What Every Church Needs
Isaiah 64:1-8

A little boy went to church with his father one morning. That night before he went to bed he knelt down and said his prayers. He said, "God, we had a great time at church today. Wish you would have been there. All to often this is the case. We go to Church but the presence of God is not evident. We need revival. Isaiah chapter 64 is a plea from the great prophet for revival among the people of God. In this text we see three very key facts about revival. We see what revival is, what revival looks like, what we can do to hasten it.

I. A DEFINITION OF REVIVAL (V1)
    1. Divine intervention

       A. God’s people where in bondage (why? Turned from God to gods of this

            world)

       B. God’s people where in exile (there home land had been taken away)

       C. God’s house had been trodden under foot by the Babylonians

       D. God’s people were “shallow,” listening to the false prophets. (America?)

       E. In bondage, shallow, no sense of the presence of God. Sound familiar?

    2. Divine presence
       A. Now Isaiah didn’t have theological problems!

           1. He knew that God is everywhere. He knew that God sat on the circle of

              the universe, He knew that no temple could house God’s presence.

       B. We need to experience the presence of God in our services again.

          (As before)

       C. We need to be like Jacob and cry out," surely the Lord is in this place and

            we knew it not." Remember Exd. 3:5, where God told Moses, put off thy

            shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy

             ground. Sad but true, All to often our services are dry and

             ritualistic, there’s no presence, no life.

       D. Revival is the presence of God among His people once again.

II. A DESCRIPTION OF REVIVAL (2-6)

     1. What happens when God does make His presence known?

       A. A Shaking Up

          1. When God shows up things are shaken up. (Acts 16:25-30)

       B. A Moving Up

          1. What are mountains?" A mountain is a large earthen fixture that

              you and I can do nothing about. We have mountains in the church and in

              Our lives. Have you ever heard the expression, "We’ve always done it

              this way". Those mountains get shaken up when God visits the church in

             revival. How about those mountains in your life?

       C. A Firing Up (experiencing the power of God)

          1. The Power Of God to empower (Mat. 3:11)

          2. The Power Of God To Refine (Mal. 3:2-3)

          3. The Power Of God To Bring Reverence (Lev. 26:1-4)(II Chr.7:14)

          4. The Power Of God To Judge (II Cort. 5:10)

    1. What can we do to hasten revival? Or can we? Isaiah explains in verses 1-6

        why God’s people are in such a sorry condition. In this verse he outlines

        three things we can do to hasten God’s presence among us.

       A. Fervent prayer--He says, "No one calls on your name". This describes a

          desperate plea to God for His presence and help.

          1. We like Isaiah must begin to cry out to God for personal revival.

      B. Wake ourselves up---the prophet says we must "stir ourselves, or wake

          ourselves up". Many church members sit and wait for a preacher to stir

          them up with a fiery sermon, or a wonderful testimony, or a moving song.

          God says, quit waiting to be moved, and move yourself, wake yourselves

          up. Wake up to the state of our sleepy Christianity, wake up to the

          lateness of the hour.

       C Lay Hold of God---How do we do this. Easy! Do what you know to do. Make

          a bold move toward God. Discipline yourselves to pray and seek God even

          when you don’t feel like it. Go to church, even when you don’t feel like,

          repent and confess sin, even when you don’t feel like it. James says if you

          "draw near to God, He will draw near to you."

CONCLUSION