Unit 2 Video Transcript

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Video Transcript: Revive Us Again (Dr. Feddes)

Hi, I'm David Feddes and today I'd like to think with you about a prayer, Revive us again. And as we think about that prayer, let's start by thinking about a revival that occurred about 200 years ago. James McGready was a Presbyterian pastor and he was known as the ugly preacher. Apparently he wasn't very good looking, and he served three small churches in Logan County in southwest Kentucky in the United States. That area was nicknamed rogues harbor. And Peter Cartwright, a man who lived at the time a pastor said here many refugees from almost all parts of the Union fled to escape justice or punishment. It was a desperate state of society, murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers and counterfeiters fled there until they combined and actually formed a majority. So this was an area for where criminals from around the country would go. And it seemed There was even a majority of criminals living there. And that's why it was nicknamed rogues harbor. And that was where the ugly preacher James McGready was trying to serve a few small churches. McGready and a few of the people in his church made a covenant together to pray. And here's a part of what that covenant said, we feel encouraged to unite our supplications to a prayer hearing God for the outpouring of his spirit, that his people may be quickened and comforted and that our children and sinners generally may be converted. Therefore, we bind ourselves to observe the third Saturday of each month for one year, as a day of fasting and prayer for the conversion of sinners in Logan County and throughout the world. We also engage to spend one half hour every Saturday evening, beginning at the setting of the sun. And one half hour every Sabbath morning from the rising of the sun, pleading with God to revive his work. So a day of fasting and prayer once a month, and a time of prayer at the end of every Saturday and at the beginning of every Sunday that the Lord would really bless and pour out His Spirit. 

James McGready tells what happened after that, a mighty effusion of the Spirit came upon the people and the floor was soon covered with the slain their screams for mercy pierce the heavens, the power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly. Toward the close of the sermon, the cries of the distress arose as loud as his voice. No person seemed to wish to go home. hunger and sleep seem to affect nobody, eternal things where the vast concern here, awakening and converting work was to be found in every part of the multitude, and even some things strangely and wonderfully new to me. So he had never seen anything quite like this before. And the Lord was just laying his hand on hundreds and hundreds of people and keeping them there and convicting them and sometimes just throwing them on the ground and bringing them to himself. And this was one event in what became known as the Second Great Awakening. Another very famous event at that same time, just about was the Cane Ridge revival in which 1000s upon 1000s of people would be weeping before the Lord, they get together in towns and stay there from all parts of the American frontier, and crying out to the Lord. And this affected the frontiersman and people in rogues harbor and the criminal elements of the society. But also around that same time, there were great movements in colleges and universities, places where almost no students belongs to the Lord Jesus or were converted, were suddenly coming to the Lord. And the Lord moved in a mighty way in that Second Great Awakening in the United States in the early 1800s. And it had a huge impact on the shape of the nation. And it had a huge impact on the churches, of course, purifying and strengthening the faith of many and drawing many into the churches. Now, I want to think with you about praying for revival, James McGready and others made a covenant to pray together and the Lord answered. 

I want to take a biblical prayer as a model. I'm not going to examine and apply everything in Psalm 85. But the movement of Psalm 85 is what I want to focus on as we think about how to pray. Psalm 85 has a verse that says, will you not Revive us again that your people may rejoice in you and as you move through Psalm 85, there's a movement from one area to another and he begins by remembering past actions of God, past revivals. When God took the dead people of God that had grown weak, spiritually and fallen into captivity and how God had dealt with that. Then, after remembering what God had done in the past, he faces the need for revival, now. Because things have gotten to be very bad again, and the church, the people of God are in bad shape, and the society around them is in bad shape. And so there's the recognizing of the need. Then third, there's the actual prayer the request, Lord, Revive us again. And then not just prayer, but expectation, expecting and looking forward to what God is going to do an answer to the prayer. And then a description of the results of revival when God does bless. This is a beautiful prayer in Psalm 85. I know that I've spent a lot of time memorizing it myself and meditating on it frequently, and asking the Lord to really use this prayer to shape my heart as I cry out for the Lord, to revive us again. Psalm 85 begins by saying, Lord, you were favorable to your land, you restored the fortunes of Jacob, you forgave the iniquity of your people, you covered all their sin, you withdrew all your wrath, you turn from your hot anger. As he prays, he thinks back, he thinks back to the history and God's people, sad to say, have a history of sinning and falling under God's frown. But in looking back at history, it's not just that grim history of our sins and failings. But God has a history of pouring out fresh grace, reviving his people and his land. And so in the spirit of Psalm 85, remembering past revivals, let's look at some of the scriptural examples, as well as some of the history since the scriptures were written.

We read again and again of God, taking people from the brink of Ruin, and reviving them, you remember, he delivered it from Egypt, from slavery in Egypt, from bondage to the Gods of Egypt and the idols of Egypt and brought them out. But then at the Mount Sinai, right? While he was giving them the 10 commandments, they started worshiping a golden calf. And God was so furious that he threatened to wipe them out that Moses interceded, God had mercy on them, and God spared them, and move them forward and promised to go with them. Then you read in the area of judges after God had brought them into the land he had promised them, the people would forget. Judges two verse 10, is a terrible verse. It says, there arose a generation who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel, and they fell into wickedness. And so God would judge them and things would get very grim. And then the people would finally cry out to the Lord, he'd send a deliverer and restore their fortunes once again. And that happens again and again and again about every 40 years throughout the book of Judges, then, to just jump forward some more. There was a tremendous revival during the reign of godly King Hezekiah. Hezekiah his father Ahaz was a very wicked King, who even sacrificed some of his own children to idols, and who was very rotten, and yet the Lord worked. One person who is very prominent during Hezekiah's reign was the prophet Isaiah. And Isaiah had a vision of God high and lifted up and he saw his own terrible sin. And then God assured Isaiah of his cleansing of sin, and sent Isaiah, God said, who will go for us and Isaiah said, Here I am, send me and he was one of the prophets God used and there were others too. And God raised up this godly young king Hezekiah. 

Hezekiah, I wanted to get rid of the idols, and restore the temple of God and the worship of God and the celebration of the Passover Feast honoring God and doing things God's way and the way he ran the kingdom. And God gave this tremendous revival. Another King, late in Israel's history, before it went into exile was a king named Josiah. And there was a rediscovery of the book of God's law. People had not even known what God's law was saying anymore, and we're ignoring it so much, but somebody's rummaging through the temple found a scroll of God's Word. And Josiah when he heard was on that scroll realized how sinful he and his nation had become and he tore his clothes and he cried out to God, and He sought to bring his nation back to God. But again, the nation went downhill, and God finally judged it. And he brought in the Babylonian Empire to destroy Jerusalem after he had previously brought in the Assyrian Empire and the troops of Nineveh to destroy Samaria in the northern kingdom of Israel. So Now Judah gets exiled. But then God has mercy. And he brings his people back and they rebuild the temple. They rebuild the city walls. There's a renewal of worship. And in all of that, as you read your scriptures, you realize that Daniel understood a prophecy of Jeremiah that after 70 years, God was going to bring the people back in Daniel, chapter nine, you read this tremendous prayer of Daniel saying, oh, Lord, not because we're good, because we're not we're terrible. 

We don't deserve the Lord, because of your name. And because of your mercy, we appeal to you. And you see similar prayers with Azur who is leading the spiritual revival later on in Nehemiah who led in the building. These were men of prayer, and the restoration of the nation and the renewal of its spiritual life came in answer to prayer. So God again and again, throughout those Old Testament Scriptures, would take his people who had fallen into a very sorry state, and he would revive and restore them. And then when he read, of course, in the New Testament, that God sends his son, Jesus, and the works of Jesus in the gospels, and then the tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in the book of Acts, bringing new life wherever the apostles go, bringing money to salvation, then you can't help but read the scriptures and realize that in many ways, it's a book of the history of revivals of God dealing with his people, when they have fallen far, and bringing them back to life again. There's a vision in the book of Ezekiel where Israel has become nothing but a valley full of dry bones. 

And God says to the Prophet, now, proclaim the word of the Lord and speak to the bones and the bones begin to take flash and muscle, and then they're just bodies lying there. But at least they're not just bones anymore. And then God tells Ezekiel to prophesied in the spirit, the breath of God becomes into that, and they rise up and become a mighty army. And you take that vision of the valley of the dry bones of people who are then revived and made alive and strong again, that's in a sense, a picture of what God does throughout the scriptures and bringing about these revivals. And then the Holy Spirit didn't stop at the end of the book of Acts, he has continued to work in his church, when the church in its early centuries would sometimes lose its spiritual life. The Lord would rekindle that life and there are various early movements, I don't have time to talk about them right now. I'll just mention some of the movements as as history moved on from 1300 to 1500. The church had fallen quite away from the scriptures, and oftentimes though, there were examples still of people who love the Lord and served him. Things have gotten pretty bad in the church itself. But John Wycliffe led a return to the scriptures in England and his lollards people who went around preaching from the scriptures in England, brought at least hints of revival at that time. 

John Hus in the area that was known as Bohemia, and what we sometimes did a call on the Czech Republic in Prague, John Hus led a return to the scriptures and revival in the spirit. Savonarola was another man who preached against the wickedness of his day. And so there were some pre-Reformation actions of God to bring some purity and some greater life to the church. But then in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, and sparked what became known as the Protestant Reformation, a return to the scriptures of mighty discovery, again of God's salvation, by faith, and not by our own efforts, or our own achievements, or just by the rituals of the church, but by the gift of God and Jesus Christ. And men such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and many other godly people, led to return to the scriptures and God restored a greater light again, in the early to mid 1700s, there was the first great awakening in the United States, what now is the United States, then it was still British colonies. And people such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, John Wesley, led a great awakening here, where I am in the United States, but also, throughout Great Britain. These were, at least Whitfield and Wesley were men who preached on the other side of the ocean as well. And Edwards was the great thinker and theologian, of that awakening, and God brought about wonderful things. And there are some who say that without these awakenings, Britain and the United States may well have fallen into the trap of the French Revolution, where the whole population became fiercely anti church as well as anti government. And it led to the French Revolution in the dreadful Reign of Terror. 

With the slaughter of many, many people. That first great awakening was God's mercy. And it was followed by a Second Great Awakening in the United States, especially that I've already mentioned James McGregor And others the Cane Ridge revival the colleges and universities a tremendous move of God. Then there was what was called the layman's prayer revival from 1857 to 1861. Really, that began, in some ways in Canada, Phoebe Palmer and her husband got very involved in praying for the Lord's blessing. And the Lord brought some great blessing in Canadian revival. Jeremiah Lamphere will talk about him a little later in this talk, as well as Dwight Moody was somebody who was impacted by that revival later on, had a tremendous impact himself. And another revival was the 1904. And following revival, it happened in Wales in the area of Great Britain, in Korea, where they had what they called Korean Pentecost in the United States, they had the the Azusa Street Revival, which really launched the Pentecostal movement which still thrives and grows to this day in China and Manchuria. There was tremendous revival. So in the early 1900s, the Lord took places where there were very few Christians and multiplied them greatly. He took churches that had grown very weak in their life, and he made them strong and powerful and shining witnesses to him again, why do I say all this, because in the spirit of Psalm 85, part of praying, is remembering, we need to encourage our hearts with what God has done before and say, Hey, if he did it before he can do it again, and how we need it. 

And that's the second part of praying for revival, Psalm 85, verses four and five, restore us again, oh God of our salvation and put away your indignation toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? The writer of the Psalm has thought that his Lord you revive your people in poured out your grace and your forgiveness and your mercy many times, but we're living again under your frown right now. Is it going to last forever? No, Lord, don't let it last forever. And one thing we need to do when we pray is recognize our present need and not pretend everything's okay. You will ever pray for revival if you think things are already the way you want them to be. When the church lacks vibrant life and has little impact on those around us, we must not pretend that all is normal, or that all is well. And when we recognize that the church has fallen very far in our own day, many in the churches, many of its greatest scholars are people who deny the truth of the Bible. Many of its noted preachers have become marketers and businessmen and people who are good at tickling ears and telling people what they want to hear, but they no longer proclaim the truth of God's Word. And we will not pretend this is normal. In some places, the church has actually led the society around it into the approval of abortion into the approval of homosexuality in some societies, churches have been blessing homosexual unions before the society even fell for such wickedness. And so when we're in a time when some churches are in such a sorry, state of repair, when many ignore the church, in places such as Britain, where 150 years ago, 60% of the people attended church every week, and now maybe 5% of the population do we say things are terribly wrong. And we must pray for God's revival. In other parts of the world. 

The church has grown very rapidly, but false teaching has abounded and wickedness is bounded, and even many pastors fall into sin. I know, for instance, in South Africa, they found that more than half of the clergy there were involved in sexual affairs outside their own marriage in several affairs. In many cases, this is not normal Christianity. And those are the heart for God. Say, Lord, what's going on? And when we asked what's going on, we find in Psalm 85, that it means God's frowning. Our chief trouble is not that the world is too strong, or that our problems are too big, but that God is not smiling on us. Sometimes we who are leaders in the church, or just members of the church who wish to see better things happening, will think, Oh, if only it weren't for the terrible theory of evolution that somebody came up with and that's what's causing our trouble. Or if only the government weren't hostile to us, or if only this or if only that, no. Our chief trouble is that God is not smiling on his church because when God is smiling on his people, then no matter what their troubles are, they will overcome. Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones in his book revival said whenever Israel is down and defeated. It is never because of the strength and power of the enemy. No, because if they are right with God, it does not matter what the enemy is, however, however powerful, God will always make them victorious. What has happened is that the church herself in her adorable folly has rebelled against God and grieved, and the vexed His Holy Spirit in exactly the same way Israel did, in belief, and in practice. The church has only one source of strength, and that is the power of God, the power of His Holy Spirit. If we pray Revive us again, we first have to say, Lord, we've been grieving your spirit, we've provoked your frown, and we beg you, God, don't be angry with us forever. don't pursue your indignation toward us. 

For all generations, we acknowledge our desperate condition and we acknowledge the cause, because we have grieved and vexed your spirit. And then, having remembered what God's done in the past and remembered with confidence, what he's done in the past and remembered with sorrow and looked at with sorrow upon our current condition, and the ways in which we the people of God, have failed to be salt and light have failed to be who God means us to be, then we pray for revival. Will you not Revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast level Lord, and grant us your salvation. We're praying that God will come again on the dry bones and make them live. In revival, God comes near in his awesome holiness, and power. And in revival, God's Spirit floods people with life and with love. And in revival, people rejoice in their glorious God, they become strong and witness to him, and they live in contact with him. And where there is this life, sometimes there are problems and that leads some church people and others not to want revival because it can be disorderly. If you read the books of First and Second Corinthians in the Bible, you find that those churches had some problems. And part of their problem was because the power of God had been at work among them and the gifts of God. But there were still areas where they needed more truth and more holiness. And so it's easy nowadays to say, Well, those books written to the Corinthians, were correcting the problems of charismatic, spirit filled, overly enthusiastic churches. Well, yes, in one sense, it is correcting the kinds of problems that can arise in that setting. But remember that they're written to people who do have this life and this power at work among them. It is no great virtue to be orderly, if you have no life and no power. As Dr. Lloyd Jones, and. J. I. Packer both said, it is no great thing to be orderly, in a graveyard. 

Of course a graveyard is orderly, but there's no life there. And so if you're afraid to pray for revival, because you think it might get a little bit out of control, well, it will get out of control, but not out of God's control. And throughout history, people who have prayed for revival and have seen it Come, have used God's truth, to help straighten out the excesses and get people back on track again. So let us not be discouraged from praying for revival just because we know that in past revivals, some people go off the deep end. We must pray for revival. Jonathan Edwards, once received a letter from someone in Europe about praying for revival and Edwards wrote a letter back but as was Edwards his way, he couldn't usually say things in a very brief moment. So what was going to be a letter turned into an entire book. And here's just part of the title of that book. They gave kind of long titles back then. But this is a very revealing title. The title is an humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion and the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. Extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion in the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. Revive us again. In 1857, more than a century after the revivals under Edwards. There was problems in New York, the society as a whole have been going through an economic crisis, the churches were fading. There were serious difficulties in an 1857 the North Dutch Reformed Church in New York City asked Jeremiah Lamphere to be a missionary. He was a businessman but they asked him to be someone who had tried to reach out and help restore what was going on in the church and Lamphere didn't really have a lot of training in ministry, but he announced a prayer meeting for noon on a Wednesday. And here's a part of the announcement. It was titled, how often shall I pray, as often as the language of prayer is in my heart, as often as I see my need of help. As often as I feel the power of temptation. As often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension, or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit. In prayer, we leave the business of time for that of eternity. This meeting is intended to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and businessmen generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God. So Jeremiah Lamphere, printed up these invitations and spread them around. 

Then he showed up at church that next Wednesday, and was all by himself. At noon, the prayer meeting was supposed to start and he was there all alone. And he prayed from noon to 1230. And at 1230, he heard someone coming in, and someone joined him. And over the next half hour, a total of five men joined him for prayer. The next Wednesday, they met together only this time, instead of five, there were 20. And then the following Wednesday, there were 40. And then they decided to meet every day, and there were 100, and then more, and then more, and within six months more than 10,000. Were at the New York prayer meetings that were meeting at noon on business days. Within two years, more than a million converts had joined America's churches. Plus countless people who had already been part of the church that were spiritually dead, had been converted. Something similar happened in Northern Ireland, a man named James McQuilkin again, like Jeremiah Lamphere, not someone with a lot of education or training, not someone with a lot of ability, frankly, but someone who had a burden on his heart, began praying in a schoolhouse with just two other people. And that eventually turned into a tremendous revival in Northern Ireland. In Wales, Humphrey Jones started praying. And again, God brought a great movement there in the late 1850s. Eventually, more than a million in Britain were converted and joined the churches, not to mention all those who are already part of the churches and had been spiritually dead but were made alive and vigorous and vibrant in their witness to the Lord. And this was what was called the layman's prayer revival because it wasn't pastors. It wasn't important people. It wasn't even very brilliant or talented people. It was just ordinary people whom God moved to pray, and the essence of that prayer, basically, Revive us again. There is tremendous power in prayer, will you not Revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you. 

And once you pray for revival, don't just make it a shot in the dark. Expect, expect God to act. You might not know when there are some people prayed for revival and didn't see much of it in their whole lifetime. But it prepared the way and a few others caught the spark from them. And then suddenly, God poured out His Spirit. We know that in the scriptures that sometimes there were people who lived during very lean times, during times of small things during times of exile. And yet, God kept the spark alive, expect God to act, whether right away, or whether long term pray Revive us again and expect that prayer to be heard and answered. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak. For He will speak peace to his people, to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear Him that glory, they dwell in our land. Notice what these words are saying God's Spirit brings assurance of Shalom, the Hebrew word that sometimes translated peace, but it often means a little more richly, not just peace or lack of conflict, but well being flourishing health, vigor, the Lord will speak this peace, this shalom to his people, and this is what we seek and expect, not just the peace and Shalom of good crops and good health and all of that, although that may well come with it too. But first of all, that he will just speak this spiritual well being, peace with God, a well being in relation to him in relation to others. revival does this it brings far richer experience of salvation to the saints, people who are already saved, who are already right with God nevertheless have a richer, more vivid direct experience of God's glory of His goodness of His love, and what they have already believed by faith. They have a fuller forte stuff, and it makes their land a home for God's glory. I love that phrase in Psalm 85, verse nine, that glory may dwell in our land. We want to experience your salvation in richer and richer ways. 

We want more and more people to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth, to be rescued from death and hell, but also to experience even now God's glory in their land. I know that as I do this talk, many will be hearing me in lands other than my own. And I know you love your land as much as I love mine. Don't you want your land to be a home for God's glory? Isn't it your prayer that glory, may dwell in our land? We pray that for the church in our land, and as the glory comes upon the church, it will feel an enlightened the land as well. Bible speaks of times of refreshing of outpouring. The prophet Joel was one of the great prophets who spoke and foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit. And he spoke in pictures of a land being dry and parched, and then of God pouring out the great rains. And then compare that to the outpouring of God's Spirit. He said, Be glad or people of Zion rejoice in the Lord your God. For he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers both autumn and spring rains as before, and afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. I remember when I was visiting in Africa, and it was just at the end of the dry season of that area, and everything was parched, and it looked dead. And I remember preaching one night and as I was preaching the dry season came to an end and the rain just poured and poured and poured and, and water was running and soon that land was going to be green again. And what God does with the rains, for the land he does for his people and his church through the Holy Spirit. He pours out His Spirit, and he sends him abundant showers. And this is what happened on Pentecost. And it's what's happened in many times of revival since then. As the apostle put it in Act three, verse 19, repent and return to the Lord so that your sins may be wiped out. That times of refreshing may come from the Lord. In a sense, that's what revival is two times of refreshing after times of dryness and deadness come the times of refreshing when God's grace is poured out afresh and God's life is experienced afresh.

And then very briefly, the last verses of Psalm 85 are a beautiful picture of the results of revival when God refreshes and restores his land. steadfast love and faithfulness meet righteousness and peace kiss each other. faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase, righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away. What a beautiful picture revival brings a rich harvest not just to the grain and the wine and the grapes and all of that, although in a land blessed by God that often comes to, but it brings a rich harvest of love, of faithfulness of righteousness of peace, in a land where there's so much strife and conflict and bickering and hatred, there comes peace and love. In a land where many break their promises were even many marriages fall apart and people are not faithful to their marriage promises. Righteousness can flourish. Love and faithfulness come together. righteousness and peace are kissing. And it's like good things are springing up from the ground or righteousness and faithfulness are springing from the ground looking down from the sky. And God's goodness and the fruit of the Spirit are being poured out all around us. Oh, may that be true, more and more of us and of our land, and until it is, continue to pray. Psalm 85, remember what God has done in the past. That's why I remind you of revivals. That's why it's so valuable to study the history of the various revivals in the scriptures and beyond the scriptures. 

To recognize honestly, our own desperate need. I know my own need. I know the needs of the church in my area in my country. I'm sure that you can look at your church and say, oh, that God would do so much more through us and strengthen and revive us. And I just see that need and say, Lord, don't be angry with us forever. Don't let us live under your frown. We want to live under your smile. Will you not Revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you, we don't want you frowning at us. We don't want to be frowning at you. We want to be rejoicing in you. And we want you to be delighting in us. And the only way that can happen is when you fill us with your spirit, because we can't please you on our own. Not by might not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. We have that word from God Himself. And so we must cry out for that spirit, and then realize and expect that God will answer Jesus Himself said, Now, if you if a son asks the father for something good, well, the father gave him something bad, will he give him a rock instead of bread? Or will he give him a snake or a scorpion instead of a fish to eat? No. And if you even though you're evil will give good things to your children. Don't you think your father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So expect God to send His Spirit in greater measure? And then thank God for the blessing results of revival when you read of people in revival? Or what if you've experienced just a taste of it for yourself, or maybe even more than a taste? Maybe some of you have experienced tremendous movements of God and revival right in your own life and in the people around you and in the area that you're in revivals a taste to heaven. 

The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit as the down payment, the foretaste of what's to come when heaven in its fullness gets here, when righteousness and peace truly do kiss, when love and faithfulness meet each other. These are the results of revival and they are results that we cannot produce, with our own efforts alone. Yes, we must pray, yes, me must work we must preach, we must disciple must do all these things. But we must do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the time of small things, if we're not in a time of great revival, we must still be faithful, still count on the spirit to work in the quiet and ordinary ways of ministry that we do. But always be praying for that greater anointing. And it is a deadly trap. It's a deadly trap. I know especially for us who are Americans who always want to fix things, always want to achieve things and do it through our own skill, our own know how it's a great temptation to try to use your own talents to build the church, to use your own techniques and methods and organizational skills. But remember, not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. If you rely on your own efforts and your own methods, then you are going to get those kinds of results. You'll get church pews with people in them perhaps, but people who are not purified, who are not filled with the power of the Spirit, but who are just serving whatever gods they still have, but show up in church because you got to technique to get them there. But when there is real change and real revival than the fruit of the Spirit, love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, power in witness, power to change other lives. Power to know the Lord in your own life. These are the things that only God can do and our efforts cannot substitute for them. So I invite you to make it your prayer. Will you not Revive us again? That your people may rejoice in you?