Full Transcript

You may be seated. That’s what we’re going after in this series. We’re three weeks into this series that we’ve entitled “Awakenings.” And we are going after the annihilation of sleepy, drowsy, groggy Christianity. How many of you are tired of sleepy, drowsy, groggy Christianity? We are in pursuit of waking up this morning, and in part, what we are doing is we are memorizing a verse of Scripture.

How many of you have memorized the verse I have challenged you to memorize as a part of this series? What book is it found in? (Congregation replies “Habakkuk”.) Some of you knew that. What chapter? (Congregation responds “three”.) Excellent. Verse? (Congregation replies “two”.) And I would like you to now stand if you can quote the verse. Serious. Stand up if you can quote it. C’mon. C’mon. Stand if you could quote half of it if I gave you half of it. Seriously. Stand up. C’mon. C’mon. All right. We got two girls.

Why don’t you girls come up here for a second and let’s test their memorization powers. All right. So, we got Leah and Ally. C’mon. And Ally come stand over here. They’re trying to figure it out on their way up here. You see that? Ally stand over here. I’m going to separate the two, okay?

All right. So, who do you want to start with? How many of you want to start with Ally? How many of you want to start with Leah? All right. Leah we’re going to start with you. (Leah says, “I don’t know the first line.”) I’ll give it to you. Look, look, here, here, here, here. I got you. I got you covered. Look, there it is. (Shows partial verses on screen.) Okay, yeah, all right.

So Habakkuk 3:2, “Oh Lord, I have heard…” (Leah thinks.) Okay, we’ll move on to Contestant #2. “O Lord, I have heard…” (Ally says, “The report of you and your works.”) Okay, excellent. (Turns to Leah.) “O Lord…” (Leah hesitates and says, “Um, I have heard, oh my gosh.”) Yeah, okay so we’re going to move over here again. “O Lord…” (Ally says, “Do I fear?”) Do I fear? “In the midst of the years…” (Ally says, “Revive it”) “In the midst of the years…” (Leah says, “Revive it. Oh the next one.) No, that was the first line there. “In the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years…” (Leah says, “Make it known.”) Make it known. (Congregation cheers.) “In wrath…” (Leah says, “Remember your mercy.”) In wrath, remember mercy. Very good. You guys can have a seat.

There it is. Okay? So let’s all quote it together. You ready? Because next week, somebody else is going to be a victim. All right? Here it is, let’s say it together. Habakkuk 3:2, “O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” That is the prayer of a heart that is tired of sleepy, drowsy, groggy Christianity.

We want to be awakened in God’s presence. And the book of 2 Chronicles is the history of the awakenings that took place in the Old Testament. And there were seasons that God’s people got off course. There’s a pattern. We’re supposed to be up and to the right in worship, on mission, with God. But from time to time, we get a little sleepy and we begin to wander, and our eyes get off the Lord and we begin to commit sins of idolatry and we slide into sin.

And that invites the discipline and the judgment of God which is his loving hand to get us to cry out, to cry up. And in response to our prayers of faith, God comes, revives his church, restores holiness among his people, and that spills over into the community in a great awakening among the lost.

That pattern we see over and over and over in biblical history and even in our national history, God does again. What he has done in the past, he will do again. That’s our hope for an awakening. And we’re going after it here this morning.

And we found that the book of 2 Chronicles has the most famous of all awakening verses. Do you know what it is? 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people which are called by my name…” will do four things. Four conditions of revival. If we’re going to have an awakening, we’ve got to do four things. We have to humble ourselves. Last week we saw a king in 2 Chronicles 12. His name was Rehoboam, and he humbled himself before the Lord.

Today we’re going to see a king who does the second condition. He prays. We’re going to talk about revival praying. We’re going to look at seven elements of revival praying here this morning. And then we’re going to do some revival praying at the end of the service. It would be absolutely hypocritical to preach a message on prayer and not pray. So we’re going to pray at the end. We’re going to get all seven of these elements right.

But we’ve got to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek his face, to turn from our wicked ways. Then he promises three results of an awakening. What will he do? He will hear our prayer from heaven. He will forgive our sin. He will heal our land. Do we need an awakening? Okay, four of you think we do. My job this morning is to convince the other 500 of you that we need an awakening. So we’re going to be on this train together.

Remember last week we reminded you. It’s like our church is all about discipleship, right? It’s all about disciple making and every time we meet together we’re trying to make disciples because we’re trying to fulfill the Great Commission. That’s the mission of our church. So the question was: how does revival, does this instantaneous, sudden awakening, how does that fit into the disciple-making process that happens over years? Just little by little, slowly by slowly, the process of becoming more like Jesus. This is discipleship. So how does revival fit into that?

And we made this statement last week. Do you remember? It’s very important that we understand. Revival is a crisis that accelerates the process of discipleship. So, we need both, the crisis of revival and the process of discipleship. And what we find is that in seasons of awakening, God may do in five minutes what it would otherwise take five years of discipleship to get done. Right?

So, we need both. And we need a crisis. We need an awakening even this morning as we meet together. God, answer our prayer. We’ve heard the report of you. And your work. But do we fear? In the midst of our years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make in known. In wrath, remember mercy. That is our heart cry this morning.

You know, as your pastor, I’m always looking for signs of an awakening. And I hope you’re looking for them too. Have you seen the signs of awakening going on around here? I mean these baptistery waters have been spilling out all over the place, and sometimes I can’t even preach because everybody that wants to get saved around here. And we’ve got prayer happening, and we’re reaching into the community and there’s just all kinds of good stuff going on. There is an awakening happening as a result of what God has been doing in response to our prayers.

And I saw another one this morning. It’s in your bulletin. Did you get a bulletin this morning? And now, just kind of skip over the scary eyeball on the front, okay? And turn it over on the back, and if you look in the middle box do you see the Stewardship update? All of you that are engineers and accountants, you’ve already checked this out. But do you notice that in May, do you see where it says, “May budgeted giving”?

Do you know what that line is? That’s the money that we as a church planned to spend on disciple making in May, believing that God would prompt your heart to give that money. In response to what he’s doing in your life, we planned to spend that. So we have a little thing around here. We don’t spend money we don’t have. So we just kind of by faith believe God’s going to supply $122,000 in May so that we could do what God wants us to do in disciple making. But I want you to look at how much money was actually given in May. $198,000. You people gave $76,000 more dollars than we planned to spend on disciple making. That’s a sign of an awakening.

So I have already told our staff, on Monday, we’re going to Costco. Okay? So, we got more stuff to get done around here because there’s a lot more disciples. No, we’re not going to Costco, but we could hire a couple of pastors if that continues. To equip the saints to do the work of the ministry, right? That’s what it’s all about. Money always follows ministry.

It doesn’t work the other way around. So, that’s a sign of an awakening. Way to go!  You’re getting with the program. And it’s so great to see what God is doing. It’s a miracle any time a person pries back the fingers on one dollar. And gives it. That’s a miracle, okay? And God did it 198,000 times last month in May.

One of the most famous revival historians is named J. Edwin Orr. J. Edwin Orr studied the great awakenings in American history and around in the world and even biblical history. And one day he was meeting with a group of pastors and teachers and seminary professors, and he asked them a question. He said, “I once asked a conference of pastors, teachers and evangelists and workers to specify the greatest need of our times. One of them said, ‘Surely it’s the great commission to evangelize those who have never heard. Another said, ‘Sunday school. We mustn’t lose the coming generation. If we lost them we lost everything. Another one said, ‘It’s the training of the ministry.’ Another one said, ‘No, it’s stewardship. The Lord’s churched must have money.’”

And so everybody had a different opinion. Another person said, “No, it’s combating drug addiction and crime and so on.” And so everybody had a different idea about what the greatest need of our time was. J. Edwin Orr wisely responded with this question. He said, “Would tackling any one of these problems solve any of the others? Would promoting proper stewardship solve the problems of drug addiction? Would filling the Sunday schools automatically recruit missionaries?” They agreed that the needs were separate but related. And so he said this, “Is there anything that would make an impact on all the problems at once?”

So they scratched their heads and couldn’t come up with anything. And then he very wisely said this, “Yes there is! Revival. According to the records, revival fills the churches, raises up evangelists, calls pastors, recruits missionaries, brings in funds, reunites families and delivers from addiction.”

We need revival. And as great as we think things are happening around here, we are just scratching the surface of all the work the Lord wants to do. Now, I want you to see what revival looks like. You got your bibles open to 2 Chronicles? Are you in chapter 20? I want you to look at the end of the story. We’re going to go through this story here, but I want you to see the end of it from the beginning. And I want you to look in 2 Chronicles 20:29.

Here’s what revival looks like. “And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.” All in favor of the fear of God coming upon this nation, say “Amen!” All in favor of the fear of God coming upon all the nations, say “Amen!” All in favor of the fear of God coming upon all the kingdoms within all the nations; the kingdom of your home, the kingdom of government, the kingdom of education, the kingdom of entertainment, the kingdom of media, the kingdom of art? All in favor say, “Amen!” That’s what revival looks like.

So, notice this is verse 29. We got 28 verses to figure out. How do you get some of that? So go back up to verse 1. Here’s the first thing that we’re going to see is a characteristic of revival praying. Revival praying:

• Begins with a sense of emergency. (v. 1-3)

 

Look at verse 1. “After this, the Moabites and the Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites…” And I’m sure there were some termites. Who are all these people? What is…? Moab? What are these people? Listen, these were the enemies of God okay? These were the leftover people that inhabited the Promised Land before Israel came in to occupy that territory. And these people remained. And we’re going to find out later that it’s because God wanted them to remain. You’ll see that in a minute.

But all of a sudden, they get a little hatred in their heart for the people of God. And they begin to surround them. Look at what it says. They “…came against Jehoshaphat.” Jehoshaphat is going to be our hero in the story. He’s the king of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. And they “…came against Jehoshaphat for battle. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat…” Always need some men in a story about an awakening. There were some men that came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, that are in Hazazon-tamar (that is, Engedi).” So now of course you know exactly where they are, right? I mean, you have a picture on your Google map where these people are, right?

Let me put it this way, okay? Is there anybody here from Texas? Just raise your hand. Anybody from Texas? Don’t “whoo,” just raise your hand, okay? Let’s see some people from Texas. Now you have to understand about people from Texas. They think they’re our nation, okay? They think they are their own sovereign nation, okay?

So let’s get in our imaginations that the nation of Texas declared war on the city of Granger. Actually, Granger is not really a city, is it? Let’s say Michiana, all right? So the nation of Texas declared war on the people of Michiana. And so they’re mad and they want to wipe us out. They want to do an ethnic cleansing. They just don’t like you. Maybe they think you’re too godly and they don’t like God so they’re going to come. The nation of Texas is going to invade. All right?

So here they come. They are marching toward Granger. All right? So they leave Texas and they come through Arkansas. The reason they have to go through Arkansas is because they always get defeated by Oklahoma. So they come through. Sorry, in case you didn’t know, I’m from Oklahoma. So, they come through Arkansas and they’re coming up through Missouri, and they get to Illinois. They’re marching, they’re marching. Here they come, here they come. They’re in Indiana now. Now they’re in Indianapolis, and here they come up 31. And they take the bypass around Kokomo, so now they can go faster. And they’re marching, and they’re marching. And they’re coming, and they’re in Mishawaka!

Is there some sense of an emergency? I mean, here they come! The marauding Texas army is coming. By the way, I think they are coming in September, so you might want to get ready for that, but here they come. That’s the sense of an emergency. These men come and report to Jehoshaphat. “There is an emergency! Do you understand the threat? The enemies of God have surrounded us. They are closer than they have ever been. What are you going to do?”

My son Zac, when he was little had trouble staying on a trampoline. Apparently he was always the smallest kid on the trampoline. So when the big kid would land on the trampoline, little, scrawny Zac would go flying off the trampoline. And so inevitably, he would come home holding his arm, crying. And his arm would be…(hangs arm limply).

And he would come to Andrea. He went to Andrea because she’s got a much softer heart than I do. And it was like, “My arm is…” and she’s like “Oh honey, I think he broke his arm. You’re going to have to load him up and take him to the emergency room.” And I’m like, “Okay, all right.” So I took him.

I’m thinking, “It’s not broken. Just rub a little dirt on it, you’ll be fine in the morning.” But that doesn’t really go for a mom. And so I would take him. And seven and a half hours later, and $1000 poorer, we would come out and the doctor would say, “Just rub a little dirt on it. It’ll be fine.” You know? “It’s a sprain, not broken.”

So, I’d come home and sure enough the next week, he’d go flying off the trampoline. And he’d come home and the arm’s you know, it’s swollen and scraped and he’s crying. He goes to Andrea, and it’s like, “I think it’s broken for sure this time.” It’s like, “No, it’s not. I don’t have any more money.” This would happen like almost every week, and we’d make a trip to the emergency room, and there were x-rays and doctor bills. And he’d come home. Just rub a little dirt on it. It’ll be fine, you know?

I don’t have any more money left for the emergency room. Sure enough, here he comes and the arm’s hanging down and everything. And Andrea’s like, “You got to go. You got to go.” And I’m like, “Honey, I’m just not going to do it. It’s sprained. I know the drill. I’ve looked at this. It looks just like it did the other three times.”

So like two hours, three hours, four hours later, he’s still kind of moaning and complaining. And Andrea says (with teeth gritted), “You’re taking my son to the emergency room.” And I’m like, “Okay.” Because if I don’t deal with that emergency I’m going to have a different emergency on my hands.

So I’m like, “I’m going to the emergency room with my son.” Sure enough, it’s broken in three places. Two different surgeries. Three different screws and plates and all this stuff. And he’s got a wonderful zipper on his arm right now that looks really awesome now that all that’s over with.

The key to revival praying is that you have to understand the difference between a sprain and a break. Our nation, our families are broken. And there is a sense of an emergency that we must have if we’re going to get to the end of the story.

Before you can experience the fear of God returning and the kingdoms understanding that God is to be worshiped, we have to understand how serious our condition really is. How can you know that we’re living in a state of an emergency?

Well, here’s a clue. When opposite sex couples have no interest in marriage but are content just hooking up, while same sex couple are not longer content just hooking up and want to be married. That’s a sign that there’s a state of emergency going on in our country. And all of that is just a spillover of unbridled sexuality, to ignore and forsake the plan of God for our gender identity.

When women want to be men and men want to be women and they’re willing to cut off body parts in order to try to conform to what they think, which is completely opposite of what God says. We are living in a state of an emergency and the greatest problem in all of it is, so many people who are so-called Christians stand back and say, “Well, I just think we should love everybody and everybody should just do what they’re supposed to do.”

No, we need to come up under the fear of God. All of it is just simply the unraveling of God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Divorce and adultery and immorality and pornography and human trafficking. All of it is an understanding that we are living in a state of emergency. When there is crime and racism and poverty and hatred and rioting in the streets, you might want to wake up to how real the emergency is.

Clay Christensen is a Harvard law professor. And he went back and studied the influence of revival and awakenings in American history, and he has some very interesting things to say to us to understand how important it is that we experience another awakening in our time. Watch this.

VIDEO: [Some time ago, I had a conversation with a Marxist economist from China. He was coming to the end of a Fulbright Fellowship in Boston. I asked him if he had learned anything that was surprising or unexpected, and without any hesitation he said, “Yeah, I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy. The reason why democracy works,” he said, “is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does, but rather democracy works because most people, most of the time, voluntarily choose to obey the law. And in your past, most Americans attended a church or a synagogue every week and they were taught there by people they respected.” My friend went on to say that Americans followed these rules because they had come to believe that they weren’t just accountable to society, they were accountable to God. My Chinese friend heightened a vague but nagging concern I’ve harbored inside, that as religion loses its influence over the lives of Americans, what will happen to our democracy? Where are the institutions that are going to teach the next generation of Americans that they too need to voluntarily choose to obey the laws? Because if you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police.]

Without another great awakening, you will not be able to pass enough laws and hire enough police to keep the order in America. We must understand there is a great emergency that has to take place. So look at verse three. “Then Jehoshaphat was afraid…” You think? Jehoshaphat was afraid, and so what do you do when you’re afraid? You’ve got a choice. You can either flee or you can respond in faith.

Look at what he does. “He set his face to seek the Lord.” Good choice, king. That’s a good king. Sometimes you need a king who will set his face to seek the Lord. That’s what he did. And he did this. He didn’t just set his face. He did something very practical. He “proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.”

Do you know what a fast is? Do you know what fasting is? Fasting is not a weight loss program. Fasting is not skipping dessert, okay? Fasting is a very important God-given tool. Let’s define is this way. Fasting is a God-ordained way of heightening our sense of emergency and intensifying our hunger for him.

Do you know what your body does when you skip a meal? It declares an emergency. It lets you know, “Hey, something’s missing.” Right? And what you do when you fast is say, “I am going to intentionally skip a meal or two or three or more, so that I can awaken my spiritual senses to what my physical appetite knows is already true. There’s something missing.”

And so, King Jehoshaphat declared a fast. He wanted all the people to understand, “This is so critical that we need God so much, we’ve got to increase and intensify our hunger for God.” Even before he prayed, he fasted. Why? Because revival praying begins with a sense of emergency.

Here’s the second thing. Revival praying:

 

• Intensifies in community. (v. 4-5)

 

Look at verse 4. “And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly…” Underline the word “assembly” in verse 5. He “stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court.”

Sometimes in an awakening, God uses the declaration of a king. And sometimes he uses the assembly of a people.  Because it wasn’t enough for one person to declare, “we’ve got a problem”. The people had to respond in faith that what the king sensed was something they were also sensing. And so he gathered the people together because there’s power in community.

Let me ask you a question. Who would assemble to come and rally around you if you had an emergency? I mean, if the pipes busted in the house. I was talking to my mom this week. Her husband is in the stages of dementia, and he turned on a water faucet, and the drain was plugged, and he left the water on. He did that twice this week, and flooded the house twice. And there was a sense of an emergency. And fortunately, my mom has a lot of people that love her and came over and helped her in that situation.

But there’s a spiritual emergency going on in some of us. Some of us have no appetite for God. Some of us have habits that are enslaving us to sin. Do you have somebody that you could call that would assemble to pray and seek the Lord on your behalf? So Jehoshaphat said, “We are assembling the people.” We use the term “solemn assembly” here because we understand there’s a state of emergency going on.

We need to understand how critical this is. On Tuesday night this week, this room was filled with about 650 people. And we were singing at the top of our lungs, and were dancing and enjoying a high impact worship service with the Vertical Church Band. Every person in the room had paid $10 to come. The place was sold out. Didn’t have enough tickets available for everybody that wanted to come.

And yet, every other month or so, I announce to this church that we’re going to have a Fresh Encounter prayer meeting. It’s free. And about 200 people show up. Why? Because we do not understand the sense of emergency. And we do not understand the importance of assembling to intensify our praying in the community.

I’m grateful for what God is doing in our city through the Revive Indiana movement a couple of weeks ago. Thursday mornings at 7 am at the Kroc Center, I’m meeting together with a group of pastors that two weeks ago, I couldn’t tell you their names. And now we’re meeting together, seeking the face of God, crying out for an awakening in our churches that would spill over into this community. Be praying for us.

Jesus said, “My house is to be called a house of prayer.” Together in community. Do you know what you will find if you study the prayers in the New Testament? You will almost always find that those prayers were gathered prayers in community. It uses the words “our” and “we” rather than “my” and “me”. It’s prayer in community.

You say, “Oh, I could never pray out loud. I just wouldn’t know what to say. And I’m sure somebody would be over there grading me and I’d never get more than a D- on any prayer I’d ever pray.” No, you don’t get it. How do you learn to pray? You learn to pray by listening to people who know how to pray. And there are some people in this church that know how to pray. You need to figure out where they are and where they’re going to pray, and go in and listen. And you need to learn to pray in community. We together need to assemble ourselves in times of seeking the Lord.

Here’s the third characteristic of revival praying. Revival praying:

 

• Focuses on God’s sovereignty. (v. 6-11)

 

So what did they pray? Look here in verse 6. Here’s the script of their prayer. They said, “O Lord, God of our Fathers, are you not God in heaven?” Now, they ask God if he was God in heaven. Did they ask God if he was God in heaven because God didn’t know whether or not he was God in heaven? Why would they pray that way? Why would they, first of all, vertically focus on who and where God was?

Wouldn’t you expect if the marauding Texans had surrounded us that we would go and say, “God, get ‘em”? Wouldn’t that be the first thing you would pray? That’s not the first thing they prayed. The first thing they prayed was not that God would relieve the problem. The first thing that they prayed was that they would get an accurate view of who God was and what his power was like.

And so he says, “Are you not God in heaven?” By the way, what’s the answer to that question? “Yes! As a matter of fact I am.” I’m sure that was the answer back. “You rule over all kingdoms of the nations.” Not just our kingdom and our nation, but the nations that are now surrounding us. You rule over them. “In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.”

What do we need to understand about God when we’re in a season of an emergency? We need to understand how serious the threat is, but we also need to understand how powerful our God is. And we need to understand that not one king, one president, one terrorist or one nation moves one inch without the permission of almighty God. That’s the perspective we need before we ask God to change the situation. It’s that God can and will move on our behalf.

Look down at verse 7. They ask another question. “Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” Yes or no? “Yes, as a matter of fact. I did that.” Verse 8, “And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying…” Look at verse 9. Do you see the quotation marks? Let me tell you something about verse 9 before I read it.

They didn’t make up verse 9. As a matter of fact, verse 9 is a quotation from 1 Kings 8. Apparently they were praying with an open Bible. Which is always a good thing to do, so that you know that when you are praying what God has already said he will do, you’re praying according to his will.

And so they just quote God. That’s always a great thing to do in your prayer. Just remind God of what his promises are. And so they quote him and they say, “God, here’s what you’ve told us to do.” “If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you – for your name is in this house – and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.” And now they finally get to their request. They say, “And now behold,” in case you haven’t noticed, “the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy…”

A little note here on this verse. Do you remember how I told you these were the leftover inhabitants of the Promised Land before Israel went in? God told the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 2:9, “You are not allowed to harass Moab. I will not give them over to you. Leave them alone.”

Now, if you were currently a resident in Israel, and you were looking over the fence, and now you see the Moabites surrounding you, would you be tempted to think, “Hey God, why didn’t you let us wipe those people out when we entered into the land in the first place?” Maybe they were tempted to think they had a better plan than God. And that’s why revival praying always needs to focus on sovereignty, because when the threats are the nearest and the danger is the closest, that’s the point at which you are prone to doubt the sovereignty of God’s plan.

And so it’s almost as if in this verse they are reminding God. “Hey God, I think we would have had a different plan if we were God, but we’re not, so now what are you going to do?” And so you get down to verse 10 and it says these men are gathered around, and in verse 11 it says, “Behold, they reward us by coming out to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit.”

And so they focus, first of all, vertically on who God is. Why? Because worship always precedes asking. They have to get a right understanding of who God is. You have to get a right understanding of who God is before you ask him to do anything on your behalf. And we have to understand that when God is magnified in my mind, fear is minimized.

That’s what was going on in this country. They were enslaved to fear, and yet they went to God. And when they magnified God, they minimized their fear. Don’t doubt the plan of God when the threats are the nearest.

Here’s the fourth characteristic of revival praying. It:

 

• Acknowledges our inadequacy. (v. 12)

 

Look at verse 12, “O our God, will you not execute judgment on them?” And so they request, “Lord, the enemies have surrounded you. Will you not get involved in this battle?” “For we are powerless…” Underline that word “powerless” in verse 12. “We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do…” Ever been there? “…but our eyes are on you.”

You know, there is nothing we hate more than admitting we’re powerless. I can’t fix it. I don’t have the resources, I don’t have the intelligence, I don’t have the money. I don’t even have the will power. I don’t have the desire. I can’t fix it, I can’t figure it out, I’ve tried. It doesn’t make sense on paper. I can’t fight my way out of this. And I can’t figure my way out of this.

Do you know it’s not until you reach that point that you’re even a candidate for an awakening? When you get to the place of humble admission that you do not have the adequacy to deal with what’s going on in your life and you finally admit “God, I do not know what I am doing. I do not know what to do next. But my eyes are on you.” That’s the point at which God can reverse the situation. Until then, your pain is going to increase. The complexity of your problem is going to overwhelm you.

But when you admit you’re at that point, that’s the point at which God can get involved. And so they got their eyes off of their enemy and they got their eyes on God. They turned their eyes to God. That is a point in time. What’s your enemy? What’s your problem? What’s the threat? Is it grades? Is it a lack of money? Is it a poor relationship? Is it your marriage? You don’t know what to do?

And that’s the point at which you have to turn your eyes off of your problem and get them on God. And when you do that, you will discover that you’re a candidate for an awakening. I mean, think about these people here. They’re looking across the fence at the enemy. And when they turned their eyes to God, this is what happens. They realize any threat that doesn’t kill them is designed by God to get their eyes on God at work on the earth. The same is true for you. Any threat, any battle that you’re currently in, any emergency you’re going through – that’s designed by God to get your eyes on God at work on earth, as long as it doesn’t kill you.

You say, “But what if it does? I mean, this is a really serious emergency.” Well, there’s good news. Any threat that does kill you is designed by God to get your eyes on him at work in heaven. Think about that. You can’t lose. Either way, you’re going to see God at work. Either on earth or in heaven. What are you so afraid of? Admit you’re powerless. Turn your eyes on him and say, “God, I do not know what I am doing, but I know that you do. And so I’m going to trust you. I’m going to acknowledge you. I need you in this moment. In this hour.”

Now I’m going to get real practical. How do you get your eyes on God? What does that mean? Now that’s a cool phrase. Kind of poetic. What do you do? How do you get your eyes on God before you get in the emergency? I would highly advise you not to wait until you’re in an emergency before you actually look to God.

So you might want to develop some habits in your life. And start with this:

 

1. Get by yourself.

 

You say, “I thought you told me to get with other people.” Well, it’s kind of a balance. When I say “get by yourself” this is what I mean: log off of Facebook, get off of Twitter, shut down your Instagram, turn off your cell phone, turn off the music, go away, unplug every electronic so that you will hear God’s voice speak to you in the silence.

“I do not know what to do, but my eyes are on you.” I’ve got to get my eyes off of everything else and get them on God. Some of us haven’t seen God work because we’re too busy looking at everything else.

 

2. Get on your knees.

 

On your knees physically, is the reminder of what needs to be happening in your heart, the place of submission before his throne.

And:

 

3. Get a list.

 

of every problem and every emergency going on in your life. Just write that down. This week, I was on my computer, I was looking through my file system, and I saw this file. It just kind of grabbed my attention there, and I had dated it. It said, “July 28, 2012.” And when I saw that date, I immediately knew what the file was.

Can I just give you a humble admission by your pastor? Some of you will freak out right now. That’s okay. Sometimes I do not know what to do. And on July 28, 2012, honestly, that was the worst day in my ministry career. It was just bad. And it wasn’t because the church was stagnant, it was because the church was growing. And the complexity of what was going on around here was beyond my comprehension.

“I do not know what to do.” I’d lost a key staff member; I’d lost a close friend. And so I remember, I pulled my computer out, and I made a list of things that I did not know how to do. And at the top of the list it says, “Highlights indicate urgent.” In other words, “God, if you don’t act right now, I’m not quite sure that I’m going to survive, or this church is going to survive.” And I didn’t have any answers for it. I was powerless to change any of it.

I pulled it back out and I actually sent it to Pastor Matt. Like, “Hey, aren’t you glad it’s 2015?” And three years later, you know what? Almost everything on here, somehow God has stepped in and done this. But on Friday, I made another list and it’s got a lot of highlights on it, and I still don’t know what I’m doing. And if God doesn’t move, if God doesn’t send a way, we’re still in a state of emergency around here.

And if we ever lost that attitude, that’s the point at which God says, “I think I’m going to go work at this other church over here, because they’re too proud to figure out how powerless they are without me.” Get a list of things that you do not know how to do.

And,

 

4. Get a rhythm.

The rhythm brings you back. It keeps you on pace, right? And there’s a rhythm in prayer. Have any of you been taught a rhythm in prayer? A rhythm of prayer? Anybody ever heard of anything like that? Any pastor faithfully tried to teach you a rhythm of prayer? Do you remember it? Wow! Help! Come! Thanks! Wow! Help! Come! Remember that? Yeah.

So, “Wow!” That’s the vertical, right? Before we ask God anything we got to know who he is. “Wow God, you’re so awesome. You’re so incredible. You haven’t lost an ounce of your power. You are full of might and power, and I got to get my eyes on you. And now that I’ve got my eyes on you, I realize you can help. Will you please? Can I get a little help down here? And God, will you come? And the way that you’re ruling heaven up there, will you bring some of that down here? And do on earth what you’re already doing in heaven. And thanks! Thank you that you’re going to change this situation. By faith I believe you. Thank you for everything you have done.” And then back to Wow! Help! Come! Thanks! There’s a rhythm.

And then:

 

5. Get a pen.

 

Get a pen. And what I mean by that is, sometimes, the only way I can focus on prayer is to write the prayer. Because my mind is a cluttered mess of distractions. And pretty soon, I’ll try to pray, but pretty soon I’m just thinking and then I’m not thinking anymore, I’m just worrying. And all of that can happen in about twelve seconds in my mind.

I was praying. What happened? I started thinking. And then I wasn’t even thinking anymore, I was just feeling. And then I wasn’t feeling, I was just emoting. And then I was crying. And then I was ready to walk into oncoming traffic. But I started this whole thing in prayer. So how did I get… I’ve got to write the prayer, right?

You say, “Oh that’s so stale that you would write a prayer.” Do you realize that what we’re reading is somebody’s words that somebody bothered to write down the prayer they prayed, so that we can read them, and pray them back to God? Get your eyes off of your enemy and get them on God.

Here’s the fifth element to revival praying. It:

 

• Looks to God’s word to define reality. (v. 13-16)

 

What you see with your eyes is not reality. That’s just your perception. So how do you go from what is perceived as reality to what is genuine reality? You need the word of God.

And that’s what happened in verse 13. “Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.” So, what’s the antecedent of the word “their”? Who is standing before? Their wives? Who would that be? That would be them husbands, right? And them fathers. Because men are always at the center of an awakening.

And so they stood before the Lord and they brought their wives and brought their children. Verse 14, “And the spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel…” Who’s that? The “…son of Zechariah…” Who’s that? The “…son of Benaiah…” Who? The “…son of…” We got the whole family tree here. “…A Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly.” So, who is Jahaziel? He’s a prophet.

Sometimes to have an awakening, God uses a king. Sometimes in awakening, God uses an assembly. And sometimes in an awakening, God uses a prophet. And all of it is necessary. What’s the responsibility of a prophet? A responsibility of a prophet is to bring God’s word to show the reality and bring the clarity to the situation. And so what does the prophet say in verse 15?

He said, “Listen…” Got to do that. “Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.’” The battle belongs to the Lord. That’s reality.

And if the battle belongs to the Lord, the only question is: whose side am I on? And if God is for us, who can be against us? That is the responsibility of a faithful prophet, to remind us who actually is fighting the battle on our behalf. We need the word of God to define reality and bring clarity.

Here is the sixth characteristic of revival praying. It:

 

• Stands firm with certainty. (v. 17)

 

Look at verse 17. “You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow…” underline the word tomorrow. “Tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you.”

So he gives them a three-fold strategy. He tells them to stand firm, hold their position, and keep their eyes open to see the salvation of the Lord. Does that sound like a good battle plan to you? See the word “stand” there in verse 17? That’s the fifth time we’ve seen that word in this passage. It’s mentioned in verse 5. It’s mentioned in verse 6. It’s mentioned in verse 13. Here it is in 17. We’re going to see it again in verse 19.

Standing up rather than retreating, hiding, blending or folding is always God’s battle plan. You have to stand in the place where God told you to stand. Don’t change the position. Hold the position. Don’t create a new position. Just hold the position. And it’s in that position that you’re going to see God work. If you do not stand and you don’t hold the position, you’re not going to see the salvation of the Lord.

Here’s the last thing. Revival praying:

 

• Believes God for the awakening. (v. 18-30)

 

Verse 18, “Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites…” Oh, we’ve got more people here, so who are the Levites?

The Levites were the priests. Now, the priests were the mediators between God and the people. They were the prayer warriors. They were the worship leaders. In an awakening, you need a king, you need an assembly, you need a prophet, and you need a wild-eyed, weird-haired, tattooed worship leader to call the people to extravagant worship.

Watch what they did. They were the Kohathites and the Korahites and they “…stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.” You say, “I’m done. I can’t do that. I make people afraid when I sing.” I have always said in this church that whatever you lack in beauty when you sing, make up for in volume. Just rear back and split the hair of the person in front of you. They may need an awakening, okay?

And so it is not about your tonality, it is not about your rhythm; it is all about the volume when you praise the Lord. Look in verse 20, “And they rose early in the morning and they went out into the wilderness of Tekoa.” That was a twelve mile journey. “And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood…” There it is again. He “…stood and said, ‘Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God…”

There would be no awakening in spite of all that had happened previously if there was not an act of faith to believe that God could do what he had promised. And so he said, “Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed. And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and to praise him in holy attire, as they went before…” Worship leaders always have weird attire, it’s right here. “…holy attire, as they went before the army and say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever…”  Chris Tomlin did not write that, he stole it right from here.

Verse 22, “And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.” When God wins, God wins big. Verse 23, “For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir…” That means that there were three armies coming against the people of God, and two of the armies beat up on the third army. They wiped him out and so there were only two left. It was an elimination match apparently. And they got mad at each other, had a little fuss and had a little spat and they wiped each other out. And Israel is just standing back going, “Wow. That’s too bad. Look what God did to you.”

God did what God said he would do. And they began to destroy one another. Just skip down to verse 27. “Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with joy.” They returned from Tekoa. It was a twelve mile worship marathon filled with praise. “…For the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. They came to Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets…” and drums and electric guitars “…to the house of the Lord. And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.”

Do you have any enemies? Is there a spiritual emergency going on in your life right now? Can I encourage you with something? We’ve been talking about revival praying and we’re going to pray here in just a minute. But I want to encourage you with something. Do you know that Jesus Christ right now in this moment is seated at the right hand of the Father praying for you? He knows what’s going on. He knows that some of you are in a state of an emergency. There’s a health report or the grades were not so great or there’s cruddy stuff going on in your marriage, or cruddy stuff going on with relationships, parents and children.

God knows what’s going on in America. God knows the moral collapse and the terrorist threat and the economic condition. God knows all of it. And Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for his saints. And some of you here this morning, you really are in a state of emergency. And we want to pray for you this morning. We want to give you an opportunity for us to gather an assembly around you. A solemn assembly.