HABAKKUK 3:2 - A Call to Revival

TOPIC: Revival; Rebellion, Repentance, Restoration, Righteousness

TITLE: A CALL FOR REVIVAL
TEXT: HABAKKUK 3:2

O LORD, revive Thy work in the midst of the years!

Dr. James Dobson writes in his book, When God Doesn't Make Sense:

A missionary in Africa returned home to find a huge python loose in his front room. He rushed to his truck and retrieved his .45 pistol. He shot the beast in the crown of its head. The snake thrashed so violently that the missionary was chased from his home for some time. Finally, there was silence. He went inside and found the interior of his home destroyed.

Satan too has received a blow to his head but his death throes are destroying the world.

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What should the cry of our hearts be?
CONCISE OUTLINE

I. A CRY FOR VICTORY IN REVIVAL!
II. A CRY FOR A VISION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS!
III. A CRY FOR A VANISHMENT OF REBELLION!

TRUTH CLAIM: The scenery of man's existence today is the same as the scenery of Israel's existence yesterday. The fruit of rebellion for both cultures is the same.

They provoked God and we cannot deny that we are too; the only thing we have to make these last days tolerable is our relationship with God!

America must repent; yet it only will if the people of God get as concerned about righteousness as the prophet Habakkuk.

God is calling out to His people ...

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What should the cry of our hearts be?
EXPANDED OUTLINE
I. A CRY FOR VICTORY IN REVIVAL! (3:2)

Stephan Olford defines revival: "the sovereign act of God, in which He restores His own backsliding people to repentance, faith, and obedience."

"O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years"!

[STEW] Revival is like putting last night's stew on the stove. What you have is something that was real good yesterday! But this was put in the refrigerator, and now it is cold, thick, chunky, and feels too heavy to eat.

The fire under it begins to chase away the chill first. Then it begins to lose its lethargy and begins to thin and warm. Soon with some stirring it becomes a warm, fluid, consistent source of nourishment and strength, as it was intended to be. Churches are like that, the faith is like that.

Once in awhile God needs to put us on the judgment's front burner.

II. A CRY FOR A VISION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS! (1:13)

"Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor."

Like the revivals of old we need a vision for the righteousness of God ...

The last revival of any consequence in the US was in 1905.

"If My people who are [1] called by My name will [2] humble themselves, and [3] pray and [4] seek My face, and [5] turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

2 Chronicles 7:14

I know this, if I owned a home and a contractor offered to restore my home, free of charge, I'd be a fool to deny him. Why then do we deny God this response?

We are a people without a national vision.

"Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Matthew 26:41

III. A CRY FOR A VANISHMENT OF REBELLION! (1:3)

"Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see wickedness?

The prophet was complaining to God about what appeared to be evil loose in the world without restraint. It seemed that God did not care.

Our nation is in the midst of a cultural war of intense proportions. The power of darkness is at the controls of a nation gone nuts.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The following list of ills is from 1994.]

• Mothers and fathers are put into jail because they have disciplined their children with the rod, their children taken away. But 4,000 unborn children are murdered each day.
• We spend millions in the war on drugs but the very legislators who write the laws are drunken bums who are regularly stopped for drunk driving.
• We spend billions on other nation's poverty and race problems but spend very little to solve the same problems in our own back yard.
• We spend millions to import democracy when our own government continues to pass more and more legislation aimed at limiting our democratic freedoms.
• Our denomination prints millions of pieces of literature on the errors of alcohol and tobacco yet we have churches in the east, the south and in Colorado where the pastor is not free to preach on these evils because church leaders work in those industries.
• We have a war on pornography that our Attorney General refuses to join and an administration which is favorably disposed to the worst kind of pornography, homosexuality.

[Just today (18 October 2007) Disney decided to purge the word "God" from its Radio Disney advertising; in Portland, Maine, the schools are now authorizing birth-control pills for middle schoolers as young as 11; the president of France separated from his second wife; and Robert Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, took leave from his duties as CEO of Oral Roberts University under a huge cloud of alleged improprieties.]

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: When an acquaintance asked what he should do to start revival in America Billy Graham is said to have responded, "Go home, draw a circle around yourself, and begin there."

Friends, in these horribly difficult "last days," that is very good advice!

"Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin's a reproach to any people."

Proverbs 14:34

I remember when I lived in a cabin up in the woods above Santa Cruz, California, and used to take the ash in the fireplace (after being gone all day), stir it up, push some paper on it, and blew a little. Poof, fire!

We're not incapable of catching fire if the Holy Spirit comes our way but we must all recognize the dearth of embers in our hearth.

Christianity, Expository,
Habakkuk, Homiletics, Outlines,
Preaching, Revival, Sermons

NEHEMIAH 2:1ff - Church Renewal Nehemiah's Way!

TOPIC: Leadership; Renewal, Vision

TITLE: CHURCH RENEWAL NEHEMIAH'S WAY: A Cupbearer With National Vision!
TEXT: Nehemiah 2:1ff

and I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?" [2:3]

In other words, they should not be this way.

And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it." [2:5]

He does not mean that he will do it by himself!

Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach." [2:17]

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What leadership or visionary qualities does Nehemiah model?
CONCISE OUTLINE

I. A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE PROBLEM [2:17a]
II. A CLARION CALL OR CHALLENGE (Solution) [17b]
III. A COMMON OBJECTIVE [17c]

CONTEXT: What was his vision? Of a restored Jerusalem, one which was not a reproach to God or His people. But he had a wall to build first!

What was his labor pool? An unlikely conglomeration of people -- some skilled, most just everyday Joes! People like us, people who needed to be motivated to do anything, who needed direction in order to move, and encouragement to keep on keeping on!

We must believe that God wanted us to see the obvious message in this historical narrative: rebuilding in spite of opposition among a people who had lost their vision for God's purpose for them.

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: What three aspects of leadership are essential for a visionary?
EXPANDED OUTLINE:

I. A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE PROBLEM [2:17a]

Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” [2:17]

NOTE: “You see the bad situation we are in”

A. "that Jerusalem is desolate"
B. Per Webster's -

1. “devoid of [human] inhabitants and visitors”
2. “joyless, disconsolate, and sorrowful” [as if separated “from a loved one”]
3. “showing the effects of abandonment and neglect"

C. Also "devoid of warmth, comfort, or hope: GLOOMY"
D. "and its gates are burned by fire."

1. on the one hand the gates are the points of entry into something; when a city, they are usually protected points “with towers”
2. but are also the physical barrier used in defense of the enclosure, something that controls passage

II. CLARION CALL OR CHALLENGE [17b]

“Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem"

A. A plea ... "come"

I.e. - Not a command but a fellow, one who shares in the predicament.

B. Inclusive by nature - "let us"

I.e. - You and I, not just you nor just Nehemiah.

C. Common goal

I.e. - Not his wall, not his need, not his defense ... but the common good.

III. A COMMON OR CORPORATE OBJECTIVE [17c]
“that we may no longer be a reproach.”

A. Corporate in that it is all of us in the same boat

B. Objective: “no longer be a reproach.”

1. They were a reproach!
2. Why? Because of their truth claims
3. They were not to be a reproach

APPLICATION: How does a church know it needs a vision? Here are some warning signs:

• evidence of confusion of purpose exists
• there is evidence of pessimism about the future and cynicism surrounds the present
• there will be an observable decline in pride in the church - ministries and facilities
• gossip, back-biting, tattling, and tale-bearing are in evidence - relational sin

What makes a good vision?

• It's appropriate to the organization and the times
• It sets high standards of and for excellence
• It clarifies purpose and direction
• It will inspire enthusiasm and encourage commitment (the visionary will himself be committed and enthusiastic).
• It will be clearly articulated and easily understood (easily remembered as well)
• It will be ambitious and challenge the organization (not an easily accomplished objective)

Adapted from Current Thoughts & Trends, Nov.93, p.6; a review of Burt Nanus' book, VISIONARY LEADERSHIP.

[POOF] In his "The Fairy Mythology", the Scandinavian Keightley relates the story of a young maid whose service to her master was rewarded by an invitation to the wedding of two elves.

Unfortunately, the isle was not thoroughly cleaned, and though the bridegroom got by, the bride stumbled on a straw and fell on her face. Before she could catch herself, the young girl broke out in giggling ... instantly the vision vanished. (#468, p.200, Jacobs)

CHALLENGE: No vision will last in the face of ridicule, mocking, jeering or sin. When God gives us a vision we respond as the Hebrews responded to God's vision through Nehemiah.

So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a heart to work.

Nehemiah 4:6

Christianity, Expository, Homiletics,
Leadership, Nehemiah, Outlines, Preaching,
Renewal, Sermons, Vision