Sermon
263 ~ RECEPIE FOR REVIVAL ~ PART 2
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.
-
We are a church based out of Chennai, India.
-
We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will
-
be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.
-
Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of
-
purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.
-
The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess
-
our promise. We continue our sermon series
-
called A Recipe for Revival where we look at different
-
instances in the Bible where God poured his spirit out on His
-
people leading to reformation and restoration.
-
We hope that through this series, God will fill you with
-
the Holy fire so that you are blazing for Christ in a Dark
-
World. Such as welcome and even it's a
-
joy and a privilege for me to bring God's word.
-
Last week we saw the recipes for revival.
-
That's the entire series we've kept because there are so many
-
things that make revival happen and many a times we are just
-
looking at one specific thing. But God saying, would you
-
prepare your hearts so that I can do so much of work in you
-
through you so that my revival can be seen and felt across the
-
entire nation, across the entire world.
-
We saw last week from the life of Elijah and what that looked
-
like because he was one of the prophets who really sought after
-
God. He stood for God, and that
-
caused him to really go through so many realities in life.
-
In fact, when you read through Elijah's life, you'll see there
-
were these high moments, but there were these also low
-
moments where he was discounting and discrediting and, you know,
-
really making himself feel bad. And that's where God comes in
-
and says, I am with you. He's considered as one of the
-
greatest prophets to have walked on earth.
-
And I believe that's because he stood against every other God
-
that stood against the real true God, the God of Israel.
-
And today I want to ask you if what are what is our heart
-
posture? Because when we read from
-
Elijah, there were two key things that came out.
-
One, we need to pick a side. Very clearly there was a group
-
that had picked the side of Bal and we saw that they didn't make
-
it the the, the very thing that they were cutting their bodies
-
and spilling blood. Nothing came out of it.
-
And God is reminding and asking us today, will you allow me to
-
be by your side? Can we pick and choose to be on
-
God's side no matter what? The second thing we saw is we
-
need to live unaltered lives. Maybe our altars are broken.
-
Life has happened. It's treated as bad.
-
We've broken down altars. We've really said, God, you are
-
not there with me. But can we rebuild those altars?
-
Because when we rebuild these altars, when we lay everything
-
down, the sacrifices, when we quench it with water, his
-
supernatural fire will fall. You know, one of the verses that
-
caught me last week, which has been resonating with me along
-
through is from Leviticus chapter 6, verse 13.
-
And this is what it says. The fire must be kept burning on
-
the altar continuously, it must not go out.
-
The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously, it must
-
not go out. This is basically a command that
-
was given to Moses as he had taken his people through the
-
wilderness as he set up God's temple.
-
The lamp stand where it said the altar of God must continuously
-
be burning with fire, It must not go out.
-
And I pray that would be a heart that we would be continuously
-
burning, continuously burning in season, out of season in in need
-
of a miracle, in the midst of a miracle.
-
After receiving the miracle, our hearts will keep burning on the
-
altar continuously. And today with Jesus coming in
-
and today with the with the with the assurance of the comfort of
-
being with us when we call on him, the Holy Spirit is next to
-
us. We are called to move towards
-
this. And then today we're going to be
-
looking into the life of Moses and one of the key incidents in
-
his life of being there by the burning Bush.
-
And I even as I'm, I'm, I'm excited to talk about this topic
-
because spiritually speaking, I'm Moses son and I'm named
-
Geshum, the son of Moses who was born in Midian and his name
-
means a stranger born in a foreign land.
-
And every time I relate to this because after he had everything,
-
God comes and meets with him. And I believe a lot of us are in
-
need of a revival after we've pursued certain things in life,
-
after we have certain things, there's still that emptiness,
-
that void that that lacking, that purpose that God's created
-
me for. And I pray that as you receive
-
this word, this recipe for a revival will be your recipe for
-
your revival. The biggest threat to revival is
-
not our surroundings, our circumstances, climatic
-
conditions, political landscapes, but it always has to
-
do with us personally. The biggest threat to revival
-
has to do with us. Why?
-
Because our own struggles, our own turmoil within causes us to
-
discount the revival. And today, what is revival?
-
When you look into the word of God, a revival is a place of
-
obedience. A revival is a place of coming
-
for renewal. A revival is a place of
-
expectancy. A revival is a place of wanting
-
God to show up. There's no specific word as
-
revival. We've seen glimpses of revival
-
across history. After the church came, when we
-
read the Scriptures, we see postures of revival.
-
And so today, even as we read, I wanted to take one verse and
-
just quickly go through that as part of the intro before we get
-
into the life of Moses. Romans chapter 13 verses 11 to
-
14. And this is what it says in the
-
NLT. This is all the more urgent for
-
you know how late it is. Time is running out.
-
Wake up for a salvation is nearer now than we first
-
believed. The night is almost gone.
-
The day of salvation will soon be here.
-
So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the
-
shining armor of right living. Because we we belong to the day,
-
we must live decent lives for all to see.
-
Don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and
-
drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living,
-
or in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself to the
-
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and don't let yourselves
-
think about ways to indulge your evil desires for revival to
-
happen. There are two key things that we
-
need to be aware of even as we're living in this world
-
today. I've taken this passage
-
specifically because Paul writes us to the Roman church.
-
The when he's writing to them, they are constantly in in a
-
culture war. They are constantly in a war
-
where they're trying to fit in and also trying to be a
-
Christian. This is what he says.
-
The first thing that he wants us to be aware of and he tells us
-
is wake up. The first thing, it's no longer
-
us who are called to be sleeping, but rather we rise up.
-
If you notice, if you're pursuing the culture of this
-
world, there's a certain subtlety that we lie dormant.
-
We lie dominant. It might look like we are the
-
end thing. It might look like we are
-
pursuing the things that the world is calling as great and
-
things, but in our spirit we are dominant.
-
And that's what we speak to our spirit and say wake up.
-
This is not what following Jesus looks like.
-
It needs us to wake up so that we'll be able to to see what God
-
is calling us to do. Because when we are not waking
-
up in a spirit, in a physical sense, we are absorbed, we are
-
exhausted, We are taking. We're just so caught up in
-
taking care of our day-to-day obligations that, mind you,
-
these are all important. But at the end of the day, we
-
are no different than anyone else in the world who's pursuing
-
their careers and everything. If we have Jesus within us,
-
there is something that our spirit desires.
-
There is something that our spirit wants us to pursue after.
-
And so I would ask you churchly, can we all wake up?
-
Can a spirit man wake up? The night is over, dawn is about
-
to break. Wake up because God is doing
-
something. Wake up because God is doing
-
something. What are the some of the things
-
that we've been sleeping dominant at?
-
Probably our family, our marriages, our parenting, our
-
children, probably the society we see.
-
Every aspect of this is crumbling.
-
It's crumbling. You know when you actually hold
-
a wooden piece that's been infested by termites, you will
-
soon realize outside it looks like a plank, but the minute you
-
take it just falls down like dust.
-
That is what our lives look like if we haven't woken up because
-
today the church has to wake up. The revival happens when we wake
-
up in our spirit man. When we wake up and say no, this
-
seems hype now, but it's not the future.
-
This will leave a generation thirsty.
-
This, if I continue to do this, will destroy my marriage.
-
This will wreck my children's future.
-
This will take me away from Jesus.
-
So church, would you wake up? The second thing Paul says to
-
the Romans is put on because many a times you've put on the
-
things of the world to fit in, but you can't wear 2 clothes.
-
You can't wear three clothes. You know, the me, my wife is a
-
die hard fan of friends. And there's this one episode
-
where, you know, Joey and Chandler are roommates and he
-
wants to get a Chandler that he decides to wear all his clothes,
-
all the clothes that are in his wardrobe.
-
He comes out wearing all the clothes.
-
And so today I want to ask you, you can't wear it all.
-
You can only choose one outfit. And that one outfit, is it of
-
God or is it of the world? Is it of Jesus or is it against
-
Jesus? It says here in the message it
-
says don't loiter and linger. What is loitering and lingering?
-
When we loiter, we linger in the wrong places, we stop in
-
unnecessary places, we are aimless, we are without aim, we
-
have no intentionality. And I pray the Holy Spirit
-
brings intentionality back. When we put on Jesus, when we
-
put on his garment of praise, everything changes.
-
And that's what revival looks like.
-
Because today if you and I have to have a recipe for revival,
-
it'll happen only when we wake up and only when you put on God
-
clothing over our life. The second thing we see in that
-
same verse when we read the message also, it says don't
-
loiter and linger. It also says stop bickering and
-
grabbing. We are meant for eternity and
-
time and again I'm that emphasis has been coming from the sermons
-
that we've been preaching. Keep your eyes on eternity
-
because we end up grabbing so many things that slow us down in
-
this world, that slow us down in this Christian walk that slow us
-
down in pursuing Jesus. And I pray that we won't be too
-
dead, we won't be too heavy to say God, I can't partake of
-
revival. But when we put on God's
-
clothing, when we wake up from the slumber that the spirit man
-
is, we have a deep desire because we know a sinful state
-
keeps us distracted, keeps us aimless, keeps us loitering.
-
But we rise up to see that God's given a God-given identity in us
-
to seek for revival. And you might be thinking, guess
-
from I've heard the word revival and I've seen it happen in
-
groups. But today, God saying, I want
-
you to pursue revival, you and me have to pursue it so that
-
when we gather, we'll be able to witness the revival.
-
We'll be able to witness the revival.
-
Over the last couple of months, you know, we've been even now
-
Friday prayers that we've been praying.
-
God's been giving us a vision of this entire stretch in this
-
entire room here being like a river of God.
-
And we had even, in fact, one of the guest speakers, his wife,
-
when he walked in, she said, I had this image of river flowing
-
here. And she said, I hope people come
-
and drink from it. The river of God is here and I
-
pray if our hearts are revived, we will be able to take water
-
and partake of it. We'll be able to take water and
-
live in the fullness that God wants us to live.
-
As I mentioned, we'll be going. We'll be looking into the life
-
of Moses and a lot of you know the story of Moses.
-
For those of you who watched the 10 Commandments, the Prince of
-
Egypt and all that, Moses was born into a Jewish Home, into a
-
home of Levite. And we see right then the
-
Pharaoh given orders that all the kids, male children had to
-
be killed. And this mother did something
-
daring and I think she knew that this child was someone special.
-
Put him in a basket, sent him along the river.
-
Pharaoh's daughter finds the baby, takes him in.
-
He grows in royalty, but there comes a point in time when he
-
knows he is not one among the Egyptians, but his people are
-
the ones in slavery strikes one of the Egyptians.
-
Now he's accused of murder, and before he can be accused and
-
charged, he runs away. He lands up in the land of
-
Midian, ends up marrying the chieftain's daughter, and life
-
happens. And this entirety that I just
-
summed up is technically around 80 years of summing up.
-
But even here, this is where God wants him to actually meet with
-
him. God has a plan in store.
-
And so don't even. I've been repeating this time
-
and again with even with the Easter message that I spoke, the
-
resurrecting life. You don't get to tap out of your
-
race when you're following Jesus.
-
You don't get to tap out. You get to ask God, God, give me
-
the strength, but we don't get to tap out because there's
-
something more that God always has in store.
-
He could have tapped out way back, but God had not was not
-
done with Moses yet. And so even as he's in this
-
scenario, we're going to look at three things that caused Moses
-
to actually experience revival in his own life.
-
The emphasis is for his own life, yes.
-
The outcome of it, what he did was for an entire nation.
-
That's different, but the revival that happened initially,
-
the revival that Moses experienced was from God himself
-
on his own life. And I would ask you to turn your
-
attention to the first thing that I want to say.
-
Revival causes me to turn towards God's consuming fire.
-
Revival causes me to turn towards God's consuming fire.
-
And even as I mentioned this, there's a very much locked in to
-
Moses story because he saw that burning Bush.
-
And so as we read this, I want you to come to a place to
-
realize God. What is it that I need to see
-
off you? The distance between Median and
-
Horeb, Muhoreb is where God decided it's called.
-
The mountain of God is roughly around 25 miles.
-
It's roughly a day's journey for someone who's actually
-
shepherding and who's taking along their cattle.
-
And we see that as Moses had left and was tending to his
-
flock, he landed up at the mountain of God.
-
He didn't know it. He was there at the mountain of
-
God at Horeb. And we look at the timeline, as
-
I mentioned, 80 years. God meets him at his 80th year,
-
meets him to tell him he's not done yet.
-
Revival can start at any stage of our lives.
-
And like Moses, many of us today are at peace with our lives.
-
We are like, you know what? I don't think I can handle more.
-
You know, I've strived far too long.
-
Well, I've, I've got here with great difficulty, but God
-
saying, son, daughter, I have much more for you.
-
I have much more for you than what your eyes can actually see,
-
than what your hearts can actually desire for.
-
To experience the revival of our hearts, we need to be at the
-
place where God resides. That is the fundamental truth.
-
To experience the revival, we need to be where God resides.
-
And I believe it's no accident that Moses moved from Midian to
-
Horeb with his cattle. He did it as part of his work,
-
but he didn't realize that he was entering God's territory.
-
He didn't realize he was entering the Holy of Holies
-
where God resides in Moses wet with God right where he was
-
residing at Exodus chapter 3 verses one to four we are
Exodus 3 chapter mention
-
reading the amplified because this is where I felt it really
-
caught Moses micro expressions. Now Moses was keeping the flock
-
of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led his
-
flock to the West side of the wilderness and came to Horeb
-
Sinai, the mountain of God. The Angel of the Lord appeared
-
to him in a blazing flame of fire from the midst of a Bush,
-
and he looked and behold, the Bush was on fire, yet it was not
-
consumed. So Moses said, I must turn away
-
from the flock and see this great site.
-
Why the Bush is not burnt up. Moses said, I must turn away and
-
see this great site. I must turn away today.
-
Church, I want to ask you, are we so caught up in what God has
-
already given that we are not willing to turn up and look at
-
what God is calling us to see today?
-
What is it that God's calling us to see?
-
Every one of us have our own flocks.
-
Every one of us have something that we closely guard.
-
Probably our work could include a marriage, our parents, our
-
children, everything. There is something that we hold
-
close, we guarded. But God's saying, would you look
-
up? Because I'm wanting to do
-
something more than what you already are experiencing.
-
I'm wanting to do something more.
-
What Moses saw with his eye did not make sense by his logic.
-
What Moses saw with his eye did not make sense with his logic.
-
You know, ever since we came into this hall, into this place,
-
and one of the things that as we've been praying repeatedly,
-
the constant thing that I've been sensing is that God let
-
this place be like a burning Bush.
-
Let this place be like a burning Bush.
-
Why? Because we want people to come
-
in here who don't have jobs to come in here, who have
-
sicknesses to come in here, who have ill health to come in here,
-
who have confusion of the mind to come here.
-
And when they encounter the burning Bush, that is your
-
presence. That is your very presence.
-
Things will change. Things will change, revival will
-
happen, and I pray that each and everyone of us will lift up our
-
eyes to see what God is doing. God is constantly doing
-
something. Can we lift up our eyes?
-
Proverbs chapter 15 verses 14 says the mind of the intelligent
-
and discerning seeks knowledge and eagerly inquires after it,
-
but the mouth of the stubborn fool feeds on foolishness.
-
And the reason why I took this is because our mind and our
-
intelligence has to discern things here.
-
Moses was intelligent. Moses was like, this is odd.
-
It looks like it's burning, but it's not burning.
-
What is happening here? I need to go see it.
-
Probably it's it's probably it's too hot.
-
It's too bright. Probably my eyes are weakening.
-
Probably I'm getting old. No, but I need to witness this.
-
There's no smoke that's coming. It is not burning.
-
I need to go see it. There is something that does not
-
make sense to logic. That is something that does not
-
make sense to logic. And I pray that we will rise up.
-
I pray we will rise up. I pray we will rise up.
-
John, 15 versus 16 to 17, says you have not chosen me, but I
-
have chosen you, and I've appointed you and placed you and
-
purposefully planted you so that you would go and bear fruit and
-
keep on bearing that your fruit will remain and be lasting.
-
So that whatever you ask in my Father's name as my
-
representative, he may give it to you.
-
This is what I commanded you, that you love and unselfishly
-
seek the best for one another. Jesus tells this and he tells us
-
that he is the one who's chosen us.
-
So today when we look over here, God is probably evidently doing
-
something in all of our lives. He wants us to grab our
-
attention when we are not, when we are stagnant, when we fail to
-
put on. When we fail to wake up in our
-
spirit man, he will be doing certain things and I pray we'll
-
respond like Moses responded. He moved.
-
His primary attention was a flock.
-
He moved it to what God was doing.
-
And I pray we all will have that boldness to look at what God is
-
doing. Move, take that step, inquire,
-
say God, what is happening? Pray about it.
-
God, can I go towards this? God, is this where you're
-
wanting me to go? Meditate on His Word so that
-
it'll align with where He's taking you, so that you will be
-
able to experience that. Remember, whatever God calls you
-
to do, it'll be out of His presence and not without it.
-
It'll be out of His word. Confirmation will come.
-
You will get confirmation through others.
-
You will get your prayers being answered.
-
You will see time and again God is moving this as you seek after
-
it. He will work things out as you
-
seek after it. He'll clear everything that's
-
been confusing you. He'll clear everything.
-
The fog lifts up. You're able to see clearly what
-
He's calling you to do. And so I pray that we will lift
-
up our eyes and turn it towards God's consuming fire, Towards
-
God's consuming fire. What is our horeb today looking
-
like? Where you and I?
-
What is our horeb looking like today?
-
What is our horeb looking like? It's not within the four walls
-
of our home coast. Really.
-
We can be so siloed and think, you know what I think I'm
-
waiting for a burning Bush experience right where I'm at.
-
But God is saying you will find it in the company of His people.
-
With Jesus coming into the world.
-
He came for his bride. And who is his bride?
-
You and me are His bride. The church that gathers is His
-
bride and it says clearly that when we gather He is present.
-
Matthew chapter 18, verse 19. You all know this verse.
-
It says again, I say to you that if two believers on earth agree
-
that is our one mind and harmony about anything that they ask
-
within the will of God, it will be done for them by my Father in
-
heaven. The sheep for Moses was not the
-
focus. He had a true call in his life.
-
And I pray that in the midst of pursuing yes, we do come once a
-
week to church. Yes, we come for close to 90
-
minutes. We have a service, but I pray
-
when you're in the midst of everyone, say God show up, God
-
confirm, God, speak to me because it'll be through his
-
people, it'll be through his Word, it'll be for his glory.
-
It'll be for his glory. The second thing that we see
-
with revival is revival causes us to respond to God's voice.
-
It'll cause us to respond, yes. The first thing is our attention
-
is seen is God our he moves us and then we'll respond to God's
-
voice. Exodus chapter 3 verses four to
Exodus 3 chapter mention
-
six goes on to say when the Lord saw that he turned away from the
-
flock to look, God called to him from the midst of the Bush and
-
said, Moses, Moses and he said, here I am.
-
Then God said, do not come here. Take your sandals off your feet
-
out of respect, because the place on which you're standing
-
is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of
-
your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
-
Jacob. Then Moses hid his face because
-
he was afraid to look at God. Then Moses hid his face because
-
he was afraid to look at God. When the Lord saw that, he
-
turned away from the flock to look.
-
God called to him. God wants your attention.
-
It's interesting. As I was preparing, you know, I
-
was reading through the story and I knew there was something
-
more. I was reading it across
-
different versions and for some reason till I think Tuesday or
-
Wednesday, I didn't move to reading it in the Amplified.
-
But when I read in the amplified, I realized these
-
micro expressions matter to God. The micro expressions are a
-
direct route from a heart posture.
-
So what looks here? When the Lord saw, he turned
-
away from the flock to look. There was suddenly expectancy.
-
There was suddenly what's happening?
-
What is this? This is new.
-
When he could respond to God's supernatural fire, the consuming
-
fire, God decided to talk. A lot of us are probably today
-
sitting there and realizing, you know what?
-
I can't hear God speak. It's probably you're not looking
-
at God, you're looking at someone else.
-
I can't look at someone else and expect the person who I need an
-
answer from to answer. I need to look at the person who
-
I want an answer from to actually get an answer.
-
I pray that we all will look to God so that He can speak to us.
-
We are many a times looking to a person who's already praying and
-
thinking that person is enough for us so that they can listen
-
and tell. No God is saying, I came down.
-
I bridged this relationship so that you and I can have a
-
conversation so that you can look to me, so that you can
-
behold me. You can behold me.
-
I pray to us that we will never take our worship lightly.
-
We get to worship our Creator. We get to worship our God who is
-
seated on the throne right here every time we gather and as we
-
worship Him, He's willing to respond.
-
If our eyes is on Jesus, many times our worship, our eyes are
-
on people in front, Our eyes are on the mistakes that they are
-
making when singing. Our eyes are on the distractions
-
that are preoccupied our mind and I pray it will be consumed
-
with fire so that we will be able to look at Jesus.
-
God responds to Moses eagerness of the supernatural because he
-
turned away and was looking at the burning Bush.
-
God called him out. David, who's a worshiper of God
-
whom who God says, you know he captured my heart with his
-
worship, says this in Psalm 113. A lot of us would have probably
-
read it says, Oh Lord you are examine my heart and know
-
everything about me. You know when I sit down or
-
stand up. You know my thoughts even when
-
I'm far away. You see me when I travel and
-
when I rest at home. You know everything I do.
-
You know what I'm going to say even before I say it.
-
God knows everything, yet He's waiting for a response.
-
God knows everything we would say, yet He's waiting for us to
-
look at Him. And behold, God knows what our
-
choices and the outcome for choices are, yet He's waiting.
-
Because that is the gift of free will.
-
He doesn't govern it. He doesn't get to control it,
-
but he delights that we choose him.
-
God draws Moses into His Holiness and in his presence
-
immediately. And I pray that that will be
-
something that when we obey to the supernatural, God calls that
-
we'll realize that we are in his presence.
-
He establishes who he is. He tells Moses, if you've
-
thought you're seeing a ghost, no, I am the God of Abraham.
-
I am the God of Isaac. I am the God of Jacob.
-
And I pray that as God reveals himself, fear won't cause us to
-
move away, but would cause us to stay.
-
The fear of God will cause us to stay and not move away.
-
When my heart and my attention are set on God, he speaks and I
-
get to listen. So today I want to ask you, what
-
is your burning Bush looking like today?
-
And I mentioned earlier as a church, I believe there's a
-
burning Bush here. I believe you're called to be a
-
city on a hill. We're called to be a light that
-
shines and attracts one person at a time.
-
But today, even as I'm responding to the consuming
-
fire, I'm asking you, are you responding to the supernatural
-
thing that God's causing you to see?
-
What is God causing you to see? I'll tell you time and again,
-
back in 2011 when God called me and was telling me something,
-
dreams which are far beyond what I could think of, that undress
-
that He was giving me with regard to media, and I had to
-
take that step. I didn't know it.
-
I didn't know it, but I knew. God.
-
You are calling me to this. I'll be obedient.
-
Things, circumstances, everything within my capacity I
-
thought will be OK and enough. But God caused me to leave
-
certain things because my identity was starting to get
-
built on that. God moved me out so that my
-
identity will be built on Him. And so today, if you're doing
-
what we are doing, it's solely because we could sense at a
-
point in our time that we saw the supernatural hand of God,
-
supernatural hand of God. And we continue to seek that
-
because that is the one that causes us to sustain.
-
That is the one that causes us to see him here.
-
That is the one that causes us to be in the centre of His will
-
because of the hindrances that are around us.
-
What are our eyes fixed on? Revival cannot start corporately
-
until the flames are ignited personally.
-
So today, if I'm wanting to see a revival in church, if I'm
-
wanting to see a revival in Mia Zion, I can't expect it if I
-
don't desire for it, if I don't pursue it, if I don't respond to
-
what God's calling me to see and do.
-
Personal revival is key. Personal revival is key.
-
And I want to turn our attention to the New Testament.
-
One of the examples that I see how personal revival is key, it
-
goes beyond whatever the nature of us, whatever we've done,
-
everything, because the minute you encounter the supernatural
-
work of God, everything changes. And I'm talking of a character
-
which I loved talking about earlier.
-
His name is Zacchaeus. It says in Luke chapter 19,
-
verses 1 to 10, it says Jesus entered Jericho and was passing
-
through. A man was there by the name of
-
Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and
-
was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was,
-
but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.
-
So he ran ahead and climbed the Sycamore 50 to see him, since
-
Jesus was coming out of the way. So Zacchaeus was the chief tax
-
collector, hated by all because he was serving the Romans.
-
He was collecting their taxes. But there was a deep desire in
-
his heart to see Jesus. There was a deep desire for him
-
to see. The only problem was he was
-
shot, but what did he see? Because he had a deep desire.
-
He responded to the deep desire and what did he do?
-
He ran ahead. He ran ahead, meaning he ran.
-
If Jesus was over here, he ran ahead.
-
He found something that he could climb.
-
He climbed on top and he was waiting for him.
-
He climbed. And I pray that we all will have
-
something we want to see in Jesus because that will cause us
-
to move, that will cause us to put on, that will cause us to
-
move from a place and be expectant.
-
That's when revival sets in. Verse 5, when Jesus comes, what
-
happens When Jesus reaches the spot?
-
He looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down
-
immediately. I must stay at your house today.
-
So he came down and once and welcomed him gladly.
-
The outcome of the wanting plus running bus climbing is equal to
-
revival. The outcome of the wanting plus
-
running bus climbing is equal to revival.
-
What revival happened when Jesus walked in, everything changed.
-
The very thing that he had taken in terms of underhand dealings
-
and everything he said, I'll return it not just once or
-
twice, but 3 * 4 times, I'll return it back.
-
If I've cheated anyone, I'll give it back.
-
That's what revival cause and that Jesus says today salvation
-
has come into this entire household.
-
I'll give half my positions in verses it says, but Zakir stood
-
up and said to the Lord, look Lord here and now I give half of
-
my positions to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody or
-
of anything, I will pay back four times the amount Jesus said
-
to him today salvation has come to this house because this man
-
too is the son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to
-
seek and save the lost. So today, church, I want to ask
-
you, are you willing to see God for who He is so that you can
-
hear and talk to Him? Are you willing and wanting to
-
see Him, that you're able to run ahead and wait for Him to show
-
up? Our seeking will only lead us to
-
His holy place. Our seeking will only lead us to
-
His Holiness. Our seeking will only take us
-
back to the Holy of Holies where we meet with Him, where our
-
altars are there, as you heard last week, it'll be just us and
-
our altar with our head down. We will be praying in a way
-
where our eyes are wanting to see God alone, are wanting to
-
see God alone. The third thing that we read
-
from the story with Moses encountering God at the burning
-
Bush. Revival causes me to step into
-
God's mission. Revival causes me to step into
-
God's mission. This is what I love about the
-
way Moses encountered God. He took his eyes from his flock.
-
He responded to God's supernatural.
-
Because he responded to God's supernatural, God spoke.
-
He was able to hear God's voice. Because he heard God's voice, he
-
was able to hear to the mission God had for him, and he was able
-
to step into God's mission for his life.
-
Revival causes us to step into God's mission for the time, the
-
place, the season. God's placed us in God's
-
mission. It's not my mission, it's God's
-
mission. It's not my work, but it's God's
-
work. It's not my doing, but it's
-
God's doing. Exodus chapter 3 verses 7 to 6
-
goes on to say the Lord said I in fact have seen the
-
affliction, the suffering, the desolation of my people who are
-
in Egypt and I've heard their cry because of their
-
taskmasters, the oppressors, for I know their pain and suffering.
-
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand power of the
-
Egyptians and to to bring them up from the land to a land that
-
is good and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey in a
-
land of plenty, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the
-
Amorite, the Pedicite, the Hivite and the Jebusites.
-
Now behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to
-
me and have also seen how the Egyptians oppressed them.
-
Therefore come now and I will send you to Pharaoh, and then
-
bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
-
But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and
-
that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
-
And God said, certainly I will be with you, and this will be
-
the sign to you that it is I who have sent you.
-
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve
-
and worship at this mountain. God wanted not just Moses, but
-
an entire nation that he had set apart to worship him, to seek
-
him. The primary focus for all of us
-
as we seek His face and presence is we will be able to listen to
-
what He's telling us, listen to telling us.
-
And I pray many a times the mission of God that is over our
-
lives will look like us going back to the very things that we
-
were muddling up in our sinful nature and redeeming.
-
When God redeems, He's redeeming people from their sinful nature.
-
He came to seek and save that which was lost.
-
He will send you back to the seeking and the saving that
-
which was lost. The JD that is a job description
-
is not going to, He's going to invite you into a throne room of
-
just sitting where servants will come and help you.
-
No, that's not the Christian life that he's calling us to.
-
He's not calling us to a life. He's calling us to a life of
-
what he modelled here on in this earth.
-
If he walked, I have to walk. If he stayed, I get to stay.
-
If he touched people, I get to touch people in his name, in his
-
power. That is what God is calling us
-
to do the mission of God as much as we culminate and put words
-
together, vision, mission. And you know, this is what our
-
next five years are look like. This is what the next 15 years
-
are going to look like. Rise up church, rise up.
-
We need to hear the mission directly from God because when
-
God speaks, he will speak to the insecurities of our own hearts,
-
to the areas where we don't want to go.
-
Moses didn't want to go back to Pharaoh.
-
Moses knew what all was happening.
-
That Moses was would have thought, you know what, this is
-
40 years too old. But God was like, no, I'm
-
raising you up to go there. I'm raising you up to go there.
-
Revival is so that we will be God's storehouse right in the
-
place where he's called us to be, that we'll be storehouses of
-
his presence, of his power, of his magnificence, right where he
-
has called us to be. I want to draw attention to a
-
story that I came across, the stories about revival meeting
-
that broke out in New York and was started by this lay pastor
-
was appointed to oversee this Dutch church, Old Dutch Church.
-
The church was not growing, and it was, but he grew up.
-
This person grew up as a tailor. He was a businessman, an
-
ordinary businessman. 48 years later, his life shifted
-
completely when he was offered a new position he took up.
-
Without hesitation. He left his business and moved
-
into a small room, into a dying church on the corner of Felton
-
and William streets in New York. Other churches had left as well,
-
but many thought the old Dutch church should throw in the
-
towel. And they got his layperson, his
-
name is Lanfier, who was hiring, they hired him as a lay
-
missionary. And because they hired him,
-
they, they, they knew he was convinced for the right job.
-
And as he was doing, he was doing house visits and
-
everything. But then during the afternoons,
-
he realized what will happen if I actually start an afternoon
-
prayer for business people and the whole.
-
He put a signage out on the front, sing afternoon prayer.
-
We meet from 12 to one stop for 510 or 20 minutes or for the
-
whole hour, as your time admits. And as Lanfia was meeting there,
-
he was worried. Did I do something?
-
Did I did I? Am I doing something that won't
-
work out? There's no one who's told
-
whether this will work out or not, but this is the beautiful
-
thing. God definitely has been speaking
-
to him. Because if God had to alert him
-
to something, God caused him to respond to what he wanted him to
-
do. And so as he waited there, four
-
people trickled in their next. They plan to meet next
-
Wednesday. It moved on.
-
And the next Wednesday they had six people.
-
The next Wednesday again. And then they decided, you know
-
what? Why are we doing this every
-
Wednesday? Let's do it every day of the
-
week. Because businessmen could
-
forsake their lunch and come. And before they knew it, 20 men
-
came to the second noon prayer meeting.
-
Then the Wednesday after that, 40.
-
They decided to make it on a daily basis from October 14th.
-
The nation was shocked because they went into one of the worst
-
financial crisis in history. Banks were closed, many people
-
went hungry, but landfill never even flinched with the meetings
-
but continued to grow and grow. And that was revival.
-
What started in New York spread across the nation into different
-
states. One of the outcomes that as we
-
read we see is that the they call it a big revival.
-
And the reason why it was so unique was it was a layman's
-
movement. It wasn't a person who was
-
ordained or anything. It was a person who was ready to
-
obey what God had called him to do.
-
The second thing it was it was non sectarian, which means there
-
was no denominational that people are from different
-
denominations. They just gathered to pray.
-
They gathered every tribe, every nation, every tongue gathered to
-
pray. And this brought about unity in
-
the body. This brought about unity in the
-
body. And today I want to ask you, are
-
we desperate for a revival? Are we desperate for a revival
-
Because Moses, when he was there, was given the mission to
-
do? Today, with Jesus coming and
-
going, we all have a mission to do.
-
We might not get specific ones like what was given for Moses to
-
go and liberate in it, but we'll get glimpses of that.
-
Liberate those who are captive. It could be those who are caught
-
into bonded labor. It could be different aspects of
-
society. Whatever it is, the ultimate
-
thing is we need to get people from the clutches of sin, from
-
the camp of the enemy into the camp of God.
-
And what does that look like? That they'll find freedom in
-
Jesus. They'll find hope and strength
-
in Jesus that they will be able to call on Jesus and say You are
-
my God and Lord. So today, our time here on this
-
earth is very short. Time here on this earth is very
-
short. Each of us, Moses lived 120
-
years. Most of us, we don't know what
-
our timeline looks like, but our time is short.
-
Eternity is real. People are dying every day.
-
Without knowing Jesus. We don't have the luxury of
-
casual ministry. So today, if we are calling the
-
church to be reminded about revival is we are not OK with
-
casual ministry. We are just not OK with just
-
meeting and just encouraging the ten of us again and again.
-
No, God, what do you want this tent to do individually speak to
-
us. We need to be in different 10
-
different directions so that when we get together, we
-
encourage one another, we strengthen one another and we go
-
out into the world so that we'll be able to take the world in
-
your name, in your name. So even as I close, you might
-
have heard the story of land fear and you're like, you know
-
what God, that seems too big. It isn't too big.
-
It just comes to the simple thing as we saw from Moses life,
-
He saw the supernatural. He heard God's voice.
-
He responded to God's call. If land fear could do it, we all
-
get to do it. He started a 12 to one prayer in
-
the afternoon. What is God calling you to
-
start? What is God positioning you?
-
Even as we go through this year's theme about being
-
positioned to possess the promise, what is He positioning
-
you for? Because today, what you and I
-
are getting positioned for are far bigger than what the world
-
has to offer, is far bigger. So I pray that we would wake up.
-
I pray that we'll put on. I pray we'll be able to witness
-
the supernatural with our eyes. I pray we'll be able to hear
-
God's voice and in turn step into God's mission for our life.
-
So Church, can I pray for you, Lord?
-
I just pray and ask, Lord, that even as we heard your word that
-
it'll sink deep. Lord, I pray, Holy Spirit, come
-
into every space. Lord Jesus, your children are
-
listening into, I pray into homes, into offices, into buses,
-
into cars, into walkways, wherever, Lord, wherever they're
-
listening and watching. You would flood in like a flood,
-
Lord Jesus, right now, I pray that Lord, we would respond.
-
Lord Jesus, we will wake up from the slumber, Lord Jesus, that
-
we've been, Lord, having in this world that we'll wake up.
-
Our spirit man will be awakened. I pray we'll put on your
-
clothing, Lord Jesus, so that we'll have the boldness that
-
comes from you, Lord Jesus, through you.
-
And I pray you'll be able to respond like Moses into revival,
-
into our areas. I pray our families will see the
-
revival. Our neighborhoods will see the
-
revival. Our church will see the revival.
-
I pray we ourselves will see the revival from head to toe.
-
Lord Jesus, anoint each and everyone, strengthen each and
-
everyone, bless the work of their hands.
-
So I pray that Lord, we will be missional about everything we
-
do, Lord Jesus, not just that one thing, but everything.
-
Be glorified, be honoured, be praised.
-
Go before us. I pray, Lord, as we wait on you,
-
we are waiting for something marvellous.
-
We are waiting for something glorious.
-
Lord, do your great work in and through US.
-
Lord, be with us. In your most holy name we pray,
-
Amen, Amen, Amen. I pray that even as you head
-
out, you will be revived inside out.
-
You'll be able to respond to the supernatural God has been
-
wanting you to see. In your response, God's voice
-
will be heard and you'll be able to live without the mission that
-
God set out for you yesterday. Pray that you have a blessed
-
week. God bless you all.
-
Thanks for listening to this message.
-
We hope you were blessed to hear more messages like this.
-
Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past
-
episodes. If you like what you are
-
hearing, consider rating us, subscribing and even sharing it
-
with friends. That would really help us.
-
For more content from Via Zion and to connect with us, go to
-
Via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus
-
finds life.