“An Everyday Revival!”
Lamentations 3:21-26, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”
We've become so in tuned with believing that Revival is an event that we call it a spring, fall or annual Revival. I want you to know tonight that Revival is more than an event, a true Revival is an experience. What's the difference pastor? I'm glad you asked! An event is something that just happens, but an experience is something that will affect you for the rest of your life. An event may or may not impact your life, but an experience! We have our event Revivals every spring and fall, and I just don't see anything happening! Is it just me! Can you imagine what it would be like if the church would experience Revival? Somebody should be shouting up in here! Can you imagine the fire that would be in our churches if we experienced revival? Can you imagine the love that would be in our churches if we experienced revival? Can you imagine the peace that would be in our churches if we experienced revival? Can you imagine the joy that would be in our churches if we experienced revival? Can you imagine the power that would be in our churches if we experienced revival? Can I say it Mount Obed, I'm sick and tired of church as usual with Year after year of event revivals when no one experiences something happening in here! Are you ready for some unusual experiences in your life that brings on true Revival? I can't wait until next spring, next fall, or next year! You must not be going through the hell I’m going through! I need to experience Revival every day! In the morning, at noonday, in the evening, and at night I need Revival!
Today, I would like to talk to you on the subject, “An Everyday Revival!”
After a hard day of work or strife in this world, a good night of sleep has the power to revive you from all of your worries. The Bible says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” So, whatever issues you might have laid down with lost night, morning has the potential of being a revival. A good night sleep can turn things around if you know who I know! When you think about it, everyday becomes a revival. When I went to bed I was tired, but woke up rested, wearied, but woke up refreshed, burdened down, but woke up, burdens lifted, I went to sleep, unconscious, near death, but woke up conscious, alive and clothed in my right mind. The miracle of revival happened early without my knowledge of when and how, but by the providence of God, I was awakened in time and not in eternity. You all don’t hear me! Somehow in the midst of my unconsciousness time woke me up. I can’t explain it! I don’t know when! I don’t know how! All I know is that somebody touched me and I woke up, sat up on my bedside, placed my feet on the floor, and what was dead is alive for evermore! I don’t know any other way to put it! Somehow revival happened without me knowing it and now my eyes are opened to see a new day, refreshed, renewed and enthused about the coming day. Is that how you wake up? If not, you really need to experience a daily revival!
As we come to our text we find Ezekiel, the crying prophet, lamenting over the condition of Jerusalem. The prophet relates the more gloomy and discouraging part of his experience, and how he found support and relief. In the time of his trial the Lord had become terrible to him. It was an affliction that was misery itself; for sin makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. The struggle between unbelief and faith is often very severe. But the weakest believer is wrong, if he thinks that his strength and hope are perished from the Lord. I don’t care what you’re going through God has not left you without help or hope. In the midst of what we’re going through God’s mercies are ever present. You might think you’re by yourself, but the song says, “He’s there all the time!” Everyday we’re faced with stuff, and if we’re not careful we’ll lose hope and be defeated by what most folks call everyday life. In this life stuff happens and if I’ve got to wait until next Spring’s or next Fall’s revival, I won’t make. God understands us and provides us with the resource to refresh ourselves for this daily bombardment of stuff. Turn around and tell your neighbor, I can’t wait! I don’t know about you, but one year is too long! I need a fresh anointing of God every time I wake up, walk out that door, get in that car, meet the first driver on the road, get to that job, meet the boss, confront a coworker, get that phone call, or anything else. You just don’t know what’s waiting for you when you open your eyes; I need God every day! I’m like Ezekiel; I need some relief! I need a daily revival so I can handle the stuff!
May Slayton Isaac used sing this song by Mississippi Mass Choir at First Buffalo:
“It's good to know, Jesus
(Everybody oughta know)
It's good to know, Jesus.
He's the Lilly of the Valley
A Bright and Morning Star
It's good to know the Lord.
He's Alpha and Omega
The Beginning and the End
It's good to know the Lord.
It's good to know, Jesus
(Everybody oughta to know)
It's good to know, Jesus.”
Do you remember that song? Ain’t it good to know that God knows all about your trials and will give you something fresh to handle them? Revival is just around the corner if you call on Him! You can have revival daily, right now if you know who to call on!
In our text Ezekiel gives us the secret to how to have revival every day. First of all, just remember what the Lord has already done in your life. Our text says, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” If you’re still in your right mind, it doesn’t take long for you to look back and see from where God has brought you. Bishop Patterson used to say, “When I think about the goodness of Jesus and what He’s done for me, my soul cry out hallelujah, thank God for saving me!” All you have to do is remind yourself! When I was down, He picked me up! When I was lost, He found me! When I was sick, He healed me! When I was about to lose my mind, He brought peace that surpasses all understanding! All of us in here have been there! There’s not one day that goes by that you can’t recall in your mind how God has blessed you! This should give you hope, even in you hour of despair! God has done enough for you to encourage yourself, if other folk don’t! 1 Samuel 30:6 says, “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” All of us been down at one time or another, but there should be enough of God inside of you to encourage your self every now and then. When I think about how good God has been to me, I can have revival all by myself!
Next, Ezekiel says to just think about where would you be if not for the Lord? Our text says, “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” Stuff would have killed you and me, if not for the Lord! Life would have taken you out, if God hadn’t showed up! I know I’m not by myself up in here! Friday night, Lord have mercy! Saturday night, my Lord! You didn’t get home on your own! It was the mercies of God that brought you over those dangerous highways and byways that got you home alive! The Bible says that Legion was clothed, and in his right mind! God has brought me home half naked and out of my mind and I know it won’t nobody but Jesus! Half of this church should be running around this building because you know what God didn’t do! I guess you all missed that! Let me say it again; half of this church should be running around this building because you know what God didn’t do! God could have taken us out because of our sin, but because of the mercies of God we weren’t consumed! Did you note that the writer said, “mercies”? God just didn’t spare us once, but time after time we promised God we wouldn’t, but His compassion never failed to come see about us! I’m talking about me, but I know that all of you know that if it had not been for the Lord on you side where would we be? God’s mercies and compassion revives us everyday!
Next Ezekiel realizes that everyday is a revival. Our text says, “They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” God’s mercies and compassion are new every morning. We went to bed with yesterday’s problems, but woke up revived to see the light of another day. Now, that’s revival! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Old things from yesterday don’t have to wake up with you if you turn them over to Jesus. The apostle Jon writes in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God is faith to renew us from yesterday’s troubles if would confess them to Him. Revival will not come if we fail to confess our faults to Him. Many have not experiences a daily revival because of unconfessed sins. God’s mercies and compassion are new every morning if we would confess our sins. Psalms 32:3 said, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” You can enjoy revival all day, or God’s wrath! Revival depends on you! God says great is His faithfulness to forgive us making revival possible.
Finally, daily revival is available to those that patiently wait on Him. Our text says, “The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.” What amazes me about a portion is everybody got one. You can’t get my portion and I can’t get your portion. God has a reserved portion of His mercies and compassion just for you. I don’t think you all understand the magnitude of that statement. God has reserved for you and me a portion that only and I that we can have hope in our times of need. Tell your neighbor, that’s mine! A portion of daily revival is available for us if we’d learn how to tap into it. It’s never gone anywhere! It’s never missing! It’s always there waiting for us to tune in to seek Him. Everyday there’s a portion! Every morning there’s a portion that has our name on it! Aint that good news! A daily revival demands our patience to always hope in Him to being us a fresh new day, a new beginning to start all over again!
As we close, in the "Book Of Mysteries" by Jonathan Chan, DAY 103 YOM RISHON: THE COSMIC BEGINNING. He came to my room early in the morning to invite me for a walk. So we walked outside. “Why do you think the resurrection took place on Sunday?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Because Sunday,” said the teacher, “was the day everything began . . . Sunday is the day the universe began, the day of creation.” “But there were no Sundays back then.” “It wasn’t called Sunday. But it was Sunday nevertheless. Every Sunday is a commemoration of the beginning, the creation of the universe.” “So the resurrection took place on Sunday because Sunday is the day of the beginning. And all who receive it are given a new beginning for their lives. And why else on Sunday?” he asked. “Because Sunday comes after the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is the last day, the day of the end. So the resurrection happens on Sunday because it’s the power of what happens after the end. It’s what happens after Messiah’s end on the cross. And it’s what happens after the end of the old life. So for all who reach their end, for all who let their old lives end in Messiah’s end, the resurrection is the beginning that comes after that end. Why Sunday? Because Sunday is the commemoration of the cosmic beginning and the resurrection is the cosmic new beginning. Sunday is the day that begins the creation, and the resurrection is the beginning of the new creation, the first fruits. And all who enter it become, themselves, new creations. And to them all things become new . . . And lastly, why Sunday?” he asked. “Because in the Scriptures Sunday is not called Sunday but Yom Rishon. And Yom Rishon means Day One. Messiah rose on Yom Rishon, Day One. Why? Because before Day One there is no other day! So all who receive the resurrection are receiving Day One. And in the power of Day One the old is wiped away. For before Day One . . . there is nothing, no sins, no guilt, no failures, no shame. And so all things become new. Learn the secret of living in the power of Yom Rishon, and all things will become new, and every day will become the first day . . . the beginning . . . Day One.”
Let this Revival be Day One, a new beginning to a new beginning. Every day is new beginning to have a daily Revival to start things over right in your life. Isn't amazing how God gives us a fresh day every day? Old folks say, "A day we've never seen before, revived from yesterday's problems and issues with all of life's possibilities in front of us. Daily, hourly, every minute, every second and every moment is new, a Revival of what was to what it can be! I like what this song by Kenny Eldridge that says:
“A new day
I'm free
Ain't no more chains holding me,
Washed in the blood
I am free
I thank the Lord for saving me.
Victory
I've got it
Victory is what I got.”
Knowing that I’m free to have revival everyday gives me the victory over every area of my life. When that old devil comes against me – I’ve got it! When my problems try to get me down – I’ve got it! When my friends let me down – I’ve got it! I’ve got a new day, revived, made new, never defeated, even when mistreated, old things are passed away, and all things have become new! You can enjoy that same victory in Christ, revived daily, if you call on the name of Jesus! His mercies and compassion are new every day!