Can You Hear the Sound of Revival — Shane Idleman

If it were up to me, I would just be here worshiping. I'd be on my knees and just a time of worship. But also, I think it's important to preach God's word as well. And that balance is incredible. It's funny, Richard, when he introduced you, I didn't know you couldn't sing.

I didn't know I could speak until age 29. It's amazing what God does with the surrendered vessel. And I don't know if you got the point of that last song, but if you truly surrender to his will, no plan B's, no backup plans, you'll be filled with the fire of God.

Revival as Spiritual Awakening

That's where the boldness comes from. And although I appreciate laying, reading, or telling you what I do, if it wasn't for God, I would be buried in a cemetery, dead on my way to hell. And so he gets all the glory, all the credit.

And the boldness is a byproduct of being filled with the spirit, straight up. And I wanna shoot you guys straight this morning. I took about four hours of sermons and condensed it into 30 minutes. We took the best of the best, or I did.

I preached up in Bishop three nights in a row last week, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Richard was at one of those. And I took everything and just condensed it. And then I believe also just added some new things.

But the title, if I were to give you a title, it would be, can you hear the sound of revival? Can you hear the sound of revival? And that word has some negative thoughts about it. Depending on what type of church you were raised in.

When I think of revival, I think, ah, you know, we're holding up rattlesnakes, you know, the hyper-Pentecostal churches and revival series, and let's get all, let's get the crowd worked up. But it's a biblical word.

Revival is a biblical word. Wilt thou not revive us again so that we can rejoice in you? And it's spiritual resuscitation. Breathing breath of new life back into the believer. Call on the name of the Lord.

Call the sacred assembly. Call out to God in the book of Joel and reviving his people. And I believe it was Ezra. Lord, would you give us a measure of revival even in our bondage? So it's very biblical.

It's a very biblical word. And just like the rainbow, I think we can recapture it and use it for God's glory. I won't get into that, I'm getting in trouble. Can you hear the sound of revival? Many of us know, I mean, this isn't gonna be news to many of you, but America has stage four cancer, spiritual cancer.

It's permeated all areas of society, the schools, the universities, the news organizations, Sacramento, Washington, D .C., I mean, we have stage four spiritual cancer. And I used to read in the prophets, woe be to those who call good evil and evil good.

And we weren't quite there yet, but we're there now, 25 years later, and you look at, we are truly calling what is good evil and what is evil good. And we have spiritual cancer. However, I don't wanna leave you hanging there because I am hopeful.

And the reason I'm hopeful is I believe in a God that's bigger than everything else. And I love to study revivals. God's given me a heart for revival. It's such a precious thing when God's spirit, God's presence comes upon a church, comes upon a community.

You're not in a hurry. You don't know what time it is. You just can't stop worshiping God. The bars close down. Lives are changed. Prodigal sons come home. Marriages are restored. There's church every night.

And God is the focus. And every time he does that, you can go back to the Welsh revivals of the 1700s, New Hebrides revivals, the first great awakening here, second great awakening. All revivals, number one, are birthed in the prayer closet.

There's no way around that. But often, they're often given in times of darkness when it looks extremely dark, when there looks like there's no hope. That's awful when God revives his people. That call of desperation goes out.

And so, yes, things are, you're looking like, I don't even wanna look at the news. But there is a God that's greater than China. There is a God that's greater than Russia. There is a God who is in control of 2024.

There is a God who rules and reigns and to trust in him and to have hope in him. So, yes, you can get very negative in the darkness, but the light of the gospel is stronger. And I truly believe that. It's not hype, this is hope.

There's a big difference. I'm not a motivational speaker coming to hype you up. I'm giving you hope, true hope, found in the Bible. Can you not, can we all agree that in those times of darkness, that's often when God will bring the light, the gospel, and the shine, the light of revival.

Revival, Evangelism, and the Church's Need for Awakening

And I should clarify, revival, I believe, is when God is awakening his people. A spiritual awakening or outreach and things like that, evangelism, is when the lost are being saved. And often they do run parallel.

But there's never been a time in the history of our nation where the church has needed to be revived more than now. If you're hot or cold, Jesus said, but if you're lukewarm, I'll speed you out of my mouth.

And it's that fire, it's that zeal for God. So can you hear the sound of revival? What I mean by sound is often God would move. You know, you hear the wind in the book of Acts, that you could hear the sound of a rushing wind.

You could hear the fire, you could see the fire of God. And what about Elisha? I can hear the abundance of rain when there's no rain. And so I believe revival, there's a sound that comes with it. I'm gonna obviously springboard off of 1 Kings 18.

Elijah, Confrontation, and the Call to Repentance

Many of you know the story of Elisha, Mount Carmel, wicked King Ahab. But in 1 Kings 17, there's drought. And why is there drought? There's judgment. God has said enough of this. I'm judging the people, I'm holding back.

And often what he would do is hold back the rain because that was their provision, that was their prosperity, that was their sustenance. That's how they grew crops, that's how they lived. And so you will see it throughout the Bible.

I believe Psalms, Hosea, four other places too, where rain is often a sign of God's favor and bringing a sense of revival. And so 1 Corinthians 17, there's judgment on the land. There's no water for, it's gonna be three and a half years.

There's nothing. And so that's the context. And then we move into 1 Kings 18. And it's interesting when Elijah the prophet runs into the King. The King says, oh, you troubler of Israel. Elijah, is that you?

You're the troubler of Israel. This is your fault. And I can hear them saying today, oh, Shane, you troubler of America. Would you shut your mouth? Let people do what they want. Don't call out sin. Don't call people to repentance.

You're the troubler. Did you know that, Christians? You're now the troubler. You're on the hit list. You troublers, you're causing a lot of trouble. No, the problem is they don't wanna be convicted. People don't wanna be convicted.

So they wanna silence the voice of truth. That's exactly what they'll do. The bold type of messages. They want to silence that. And so we see here from the life of Elisha, there's nothing wrong with confrontation.

To be confrontational. But the key is, if you want to be confrontational, you have to be just as broken, just as humble. Leonard Ravenhill would say, you need to weep before you whip. And he was talking about Jesus, how he would weep over the city of Jerusalem.

And then he would whip, made the whip and drove out the money changers. And so we believe, and I believe, that there has to be a voice of truth that is loving, but yet confrontational. It's saying, no, we're not going to allow that anymore in the schools.

We're not gonna allow that in our universities. And obviously things are gonna still continue. I'm not talking about utopia, but I am talking about Christians who take a stand for what is right. And confronting the culture.

And that's why Elisha was hated. That's why the king hated him and the people hated him. And he was also convicting all the prophets of the Bible. Do you know why, I mean, except for the exception of maybe one I can think of, what was the role of the prophet?

Of course, to foretell and talk about things to come. But primary goal was to call the people back to God. Call them to repentance. Right before the fall of Jerusalem, I think in 2 Chronicles, it says, that God sent his messengers early in the morning.

They arose. He sent his messengers to his people, but they mocked my messengers, they despised my words, and they scoffed at my prophets until the anger of the Lord arose against his own people. Because they rejected those prophetic voices.

And I often say, if you don't like what I'm saying, it might be because you need to hear what I'm saying. Conviction is a very, very, very good thing. Conviction causes the father to repent and go home and love his children like he needs to.

Conviction causes, forces the mom to bow her knee again to Jesus Christ and be the mom she needs to be. Conviction turns us back to the heart of God. And I think that's one of the things, I'm speaking at a large pastors conferences coming up in April, I believe.

And one of my messages to these pastors is going to be, you cannot be popular, you need to be powerful, filled with the Spirit of God. We've lost that tone of conviction. The Word of God convicts. It's not a gentle pillow.

It's a fire that devours. It's a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. It's a sword that devours. The Word of God goes and it convicts and it encourages and uplifts and it brings people to repentance and other people, it brings them tremendous hope.

Let the Word of God come alive. And so, of course, you get to that famous part where Elisha is on Mount Carmel and he told the people, a large group of, they don't, the estimates are in the tens of thousands, possibly, but he would call out there and he'd say, how long will you waver between two opinions?

How long will you falter between two opinions of God be God, follow him, but of Baal be God, follow him? And instead of saying, amen, yes, we need to repent, they answered him not a word. And it's hard when you're challenged, isn't it?

When we love that darkness, we love we're caught in sin, we love lukewarmness and we love carnality and when we're called out of that, we get a little offended. I've been there. Have you? But there's conviction is vitally important.

He said, how long will you waver between two opinions? And he said, here's what I'm gonna do. Let the God who answers by fire, let him be God. You can always remember that in these darkest moments, God might not answer.

Sometimes he says, wait. Sometimes he says, I'm not, you're not gonna hear my voice for a season so you get on your face and you seek me. But we have to remember that God is on the throne. God will answer by fire.

Consecration, Holiness, and the Fire of God

One of the sounds of revival is fire. And I've had people come up to me before and so I'll let you know now that way you don't come up to me afterwards. You know, fire is a bad thing in the Bible. It's very bad for the believer, unbeliever, but it's very good for the believer.

The fire of God is judgment for the unbeliever, but the fire of God for the unbeliever is for judgment. The believer, the fire of God is essential. It's the yearning, it's the desire, it's the unction, it's the anointing.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Is not my word like a fire? The fire fell upon the altar, the fire of God, the fire in the life of a believer. And that's why you've heard the term, he's on fire for the Lord.

Oh, it's a wonderful thing. My encouragement to you, the reason I came here this morning is to hopefully spark that fire again, to have you go home and say, we need to rekindle the fire again. We need to get back into the prayer closet.

We need to get back before God. We need to get broken and humble. We need to put God right on the front burner, not the back burner. We need to lift Christ up again because every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord.

I need to make him my Lord again. I need to get my will lined up with his and you watch the fire of God come upon your life. You present the sacrifice, but he brings the fire. You have to prepare your heart, prepare your mind, prepare your body.

Desperate people do desperate things. Desperation isn't so important. And so there was consecration. So what we find here is conviction. There's confrontation, but then there's consecration. We have to consecrate ourselves.

And what's interesting is I love reading sermons a hundred years ago, 150 years ago. You've heard of Spurgeon, I'm sure, and Wesley and Whitfield. I love their journals and their Spurgeon. And this word always stood out a lot.

You don't hear it much today. Holiness, holiness, holiness. 50, 60 times they'd mention a sermon. But today, you know, Shane, that's legalistic. You know, that's a little too rigid. That's too extreme.

But the Bible is clear, come out from among them, be separate, be holy vessels, holy set apart for my glory that I can use. And that's why the Christian, you'll look different. You'll talk different. There's a disconnect because you come out from among them.

You don't watch the same things. You don't listen to the same things. There's a difference and a distinction. I love the Lord so much that I want to obey his word, is the heart cry of the believer. And that holiness, when you're holy and set apart, that's also when the fire falls.

And so he mocked the messengers, the prophets of Baal. He said, call on your God. And for hours and hours and hours and hours, they would call on their God, nothing would happen. They would even cut themselves.

And Elisha said, maybe your God is using the restroom. And he said, okay, enough is enough. Got the altar ready, soaked it with water. So there would be no mistake. This whole, this altar soaked with water.

They even dug a trench around it and filled that with water. And it's amazing, the fire of God came down and it says, licked up, consumed everything, including the water. I mean, there's a lot there and I don't, I love scripture in context.

I don't know about you. I don't like taking it and making some message out of it that it really doesn't say, but there's something here. There's something about getting the altar ready and allowing the fire of God to fall upon your life.

I present my body as a living sacrifice. Paul said, present your bodies as living sacrifices. And if we could get Christians to fully surrender their lives, you'd be amazed at what God does. You'd be amazed at what God does with humility.

Prayer, Fasting, and Trusting God's Sovereignty

And then of course, when it comes to this topic of revival, and I guess I should have said at the beginning, but I don't believe there's a plan B. My hope is not in the next election. I've thoughts, I've got hopes and goals and things, and I think people should be active, but my hope right now at this stage is God and God alone.

Unless he brings another spiritual awakening, it doesn't look too, it's not too hopeful. Now, what that should do is get us on our knees. What that should do is lead to desperation. Desperate people do desperate things.

They pray, they fast. Can I say that here at a breakfast? As a side note, I've got books on fasting. The reason it's hard to worship this morning is because King's stomach has been satisfied. When you're full, try praying after Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm just telling you the truth. It's hard to be full, it's a good thing, right? You've got to eat, of course. But you have two competing appetites, and that's what fasting does. It starves the flesh in order to be filled with the spirit of God.

You say no to this flesh, and you say, God, I need more of you. I'm desperate for more of you. Desperate people do desperate things. And then, of course, faith is so important. I believe, this is so important.

I believe a believer always needs to remain optimistic in these times, because we can get really down, really negative, really angry. Hello? Anybody getting a little angry, a little teed off? You can meme with the best of them.

You know what that means? Little meme on Facebook. You can tweet with the best of them. You can Instagram with the best of them. You're angry, you're angry, but are you humble? God doesn't say, I hear the cries of the angry.

I hear the cries of the humble. He says, I live in a high and holy place. My name is holy, and I dwell with him who has a broken and contrite heart. Him I will revive. There's that word again. There's that word again.

God used it. I guess it's okay to use it. I will revive the heart of the broken, the heart of the humble. There's too much arrogance in the American church. People are jockeying for position. It's all about numbers.

It's all about money. It's all about their own goals, their own agenda. Hey, God, here's what I'm gonna do. Now, come and bless it. Instead of saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? But faith plays a huge role in this.

Faith plays a huge role. So after the fire fell, the altar was consumed. Elisha said, now there's, now God told Elisha, now there will be rain. And so he believed there's gonna be rain. He told his servant, go see, is there any clouds?

And it's a crystal clear day. But he said, here's the key. I heard. I heard the sound of the abundance of rain. Same thing with revival. I truly believe as God, I was up early, three in the morning, God woke me up all week at 2 .33, just this message of, Shane, can you hear the sound of revival?

Can you hear it now? Can you hear it now when you don't even see it? Because that's genuine faith. It's impossible to please God without faith. Faith is a substance of things not seen. So it pleases God.

We say, Lord, it looks like all hell is breaking loose, but I know who is on the throne. Everybody tells me, oh, don't pray for revival. Haven't you read Revelation? Yeah, but I've also read all of the Bible.

It tells me to seek God. He's an all-consuming fire. Let him burn in your heart. Seek him and you will find him. There's a desire, there's a desperation to find God. I've got to encounter the living God.

There's hope in that. If there wasn't, I wouldn't be up here. I can do something else. But he went back, he told his servant seven times, seven, go back, go back, go back. I'm trusting God, go back. The prodigal son's not coming home.

I don't care, I'm gonna keep praying, devil. All this fasting isn't working. I don't care, I'm gonna keep seeking the heart of God. See, this isn't working. Your marriage is getting worse, not better.

I don't care, I'm gonna keep going back to God. I'm gonna keep going back to that prayer closet. Though he slayed me yet, will I trust him? It's the faith that can never be moved. Something that just blew my mind 20 years ago when I came back to the Lord, actually about 23 years now, the story of the three Hebrew boys.

They were gonna be killed. And they said, King, we will not bow to your image. Our God will deliver us. What that, now that is faith. But that's not what impresses me. And I love this next line because it has got me through more than you will ever know.

My God will deliver me. But even if he doesn't, I will not bow to you, oh my Lord. Because then you serve God regardless. God America could be going to hell in a ham basket. I will serve you regardless.

D. Martin Lloyd-Jones prayed for revival, never saw it in his time. A .W. Tozer prayed for revival, never saw it in his time. Leonard Ravenhill prayed for revival, never saw it in their time. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I will serve you.

No matter what comes, I will serve you. I know you can deliver. I know you can bring revival. But if I see a California going to hell in a ham basket, all kinds of sexual perversion, it seems like there's no hope.

I will not bow my knee to this world system. I will serve you, God. Because if you don't have that kind of faith, what are you? You're a double-minded man, unstable in all your ways. God's not doing what I thought he would do.

Well, that's because you're trusting in your sovereignty, not God's sovereignty. I had an image on my phone. I'm gonna put it back on for a year. Every time I look at my phone, big blue image. God's sovereignty is my sanity.

God's sovereignty is my sanity. The sovereign plans of God. That's how I stay together. I don't know about you. But faith was so important here. He said, I hear the sound of the abundance of rain. So just the three things I wanted to, I'm gonna kind of bring it to an end here shortly, but you need to position yourself to hear.

Positioning the Heart to Hear God

Position yourself. Can anybody hear me outside of this building? No. And that's how many Christians live. So far from God's voice because they're not sitting at the feet of the Father. Did you know there's a place every day, whenever you go, that God, that created this universe will meet you?

Jesus said, when you go into your secret place, when you go into your prayer closet, close the door, and my Father, my Father will hear your prayers. Isn't that profound? Or maybe it's just me, but there's a place that God Almighty will meet with you.

God Almighty will meet with you. See, the problem in America, let me, I'm gonna offend people, but here we go. Your gun safes are full, but your prayer closets are empty. I love the second amendment. I was trap shooting and duck, chucker, quail, pheasant.

I'm not against that, but when my gun safe is full, my prayer closet is empty, I'm off balance. And you see, that's what's happening in America. A lot of anger, but not a lot of prayer, a lot of brokenness, a lot of humility.

God doesn't answer the cries of the arrogant. He actually resists the arrogant. Well, that was to unbelievers. No, read the book of James. A lot of that's to believers. I resist the proud, but I give grace to the humble.

Could it be that God is using all this to humble the church? And I wonder how bad do you want it to get? I could read to you things that would make you sick that are going on in our country, what they are allowing.

It's sexual perversion on steroids. It's mocking God. So position yourself to hear. You've got to position yourself to hear. And I just talked about the first point, faith. Faith is an attitude, attitude of reliance on God.

I'm desperate for more of God. And then obedience, obedience. I already talked about that as well. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord or stand in this holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart and who's not lifted his soul to an idle place.

Thank God, God's not way up there. He says, I can dwell with you. I can dwell with those who have a broken and a contrite heart. And let me say something about this. Obedience, it's not obedience out of obligation.

It's obedience out of desperation. I'm not a legalistic Pharisee. I'm a desperate seeker of his presence. And then the final point is desperation. Folks, we've got to get desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.

Desperation, Repentance, and Persistent Seeking

Do they not? And many of us know the scripture, if you seek me, you will find me. Well, we just, oh, yes, seek. You know, I'll kind of look for God. Maybe he's hiding in the corner. That word in the Hebrew is a strong word.

It's bakash. And it means to find, keep looking until you find it. And I explained to our congregation a few weeks ago. I didn't tell my wife, but it came out. I lost my two youngest ones at the LA Zoo for like five seconds.

Like I walked, okay, they're nowhere. And do you think, oh, you know what? I've got to go use the restroom. Let me look when I get back. You know, I'm kind of hungry. Let me eat, then I'll go find them.

Everything stopped. Everything stopped. I need to find that child and I will not stop seeking until I find them. That's the word. If you seek me with all of your heart, with all of your strength, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, then you'll find me.

It's not a half-hearted seeking. It's not I'll try God on Sunday, but reject him on Monday. It's an all-consuming fire. It's the passion of the Holy Spirit drawing a believer to that deeper one. Lord, I don't feel it, but I'm still gonna seek you.

I'm having a tough day. I'm in a bad mood, but I'm still gonna seek you. I'm gonna remove these things that are distracting me from following you. I'm desperate for more of you. I'm desperate for you.

Oh God, would you rend the heavens? So the sound of revival is desperate people doing desperate things with hopeful expectation from a God who answers by fire. And then just a final encouragement. Oh, Richard, you can even come up if you'd like.

I know you gotta sneak out early. I don't know if you'll be able to sneak, but you can try. You know, people are, you know, and I get this, but Shane, I hear you, but I don't hear a sound from heaven.

I don't hear that sound. And sometimes you don't. And what, maybe God has you in a spot right now where you need to wait, calm down, wait, get off social media, get off distractions, wait for those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Is he talking about this? You'll feel better. He's talking about spiritual strength. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their spiritual strength. So if you're not hearing the sound of heaven, if you came in, maybe lukewarm, maybe God, I haven't heard you in a long time.

Prayer is boring. The Bible's irrelevant. I can't even get to church. Just cry out to God. It's a beautiful word. Another beautiful word we don't talk about very often. Repentance, repentance. I've actually had believers come up to me.

I don't need to repent. I did that 25 years ago. Oh, you better have an attitude of repentance as a believer. Holy smokes. That's arrogance if I've ever seen it. Pastor, you repent? Absolutely. Lord, let me be nicer to my wife and children.

God, I snapped. I got angry. I got upset. Lord, I've done things that took time away from you. God, I'm so sorry. I'm repentant. And watch the spirit of revival come into your heart again. Repentance is a very beautiful thing.

The Remnant and Faithful Perseverance

So don't get discouraged, amen? Don't get discouraged. Because I don't know if you're like me, but do you ever feel like you're the only one doing it? Like, am I the only one that feels this way? Am I the only?

Now, of course, we know that's not true, but we feel that way. What's going on? Will anybody stand up for what is right? Elijah actually felt that way. Elijah felt that way. He did this great victory.

Watch out when you have a great victory because the enemy comes for you. He had a great victory. And then Jezebel said, I'm gonna kill him. He ran. And he said, oh God, I am the only one who stands for you.

I'm the only one who'll make a difference. I'm the only one who is calling people to repentance. And God said, shut your mouth, Elijah. I've got 7 ,000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal, nor they kissed his image.

Watch out, there is a remnant rising up. And many times it's you plus God is the majority. Everybody wants a majority in the house. Everybody wants a majority in the Senate. I want the majority of God on my side.

And him alone, he will be reign and rule in our lives and in our hearts. So I need to stop because I could go for a while. So let's get into worship. Richard's gonna do a closing song and then skedaddle.

And I would love to pray with you. We're gonna come up. We're gonna go to a time of prayer. And remember, prayer moves the hand of God more than anything else. Amen.