Pray.
Amen.
All right, well, we're there in 1 Kings 17.
And we've been going through a series on Sunday nights,
Studying the Life of Elijah.
This is actually the fifth part of this series,
fifth sermon in this series.
And we tonight are going to finally finish 1 Kings 17.
So we'll move on next week from that.
And we haven't been in 1 Kings 17 the whole time.
If you remember, the first couple of sermons
were kind of introductory sermons.
We were in James and going to a lot of different places.
But we've been working through these stories.
And there's just been a lot in just this chapter.
If you remember, first, Elijah kind of shows up on the scene.
And he goes to Ahab.
And he tells him that there's not
going to be dew or rain, basically, till he says so.
And then, of course, he went to.
And when we were looking at that, if you remember,
we learned a few lessons on prayer,
and the fact that fervent prayer from a righteous man
availeth much.
And then we got some lessons on waiting from the brook
Keirith, if you remember that.
And then last week, we've got some financial principles
from the story of the woman, the widow woman,
being able to sustain Elijah.
So tonight, we're going to look at the last story
in this chapter.
And it's a really interesting story.
It starts there in verse 17.
Now, I want you to notice that this passage begins
with a death.
Notice verse 17 there.
It says, and it came to pass after these things.
And these things there is, of course,
God sustaining Elijah and the widow woman and her son
and the household with providing for their food
and through all that, through the famine there.
And then the Bible says this, that the son of the woman,
the mistress of the house, fell sick.
And his sickness was sore, that there
was no breath left in him.
Now, when the Bible says there was no breath left in him,
that's just a different way of saying that he died.
He wasn't breathing anymore.
And verse 18, it says this.
And she said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee,
O thou man of God?
Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance?
Notice what she says, and to slay my son.
And it's interesting how when bad things happen to people,
often we are trying to find someone to blame and someone
to lash out to.
Notice verse 19, and he said unto her, give me thy son.
And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up
into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed.
And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God,
has thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom
I so adjourned by slaying her son?
So I want you to notice that this passage begins
with the death of this son, the death of this young man.
What's interesting is that the passage ends
with the dead being revived.
Notice verse 21, and he stretched himself
upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord
and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee,
let this child's soul come into him again.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah,
and the soul of child came into him again, and he revived.
And Elijah took the child and brought him down out
of the chamber into the house and delivered him
into his mother.
And Elijah said, see thy son liveth.
So we begin the passage with a death,
and we end the passage with the dead being revived,
the dead having a revival.
And what I want to do tonight as we go through this passage
and kind of dissect it and study it out,
I want you to notice that in the Bible,
often these Old Testament stories,
we're told in the New Testament that these Old Testament
stories serve as an example or as an example.
And in a lot of ways, they're kind of an allegory.
It's a literal story.
This really happened.
But we can learn, and we can see some things.
We can interpret some meanings from the story in regards
to the idea of revival.
And I want to talk to you tonight,
and I want us to learn and study this idea of revival.
Now, keep your place there in 1 Kings 17.
Go through the book of Ezra just real quickly.
If you're in 1 Kings, you're going
to go past 2 Kings, past 1 Chronicles,
into the book of Ezra.
And let me just kind of lay a foundation
for this idea of revival from scripture.
Because unfortunately, a lot of Christians
today have kind of made a joke of the concept of revival.
When you hear stories, they'll tell stories
about these old preachers like George Whitfield and George
Mueller, and they'll talk about these guys.
And look, I'm all for stories about old time preachers
that preached the word of God and got people saved
or whatever.
But when they start telling these ridiculous stories,
I mean, I remember growing up, I think
it was a George Mueller story where
they would talk about how George Mueller would
walk into a factory.
This is like the early 1900s, some factory in New York City.
The guy would just, according to the story, he'd just walk in,
and people would just begin to fall over,
and just be under the conviction of the presence of him
falling in.
It's kind of ridiculous, right?
When you hear stories like that, and just walking
into some factory where people are working,
just as he's passing by them, he's not Jesus, OK?
And so because of stories like that, the idea of revival
has in some ways become a joke.
Now, I'm all for that, and I'm all for preaching
and exposing that.
What I'm not necessarily for is that sometimes whenever
we want to fight against something,
we kind of tend to jerk the wheel
in the exact opposite direction.
And what I've noticed with a lot of fundamentalist Christians,
especially the ones in our type of circles, or the churches
that we kind of, the fundamentalist, soul
winning type preaching, is that not only has revival
become a joke in their eyes, which I understand
that some of these churches have done that,
and the old IP has done that.
But for a lot of them, the word revival,
or the concept of revival, has in some ways
become almost a bad word, or a byword,
where it's like, you shouldn't even talk about revival.
Revival is not scriptural.
But I would submit to you tonight
that if you believe that, you need to read the Bible.
Because the Bible actually speaks a lot about revival,
and about a reviving.
And we need to just understand a scriptural concept,
and the scriptural concept of revival.
Let me just show you some verses,
just to kind of prime the pump a little bit
as we look at this concept of revival tonight.
You're there in Ezra chapter 9.
I want you to notice verse number 8.
Notice what Ezra says.
Ezra chapter 9 and verse 8.
Now remember, if you've been studying the book of Ezekiel
with us on Wednesday night, Ezra is
on the other side of Ezekiel.
Remember, Ezekiel is in captivity,
prophesying the judgment of God, the destruction of the temple
and of the nation of Israel.
Ezra's on the other side of that captivity, 70 years later,
as he's leading a remnant back to Jerusalem,
with Nehemiah to rebuild the wall.
And he's going to help lead in the rebuilding of a temple.
And what he's doing is he's bringing people back
that have been humbled, that have been living
in captivity for 70 years, that spiritually have not
experienced any revival in their lifetimes.
And I want you to notice what the Bible says here in Ezra 9
and verse 8.
It says this.
And now for a little space.
He's talking about what God has done for them.
He says, and now for a little space,
grace has been showed from the Lord our God.
To leave us a remnant to escape and to give us
a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes.
So he's saying, God has blessed us.
And for a little space, for a little time,
there has been grace that has been showed unto us.
He's saying, God is allowing a remnant
to go back to Jerusalem, to give us a nail in his holy place.
And we're going to be able to go do some work in the temple
and get it back and running and get it back and built up.
Notice what he says at the end of verse 8.
He says this.
And give us a little reviving in our bondage.
You say, when you talk about revival,
what are you talking about?
And please understand this.
We're not talking about some magical, supernatural thing
where all of a sudden, look, we're not Calvinists.
You hear Baptists talk about revival,
and it's like God is going to force people to get saved
and get right with God.
And you're going to walk into some factory,
and people are just going to fall over and get saved.
Look, people have to choose to be saved.
Whosoever will may come.
Obviously, we're not going to force that upon anybody.
You say, well, when the Bible talks about revival,
what is it talking about?
Here's all it's talking about.
It's talking about taking something that's dead,
something that's not working, something that has died off,
something that's no longer serving a purpose,
and putting some life into it.
He's talking about going back to the temple that
was destroyed, that has been sitting empty and unused
for the last 70 years.
And they're going to go back, and they're going to revive that.
They're going to get it back working.
God is going to allow them to have
a little reviving in our bondage.
So it's not this mystical, spiritual.
It's talking about taking something that died
and bringing it back to life.
Notice verse 9.
For we were bondmen, yet our God has not forsaken us
in our bondage, but has extended mercy unto us
in the sight of the King of Persia.
And of course, it was the King of Persia, Cyrus,
who even allowed them to go back to rebuild the temple.
Notice what he says.
To give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God,
to repair the desolations thereof,
to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Don't you notice how he says, to give us a reviving?
And then he says, and to repair the desolations thereof.
You say, what is revival?
Revival is when you go, and you bring some life
to something that was dead.
You repair something that has been broken down.
Go to Nehemiah chapter 4.
You're there in Ezra.
Just one book over to Nehemiah.
Nehemiah chapter 4.
So we need to make sure that we're not
thinking of revival in the wrong way
and thinking that it's some sort of mystical, magical, spiritual.
We're going to outlaw alcohol.
And thousands of people are going to go to church.
And it's going to be great.
We don't see that as New Testament believers.
Look, I'm not Peter, all right?
I'm not going to walk by your shadow.
My shadow is going to fall on you,
and you're going to be healed or whatever it might be.
That's not how it works.
But when we're talking about revival,
we're talking about taking something that was destroyed
and repairing it, taking something that is dead
and reviving it, infusing life into it,
helping it to get back to what it should have been.
Nehemiah chapter 4, look at verse 1.
But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard
that we built up the wall.
Remember, Nehemiah is rebuilding the wall.
And Sanballat is the enemy of the work of God.
And by the way, let me say this.
Whenever you attempt to do something great for God,
there will always be naysayers.
There will always be people who are criticizing you,
who are critical.
It's easy for people to sit back at home in their armchair
and just criticize.
They're doing nothing for God, but they
want to criticize everything you're doing for God.
And in verse 1, he says this, but it came to pass
that when Sanballat heard that we built up the wall,
he was robbed and took great indignation and mocked the Jews
and he spake before his brethren the army of Samaria
and said, what do these feeble Jews?
Now remember, he's trying to discourage them.
He's saying, what do these feeble Jews?
Will they fortify themselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they make an end in a day?
Notice what he says.
Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish
which are burned?
He's looking at the wall that's destroyed.
And he's saying, are they really going to revive this wall?
Are they really going to rebuild this wall?
Are they really going to attempt to do something great for God?
Go to Psalm 85.
You're there in Nehemiah.
You're going to go past Esther, past Job,
into the book of Psalm, Psalm 85.
And look at verse number 5.
So let me just say this.
If you have gone to an extreme where
you're thinking of the word revival in a negative sense,
I understand why you might be there
because of a joke that has been made of revival
from the old IFB and Baptists in general.
But you need to get your mind right because the Bible
talks a lot about revival.
The Bible uses the word reviving and revival a lot.
It's found all throughout scripture.
I'm just giving you a few examples.
Psalm 85, look at verse 5.
Psalm 85 in verse 5 says this.
Will thou be angry with us forever?
This is, again, a psalm of bondage and captivity.
They're under the judgment of God.
And they're saying, will thou be angry with us forever?
Wilt thou draw up thine anger to all generations?
Go to verse 6.
Will thou not revive us again?
Didn't we sing that this morning?
Revive us again.
Fill each heart with thy love.
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.
He says, will thou not revive us again
that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Let me show you just one last one.
Go to Habakkuk, chapter 3.
Habakkuk, if you start at the end of the Old Testament,
you start at the book of Malachi.
And you head backwards, you'll get there faster.
You're going to go past Zechariah, past Haggai,
past Zephaniah, into the book of Habakkuk.
You've got Malachi.
And then you've got Z-H-Z-H, all right?
Zechariah, Haggai, Zephaniah, Habakkuk.
Habakkuk, chapter 3, look at verse 1.
Habakkuk, chapter 3 and verse 1.
And again, Habakkuk is praying during a time
of spiritual death for the nation of Israel.
Notice what it says, a prayer of Habakkuk,
a prophet of Shiganoth.
Verse 2, oh Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid.
Oh Lord, notice this prayer,
revive thy work in the midst of the years.
In the midst of the years make known
in wrath remember mercy.
He's saying, look, I understand we're in the judgment of God.
I understand that your wrath is upon us right now.
I understand that you are chastising us and correcting us.
But he says, oh Lord, will thou revive thy work
in the midst of the year?
What is he saying?
He's saying, will you allow us to get back
to how things used to be?
Will you allow us to be able to revive the work
that was being done and bring it back to where it should be?
Go back to 1 Kings 17.
Tonight what I'd like to do is just take this story
and give you some principles of revival.
Some principles of revival.
And if you'd like to write some notes down,
I'd encourage you to do that.
Point number one tonight is this,
when we look at this story,
and by the way, this is an interesting story
to study something that's dead being revived
because in the Bible,
this is the first resurrection in the Bible.
This is the first dead body
that gets brought back to life in the Bible.
And it happens here with Elijah.
And I want you to notice, first of all tonight,
for those of you taking notes, the candidate of revival.
You know, many people talk about the fact
that we'd love to see revival.
I'd love to see revival in America.
People say that, and I don't know
that we'll ever see revival in America,
but I'd love to see revival at Verity Baptist Church.
I'd love to see revival in your home and in your heart
and with your family.
And you say, yeah, pastor, but you don't understand.
I'm kind of backslidden.
You don't understand.
I'm not as faithful as I used to be.
You don't understand.
I'm not as on fire as I used to be.
You don't understand.
You know, I used to read the Bible consistently,
and I used to pray consistently.
I used to be a soul winner consistently.
I was three to thrive, you know,
Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night.
And I've kind of backed off from that.
You know, is revival really an option or available for me?
And what I would say to you is that
not only is revival available for you,
you are the perfect candidate for revival.
You say, who's eligible for revival?
Here's the thing about reviving something
is that the candidate has to be dead.
Notice verse 17.
And it came to pass after these things
that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house,
fell sick, and his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him.
Why was Elijah able to revive this young man?
Elijah was able to revive this young man
because the young man was dead.
Verse 18, and she said unto Elijah,
what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?
Art thou common to me to call my sin to remembrance
and to slay my son?
See, you need to understand that what makes you
a perfect candidate for revival is that you're dead.
Is that something's dead?
You say, you know, our church, it's dead.
You know, and I'm not talking about our church.
Our church is doing great, praise the Lord for it.
But there's churches all over this country,
independent fundamental Baptist, King James,
right on salvation churches that are dead.
And they're great candidates for revival.
Go to Revelation chapter three.
Revelation chapter three, if you remember,
I think we looked at this last week,
not this specific church, but we looked at
the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation.
One of these, you know, times on a Sunday night,
I'm gonna do a series through the seven churches
of the book of Revelation and study those out
over a seven week period.
But in Revelation chapter three,
we have an example of one, remember,
Jesus was giving a message to seven local churches,
congregations in Asia.
And I want you to notice what it says
in Revelation three and verse one.
And unto the angel of the church and Sardis write,
these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God
and the seven stars.
I know thy works, that thou is a name,
that thou liveth, notice what he says,
and art dead.
He said, you have a name that you're living.
You have a building with a sign outside
that says so and so Baptist Church.
You have a website, it says you have services.
You may even have services.
You may even have people showing up, but you're dead.
He says you have a name that you're living,
but you're dead.
Verse two, be watchful and strengthen the things
which remain that are ready to die,
for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
Similar, it was Ezekiel.
Remember last Wednesday night, we talked about the fact
that God will remove his candlestick from some churches.
Some churches actually die where he removes the candlestick,
but there are some churches that have not yet died,
but they are dying.
I mean, and unfortunately, you know, you look at church,
I mean, there are churches all over,
even in Natomas and South Natomas and Del Paso Heights,
you can find churches.
My wife and I were getting a cup of coffee
just earlier today before coming into the church building
here for the evening service.
We were getting a cup of coffee over there at the Starbucks
and we were in the drive-thru
and I'm staring at this beautiful church building.
You know, the Church of Christ or whatever,
they're on Norward.
Beautiful building, beautiful landscape,
all of these parking stalls and all of this property
and I'm looking at this building
and there's nothing going on.
I mean, it's just empty.
The gates are closed, there's a lock.
And I looked over at my wife and I say, what a waste.
You've got this beautiful building.
I mean, I don't know how many people
they could fit in that building,
but it sits there, you know, day after day after day,
they have one service a week.
And just a few people show up.
And I think, you think to myself, you know,
that property could be used by someone
to preach people with the, you know,
sometimes people ask me, you know, Pastor Ramirez,
how long are you guys gonna have the Sunday night service?
You know, this is what I think.
If people keep showing up, we're gonna keep having them.
And you know, if people don't show up,
we'll still keep having them.
But you know, I just figure this,
hey, if I can preach to 166 people on Sunday morning
and preach to another 130 on Sunday night
and preach to another 130 on Wednesday night,
hey, that's better than not.
And you know, we might as well just do something
and try to accomplish something.
But today, you look at churches.
You know, there's the Natomas Baptist Church
over down there by where I live.
And I drive by that building, sits 300 people,
beautiful building, you know, great property,
all this stuff.
You go over there, there's six people.
They're like 90 years old.
And I'm not, you know, down on elderly people.
Praise the Lord for elderly people.
But see, something happened.
I talked to those same people that go to that church.
I knocked doors around that neighborhood and I talked to them
and they tell me, oh man, you should have seen our church.
Back in the 70s, it was standing room only.
Back in the 80s, I mean, we were just, you know,
going gangbusters and we were just reaching people.
And I mean, people have to stand in the back
and they tell me these stories.
And now, you know, they've got the AA meeting there
on Friday night and the whatever else
and the Weight Watchers and this and that.
They're renting the building out to make money
and there's not being used for God's glory.
And all I'm saying is this, at some point,
that church began to die.
And churches can die.
And by the way, let me just say this
before you start thinking that we're being pro-American.
Verity Baptist Church could die.
And from time to time, we need to be reminded
that everything is in a constant state of decay.
And from time to time, that which is dying
needs to be revived.
But not only can dead churches, not only can churches die,
but you know that spiritually, you can die?
You're there in the book of Revelation.
Go to Revelation chapter two.
Revelation chapter two.
Look at verse number four.
Revelation chapter two and verse four.
Here he's talking to the church at Ephesus.
Notice what he said.
He says, well, look at verse two.
"'I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience,
"'and thou how canst not bear them which are evil,
"'and thou hast tried them which say,
"'they are apostles or not, and hast found them liars.'"
This church was doctrinally correct.
They weren't listening to Francis Chan, right?
They weren't listening to Joel Osteen.
They were able to try prophets.
They were able to look at prophets
and know that they were evil.
They tried them which say they are apostles or not
and found them liars.
Verse three, and has borne and has patience,
and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted.
Verse four, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee.
Jesus is looking at these people and he's saying,
look, I like your doctrine.
I even like your work.
I like what you're doing.
But if there's one thing I don't like,
if there's something I have against you,
if there's something that I wish you would change, it's this.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, verse four,
because thou has left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly
and remove thy candles to get out of his place
except thou repent.
And Jesus is looking at a bunch of Christians here
and he's saying, you're not on fire like you used to be.
You're still doctrinally sound
and you're still showing up for the services
and showing up for the soul, but your heart has gone away.
And he says, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee.
He said, I have somewhat against thee
because thou has left thy first love.
And look, as a Christian, you can begin.
You can begin to quench the Holy Spirit.
You can begin to not be on fire for God.
You can begin to get backslidden
and you can begin to die spiritually.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter five.
You can begin to live a worldly, sinful life.
And we won't go to James chapter two,
but in James chapter two, it talks about
faith without works is dead.
Now, people try to add that to salvation.
I preached about that this morning.
I'm not gonna preach about that tonight,
but let me just say this.
We know that obviously works is not needed for salvation,
but you can have faith, and if you have no works,
you're dead.
Now, it doesn't say faith without works doesn't exist.
It says faith without works is dead.
You can be saved spiritually on your way to heaven,
but have a dead spiritual life.
Let me read for you from Ephesians five.
You go to 1 Timothy five, but in Ephesians five
and verse 14, the apostle Paul is writing
to the church at Ephesus.
He says, wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepest.
Remember Jonah?
He was backslidden and he was asleep.
And then he says this, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light.
See, spiritually you can begin to die.
I'm not talking about losing your salvation,
but I'm talking about just the fact
that you begin to lose that zeal.
You begin to walk away from your first love.
Are you there in 1 Timothy five?
Now, 1 Timothy five, the context is about widows,
but I want you to notice what he says to this widow.
He says, but she that liveth in pleasure is dead
while she liveth.
And that's talking to a widow there,
but that can be applied to any believer.
Look, any believer who lives their life for pleasure,
who lives their life not to deny self,
take up thy cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
but just to fulfill your own pleasures,
to fulfill your own lusts, to do what you want,
to fulfill your own covetousness,
not to do the will of God,
but to do what you desire with your life.
The Bible says that you, if you live in pleasure,
you're just dead while you're living.
Spiritually, you're dead.
Spiritually, you're not doing and accomplishing
what God desires for you.
So look, if you're here tonight and you're backslidden,
and here's what I've found about backslidden people
is that they get backslidden in their hearts
way before any of us ever see it.
By the time you're quitting church,
your heart has been away from church for a long time.
By the time you start missing this service
and missing that service and missing your prayer time
and missing your Bible reading
and missing your sowing time, it starts slowly.
By the time it gets to the place
where we actually begin to notice it
and we start realizing and thinking,
what's happened to Brother So-and-so?
Or what's happened to Sister So-and-so?
And it seems like they're kind of getting away.
And we always think it seems like
they're kind of getting away,
but really their outward is just catching up to their inward
because their heart and their minds
were gone away a long time ago.
And maybe you're already there and we haven't noticed it
and we won't notice it for three months or six months
or one year or two years or three years,
but you know in your heart
you're forgetting your first love.
You are the candidate for revival.
Dying churches are the candidate for revival.
Dying Christians are the candidate for revival.
Go back to 1 Kings 17.
We saw number one, the candidate for revival.
It may be you tonight.
And you know what, if it's not you tonight,
just keep this in mind, it may be you down the road
because we all get backslidden from time to time
and we need a reviving in our spirit.
But I'd like you to notice secondly from this story,
not only do we see the candidate for revival,
but we see the catalyst for revival.
See, there are some things that we see in the life of Elijah
that allowed and that brought revival
in the life of this young man.
When I talk about the catalyst of revival,
I'm talking about the things that happened before,
things that, events and decisions that were made
before revival came that allowed revival to come.
You say, what are they?
Well, notice there in 1 Kings 17.
I wanna give you three catalysts for revival.
We're talking about the catalyst for revival.
I wanna give you three catalysts for revival,
three things that will thrust revival
and propel revival in your life and in my life
that we can see in the life of Elijah here.
The first one is this.
We see a consistent lifestyle.
Why don't you notice what it says there in verse 18?
And she, now keep in mind, this woman just lost her son.
She's grieving and she's hurting.
And she said unto Elijah,
what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?
Now notice she said, she's saying,
you know, she's saying, what do I have to do with thee?
What you and I would say is,
what do you have to do with me, right?
Why are you here?
Why are you in my life?
You know, why did you come here?
And she acknowledges the fact that he is a man of God.
And remember, when we met the widow woman,
she said to Elijah, thy God,
your God is the one that brought the famine, not my God.
She's not a believer.
Now she's gonna become a believer at the end of the story,
but she's not a believer yet,
but she can acknowledge the fact
that Elijah is a man of God.
She said, what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?
Now notice what she says, look at this wording.
Are thou common to me to call my sin to remembrance
and to slay my son?
It's interesting, when her son dies,
she blames Elijah, but she doesn't blame Elijah
in the sense like, Elijah, you brought a curse.
God is out to get you and he got my son
because of association.
That's not what she says.
The guilt is on her.
This woman, I don't know what guilt she's dealing with.
I don't know what sin in her life she's dealing with,
but when her son died, she thought to herself,
this is my fault.
This is her being in the Wales Valley
for three days and three nights.
And she's under conviction and she's saying,
art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance?
And here's what I want you to understand.
The reason that she said, you man of God
must be here to punish me for my sin
is because Elijah has not been living
with this woman for a while.
And this woman has been watching this man, Elijah,
and she's been watching him day after day,
maybe week after week, maybe month after month,
maybe even year after year,
because we know that the famine lasted
three and a half years.
And for a while, she's been watching this man.
And what she's watched is a consistent life
that brought conviction to her,
to the point where when her son died,
she said, this can't be his fault.
This has to be my fault.
And even though she blames him,
even though she blames him, she says,
art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance
and to slay my son?
See, we don't believe in lifestyle evangelism.
Keep your place there in 1 Kings 17.
Go to Matthew chapter five,
first book in the New Testament, Matthew chapter five.
We don't believe in lifestyle evangelism.
We don't believe in you just live a good life
and people will fall before you like George Mueller
and say, what must I do to be saved?
We believe in confrontational soul winning.
And when we say confrontational soul winning,
we're not talking about being rude to people.
We're talking about taking it to them.
We're talking about being on the offensive.
We're talking about confronting people with the gospel.
We believe that, but let me say this,
we don't believe in lifestyle evangelism,
but we dead sure believe that your lifestyle
better match your evangelism.
See, you can't, you say, well Pastor Menez,
this morning you were saying that,
you know, eternal security, I can live as I want.
Yes, you can live as you want,
but when you live as you want, just realize,
you're gonna be dead spiritually to the world.
No one's gonna take you seriously.
No one's gonna walk up to you,
look, you should live your life, listen guys,
you should live your life in a way,
and ladies, you should live your life in a way
that when those who know you, your coworkers,
or your friends, or your neighbors,
or your family, your extended family,
when tragedy happens in their lives,
they know who to go to,
because your life is a consistent life.
And here's all I'm telling you,
is that revival will never happen
in a life of a Christian,
and revival will never happen in a church
where the Christians are living like the world.
Revival's not gonna come, listen,
revival's not gonna come while you're watching
whatever you want on your television,
revival's not gonna come while you're drinking
and getting drunk, revival's not gonna come
while you're living a worldly lifestyle.
See, the reason that God was able to use Elijah
is because he had a consistent lifestyle.
It was consistent with his testimony,
and the widow woman knew that.
And even in her blame, she's saying,
I blame you, you're such a,
you brought the power of God,
and God now is punishing me because you're here,
but she understood that he had a consistent lifestyle.
You're there in Matthew 5, look at verse 14,
that's what the Bible says, Matthew 5, 14.
Ye are the light of the world,
a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick, and it giveth light
unto all that are in the house, verse 16,
let your light so shine before men.
This is your lifestyle, this is your testimony,
that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Here's all I'm saying, don't think you're gonna go to work
and get all your co-workers saved
when you're always late to work.
Don't think you're gonna go to work
and get all your co-workers, I don't know why I can't,
you know, family friend day after family friend day,
I invite my co-workers and they laugh and walk away.
I don't understand why they don't wanna listen to me.
Maybe because you're the guy that's always, you know,
taking an extra 50 minutes for your lunch.
Maybe because you're not, because you're lazy.
Maybe because you're just, your lifestyle
is not matching your testimony, it's not consistent.
And especially those of you that deal,
look, I grew up in a Christian home
and I thank God for that, and I don't have to deal with,
you know, unsaved family members.
Now my wife has unsaved family members,
she's got a lot of her family saved
and we deal with that on her side,
so we're not completely oblivious to the dynamics here.
But let me tell you what'll hurt the most, your family,
getting saved or getting right with God,
is when they see inconsistency in you.
I don't know how many times I've had to say this to people
and I say it to people and I say it to people
and I say it till I'm blue in the face
and it seems like nobody ever wants to listen,
but when you tell your family, when you sit there and say,
bless God, I'm gonna go to church Sunday morning
and Sunday night and Wednesday night,
and then the first time a little family gathering,
you know, they purposely put a little family gathering
on Sunday night just to kinda test you
and you give in, you lost.
Say, yeah, but if I'm not consistent,
you know, then they're gonna,
look, they will hate you, they're gonna hate you anyway.
They're gonna be mad at you anyway,
but eventually you will earn their respect
if you're consistent.
And eventually, they'll know who to go to
when tragedy strikes, if you're consistent.
But, you know, your family sits there and says,
this is just a phase, they'll grow out of this,
this whole Christian thing,
remember when they went to Flat Earth?
No, I'm just kidding, I hope they never say that.
You know, but they'll say like, oh, this is just something,
and here's the sad thing is,
most people just proved that it was a phase.
It lasted a year, two years, three years,
and now they're back to how they used to be.
But see, revival comes when we have a consistent lifestyle.
Elijah was able to show this woman, day in and day out,
I'm the real thing, I'm who I say I am,
I love God, I'm not perfect, but I'm walking with God,
and she knew where to go when tragedy struck.
Not only do we see that a consistent lifestyle
is a catalyst for revival,
but I want you to notice, secondly,
that a compassion for the lost is a catalyst for revival.
Notice verse 19, and he said unto her,
and don't miss this, this woman just had her son die.
This is all she has, she's a widow,
and she's carrying, the Bible tells her,
she's carrying the corpse of the body of her son
in her bosom to Elijah, and he said unto her,
give me thy son.
Notice this, and he took him of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft where he abode
and laid him upon his own bed.
Now this is a literal story, he physically took
a dead body and carried him.
But the application here is that we should have
a concern for the lost who are spiritually dead,
who are actually dead in trespasses and sins,
and we see this kind of illustration played out
throughout scripture, let me give you an example of that.
Go to Mark chapter two, in the New Testament
you have Matthew and then the book of Mark,
Mark chapter two, look at verse one.
Soul winning is often illustrated as us taking
those who cannot get themselves to Jesus.
We carry them to the giver of life, we take the dead
and carry them to those who can help them.
Mark chapter two, verse one, here's another story
that kind of illustrates the same thing.
Verse one says this, and again he entered into Capernaum
after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house,
and straightway many were gathered together
in so much that there was no room to receive them,
no, not so much as about the door,
and he preached the word unto them,
and they came unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy,
one sick of the palsy, but notice how they brought him,
which was born of four, four carried this man,
and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press,
there was too many people in the house
to make it into Jesus, they uncovered the roof
where he was, and when they had broken it up,
they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay,
and they brought this man, they carried this man
to the only one that could help him, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you know what you and I do when we go out soul winning
and we give the gospel to those is we help those
who cannot help themselves, they're lost, they're dead,
they need somebody to bring the good news to them,
to carry them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice what it says in verse five, when Jesus saw,
notice it doesn't say when Jesus saw his faith,
now the man definitely had faith,
obviously he had faith to be saved,
but it's interesting that Jesus did not just see
the faith of the man, Jesus saw the faith of the group,
it says when Jesus saw their faith,
he said unto the sick of the palsy,
son, thy sins be forgiven thee,
and you know, you say well why does it say
their faith there, because it requires faith for us
to believe that God can use us to reach people
of the gospel of Christ, it requires faith for us
to believe that we can go out there and make a difference,
go to Jude chapter one, you know the verses,
but let's just look at it together,
Jude, right before the book of Revelation,
only one chapter, verse 22 says this,
and of some have compassion making a difference,
and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
You say what makes the difference,
compassion makes the difference,
and this man, Elijah, takes this body
and carries it from this woman,
takes her burden and carries it away,
showing compassion, you say what's the catalyst for revival,
well it's a consistent lifestyle first of all,
let your light so shine before me,
we don't believe in lifestyle evangelism,
but your lifestyle better match your evangelism,
but then it actually takes us going out there
and loving people and compassionately carrying them to Christ
you know the picture there is that we care
because compassion makes a difference,
but thirdly tonight,
when it comes to the catalyst of revival,
I want you to notice this,
if we're ever gonna have revival,
if we're gonna have revival in this church,
if you're gonna have revival in your life,
it will not only require a consistent lifestyle,
it will not only require a compassion for the lost,
but it will require a confident prayer life.
Notice first King 17, notice verse 20,
and I just want you to understand this about Elijah,
if you don't like to hear preaching about prayer,
you may want to skip all of the Elijah sermons,
because one consistent theme
that comes up through the life of this man
is that he was a great prayer warrior,
the reason that he was able to accomplish
the things that he accomplished for God
is because he knew how to get alone with God,
and I want you to notice that Elijah takes this boy
and he takes him up to his room,
he lays him on his own bed, verse 20 says this,
and he cried unto the Lord and said,
O Lord, my God, and notice what he says here,
this was not Elijah's fault, this was God's plan,
God had a plan, I don't want to preach
the one bad things happen to good people,
but God had a plan and God had a purpose
through all of this, but it's funny that the widow says,
you know, art thou come to bring my sin to remembrance?
And sometimes when people criticize us,
even when we know that person's backslidden,
that person's not right with God,
that person's not even saved, that person,
sometimes, look, be careful about listening to your critics
as sometimes we allow those things
to affect us in our heads, and Elijah says,
O Lord, my God, has thou also brought evil
upon the widow with whom I sojourn?
And let me tell you something,
sometimes as preachers of the word of God,
as pastors of those of us who lead churches
and lead congregations, sometimes we feel
like our ministries are ruining people's lives.
I'm not saying it's right, we're in the flesh
and we're wrong, God's doing a great work.
Well, sometimes I walk away from meetings
or I walk away from conversations
and I get in that bed and I'm driving home
and I'm telling my wife, man, we are just ruining lives
one Sunday at a time, and you say,
what are you talking about?
I'm talking about the fact that people show up
and you've got a young man and a young lady
and they've not really thought things through
and maybe they got married or they have one kid
and he's working somewhere and she's working somewhere
and they're just kind of doing
what the world tells them to do, and they get saved
and they start coming to Verity Baptist Church
and they start hearing preaching
about how they ought to live their lives
and all of a sudden, a year later or two years later
or three years later, things look a lot different.
Now wife is staying home, now there's maybe two
or three or more kids, now there's a guy
who's gotta provide for an income
of an entire family all on his own,
and sometimes you kind of feel like they're blaming you
when they realize that they didn't prepare appropriately.
And sometimes, like Moses, when you came
to bring the preaching of let my people go
and he was blamed initially by the elders of Israel
for the work that Pharaoh brought on them,
and like Elijah, he says here,
has thou also brought evil upon this widow
for my sojourn?
He said, by slaying her son, notice verse 21,
and he stretched himself, notice the care,
notice the compassion, notice the personal touch,
he stretched himself upon the child three times.
You say, what was he doing?
I don't know, I don't know and I don't know
that Elijah knows, this is the first resurrection
in the Bible.
I mean, you know, it's not like there's a manual,
you know, you Google, how do you resurrect a dead body?
I don't know that he really knows what he's doing,
but you can just tell that he loved this individual.
He stretched himself upon the child three times.
I like to think that he did it three times,
maybe one for the father and one for the son
and one for the Holy Ghost, I don't know.
And cried unto the Lord and said,
oh Lord my God, I pray thee,
let this child's soul come into him again.
Notice verse 22, here's how we know Elijah
was a great prayer warrior.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah
and the soul of the child came into him again
and he revived.
And here's all I'm saying, here's all I'm saying,
I've seen marriages die.
Unfortunately, over the last eight years of ministry,
I've seen more marriages die than I'd like to even admit to.
And I've seen more couples end up divorced
that we tried to help, that we tried to counsel.
But what I've noticed is that while a marriage is dying,
instead of a husband getting alone with God
and crying unto the Lord, would you revive this marriage?
Would you do something, Lord,
to bring life back to this marriage?
You know what they're more busy doing?
Setting up their Christian mingle account.
And they're already, and instead of a wife
getting alone with God and saying,
God, would you please, they've just kind of
already moved on in their mind.
And they're trying to plan out like,
well, I can go get an apartment here
and maybe if I do this, maybe if I do that.
And all I'm saying is that when something is dying,
when a relationship is dying,
when someone is dying spiritually,
instead of giving up, instead of walking away,
instead of just saying, well, it's too late,
we might want to learn a lesson from Elijah
where we learn to get alone with God and cry unto the Lord.
And cry out to God and say,
God, would you let this child's soul come into him again?
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah.
Go to Hebrews chapter four, Hebrews chapter four.
If you kept your place in 1 Timothy,
you got 1 Timothy Titus, Philemon, Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter four.
I'm convinced that our greatest failure
in the Christian life is a lack of prayer.
I'm convinced that my greatest failure
in the Christian life is a lack of prayer.
And if we don't learn to get alone with God,
if we don't learn to turn off YouTube
and turn off Facebook and turn off whatever else it is
that's taken up all of your time
and learn to get along with God and get structured
and get serious and write down some notes
and write down some things and get some concrete things
that you're praying for.
I mean, I want to share it with you
because there's some personal things there,
but I've got some things written down,
some real specific prayer requests with dates and things.
I'm asking God, I need you to move in this.
And I'm just going to pray about this, God.
And I'm just going to come to you
and I'm just going to bring it up every day,
every time I can think about it, whenever I can,
how often that I can, till you answer this.
Because revival only comes
when we have a confidence in prayer.
I mean, doesn't the Bible say call unto me
and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things
which thou knowest not?
I'm bringing that prayer request up to God almost every week.
I'm telling God, God,
you know what Ezekiel chapter 10's about.
And I'm calling unto you
and I need you to show me great and mighty things
which I don't know.
And you know, I can attest to the fact
that I feel like God has been helping me.
And we need to learn to pray, Hebrews chapter four, verse 16.
Hebrews 4, 16, notice what the Bible says.
Let us therefore come boldly,
confidently, knowing that we have an advocate
with the Father unto the throne of grace.
Say, why would you come boldly unto the throne of grace?
That we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.
You say, Pastor Jimenez, I feel like my life,
I'm just kind of gone away, I'm just not as excited,
I'm just, you know, the things of the world
have kind of distracted me.
Well, the catalyst for revival is a consistent lifestyle.
Stick with it.
Stick with what you're doing, stick with it.
Don't quit, you say, I don't feel like doing it.
That's fine, it's called character.
It's called duty.
Say, Pastor Jimenez, should we go soul winning
because of a love for the lost?
We should go soul winning because of a love for the lost,
but when you don't feel like going soul winning,
you just do it out of character.
You just do it out of duty.
If you wake up and you're just filled with the Spirit
and you can't wait to get alone with God
and get your Bible and grab a cup of coffee
and spend time with prayer, hey, praise God for that,
but when you wake up and you'd rather go do something else,
you just get alone with God anyway
and develop that consistent lifestyle
and have a consistent life and a consistent custom.
You just get on that schedule
where you're consistent Sunday morning
and Sunday night and Wednesday night.
You just get on the schedule.
I remember when I was a kid,
we had people break into our house,
you know, and they robbed us on a Sunday night.
We were poor, we didn't have anything.
I think they took like a cup of noodles
and toilet paper or something like that,
but it was interesting
because if you watched us for any,
if you watched us for just a two or three week period,
you'd know exactly when to break into our house.
I mean, I was like, these people are gone.
5.15 to like 9.30, there is nobody there.
You know, your life ought to be so consistent
that people know when to break into your house.
They ought to just know this guy,
I don't know where he's going,
but every Saturday morning, he's going somewhere
and every Saturday morning, he's going somewhere
and every Sunday night, he's going somewhere.
Every Wednesday night, he's going somewhere.
The catalyst for revival is consistency in our lives,
a compassion for the lost and a confident prayer life.
I mean, the Bible says, you have not,
you have not because you ask not.
God said, you know, he said,
from whence comes wars and fightings among you,
come they not hence of your own lusts
that warn your members?
He says, ye lusts, but you have not.
Why?
Because you're not asking.
I wonder if Elijah would have been able to revive this child
if he had the prayer life that you and I have,
but revival came because of a confident prayer life.
As we finish tonight, let me give you thirdly
the culmination of revival.
What's the climax of revival?
What does it look like?
I wanna give you two things just real quickly.
Notice 1 Kings 17.
1 Kings 17, verse 22.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah,
and the soul of the child came into him again,
and he, I love this word, revived.
And Elijah took the child and brought him down
out of the chamber into the house
and delivered him unto his mother,
and Elijah said, see, thy son liveth.
You say, what is the culmination of revival?
What is the climax of revival?
What does revival look like?
It simply looks like this.
Lives are changed.
Say, Pastor Jimenez, are we experiencing revival
at Liberty Baptist Church?
I don't know.
I think sometimes we are and sometimes we aren't.
But as long as there are people
that are coming to this church
that are drawing closer to God,
that lives have been altered,
and yes, sometimes that means
they're a little more difficult
because the odds are stacked against us
living in this world.
But as long as there are people
who are making decisions
that are bringing them closer to God,
as long as we are people that are changing
and becoming more like Christ every day,
then I think we can say that we're experiencing revival.
Go to Luke chapter seven and verse 22 just real quickly.
We're almost done.
Luke chapter seven, verse 22.
See, when revival comes, here's what it looks like.
It looks like life changed.
It looks like transformed lives.
It looks like people whose lives have been transformed.
Luke chapter seven and verse 22,
you have a discouraged John the Baptist in prison
questioning whether Jesus is actually who he says he is,
and the answer comes from Christ, verse 22.
Then Jesus answering said unto them,
talking about the disciples of John
that came to ask him,
aren't thou the Christ or do we look for another?
And he says, go your way
and tell John what things ye have seen and heard.
Notice what he says.
He says how that the blind see, that's life change.
That's a transformed life.
The lame walk, that's a transformed life.
The lepers are cleansed, that's a transformed life.
What's interesting is that if you look at
the miracles that are listed here,
in some ways, and I realize these are all incredible
and all impossible without the power of God,
but in some way they're getting a little more difficult.
You go from the blind to the lame to the lepers.
You know something, a small portion of your body
to a bigger portion of your body to your whole body.
Then he mentions the deaf here.
Then he says this, the dead are raised.
Isn't that what we're learning about?
And he goes from blind to lame to lepers to deaf
and he's getting it harder.
He's kind of upping the ante
and he's saying the deaf are raised.
I want you to notice the greatest thing
that he wanted them to tell.
Now if it were me, I mean I would say
the greatest thing is the dead are raised.
I would say the greatest thing is the deaf here.
I would say the greatest thing is the lepers are cleansed.
But you know, as Jesus goes through this list
and makes it greater and greater and greater,
he adds to the end of the list the best one
and he says the poor.
He says to the poor the gospel is preached.
And it just shows you the priority of our savior.
He says the blind see, that's pretty good,
but tell them about how the lame walk
and that's really good,
but tell them about how the lepers are cleansed
and that's really good,
but tell them about how the deaf hear,
but you know what, if you really want to impress them,
tell them about how the dead are raised,
but if you really want to impress them,
tell them about how people are getting saved,
how people are receiving eternal life,
how the poor have the gospel preached.
You know, that encourages me
because I can't make the deaf see,
or the deaf hear, or the blind see,
or the lame walk, or cleanse the leper,
but I can sure preach the gospel to the poor.
And he says, look, we're experiencing revival.
You say, how do you know?
Because of life being changed.
Because of lives being changed.
If there are children that are being raised in this home,
in this church, and their homes have been transformed
because of the ministry of this church,
then we're experiencing revival.
If we are changing the culture,
if we are helping people to draw close to God,
not just in this building, but all over the world,
then I would say, yeah, we're experiencing revival.
The first culmination or climax of revival
is that there's life change,
but let me just give you the last one real quickly.
We'll be done, 1 Kings 17, look at verse 24.
We're done with this chapter, 1 Kings 17, 24.
And the woman said to Elijah,
now by this I know that thou art a man of God.
You know, you think after all of that food
that he miraculously brought to your house,
that'd be enough, but she said, well, yeah,
that's pretty good.
But he said, by this I know that thou art a man of God.
Notice what she says.
Notice it's never about glorifying the man.
It's not about glorifying the man,
it's about glorifying the message.
And that the word of the Lord in my mouth is true.
You say, what does revival look like?
Here's what it looks like.
Lives are changed and the word of God is magnified.
You say, Pastor Jimenez, you guys are famous
or infamous or whatever you are
because of all these weird scriptures, Leviticus 20, 30,
you know, all these scriptures about reprobates
and you know, hey, it's always good
when the word of God is magnified.
When the word of God sounds forth.
When the word of God is preached,
like we'll learn in a few weeks in the series in Jonah.
Preaching that transforms lives is what we're looking for.
That's what revival is.
Lives change and the word of God being magnified.
So let me ask you this.
Are you experiencing revival?
Are you living a consistent life?
Do you have a compassion for the lost?
Do you have a confident prayer life
where you can get away with God and cry out to the Lord
and come boldly into the throne of grace
and know that he hears you?
Or are you dying?
Because look, everything's in a constant state of decay
and if you're not working at your Christian life,
you will eventually fade out.
So you need revival and I need revival every day.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father.