We return to Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 and especially verses 37 to 42 in this second message on revival that I've entitled as a prayer. The prayer is Lord revive us. You see dear friends as we've seen before the Holy Spirit has been poured out on that day of Pentecost. Peter has preached about Jesus Christ being the fulfillment of those promises in the Old Testament who they have now crucified but he has risen from the dead. And so we could say this New Testament church is born in public and God visits the hearers with great power. This thing that we see here is not a discussion group. It's not some sort of an event built by human technique. It's the living God. It's the living God pressing truth. into the consciences and drawing sinners to his son by the power of his Holy Spirit. And if you want to know what revival is, and that's what we desperately need, I hope you do see the need for revival. I hope you see it desperately. I hope you don't just leave these places of worship each Sunday thinking, well, this was another sermon, another Sunday that is finished. but you desire and long for the presence of God, for a change in your life. If we want to know what revival is, friends, and why we need it, we must start here then with Scripture, not at some reports in history, Even though they are good and encouraging and helpful, not at people's opinions, what they think revival should be and how it should work. But the word of God must define the work of God. We do need revival. We don't need just noise. There's so much noise in churches. We need God to revive His church and to convert sinners in greater measure than we normally see. We need consciences of people awakened. Holiness, we need holiness to be restored in people's lives, even Christian's lives. and the fear of God, which is the thing that people don't want to think about, the fear of God, in a biblical sense, returned to the church, to God's people. And the painful truth is this, dear friends, many true Christians have learned to live without revival. They've learned to live. It's just a thing of the past. It was the thing that happened at the time of Reformation. Yes, and that was the greatest revival that took place since the time of this day of Pentecost in Europe that turned the whole continent around from paganism of the Church of Rome. But have we lived? in a way that we are satisfied to just go on without this special work of grace in the church? Do we expect little? Do we pray little? Do we serve and labor little? People who speak as if the book of Acts belonged to a different God, but God has not changed. We are the miserable ones. God hasn't changed. So last time, it was supposed to be just one sermon, but we ran out of time. But I spoke about two things, two points. One was to define revival by the Word of God and I'll summarize it shortly. And then secondly, to explain revival from these verses, especially verses 37 to 42 of what we see in this revival that took place. The third point that we will consider this evening is revival and God's sovereignty And then I'll apply what we have been hearing and speak to you about certain do's and certain don'ts. How we can be a blessing for revival and in revival or how we can be a hindrance in such times and go into excesses. So we began by defining revival from scripture and we must distinguish, friends, between ordinary Christian growth and extraordinary seasons in which God intensifies his work. Believers are always called to growing grace and that's the life of the Christian. You are to be growing, you are to be hearing the word of God, praying, using all the means that God has given to you to grow, yet scripture also shows seasons when God comes with unusual power. At times you can't explain it. And He comes with unusual power, bringing deep conviction and many conversions. So here in Acts chapter 2 is such a season. It's not merely individual conversion, though it includes that. It's not merely church improvement, though it produces that. It is a concentrated outpouring of the Spirit of God in the use of the Word of God, in the transformation, the people of God, and many unconverted people being brought, rushed into the kingdom of God. So here in Acts 2 also answers whether revival can be produced by man. And the answer is no. You cannot simply make up and say, well, we'll have some revival meetings as sometimes you hear in some American contexts. The Spirit is poured out, dear friends, from above. Heaven is the thing that heaven initiates. God initiates this. God acts first. Man responds. And this matters because many errors about revival come from putting man at the center. Some people, as we saw last time, speak as if revival is constant or uninterrupted. But history denies this. You don't find that in history. Others treat revival as the product of correct methods. If you just get the method right, if you have got all the things in place, everything arranged rightly, or you get enough decisions from people. Scripture denies that too. The new birth, my friends, is not of the will of man. We read that in the first chapter of John's Gospel. It's not of the will of man, but it's of the will of God. And so true revival is not different in kind, we saw, from God's ordinary saving work, but it is different in measure. It is intensified, what God does normally. The same gospel, the same spirit, yet in revival, God works broadly, He works swiftly, He works deeply, God uses means, but means do not control him. Means of God are vessels. They're not levers. And so, revival mustn't be sought from God, or it should be sought from God as Lord. Revival is not sought by man or of man. It's not treated as a formula. If you get all of these things right, then you're going to get it. No. Then we turn to these verses itself, then we looked at how it is explained. Revival begins with the word that is heard. When they heard this, and we saw what that meant, they heard this word of God, they heard what Jesus Christ preached, that He is crucified, He is risen, He is exalted, He is made Lord. Where there is no faithful preaching, We find very little true revival. Faith comes by hearing, we saw. Then we see in the context of revival, hearts are being pricked. There is real conviction of sin. The word pierces the conscience. Sin becomes very personal to people. Whom ye have crucified, Peter says, you've crucified him. You Jews, you crucified Jesus Christ. So conviction becomes real. And the cry that they cry out to God or to the apostles, they say, men and brethren, what shall we do? This one's not emotionalism. Revival is not merely emotional display, even though it does include emotions. It is this truth that is deeply owned before God. God speaks of my sin, I must own it. And so Peter answers plainly and he says, repent, repent, forgiveness is then offered through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit produces it. and the Spirit promises it. The promise is wide, we saw, yet the ground in God's sovereign call. And this is the thing that leaves us with a certain question. If God alone revives, how must we live? How must we pray? How must we respond if truly we long to see Him work among us again? Do you really want that? Do I want that? So let me move on now as I've just given you a summary of what we thought about last week. And if you were not here, please listen to it. The third thing that I want us to consider is this, the revival and God's sovereignty. Revival and God's sovereignty. So we want to now put together what Acts 2 holds together. First revival, we must understand is sovereign. God poured out His Spirit. God is the one who pricks the hearts. God is the one who adds souls to the number. Men did not decide to feel conviction. You can't stir up emotions within you. They didn't work themselves up. They didn't stand there as I have experienced too in certain churches and you just stand there, they're singing and singing for an hour and a half, for two hours, just lots of songs, lots of music, lots of the stirring of the emotions and they call it revival. No, it wasn't that they worked themselves up. There was no singing. There was no music. I think most of these churches that focus so much on music, if you remove the music, they've got nothing. They've got nothing. They didn't schedule a spiritual breakthrough for 3 p.m. They didn't say at this time we are going to have revival. This is when it will finish. You had a year or so ago in America of announcements that great revival is taking place. After a week, after two weeks, it died down. Nobody even talks about it now. What was the impact of it? Just a lot of people singing and singing, standing around. Yes, I'm sure there were certain conversions. There's a lot of hype online, on the internet. But where is it now? What's the result? It says here, and the Lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved. God did it. The Lord added. God did it in His time. God did it in His way, by His own power. And that's important. And this, dear friends, is where we must be honest. We love to talk about sovereignty. Of course, we are Reformed. Talk about sovereignty of God. but we often talk about it as an excuse. We say God is sovereign, but underneath we mean so I can stay passive. I don't have to really be urgent about things. I can stay prayerless. That's why some of our prayer meetings is not as full as it should be. We don't see it as being important enough. I can stay comfortable. That's not faith. That is unbelief dressed up in good language, in reformed language, sound theology. But it is bad theology. We should not call this reformed theology. But another thing to consider is this. The second thing is that revival uses means. Revival uses means. Yes, revival is sovereign, but revival uses means. God uses means. The sermon was preached. It wasn't done with silence. The Word of God was preached. It was explained powerfully. The Word of God was heard. The command to repent was issued. The call to separate from an untoward generation was given. Baptism was to be administered. The church continued in doctrine and in prayers. God didn't bypass preaching. God didn't bypass repentance. God didn't bypass public identification with Jesus Christ. God didn't bypass the ordinary life of the church. You can't sort of divide and disassociate revival from the church of the living God. So we shouldn't say if God is sovereign I don't need to do anything, I will do nothing. That is unbelief dressed up as theology. That's not what we see here. Work was done, preaching was done, prayer was done. All of these things were done in the midst of revival and God blessed. And it says God added to the number such as should be saved after all of these things even. And so we shouldn't say, if I use the right means, revival must come on my schedule, on my timetable. That's presumption dressed up as zeal. It is the spirit of the man who thinks he can carry revival around like a tool. You carry it in a toolbox and say, I open it up and revival happens. I use these kinds of techniques. I screw this thing on. I put this label on and revival happens. That's not dependence on God. That is manipulation. That's a farce. Instead, we ought to say this, Lord, thou art sovereign. Therefore, I cannot produce it. Lord, thou usest means. Therefore I must obey Thee. Lord, Thou hast promised mercy in Jesus Christ Thy Son. Therefore I will plead Thy promise. So this is how we ought to be praying. Revival is God's work, but God's work does not cancel our duty. It actually establishes it. And so in Acts chapter 2 it shows us The order. God comes down in power. And what happens? People are pricked in their hearts. They are crying out, men and brethren, what shall we do? You Christians, you preachers, what are we going to do? What shall we do? And Peter answers with God's command and he says, repent, that's what you should do. And God gives the gifts that he promises. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. That is salvation. Do you see how this humbles the proud man? It is God who cuts the heart, pricks the heart. It is God who saves. It is God who gives the Spirit, yet He does it through the Word, through repentance, through faith, through the church's obedience. The people of God then were obedient. These apostles, these men and brethren were obedient. So we shouldn't argue with God's order. Don't wait for a feeling before you obey. So many of us, we are waiting for some feeling, we are waiting for our circumstances to change, my work pattern to change, my family situation to change, whatever it is. Don't wait for a revival atmosphere before you seek the Lord. Maybe that's what you've been doing. Maybe that is you've got into a rut and we all can get. Preachers get into a rut. They can become sermon producers and become factories. And you and I, we need to be concerned about our own soul that we don't get into a kind of a rut. Don't wait for certain things. to get serious before you get serious. Don't wait for other people to get serious. Don't measure yourself up by other people and say, well, because of them, I will also be like them. No, if God has commanded prayer, If God has commanded to gather together for worship and for prayer, then do that. If God has ordained preaching, sit under it, hungry and trembling and ready. I think it is a sad thing when Christians, they miss meetings and yet when you announce some kind of a special meeting, maybe there is food involved, maybe some other activities involved, oh, they are there, they plan it to be there. But when it is the word of God, this is the most powerful thing. When it is prayer, these basic things, they are not to be found. It speaks about the state, our spiritual state, generally speaking I'm talking about. And remember this as well, in Acts chapter 2, the promise is both wide and sovereign. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. So there's wide because it reaches far. It is sovereign because it is God who calls, as many as the Lord shall call. That should not make you cold. That should make you hopeful. God is not limited to our weakness. We are poor, miserable sinners. We are weak as a church. But God is not. God is not weak. We can be cold. Our personal prayer life, our corporate prayer life can be cold and monotonous. But God is not small. God is not bound by these things. God is not stopped by my smallness and your smallness. God can call afar off. He can call the hard man. He can call the indifferent woman. He can call the religious hypocrite. He can call the young person who thinks he's too far gone. He can call even as many as he pleases. So what do we do? What do you do? You do what the church has always done in times of darkness. We must put our face to the ground, we must repent of our own sins and we must pray and seek God. That's what we should do. We must take God's promise into our own mouths and into our own hearts. You plead it back to Him. You produce a whole list of a book of God's promises and you pray it back to God and say, God, you've said these things, you've promised these things. Lord, fulfill them. And you pray them all back to God. We don't bargain with God. We don't dictate to God. But you do plead with God because He has invited His people to ask. I will be asked of them, He says. And think about church history, here is church history in the day of Pentecost, but you have it throughout the ages. I mentioned about the time of the Reformation, what an amazing season that was. A continent transformed and then that message of Reformation going throughout the world. God hasn't left us without witness. There was that great awakening that took place under the preaching of people like George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards. God raised up these men. Jonathan Edwards preached with great weight and clarity his message, very cutting, convicting. Whitefield, a very different character. He preached with power. His voice was heard for miles. Thousands could hear him without a microphone, but with searching power. Yet neither men treated revival as a product. They were not delivering a product. Jonathan Edwards, he saw his sermon fall flat at times. George Whitefield in his diaries, he laments season of barrenness. They both testify that God alone gives the increase. That's vital. It keeps us from idolizing men. It keeps us from thinking, if only we had that kind of a preacher, then we would have revival. God uses those men, yes, but God was not chained to them and God was not obliged to bless every sermon with unusual power. He remains God. Prayer revival of 1857. We were talking about this earlier on. God began with a few men. They were meeting together at their lunchtime, at noontime, praying. It wasn't a great public spectacle. It was not a carefully staged event. They didn't go and leaflet the place or anything like that, but just a word of mouth. It wasn't a show. It was actually desperate men who had come to realize the need. Desperate men crying out to a living God. God's third prayer. And then God answered prayer. And that pattern has repeated itself in many places. Often the beginning of all of these things, they're unimpressive. Small groups, but there is this burden, burden throbbing in the heart. It's a concern in the person's heart. It's a concern amongst young people, amongst children, amongst adults. It's a concern. Lord, we need a reviving, we need life. Lord, we cannot continue with this. It is enough with the way we have been. The church starting to pray as if God is real and as if souls of men and women are real and as if eternity is real. That's how we should be praying. In Wales, in various seasons, God moved through preaching and prayer often accompanied by deep conviction. And there was a lasting change for decades and decades, even till recent times. Then there was times of testing. There was a time of winnowing as well. You see, wherever there is wheat growing, chaff will try to also grow. It comes with the wind. Satan is desperately at work during revivals. He's not sitting idly. No, his kingdom is being attacked and that's what God does. And so he's busy. But that doesn't cancel out the work of God, but it warns us to test fruit over time. And that's important in our day. If someone asks, is this revival? Is this thing happening in such and such a place revival? The wisest answer is often, let us see what fruit remains. True revival produces this sound doctrine, prayer, holiness, love for God, love for the brethren. True revival doesn't leave the church addicted to excitement. It leaves the church addicted to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we need. An addiction to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you that? Am I addicted to Christ? Now let me apply these things and we finish. So let me speak about some do's and don'ts if I could put it that way. Ask yourself, are we, am I, an asset or hindrance to revival? And so one thing we should be asking, how should we seek revival? And I'm speaking directly, plainly. How should we seek revival? Well, first, seek revival in your own heart. The revival shouldn't just happen out there, but it should happen here, in my own heart. Start where God often starts. If the church is cold, I'm part of that church. Am I cold? If the church is cold, you mustn't speak as if the problem is always elsewhere. Ask, Lord, what about me? Are you living with coldness? Are you living with some sort of a secret sin? Are you living without prayer? Are you living without tenderness of conscience? Have you got used to this world? Are you living with little hunger for the Word of God? Are you becoming used to spiritual sluggishness and dryness as if that's normal Christianity? Our Lord said, nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. Where is your love for the Lord? Where is my love for the Lord? Is that not the word that many of us need? Remember, repent, return, do the first works. May it begin with us. Maybe start even before the end of this year. Maybe begin and say, Lord, I don't want to continue as I have been in the last year, in the last decade of my life. Lord, work in me. And notice it's not merely feel sorry. It is do the first works. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is in Revelation chapter 3. Go back to the means of grace. Go back to secret prayer. Begin there. Go back to Bible reading with your conscience awake, praying, Lord, speak to me. Whatever it is I'm reading, speak to my heart. Go back to repentance. Go and confess your sin to the Lord. Change your life. Change your habits. Depend on the Lord. Say, Lord, I will follow through sweat and blood, I will follow you. Let your Christianity cost you something. It cost Jesus Christ everything. Go back to speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, not merely thinking about Him, but speaking to Him and speaking of Him. Another thing is this. So seek revival for your own heart first. But secondly, recover the prayer meeting. I hope our prayer meetings are recovered. If you want the church to be a praying church, you must pray with the church. Just imagine, I always think about it, what would happen if I, if everyone else acts like me? What will happen if everyone else in this church acts like you? Would we have an evening service? Would we have a prayer meeting? Would we have any form of outreach? Would we have anything that you can think about it? If people just copied you, everyone copied you, what would it be like? It's a certain question, but it is a needful question. If you can attend and you will not, or there are other things that comes in the way, and it becomes a pattern, what does that say about our priorities? If our work, if other things often crowd out, you're joining with the brethren to pray, I would say there is something wrong. If my family comes, if my children, if my wife, if other things are coming regularly and I can't meet for prayer, but I could do other things. I can do other work. I can be in my study. I can go and meet with people. When people invite me, I would go and see them. But when it comes to the invitation to pray together, I miss out regularly, then I would say there is something wrong. And I hope that all of us will think about that. There are individuals, and I'm speaking to everybody, and you might think to yourself, well, I'm speaking directly to you, but all of us are affected by this. We can all have also a bitter spirit, oh, why doesn't that person come, and so on. No, think about it yourself. What kind of a spirit do you come to the prayer? Do you come believingly? Do you come with that attitude that I am here to pray, rejoicing in God with great excitement, with great intention, with faith, God is going to do a mighty thing amongst us. And it's not because God needs numbers, no. But God often, as someone has said, God often honors prayers signed by more than one signature. And so there needs to be many, many amens signing the prayers. God doesn't need numbers, but because God loves to unite his people in dependence. So ask yourself, do I make time for what I say matters most? Does it matter most? Do I make time for it? If you tell your children that prayer is vital, but don't pray at home, don't have family worship, they don't hear you pray privately, they don't see you pray privately, they don't see you read your Bible privately, what are we teaching them? If you say, well, we want revival, but we want it to fall into our laps, and we avoid things that God has called us to, what are we really saying to God? The third thing is this, Insist on Christ-centered preaching and Christ-centered listening. You're not only responsible for what you preach, I preach, what you say in your witnessing as you are witnessing. It's not about the church, you're not preaching church. You have to come to our church and you have to do this and our church does this and this is why our church is different to other churches and that kind of a thing. That's not what is going to save people. It's Jesus Christ who will save people and that's our responsibility. And the responsibility of each one of us, including the preacher, is to be a good hearer. How do we hear? How do we listen? Do I come hungry? Do you come hungry for the Word of God? Do you come prepared? Do you come praying? Do you come ready to obey? Revival doesn't fall on casual hearers. The fourth thing is this. So I'm speaking about the things that you should do. The things that we should be doing. We should speak to the lost. When was the last time that you spoke to the lost? We talk about revival. We want the Lord to be working, but God uses means in our personal witnessing. And it's not about with harshness. But we need to speak to people clearly. It's not about speaking to people with pride, this sort of holier-than-thou attitude or looking down on people and say, oh you shouldn't be doing that. We should stop thinking that non-Christians should be acting like Christians. Don't expect those within even our families who are not converted to act like Christians. They are not Christians. If they have not bowed their knee to Jesus Christ, if they're not saved, then we should stop thinking that they should be acting like Christians and be surprised about that. And we shouldn't then witness to them with that kind of an attitude. Oh, don't you know that what you're doing is bad? No, we need to speak with humility but with urgency. We need to sow the seed of the Word of God. You see, the revived church doesn't hide its light. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about this, not to hide your light under a bushel. If God gives you an open door, speak about the Lord Jesus Christ, what He's done for your soul, not about the church. Point people to the gospel of the Savior. Always have things handy, maybe a track, maybe point people and say, listen to this message, I'll send you a link. Ask questions of people, searching questions, listen to people, and then press home the gospel to people. Do it with wisdom. And if you don't have wisdom, then you ask of God for wisdom. But do it. The final thing, the fifth thing about doing is practice real fellowship. Encourage believers, admonish believers, strengthen believers, pray with believers. You see, revival is not a private hobby. When it happened, it wasn't a private thing. It is a mercy of God to his church, to his people. But let me give you some warnings about hindrances, some negatives. We can hinder revival. You read the history of revival and you see both excesses and things that people did, little foxes as the Bible speaks about that spoiled, spoiled the vine. And you read that in church history, people wrote about these things. Jonathan Edwards' book, which is not always easy to read, he highlights for us, you can get the easier versions to read it, but he highlights for us things that hindered. The work of God's grace and it talked about... and Jonathan Edwards was the reformed of the reformed, but he spoke about how people hindered things. We can hinder it, how? We can hinder the work of God by our unbelief. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about that He could do no great work in certain places because of their unbelief, it says. If you speak as if God cannot work, you train your own heart to expect nothing. Spurgeon said when he goes into the pulpit, he believes that people are going to be saved. Do I believe that? Do you believe it? That people could be saved? Don't train your heart to think little of God. If you preach, then pray or witness without expecting for God to work and to answer. Then we hinder. by our unbelief. But also we can hinder revival by mere tradition, by mere tradition. Having right forms without living faith can become a refuge for God's searching presence. And we can hide behind things. And people have hindered and said, well, no, that's not how things work. That's not how... How could God do such and such a thing? And we put God in a box as it were. You can hinder it as well by quarreling, just spinning your wheel, quarreling, arguing about nothing, about things that really don't matter on the judgment day. A contentious spirit kills prayer. A proud spirit quenches that tenderness that we should have towards God and towards people. We can hinder revival by worldliness too. If our heart is tied to the world's things, whatever it is, to the world's praise, or what would people think of us? They would think we're lunatics and fanatics and all sorts of things. If our heart is tied to the world's comfort, You will not earnestly cry for heaven's power. Imagine if people kept coming in, people from the world kept coming in and you might think to yourself, well, that's really uncomfortable. I have to sit next to some people who I don't really like. I don't associate with them normally in my life. Now I have to sit with them. That is not using today's lingo is, I need my safe space. Forget about your safe space. Go away with your safe space. Your safe space will be in heaven. In this world, we are at war. If the Christian is at war, you don't have safe space. Our refuge is in Christ. That's all it is. And so people come with all kinds of problems. in the time of certain revivals I was hearing, people opened up their homes. They're willing to put people up so that they could be reached with the gospel. Do we have that kind of an attitude? Are we willing to actually sacrifice things for the work of God? But we want our worldly comforts. and so we don't cry out and we are not prepared to give up anything. We can hinder revival by resisting conviction. Say, well, the preacher is being too urgent, he's too pushy, he's just saying these things, just wants to manipulate me. Friends, if God speaks to you, it's not the preacher. When God pricks, do not harden. When consciousness speaks, do not silence it. Our Lord Jesus Christ went into certain cities and they would not have him. And so he went elsewhere. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need you. But he can bypass us. And we don't want him to bypass us. And so when the word of God exposes things, don't excuse yourself. So let's just finish. I want to speak to you who are not converted, maybe some of you children, some of you adults. When you hear the Word of God expounded, when you hear sermons and your heart, by nature it resists it, you push back against it. And the Bible says it very plainly that because the carnal mind, the worldly mind is enmity against God, but it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So you push against it. You don't subject yourself. You don't put yourself under the Word of God. So you push against it. You may sit through sermons and you may say, well, I don't want this. Why? because we don't fear God by nature. There's no fear of God before their eyes, the Bible says. But even though you have said these things, even though you have been very cold about these things, you're not beyond God's mercy. The very fact that you are hearing is God's kindness to you. The very fact that your conscience stares is a warning that is mixed with invitation by God. So what should you do? How did the crowd respond? They cried out, what shall we do? And do what Peter commands, repent, turn from your sin to God, flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in the risen Lord. He saves sinners. He still saves sinners. He receives the guilty. He receives the stubborn and cold people. He forgives those who are defiled. Don't hide behind religion. Don't hide behind church attendance. Don't hide behind a moral life, a good life. You need the Lord Jesus Christ. You need the Holy Spirit working in your heart. You need this forgiveness, this remission of sins. And I say to you believers, you need to lift up your heads. Don't speak as though God has lost His arm. Jesus Christ reigns. His arm is powerful to save. The Spirit of God lives. The Word of God is true and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. The promise of God is so wide as many as the Lord would call. The calling of God when it is added with the Spirit of God is effectual. So if God could take 3,000 hearts in one day in Jerusalem, can He not revive us? Can He not work in us? If God could take Peter, who once trembled before a little girl, a servant girl, and He made him bold, Can it not strengthen you? If God could turn a fearful band into a praying church, 120 went up to that upper room and they were praying, calling upon God. Can He not restore the prayers amongst us? Maybe we need to begin and say, this has been my life. This has been the pattern of things. This has been my pattern of preaching. And you might come and say to me, you've got into a rut, pastor. You're preaching in a certain way and I will be willing to listen to you about these things. And we all can get into a rut. And it is more dangerous for ministers, more dangerous for elders, because people expect us to pray. They expect us to preach and so on. I can't come and say, I don't really feel like it. You expect me to do that. And therefore it is very dangerous for me to get into a professional mode. And so I'm speaking to all of us here. So let us change things. Let us repent of our coldness and let us seek the Lord's face together. Will you plead Lord, call even as many as thou wilt? Will you pursue, will you give yourself to doctrine, to fellowship, to Jesus Christ table and to prayers? Will you do that? So I close with these things. I'm closing with these convicting questions. I don't want to discourage you. I want to stir you up. I want to help you to deal honestly with God. We all need that. Let us pray. When did you last pray for revival with seriousness, with tears? When did you last confess your coldness without excuses? When did you last plead for the salvation of lost by name? When did you last tremble at God's holiness? When did you last rejoice in Jesus Christ as your chief delight, as the only one in your life that you delight in? And if you can't answer, don't despair, start now. God revives, God restores, God gives grace to the humble. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. And may we, dear friends, according to God's timing, but in our lifetime, and in this congregation, in this church, in this land, may we truly see revival. Revive us, O Lord. That should be our prayer. May God apply these things to all of us. Amen.