Reviving Faith: Get Up, Look Up, Link Up

1. "I want to talk to you this morning about how to experience a lasting encounter with God, how to have a lasting we could call it a lasting revival with God. Now this is not necessarily a revival sermon but I think any sermon should revive us. I think and pray that every message from God whether it's us reading it ourselves or whether somebody is proclaiming a word to us that it would somehow help us to have a fresh encounter with the Lord. That's my prayer for myself I hope and pray that it's your prayer that today you would have a fresh encounter with the Lord and we need those and as we're going to look in just a moment in God's Word how important it is to have a and maintain a close walk with the Lord." [37:15] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "You know, I love Elijah. He's a great prophet of God and probably one of the greatest in the Bible outside of Moses. I think the Jewish people esteemed him to be one of the great prophets of all time. In fact, he's associated with the coming of the Messiah. He's associated in many ways with many of the things that often were spoken of, even by the Lord Jesus himself. But if you look at this prophet, I'm so thankful that the Bible gives us these great men of God, warts and all. I'm grateful because they make them very human to us. They make us realize that even these great men of faith, they struggle in all kind of ways, the same way that you and I do." [42:27] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Folks, if pastors are discouraged, I can assure you, and I know this to be true over all the years of my ministry, that there are many people sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday, and they're just about to give up. They're in a place of discouragement. They're in a place of despondency. They're in a place of doubt. There's something going on in their personal lives, something going on perhaps in the lives of others, perhaps things that they're just having to experience on an ongoing basis. And it happens to the best of saints that we get discouraged." [43:38] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Yes, we're living in difficult times and it's getting worse. I'm only 67 years old. It's the worst I've ever seen in our country. It's the worst I've ever seen in people's lives. It's the worst I've ever seen what's going on in churches today. But I can still hear that God is still talking through his spirit, still saying through his word today, you and I need to get up. God wants us to hear him." [46:15] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "You know what I admire about football players? They get knocked down, and they get back up. Man, I saw some of them take some pretty bad hits. I'd be in traction. I'm not even sure if I'd be in And they get back up. And folks, that's as believers. Somehow or another, we've got to do something that it's hard to hear, but it's very important today in the times in which we live. We need to get up. We need to get up and do what it is that God wants us to do." [49:20] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "I can assure you, God is not calling you to do what you can do. He's calling you what he wants to do through you. And so he tells Elijah to get up. Now, again, Elijah running for his life, I get that. I remember one time we were passing out Bibles, and a German shepherd was making his way out of the garage. He was struggling a little bit because the door was only partly open, but I found myself on top of my Volkswagen before he could get me. So I know what it is to run. I know what it is to be fearful. But hear me very carefully. It doesn't matter what we're going through. It doesn't matter how fearful you are. No matter how tired we are. No matter how discouraged we are. God says, get up." [50:32] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "But can I just tell you that if pastors are having a great let down after Sunday, well, so are a lot of church members. I had one of the greatest experience, like this worship service this morning, an outstanding, wonderful, what a blessed experience to be able to sing praises to the God of God. The one who is the Almighty. The one that we just sang to and glorified. And we get lifted up. And there's nothing wrong, folks, with getting lifted up. There's nothing wrong with a Mount Carmel experience. The problem is it didn't sustain Elijah the moment he heard from Jezebel. All that just went away. And unfortunately, that's what happens in church every Sunday. We have uplifting experiences, and we get out there in the real world, and all of a sudden, whoa, I'm having a terrible day. God says, get up. Get up. This is not about Mount Carmel experiences. It's about you hearing me and doing what I say." [51:53] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "Sometimes we're not careful churches become caves. I'm talking about a church building. We're looking for an escape. We're looking for a way to get away from all the things that we're dealing with during the week, and this is a glorious, wonderful place to come and worship the Lord. It's a great place to come. But, folks, the problem that a lot of Christians are having today, they develop caveism. And God didn't call us to caveism. He called us to preach and minister and witness and to serve and to encourage and do all the things that God has equipped us and called us to do. That's why he gives spiritual gifts, so we can edify the church, so it can be made strong and can go out and do the things that God has called us to do." [56:52] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "But what I'm saying is that as Christians, God has called us to look up at him. To get up and look up. Because he's the reason we're here. If you go back and look at the seven letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, you know how each one of those churches start. I don't care how big it was, how small it was. I don't care how great it was, how troubled it was. Whatever the condition of the church, the first thing Jesus said to each one of those churches is, you look at me. I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. I'm the beginning and the end. He would tell those churches, you look at me." [58:34] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "The greatest motivation that you and I will ever have to get up and say, I'm going to go. To serve the Lord is that we look up. And we always are looking at Jesus. Notice, I love the object lesson here very quickly. I mean, God sends the wind. God's not in the wind. Is he sometimes in the wind? Yes. The day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came. It was like a mighty Russian wind. But the Lord here wasn't in the wind. He wasn't in the earthquake. He wasn't in the fire. All these things normally would speak of the presence of God. But that's not where Elijah found God. You know where Elijah found God? The still, small voice. You know how you and I are going to find God? When we're in our time alone with God, praying, reading his word, and letting his Holy Spirit speak to us in a still, small voice. And that has to be daily. Every day." [01:00:20] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)