One More Revival

One More Revival by Gene Poore To supply the pulpit during a Pastor’s absence, a Baptist church senior Elder called me on Monday and invited me to deliver the following Sunday sermon. After I accepted, I followed my normal preparation. I prayed for the message. I studied scripture and, because God knew more than I what message that congregation needed, I continued to pray, to study, to wait. On Friday, my heart sensed God revelation to what sermon to preach. In addition, the Lord fine-tuned my thoughts for this particular message during my Sunday morning drive to that country church. Because I had never visited that church before, I arrived early to familiarize myself with the sanctuary and to introduce myself to the Elders when we assembled in a Sunday school classroom for preservice prayer. After our prayer session, and as we left the classroom, the senior Elder who had invited me to speak stopped me and whispered in my ear. “Don’t preach about. . . .” The Elder’s freelance, unexpected instructions left me speechless for two important reasons. First, the Elder had no God given authority to dictate any sermon topic. Second, the Lord had placed that exact sermon in my heart and tweaked that message just before I arrived on church grounds. When I stood at the pulpit and looked out upon the congregation, I followed instructions, but not the Elder’s instructions. I preached the sermon God had laid on my heart because I knew the Lord had someone in that congregation who needed to hear that message. Perhaps that someone was the Elder who said, “Don’t preach about. . . .” However, I’ll never know this side of Heaven because, as expected, I never received another invitation to speak at that church. Yet, I never forgot that incident. That incident came to mind again when I thought about personal revival, because many lock their ears against sermons on anything except good, love, or heaven. “Do not threaten me with judgment,” some say. “Do not preach about God’s wrath,” others state. Yet, many of those same individuals want a pastor to preach Bible words about “What can I get from God and how do I get what I want from God?” Many of those same individuals want to hear only about Pearly Gates, Crowns and Rewards, Jeweled Cities and Golden Streets. However, God’s Word does not work that way and has never worked that way. God’s Spirit inspired the human writers of the Bible to enlighten us about humanity’s fall so we will realize the need for a Savior. Those inspired writers told us about Sodom and Gomorrah’s judgment so we will avoid that same disgusting lifestyle. Those writers revealed King David’s adultery, and David’s murder of Uriah, so we realize God forgives us for even malicious deeds--if we repent and ask for forgiveness. The Spirit inspired Bible writers wanted us to hear about Heaven and Hell so we can joyfully gain the one and fearfully avoid the other. The Spirit inspired words of the Bible reveal God’s love through the misfortunes that befell humankind by comparing good with evil. Yes, God’s Book contains both good and evil. Until we are aware of good and evil, we cannot recognize good FROM evil. Good and evil separate only after we compare scripture with our individual lives. Then, awareness of good and evil within our heart awakens a personal Revival. Our lives need a revived, personal relationship with God because before another utterance, written or spoken, Jesus might return as promised in First Corinthians 15:52: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye . . .” that final trumpet might sound. Is our heart prepared for that final moment? If not, we must pray to God right now to forgive us our sins. Then, we must ask Jesus to come into our heart to cleanse and lead our life for the first time-–or to cleanse our hearts again for one more revival.