1. Five Distinctives of True Revival (Pt. 1) - Paul M. Williams

Bethesda Shalom

Acts 2:37-38

My dear Brothers and Sisters, you don’t need me to tell you that we are living in a dry and thirsty land! A land that once flowed with milk and honey is now a barren wasteland. Once the Church of Jesus Christ stood as a bastion of faithfulness and a pillar of truth decrying the spiritual bankruptcy of a fallen world. Once it stood as a blazing lighthouse, warning the wicked of their pending danger, guiding them into the Gospel harbour of saving grace. But now? Now it has made the world its bed-fellow, drinking from the same polluted cisterns, and eating from the same soiled troughs. Rather than it being the “ekklesia” - the salt and light of the earth, the Church of Jesus Christ has joined hands with the world and is marching in sync to the same humdrum tune. Horatius Bonar - that great Scottish light; in a day when giants still roamed the land, summed it up so well when he said; “I looked for the Church and I found it in the world; I looked for the world and I found it in the Church”. If that could be said 150 years ago, what can be said of this generation? Let’s just be honest, spiritual indifference plagues the Church! The Word of God has been side-stepped, the prayer meetings abandoned, the pursuit of holiness replaced with the pursuit of pleasure, and godly discipline has given way to entertainment. Where’s the brokenness? Where’s the mourning? Where’s the sorrow over sin? My dear people, I ask you in earnest, what are we to do? By what means shall we recover to ourselves this dying corpse? Without hesitation I tell you; there’s only one hope for this backslidden nation and the dying Church that lingers within it. REVIVAL!!

This sermon is part 1 of a 3-part mini-series, looking at revival.