Being an Agent of Revival — Mark D. Partin

One let the little ones go out at this time, children under three years old, through kindergarten, maybe just at this time.

Nehemiah and the Burden for Revival

If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 1. I've had a message that I've prepared since August that I thought I was going to be allowed to preach it today, but I'm not. I may never get to preach this message.

I thought I was all the way up until Thursday. And I knew Thursday this wasn't what I was supposed to share, and so Friday I began looking, and this is where God dealt with me. And I thought I was finished, and on Saturday he redealt with me again.

But Nehemiah is one of my most favorite books in all of Scripture. And I see so much of a parallel between Nehemiah's day and our day. I begin reading in verse 1, it says, The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hecaliah, it came to pass in the month of Cheslib in the twentieth year as I was in Shushan, the citadel, that Hannah and I, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the providence, they're in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates also burned with fire.

So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant in mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments, please let your ear be attentive and your eyes be open, that you may hear the prayers of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you, both my father's house and I have sinned.

And we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept your commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out of the farthest part of the heaven jet, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name.

And let your servants prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer. The parallels I see in this passage between what was happening then and what is happening today is very clear to me because in this day, God's children, the children of Israel, they had been in captivity to Babylon for 70 years.

That means they were in captivity to the world. And after 70 years, they were given release. They were liberated where they could go back to Jerusalem, that holy city, that lie in ruins. The temple had been destroyed.

They were given release to go back and rebuild the temple to Almighty God. And of 4 million Jews that were in captivity, 50 ,000 is all that returned. That's 7%. Why, if you were living in captivity in a foreign land to the world in the world system, and you were offered freedom, why would you not go back?

79 Levites is all that returned. Why? Because they grew comfortable where they were. And that's what scares me about the American church today is we can grow comfortable where we are. We like our things, our toys, our stuff, and we want to say God bless us.

But our life is not to be about this world because if we love the world, then we do not know the very love of God which is being poured out unto us. Because we can't love the world and love Christ also, yet that is acceptable in American Christianity today.

But it's not biblical. They were comfortable, and only 7 returned. God always deals with a remnant. It's always a remnant. So they go back, and after years of struggle, they finally lay the foundation.

They have the sacrifices. They finally get the temple built after years of struggle and work and distraction and pause. It's all completed, the temple. But the walls and the gates of Jerusalem are lying in ruins.

They've been torn down, and they've been burned. And what is happening here is Nehemiah, he's not a preacher, he's not a priest, he's a layman. He gets concerned about the condition of God's people. He hears word from one of his brethren that the walls are broken down, the gates are burned, and that his people are lying in reproach.

It's all in ruins. And he hears word, and it concerns him. Let me ask you, what concerns you today? What's the greatest need that we have today? Well, you ask 20 people, you'll get 20 answers. You ask some people, they're going to say financial security, financial stability, good retirement, good retirement benefits, healthcare, healthcare plan, that's what's important, feeding the hungry, clothing the lame, that's what's important.

You ask 20 people, you'll get 20 different answers. And if you ask a politician, you'll get an answer that is geared to appease you. Because that's why they take polls on the telephone, to find out what you're interested in and concerned about, so they can regurgitate it to you so you can feel like they're listening.

We don't need pollsters or politicians, we need preachers and prophets who will stand before their people who've been with God and say, thus saith the Lord, here's what God's word says. And it's never going to be popular, but it'll be right.

And so Nehemiah, a layman, not a preacher, not a priest, he looked at the condition of God's people and it broke his heart. What's it take to break your heart? What's it take to get us to the point where we say, God, if you don't move, we have no hope.

You see, the unique thing about Nehemiah was Nehemiah never saw the former glory of Israel. He never saw, he never experienced. He was raised where he was in a pagan land under a pagan king, and he had achieved much worldly success.

He was the cup bearer. He was the one that tasted the food before the king was given it, tasted the drink before the king was given it. He was the one who protected the king. He was a close confidant to be a cup bearer to the king.

He was a civil servant, but he maintained his relationship with Jehovah God. He maintained his walk with the Father, and therefore when God spoke to him, it stirred him. When God speaks to you, does it stir you, or do you just blow it off?

It stirred him. The greatest need of our land is not health care reform, not finances. The greatest need we have is revival from Almighty God. To sweep through our lives, to sweep through our families, to sweep through our churches, our community, our country.

That's the greatest need we have. And therefore when that takes place, it takes place, genuine repentance will flow forth. Restitution will flow forth. Restoration in families and homes will come forth.

Transformation of lives will take place. Deliverance from drugs and alcohol. That's what will happen. But God's got to get somebody's attention. Maybe it's a layman in this room. You see, you say, well, when can I expect revival to come?

Remember what I said two weeks ago, J. Edwin Orr said you can expect God to move in revival when God's people get right with him about their sin. 2 Chronicles 16, verse 9, it says, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.

And God says, I want to pour out on you. I want to move in your life. Is your heart loyal? See, the greatest temptation we have today in America is a divided heart. See, we want to be committed to Christ and we want to be committed to the church and we want to be committed to everything else.

We lose focus and attention. And we live in mediocrity when that takes place. So Nehemiah, he heard the word, the discouraging word. He was a layman, but he got concerned. What's it going to take before you get concerned?

Abraham got concerned about Lot, his backslidden nephew. Esther got concerned about Israel when they were being threatened with extermination. Barnabas got concerned about John Mark even after he had quit and now he had returned.

Nehemiah got concerned about old news. Now I say old news because it's a 700-mile trip. And when they were coming back into where Nehemiah was, they walked or they rode a donkey a long way. Does old news concern you?

Does it stir you? There's some old news I've never got over. I never got over when God touched my heart in 1970 and saved my soul as a 10-year-old boy. I've never got over that. I've never got over when God called me to preach and I quit running in April of 1979 and said, Lord, whatever your will is, I will do it.

I've never got over when my kids came to Christ and I saw tears dripping down their chin, weeping and broken. I've never got over 2006 when God moved in this place for 40 days and beyond in a mighty move of His Spirit.

Old news ought to concern us, right? And stir us, right? If it don't, you better check what you got. Because that's why it gives it to us. Because you can go back and you can remember the faithfulness of God.

You can remember the working of God. You can remember the moving of God. Nehemiah, he heard news of his homeland, a land he had never been to, and it stirred him. And he said, Here I am, Lord. I'll be your agent.

Use me, God. I'll be an agent of revival if that's what you see. So what's it take to be an agent of revival? What's it take to say, God, here I am, whatever you want. That's why at the end of this prayer, as he did, he said, I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

He's talking about the king he was serving under, for I was the king's cupbearer. Here's what it takes to be an agent of revival. First off, there's a vision that you have to see. There's a vision of the need.

Seeing the Need for Revival

See, news from homeland disturbed him. The desolation of Zion, it gripped him. It broke his heart. You see, a vision of need is essential. And sometimes we get so caught up in our own life, doing our own thing, we don't see the needs that are around us.

We don't see the complacency among the people of God around us. And then we wake up and we say, How did things get how they are? You've got to see the need. He saw a people in reproach. He saw a people in affliction.

He saw a nation that said, Ichabod, all across the top. The glory has departed. Let me ask you, how many churches do you go in where you know and you taste and you see the glory of God? And how many do you go in where it's just the same old, same old?

Get them in and get them out. Hear me, guys. There's got to be a vision of the need of God's people. They had been liberated. Now they were in reproach. How long will it take some to see the condition of the American church?

Because the American church is missing something. It's missing something. It used to be, in America, when the church stood against something, politicians listened. Do they listen to us now? Our voice is not even relevant to our communities.

Now, preacher, you need to be seeker sensitive. Don't get too loud. Don't offend. Are we relevant? Oh, we're very relevant. The world doesn't recognize it. But you've got to look at our land. When politicians listen to gays and homosexuals, and we establish gay rights, and we don't listen to the church, and we force that upon people in this land that we live in, and we have abortion on demand, and do they listen?

No. Why? Because too many in the American church are satisfied with where they are. And as long as they're fine, and as long as they're healthy, and as long as their cars and their homes are there, and they can eat out two or three times a week, you know, everything's fine.

When are we going to open our eyes? We live in one of the most beautiful places in America, do we not? The mountains, the hills, the valleys, the lakes, the streams, the wildlife. But you look deeper, and you see the scars of where we live.

You see the drugs and all that's taking place there. One of the largest contributors in the state is right here. We've got one of the largest pornography stores in the state right in our county. It's right here.

We give headline news to celebrate. We've got package stores now for the first time. Have we lost their mind? Because we're losing our kids. Listen to me. But we sit there, and we say we're all right, because the church has its head in the sand, because we don't have to show up on Sunday mornings and get preached happy, and we don't have to come back until we, God's people, until you lay people get a vision of the need, the reproach that the church lies in.

Nothing changes. He had a vision. He had a vision of the reproach and the affliction. He visualized the walls of Jerusalem broken down, and the gates were burned. Now listen to me. The walls was a line of demarcation.

It was that separating line. This is who's inside, and this is who's outside. Right? That's what the walls were. Walls are not physical blocks like we want to think. When we're talking about rebuilding the walls, Scripture is always talking about you're rebuilding, but you're building up in doctrine.

You're building up in truth. You're building up in the very Word of God. That's the distinctiveness. It's not physical things. It is a spiritual wall. Where is the separation today? We have lost people can come, and they can sit, and they're just not convicted by God.

We want to say, oh, you just feel good about yourself. We just want to love you into the kingdom of God. It doesn't happen, guys. Willow Creek developed Seeker Sensitive 25 years ago. They finally said in the last five years, it doesn't work, it's wrong.

Law. Took them 20 years. But where is the line of demarcation between the people of God and the world? Or can we bring the world in and not even see a difference? Where is the holiness in God's people?

Where is the righteousness in God's people? Where are the standards that we will do this and we will not do that? And a city without walls is defenseless, and it's vulnerable. And when doctrinal truth and the Word that we live by is just so compromised, we're vulnerable, and the world floods in.

You got a vision of gates being burned. The elders, the nobles, the judges, they all set in the gates. That's where decisions were made. That's where the dominion and the authority rested. And the gates burned.

There was no authority. And everybody did what was right in their own eyes. And everybody still wants to do their own eyes. Oh, that God would raise up prophets because everything is not right. Before we can see a vision of the possibilities, you've got to get a vision of the need, guys.

We got to blow the trumpet, sound the alarm. Why? Because if you can't look at our situation and be broken by it, then you must be part of the problem and not part of the answer. Look at his reaction.

He heard. That's the hardest thing for some of us to do is hear, isn't it? I mean really to listen. He heard the Word of God. He sat down. It stopped him in his tracks. He wept. There was brokenness flowing out of his life.

He fasted without food. He was so consumed and concerned. And he prayed. You do realize sometimes there's something you do before you pray is you see the need. I look at these little kids, these little babies, and they're beautiful and they're sweet.

And we all just want to keep them right there, right? But these little babies are going to grow up. And if Mom and Dad, if you're not faithful to the Lord and faithful to the Word, it's an ungodly world that's going to take them captive.

It's hard enough when you bring them up right, per se. Do you see the need? Ask God to give you eyes to see if you want to be a part of revival. Second thing, if you're to be an agent of revival, you've got to become a man of prayer.

Prevailing Prayer and Compassion for God's People

Everybody prays, but everybody doesn't get ahold of God. As one man put it so eloquently this morning in our prayer time, there's people tell me they're praying for me, and I just think, thank you, but your prayers ain't getting nowhere.

I'm quoting the man because he knows how they live. I'm talking about to pray and to prevail with God in prayer, to pray through with a Father that you get ahold of the throne. And as you get ahold of the throne, you know you've got the ear of God because, you see, prevailing prayer requires tender compassion for the things of God and God's people.

And there's nothing compassionate about seeing people go in the wrong direction and just say, well, God bless you, and being sweet and nice. Man, sound the warning, sound the alarm. Look at him, verse 4 says, I sat down and I wept and I mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. He could have said, my wonderful Father, you know this is not my fault. I've never lived there, I've never been there, and they're just probably getting what they deserve.

He didn't say that. Why? Because God got ahold of his heart, and God got ahold of his heart and started to stir inside of him, and he identified. He couldn't get away from Psalm, I think, 122, 6, where it says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

He knew the word of God, and he knew his responsibility to the very people of God. Nine times you're going to find throughout this book that Nehemiah is praying, and he's praying out of a sorrow, a godly sorrow, because of the condition of need.

He's fasting, he's praying. Hear me, that's the scriptural antidote to the problem. Fast and pray. You want a movement of God, you fast and you pray. But we'd rather do something. That's the problem, is we're doers instead of beers, being in Christ.

And if we don't, he spent four months praying day and night, four months agonizing before the throne of God, weeping, overwhelmed. He was burdened before he told his friends, before he told others. He was praying in secret, fasting before the Father.

Agonizing before God. That's the scriptural antidote. But that's not good enough for a lot of folks. We want to do something. And if we do before we be, we've done nothing. There may be something God tells us to do, but we better get this first part right.

Fast and pray. How did he pray? This is what got me. He said, I pray, verse 5, Lord God of heaven, oh, great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant in mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments.

How did he pray? He got the right perspective. How many times do you find yourself coming into the prayer clause that says, oh, God, you've got to deliver my child. Oh, God, you've got to meet my need.

Oh, God, you've got to move here with healing. Oh, God. Nehemiah didn't come before God that way. He didn't come and say, God, your people's in affliction, your people's in ruin, your people's in desolation.

Here's what he did. He got the right perspective. He said, oh, God of heaven, oh, Father, you are great and you are awesome. His heart was filled with reverential fear of God and the fear of the Lord.

And yet today we approach God so flippantly even in our services. We run to him like he's our errand boy before the Father. And he knew that God was faithful. Oh, God, you're Adonai, you're my Lord, you're my master.

Oh, God, you're Elohim, you're my creator. Oh, God, you're El Elyon, the most high God, sovereign over all. Oh, God, you're El Gibor, you're prevailing, conquering God. Oh, God, you're El Olam, you're everlasting.

You're El Rohi, God who sees. You're El Shaddai, God almighty. When you come before God expressing his greatness, expressing his awesomeness, that's what gets God's attention because we come before him acknowledging who he is.

You are Jehovah Ezer, the Lord, our helper. You're Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, our provider. You're Jehovah Mekedesh, the Lord who sanctifies. You're Jehovah Rehi, you're the Lord, my shepherd. You're the Jehovah Rapha, the Lord, my healer.

Jehovah Sabaoth, you're the Lord, leader of the armies. You're Jehovah Shammah, you are the God who is there. You're Jehovah Tishkun, my righteousness. Jehovah Shalom, God, my peace. You are omnipotent, you are omnipresent, you are omniscient, you are holy, you are faithful, you're God.

There's a little difference when you come before the throne like that, isn't there? Because you come acknowledging he's God. God can deliver a thousand ways, can he not? With Joshua, he got a thunderstorm and giant hail balls and it came down and he delivered.

With David, he had the sounds of a mulberry tree with the marchings going on and he delivered. With Hezekiah, it was through a rumor and he delivered. With Barak, there was a lady with a tent peg and he delivered.

He can deliver a thousand ways. But you've got to get the right, if you don't have the right perspective, maybe you don't know him. Because he is God. And he is not shaken and taken by surprise. But he's waiting for his people to get on his page.

He's waiting for his people to get right with him and to approach him as who he is. He is God! He took a jawbone of an ass and he delivered saps. Perspective. Start praying with the right perspective, guys.

Get a handle on his greatness. His power. Don't just rush in. And then he said, to pray this way, you've got to have confession of sin. Now again, he didn't tell them how badly they were in a situation, how afflicted they were.

He begins to confess sin. Look what it says in verse 7. We have acted corruptly against you. We have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servants. Moses, do you get honest with your sin?

Do you get honest with those things that offend the Lord? Look what it says in Psalm 66, 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. Do you know what that means? It means if I look upon anything which is out of adjustment, out of alignment with the will and the word of God, I erect a barrier between me and God.

So let me ask you, is there anything in your life that you look upon with approval? That's out of the word and out of the will of God. Because you just erected a barrier and so have I. What we watch on television, internet, what we fill our mind with.

The Bible says, don't be conformed to this world. And yet, friends, we spend hours in front of a TV listening to mindless gibberish. What's it doing? It's conforming to the world. I never thought I'd be an anti-TV preacher, but I'm about there.

It spreads covetousness, ungodliness. We question authority. Let your kids watch it. See how they question the authority of parents. It undermines, it promotes sin, homosexuality, social drinking. You've not lived until you've experienced this.

If I look with approval upon anything which is out of adjustment with the word of God or the will of God, I erect a barrier. And it's a characteristic of revival that long seasons of sin and hindered blessings are exposed, confessed, and forsaken when God comes.

And there's no restoration without repentance. Holiness is not optional. It is obligatory. The Bible says without holiness, no man will see God. He confessed specifically in verse 7. He recalled the covenant.

Guys, you understand what covenant is? It's the blood of Christ. You understand that he has rights to your life, to my life, to this church? So you see what he's doing there in Nehemiah chapter 1? He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 2 to 4 and 8 to 9.

I'm not going to go there, but that's what he's doing. He's going back to the word, the covenant that God had made with his people. Then look what he says in verse 11. I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the cut bearer.

You will not prevail in prayer until you're willing to say, God, use me as an instrument. Don't sit there and say, well, use the preacher, use the priest. Until you come to the place, you say, God, use me.

I'm so burdened about your people, God, use me. Now here's the pattern of successful praying. Ask yourself, why should God answer my prayer? I had a lady ask me that in Oklahoma. She was praying for a lost loved one.

And I said, why do you want him saved? We were in a conference. I was speaking to a conference of people. She said, because he's a loved one. I said, that's your wrong motive. You pray for somebody to be saved, so their life will be so transformed, they'll glorify God.

Not just because you love them. You pray somebody to be saved, not so they'll miss hell and the torment, but because their life will be so transformed, they'll be a testimony to others of the glory of God.

That's why you pray for lost people to be saved. Why should God answer my prayers? You get the right perspective. Who he is. You deal with sin. You pray out of covenant. You pray specifically. Can one person make a difference?

Guys, God's not looking for a denomination. He's not looking for a committee. He's not looking for a group. He's looking for one man. That's what Ezekiel said. I'm looking for one man to stand in the gap.

One man to make up the hedge. One man. That's what he's looking for. And Isaiah, or not Isaiah, but Nehemiah, he shows us the word of God. He says, I will pour water on him who is thirsty and streams upon the dry ground.

Nehemiah said, I'm thirsty, God. I'm the man. And streams began. You'll never be the one until you get eyes to see the need. Third thing to be an agent of revival. You've got to be a man of passion. Man, we're passionate about all kinds of stuff, aren't we?

Passion for God's Glory

And our heart gets so divided, it's diseased. And things consume our attention, our time, our energy, our resources. We become mediocre, but we think we're all right. See, Nehemiah was passionate about one thing.

That's the glory of God. His glory. Glory in Greek is doxa. It means weight or substance. See, I want to be in such a relationship with the Father, I can bear the weight of his glory in my life. Now, he can pour it out so heavy, I can't.

But I want to be there where I can bear up under his weight. It's all about his presence. That's what the weight is. It's the presence of God. Look at John 1, verse 17. I thought it was very insightful.

It says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. It's talking about Jesus. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. There's three words here I believe that pertains to the glory that Nehemiah is passionate for.

He's passionate for the glory. And it's not that we add anything. We say, Give God glory. That's what they said in Joshua. That's what they said in Samuel. That's what they said in Isaiah. It's not that we add anything to his majesty.

We add anything to his splendor. It's not that we contribute anything to God. But we're saying, God, you be glorified. Lord, let the words of my mouth be praised unto you. Let my life reflect you. You can only do that when you have humility.

Man, we serve a God of grace, don't we? Man, he's long-suffering. He's merciful. He's kind. Let me tell you an amazing thing. Grace is all throughout the Gospel of John. John 3, 16 is about the grace of God.

But do you understand grace is only used four times in John's Gospel? And between verse 14 to verse 17 in the first chapter. And the word's never used again. The demonstrations are seen throughout. But truth, he uses 25 times in the Gospel and 20 times in his epistle.

So he's tying the very glory of God with glory, with grace, with truth. He's truth. Truth is what? Truth is the blocks to build the walls. For the glory, for the former glory of his country, of his people to be returned.

He said, Lord, use me. Here's what he said. God, interrupt my life, my schedule. I'm the cupbearer. Interrupt me. And I'll give it all up to you. Do you see the need around us in our community, in our homes, in the churches across this land?

Does it cause you pause to where you're just stunned? If you'd have broken this into fast homes, our lives, our churches, our community. The answer is not another political program. There's the king. How do you approach him?

Bow your heads for a moment.