here.
Getting back to the cross.
To the sovereign arms.
Alright, brother.
You've been here, you've been sitting here.
Hold on, here.
Will you pass those out?
Now, what I would like to share at
this point is, what are the ministry objectives?
What are the ministry objectives?
Can I say, what are the objectives of
a revival ministry?
What are the objectives of a revival ministry?
And you can fill them in on the
sheet.
The sheet that I'm just giving you.
You can fill them in.
People say, what are the objectives of a
revival ministry?
Before we do it, let me just suggest
that here's how this came about.
We were in a pastor's meeting, wives in
Ontario.
And a pastor stood up and he said
to me, he asked a question.
He said, Ralph, I want to know.
Is it necessary to have a revival oriented
team in your church in order to have
a revival?
He said, we hear this thing about transporting
revival.
Is there such a thing as transporting a
revival?
No, there's a certain team or certain group
of people come and they can transport revival
wherever they go.
And I said to him, brother, I don't
believe that's true.
I believe that God could send a revival
without a specific revival team, per se.
And I said to him that my brother
keeps saying that we are still waiting for
the day where we have a revival crusade
scheduled.
Hoping to get a call or a letter
from a pastor saying, please do not come.
We don't need you.
God has already sent the revival and you're
out of business.
That kind of a letter has not yet
arrived.
But that would be exciting.
That would be exciting.
But, I stood up in front of those
men and I shared something I had never
shared before.
And after I had finished, Pastor Bill Lang
from Calgary, Alberta, one of the godly men
who works with us in this ministry, pastor
of one church for 41 years, so you
know he must have had something put together,
a tremendous man of God who is often
a speaker in our conferences.
He said to me, Ralph, you know you
ought to say that more often.
He said, that's exactly the way it is.
I said to those men, I believe that
any man in the ministry who will get
some clear objectives as to what God's plan
really is, could see a revival without a
revival ministry per se.
And I said, I believe that there are
five operations or five objectives to a revival
ministry.
And I suggested that the first one would
be operation cleansing.
Operation cleansing.
Where God cleanses our hearts first.
It's the operation that must take place for
God to cleanse our hearts first.
And that is what I call the inward
direction of revival.
Where God cleanses us, where he purges us
inwardly, he cleanses us.
That's the inward direction of revival.
Cleanses us.
And then, when that takes place, then there
needs to be operation restoration and fellowship.
And that's the sideward direction of revival.
Restoration and fellowship.
So many of us are out of right
relationship with each other.
We need to be restored into fellowship with
each other.
Sideward direction.
Now, I like that, because you see, that
shows to me, those two things show me
across, don't they?
If I say operation cleansing means I need
to be right with God, so therefore, in
essence, it's upward toward God, isn't it?
It's the inward work, but it's toward God
this way.
And if I say it's operation restoration and
fellowship, that's sideward this way, isn't it?
That's a relationship between me and you.
This way.
Now, look what that does.
It makes a cross.
One way between me and God, one way
between me and my fellow man.
And so I like to say it this
way.
You cannot say that you are right with
God this way and be wrong with your
fellow man this way.
That makes an X.
An X basically is something kind of crossed
out, as it were.
X.
The truth is that I cannot say I'm
right with God and be wrong with my
brother.
If the work of cleansing is right in
my life, it will always lead me to
restoration and fellowship with my fellow believer.
And if I say that I am right
with God, but I can't be reconciled to
a brother, and I'm not willing to be
reconciled to my brother, then the work of
that forgiveness is not correct.
It must be complete.
By restoration and fellowship.
Then, the third operation is intercession.
Intercession.
Operation intercession.
Now I'm on praying terms with God.
You see, before I was on spanking terms
with God, now I'm on speaking terms with
Him.
When I wasn't willing to deal honestly with
my sin for cleansing, I was on spanking
terms with God.
God, I'd keep on spanking.
I was out of a relationship with my
fellow man.
God, I'd keep spanking.
But now that that's all clear between me
and God, between me and my fellow man,
now I can go to prayer meeting.
Now I can intercede.
Now I don't have to have the problem.
You see, that's the upward direction of revival,
where now I can really believe God for
answers to prayer.
Do you know why many of our people
do not come to prayer meeting?
Do you know why there are only 12
in that church?
Because most of the rest of the folks
know that it would be a waste of
time if they went.
You say, what?
Sure.
Many of them are not willing to be
honest about their sins.
So why waste time and go to prayer
meeting and call on God to answer my
prayer when I know that He's not going
to answer because I'm not willing to be
honest about my sin and get right with
Him.
And that's what Psalm 66, 18 says.
Isn't that in your Bible?
And the truth is that some of the
people in our churches know it's in our
Bible and some of us keep on begging
people to come to prayer meeting and begging
them to come to prayer meeting and wonder
why they don't come.
And if they were to talk back, they'd
say, Pastor, don't you read Psalm 66, 18?
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me.
And I know there's sin in my heart,
so why should I even pray because the
Lord's not going to hear me?
I'm not honest about it.
And you can stand on your head and
stack BBs with boxing gloves on and try
to entice people to come to prayer meeting
and do all the exciting things you want.
That would be all short-lived.
If we don't do it God's way, they
don't come God's way because they know they're
not on praying ground with God.
Simple as it is.
That's why we need to be revived.
Now, when that happens, look at the next
operation.
Follow through.
Now, what happens?
Now, people become concerned about others.
And I'm going to illustrate this in a
minute.
Now, there's the onward direction of revival, where
now I get involved with other people around
me.
I'm moving on from the place of cleansing
and restoration and intercession, but now I'm moving
on.
Can I put it this way?
Maybe I should illustrate it right here.
No, no, I'll come back to it.
Alright?
Then from there.
You see, now we can pray out of
a pure heart.
Then from there.
Operation outreach.
We'll get it down and then I'll discuss
it.
Operation outreach.
There is the outward direction of revival.
There's the outward direction of revival.
To others.
Outward direction.
Okay?
Now, if you can put all five of
those so we can see them all.
There it is.
That's it.
Now look at that.
When you take a look at that, which
one of those five does the average evangelical
church strive to have the most, or strive
or work after the most?
Which is the one they go for?
Which one?
Number five.
That's what we go after.
Number five.
And isn't it interesting that what we go
after first is what I believe God puts
last.
Now I'm not suggesting that evangelism is last
in the mind of God.
I'm talking about the way it happens.
And we want to illustrate that in just
a moment.
But look at this.
Look at what happens.
We go this way.
We say if we want outreach we've got
to win our community.
That's why we're here, to win our community.
So you know what you do?
You send your pastor and three deacons or
elders to one or two or three places.
Either to Florida, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
James Kennedy.
Find out how to do that kind of
evangelism.
Or we might go to Jack Kyle's school
in Indiana.
Or we might go to a place in
California.
Or one or two other places like that.
And we find out how to do it.
We pay the money to send our pastor
and a few men down.
And they're all excited.
And they come back because they're going to
tell us about this program that's going to
win our community.
They saw it happen down there.
So we have a banquet.
Everybody come here.
We're going to hear this story.
We have spaghetti and meatballs.
It's the best thing to get people there.
And a hundred people show up.
And they hear this wonderful story.
And everybody is excited about what they heard.
About how this church was winning people in
the Lord's community.
But at the end of that banquet, the
pastor announces, now folks, next Friday night, we're
going to start the program.
And we're looking for all of you to
be here.
So that we can get started.
And next Friday night, we're not going to
have spaghetti and meatballs.
We're just going to have coffee and donuts.
And then we're going to get involved.
Start studying and get involved.
Guess how many people show up.
How many?
Twelve?
No, I'll say fifty.
I'm generous.
Fifty.
And the next week, guess what?
We're not going to have donuts, just coffee.
Guess how many show up?
Twenty-five.
And the next week, guess what?
Somebody heard that the coffee didn't taste right.
It tasted as if it had dirt in
it the week before.
It was just ground that morning.
But for whatever reason, somebody forgot the coffee
pot.
Next week.
Guess how many show up?
Twelve and a half.
And if I'd be objectively honest in most
cases, give you about six to eight to
ten to twelve weeks, and guess how many
people show up?
The pastor and the two deacons that went
down there with him.
And maybe one other.
Anything wrong with the program?
Not at all.
Nothing wrong with the program.
It works down there.
Works.
What's the problem?
The problem is that we are backwards.
We are trying to start at the end
result.
There's not the spiritual motivation among our people
to do that.
Now, if you'll cover over the bottom one,
and come up to the next one.
So you know what somebody says?
Well, that didn't work.
No, that's it.
Somebody says that didn't work.
Now you know what we need to do.
The trouble is, we've got too many fringe
people in our church.
You know we've got people who just come
Sunday mornings and they don't come back to
anything else.
Why don't we go after them?
See that follow-through, the onward direction?
Let's go after some of the people in
our church.
If we can just get ahold of them,
maybe that will help us.
Well, who's going to go after them?
If you can't get people to be involved
in the outreach to people they don't know,
what success do you think you're going to
have with getting them to go after people
they know?
After all, they've banged heads against some of
those people for years.
They've got all kinds of problems.
No, count me out.
I'll never go to that fellow again.
He's giving me a hard time every...
You know what I'm suggesting?
You're not going to find the motivation there
for people to be concerned for others in
the church.
Then, when you don't find that, move it
up again to the next one.
Then is the time for the pastor to
stand up and scold all his people for
not coming to prayer meeting.
Now's the time.
How do you ever expect God to bless
us when we have 300 people who come
on Sunday morning and only 20 people who
come to prayer meeting?
How do you ever expect God...
And he rails on the congregation.
After all, we've got to pray for God
to bless.
And that doesn't do much good because of
what I've said.
These people know that they're not on praying
terms with God.
So, that doesn't work.
And so, somebody says, well, maybe our problem
is that we don't know each other well
enough.
We need more fellowship.
We need to get together.
Maybe if we get to understand each other
well enough, we'll have a great time that
way.
So, let's have more fellowship gathering.
So, you know what you do?
You put little numbers in the plate.
And everybody takes one of these little slips
out of the offering plate.
Everybody with number 1 go to Mr. James'
home tonight for fellowship.
Everybody with number 2 go to Mr. Johnson's
home.
Everybody with number 3 go to Mr. James'
home.
You know what it is?
So, we can spread it around.
So, everybody goes to everybody.
So, we get to know each other.
Wow!
How do you do that?
One man picks up a number 1 out
of the plate.
And that says, go to Mr. James' home.
And he and Mr. James don't get along.
But here is a good faithful church man.
So, he says to his children on the
way, he said, children, you know, we're going
to Mr. James' home tonight.
We picked up number 1 and we're good
church people.
So, we have to go to Mr. James'
home for fellowship tonight.
And the children, you know what we think
of the James' don't you, children?
And the children say, yes, dad, we've had
roast James' many times for Sunday dinner.
Well, children, you know that's the key.
If we've got to go because that's where
we're assigned to go, then you know when
we get there, you know where we sit,
don't you?
Yes, dad, as far away from any James'
we can be.
Isn't that a beautiful way to have fellowship?
A mutual admiration society.
And if we would be honest and objective
about it, much of the fellowship in many
of our churches is nothing more than that
where you are trying to bring together people
to fellowship who have all kinds of bitternesses
and problems and resentments against each other and
say, let's have fellowship.
No wonder it doesn't work.
They're all suspicious of each other.
Some are suspicious of each other.
No wonder it doesn't work.
By the way, do you know there's a
difference between Christian fellowship and fellowship with Christians?
All you're really doing then is having fellowship
with Christians.
That means Christians who pride themselves, I don't
smoke and drink and chew and run around
with those that do.
I pick my crowd a little better.
I go to a Christian group.
But when you get there, there's nothing spiritual
much going on.
That's not Christian fellowship.
That's just fellowship with Christians.
But how can you have Christian fellowship in
the true sense when there are all kinds
of things like that in the church that
have not been dealt with?
You see, in order to have genuine fellowship,
Mr. Jones and Mr. James need to be
restored into fellowship.
But how can they be restored?
Only by meeting God at the cross.
Cleansing.
God has to cleanse my heart.
Deliver me from that bitter spirit.
I deal with it as sin.
You see how backwards we are?
We go for every other program but what
God says is first.
If we confess our sins.
If my people, which are called by my
name, shall humble themselves to the Lord.
That's how backwards we are.
And when that happens, take it down.
There.
Just take your sheet off.
That's it.
Now look at that.
You start in.
When I start at the cross, it leads
me to my brother.
And when I'm in a right relationship with
my brother in fellowship, guess what?
When I now can hug my brother and
say, Brother, forgive me.
I love you.
God has forgiven me.
Please forgive me.
Guess what?
Now we can have coffee together.
Before, I'm not so sure, you might put
poison in it.
Maybe not that bad.
You see, now we can have genuine fellowship.
And when we begin to fellowship like that
because we're in a right relationship with God
and with each other, then we say, Hey,
let's go to prayer meeting.
Now we're ready to go to prayer meeting.
And guess what?
When we go to prayer meeting, God begins
to burden us, number four, for another family
in the church, a man in the church,
or one of the friends people in the
church.
Now we can pray believing.
We band together and believe.
And we get up off our knees and
we say, God, we're going to be the
ones you're going to use.
And we get up and go after that
one.
God begins to burden us for people in
the church.
And we band together.
We commit ourselves to believe in God for
that brother in the church.
And could I say it this way?
I believe that any individual that will have
the first four objectives and operations in order
in his personal life, it's only a matter
of time and watch how God breaks his
heart for the world.
Watch how he begins to have the love
of Christ pouring out of him to a
lost and dying world.
Watch how evangelism begins to take place.
How witnessing begins to be spontaneous.
The overflow.
Do you know what witnessing is?
Witnessing is the overflow of the cup into
the saucer.
It's the overflow that blesses the saucer.
And I don't know who it was in
the 70's in western Canada said, you know
most of our witnessing is like trying to
shake a half-filled cup and hoping that
it will overflow.
Causing the cup to do a St. Vitus
dance hoping it will shake enough that some
will spill out.
Half-filled cup.
But he said when the cup is full
and it's still keeping on being poured full
of more of what God is saying it's
just the overflow and it blesses the saucer.
It's the overflow onto the world.
I cannot tell you how many pastors have
shared with us of people who have met
God at a personal level in revival who
all at once God has opened their mouths.
One man who had never witnessed to anybody
in 20 years as a Christian within 2
weeks had witnessed to 20 people and led
6 people to Christ in 2 weeks.
I can tell you of a man who
was the head of the Boys Brigade Club
for a number of years working with the
boys and for the years it was about
6 years he had worked with those boys
had not seen one of them saved had
not genuinely spiritually influenced one of them that
he could really account had been dynamically affected
for God's glory and when God touched that
man in personal revival and he came God's
way and God broke his heart he went
back to those boys those 20 boys and
the very first time he shared with those
boys 6 of them were on their faces
on their knees before God asking God for
salvation and were genuinely born again by God's
Holy Spirit.
Do you know where that barber is now?
He and his family are missionaries in Africa.
God became so grand in his life he
couldn't contain it.
A backslidden barber in church witnessing becomes the
reality the fulfilling of the Great Commission.
People say how does revival affect world evangelism?
Well, I could keep you the rest of
the day on that subject going only to
say in one case in one mission field
one mission station in Africa there were 4
missionaries who were there as a direct result
of the Canadian Revival on one station alone.
In the city of Winnipeg where Bill McLeod
and Pastor Bolt and several others went as
a spillover from the Saskatoon Revival in 1971
in that one city alone where Bill McLeod
was for 4 or 5 weeks in the
month of December November and December right before
Christmas started in again in January they know
of at least 30 people who are now
in full time Christian service around the world
out of that one crusade alone.
Evangelism pouring out of this whole truth.
Now you can take that off and let
me just share with you how scripturally sound
it is.
Turn in your Bibles to Here's
the essence of it.
Look what it says.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of
Zion we were like them that dream.
You know what I'm saying?
Saying when the Lord brings back His people
out of captivity we are we couldn't imagine
what it was like.
The freedom was so beautiful.
We were like them that dream.
We couldn't imagine how bound we really were.
When the Lord turns again the captivity of
His people.
Notice?
It's Zion Zion His people that's where it
starts.
That's where it starts.
Notice verse 2.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter and
our tongue with singing.
Then said they among the heathen the Lord
hath done great things for them.
The Lord hath done great things for us
whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity O Lord as the
streams in the south.
They that sow in tears shall reap in
joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious
seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing
his sheaves with him.
What a song.
Here's the truth.
The truth is that revival.
If you'll just turn that first block.
Here it is.
Revival.
The must be the experience of the church
before evangelism becomes the expression of the church.
That's the truth.
You see?
It was God's people coming out of bondage
first.
That's the first thing that happens in the
south.
Revival must be the experience.
And you see, what is the essence of
revival?
It's freedom.
It's coming out of all of our bondages.
Being set free from all the bondages.
That's the essence of revival.
That's the whole truth in itself.
And it's beautiful to see that in scripture.
Coming out of bondage.
So, when that happens it's so beautiful to
be free from bondage.
Now, evangelism can be the expression of that
church.
Now, in this psalm look at verse 2.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter and
our tongues full of singing.
Notice the joy?
The joy?
The spontaneity?
It's not a forced march?
Notice the overflow?
Set free from bondage.
And then said they to the oh, now
the heathen are going to hear.
Oh, now they're going to do what the
pastor wants them to do every Sunday.
Every Sunday he tells them to witness to
your neighbors.
Get out after the loss.
The world around you.
Look at it here.
Then said they among the heathen, the Lord
has done great things for you heathen.
Notice the spontaneity of telling it.
And the heathen turned back and said, how
do you know the Lord has done great
things for us?
And the answer is verse 3.
Because the Lord has done great things for
us.
Whereof we are glad.
See that?
There's the personal testimony of being set free
from bondage.
And if the Lord could do it for
us, He can do it for you heathen.
You see, that's the testimony.
That's the evangelism.
That's the overflow.
Some of us are so quick to give
the false spiritual laws.
But what about the Scripture where Jesus turned
back to the man who was healed and
delivered and the Lord said to him, go
back to thy brethren and tell them, go
to thy home, go back to thy brethren
and tell them what great compassion I've had
on thee.
And what great things I've done for thee.
You see, it flows out of the personal
testimony.
And here when there's a genuine reviving in
our spirits, there's such an overflow.
We've got to go to the neighbor.
Oh neighbor, I want you to know that
God has done something real in my life.
I've been a Christian for years, but something
new has happened to me and I've just
got to tell it to you.
That'd be one of the greatest testimonies to
a neighbor.
Because he thought, you thought you were perfect.
The average unsaved person thinks that we think
that we're perfect.
They look on us as those who think
we've arrived.
And for us to be able to go
to people around and say, look God, I
had to break my heart.
All kinds of things had to be dealt
with in my life is the greatest way.
You know what you're saying to your neighbor?
Hey, look neighbor, God can do it for
you too.
And when your neighbor senses that you are
human, and that you have feet of clay,
and that you're open for God to work
in your heart and life, when that person,
that neighbor has a real need, watch how
that becomes an opening because he senses that
you're no better than he is apart from
the grace of God.
And there's the witness.
The spontaneity of being set free.
Now we have something to say to the
heathen.
Now, if we take a look at that
psalm, we see something here.
Go to that next one, look here.
You see verses 1 to 3 is a
picture of being revived.
It's coming out of bondage, the joy of
the Lord, it's having something to say to
the heathen out of our own personal testimony.
That's a picture of being revived.
It's a picture of being revived.
It's what I call a review of revival.
A review of revival.
It's a review of revival.
You see where the bondage is released.
The bondage is released.
Verses 1 to 3.
Then, look at the next.
Verse 5, look at verse 5.
You want to write that down?
There's the price for being revived.
The price for being revived.
The price.
Here it is.
They that sow in tears shall reap in
joy.
There's the price.
Verses 1 to 3 is the picture.
Verse 5 is the price.
And if you like the bees, it's brokenness
revealed.
In other words, the price is sowing in
tears.
There's brokenness.
Brokenness.
It's revealed.
If you like the hours, verses 1 to
3 is the review of revival.
Verse 5 is the reason for the revival.
Sowing in tears.
There's the dealing with pride and self and
God breaking your hearts.
Sowing in tears.
Reason.
And let me pause long enough to say
that often we put verse 5 and verse
6 together as we preach it in the
Scripture.
Generally, we preach they that sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and reapeth.
And we put it all together.
Personally, I see it separated.
I see a period after they that sow
in tears shall reap in joy.
There's a period and it's a thought all
by itself.
Now, I'm sure it does relate.
But I see something very real.
I'm seeing it this way.
I'm seeing it as sowing in the personal
tears of brokenness in order to reap in
joy of freedom.
The joy of freedom in our personal life.
It's the reason for the revival.
It's the reason why God could set his
children free.
It's the reason for it.
Because they sowed in tears brokenness.
And then look at verse 6.
There is the product of being revived.
The product.
The product of being revived.
Or you can say the preciousness of revival.
The preciousness.
Or if you like the B's, it's the
blessing restored.
The blessing restored.
Or if you like the P's or the
R's, it's the result of revival.
The results of revival.
Now, if you just want to put those
all together so you can see how they
all fit, there are three sets of words
there.
P's, B's, and R's.
That all relate.
Now, let me show you.
Let me show you how it fits.
You see?
The sowing in tears.
Oh, can I say it this way?
This psalm is a combination of three sets
of tears and three sets of rejoicings.
Let me say it.
First of all, there is the brokenness or
the tears when they were in bondage.
The tears when God's people were in bondage.
They're all broken up in bondage.
And the first rejoicing is verse 1, we're
like them that dream.
Now we're set free like them that dream.
Now we can rejoice as those set free.
The second tear is in verse 3.
Excuse me, verse 5, verse 5.