Sermon

Repossessing the Presence

Reamstown Church of God Podcast

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  1. Welcome to the Reams Town Church of God podcast.

  2. Wherever you're listening from, we hope you are blessed by

  3. today's message. Good morning, everyone.

  4. I have certainly since the presence of the Lord in this

  5. House this morning. Have you not?

  6. Would you give the Lord a praise again?

  7. All during this worship time I have experienced His presence.

  8. If you are here and you're new to Pentecostal Pentecostal

  9. church, what you witnessed a few moments might ago might be

  10. different to you. The Bible clearly teaches us in

  11. First Corinthians 12 and also chapter 14 that there are times

  12. when we gather that the Holy Spirit will speak through an

  13. individual in a language that we don't know, a heavenly language,

  14. shall we say. And I'm someone gifted by God

  15. will interpret that message. And it is to encourage us.

  16. It is to challenge us. It's not a replacement for the

  17. Word of God, not at all. In fact, if it ever contradicts

  18. the word of God, you discard it immediately.

  19. Of course, that doesn't happen here, and I thank God for that.

  20. But that's the Spirit of the Lord moving among us.

  21. And if there's ever been an hour that we need to move of the Holy

  22. Spirit and I want to talk to you a little bit about that today.

  23. Really I want to focus a bit on revival and renewal.

  24. Last Sunday, of course, I spoke on water baptism as it related

  25. to soul saved and life changed. And I mentioned some about what

  26. is happening across America and around the world, especially in

  27. some of on some of our college campuses and other places where

  28. there has been an outbreak of renewal and of revival.

  29. And they're not, not everything that happens in them is perfect.

  30. Not everything is exactly maybe the way it should be.

  31. But I am very thankful for one. I'm thankful that God is moving

  32. and that there are people that don't know everything they need

  33. to know yet, but they're hungry for God.

  34. And we can't ask for more than that for people to be hungry for

  35. the Lord. We live in perilous times.

  36. In case you didn't hear or didn't see, there was another

  37. assassination attempt last evening on the president at the

  38. correspondents dinner and he had to be ushered out and there was

  39. a shooting there and that they, they got the person.

  40. But we're, we're seeing more and more of this.

  41. If there's ever been an hour that we need a spiritual

  42. awakening, it is the hour in which we live.

  43. And I want to ask you a question.

  44. How would you feel? What would your desire be?

  45. In fact, let me give you a Scripture.

  46. Psalm 85 and verse 6 says this. Would you not revive us again,

  47. that your people may rejoice in you?

  48. Would you not? Lord, give us another move, Give

  49. us a revival. How would it be if you came to

  50. this House of God? Or any church for that matter?

  51. But since this is the one we attend, we're going to focus on

  52. that one. What if every seat were to be

  53. filled every Sunday? What if every person that came

  54. through the door came expecting to receive from the Lord?

  55. What if there was an an atmosphere that people would

  56. say, I can't wait to get to the House of the Lord.

  57. I can't wait. I want to get there and get the

  58. best seat in the house I can get because I believe I'm going to

  59. encounter God today. Would that not be awesome?

  60. Is that how you came today? Is that how you came today to

  61. encounter the presence of the Lord?

  62. One of the things that I, and I want to talk to you about this

  63. today, it's on my heart because this is what I want for us.

  64. It's what I want for you as a church, as individuals.

  65. I want you to experience the presence of God in such a way

  66. that it changes your life. And when you go out from this

  67. House of God into the community to your job or wherever, there

  68. is a difference in your life because you have experienced the

  69. presence and the power of God and it's changed your life.

  70. And yes, I would love to see every seat.

  71. I'd love for you to have to squirm and move around because

  72. you had no room. I wish that on, I wish that on

  73. you today. And then we could just open up

  74. and say we're going to do it again.

  75. Amen. How many know that God is a God

  76. of revival? I said.

  77. He's a God of revival. I want to talk to you today

  78. about something that's on my heart today, and that is for us

  79. to be a people who are repossessing the Presence,

  80. repossessing the presents. And I'm going to give you a

  81. story out of First and Second Samuel.

  82. It begins in First Samuel and the ends in Second Samuel

    2 Samuel 6 chapter mention

  83. chapter 6. It is a dark time in the history

  84. of the nation of Israel. And they lose the ark of the

  85. Lord. They lose the ark of the Lord,

  86. which to them was the tangible presence of God.

  87. Actually, God chose himself to dwell in this place, in the Holy

  88. of Holies over the Ark of the Covenant.

  89. The presence of God was housed there, but the people of God

  90. lost the presence of the Lord because the priesthood was

  91. corrupt. There was sin everywhere,

  92. idolatry everywhere. They were in battles with the

  93. Philistines and they were losing.

  94. They lost battle and they lost men, thousands of men.

  95. They lost in battle. And so they decided that what

  96. they needed to do was to take the Ark of the Covenant, which

  97. represented the presence of God, onto the battlefield, and then

  98. they would win. But contrary to that, the

  99. opposite happened. They carried the Ark of the

  100. Covenant out on the battlefield against the Philistines and they

  101. were defeated even worse. And besides that, the Ark of the

  102. Covenant was stolen or taken away by the Philistines.

  103. That represented the presence of God.

  104. So God wanted them to know and us to know that symbolism is

  105. never enough. It's not enough to just carry a

  106. name of a church or a brand. It has to be genuine and it has

  107. to be real. And the Bible tells us that the

  108. Philistines took this Ark of the Covenant with them, and I'll get

  109. a little bit more into that. And they kept it for about 7

  110. months, but they had nothing but trouble because they didn't know

  111. how to treat the presence of the Lord.

  112. But then the Bible says that the Ark of the Lord of the covenant

  113. of the Lord was delivered back to Israel, and it was given back

  114. to them. And first it was carried to a

  115. place called Beth Shemesh, and then from there to a place

  116. called Kirjeth Jerim. And I want to read, and if

  117. you'll stand with me, I want to read from first Samuel chapter

  118. #7 The Bible says that then the men of Kirjeth Jerim came and

  119. took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the House of

  120. Abinadab on the hill, and they consecrated Elegazar his son to

  121. keep the ark of, of the Lord. But I want you to notice the

  122. second verse particularly. So it was that the ark remained

  123. in curtieth Jarum a long time. It was there 20 years, 20 years.

  124. This ark of the covenant that should have been housed in the

  125. Tabernacle at Shiloh was now being kept in a place and for 20

  126. years they did not have the representation of the presence

  127. of the Lord. But notice what it says next.

  128. It says in verse 2. So it was that it was that the

  129. ark remained in Curt Jerome a long time, 20 years and all the

  130. House of Israel lamented after the Lord.

  131. We want the Lord back. We need the Lord.

  132. How many know we really need the Lord?

  133. Have you ever lamented for God? Have you ever been in a place

  134. where you desperately needed God and you lamented, Lord, we just

  135. got to have you. That's the hunger today that I

  136. bring to this pulpit this morning.

  137. And then I want us to skip over to the second book of Samuel

  138. chapter 6, and we're going to read about the return of the

  139. presence of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, the second Samuel

    2 Samuel 6 chapter mention

  140. chapter 6 verse one. Again David gathered all the

  141. choice men of Israel 30,000 And David arose and went with all

  142. the people who were with him from Baal Judah, to bring up

  143. from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the name, the

  144. Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim.

  145. So they set the ark of God on a new heart and brought it out of

  146. the House of Abinadab, which was on the hill.

  147. And Aza and Ohio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart,

  148. and they brought it out of the House of Abinadab, which was on

  149. the hill accompanying the ark of God.

  150. And Ohio went before the ark. Then David and all the House of

  151. Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments

  152. of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on

  153. tambourines, on systems, and I don't know what that is, on

  154. systems and on symbols. And when they came to Nacre's

  155. threshing floor, Aza put out his hand to the ark of God and took

  156. hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.

  157. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Aza, and God

  158. struck him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of

  159. God. And David became angry because

  160. of the Lord's outbreak against Aza, and he called the name of

  161. the place Perez Aza. To this day David was afraid of

  162. the Lord that day. And he said, How can the ark of

  163. the Lord come to me? So David would not move the ark

  164. of the Lord with him into the city of David, But David took it

  165. aside into the House of Obed Edom the Getite.

  166. The ark of the Lord remained in the House of Obed Edom the

  167. Getite 3 months, and the Lord blessed Obed Edom and all his

  168. household. Now it was told King David

  169. saying, The Lord has blessed the House of Obeditum and all that

  170. belongs to him because of the ark of God.

  171. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the House of

  172. Obeditum to the city of David with gladness.

  173. And so it was then, though, when those burying the ark of the

  174. Lord had gone 6 paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted

  175. sheep. Notice the next words.

  176. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might, and

  177. David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the House of

  178. Israel brought up. The ark of the Lord was shouting

  179. and with the sound of the trumpet.

  180. Father, in the name of Jesus, God, make this clear for us to

  181. understand, to grasp, and to go after the presence of the Lord

  182. in Jesus name. Amen.

  183. You may be seated. Now that's a lot to get a hold

  184. of. If you've never read this story

  185. before, I'm going to try to condense it and bring it to you.

  186. Let me first of all ask you if you ever had something and you

  187. lost, it was gone and you missed it and you wanted it and it was

  188. in your power to get it back, you went after it.

  189. That's what happened to the children of Israel.

  190. They lost something special. They actually lost the very

  191. presence of God himself. The Ark of God was to be kept in

  192. the most holy place of the Tabernacle because it symbolized

  193. the presence of God. But for this particular season,

  194. for a period of about 70 years, the Ark of the Covenant was

  195. everywhere else, but not where it needed to be.

  196. It was a dark time in Israel's history.

  197. As I mentioned, they were in battles with the Philistines and

  198. they were constantly losing these battles because they have

  199. lost the favor of God, because the priesthood was corrupted,

  200. those that were working at the church were corrupted.

  201. There was sin everywhere. There was idolatry everywhere.

  202. And because of it, they were being defeated royally by their

  203. enemies. And the Bible says that they

  204. decided that the way they could turn the battle was to take the

  205. symbol of God's presence out onto the battlefield.

  206. God never told them to do that, but they took the holiest piece

  207. of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant, carried it out on the

  208. battlefield with the Philistines.

  209. And the Bible said when they brought it out, there was such a

  210. shout in the camp of Israel. They were so elated to have this

  211. symbol. They shouted so loud that the

  212. Bible says the ground actually shook.

  213. They had a minor earthquake. They shouted, we know we've got

  214. the victory now and they went to battle and we're soundly

  215. defeated. Not only defeated back to Eli,

  216. who was the priest of that day. And when the word came back to

  217. Eli was an old man, I think he was 98 years old.

  218. He was sitting on a bench. And when that when the messenger

  219. came, he said, how has the battle gone?

  220. And the messenger said, I've got bad news for you.

  221. He said both of your sons, Eli's sons and Phineas, they were both

  222. killed in the battle. Not only that but the Ark of the

  223. Covenant was stolen by the Philistines and when he heard

  224. that the Bible said he fell off the sea to broke his neck and

  225. died. It was a very dark time.

  226. So now the Philistines, the enemies of God's people, they

  227. say we've not only defeated them, but we've even got their

  228. God with us now because we have the Ark of the Covenant.

  229. But they brought to the Ark of the Covenant in the Philistine

  230. territory, and they had a temple there that had an idol in it

  231. called Dagon. And so they brought the the Ark

  232. of the Covenant, which represented God, into the very

  233. same temple to say, we have defeated the God of the

  234. Philistines. And they left the Ark of the

  235. Covenant right there overnight with Dagon the idol standing

  236. over him. When they came back the next

  237. morning, Dagon, some strange happening.

  238. Dagon had fallen down in front of the Ark of the Covenant.

  239. They looked at this and they said, Oh my goodness, what in

  240. the world happened? Something strange has happened

  241. here. So they set their God back up in

  242. front of the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the

  243. presence of God left again. The next day they came back and

  244. guess what? Dagon had fallen down again in

  245. front of the Ark of the Covenant, and this time his head

  246. was broken off and his hands were broken off.

  247. I want to tell you, you don't have anybody big enough and

  248. great enough to stand before the presence of an Almighty God and

  249. God showed himself to be stronger than idols and he still

  250. is today. No matter what man worships,

  251. there is nothing like the presence of Almighty God.

  252. The Philistine said we better get rid of this thing because

  253. what happened, they not only not only did they have that happen,

  254. but the Bible said they broke out with tumors.

  255. All of a sudden they're getting tumors.

  256. And actually one of the translations says they were

  257. hemorrhoids. You think about that for a

  258. moment. This is this isn't working.

  259. And so they decided that we better get rid of this thing and

  260. send it back to Israel. We don't know how to treat this

  261. God and so many people don't today the true God, the true and

  262. living God. So they a Long story short, they

  263. put this ark of the covenant on up the new cart and sent it back

  264. and it went to Beth your mess. And then it went to Curtis

  265. Jerem. The people of God of Israel were

  266. now in in the possession again of the presence of the Lord, but

  267. it was doing no one any good. And so King David came along and

  268. he had a desire in his heart. He said we're going to go get

  269. the Ark of the Covenant. We're going after the presence

  270. of God. We are going to repossess the

  271. presence of the Lord, and it seemed like the right thing to

  272. do. But we don't read anything about

  273. David praying and asking God how to go about this.

  274. And he made a costly mistake because he did exactly what the

  275. enemies of God's people did. He built a new cart and took the

  276. ark of the covenant and had it set on a new cart.

  277. But that was a mistake because the Word of God had already told

  278. the people of God that the ark of the covenant is to be carried

  279. on the shoulders of the priest. If you think about the ark of

  280. the covenant and the presence of God, you have to understand that

  281. represents revival and renewal. And you don't carry that on a

  282. new cart. You don't come up with some sort

  283. of new thing. You go back to what the Word of

  284. God says. This is still the right word for

  285. this generation. We are living in a time when

  286. people say this is outdated. They're saying that we have

  287. something new. And So what we're we need

  288. something new. And So what is happening?

  289. We have a lot that is being called revival that's nothing

  290. but hyped up emotionalism. That's all it is now.

  291. There is emotion in revival, but it's not solely emotion.

  292. It is a genuine and real move of the Holy Spirit that touches the

  293. heart and life of mankind. You cannot make have your own

  294. way and have repossessed the presence of God the way you want

  295. to do it. They actually followed the

  296. example of those who were actually the heathen and the

  297. Bible says it was going along. Listen to what it says.

  298. First of all, in number 79, it says when they were handing out

  299. Moses was handing out oxen and carts for the people who carried

  300. the the articles of the sanctuary.

  301. It said to the sons of Koath he gave none because theirs was the

  302. service of the holy things which they carried on their shoulders.

  303. This thing that we are looking for and asking for revival is

  304. something that is holy and it has to be done God's way.

  305. It has to be borne on the shoulders of prayer and fasting

  306. and repentance and seeking God and going after God with all of

  307. our heart. So we see what happens next is

  308. that the oxen stumbled and we see the ark sort of move and

  309. other reaches out his hand and touches the ark, and he finds

  310. the wrath of God and he dies there.

  311. And we can look at that and say, doesn't that seem awfully

  312. extreme to you? But when you know the history

  313. and realize first of all, the only people to carry this ark

  314. were to be Levites. They knew that.

  315. They knew that it was a holy thing and it should never be

  316. touched by human hands. And besides that, it had already

  317. been there in the House of Abinadab for 20 long years.

  318. And so by now we've got a man who is used to it.

  319. We got a man that has just become a common thing to and so

  320. he feels like he can just do anything he wants.

  321. Folks, whatever God is doing today is not common.

  322. It's uncommon. Whatever God does is not

  323. natural, it's supernatural, and whatever God does is not unholy,

  324. it is holy. And God wants us to treat the

  325. things of God, the ways of God, the word of God, as if though

  326. they are holy. We're not to put our fleshly

  327. hands on what God is doing, but allow God to be God and allow

  328. his Holy Spirit to be his Holy Spirit.

  329. Can you say Amen? So he touched that.

  330. As a matter of consequence, David now thinks.

  331. I can't do this and he's upset with God and he gave up on the

  332. idea. Instead of learning a lesson, he

  333. gave up and went home and he had the ark taken over to a man's

  334. home by the name of Obed Edom, who is a Levite.

  335. Despite knowing about others fate, Obed Edom wasn't afraid.

  336. Obed Edom welcomed the ark, welcome the presence of God, and

  337. he felt in his heart there's nothing to fear.

  338. And God began to bless him. The Bible said that the ark of

  339. the Covenant remained there for three months.

  340. And the Bible said God blessed Obed Edom and his entire house.

  341. I don't know what that blessing looked like, but I kind of think

  342. that maybe when Obed Edom went out to, you know, check his

  343. garden, it was growing more luscious vegetables and fruit

  344. than ever before. His cattle, they were fatter

  345. than ever before. Everything was green and

  346. everything was looking great. God was blessing him, and not

  347. only that, but God gave him eight sons.

  348. And if you read the Bible, you will find out that those eight

  349. sons then served as gatekeepers in the temple of the Lord.

  350. So God not only blessed Obed Edom, but he blessed all his

  351. children. They served in the House of God.

  352. Obed Edom served in the House of God.

  353. In other words, the Lord blessed.

  354. He had 62 descendants, the Bible said, and they were all mighty

  355. men. They were all men of

  356. understanding and valor. There is something special,

  357. special when a household will honor God, when a household will

  358. give God the right place. God will bless that house, God

  359. will touch that home. God will do great things among

  360. even the offspring. Thank God for what he does when

  361. we honor the presence of the Lord.

  362. Amen. Now, some people, some people

  363. don't want Jesus, but we'll take him to our house.

  364. How about that? How many of you would agree with

  365. me? I'll take Jesus, I'll take him

  366. to my house. If he's not welcome in

  367. Bethesemes or Kareth, Jeremy, if he's not welcome in the land of

  368. the Philistines, send him to my house.

  369. How about this? We'll bring Jesus to our church.

  370. We want him to be welcome. We're not ashamed to say that

  371. we're children of God, washed in the blood of the Lamb.

  372. Our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and

  373. everything we have is because of Jesus.

  374. And we want the world to know that we are blessed.

  375. Today I thought about a song that one of the Gaither songs I

  376. believe it is. It's a song that's entitled We

  377. are so blessed. Let me read a few words from

  378. this song. We are so blessed by the gifts

  379. from your hand. Just can't understand why you

  380. loved us so much. We are so blessed.

  381. We just can't find a way. All the words that can say thank

  382. you Lord for your touch. When we're empty, you fill us

  383. till we overflow. When we're hungry, you feed us

  384. and cause us to know that we are so blessed.

  385. Take what we have to bring. Take it all.

  386. Everything. Lord, we love you so much.

  387. How many can say you are blessed because you know the Lord?

  388. You are blessed because you welcome Him into your home.

  389. You're blessed because you invited Him to be with you in

  390. whatever you're doing. God has blessed your life.

  391. You see, what one man despises is a blessing to someone else.

  392. I said what one person doesn't want, others want it.

  393. I want the presence of God. I want the reality of who Jesus

  394. is in my life. How about you?

  395. Amen. So this word comes to David

  396. down. I've.

  397. I've got to get finished with this in the next couple hours

  398. here. I'm just teasing you.

  399. You got team night tonight, so I'll be through by 5:30.

  400. All right, no, just stay with me a few more minutes.

  401. When David heard how God had blessed Obed Edom, he got a

  402. little jealous. Hey, I could do some of that

  403. blessing. Let's read beginning in verse 12

  404. of Second Samuel 6. Now it was told King David

  405. saying, The Lord has blessed the House of Obed Edom and all that

  406. belongs to him because of the ark of God.

  407. So David Winter brought up the ark of God from the House of

  408. Obed Edom to the city of David with gladness.

  409. And so it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone 6

  410. paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.

  411. Then David danced before the Lord with all his might, and

  412. David was wearing a linen Ephed. So David and all the House of

  413. Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting.

  414. We get a little noisy around here sometime with some

  415. shouting, Amen. And with the sound of the

  416. trumpet. The difference is, it is now

  417. born on the shoulders. As God had said, we're doing it

  418. God's way. If you want to see a genuine

  419. move of God, it has to be born on the shoulders of prayer, on

  420. the shoulders of repentance, on the shoulders of of consecration

  421. and dedication. And it said, didn't David dance

  422. before the Lord? It was interesting to me when I

  423. looked up that word dancing in the Hebrew, which the Old

  424. Testament was written in the word, the Hebrew word means to

  425. whirl or to dance to whirl, like going around inner circle.

  426. He got so happy. He was just, he was just beside

  427. himself because of the presence of the living God.

  428. There was such a joy in his heart that he couldn't contain

  429. it. He wasn't doing some kind of

  430. orchestrated dance. He was just so happy, couldn't

  431. stand still. Just the presence of the Lord.

  432. The rejoicing came back. They had been living in sorrow.

  433. They had been living in heartbreaking heartache.

  434. Oh, I remember that passage I read in the beginning, Psalm 85.

  435. Six. Will you not revive us again

  436. that your people may rejoice, that your people may rejoice in

  437. you? It is God's will for His people

  438. to rejoice. Show us your mercy, Lord, and

  439. grant us your salvation. The ark is back.

  440. The presence of the Lord has been reclaimed and repossessed.

  441. The joy of the Lord is there. There is the shouting and the

  442. dancing and the praising and the glorifying of God because the

  443. presence of the Lord is there. Now, folks, I don't know if you

  444. realize this or not, but God always intended that we would

  445. serve Him with joy and gladness. He never wanted it to be a

  446. melancholy. Not that we don't weep, because

  447. we do. We go through sorrow and trial

  448. like anyone else, but He wanted this experience to be 1 of joy.

  449. In fact, He said something pretty stern to the children of

  450. Israel. In Deuteronomy 28, we hear a

  451. word of rebuke for what had happened, and it says in verse

  452. 47, because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and

  453. gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,

  454. therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send

  455. against you in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in need

  456. of everything, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until

  457. he's destroyed you. That is a strong word.

  458. Think about that. Because you didn't serve God

  459. with gladness of heart, because you didn't express the joy in

  460. the that what it was to be a child of God.

  461. You went through the, you went through the motions and you went

  462. through the duties and responsibilities, but you did it

  463. without any joy. There was no gladness of heart.

  464. You just came to church because it's time to go to church.

  465. You just hung around because you had to hang around.

  466. You just showed up. I want to see the day when we

  467. don't have to go. We want to go.

  468. I said we don't have to go. We want to go.

  469. And for all of you that are traifing through Walmart and the

  470. grocery stores and all the malls and shopping centers, you can be

  471. in the House of God on a Sunday. Well, you all should shout,

  472. you're all here, so I'm not talking to you.

  473. Amen. Is this all right?

  474. The prophet Joel, Not Pastor Joel, but they're related.

  475. As Joel 112 says, the vine has dried up and the fig tree has

  476. withered. The pomegranate tree, the palm

  477. tree also, and the apple tree. All the trees of the field are

  478. withered. Surely joy has withered away

  479. from the sons of men. The joy was gone.

  480. This is what repossessing the presence is about.

  481. It's getting our joy back. I realize there's not much joy

  482. in this world. I understand that.

  483. I realize what the economic situations and we just came back

  484. from South Carolina and we paid the high gas prices a little

  485. cheaper down there and no joy in that.

  486. But there is joy in knowing the Lord.

  487. If gas goes to $10 a gallon, there's joy in knowing the Lord

  488. Jesus. No matter how divided our world

  489. is, there is something about the joy of the Lord knowing Him.

  490. It was very important to David, who prays in Psalm 5112.

  491. Restore to me. I had it, I had it.

  492. It was a time I really had it. God, I need it back.

  493. Restore to me the joy, restore to me the joy of your salvation,

  494. and uphold me by your generous. How many know God has a generous

  495. spirit? God gives liberally, the Bible

  496. tells us. Uphold me by Your generous

  497. spirit, then I will teach transgressors your ways, and

  498. sinners shall be converted to you.

  499. When we repossess the presence of God, when we as the people of

  500. God bear on our shoulders through prayer, consecration,

  501. humiliation, repentance, we get our act together with God.

  502. Then we get the joy of the Lord back.

  503. Sinners are naturally going to be drawn and come to the Lord

  504. Jesus Christ because there's a joy in Jesus.

  505. They can't find it anywhere else in the world.

  506. Are you glad that the joy of the Lord according to Nehemiah 810

  507. is your strength today? The joy of knowing Jesus is your

  508. strength. Stand with me.

  509. Repossessing the presence of God involves us going after it.

  510. Now, Pastor is not suggesting that every individual in this

  511. house has lost the presence of the Lord.

  512. I'm not even suggesting that any of you have.

  513. We're just looking at a story and we're trying to look at it

  514. with eyes, fresh eyes for the day in which we live.

  515. So let's recap real quickly what happened here.

  516. First of all, the people of God as often.

  517. And This is why last week when we talked about a little bit

  518. about revival to begin the service, I said, you know,

  519. people say the revivals aren't all that great because they

  520. don't last. They never have.

  521. Go back in the Bible days, God's people would get charged up.

  522. They would get God would bless them and they get so blessed,

  523. but they'd end up forgetting the blessing, what God had done for

  524. them and turn to the blessing rather than the blesser.

  525. And so they need to be revived again.

  526. And so we continually see in the word of God cries for renewal,

  527. cries for revival. And God answered when his people

  528. cry out, he answers and God would revive him.

  529. He would send revival in the worst of times.

  530. And God has done that through the through the centuries of

  531. time there for even for our nation, our world, there have

  532. been spiritual awakenings. And yes, they did wane in time,

  533. But when people of God saw it, when people said what we've

  534. lost, something here has always honored that cry.

  535. God is always honored when his people would call out and say,

  536. we want the presence of the Lord to be real in our lives again.

  537. Folks, God has moved. There's been awakenings.

  538. The first great awakened, the second great awakened with the

  539. whale's revival. In fact, I was just listening

  540. this week. You know, this year marks 120

  541. years, 120th year anniversary of the Azusa St. revival in Los

  542. Angeles, CA that really kind of ushered in the, the, the

  543. Pentecostal movement, not only in America, but even overseas

  544. and around the world. There been, there have been

  545. those kinds of times of refreshing and there is no

  546. reason to think that God can't do it again.

  547. There is no reason to think that people can't fill every Pew in

  548. this house again for the glory of God.

  549. How many know that? How many know that God has God

  550. had? Listen, there are so many lost

  551. people all around us. We could feel every church and

  552. we could feel the one down the street over the corner, that

  553. one, this one, the other one. God's got it.

  554. God's got enough for all of us, but he's looking for a people

  555. that will go after and to God. We want to see revival.

  556. We're not talking simply about I've realized there's been a lot

  557. of crazy stuff passed off as revival.

  558. You know, we've had people barking like dogs and laughing

  559. like hyenas and all kind of crazy things, and that's turned

  560. a lot of people off. But let me tell you something.

  561. There never was margarine until there was butter.

  562. There's a real move of God. Can you hear what I'm saying?

  563. And it does bring a shout, and it does bring a praise.

  564. And we're not ashamed of it. And there will be.

  565. Sometimes it'll bring a dance. Praise the Lord for that as

  566. well. Sometimes we might be like David

  567. and we just whirling around in the presence of God.

  568. Amen. Oh, I'm too old for that, all

  569. right. But would you help me pray for

  570. that, first of all, your head, if you will.

  571. The real key here is the fact that revival had to come God's

  572. way and a new cart never worked. Man's invention never worked.

  573. God uses people, not oxen and a cart.

  574. And he said, I want you to carry on your shoulders the very

  575. presence of God. I want you to carry it on your

  576. What a privilege for those Levites.

  577. You had to be a Levite to actually bear the ark of the

  578. Lord. There was some weight to that

  579. thing, but I think the joy of carrying it was greater than

  580. whatever it might have weighed as they carried it on their

  581. shoulders. That's where the revival starts.

  582. That's where the revival has its origin.

  583. When men and women say I'm ready to bear it on my shoulders, I'm

  584. ready to carry my part of the weight.

  585. I want to seek God and to pray for civil salvation.

  586. I'm going to pray for our our generation.

  587. I'm going to pray for our region.

  588. I'm going to pray for our neighborhood.

  589. I'm going to pray for our church.

  590. I'm going to pray, I'm going to pray.

  591. I'm going to bear this thing. And then beginning after this,

  592. coming next week, then we go into those three days of fasting

  593. and prayer again, and we go to the Lord in prayer and we keep

  594. saying, God, we're going to believe you for something great.

  595. Thanks for joining us today. If you'd like to connect, visit

  596. us at Reams Town churchofgod.org, follow us on

  597. Facebook and Instagram, and subscribe to this podcast so you

  598. never miss an episode.