Definition of awakening:
act of waking up: the moment of becoming suddenly aware of something vitally important
for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." - Ephesians 5:14
Wake Up!
We are not responsible for when or how God moves.
He is sovereign.
He can do anything He wants, anywhere He wants, anytime He wants with anyone He wants.
However, we are responsible as a church for creating an environment, an atmosphere where if and when God is ready to move we are ready to receive it!
Get ready!
The church wakes up.
Prayers go up.
God shows up.
Heaven sits up.
Eyes tear up.
Sin packs up.
Spirit stirs up.
Angels listen up.
Worship picks up.
Body gets up.
City is shook up.
Lost looks up.
Satan backs up.
The demons are jacked up.
Barriers that prevent awakening
1. Hardened hearts
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. - Romans 2:5
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.'
11 As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'"
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." - Hebrews 3:7-15
The people are the church!
Our problems stem from hardened hearts.
Crime, love of self, chasing money, rotten politics, etc
And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, - Isaiah 29:13
Where's the passion?
Are we just going through the motions?
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. - Psalm 34:18
Dear God, break us and soften our hearts!
2. Deadly pride!
16 There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. - Proverbs 6:16-19
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." - James 4:6
Pride will destroy your soul.
It says we don't need God.
Holy God is waiting.
Help us God not to be found without You.
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:14
Dear God, we repent of our pride and seek Your holy Face!
3. Disobedient decisions!
7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, 'How shall we return?'
8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts.
12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts. - Malachi 3:7-12
You cheat God by lack of tithes, because you are disobedient because of a hard heart.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:21
You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. - Deuteronomy 8:18
Your skills, your smarts, they are a gift from Almighty God.
Dear God, please forgive our selfishness and lack of trust!
4. Grieved Spirit!
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Ephesians 4:30-32
We have grieved the Spirit.
Definition of grief:
Feelings of distress, sorrow, heartache and heartbreak
To cause sadness
Deep sorrow, especially that is caused by someone's death
We have grieved the Spirit, by our unholy actions!
And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. - Judges 16:20
" I remind you that there are churches so completely out of the hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn't find it out for many months."
A. W. Tozer
Have mercy Lord!
Dear Holy Spirit, we ask for Your forgiveness.
Send an awakening!
Thanks Pastor Kevin!!
