On September 11, we remembered the 2,977 innocent victims of the deadliest terrorist attack in United States history some 23 years ago. As horrific as this attack was, it produced, for a short time, a renewal of American patriotism and revival in American churches. Twenty-three years later, do we need another revival? How do you know when we need revival?

WE NEED REVIVAL:

1. When there is little love for God and man                                                                                “

Revival is falling in love with Jesus all over again.” (Vance Havner)

Do we really love God with all that we are? (heart, soul, mind and strength) Mark 12:30 

As the Bride of Christ, have we forgotten how to blush? We sin without shame; we have lost our ability to mourn and grieve and weep over sin.  In an effort to make Christianity palatable to our soft, self-centered generation, we have preached a diluted message that side steps the issue of sin, eliminates the demands of the cross, and overlooks the need for conviction and repentance. We need a restoration of our first love—that’s revival!

When true revival comes, there will also be an obvious love and concern for others. The Apostle John says in 1 John 4:20-21: Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (NIV)

2. When there is little appetite for, and blessing from God’s Word (Ps. 119:97-104)

When we only rarely hunger for more time to read and feast on God’s Word and when we seldom sense the Spirit speaking to us as we read God’s Word, we need revival. The early church continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42)

1 Pet. 2:2-3 says: Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. Jeremiah said: Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart. (Jeremiah 15:16a)

Have we lost confidence in the power of the Word to convict, the gospel to convert, and the Holy Spirit to draw people to Christ?  We have seen what human effort, ingenuity, creativity and technology can do. We know what money, organization, and promotion can do; but, we have yet to see what God can do through His living, active, and powerful Word.

Charles Finney, who was part of one of America’s great revivals, said, “Revival is nothing more or less than a new beginning of obedience to God.” How is your love life? How often do you delight in and obey the Word of God?