Preparing the Way for God’s Revival: A Call to Action

If we didn't have the promise, sir, that we could trust and believe cannot lie, then those promises would all fall apart.

And we sang that song, showers of Blessings.

That's our theme song for the revival that begins next Sunday, the Lord willing.

And you know, every time I sing that song at the beginning, it talks about mercy.

Drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.

And we do have mercy drops and showers.

But I'm praying for a storm.

Amen.

A storm.

Sometimes it takes a storm to get our attention.

And all of us have been tested these last few months, have we not?

Boy, that's an understatement.

People go through trials and testings.

Churches go through trials and testings.

And that song that the ladies just sang through, purging more fruit we will bear.

And so I think we're.

We had a good spirit this morning and a good attendance, and I think we're getting place maybe that we can.

God can begin to rebuild.

And I'm believing that.

I don't think it's over.

I think there's still a great future for Heritage Baptist Church.

And looks like you may be in the group that God's going to use.

And it's just.

It's amazing to me that God is so long suffering and, you know, sometimes maybe it would be good if you could do this on your own.

I just did it recently.

Just sit down by yourself with a little piece of paper and say.

And ask yourself, what have I learned in the last three months, four months at this church?

What have you learned?

Say, I don't know.

Well, you may have to have some more trials in until you learn.

You know, if we don't get it, we get to take the tests again until we learn.

And we can't go to number two until we get through number one.

But you need to write that down.

You say, well, I don't know.

Then ask God to tell you and to show you.

What have you learned in these last several months?

And we still got a lot to learn.

We're always learning.

Take your Bible.

You know, while ago, I was gonna say this.

Most people in the world have never heard that phrase, take your Bible or open your Bible, please.

We've heard that all our life.

But a lot of people say, what's a Bible?

Or what do you mean, open the Bible?

So the only reason I say that is don't take your Bible granted.

Don't ever take it for granted.

But we're in the book of Isaiah, chapter number 40.

How many of you ever been driving down the road, the highway, interstate, whatever.

And you're cruising along and they're playing some good music.

And it's a beautiful sunny day and the road is smooth and quiet.

How many of you get real excited when you see a big orange sign says road work ahead next 20 miles?

Ugh.

That's not much fun.

Most of us don't get excited.

It takes about an hour for Shelly and I to drive over here from Weatherford.

Yesterday it took us two solid hours.

Traffic was at a dead stop right outside of Weatherford.

And, I mean, we were just crawling along and it was all about road work.

And I don't know anybody that likes to see road work, but obviously if they never worked on the roads, it would be worse.

We like them when they finish.

Seems like it takes 20 years now to work on a road.

But I want you.

I want to talk about that tonight.

Because the Bible says for revival, to prepare ye the way of the Lord.

What does that mean?

How do you prepare for the Lord to make an entrance?

In the book of Isaiah, chapter number 40, it says, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness.

By the way, this John the Baptist quoted this verse, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Most of you ladies and maybe the whole family when you're expecting a guest, a special guest, special friend, family, someone you haven't seen in a while, most of the time we prepare.

Most of the time we clean up maybe a little more than we normally would and we make sure that everything smells good.

Maybe we cut the grass a little more.

I mean, that's just pretty normal, what we do most of the time.

But what if the Lord's coming?

I know he's with us.

But imagine the Lord coming to make a special appearance here during the revival.

Do we just come in and sit and watch and wait, or do we do any kind of preparation?

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted.

The valley, the low places.

And every mountain and hill shall be made low leveled.

And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

And here's revival.

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.

And all flesh shall see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, preparing the way of the Lord.

Keep your finger there, but go over to a few more chapters.

Same book, Isaiah to chapter number 64.

We just read from chapter 40.

But go to Isaiah, chapter 64.

And look at verse one here.

O that thou would rend the heavens.

It's like squeezing out a washcloth, Rending it, squeezing the water out of it.

That thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

Revival is a manifestation of the presence of God.

Okay?

Not an ordinary, but an unusual, unusual demonstration of God's presence.

Verse 2.

And as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil to make thy name known to thine adversaries.

That the nations may tremble at thy presence.

When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, Thou camest down the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen.

O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

Now watch verse five.

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, number one.

And worketh righteousness.

Number two.

Those that remember thee in thy ways, behold, thou art wroth.

For we have sinned in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

So both of these passages are talking about a manifestation of God in such a way that everybody sees it, everybody feels it.

You don't have half people sleeping, half the people distracted, half the people playing with the phone.

When God comes down, really comes down, like he would like to come down, everybody will know it.

Wouldn't you like to see something like that?

Let me tell you something.

So would God.

God thrills and revealing himself.

But most people aren't interested.

Oh, they're not against it, but they're not for it.

They're kind of.

In Dolesville, they just kind of sit and stare.

That's the result in many churches today.

Most people today have never seen a real revival.

They wouldn't be able to describe it.

When a king or president or a dignitary is invited to come to a city, usually the people that are in the city, the city council, the mayor, whatever, they want to make a good impression, right?

Yeah.

Tech Haslett.

We get a news, we get a broadcast.

The president, whether you like him or not, the precedent is coming to Haslett.

And most people would think, where's he coming from?

What road's he coming in on?

Where's he going to be?

What's going to happen?

Most of the time, the city dignitaries will plan the route.

They wouldn't want the president going through a slum.

They wouldn't some dignitary coming in to take him through the bad side of town.

They would want to.

The fact this is a truth.

This is the truth.

In many times, when a city knows enough time that the president or some great important dignitary is coming, sometimes they'll repave the road whether it needs it or not.

So it's extra smooth and quiet and comfortable to ride on.

No potholes.

Can you imagine President coming in, hitting a pothole here and another one there, and what he's thinking, what he's saying.

Most of the time, they would clean up on both sides of the road.

They'd pick up the trash in the ditches.

They would clean, sweep the sidewalks.

They would maybe repair some of the buildings as they passed by, but they would have a particular route, a particular highway, which we've read just a moment ago.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

We want the Lord to come.

I know he's in us.

I know that.

I know he's among us.

But a Bible revival and revivals from history were different.

They were a time when God showed up in an unusual way.

But the Bible teaches us, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Did you know There are over 4 million miles of roadways in the United States of America that you can drive on, not counting dirt roads.

But in ancient times, thousands of years ago, before automobiles or trains or car covered wagons, kings and queens and emperors and famous generals, they were carried, as you may have seen pictures, in compartments on the shoulders of four servants.

And they were those four servants would carry with the poles.

You've seen pictures like that, I'm sure.

And they wanted the dignitary to be comfortable.

In fact, in Bible days, ancient days, kings were so respected that people feared them.

That if it wasn't a smooth ride, they may have to pay for it by death.

Did you know that they were so afraid that a king had such power that he could just order, in a few seconds, kill him?

Give me four more.

It knows how to do this.

We don't.

It's hard for us to comprehend that.

But that was the case.

A rough ride could result in death to many.

Well, what do we think of our king?

King Jesus?

What do we think about him coming next week in a special appointed time of revival?

How serious do you take that?

So many of us get offended so easily.

We hardly ever think about offending God.

Mm.

That's why sometimes a lot of people leave.

Not every one of them, but a lot of people Leave because they got offended.

But what about God?

We want a revival.

Do we want it on our terms or do we want to take it so seriously and careful that we prepare a way for God to come?

There was a time in Israel's history where the Bible says they dwelt carelessly going into a revival.

If we understand it.

And I'm not sure that even I totally can comprehend it.

You know, it says, eye hath not seen near, ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Most of the time that is quoted at.

At funerals, and they think it's talking about heaven.

God's preparing a place.

Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you.

But we say, you know, it hadn't even entered in our heart.

But here in Isaiah is actually where that verse was, where John the Baptist quoted from there.

And it had to do not with heaven, but with revival.

That's the context of that verse.

Eye hath not seen nor entered the heart of man.

Ear have not heard the things which God hath prepared.

Revival, a visitation of God.

What does it mean to prepare?

Well, we just read it said, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

In other words, a place that's not a lot of twists and turns, avoiding rocks rather than removing them.

You can't go around sin and expect revival.

If we're going to prepare for revival, we need to get stuff out of the way.

So when Christ comes, the Spirit of God moves and comes.

That is a straight highway.

Can you imagine carrying a dignitarian in one of those caring compartments and he just keeps falling against this side and falling against this side and falling backwards because it's always turning here and there and here and there instead of a straight course.

You know why a river's crooked, don't you?

Because it follows the path of least resistance.

If there's a lot of rocks and some trees and stuff here, then it's going to turn this way and you hit something over there, it's going to turn that way.

And rivers go round and round roads make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Instead of getting right with people.

Many times I've been pastoring for over 50 years.

Instead of getting right with people, most of the time we just avoid them.

It's not time to pray yet.

Some of you are looking down.

Yeah, we do.

We're famous for that.

Somebody hurt our feelings or somebody's different or got a different this or that and the other.

And so we just avoid them.

Instead of getting right.

You know, I was thinking about this today.

Some of the revivals that I've been in over the years, and I've seen people that hadn't spoken to someone in a long time, and I've seen them, during the invitation, get up and go over to them, and they would embrace and they would weep on each other's shoulder, and they would say, I'm so sorry I didn't plan.

I don't know how it happened, but I'm so sorry I mistreated you.

And people would see that, and all of a sudden they'd start going to somebody else.

Don't raise your hand, but how many times have you seen that happen in a church?

Very seldom.

But when barriers are broken down so that there's a straight path, and it says, make straight in the desert.

A desert is dry and parched, brown, no vegetation, no beauty.

By the way, that kind of describes the life of a backslider.

You know what a backslider is?

You can't be unsaved, but you can slide backwards away from God and become dry and parched and brown and no fruit in your life and no beauty.

And people start looking and saying, I don't want to be like that.

I'm not a Christian, but I don't want to be like that, if that's a Christian.

It's an interesting little passage that I every once in a while will visit in Proverbs, chapter 24.

It's kind of a picture that I look at every once in a while.

Chapter 24.

And I think it's in verse 30, it says, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man, void of understanding.

And lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles that covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.

Then I saw and considered it.

Well, I looked upon it and received instruction.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

You remember in the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite woman said, I've been taking care of other vineyards, but my own vineyard I've neglected.

That can happen to us.

We can get so wrapped up on other people that we don't take care of our own vineyard.

Are you bearing fruit in your life?

Is there flowers in your life?

When you're out among people, do people see the beauty of Christ in you?

Do they see a desert or a garden?

Make straight.

In the Bible, the word straight means righteous.

That's what it means.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

I remember as a kid growing up and my father was not a Christian at that time.

And I would ask him, can we go somewhere or do this?

And he'd say, well, when I get things straightened out, we will.

Well, it took me a long time to figure that mean no, because he never could get things straightened out.

He didn't have the Lord, he didn't know the Lord.

And a lot of people say, you know, as soon as things get straightened out in my life, things will be different.

And I'm going to have revival in my heart and life and I'm going to really let God take over my life.

Do you like the GPS on your car?

You say yeah and no, because I followed that GPS and they've taken me out in the middle of nowhere.

The scenic route, they called it.

I'd get so angry.

But there's other times the GPS would tell me right where to go.

I heard of a GPS they have for seniors now, senior citizens.

They not only tell you how to get there, but they tell you why you were going there, in case you forgot.

Amen.

And then it says, secondly in preparing, it says, every valley shall be exalted.

No potholes.

Potholes come from wear and neglect.

And they get bigger and bigger.

And if they're not fixed, the road has to be closed.

Any low places in your life.

Revival is desiring and allowing God to bring you up to where you used to be.

Most people have to go back a few years to remember when they used to witness more, they used to pray more, they used to have the joy of the Lord, they used to have this and that.

But now it's a low place.

Revival is bringing that low place up to where you used to be.

The Bible says, he brought me out of an horrible pit and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.

I like the song, Lord, lead me on to higher ground again.

Back to those carriers.

Ancient times.

They're carrying the king or a queen, and everybody's very careful because they have a fear.

And imagine a carrier steps into a pothole and the passengers dumped out the side of the door because they stumbled into a pothole.

And then it says, every hill shall be made low.

I think most of you probably know in the Bible when it speaks of the high places, most of the time it's speaking about pride.

High, every hill shall be made low.

We're talking about preparing for a revival, not just showing up and see what happens.

It means doing something.

You got six days between now and the beginning of the revival.

High places always speak of pride.

And we know God hates pride.

These six things doth the Lord hate?

Yea, seven are an abomination unto him.

Number one, he says, is a proud.

Look, why did he pick that one to be the first one on the list?

Because pride keeps us from admitting when we're wrong.

Pride keeps us from making up and getting right with other people.

Pride sometimes can devastate a marriage.

I'm a believer that most marriages probably could have been saved had it not been for Pride.

Not everyone, but a great deal of them.

Because neither one wants to give in.

I'm right.

No, I'm right.

No, I'm right.

No, I am.

And then pride keeps us from turning around.

That's what repentance means, a change of mind that causes us to turn.

Turn around.

Well, I'm not going to turn around because then everybody will know I was going the wrong way.

Pride causes us to look down on other people.

Pride causes us to pretend to be something that we're not.

We need to get lower.

I couldn't remember the place.

Shelley and I, when we went to Jerusalem, there was.

Some of you may know that I couldn't remember been several years, but there was a large church there, building, and the door was very, very low.

You couldn't walk through the door.

You had to stoop.

You had to get, well, almost down on your knees.

And then when you got in, you could stand up.

And it was all a big cathedral, beautiful and just amazing and high, high ceiling.

But you couldn't get in unless you stooped.

Doesn't the Bible kind of teach us something about that?

God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble.

As a boy, I remember some family friends, excuse me, they weren't family, they were friends.

And their last name was Day.

Any day's around here.

And we'd go see them every once in a while and I would literally.

This is.

No, I'm not exaggerating.

I was the oldest of four kids and I begged my daddy, please, please just don't go there.

Please, dad, please.

You know why, this is going to sound silly to you, but it wasn't to me.

To get to their house, you didn't go up this way, you went up this way, driving.

And on both sides there was no barriers.

People looked like ants down there.

And it was such an incline that I thought for sure we were going to just go backwards, the car and everything, and just go rolling down the hill and we'd all be Killed.

I know.

I was a little boy, and I'd get down behind the driver's seat down there on the floorboard.

And I didn't dare want to look out the window.

I didn't want it.

I didn't want to go.

It scared me to death.

Pride is like getting so high, high, higher.

The most dangerous thing in life is pride.

And the most deceptive thing.

And then it says, the crooked shall be made straight.

Why do we call somebody a crook?

Usually most of the time, he's a crook.

You know why we use it most of the time?

Because they're a crook.

No, usually a crook is someone who steals.

Now fasten your seat belt.

God said, you've robbed me.

And they said, what are you talking about?

Lord, wherein have we robbed thee?

Said, in tithes and offerings.

And you can take most any church in America.

This church would be probably a little bit above the average.

Cause of the way you've been taught.

But a church full of over half of the people many times are crooks.

They're thieves.

They're robbing God of tithes and offerings.

You say, well, we're not under law.

That was the law.

We're under grace.

Well, under grace, you do more than the law.

If you don't, it's a disgrace to grace.

Did you know that's in the Bible?

A lot of people say, no.

Jesus never tithed.

Oh, yes, he did.

And he was talking to the Pharisees because they would take 10% of their mint and 10% of all their vegetables and all the little things that they would grow.

And I mean, they would just get it right down almost exactly to 10%.

And they'd brag about how much they love God.

And Jesus said, well, you ought to do that.

But he said, but you're omitting the weightier matters of love, things that are important.

God would never tell us to do something that we couldn't do.

If every member of this church just tithed, just simply right down to the penny, 10%.

This church would never have financial problems.

It never would.

By the way, this might be a good time to mention this.

A lot of families that have left this church were good givers and tithers.

That money's gone.

If you ever thought about maybe one day increasing your offering, this would be a good time.

If you ever said, God, if you'll give, I don't have any.

But if you said, lord, if you would give me Something, I'll give it.

I'm just throwing that out there, really.

Not in my sermon, but maybe you could have a partner.

Maybe you could help, Maybe you could do more.

Are you doing the minimum?

And then he said, I'll get off that subject.

The rough places shall be made plain.

We just read that the rough places prepare the way of the Lord.

If there's any rough places, debris, trash in your life.

Rough language or rough temper.

You know, I heard somebody, a lady that had a real bad temper, and she was really proud.

She said, well, here's the way it is.

She said, I hold it in a long time, but when I lose my temper, I just blow up and it's over.

She was kind of proud of that.

Preacher said, well, a shotgun, same thing.

It's over pretty fast, but it does a lot of damage.

Maybe you say, well, that's.

I don't ever have any problem with a bad temper.

Well, that's good.

God bless you, but some people do.

I'm talking about tonight, simply preparing and challenging you to spend some time this week and say, lord, I want to prepare for this revival.

Let me show you something in closing.

We're still in the book of Isaiah.

Go to chapter 11.

Isaiah.

I'm almost through.

I really enjoy reading this every once in a while and makes me smile, especially in light of what I'm talking about.

Chapter 11 of Isaiah, verse number 16.

And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Turn over to verse 35, chapter 35.

Excuse me.

Isaiah, two pages over chapter 35.

Look in verse eight.

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness.

The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

Watch this.

No lion shall be there.

Hmm.

Nor any ravenous beast.

The devil's called a lion, isn't he?

Any ravenous beast shall go up thereon.

It shall not be found there.

But the redeemed shall walk there.

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy.

Upon their heads.

They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Sound like revival to me.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

During the wars, all the wars, even to this time, even in Iran, one of the priorities of pilots in the strategy of war was to destroy the runways, the airports, so that the enemy could not land their planes.

Right.

That's what they did.

God's looking for a place to land.

I want to see him land right here at Heritage next week, maybe even before, where God could say, I want to come down and show myself strong on behalf of the people.

Because some of us have wondered, lord, where are you?

What's going on?

What's happened?

How did we get here?

I think God wants to show you that he's not dead.

In fact, he's not even sick.

He's alive and well, and God may be ready.

The question is, are we ready?

And do you want to see God?

Do something in Numbers, chapter 20, verse 17.

Let us pass, I pray thee, through the country.

We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards.

Neither will we drink of the water of the wells.

We shall go by the King's highway.

We will not turn to the right hand, nor to the left, until we have passed the borders, the King's Highway.

When you prepare a place for God to come down and show himself strong in your heart and in your home and in your church, you'll find out that when you prepare a place, God will say, I want you to enjoy the road, too.

God wants you to enjoy the road, the trip, you know, we're going to have tribulation until Jesus comes.

But Jesus said, hey, be of good cheer.

I've overcome the world.

My grace is sufficient.

I'm never going to leave you.

I know where your enemy is, and I may allow him to do some things, but he can't do anything without my permission, according to the word of God.

We get tired, we get discouraged, we get depressed.

We get a little panicky now and then.

And God says, I'm not through yet.

Amen.

Prepare me a place and I'll come down.

Would you stand with your heads bowed and eyes closed for just a moment?

Everyone standing, most everybody in the church is not going to get involved in preparing.

But maybe you would.

Maybe you would say, lord, let it start with me.

I want to prepare a place in my heart so you don't.

You can't come down in a dirty life and a dirty heart.

You can't come down and show yourself in my life when there's things that are not right.

Maybe you would come tonight in this short invitation and say, lord, start revival in my life.

I want to prepare for it.

I don't want to hinder it.

Maybe that would be your prayer.

Maybe you need revival in your heart.

Maybe in your home, maybe in your everyday life.

I think God is groaning in his spirit.

Oh, I wish they'd let me have my way.

I really believe that.

I believe God.

Groans the Holy Spirit groans Jesus groaned cause he wants to do so much more than we let him do.

And he remembers that we're dust.

He knows we have limitations.

That God says, put me first.

We're gonna sing a verse of invitation and give you an opportunity to respond if you'd like to come.

Maybe you'd like to pray about something that's not even mentioned, had nothing to do with the message tonight.

Just something that's going on in your life and you'd like to come and talk to God about it.

You have a burden.

He can bear that burden.

You have a problem.

You're just tired.

Jesus said, come unto me all you that are tired and heavy laden and I will give you rest.