What Happens After Revival? | 2 Chronicles 31 | Pastor Matt Nettesheim

All right, take your Bibles, if you will. Turn

with me to the book of 2 Chronicles chapter number,

if you will, 30, 2 Chronicles chapter number

30. And wow, this Sunday evening, sermons through

the book of 2 Chronicles has been absolutely

a blessing to me. We've been looking at different

kings. We're in King Hezekiah, and King Hezekiah

came into a difficult situation. His dad Ahaz,

a wicked king, his dad Ahaz, led the southern

kingdom of Judah into sin, idol worship, and

his dad. led the kingdom into sin and not God's

blessing, but really God's judgment. And King

Hesentai becomes the king and immediately makes

a decision. He said, you know, it doesn't matter

the way it's been before. I've got a new beginning.

I have a new opportunity. I have a new opportunity

to serve God, to live for God. And he began to

change the nation, began to lead the community

into revival. If you look with me at 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 30 · chapter mention

chapter 30, verse number 13, if you look at this,

And they're assembled at Jerusalem, much people

to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the

second month and a very great, what does it say,

congregation. Look at verse number 15. Then they

killed the. Passover on the 14th day of the second

month. And you remember the story from last week,

all of a sudden Hezekiah says, listen, we're

going to have the Passover. We're going to celebrate

the Passover feast. We're going to remember the

Lamb, which signified the Lamb of God, which

took away the sin of the world. And he began

to gather the people and beg people to come.

And by the way, some people came and many did

not. There were scoffers. But it didn't matter.

People came and a revival began to take place.

Now, this is important. A revival began to take

place. People came and began to get busy in the

work of the Lord. Look with me at verse number

26. So there was great joy in what? Whoa, do

you see that? Second Chronicles chapter 30 verse

2 Chronicles 30:20

20. So there was what? great joy in Jerusalem,

for since the time of Solomon, the son of David,

king of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem.

They began to sell, and there hadn't been a revival.

There hadn't been a Passover feast like Solomon.

And the Bible begins to lay out that revival

service. Now, we're gonna stand in a moment for

the reading of God's word, but before we stand,

you have to understand, a revival meeting, the

emotion, the excitement of God working. In a

way, this is a revival meeting. When you got

the deacons up there and Brother Barry up there

and we're dreaming about planting a church and

seeing a community forever changed, that rejoices

my heart. Seeing Brother Paden, he got emotional

up there because we've seen God do it in the

past and we're seeing God do it. And if you've

ever been a part of a revival meeting, the emotion,

I've been in revival meetings where the preacher

preaches the word of God and all of a sudden

God begins working in my heart. And I remember

many times at the end of a revival service, I

come running to the front and I begin to get

on my knees and I begin to sometimes confess

my sin and give my heart back over to God. And

there is emotion, great emotion in a revival

service with the preaching of God's word and

God's working in my heart. And there's excitement

in a revival. There is. Now if you can't stand

for the reading of God's word, because here's

where the message is going tonight. There's a

revival. God's working in a great way, but what

happens after revival? What happens after that

revival meeting? Look with me at 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 31 · chapter mention

chapter 31, verse number one, and if you will,

read with me verse number one altogether. Ready?

Now when all this was finished, all Israel that

were present went out to the cities of Judah

and break the images in pieces and cut down the

groves and threw down the high places and the

altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim

also and Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed

them all. Then all the children of Israel returned

every man to his possession into their own cities.

This is fascinating, we'll go more into depth

on this, but revival, the meeting is over, we're

going home, God's worked in my heart and my mind,

and we're gonna go back and live the way we used

to live. No, no, no, no. After revival, something

happened, and this is important in all of our

lives. When we get revival, go to a revival meeting,

we go to a church service. We read the word of

God, and God begins to work in our heart, and

we're emotional. There's nothing wrong with emotional,

but what happens the next day? What happens the

next week? What happens when you go home? What

happens after the revival? Before we go any further,

let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, we love you.

It's been a great night. And I want to slow down

and not be hasty in this message. I also want

to be... cognizant of people's time. I pray that

you help us to have wisdom in that. Help us to

have ears to hear. And I believe everybody here

this evening has been to one of those revival

meetings where you've worked in a great way.

You've worked in our hearts. Help us to think

about what happens after revival. And I do believe

decisions need to be made. We do need you, Lord.

We do love you. Please help us in Jesus' name.

Amen. you may be seated. What happens after revival?

Wow. We get to the first part, the revival's

done and the people begin to go home. And as

they go home, God had worked in their lives and

if you ever been there to a revival meeting,

you begin to make decisions. When I'm going home.

Tomorrow, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going

to live for God. I'm going to serve God. And

in your mind, you begin to think about things

in your life that are not pleasing to the Lord.

And that's what happened. The first part, when

the revival led to destroyed idols, that first

verse right there in verse number one. Now, when

all this was finished, when that revival, that

Passover was finished, all Israel that were present

went out to the cities of Judah and break the

images. in pieces and cut down the groves. They

break the images in what? And look at that, cut

down the groves and threw down the high places

in the old. Now I was trying to think about how

to illustrate this and in my office I was thinking

of something that I could pretend or use as an

idol and I had this thing right here and this

was a present, a birthday present or a Christmas

present. from my son Samuel, and it's sitting

there on my bookshelf. And it is precious to

me. My Samuel gave it to me. Samuel, you gave

that to me. And I thought about, you know, the

great thing to do would be to take a hammer and

pretend that's an idol. We're going to break

that down. And so I did the smart thing. I think

I went and I talked to Samuel. I said, you know,

Samuel gave that to me. Would it be OK for me

to use that as an illustration of breaking down

an idol? And he just looked at me with that,

uh, I wouldn't prefer you do that, Dad. Can I

find another idol in our house? I don't know

if that's exactly the wording that I liked, but

next thing you know, he comes and he says, Dad,

could you use this? and he had won an award,

a little trophy right there, and I thought about

that, and he was concerned about you, Matthew,

as one of your games that he won that in, and

he was concerned about that as an idol. And next

thing you know, my kids, behind the scenes, they

decided the best thing is rather than choosing

this as an idol or this as an idol, they decided

to spend the afternoon making an idol. So, what

they did right here is at pastor's house this

afternoon, the kids, they made an idol. And I

don't think that's good for a pastor's kid to

do, by the way. I think that's a bad thing to

do. But this is, pretend this is the idol. They

came out after that revival and they began to

look for things in their lives that were displeasing

to the Almighty God. And they said, this has

no business being in my house. This has no business

being in my life. This has no business being

in the forefront of my mind. And they begin to

break them down. And you think about this, you

can almost, they broke the idol and they broke

it to smithereens, to pieces, the Bible says

right there. They cut down the groves. They threw

down the high places. In other words, they destroyed

idols. They made a decision. By the way, is this

a one -time thing in the word of God? Now, by

the way, this is something interesting. When

you read the Word of God, you notice a theme

and a thread throughout the Word of God. In the

New Testament, there were Christians in Ephesus.

And in Acts chapter number 19, there was a great

revival in Ephesus. And by the way, in the revival,

you can almost hear in the background some preaching,

some examples, some understanding what happened

in Hezekiah's time that all of a sudden influenced

the future generation. And this is wild. In Acts

chapter number 19, after a revival service, it

says this. It says, many of them also, which

used curious arts, brought their books together

and burned them, burned them before all men.

And they counted the price of them and found

it 50 ,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew

the word of God and prevail. In other words,

revival leads to idols that are destroyed. Revival

leads to making changes in our everyday life.

50 ,000 pieces of silver, I thought this was

interesting. A piece of silver represented a

day's wages. 50 ,000 pieces represented 50 ,000

day's wages. In other words, if a person worked

six days a week, about... 312 work days per year,

it would be 50 ,000 work days. That's roughly

160 years of labor. And that's not one person's

library. It's a combined value of all those books.

And you think about that, that's an amazing fact.

Money was not the matter. It doesn't matter how

much that idol cost. It doesn't matter how much

effort we put into building. What matters is

our lives pleasing the Almighty God. Now here's

part, just a minor part, but it's not really

a minor part. In our hearts and in our minds,

When God gets ahold of our hearts in a revival

service, in a church service, while we're reading

the Word of God, if we look in our lives and

we have an idol, let's tear them down. Let's

be willing to get rid of them. I'll never forget,

I was a young man, I think 21, 22 years of age,

in Virginia Beach, and I remember one of those

revival services, the preaching of God's Word,

and I remember a young man named Ronnie, he came

up to me and he said, brother Matt, Boy, the

God worked in my heart. He said, I've got these

books, and I've got these things that are displeasing

to God, and I don't just want to throw them in

the trash. I want to burn them. He says, will

you help me? At that period of time, I lived

on a boat. I was in the Navy. I said, sure. So

we drove on Indian River Road. He gathered up

his witchcraft books and his different books.

And I went into the 7 -Eleven there on Indian

River Road in Kempsville. I bought me a Bic lighter.

And then I said, well, he said, well, where are

we going to do this? I said, I don't know. Let's

go find this place. We began to drive out to

Virginia Beach Pungo into the country, or what

I thought was the country. We found a deserted

road that was really not deserted. And in the

middle of the road, we took that pile of witchcraft

books and different things and we lit them. And

all of a sudden, a bonfire. in Pungo in the middle

of the road. It was great. It was great until

that car started coming our direction. And all

of a sudden he pulled up next to us and he said,

I'm an off -duty policeman. What are you doing?

I was dressed in my shirt and tie and I said,

well, he's getting rid of his sin and I'm just

helping him. And he gave me that look and he

says, I'm gonna pretend I didn't see ya. Have

a good night. I don't recommend that way, but

what I wanna say is I do recommend getting rid

of the idols in your life. Look at verse number

two, if you will. Actually, skipped over to verse

number four. Not only revival lead to destroyed

idols, but in verse four, moreover, he commanded

the people. Do you see that in verse four? Moreover.

He commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem

to give the portion of the priests and the Levites

that they might be encouraged in the law of the

Lord. And as you begin to look at that, all of

a sudden Hezekiah realized that God's people,

the Levites and the priests, they were neglected.

People had forgotten the importance of taking

care of the priests and the Levites. So he began

to command them. He says, hey, revival should

lead us to have a giving heart. Revival should

lead us to be generous. Revival should lead us

to give towards the work of the Lord. By the

way, look at verse number five. And as soon as

the commandment came abroad, the children of

Israel, the children of Israel brought in abundance.

By the way, the children of Israel, it doesn't

say they complained. It doesn't say that they

murmured. It didn't say that they gave grudgingly.

There was a certain excitement about it. It says

that they brought, right there in verse number

five, they brought of the abundance the first

fruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey. Brother

Jordan, bring that honey. And of all, the increase

of the field and the tithe of all things brought

they, and it uses that word, in abundantly. abundantly.

It continues halfway through verse six. They

also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep and

the tithe of holy things. Look at verse seven.

And if you miss verse seven, this is absolutely

wild what happened. In the third month, they

began to lay the foundation of the heaps. What

in the world is the foundation of the heaps?

That's a good question, the foundation of the

heaps. and finished them in the seventh month.

And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw

the heaps, the heaps, heaps, they blessed the

Lord. There was so much grain. There was so much

abundance that they begin to bring it down, that

they begin to lay it down in a foundation where

they stacked the goods on a foundation. And then

they put another layer on that foundation. And

they put another layer. And next thing you know,

from the foundation up, It's a heap of offerings.

Now, it's an abundance. It's an amazing that

people, God's people, begin, because of revival,

begin to understand the importance of generosity.

The tithe is the Lord. God commands us to give.

I get to be a part of this great offering right

here. It's not that I have to give, I get to

give. And that's a glorious truth. One of the

great truths that we have as Christians is we

don't have to give, we get to give. with our

lives. Jesus came not to be ministered unto,

but to minister and give his life a ransom for

many. Jesus gives us the example of a life that's

given. We as Christians ought to take our lives

and give them over to God to be used of the Lord

to preach the gospel. By the way, your mom and

dad, you have kids? Those children are a gift

from the Almighty God. And you ought to give

yourselves to raising those kids. Train up your

children to nurture and admonition of the Lord.

You're training your child to live for God. You're

giving your life. By the way, Sunday school teachers,

remember, you're giving your life to train and

to reach people with the gospel and teach them

the word of God. Boy, the choir, you're giving

your voices to lift up in honor of the Almighty

God. We as a church, when we go out on a Saturday,

we're giving our lives to get out the gospel.

And we begin to think about it. We bring the

$5 offerings. Wow, what a joyous morning we had.

That was an abundance. That was almost twice

as much as we could have thought right there.

That's heaps. That comes from a heart that desires

to give to the work of the Lord. And part of

a revival is giving. Now a quick story, Jim Bossie.

He was a man in business. He's been to our church.

but he was a man that lived his life for himself.

He owned shopping centers, he owned houses, he

owned much things, but at 50 -some years of age,

he got gloriously saved. And all of a sudden,

he began to say, man, in my heart and in my mind,

I've lived my life, my first 50 years of my life

for me. And he began to think about, boy, I'd

like to take the rest of the life that God's

given to me and use it for him. So he began to

make decisions. By the way, one of those decisions,

he had a shopping center and he decided to take

that shopping center and at first he was gonna

sell it and give to church planting. But then

he decided, somebody talked to him, he says,

well, why don't you take that same shopping center,

it's worth about $3 million right now, and why

don't you rent it out and take the proceeds that

you get from it and give it to the work of the

Lord. So he said, okay, I'll do that. He got

a property manager and started using that. That

was 20 years ago. That building's worth over

$10 million. Now that building now gives about

$1 million. It's a 10 % cap rate, about $1 million

towards church planting every year. Our church

over in Suffolk, they got, I think it was $70

,000 from Jim Bossy, the foundation right there,

to help buy their building. And all over America,

church after church after church after church

has been blessed by that. that man's heart to

give. God uses your giving for his honor and

his glory. Boy, I heard this morning one of the

kids, he's like, and I think it was my son Amos,

he came up and he was just talking about trying

to save up and be a part when he gets to the

$100 mark right there. He said, I want to have

a part in doing the $100. A kid, six years of

age, but that's an important, a kid at six years

of age can have a heart. When you get revival

in your heart, a heart to be generous. Now here's.

The interesting part, get to, if you will, to

verse number 11. This is the last part of the

message. Remember, revival. Revival. What happens

after revival? Well, we go home, we see anything

that might be an idol in our life, and the idol

is something that keeps us away from God. We

get rid of it. We even destroy it. Boy, we get

revival in our lives. We go home. And our priorities

become outward. We give a life. Our life becomes

a life where we give it over to God. God, my

life is yours. And I say that often. My life

is yours to control. We give generously of our

finances to the work of the Lord. Then this one,

though, is very interesting because verse 11,

really through verse number 19, is almost the

majority of the chapter. And this portion of

scripture, you know, the excitement of idols

being destroyed, the excitement of heaps, heaps

and more heaps. But then there's these verses

at the end of chapter 31, verse number 10, we

begin to spend almost a half a chapter where

it begins to talk about, it gives a list of names.

And it begins to talk about organization. administration,

and it begins to talk about storehouses and workers

and names and almost a pastor, woo, the idols

are destroyed. We're happy about that. We preach

about that. Boy, preachers love to preach about

giving. Man, we get to give. Woo, glory. And

everybody says amen, amen, amen. But we get to

this next part. And it's the biggest part of

the message. After revival, yes, we ought to

destroy the idols. After the revival, yes, we

ought to have a heart to give. But after revival,

well, you'll see it. Look at this if you see

it in verse number 12. Look at the way it's worded

here, verse number 12. And it's hard to look

at verse 11. Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare

chambers in the house of the Lord, and they prepared

them, and brought in the offerings. And the tithes

and the dedicated things. And look at this word

right here. Faithfully. Now, faithfully, that

word, faithfully. And watch what happens here.

Watch this. And it's hard if you miss it. Faithfully

over which Conanaiah the Levite was ruler and

Shimei his brother was the next. And these names

are important. And Jehiel and Azaziah. and Nahath,

and Asahel, and Jeremoth, and Jozebad, and Eliel,

and Ismakiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, who are

overseers under the hand of Koniah and Shimei,

his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah the

king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.

And verse 14, and Cory, the son of Imnah, the

Levite, the porter toward the east, was over

the free will offerings of God to distribute

the oblations of the Lord and the most holy things.

And next, him were Eden and Menenehemen and Jeshua

and Shememiah and Amariah and Shekiniah in the

cities of the priest and the set office to give

the bread. And it keeps going. It seems minor,

but these names are important. Look at verse

18, look at this. And to the genealogy. of all

their little ones, little ones, the children,

their wives, and their sons, and their daughters,

through all the congregation, for in their set

office they sanctified themselves in holiness.

Now this is, I think, could be the most important

thing after revival. After revival, idols destroyed,

woo! After revival, the people have a heart to

give generously, whoo, heaps. But after revival,

the important of remaining faithful. Faithful

in the little things. Faithful in what God has

called you to do. Faithful in just everyday Christianity.

Faithful in the little things. By the way, think

about it. Faithful in being a choir member. Faithful

in opening the doors on Sunday morning. Faithful

in cleaning the bathrooms. Faithful in being

a Sunday school teacher. Faithful in doing a

follow -up visit. Faithful in the sound booth.

Faithful in the singing behind here. Faithful

in playing the organ and the pianos. Faithful

in helping out in the nursery. Faithful in your

everyday telling people about Jesus. By the way,

it doesn't finish there. Faithful in being a

good husband. Faithful in being a good wife.

Faithful and being a teenager that has a heart

for God. Faithful being a young couple, being

ready to serve the King of Kings, the Lord of

Lords. That list can go on and on and on. There's

administration. There's taking care of things.

And each and every one of those names was given

to us to remind us the importance that after

revival, it's desired of God for us to be faithful.

Now, I think about that. Well. Pastor, that is

true in the Old Testament, but that's an Old

Testament truth. Well, guess what? It is an Old

Testament truth, but it's also a New Testament

truth. And you get to the book of 1 Corinthians

chapter number four, the famous verse, moreover,

it is required in stewards. that a man be found

faithful, faithful in the little things. Now,

after revival, yes, tear down the idols, but

you ought not tear them down every day, just

get done with it. Then have a heart to give,

yes, you gotta have a heart to give, absolutely,

but just day after day, week after week, month

after month, be faithful in the little things.

Well, nobody notices, well, God does. Be faithful

in the little things. Well, it doesn't matter.

You're looking at it wrong. Just be faithful

in the work that God has called you to do. Be

faithful. Don't complain. Just get busy being

faithful. We need teenagers today to just make

a commitment. that listen, God's given me an

opportunity of a lifetime to be a teenager, living

for Him. I'm gonna be faithful not only in my

teenage years, but in my early 20s, in my 30s,

my 40s, my 50s, my 60s, till I go home to be

with the Lord. Boy, we need, Brother Dan Menke,

continue to be faithful, faithful. Sometimes

doors in ministry slam shut, and all of a sudden,

why did that happen? Well, it doesn't matter

why it happened, it just happened. Be faithful

to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You need

to continue doing the work that you're doing.

Deacons, behind the scenes, you're praying for

the people of the church. You work hard to follow

up on people, and it doesn't always go our way,

but that doesn't matter. Be faithful to the things

of God. I want to beg you and plead with your

church. Understand the importance, the importance

of being faithful. Faithful, okay. That would

be the sermon, and it is the sermon, but it's,

look at this, look at verse number 20. How do

you skip this? Verse number 20, look at this.

And thus, did who? Okay, and thus did Hezekiah

throughout all Judah and wrought that which was

good and, okay, you guys got the good, but you've

skipped the right, okay, was good and right and

truth before the Lord his God. Now, This is important.

When you see this, and I titled this an extra

sermon, but not a long one. It's not a long one,

it's a short sermon. It's a very short sermon,

okay? But it's an extra sermon that God wanted

us to see. And it's a sermon that something that

Hezekiah did, not before necessary, his idea

wasn't to do it to be seen of men, but it was

done before the Lord his God. It was something,

and what did he do? He did, first of all, good.

Now think about that word, good. He did good.

Okay, he did what? Good. Okay, if you stomp your

foot with me and make me feel better, he did

good. Okay, good. So good, he was doing what

benefits others and pleases God. His good focused

on the benefit of his actions. In other words,

you know, boil this down, Hezekiah was not selfish.

He wasn't merely doing what helped or what benefited

himself. He was doing what was good for God's

people and God's work. That is a good truth.

That means it benefits us, okay? But good, you

know, in our lives, in many sermon, make sure

that we do good. Make sure that we do things

that benefit other people. In other words, we

have to lower our self. and really humble ourselves

and do good and try to be a blessing to everybody

in the will of God. God wants us to do good.

We'd say amen to that. Okay, if you don't say

amen to that, that point gets a little bit longer,

but you did good. It's good, right? Then the

second one was right. Right, okay. Right, what

is right? Right is doing what agrees with God's

standard. What's God's standard? I need a sermon

on the Bible pretty soon, but what's God's standard?

What is right? The word of God is right. This

is a book that is true from beginning to end.

And so right is doing what agrees with God's

standard. Right focuses on correctness. Right

focuses on not what the culture says or what

tradition says or what is popular today. Right

is focused on what God desires. In order to know

what is right, you need to get into the right

book. You need to saturate your heart and mind

in the word of God. Hezekiah, before the Lord,

he did good. But then he also did right, okay?

He did good. It's beneficial to everybody else.

It's not selfish. It's about God's will, helping

other people. And he didn't worry about being

a master or a lord. He sought to be a servant,

you might say. But he did not only good, he did

that was right. He governed his life by the word

of God. Then the last one is truth. Now truth,

this is interesting. Truth is doing it sincerely.

and faithfully from his heart. Now, what this

thing about truth, truth is, is focusing on being

genuine. There's not hypocrisy in his life. There's

not pretending in his life. He's not putting

on a show with his life. What Hezekiah was publicly,

what Hezekiah was publicly matched what he was

privately. That is awesome. That's important

for all of us to be truthful. We ought not be

one way at church and another way at home. Now,

I'm not saying we're perfect, but generally speaking,

you ought to be the same at church and the same

at home. You ought to be somebody who's doing

good, and you're somebody that's living by right,

and you're doing something that's truth, you're

genuine. Oh, boy, we have a lot to work on, don't

we? God looked at Hezekiah, and He said, I want

everybody to know this about Hezekiah. Why did

he want us to know about it? Because it's an

example that we could follow. We can do good.

We can live a life of right, and we can live

a life of truth right there. Okay, we're done

with the sermon and the end right here. I'm gonna

break it down right there again. At the very

end, revival. Whoo! Chapter number 30, revival,

Passover. God's working in a great way. And all

of a sudden, what happens after revival? What

happens after the emotional church service? God's

worked on your heart. Well, I'm going to go home.

I'm going to bust up those idols. I'm going to

go to my house. Anything that doesn't please

the Lord, they be gone. They be out of here.

Then all of a sudden, boy, there's a need. Boy,

I'm going to give generously. I'm going to make

sure that those priests and Levites are taken

care of. Next thing you know, they got heaps

upon heaps. There's a foundation of heaps. But

then the last one is faithful. Let's be faithful.

Now here's the question, is there an idol that

needs to come down in your life? Is there, go

home and take care of it. Is there an area of

obedience where God is asking you to trust him,

maybe in giving? Go home and get busy and be

generous. But number three, are you being faithful,

faithful, where God has placed you? Faithful

in just the everyday things that God would have

you to do. It's required that we're faithful.

In reality, the faithfulness on the little things

is the main thing of the whole chapter right

there. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Dear Father

in heaven, we love you. It's a good truth. It's

been a great night. Thank you for blessing us.

And through the history of our church, we've

seen those revival services. We've seen the emotion.

Help us after those revival service Make those

decisions where the idols are torn down And I

prayed even tonight where you've worked on somebody's

heart in your mind about something in their life

to be done with it Help it with the generosity

help us to be givers live a life of giving And

then Lord I pray that you help us probably the

most important thing is just to be faithful Just

in the everyday things of life Lord, but you've

called us to do maybe the routine of being faithful.

Then Lord, I pray that you help us examine ourselves

on that word good, that word right, and that

word truth. We love you, we ask that you bless

the invitation in Jesus' name, amen. Stand with

me if you will. I'm gonna invite you to do business

with God as the piano and the organ play.