Cry for Revival

We are continuing the sermon series “Celebrating the Life that Christ Makes Possible”.

Revival is sense of a special of God’s Spirit that brings with it deep conviction of sin, a state of feeling remorseful, a fresh holiness, and a zeal for God’s Word and God’s glory.  

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (NLT).

We gravitate toward the last part of the verse that talks about restoring our land. But notice that at the beginning of this verse, God says, “If my people . . .” That means you. That means me.

Psalms 80:12‭, ‬14 NKJV Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine 

Scripture Reading

Psalms 80:1‭-‬14 NKJV Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, Stir up Your strength, And come and save us! Restore us, O God; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved! O Lord God of hosts, How long will You be angry Against the prayer of Your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in great measure. You have made us a strife to our neighbors, And our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts; Cause Your face to shine, And we shall be saved! You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You prepared room for it, And caused it to take deep root, And it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, And the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the Sea, And her branches to the River. Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast of the field devours it. Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine

Introduction 

When we look at the breakdown in our culture, we’re quick to point the finger at Hollywood or the politicians in Washington, DC., our states, our cities, or our schools. They may all play a role in it but when God sees the breakdown of a nation, He doesn’t point His finger at the government. He points it at His people, the church.

In our prayer of the week the one we recite every week including today, 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says, “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land” (NLT).

Of course, we gravitate toward the last part of the verse that talks about restoring our land. But notice that at the beginning of this verse, God says, “If my people . . .” That means you. That means me.

According to Scripture, here is the prescription for revival.

“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land”

Psalm 80, which Jean read earlier, contains a cry for revival. 

Revival is a sense of a special move of God’s Spirit.  That move brings with it a deep conviction of sin, a fresh holiness, and a zeal for God’s Word and God’s glory.  Revival is a special movement that may be as short as a few hours or as long as many years, and may result in thousands being renewed, and converted.  Ultimately, revival leads to a kind of a penetration phase, where people are evangelized, and … social evils are confronted,"

In revival, people are captured by Christ in such a way that they'll follow Him. And as a result of that, the church is transformed. The church falls in love with Jesus again."

Let’s look at our text for this week

Psalms 80:12‭, ‬14 NKJV Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine.

Let’s consider three words today that pinpoint the need for revival.

1. Hedges

2. Hope

3. Heart

I. First the word Hedges. 

 A. The purpose of “hedges.” 

In the Bible we find hedges around three things: a nation, a person and a family.

First a nation

Ezekiel 13:5 KJV Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.

Then a person and a family 

Job 1:10 NKJV Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

In the New Testament, Jesus prayed for Peter, in effect, building a hedge of protection around him

Luke 22:31‭-‬32 NKJV And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Jesus also prayed for protection for his disciples.

John 17:11‭, ‬15 NKJV Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 

I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

God’s hedge is his invisible wall of protection that he builds around a nation, a family, a person, a church, or even our possessions when we are obedient to him. 

Second Corinthians 10:4–5 provides a deep understanding of  the kind of protection we, as belivers, have. 

II Corinthians 10:3‭-‬6 NKJV For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

B. But the problem with “hedges is that they can sometimes be torn down.” 

Psalms 80:12-13 NKJV Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit? The boar out of the woods uproots it, And the wild beast of the field devours it.

Somehow the hedge around Israel was demolished, and the nation was ravaged by enemies like wild animals can tear up a field.

Today enemies like “wild animals ” are running rampant throughout the world, the nation, and even our neighborhoods. The United States has been suffering a critical moral crisis for many years. We have been confronted with terrorism, street crime, domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual immorality, and the decay of marriage and the family. 

But there is more. Spiritual illiteracy, apathy, irreverence, greed, pride—all these threaten America. Something has been happening in America. Our hedges are almost completely broken down. 

Who has broken down the hedges? 

Verse 12 of Psalm 80 says that God is the one who did it or allowed this to happen to Isreal. I have often said that God doesn’t do bad or evil things but he will sometimes allow it.  Here are three reasons, in my opinion, why God has allowed holes to be made in the hedge around this nation.  

1. To bring judgment on his people

2. To cause us to become spiritually vigilant

3. To bring us to confession and repentance

1. First reason to bring judgment on his people

Isaiah 5:5 NKJV And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

God does not always shield us from the results of our own sins or the negative effects of the sins of others. Our world is fallen, and we endure its hardships. In every situation, however, God remains in control, and our sufferings have a limit. 

 2. The Second reason is to awaken us to spiritual vigilance.

A vigilant Christian is someone who is fully conscious of the spiritual realities of their life in Christ, and gets the motivation and strength for their life from Christ. They are also conscious of the spiritual dangers from the opposing kingdom of Satan and the world and they actively resist them.

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

This is a spiritual battle and the more we are mindful of that the more vigilant we will be.

The more horizontal our perspective, where we look to people, to government and to things,  rather than a vertical perspective where we look to God, the more vulnerable we become.  To be vigilant in a biblical sense demands that our eyes are open to certain realities and that this spiritual perspective will determine our decisions and actions.

 3. The third reason that God allows our hedge to be torn down is to bring us to confession and repentance.

Genuine repentance is always accompanied by confession of specific sins. The Holy Spirit does not give us vague feelings of guilt. He convicts us of our definite,  specific, shortcomings. All confession should be specific, definite and to the point.  Be specific when you confess sin. 

The purpose of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit is to reveal our need for the saving grace of Christ. 

John 16:5‭-‬11 NKJV “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Confession does not earn God’s forgiveness; it instead enables us to receive His forgiveness. God does not love us more when we repent or love us less when we fail to. His love for us is constant. The only variable is our response to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The truth is that our hearts are hindered from receiving the abundant blessings that God has for us while our spiritual arteries are clogged with the sludge of sin. Sin deadens us to the Spirit’s prompting and makes it harder for us to respond to Him. Repentance and confession open the clogged channels of our spiritual hearts so that we can receive the overflowing of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.

Repentance does not make God love us more; what is does is enables us to appreciate His love more. 

 II. At the beginning I  said there were three words we were going to deal with today, the first word was Hedges the second was Hope. 

I said that our hedge has big gaping holes in it that God has allowed so the question is “Is there any hope that God will rebuild the hedges?” 

The answer is Yes, if we understand the ways that God builds a hedge.

 A. God builds a “hedge” through godly people. 

Job is our example of God building a hedge around a godly person.

Job 1:1 NKJV There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.

Job was not without sin but he was wholeheartedly devoted to pleasing God. He was “upright”; in that, all his relationships were right—with God, with self, and with others. He “feared God,” honored him, and “avoided evil,” and turned away from it. 

God built a hedge around Job that’s why Satan couldn’t harm him until God removed the hedge.

Job 1:10‭-‬12 NKJV Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Then after Satan took his best shot God rebuilt the hedge around this godly man.

Job 42:12‭-‬17 NKJV Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-Happuch. In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.

God rebuilt the hedge around Job.

B. God builds a “hedge” through his Word. 

Ezekiel 13 talks about the word ord of God coming to Ezekiel against the false prophets.  Ezekiel was speaking against the prophets of Israel, who had not kept and maintained the hedge of God’s word. 

Ezekiel 13:1‭-‬3 NKJV And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ ” Thus says the Lord God: “Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!

These false prophets didn’t have the vision the Lord gives to his true prophets. This example from Scripture teaches us that God builds a hedge through the preached world as it is inspired by the Holy Spirit.  As the true and accurate word is preached  God can build a hedge of protection around a person, family, church, city, or nation. 

C. God also builds a “hedge” through prayer. 

Ezekiel 22:30 KJV And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

God builds a hedge when his people engage in intercessory prayer.   When they stand in the gap.

The Lord always works in response to prayer. God builds the hedges of protection when we pray. 

III. Our final word was Heart. 

When the psalmist Asaph, who is credited with writing Psalm 80, realized what was happening to the hedges of protection, he wrote this heart cry for revival:

Psalms 80:14 NKJV Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine

He was saying.

Lord, visit this nation! You have broken down the hedge that guarded our country, but we know you want to bless us again. Turn us to you! 

This is our heart’s cry today.

Lord, visit your church! You created it. You are building it. It belongs to you. It exists for your purpose. Today we cry for revival.   Lord, visit our families! Many are suffering. We need help. Restore the hedge around our families. Visit our homes with revival! Lord, visit our lives! Get our attention. We are being overcome with evil. We have sinned. Protection is gone. Lord, visit our lives!

Conclusion 

On Wednesday, February 8th, 2023, at Asbury University in Wilmore, KY, a handful of students remained in the chapel following a regularly scheduled service. A student decided to openly confess some of his sins to the small group, 'the atmosphere changed', and it became a revival. The revival is significant because of its spread on social media, particularly among Generation Z, which has been described as the most irreligious generation in US history.   Generation or Gen Z is the generation born in the late 1990s or the early 21st century, perceived as being familiar with the use of digital technology, the internet, and social media from an early age.  On February 15, the hashtag "asburyrevival" had over 24 million views on TikTok. By February 18, views blossomed to 63 million.

Responses to the revival have been reported at other university campuses and the revival notably has an ecumenical expression, with Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic groups participating in its spread.

Psalms 80:14 NKJV Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine.

Prayer

Shine on us dear God. Restore our lives and help us to be wise to redeem the time. Thank you that you will never waste our pain and suffering in this life, but that you alone are able to turn it around for good. Thank you that nothing is impossible with you. Your same power that broke prison chains, raised the dead, healed the sick, and parted the seas — your same amazing power is still at work today. Thank you for your reminders that you are always with us, helping us, and that you haven’t lost control, even when things feel uncertain around us. All your plans and purposes will prevail, for you alone are mighty! We believe and trust you to do extraordinary miracles in our lives — in our land — in our world.  We need you now more than ever before. Our times are in your hands. We love you Lord.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

Sermon Audio