Revival Now!

Dan Augsburger

Fairplain SDA church

1. We Need Revival

Before I pray I just wanted to talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing.

There is a couple of things there that are important.

Will you not revive us again that your people may what?

We need to be revived by the Lord Jesus Isaiah 57 for thus is the high and lofty 1 who inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

God has a high and holy calling for each 1 of us.

And we read about it in what we've just seen there.

And then this quotation from Selected Messages, and it's a quotation I'm gonna come back to often.

It is our work by confession, humiliation, repentance, and earnest prayer to fulfill the conditions upon which God has promised to grant us His blessing.

And then a revival need be expected only in answer to prayer.

As we get started this week, I want to point out that line, it is our work and then it lists a few things.

It is our work by confession and then humiliation and then repentance, and then earnest prayer.

And I would like to make the suggestion this evening that we have a tendency in the church to start with prayer and to end with prayer and not ever really get to the confession, the humiliation, and the repentance that's called for.

It's almost as if we think the sentence is written exactly the opposite.

But she says it's our work and the first thing she says is confession, then humiliation, because it takes humiliating to make things right with others, and then repentance, which she refers to as a U-turn in terms of our behavior.

She makes statements we'll find during the week where she says, many confess but they don't repent.

And so confession is inadequate in and of itself.

So she says, first confess, acknowledge, humiliation, repentance, and then earnest prayer.

There's a difference between casual prayer and earnest prayer.

When we fulfill those conditions, we can expect the Holy Spirit to be poured out.

And maybe some of you would agree that we've been praying much, but we've not been seeing much of a response.

And I believe we need to move beyond praying.

So I put together a bit of a schedule here.

Tonight, we want to talk just for a few minutes about our need of revival.

Tomorrow night, we want to talk about pursuing revival.

And we're going to look at what's there to confess.

Sabbath, we're going to talk about making things right.

You'd be amazed at the strong, strong statement she makes about the need to make things right with others to receive the blessings of God.

I'm certain you will be surprised by some of what we find together.

Then repentance is more than feeling sorry.

Tuesday taking up the cross, embracing the cross.

Wednesday choosing emptiness to be filled.

God is in the business of building us up and making us look nice, giving us power.

He basically wants us to be the instruments to be his people doing his work, his way.

And when that is true, then God can bless us.

But too often we want to do what we want to do, and we want to do it our way, and ask God to bless our work.

So choosing emptiness to be filled, then finally, or Thursday evening, staying in the fire.

And finally, Sabbath, making sure that your prayers are heard.

And if you come night after night, we're also going to go through this little book.

And if you'll notice on your schedule, there's a little number to the right of each evening, and that's where we're going to start each evening in the little booklet that you all receive, this little booklet that is going to be made available to all of you.

There's actually line numbers, so When I say I'm at line such and such, you know right where to go.

And if you want to, read before the evening meeting the section that we're going to be studying that night.

So for example, if you would have studied ahead for tonight, you would have read from line 6 to about line 148 or whatever is covered by that.

At the end of each evening, or of each session, we're gonna spend some more time praying, praying for revival, praying we need it on an individual basis, on a church-wide basis, and for the world church too.

Lots of people claim to be Christians, and God has promised that He will bless us.

I remember when I was in Colorado not too long ago, speaking in Revival, I spoke on a Friday night and I got up quite discouraged, Sabbath morning, because it was a church where everyone looked nice and beautiful and were happily singing.

They weren't experiencing revival and they were still happy.

It reminds me of Hudson Taylor, the missionary who founded the China Inland Mission.

He had come back to England and he knew of the millions of people in China who had never heard the gospel and he was down in Brighton and he just could not go to a church full of rejoicing Christians who were completely insensitive to the need of other people.

And I fear that we have come to accept the unacceptable in our churches.

The presence and power of the Holy Spirit should be our birthright, not a birth defect.

And I think we need to begin, you know, changing and praying, doing whatever necessary so that the Spirit can come into our churches in power.

And when I was discouraged that Thursday night, I was, I mean, Friday night I got up Sabbath morning and I was reading and 3 things struck me.

Number 1, God wants revival more than we do.

If the Bible says that God is willing to give the Holy Spirit, you know, more willingly than we parents are to give good gifts to our children, then there's no unwillingness on God's part.

She also makes a statement that Satan cannot stop revival.

If God wants to give revival more than we want to receive it, and Satan can't stop it, then who's got the problem?

And the question that I asked the church that morning where I was was, when Jesus comes and you've never experienced revival, what will be your excuse?

This is why it wasn't possible for you to bless our family.

This is why you weren't able to work in our church.

I think we're going to be speechless, because if God wants it and Satan can't stop it, then there must be something in us.

And so this week, my brothers and sisters, I'm choosing to be down here.

I don't like to be up there, frankly, because this is a discussion of family.

I hope that we can come together and really think about what it means to experience revival, and then that we will do whatever we can do and whatever we need to do to have the power of God.

I want to pray and I want to share a few quotations with you.

And we're just going to kind of work every evening and the Lord willing, all of our lives will hopefully be better for the time.

Father in Heaven, I want to thank you that you have drawn this group of people together to pray together, to come into 1 accord with 1 another, and to come into a right relationship with you.

Wes Peppers

Lansing SDA Church

Lucifer and You

Well this morning I want to talk to you about a message that's been on my heart this week, a passage I've been studying and the title of the message is Lucifer and You.

And some of you might be taken aback a little bit by that title.

But we're going to look at, in part, Lucifer and where some things went wrong with him and how that also parallels to us.

And so it's going to be centered around Christ, of course.

We're going to take a look at that this morning.

So I want to bow, invite you to bow your heads, wherever you are, I'm going to kneel this morning, and we'll ask the presence of the Lord to be with us.

Father in Heaven, today we are thankful to be gathered in this place.

We're thankful to be worshipping our King through music, through thanksgiving, through our praise, through our songs, through our tithes and offerings.

Now Lord, as we open the word together, we pray that the Spirit of God would come and would move upon our hearts and would open our eyes to the truth that we need to know and we need to understand that is from you this morning.

So guide our thoughts, guide our study this morning.

We ask for your blessing and we come in Jesus' name.

Just this summer, I was in Alabama for a week after the general conference session, and during that time, a lady from my home church passed away.

When I was 22 years old, I came out of atheism, and I began to study the Bible, and I began to study prophecy, and I learned about Christ, and I learned all kinds of things, and I gave my life to Him, and I was baptized in that little church, Guntersville, Alabama.

It has about 40, 50 people that come each Sabbath and was a blessing.

And there were 2 little ladies that really touched my life.

1 her name was Bertha Phillips and I told her story several weeks ago in a message that my aunt and uncle, when I was a teenager, had been baptized into that church as well.

And they have attended there faithfully for a number of years.

And as a young, early teenager, I went to the church with them a few times.

But this lady faithfully mailed me a birthday card every year.

And when I became 22 years old and I was on the borderline of committing suicide, I remembered what that lady had done for me and many others who had influenced my life.

And it was through that and many other things that led me to a process where I gave my life to the Lord Jesus.

Now while I was there in Alabama, the other lady that had really touched my life, her name was Lottie Layfield.

And Lottie had passed away just when I was down there and I had the privilege of going to and speaking at her funeral.

And this lady, when I was just a young man and I attended the church a few times with my aunt and uncle, every time I would come to the church, she would have this wonderful smile on her face, and she was always cheerful, and she would always tell me, you're going to be a minister for God 1 of these days.

She's got a nice smile, and she's sweet, but she's out of her mind.

And multiple people used to tell me that in the church.

And this lady always took a special interest in me.

When I came to the church, she would always ask me how things were going, and how my life was going, and so forth.

And in the moments when I was thinking about suicide as a young man, God kept bringing the thoughts of those 2 sweet ladies to my mind, and He used their very small little ministry of reaching out to me through cards and words of encouragement to lead me to Christ.

I want to talk to you this morning about using your talents for the Lord Jesus.

Now we're going to take a look this morning at a number of passages, and before we begin I'm going to say what I'm going to say at the end.

There's nothing too big and nothing too small that God can't use to bring a soul to salvation.

We may think this morning that our talents are small, We may think that they're weak, we may think that they're insignificant.

But it's not so much this morning about how big or how small our talents are, but it's about what we're willing to do with what God has given to us.

How many of you would agree with that this morning?

There was somebody today that we know well, his name is Lucifer, and he had probably the greatest level of talent and skill and ability of any person that's ever existed.

And yet he took what God gave him and used it for his own good, for his own selfish pleasure.

Turn with me in your Bible this morning to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 28.

And we're going to see the story of Lucifer.

I'm not going to dwell too much on the fundamentals, but in Ezekiel chapter 28, the Bible gives us some insight here.

It says in verse 12, I'm going to start in Ezekiel 28 verse 12, the Bible says, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God.

And even though that this is something speaking to the King of Tyr, if you do the deeper study, you find out that he's also speaking to Lucifer or Satan.

He says, you were the seal of perfection.

We know that because was the King of Tyr perfect, yes or no?

Well, no he wasn't, but Lucifer was, right?

Then he goes on and says, there was only 1 perfect, amen?

And then he goes on, he says, every precious stone which you're covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, and he makes the list of all those things.

And if you drop down just a little bit, he says, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were what?

So right here God lists a number of Lucifer's talents.

The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you.

That's another way of saying that he could sing.

And some Bible scholars and others have written that it's believed that Lucifer had the ability to sing all 4 parts at once of music.

He was the angel that led the heavenly choirs.

I almost said Amen, and I thought, wait a minute.

Then it says, You were the anointed cherub who covers.

So God chose Lucifer to stand beside his throne, and he had the privilege of being the 1 that God gave direction to for all the rest of heaven.

So God would give the command, Lucifer would carry it out to the rest of the angels, right?

So he had the gift of leadership as well, correct?

And then the Bible says that you were on the holy mountain of God, you walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones, you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till what?

Now the name Lucifer, now we know the story of how iniquity was found in Lucifer.

God did not create that iniquity, but He created Lucifer and every 1 of His beings with what?

And though He was created to serve and minister before God, He chose to go His own direction, Correct?

We know that's fundamental understanding.

That the name Lucifer, what does that translate to?

Now if you're a bearer of something, it's an older term, what does that mean?

If I'm a bearer of good news or bad news, what does that mean?

If I bear the news of whatever, of the battle or whatever it is in the Bible times, I was the 1 that carried that message from the place it originated to the place it needed to go, correct?

So the name Lucifer literally means light bearer, so he was the bearer or the carrier of what?

W.D. Frazee

W.D. Frazee Sermons Ministry

All We Need We Have- Part 2

When the Lord gives us a work to do, let us not stop to inquire into the reasonableness of the command, or the probable result of our efforts to obey.

The supply in our hands may seem to fall far short of our needs, but in the hands of the Lord it will be more than sufficient.

The servitors set it before them and they did even left thereof according to the word of the Lord.

We should have a fuller sense of God's relationship to those whom he has purchased with the blood of his only begotten Son.

We should exercise faith in the onward progress of the work of the kingdom of God.

Let us waste no time in deploring the scantiness of our visible resources, but let us make the best use of what we have.

Now, there's several words there that we want to study.

Let us waste no time in deploring, feeling bad about, wishing something were different.

Let us waste no time in deploring the scantiness of our visible resources.

If we're going to build a building, lumber, cement, mortar, glass, those are what?

Resources are not the building, they're what we use to make the business.

That's what we are tempted to murmur about, isn't it?

If When our eyes are open like Elisha's servants were and we see the chariots of fire and horses of fire all around the city, then do we cry?

All Elisha's servants saw was Elisha and himself the servant.

And he said, Alas, my master, how shall we do?

And Elisha said, don't worry about that because there's more with us than those that are with them.

Now I don't know whether Elisha saw the angels there or not, but he knew they were there But the young man didn't and so he was hot He was deploring the scantiness of the visible resources Now dear friends, I'm greatly impressed with something.

I shared it with you Friday night and I'm sharing it again with you tonight.

God is training workers on this campus to go all over the world and do impossible things.

And the way to do that is to have as much help as possible in every department, have the best equipment in every department, and the money to pay all the bills.

That's the best way to train workers to go out where the money is less and the workers are fewer and the equipment less and do a great work.

But I'm not sure it has dawned upon us the connection between the 2 things.

We are tempted at times to think that something is wrong either with somebody else or with us.

If we can't see all that we need to get a certain job done.

Some of us are tempted more to blame other people and Some of us are tempted more to blame other people and some of us are tempted more to kick ourselves around the block.

Some stones he picked up and broke and the slingshot he had in his pocket.

He had a pocket, otherwise wrapped around his arm.

My dear friends, what we need at Wildwood is not the equipment of Loma Linda or Kettering.

God bless them and the work they're called to do.

But Wildwood is not to be agriculturally, medically, educationally, construction-wise, evangelistically, any other way.

It is not to be a place where all kinds of equipment and a wonderful number of personnel Do something that is marvelous and machines and men get the credit.

If God is training workers to go out to Africa, to go to Canada, to go to other places whose names we don't yet know, and open work in new territory with few resources.

Do you students, do you want to be challenged?

Well, tell the Lord you're willing to be challenged and God will give you the opportunity in your own personal experience of meeting emergencies, financial, health-wise, trying to do a job when you don't have the tools you think you need and so on, all kinds of emergencies and opportunities to develop in you faith and initiative, ingenuity in doing what you can with what you have where you are.

Remember that the early church starting with 12 men carried the message to the whole world in less than 40 years and they did it without a telephone without a telegraph Without a radio, no TV, no automobile, no automobile, not even a jet plane?

And folks, we could plaster the wall with the list of the inventions they didn't have.

And as I said Friday night, the last sheaves that are going to be gathered in this world are going to be gathered with a handsickle.

Men and women and youth filled with the Holy Spirit are going to work hand to hand, heart to heart on a one-to-one basis.

Now we will not get from where we are to that overnight, but, O, I trust that we shall appreciate this fact.

Christ works through those who discern mercy in misery, gain in the loss of all things.

When the light of the world passes by, privileges appear in all hardships, order in confusion, the success and wisdom of God in that which is seemed to be failed." If you want that statement, it's in Volume 7, the chapter addressed to the teachers in our schools.

But now let's come back to my sentence I'm studying here.

Though the outward appearance may be unpromising, energy and trust in God will develop resources.

All We Need We Have- Part 1

God's great purpose in giving us a part in his work is that we may have fellowship with him, learning to walk with him by faith rather than sight.

Those of us that have been called into this particular part of the Master's work, recognize that the self-supporting work offers special opportunities in depending on the miraculous.

Because, in many cases, the only way that a work of God can start is through miracles.

The new project starting in New York, a new project starting in Africa, it's called Canada.

Brother Wilson has said there are men and women here tonight that God will be calling to these various projects, and some of you may be visitors here tonight that God will be calling into this work.

The lessons that I have in this little study tonight are for everybody, whether you're on campus or off campus.

Believe me, friends, we are in the closing moments of human history, and this world is not going to run easy to its end.

Troubles are going to increase as they have been increasing in recent years, and those who have learned to walk by faith are going to go right ahead and finish God's work.

Now, the brethren have just been singing this beautiful message about what Jesus did for us.

Jesus came to this earth for 2 great purposes.

He came to die for us on the cross, but before that he came to live for us and show us how to live.

This evening, for a few minutes, I want us to notice an experience in the life of Jesus that is a lesson for all self-supporting workers and everybody else that wants to attempt something for Jesus.

This is 1 of the incidents in the life of Jesus that all 4 of the gospel writers tell.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

1. We Need Revival

31m

Lucifer and You

48m

All We Need We Have- Part 2

20m

All We Need We Have- Part 1

22m

Armageddon and Beyond

27m

The House With the Forgotten Book

26m

Cities of Refuge

50m

The Coming Sunday Law

41m

02. Jeremiah: The Crisis Within and Without

48m

Q & A Session

36m

The Ministry of Rebukes

1h 37m

Humble and Proud Of It

1h 17m

Sound Doctrine