of the last couple of Sunday evenings when I've been preaching we've been looking at the book of Nehemiah. I'm not going to go through the whole book as I said this is just one more sermon I want to lay before you from this book. We've looked at Nehemiah the man and what a great character he was and the many skills that he had, the abilities that he had and We began to look at some of the problems that he had, some of the people problems that he had. But tonight I want us to look at an issue that really flowed from Nehemiah's efforts, although of course it comes from a sovereign God. And that is really in that chapter 8, we see there in the principles of revival. And I was saying earlier that revival is one of those subjects that ought to be preached on at least once a year probably. Very much like the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the second coming, the preaching on holiness, there are certain things that need to be preached regularly. I'm not sure I've preached on this for some time, but nevertheless I want us to look at that subject from Nehemiah chapter 8, but we should also look at one or two other verses. Revival is something that most of us know something about because we've read our church history, we've read portions of scripture where we see that, but we haven't really been in a place of revival. And I guess it's been many decades since our country has seen anything significant in the sense of revival, probably in the early 1950s on the Isle of Lewis. If you want a text, I'll give you a verse that we read to open our service that came from Psalm 85, and verse 6, will thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? And that's a great aspiration, isn't it? It's a great prayer for the Lord to revive his people. There are different views as to what will happen in the future, I mentioned that this morning. People have different views of the second coming and we said that that wasn't one of the fundamental issues, there were grey areas, but it is fundamental that we all agree that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. And really the subject of revival is one of those issues. Some people take the view that it will be Israel pretty much that will be revived and will be revived to take the gospel to the Gentile nations again. Others take the view that there is some kind of worldwide revival before the Lord comes again. It doesn't really matter tonight for the cause of what I'm preaching about what view you take of that. The issue I'm really laying here is whether the Lord revives nations, a nation or not, or the whole world, he is well able to revive us. It's us that need reviving. It's not much good us praying for people a million miles away. And so I want us to think tonight very much, Lord, it is us that need reviving. Will thou not revive us again, says that verse, and thy people may rejoice in thee. So let's have one or two headings first of all and I'm going to first of all we'll be away from this passage and then we'll go back and look at the principles that we see there in Nehemiah. I want to underline first of all the importance of it as a subject. I said it's one of those subjects that ought to be preached every now and again as it were and there's reasons for that. First of all it reminds us of what God has done and can do because it is easily forgotten. You know, if we were to go back to the Isle of Lewis, if we go back to some of the revivals in the 1800s in Scotland or Wales, and we were amongst that, we would see how different life was then to what it is now. We do not live in revival, we live in a difficult time. I remember once hearing Vernon Hyam preach to a group of us who were all pastors, about revival and he called it, I think, the children of revival and those who were born again in revival and even the next generation and he spoke about experiences and the way those people were, they were almost of a different stamp, those who have been converted in revival. And in the day in which we live, it's difficult for us to remember that that's what God has done. And if we could use our imagination for a moment, if we were to see revival here, revival has to start with his people. And it may well be that we would be very struck by the solemnity of the word of God. that we'd be very struck by our own sin and we would be motivated very much to seek the Lord and we would be seeking to have intense prayer times. Now this is not, I'm not suggesting the pattern yet but I'm giving you examples. we would then perhaps find other Christians locally, perhaps ones we didn't know, finding their way here and joining with us in that. We would then find unbelievers coming into the chapel and wondering kind of, well, why are they coming in? Why are they so concerned? Why are they so burdened? And we would find people that were burdened concerning their sin, and yet perhaps they didn't know much scripture at all. They just felt something was wrong. The Holy Spirit was condemning them. And so we would begin perhaps to have what we would call gospel services and we would find perhaps during the service people were just professing faith that there were people that were broken down under the power of God the Holy Spirit as the Word of God was read let alone preached. And that would be something that perhaps that would go on day after day and some places it's gone on week after week and month after month and the chapels were just packed with people. and you'd see them queuing outside, you'd say, well, that's a figment of imagination. No, that is what God has done in the past. And our God, as we were saying this morning, is the same. So it's an important issue because it reminds us of what God has done and can do. It's also important because it elevates a nation, doesn't it? One has said that in revival, God does more in five minutes than perhaps politicians might take 50 years to do. and we see politicians actually taking us in the wrong direction. So we want to see that undone and revival would see those things undone. Revival makes people more like the savior and in the wake of revival many people are swept into the kingdom. We see that it glorifies the Lord in salvation and in the putting down of sin and it should by looking at this subject make us long for that situation and pray for it. and it enables us I think also to live in the day in which we're found and that's almost another subject, how to live in a day when there isn't revival. Many books on the subject, some cover occurrences of revival, others perhaps go into great detail of a particular revival and that they're worth reading. And when you do begin to look at those histories, we're reminded how many times revival has come to this land. Again, going back to the Isle of Lewis, the Isle of Lewis revival broke out, I think, in about 1949. And when you read into that, you realize that those people that were praying for revival remembered the previous one, which was only 10 years before. We forget that one. Now, if we were saying, well, the Lord revived us 10 years ago, 10 years ago is nothing to us, is it? We remember 10 years ago quite easily. And if you go back to the 1800s, there were people praying for Revival Bonner, who's him sometimes we sing. I think he was back in America. When he came back, he said, there were a number of little prayer meetings springing up. He said, I knew revival was coming, just like it was in, and he remembered previous revivals. These were not people who just knew one revival. They knew a number of them and knew what God could do. One thing we should see in a moment that each revival, at least ones that I've read of, have similar major characteristics. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, I know nothing in my own experience that has been more exhilarating and helpful and that has acted more frequently as a tonic to me than the history of revivals. And I think Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a man famed for being one who prayed so much for revival and didn't really see the fullness of it in his day. Now of course in scripture there are many references to types of revival under King Josiah, under Hezekiah, under the prophet Jonah, that was a tremendous revival there. What's the first revival in scripture? I wonder where you'd go for that. I suppose it depends what we call revival. But I suspect the earliest recorded is that in Egypt, where the children of Israel, they had gone from being a blessed people and a privileged people in the land to actually being slaves. They'd fallen from the top, as it were, to the bottom. And when the Lord was about to lead them and to take them out of Egypt, we read in Exodus four and verse 29, it says, and Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believe And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. There seemed to be a great change. They had forsaken the Lord to a great extent. But you see, the Lord came and convicted them that something was wrong. The Lord caused them to pray because that was his means of bringing about his decree and so he spoke to Moses and Aaron and they spoke to the people and the people saw that God had answered prayer and they came and they worshipped in a very different way to how they had worshipped in the past. Now that might not be a sustained revival, it's the first mention of a time when we see a number of the characteristics of revival. People have slipped away from the Lord, they've cried unto the Lord, they've been given the word of God, they've believed and they've worshipped. In other words the Lord came in a special way, it was something significantly different to what we might call the norm. Now you've got other instances in scripture under Samuel, under Asa, I mentioned Jonah, Zerubbabel, Haggai, and we've read here of Nehemiah in chapter 8. In the New Testament we've got Samaria, we've got Antioch, and of course we could read of Pentecost. but in every occurrence of revival much has been achieved in the kingdom of God and although we live in a day of apathy and judgment and God's hand for us certainly has been withdrawn from revival in latter years, we should underline the importance of it to Christians in every age. It's been said that Every generation needs to know the reviving power of God and that's one of our problems because the previous generation hasn't, nor has the generation before that. We are a long way from that. And would that our spirits were stirred as the psalmist, would they not revive us again that we might rejoice in thee. So that's the first point, it's an important issue. Secondly then we ask the question, well what is revival? Well, first of all, perhaps what it's not. It's not a special meeting, is it, where a good number of people come to hear the gospel. That's good. That's good. Very good. Nothing wrong with that. Some people would call that a revival meeting, particularly if you was in, I think, in America. It might be a revival meeting in the terms of what they mean, but it's not a biblical revival. In a hymn book I used to use when I was younger in our previous church, there was a section in the hymn book called revival. And yet some of the revival hymns that we would call revival hymns were elsewhere. What it meant was a bit like an American revival meeting. These were hymns that might encourage us in revival, but they were two different things. They were more, if you like, gospel crusade type hymns, rather than hymns on revival, because they are two separate things. Surely revival is a time where you have a meeting and people are converted. Well that's great if that happens and when it happens but that one-off meeting isn't necessarily revival in itself. We say well churches used to have missions and the faith missions still have them from time to time where it seems to fit and that's a good thing and sometimes those missions have turned into revival but the missions themselves are not revival. I know I've given you this quote before but it does seem a good one, Tozer He complained that he saw many billboards up that were advertising revivals. They were holding revivals. And he said, rather than hold revivals, I wish someone would let one loose. We know what he meant. Those were meetings that weren't really revivals. They were just advertised as revival meetings. All good things, but they're not what biblical revival is. So we come back to the question, what is revival? Simple definition is revival is a work of God's spirit among his own people. That's almost too simple. We might enlarge on that in a moment. We need to flesh it out. Revival really is timeless. It has the stamp of eternity about it because it always comes from an eternal unchanging God. We should never think of revival, because we haven't seen one of late, at least not in our own land, we shouldn't think of revival as something that is old or something that is past or out of fashion. God's work is never out of fashion. When the Lord revives his people, if he was to do that in the coming days, it would have the same stamp about it as it had on the Welsh revival and on other revivals that have happened around the world. One of the later revivals we heard about a couple of years ago was in Moldova. Maureen Wise came and she spoke to us, and she's coming again in a few weeks. You can also read, I believe, in some parts of Zimbabwe. In 2007 there has been a revival work, and there is others around the world. They may not be major in the sense that they haven't swept the whole land, but they have touched a significant number of people. And I guess in many ways, they're not so newsworthy as they were. Who's going to put in the Daily Mail that there was a revival in say 10 villages in Zimbabwe and 2,000 people were converted or whatever the number is? It doesn't make news for them. But it's timeless. Whether it's 2007 or whether it was back in the 1800s or wherever we are. It's also revival is dependent on the sovereignty of God. Many godly men have labored long and hard in a particular place and they have not seen revival. Many men of great intellect and great ability we could say to preach the word of God in truth have not seen revival. And you go back to some of the Welsh revivals and some of the most humble preachers, the most unlearned preachers have been picked up by God and have been used in the heart of revival. Revival is dependent on the sovereignty of God. Now there are things we can do to encourage revival by our godly living and by our prayers and we could find a number of things but we cannot dictate to God. It is in his sovereignty that he will grant the power of his spirit unto revival. There is a, for want of a better expression, a glorious mystery about the blessing of God in revival that can't be reproduced to order. John Livingstone preached on, and I've not actually looked up the passage, but he preached on Ezekiel 36 on a Monday in a place called Shotts in Scotland. Did this in 1630. And he witnessed the conversion of some 500 people. Can't even imagine that, can we? We filled this chapel, we might get 150, 200 in, double that and then half again and you've got 500 people. They were converted in one meeting. He preached the same sermon the following Sunday at Irvine in Scotland and as far as he knew not one person was converted. Same sermon, same words, God chose to save 500 the previous week. God is sovereign you see, it depends on the sovereignty of God. I suppose revival we could also say takes place often after a time of declension. Remember the book of Judges with these great cycles that they had where Israel fell into sin and then sought the Lord and the Lord delivered them and then after a while they went down again and each one of those cycles seemed to get deeper and deeper. Think of our own land in many ways if you look back through history where many of the European countries knew a lot of shedding of the blood. We think particularly there's like the French Revolution. Our land was spared. And it was spared very much at the time of the preaching of people such as Wesley and Whitfield. And the blessing that flowed from their ministry did flow down for many years. And in the 1800s, there were many times of refreshing in Ireland, in Scotland, in Wales and England. And all of those things gave the nation a stamp of holiness, a stamp of God awareness. and even the other nations knew there was something different. Queen Victoria said when asked what the secret is of the success of the country, she said we are a people of the book. Sadly less visitation in the 20th century. We are familiar with some of those there. I suppose also revival brings an unusual awareness of sin. and it gives us an increased sensitivity of the awfulness of sin. That's a great work of the Holy Spirit isn't it? In Nehemiah did you notice we read of people there who simply heard the word of God preached, sorry spoken of, it was just read and they wept. Now we could read those same verses, I don't know which verses they were, it was the book of Moses, they'd read them for a long time, we could pull verses out of there and I could read them and you'd say well I wish you'd hurry up. But they were the same verses. You see when God the Holy Spirit comes and grips our hearts with those words, something changes and it caused the people to weep. Many years ago I was taking part in a service in Timișoara in Romania. And there were people in different parts of the building, it was quite a big building, and they were just weeping. It wasn't just me preaching, there were others preaching, it certainly wasn't because of my preaching, but there was a number there in a great measure, we would say, of distress. People were not preaching anything different to what we would normally preach here but there was something, the Spirit of God was taking something that was being said and it just dropped into someone's heart and you would see them just broken down under the simple reading or preaching of the Word of God and then someone else over here. You see in revival, it's more than a knowledge of sin. It's the feeling and burden of sin and seeing what it caused the Savior to suffer. So if we put those things together and ask the question again, what is revival? I think we can say revival is a sovereign move of God among his people to bring a closer awareness of himself. or as one little girl said, in the middle of a revival, I think it was the 1905 Welsh revival, it's as if Jesus has come to live in our town. Such was the awareness and closeness of the Saviour. Now I say each revival has various principles about it, but it does seem that each revival has a particular stamp about it. So for example, if you were to read about the revival under Daniel Rowlands in Wales in the mid 1700s, it was weeping. It was just something that seemed to happen. Week after week, that man almost didn't know what it was to preach outside of revival. He had such a long period there and thousands would come and the characteristic of that revival is people would weep under the sound of the ministry of the word. Now we know we get to 1905, the Welsh revival, there was great singing there. People would burst into singing a hymn even while the preacher was speaking. I trust that that was in the move of the spirit and it was blessed. Some say they sang the revival away. Well, I don't know whether that was true or not, but I'm sure that was wonderful singing to have been there at that particular time. It was something that God used. And I suspect such singing has rarely been heard outside of glory. But you see, although these different revivals have different emphasis, there are certain common traits that's important for us to note. We don't come tonight and we say, oh, we long for weeping in our meetings. It's not what we ask for. We don't come along and we say, oh, we want good singing. Although we do, but that isn't our goal, is it? We come and we ask the Lord, as the psalmist said, will thou not revive us again? And if we weep or if we sing, so be it. It's the spirit of God putting his stamp upon that particular work. But let me come to the third point because it's important. We look then at the character of revival. The character of revival. I got Daniel Rowland's book off the shelf and the page fell open where he'd been preaching on the last chapter of Nehemiah. And in that sermon, he says, if you are a backslider, read Hebrews. If devotional, read the Psalms. If you're prone to be rebellious, read Joshua and Judges. But if you would accomplish great things, read Nehemiah. Nehemiah accomplished great things under the hand of God. We've read that about the building of the walls, but here about the reviving of his people. Nehemiah was one of the best examples of project management we can find. He organized a great workforce of ordinary people to build this wall, and they all built in their own little places, but it all fitted together. And they did it very quickly, and they did it under pressure. They had the enemy within that says, there's too much rubbish here, we can't do this. And the enemy without that said, come and talk to us, we'll kind of sort this out. And there were those who laid in wait for him. But he continued in the work. And by the time we get to our reading in chapter 8, the walls are finished and people are being blessed in an extraordinary manner. And I want to run through quickly here just one or two of the things that we see here that you will find in, as far as I know, every revival that I have read about. And the first thing we see here, there is a concern for the things of God. And these are things that we can begin to apply to our own experiences, that we need a concern for the things of God. Nehemiah had that way back at the beginning, didn't he? When his brother came along and says, well, the walls are broken down, the gates are burned, and Nehemiah weeps. He has a concern, an extra concern of just being, oh, well, that's interesting. I'll make a note of that, see what can be done. He is touched to the heart. For something like four months, he continues in prayer until the king notices his behavior. And the usual first inklings of revival is a stirring in the people of God by the Spirit of God, that there is an unusual concern. Now, Nehemiah was a great man of prayer. And throughout this book, you'll read phrases like, nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God. Every obstacle he came to, nevertheless, we made our prayer unto our God. The Lewis revival was preceded by much prayer, particularly two elderly ladies who prayed through the night. And when the spirit of God came down in revival, it was at a prayer meeting held in a barn with straw on the floor. And that prayer meeting didn't start till 10 in the evening. I've not yet read of a revival that was not preceded by a concern for prayer. In Nehemiah's day meant here that they were nevertheless continually making their prayer unto God and they were laboring to get these walls up. The same chapter three, you'll see how they labored together. We read that a few weeks ago. And a number of us, you know, we need to be building in that sense. that when revival comes our hands are filled with the things of God and there needs to be that intensity in our souls and an urgency that Nehemiah found because of all these enemies, because of all that was happening, there was an urgency to do that and in revival the things of God take a priority. You know when revival comes, we're still talking about pre-revival, when revival comes People sometimes have to forsake many of the things they're doing to be in God's house each day. The ministers had to prepare, although it wasn't difficult with the Spirit of God so ably moving among them, to prepare the sermons. There were social things that had to be done for people that were in distress. Tremendous many things had to be done that took priority. Even some daily work had to fall to one side. Some meals had to fall to one side. And it wasn't difficult because this was revival. This is what happens in revival. And so it was in Nehemiah's day. In one place it says there, they didn't stop really even to change their clothes. They just did them only when they had to wash. So there is an increase in the concern for the things of God. But the second characteristic is there is a gathering together. Hebrews 10 says that we should not forsake the gathering of ourselves together as the manner of some is. And he says also, because as you see the day approaching, the day of the return of the Lord. When revival is near, people have a need and desire to be together in worship. And so we read in chapter eight in verse one, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man. Verse two says, both men and women and all that could hear with understanding. And it was going to be a long service. I remember Robert Dale referring to this passage some time ago, I think when we was at Lincoln for a United prayer meeting, and he underlined the length it must have taken to listen to the reading, let alone the explanation of this. We don't read there was anything else but reading an explanation, but it was something the Lord was blessing. And, you know, they must have had their ears and hearts attuned. because if you know I'll sit down in a few minutes and some of you think well that was enough but if I go on to like 10 past seven it's getting a bit long for him he normally preaches a bit shorter than that but if I go on to half past seven they think well what's he up to and we get around to eight o'clock and nine o'clock you think well actually half of you wouldn't be here by then would you? But you see, this went on for hour after hour, and it was just reading and simple explanation of what the books of Moses were about. But God was there, and that's what made the difference. There was a reviving in their souls. What else do we find? The Word of God was foremost. Again, there's never been a revival without the Holy Scriptures being in the fore. At the time of Reformation, it was the time preceded by the translation of the Bible into English. So the Word of God could then be preached in that language and people would gather around in their parish churches and Henry VIII had a Bible's chain, didn't he, in each one of those and they could go and they couldn't often read themselves. So whoever could read, particularly the minister, would read a passage and people would gather around. They'd never heard it before, not in their own language. And God moved and worked and many were born again. In Nehemiah, we read that Ezra read from the pulpit and he read the holy scriptures. And the scriptures were given due honor, doesn't it? They stood up when the scriptures were read. I remember going to Poland again many years ago, and I don't know whether it's still like that today, but there they would stand when the Bible was read and they would stand when you prayed, but they usually sat when you sing the hymns. That's okay, but it took a bit of getting used to because we've kind of ended up standing where we should have been sitting and sitting where we should have been standing. But they've certainly got a good example here. They stood when the Word of God was being read because they had such an awe and respect for the fact that this is God's Word that's being read to us. And the Bible the scrolls or whatever they were reading from was elevated and that was a good thing that people should see and hear what was being brought out of these holy scriptures. Now we might perhaps understandably think that well a time of blessing and revival will come out of a well thought out sermon, a well thought out gospel message. Perhaps a service with a good number of people and some nice singing, and that's good. But I have to note that when the Lord comes in revival, it's not often in such meetings, it's often in a prayer meeting where the Lord revives. And I read in Holland in 1748, this particular one, a revival started during a teaching session. They were being taught, it was some kind of study that they were going through, but the blessing of the Lord came down. How do we know here that the word of God was effective in Nehemiah? Verse 9 says, all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. We can't manufacture that. Can't turn it on. And that's not what we're looking for. We look for the presence of God that these things may follow. And in Nehemiah's day, they went on and they looked for more. They said, this is the blessing of the Lord. We weep under the sound of the reading of the word of God. It has touched our hearts. We want more of this. And as they read the word of God, they got to the passage where it told them about the feast of the tabernacles. So we're going to do that. And that's what they did. And we read there about them going and get branches and making booths. And they said they hadn't done that since the time of Joshua. In case it was the wrong Joshua, they said, no, it's a Joshua, the son of none. And you could work out that time for yourselves. One of the problems today, of course, is that people who profess Christ have drifted so far from scripture. It's amazing to think that not so long ago that most Christians would have a general consensus, particularly in non-conformity, that they all believed in creation. They all believed pretty much in the sixth day creation. They believed in the fall. They believed in sin, salvation by the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ. They knew that repentance was necessary for salvation. They believed in holy living. They believed in the second coming of Christ. All those fundamental things. Some would have had an emphasis on this and some would have an emphasis on that, but there was this global sort of fundamentalism that non-conformity believed. We have to say today, we can't find that, can't find that. Once we have a lack of belief in the inerrancy of scripture, then we find that that foundation has shifted. Revival always leads to that which is good, takes people back to the things of God. And it's not for a day, but for a generation. And children can't catch the blessing that their parents had in revival. They too must seek the Lord. And we've come down now through three or four generations without such blessing. And it shows. It shows in our society. Because if you do go back even 50 years, those people, many of them went to church, they went to Sunday school, and it's possible that some of them, their parents were involved in the Welsh revival. We touched this morning didn't we on Billy Graham and his funeral and such like and you only go back a few years and there were a lot of people that were converted under his ministry must have at least one here tonight because that's where he was but it's a long time now isn't it since we've had such men and such plain gospel preaching that has been accepted by a lot of the population. As I said this morning, as we heard Franklin at the funeral preaching a very simple gospel message. And I said there is a petition at the moment to stop him coming over here. Why? Because he doesn't believe in same-sex marriage, he believes in the Bible. Because he says and said at the funeral that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. That's how we've come down. Three or four generations ago we would have welcomed such men, we went to listen to them and our nation was blessed. Today we say we don't want them over here. That's why we need reviving. So then what have we seen? I guess that might be enough for tonight. We've seen the importance of the subject of revival, why it's important for us to hear it from time to time. We've seen a little of what revival is and its character and I've tried to bring out some of those characteristics that were seen in Nehemiah there. So what can we do with it? We need to pray, don't we? We need to pray and long for revival. We can't turn it on, we can't make it up. It's not like making a pie. You know, people say, well, for revival you need prayer and you need commitment and you need this. Put it all together and the Lord's got to revive us. No, it's not like that. You put the flour and the margarine, whatever it is, in the basin and a cake or something will pop out. God's not like that. He is sovereign. In South Korea, they've known much blessing of the Lord. They, quite often, they're in some of the larger churches where they've known revival. They have prayer meetings at five o'clock in the morning. hundreds will gather. So if I say tomorrow morning at five o'clock we'll have a prayer meeting, Richard might drag himself out of bed and I've called it so I need to be here but I don't know who else would turn out. But you see if the Lord came and touched our hearts you'd be here at five to five. It's that that we need to pray and long for and perhaps that's our first prayer isn't it? You know, Lord revive me. You know, we can point the finger at other people in our church, other churches and whatever, but no, we have to just look at ourselves, don't we? That the Lord might touch our hearts, because it is a matter of the heart, isn't it? And I've said before, the heart is the heaviest thing to shift. You see them things on telly, I'm not interested in, the strongest man and women, I suppose, and they pull trucks with their teeth and they lift these great barrels. My friends, the heart is more difficult to shift than a bus with your teeth. It's something the Lord needs to do. What did the psalmist say? Search me, O God, know my heart. and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I'm going to go back to my old example of the dentist because I'm there in the morning. And he will shine this great light into my mouth and he will say to me, are you having any trouble? And I'll say to him, no, not really, although there is a feeling that's come out, but it always comes out. So it's not really a problem. But you see, he'll shine that light and he'll say, what about this one? and you know, I let out a little yell and realized there was a problem, but I didn't know. And that's how we need to be with God with our souls. Lord, search me and know me and ow. Yeah, that's something that needs sorting, something I need to put right. Because he says, search me and know me, see if there'd be any wicked way in me, then lead me in the way everlasting. In other words, pick me up and take me on, repair me. Revival also can be expensive. Sometimes it's more expensive than willing to pay, not in pounds, but in determination, in effort, in searching God, Lord, I don't desire revival as I know I should and as our forebears did. Lord, help me to get to that place where at least I can pray for revival with a genuine feeling in my heart that that's what we need. Sometimes we have to weed out some of those old roots of bitterness and things that hinder our fellowship. Sometimes it may be pride. Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? And then of course, if we're not the Lord's, we can't be revived. See revival means bringing back to life that which was alive. And if we've yet to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, we're still dead in trespass and in sin. So you say, well, from what you said tonight, I'll wait for a revival because that's when people get saved. No, you won't have a long wait. You may not, I pray you won't. But don't wait for a revival. You don't have to wait for a revival to come to know the Lord Jesus. Praise God that in the day in which we live, there will be people up and down our land and in countries all around the world that are coming to faith today. That means you can come to faith today. if you come seeking the Lord in repentance and faith. His arm is not shortened. You see, although we don't see revival today, God is exactly the same as when he poured out his spirit upon Wales and Scotland and our own land. He has not changed. He waits there to revive his people. Now I've but scratched the surface, haven't I? But may the Lord be pleased to bless it to our souls that we might seek him together and come with the words that I started with, Lord, will thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Amen.