A Desperate Hour Calls For A Radical Response — Brian Long

It is a wonderful privilege to be here, and I want to thank God for Sermon Index and praise the Lord for Brother Greg Gordon. I know he loves to stay low and hidden, and I appreciate that about him very much.

But I want to give at least one testimony to Sermon Index, to the glory of God and how he's used Sermon Index. I believe it was the second conference in Atlanta, near Atlanta, second revival conference.

In one of those prayer meetings, it was behind the scenes, the Lord spoke to us in that prayer meeting, and he said that he was linking the preachers together with the intercessors. And he did that, and that has changed my life and ministry.

And I was thanking God yesterday morning. And I just paused, and it occurred to me, had I never come across this ministry, the number of brothers and sisters that are dear to my heart, that they would be out of my life right now.

Had it not been for this ministry, I think of my dear brother Frank, who I'm sure is online. I think of Sister Charmaine and Brother Merle and so many on this prayer call on Tuesday nights, where my life and ministry has had a tremendous impact through that.

So there's much that the Lord is doing that may not be seen by the natural eye, but I tell you, God is at work through it. So I praise God for it, and I thank God for Brother Greg. Would you turn with me to John chapter 11?

John chapter 11, the message that the Lord has spoken to my heart. I'm calling a desperate hour calls for a radical response. A desperate hour calls for a radical response. John chapter 11. Beginning in verse one.

Now, a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore, his sister sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the son of God might be glorified thereby.

Now, Jesus loved Martha, her sister and Lazarus. Let's pray. Father God, I know that this message has come from your heart. Oh, God, for that, I don't doubt. But I'm asking you, Father, for the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver it.

Father, that it would be you speaking through this weak human vessel, Lord, that your power would be made perfect in weakness. And father, that we would hear what you have to say to us and to your church at this critical hour.

As if, Lord, it were our last call. As if it were our last conference. Lord, even as if it were my last time to preach. I sense a trembling, Lord, in my soul and I'm asking you for grace. I'm asking you, Lord, to help us to hear what you are saying in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Let me draw your attention to verse three. There's a simple but desperate prayer that's coming from these sisters because they're at a very critical hour. They see their brother and he's getting sicker by the day.

They're very concerned. And in verse three, they offer this. They sit for the Lord with this simple prayer. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Lord, behold, what does it mean to behold? We say, well, that means to see.

But it's more than that, brothers and sisters. It's not a passive glance that they're talking about here. They're saying, Lord, behold, look, Lord. One definition is it means to denote surprise. Look, Lord, look, it is an urgent hour.

The one you love is sick. It's not a passive glance. It's to look intently upon the situation. It's when your eyes, what you see gets a hold of your heart. What Mary and Martha saw and beheld was serious.

It was very critical. Their brother Lazarus was dying and they could see it. And what they saw had gotten a hold of their heart. And that's why they send this desperate prayer to the Lord. Behold, the one whom you love is sick.

This came home to me about a year ago this time. My oldest son, Luke, began to become very ill. And he was vomiting sometimes 13, 14, 15 times a day. And he was growing weaker by the day. And we couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.

And we took him from doctor to doctor and there was still no answer. And this went on over a period of weeks. And he's getting sicker. He's not getting better. And the day came when he lay in a hospital bed.

Him and his mom, my wife and I just praying, crying out to God. And praying desperately that this is not cancer. Because all the signs were pointing to the fact that that's what it was. And the day came when this oncologist, a cancer doctor, walked into our hospital room.

And he asked to speak to my wife and I privately. And in the course of the conversation, he got straight to the point. And he said, look, your son has acute myeloid leukemia. It's another way of saying, look, your son has cancer.

That's C word that no parent wants to hear. Another way of saying it is, behold, the one you love, he whom you love is sick. And brothers and sisters, that's when what my wife and I heard and saw with our eyes got a hold of our hearts.

We beheld and it affected our heart. Remember the prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations chapter three, when he said, my eyes have affected my heart. Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, he says in verse 48 of Lamentations chapter three.

Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye trickles down and ceases not without any intermission till the Lord looked down and behold from heaven.

My eye affected my heart because of all the daughters of my city. This is the kind of beholding that I'm talking about. It's when the spirit of God opens your eyes and you see the church like you haven't seen her before.

And when you look at the church, once the Lord has opened your eyes today, you see that the church is in a very desperate and critical state. It is a desperate hour. That's the kind of beholding I'm talking about when what you see gets a hold of your heart.

What Jeremiah saw, he felt. What Jeremiah saw pained him deep in his soul because the people of God were in a state of desolation. It was a time of destruction and despair. It was a critical hour. It was a critical hour for Mary and Martha.

And that's why they were so desperate for the Lord Jesus to come. In the same way, desperation for revival comes to the child of God whose eyes have been opened by the spirit of God to finally see. And I want you to notice two things that they're crying out to the Lord Jesus in this prayer.

First of all, Lord, behold the one you love. And secondly, that he is sick. Behold the one you love. Jesus loved this man, Lazarus. Verse five tells us now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Often he would go to their home and they would fellowship together. He would have a meal there. He loved him. Later on in the thirty sixth verse, the Jews said, behold how he loved him. Jesus loved Lazarus.

Behold, Lord, the one you love. But brothers and sisters. What about the church of Jesus Christ? Behold, her scripture says husbands love your wives, even as Christ also love the church. Jesus loves his church deeply.

He bled and died for her. He gave his life as a ransom for her. She is his. He shed his blood for her. He's preparing a marriage supper for her. He's coming back again just for her. Jesus loves his church deeply and he loves his church jealously.

Behold, Lord, the one you love. But secondly, Lord. Behold, the one you love is sick. The church of Jesus Christ is in a critical, critical illness. A sickness. And let me clarify, because I know the Lord will have a pure, spotless bride and he does have a pure, spotless bride.

We've been talking so much about the persecuted church. And when we look at that beautiful bride of the persecuted church, beloved, she's not sick. She is not ill. She is healthy. She loves her Lord Jesus deeply and supremely.

And we have much to learn from her. The Lord has a church. But he's also got a remnant, I believe, even in North America, who loves him deeply. Who is not sick. But we also know, don't we, that most of the professing church of Jesus Christ in the West today is anemic, powerless, lifeless, and sick.

Behold, Lord, the one whom you love is sick. And I tremble to speak about the church this way because I know how much Jesus Christ loves her. But I remind you, brothers and sisters, that it was the church of Ephesus that the Lord Jesus had to rebuke and say, You've left your first love.

And it was the church of Sardis that Christ said, You have a name that you're alive, but really you are dead. And it was the church of Laodicea that the Lord said, I'm about to spew you out of my mouth.

It literally means I'm about to vomit you out of my mouth. You say that you're rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. But I say that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And it was this church of Laodicea that the Lord is actually standing outside, knocking.

I drove into Dallas, I'm looking at all these churches and I'm wondering with tears, Lord, how many of them are you on the outside knocking? Waiting for someone, any man, to come and open the door that you will come in and sup again.

I was in a church a few years ago, just happened to be traveling. I was passing through on a Sunday. My family was with me, listening to a Christian radio station. So I called up the radio station. They gave a number and I said, Are there any churches in this city that you would recommend?

We had about an hour before most churches begin their morning worship. And the man said, Yes, there's one in Revival right now. I said, I want to go there. And he told me the name and how to get there.

And we sat for about 5 -10 minutes. And my heart broke. Because what they were calling Revival was absolute chaos and flesh. And it was grieving the heart of God. I kept saying, Lord, I don't want to be critical.

I want to know if this is you, Lord. If this is me, tell me. And the spirit of God spoke to me so clear. And he said, Brian, I'm not even in here. And I saw in my heart, if you will, the Lord standing on the outside.

And it broke my heart. And I said to my wife and the children, Let's go. The church is sick. The one whom the Lord loves is sick. Laodicea is lukewarm. Sardis is dead. And Ephesus, how much of the church today is like the church of Ephesus.

She has left her first love, Jesus. And she has gone after another lover called the world. And she has done that because she has a divided heart. An adulterous heart. James chapter 4 says, You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.

Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Do you think he says in vain that Christ loves his church jealously?

He loves her deeply. And yet, what must we say about ourselves? What must we say about the church of Jesus Christ today? You see, Lazarus was behind a stone. He ended up in that tomb behind a stone. Jesus said, take ye away the stone.

And I sense the spirit of God saying, Somebody has to remove the stone. And get honest and see what's going on behind there. That's a place of death. That's a place of darkness. And if we get honest with ourselves, We say, that church back there that's sick and is now dying and is now dead.

Why? It's because she's looking just like the world. She smells like the world. She acts like the world. She loves money like the world. She winks at sin like the world. She's entertaining like the world.

And really, she bears no distinction between the world and herself. Can the church in North America today truly and honestly say, We have no king but Jesus? Can she? Can she say, He alone will we serve.

And that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Can she say that with an honest heart? She can't say that. And the reason why is that she's left her first love, Jesus. And she's gone after another lover called the world.

Verse 2 says, Lazarus was sick. But it was a very serious sickness. It was so serious, in fact, that it did lead to death. Verse 14 says,. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. You see, the church of Ephesus was sick.

She had left her first love. But the church in Sardis was dead. What is a dead church? It's a church that is devoid of spiritual life and power. It's a church that is full of form but no fire. Full of words.

We have all these teachings and words. But where is the demonstration of the spirit and of power? A dead church. And the tragedy, folks, is that our country is full of them. Absolutely full of them. Be it Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Presbyterian, Brethren, Mennonite, Non-denominational.

It really doesn't matter anymore. Without the life-giving power and presence of the Holy Spirit, the manifest presence of the living Christ, it's a dead church. It's a dead gathering. And therein is the crisis.

And therein is the desperate need of the hour. The one the Lord loves is sick. Behold, Lord, the one you love is dying. And in some cases, she is dead. In some cases, it's been four days. And I know some of you know what I'm talking about.

Or you wouldn't be at a conference like this. You've seen the one the Lord loves is sick. And your eyes have gotten a hold of your heart by what you see. And you're tasting this thing that we tasted when we saw our son sick with cancer.

You're tasting this thing called desperation. There's a desperation in your heart. Because you know the time is short. Your eyes have gotten a hold of your heart. And there's a desperation for a God-sent revival.

You've read the Gospels. You've read the book of Acts. And you read of great revivals and great awakenings in the past. And then you behold the church today. And you see no comparison. And you weep. You've beheld.

And your eyes have gotten a hold of your heart. And you're desperate for God. And you're hungry and thirsty for Christ. And your prayer is like that of Mary and Martha. Lord, behold, look down on us. Lord, see us.

See the one you love. She's not well. It's been four days. Is it too late for revival? Four days wasn't too late for Jesus. And I don't believe it's too late for Jesus now. But I'll tell you this. It is a desperate hour of crisis.

And you've got to let that get a hold of your heart. It's too late to play games. It's too late to talk about things that don't matter. One of the things that would grieve my wife so much, when we were in this battle with my son, who's dying of cancer, is when folks would show up and want to talk about things that don't matter.

We're talking about life and death. There's a desperate cry in our hearts. And you want to talk about who won the game? Or what the weather is like? Desperation. Because it's a desperate hour. And here's what makes it so desperate to me.

Not just what I'm beholding, what you're beholding, but what does our Lord behold? When He looks down and He sees the sad state of the church today and how she has given herself to worldliness instead of true worship.

Entertainment instead of earnest prayer. Form, but no fire. Talk and words, but no demonstration of power. I tell you, the Lord must weep. Even as He wept over Jerusalem, He must weep. What is the Lord's perception of the untold lost multitudes who sit in church pews every single Sunday and they are destined for hell, but they don't know it.

Because some wolf, some hireling, some wolf in sheep's clothing has deceived them into believing that they're saved when they're not saved. And He's crying, peace, peace, when there is no peace and judgment is at the very door.

How does the Lord behold that? To see multitudes in America deceived on Sunday morning. Who are lost. How does He behold what we beheld on those slides the other night in that Gospel for Asia prayer meeting when you see this vast sea of souls who've never heard the name of Jesus and never heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And you know why? Because so few preachers are going. So few missionaries are being sent out which is a result again of the cold, calloused, complacent condition of the church. Behold Lord, the one whom you love is sick.

The one whom you love is dying. Another thing that gets a hold of my heart is when I think about how very near we could be to the return of Jesus Christ. Folks, He's coming again. And if you know Christ and you're walking with Him, the Spirit of God has given you an urgency deep within your spirit that says Christ is at the very door.

And should there be no repentance, and should there be no revival, what is the Lord Jesus Christ coming back for? If He were to come right now, what kind of bride is He returning for right now? See, this intensifies the desperation in my own heart.

I know it does many of yours as well. And that's why you're here. You've tasted desperation. And such God-given desperation always compels us to do something. It compels us to desperately cry out to God like we've never cried out before.

It compels us to pray unlike we've ever prayed before. Mary and Martha were desperate because their brother was dying. And that's why they sent for the Lord with this simple but desperate cry. Lord, the one You love is sick.

But we go on to verse 20. And you see that Martha continues to cry out. Verse 20, Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him. She went after Him. She went to meet Him. And we meet Him, brothers and sisters, in prayer.

Verse 21, Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And surely when the Lord Jesus Christ is present and preeminent in the church, the church will never die.

She will live in revival. Verse 22, But I know, she says, that even now, even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee. When Luke was diagnosed with cancer, I remember desperately, desperately, immediately looking for somewhere that I could let this cry out that's coming up from my gut.

This desperate cry to God. Where can I? I need to find somewhere, some way, somehow, some quiet place where I can not just whisper a prayer, but cry out to God. I finally found my car, got in the car, and I said, Oh God!

Oh God! And by the grace of God, this just happened twice, but two times was enough. I remember one night, the only two times that he ever really broke down. But the first time he said, Dad, I'm scared.

I don't know if I'm going to make it. And I put my arms around him, and I buried my face in my pillow, and I said, Oh God! Oh God, my son! My son! This desperation compels a desperate cry. There's no more room for passive prayers and cliche-type prayers.

You're needy. You're desperate, and you're saying, God, if You don't come. But you see, there was this hope within me, like Martha had, that even now, Lord, as gloomy as the situation looks, as hopeless as so many of these reports that are coming to us, look, even now, Lord, even now, You can touch him.

Even now, You can revive him. But I'm telling you, it's coming from desperate crying out, desperate prayer. Desperate prayer was my wife, Martha, crying out to God day and night, and crying, screaming, saying, God, just put the cancer on me.

God, do whatever it takes, but please spare my son. Desperation is seeing her. I couldn't get her to eat. I could not get her to sleep. Why? Because it's a critical hour. Our son was dying, and like the persistent widow in Luke 18, you give God no rest day and night, but you pray, and you pray, and you pray, and you pray, until you know He's heard your cry, until you know you've been heard.

Only the desperate will cry out, God, do whatever it takes, whatever the cost, but God, send revival. For your namesake, for your honor, does it not bother you? I know it does, brothers and sisters, to hear the heathen mock and scoff at your God.

And they blaspheme His name because of the hypocrisy of those who are called by His name. The name of God is blasphemed among the heathen because of you, Romans says. Paul says. And it should bring us to a place of desperation of saying, God, how long?

God does not hear every prayer. I believe there's much prayer that God never listens to. But He does hear the prayer that is prayed purely and desperately from the broken and contrite heart of His beloved child.

He hears that prayer. And there comes a time when a child of God must literally cry out to God from the depths of your soul. But the truth is, most are too dignified to do that. Most are too sophisticated to do that.

Most are too proud to do that. You know why? Because they've not come to a place of desperation. They're not desperate enough. We get desperate enough, we cry out to God that way. The cry of the desperate is, Lord, I can't live without You.

And I can't live just listening to sermons. I can't live just going to conferences. I can't live just hearing about revivals in the past. Lord Jesus, I need revival now. I need You and I need You now.

In this present hour. In our day. That's the cry of the desperate. One preacher said, I'm so tired of hearing about someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew You. I want to know You.

Is He alive today? Is He the same God of revival today as He was yesterday? He is. But are we desperate? Are we so desperate that we say, Lord, I cannot live without You. And because of that, you're desperately crying out to Him in prayer.

Desperate prayer. Desperate prayer is the prayer of the Canaanite woman. In Matthew chapter 15, one of my favorite passages on prevailing prayer. Matthew 15. And look at verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. She's crying. She's crying out in desperation. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil.

When I saw those pictures the other night of the Dalits. And those women that were being treated the way they were. You know what I saw? My daughter Kaylee. Hannah. Holly. My wife Martha. And it brought me to weeping.

You see them as your daughter. This woman's daughter was grievously vexed with the devil. And because of it, she's crying out to God and she's not going to let Jesus go until she gets an answer. But watch what happens.

Verse 23. He answered her. Not a word. Most stopped praying right there. I prayed. He answered me. Not a word. And they stopped. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us.

There's the discouragement that comes as people say, Why are you taking this so seriously? Let's just pray through our little health list. Mary has a bad toe and whatever else. And go home. And you get all this discouragement to pray for revival.

And most, many stop. Not this woman. Verse 24. But He answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Even more would give up praying here. Would they not? It's like He's saying, I'm not sent for you.

She doesn't stop praying. Verse 25. Then came she and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me. But He answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. 99 .9 people praying for revival at this point would say, There's no hope.

Let's stop. She is desperate. Like Jacob, she's laying hold of God. I will not let you go to you. Bless me. And so she says in verse 27, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table.

And Jesus answered her, and I believe with a smile, said, O woman, great is thy faith. This is what I'm looking for. Someone who will believe me. Someone who will get desperate enough to lay hold of me and not stop praying until they hear from me.

Desperate prayer. Fervent prayer. But it's also, we learn from this passage, it's faith-filled prayer. She believed. And that's why she wouldn't let go. You see, if you have desperation without faith, then you end up with hopeless despair.

And you just give up. And the Lord says, Can these bones live? And the faithless say, I don't know. It's been four days. Can these bones live? And the hopeless say, Our hope is gone and we're cut off.

Where is faith? Where is faith? When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth? He found it in the Canaanite woman. We were desperate when Luke was suffering with cancer, but we were not in hopeless despair.

And this is why. God gave us three, He gave us more than three, but especially three wonderful promises from His holy book made personal to our hearts. The first one was Psalm 41, verse 1 through 3. Blessed is he who has regard for the weak.

The Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life. He will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.

The second promise was John 11, 4. This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. And the third one came on the day that we were, just before we were, the Sunday, just before we were to go check into the hospital.

And I asked my brother Kevin Turner to come preach for me that morning. And I'm sitting on the front pew and just before he gets up to preach, the Lord speaks to me just so clearly. John 11, 40. Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.

My wife had stayed home with Luke that day. I couldn't wait to get home and share with her this promise. She said, Brian, let me tell you what happened to me today. She said I was in streams of the desert.

You've heard of streams in the desert, that devotional? She said, I pray God, I don't want to, you know, I'm desperate. So I'm just going to open this up and I'm going to trust that it's a word from you.

And she grabbed streams in the desert and she opened it up. And it was to Martha. Said I not unto you, my wife's name's Martha. She said, did I not say to you, Jesus said, that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

Faith. Three promises that we laid hold of by faith. And on March the 2nd of this year, God turned the tide for my son. He had a bone marrow transplant which brought him to the very brink of death itself.

In fact, the doctor told me, he pulled us aside and he said, we are going to bring your son to the very brink of death. And on March the 1st, I saw that he was not exaggerating. It was bad before then, but nothing like that night.

And that night, Luke had vomited so much blood, you can't imagine. He was actually vomiting the lining of his stomach and some of the lining of his throat. And it was the smell of death. I grew up on a ranch and I smelled lots of dead cattle.

And this is what I was smelling coming out of my son's mouth. Black blood. And I stayed up all night crying out to God. And looking over what appeared to be, finally, the lifeless body of my son. Too weak to cry.

Too weak to even groan. Pale. White. And it looked like it was too late. But I remember crying out to God, staying up all night and saying, but Lord, You promised. You promised. Remember Your promise, Lord.

This sickness shall not be unto death. You see, before that, before I got those promises, I ran outside and I said, Lord, unless I'm mistaken, You can only be saying one of two things to me. Either You're saying that You're going to take Luke to be home with You in heaven for Your glory.

And it's going to be difficult, Lord. But I'll submit to that. Or You're saying that You're going to touch and heal him for Your glory. I'm willing to submit to either, but God, You have to give me a promise.

I won't make it through, Brother Jose, without the Word of God. I won't make it through unless I know I've heard from You. Unless I know I have a promise from Your book spoken to me. If I have that, by Your grace we can go through either one.

And that's when He gave those three promises. So the night of March the 1st, I'm crying out, Lord, remember Your promise. And March the 2nd, that morning, something happened. God turned the tide. And Luke opened his eyes.

The life flowing through his veins. He began to speak. And he, his body was restored rapidly. Amazed the doctors. One doctor who was not a Christian at all. He was beside himself. He said, I don't understand.

He said, we haven't seen this quick of a recovery. And by the grace and mercy of God, we soon after walk out of that hospital. Never to go back. Not even to look back. I remember walking out of that. Praising God.

Except for to go back and pray for those who are suffering. For the same thing and pray with them. But God revived him. And during that time, I believe God was speaking to my own heart. That my own son was a type of the church.

It looks too late. Some people are saying it's too late. But Jesus says no. And you know, I'll share this with you briefly. I didn't know if I would share this, but on our way down here to Dallas. My wife was cleaning out some boxes upstairs.

And she came to this notebook. And she opened it up. And it was a little journal that Luke had kept. We never knew about this. Before he ever got sick. And she read this to me. Just weeping over the phone.

I said, when I got to the motel, read it to me again. I'm going to write it down. Luke writes, 12 years old. God is the light of the world. He's like a forest fire that cannot be stopped. But we're like a big house.

Where everyone looks at us and admires us. When they don't know what's coming. Then the fire hits you. And you're on flames. But there is firemen trying to put you out. Will you give in? Or will you keep on burning with heat?

I let them put me out. But I'm letting him come back and light me up. And I'll burn until I die. Then the fire will spread off of me. And light other things on fire. And hopefully the whole country will be on fire for God.

I want to be a seed. Not a weed. Brothers and sisters, the church whom the Lord loves is sick. Most of Christendom today is but dead religion. We are desperately in need of a visitation from the almighty God.

But God awaits the desperate, fervent, faith filled cries of his people. Those who will lay hold of God's promises. You say, do we have such promises for revival? The whole book is full of them. But just this 11th chapter of John, three of my favorites.

One being, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. John 11, 40. Did I not say to you, if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

And then my favorite of all. John 11, verse 25. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.

Believest thou this? Jesus is saying, I am revival. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.

The question is, do you believe this? Do you believe that this is the truth? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is revival? Martha says, Lord, if you'd only been here. But Jesus says, No Martha, if you would only believe.

Did he not say, that if you would believe, you'd see the glory of God. And when we cry out to God with fervent, faith-filled prayer from hearts that are desperate for God Himself, something happens. God answers our cry to Him with His cry to us.

We cry out to God and He answers and responds with His cry. You see, Martha's cry was, Lord, even now. Yes, they say it's too late. It's been four days. But Jesus, even now. And Jesus responds to Martha's cry with His cry.

And what is His cry? John 11, 43. And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. That's His cry. To the desperate cries of His people. You see, we cry out, Lord, your church is sick and we are a part of that, brothers and sisters.

I put myself in that circle and say, we have sinned. We have left our first love. We have a name that we live, but are really dead. We are lukewarm and have grieved your heart. And we cry. And Jesus cries, then church, come forth.

Arise! Come forth to Christ. His call is a cry to come forth out of the grave. Look at verse 38. Jesus therefore again, groaning in Himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay upon it.

It was a cave. It was a place of darkness and death. It reminds me of a time when Elijah the prophet, that mighty prophet of God, who had seen revival, but just days later is running for his life and so depressed and discouraged that he's even requesting to God that he might die and he ends up in a cave.