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Revive me Lord
As we all know, this world continues to deteriorate. On a
daily basis we hear about horrible things, acts of
violence, wars and so on. But something that is even
more alarming is when we hear about congregations that
once formed part of the body of Christ have
disintegrated. They have disintegrated because the
leaders have been seduced by avarice and pride, which
has led them to walk away from God’s will, and has
blinded them to the vision that God gave them. It is
for this reason that today we find that many have left
God’s path completely, and others that have been so
confused by what they have been witnessing that they
don’t know what to do. But the question that we should
ask ourselves is, what can we do for these people? What
can we do for all of those that have walked away from
God, or are so confused that they have lost the ability
to differentiate between what is from God and that which
isn’t? The answer to both question is simple, we should
all pray asking God to send a revival to His people.
This is the theme that I want to focus on today. All of
us should unite daily in prayer asking God to send a
revival to His people, but in order for a revival of
this magnitude to take place something must first happen
in our life. Let’s now turn to the Word of God and
let’s examine a crucial moment in the life of king David
which will reveal the first step to a revival.
Psalms 51:1-19
- Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your loving
kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender
mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my
sin. 3For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me. 4Against You,
You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your
sight — That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge. 5Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother
conceived me. 6Behold, You desire truth in
the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make
me to know wisdom. 7Purge me with hyssop, and
I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. 8Make me hear joy and gladness, That
the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9Hide
Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God, And
renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not
cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your
Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy
of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous
Spirit. 13Then I will teach transgressors
Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud
of Your righteousness. 15O Lord, open my
lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 16For
You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering. 17The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a
contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
18Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the
walls of Jerusalem. 19Then You shall be
pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt
offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer
bulls on Your altar.
Like I always say, to better understand the message that God
has for us today, it will be necessary to conduct a
brief history review. Let’s then get to know king David
a little better, let’s perform a small review of his
life and examine what was happening in his life at this
time in history. As we all know, David was selected and
anointed by God from an early age. This was the man
that God anointed to become the king of Israel, and this
is something that is clearly stated in
1 Samuel 16:12-13 when we
read “So he sent and brought him in. Now he was
ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the LORD
said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” 13Then
Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the
midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came
upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and
went to Ramah.” David was the man that God used to
victoriously confront the enemy of His people, Goliath
the giant, when among the people of God there was no one
with the courage to do so. This is something also
clearly stated in 1 Samuel
17:23-24 when we read “Then as he talked with
them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath,
Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the
Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words.
So David heard them. 24And all the men of
Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were
dreadfully afraid.”
But this young man called David did not fear, and he did not
allow himself to be intimidated because he knew that God
was with him. He fought against this great giant, and
he defeated him. Look at how this has been recorded in
history when we read 1 Samuel
17:48-49 “So it was, when the Philistine arose
and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried
and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49Then
David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and
he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead,
so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on
his face to the earth.” But from this moment on
David had to endure great tribulations; he was sought
and hunted by the same king that he had defended, who
wanted him dead. Look carefully at what we find in
1 Samuel 20:1 when we
read “Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and went
and said to Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my
iniquity, and what is my sin before your father, that he
seeks my life?” But regardless of this, David
remained firm and he became the king of Israel just as
God had willed. But his trials and tribulations did not
stop here, as when he was finally anointed as the king
another great opposition arose to destroy him. Look at
how this is very well illustrated in
1 Chronicles 14:8 when we
read “Now when the Philistines heard that David had
been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines
went up to search for David. And David heard of it and
went out against them.” But because David remained
faithful to God, his kingdom prospered and he enjoyed
great blessings. All of this more or less brings us to
this point in history. Knowing David a little better we
must then ask ourselves, why did he make this outcry to
God? The answer is simple; he did it because he
recognized that he had trespassed greatly against God.
I say this because this psalm was written by David after
his adulterous relation with Bathsheba. In his desire
to satisfy the pleasure of the flesh, David had broken
at least five of God’s commandments all at once; “You
shall not murder. 14“You shall not commit
adultery. 15“You shall not steal. 16“You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male
servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his
donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus
20:13-17). I am sure that many may be already
thinking, well pastor this is all good and well, but
what does any of this have to do with a revival? But I
tell you that here we find the key for the revival in
the people of God.
As I said in the beginning, we should all be praying for a
revival in the people of God, I am sure that many of you
are praying asking the Lord to send multitudes to this
ministry, correct? But allow me to tell you that we are
not praying correctly. I say this because before we ask
God to send a revival to His people, before we ask God
to send a revival to a congregation, we must first ask
Him to send a personal revival to each one of us. But a
personal revival will only occur when we take David’s
example and we apply it in our life. What example am I
talking about? I am talking about recognizing that we
have sinned; I am talking about recognizing our faults
and errors. I say this because the reality of it all is
that all of us need God’s touch on a daily basis. I say
this because all of us, without exception, fail God on a
daily basis. Some of us do it without realizing it, and
others do it knowing very well that what they are doing
displeases God, but the main point is that none of us
are perfect, and we all fail God. Now, in the verses
that we are using today we find that David recognized
his faults, he recognized his errors and because of this
he was forgiven, but I want you to know that it was not
without consequences. Look at what happened as we find
in 2 Samuel 12:11-14 when
we read “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up
adversity against you from your own house; and I will
take your wives before your eyes and give them to your
neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight
of this sun. 12For you did it secretly, but I
will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.
13So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned
against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD
also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14However,
because by this deed you have given great occasion to
the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who
is born to you shall surely die.” This is
something that many people do not understand. God
forgives our transgressions, but our actions Hill always
have a result. Even when our sin is forgiven, there
will still be consequences to pay because of our
actions. But to receive forgiveness there is a
condition, to receive forgiveness our repentance must be
genuine, only when our heart and desire for His
forgiveness is sincere will we receive forgiveness for
our transgressions and sins, and this is exactly what we
find here in this psalm.
Here David recognized his faults, his heart humbled to God
asking to be renewed, asking to be restored, asking God
for His mercy. What happens to many of us is that on
occasions we get so involved in the things of this
world, we get so preoccupied with our situations and in
satisfying the desires of the flesh, that we fail to see
the important things, we fail to recognize our faults
and transgressions. What happened to David is very
similar to what happens to many in our time; he fell the
same way many fall today. Allow me to provide you with
a couple of examples so that you will better understand
what I am saying. It had been while since I was able to
sit in front of the television for a prolonged period of
time to distract myself. But in this brief time of
forced rest that I had during the week, I had plenty of
time to do it; but what I found was not something that
entertained me, what I found was something that alarmed
me. I found that there are very popular programs that
are supposedly comedies that promote homosexuals. I
found that there are soap operas that supposedly
entertain our minds, but that under the guise of
romanticism promote adultery and fornication. I found
that there are programs disguised as action shows or
movies, but that in fact promote the powers of darkness,
vampires and similar things. I found programs that
supposedly try to help people with their problems, but
the entertaining part is found when the participants
beat each other. As I said, I did not find entertaining
things, I found alarming things. Why have I provided
you with these examples? I have provided you with these
examples because when we become patrons of these types
of programs, then it will be very easy for our enemy to
make us think that these things are of little
importance. But these things are the vessel that our
enemy will use to introduce lascivious and covetous
thoughts and feelings in our life. Thoughts and
feelings that serve only one purpose, thoughts and
feelings that separate us from God’s presence. Perhaps
some of you may be thinking that I am over dramatizing
these things, but if that though reached your mind, then
you must ask yourself, is it possible to fail God and
sin with just a thought? I want you to know that the
answer to this question is YES. This is something that
Jesus warned us about as we find in
Matthew 5:28 when we read
“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to
lust for her has already committed adultery with her in
his heart.” Tell the person sitting next to you,
impure thoughts lead you to sin.
The danger is that when we participate in these things we
will fail to recognize them for what they are, an
abomination to God!, and we will accept them. Look at
how this is something that is very well reflected in the
words of out Lord in Luke 11:34
when we read “The lamp of the body is the eye.
Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also
is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body
also is full of darkness.” The reality of it all
is that there is nothing funny about a homosexual
relationship, this is an abomination. There is nothing
romantic about adultery and fornication, this is an
abomination. There is no entertainment in the powers of
darkness; they only lead to eternal death and
damnation. I find nothing entertaining about when
people tell their horrible problems such as incest,
adultery, fornication, and then proceed to beat each
other in front of the cameras. Upon seeing these
things I ask myself, what type of example is being
provided to the future generations? When we allow these
types of programs to enter our home, when we accept
these things as something normal and entertaining, then
these things will accomplish their intended purpose and
sooner or later we will fall into sin. We will fall due
to the lustful desires of the flesh; we will fall just
as David did. Our enemy does not rest in his attempt to
separate us from God, his attack is constant; why do you
think that Jesus said what we find in
Matthew 7:13-14 when we
read “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate
and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and
there are many who go in by it. 14Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads
to life, and there are few who find it.” He did not
say these things just to say them or by coincidence;
Jesus said it because He know very well the path that we
must traverse, He know very well the things that we will
have to endure.
We should be asking for a revival for this ministry, we
should be asking for a revival to occur in the people of
God, but we must first be asking for a personal
revival. As I said there are no exceptions, this is
something that all of us need. Why do we need it? We
need it because a personal revival will lead us to seek
more of God; a personal revival will bring all that we
need and much more. If we truly want a revival, if we
truly want to be the difference in this world, we must
first recognize our faults and confront the consequences
of our sins.
Let’s confront them knowing that He will help us in all that
we do, remembering always that when our heart is in the
proper place, then nothing that we do will be in vain.
Let’s never forget the words of the apostle in
1 Corinthians 15:57-58
when we read “But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your
labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Tell the person
sitting next to you, Christ is our victory.
In
conclusion.
Let’s follow David’s example in this instance, and let’s
seek God’s forgiveness. Let’s all say right now “Have
mercy upon me, O God, According to Your loving
kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender
mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my
sin. 3For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.” Do we want God to
send a revival to the people, to this city, to this
church, to this ministry? If so, then let’s first seek
a personal revival. First let’s seek God. Let’s seek
that our heart be restored, that our heart be pure and
clean before God. Let’s always remember what we find in
Proverbs 11:20 when we
read “Those who are of a perverse heart are an
abomination to the LORD, But the blameless in their ways
are His delight.” How can we maintain a pure and
clean heart for God in this world full of evil? The
only way that we will be able to do it is by
scrutinizing and living His holy and divine Word. We
must never forget what we have been called to be; let’s
always remember what our Lord tells us in
Matthew 5:16 when we read
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may
see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Tell the person sitting next to you, be the example to
follow. Do you want a revival for this world? Then
first seek your own personal one first, because a true
revival begins one person at a time, a true revival
begins in our heart.
© Jose R. Hernandez |
Christian
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