Uncover How Revival Can Spark Change in a Community

Revival Can Change a Nation (Part 2): Can God Trust Us? | Oasis City Church Columbus

Pastor Bill Demillares of Oasis City Church Columbus continues “Revival Can Change a Nation” by asking whether God can trust His people with revival, emphasizing that true revival brings transformation and reformation beyond church services into families, communities, schools, and government. He teaches that revival must produce holiness, repentance, justice and compassion, unity, and mission, citing scriptures including 1 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, James 4, Psalms 24 and 15, Isaiah 58, John 17, and Matthew 28. He shares examples from the Welsh Revival, Azusa Street, and the Moravian Revival’s 100-year prayer movement, and recounts prophetic leading into missions in Colombia and a planned trip to Peru. He closes with prayer for holy living, unity, authority for mission, and generational continuation of revival.

00:00 Bible Confession
00:46 Revival and Reformation
02:46 Can God Trust Us
05:08 Holiness Not Hype
08:12 Divine Power to Change
13:20 Welsh Revival Stories
17:44 Repentance Required
23:24 Psalm 24 Clean Hands
24:50 Walk Straight Act Right
27:41 Justice and Compassion
28:28 True Fasting Blueprint
29:56 Rebuilders and Restorers
31:32 Revival Changes Cities
31:56 Unity That Wins Souls
36:20 Azusa Street Unity
37:59 Revival Becomes Mission
38:43 Great Commission Authority
42:06 Moravian Prayer Movement
46:03 Peru Prophetic Invitation
53:30 Generational Revival Charge
55:30 Prayer and Final Blessing
57:03 Church Invitation Outro

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Transcript

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This is Revive All with Oasis City Church Columbus, featuring pastors Bill Demillares and Adam Stewart So I want you to grab your Bible today, and I want you to make a confession over the Word. Are you ready? Hold up your phone if your Bible, if you don't have a paper Bible with you, because there is a Bible on that phone, even if you don't use it. Uh, it's there. Say, "This is my Bible, and I really love it. These are more than words in print. These are living words. These are God's words, and I'll never be the same. In fact, today, in just a moment, my life Is being changed. My mind is being renewed because of God's Word." Amen. If you believe it, say amen. Amen. Yeah. Well, I was, um, really happy to be here, um, you know, today and preach two weeks in a row, uh, which was wonderful. And last week, of course, was, you know, hot off of the, uh, July 4th, uh, celebration and the anniversary of the United States, 250 years, our birthday. And so we just began to, to, uh, pray for our nation, but also, uh, talk about how God has moved in our nation over the years. And as for many, uh, for as much bloodshed and terrible things that's happened in our nation, um, there's also been great moves of God over time. And, and it's important for the church today to realize that God has moved so, so we can ask Him to do it again. Uh, the prophet Habakkuk said, "Lord, we, we recognize, uh, what You've done before. We fear You. We, we are in awe of You," he says. And, and then he said, "And help us in our na- in our need again." How many of you know that we need God? Our nation has needs. And he says, "Help us in our need again. Do it again, Lord. Do it again, Lord." And so however you've moved in the past, we're not just looking for an old move of God, we're looking for a fresh move of God. But we want revival. But we don't just want a visitation from the Lord. We want, we, we seek that, but we desperately need transformation. And then from transformation, we desperately need reformation. And that's, that's what true revival looks like, not just, not just warm, fuzzy feelings, not just you having great worship and crying at the altar. I mean, these are good things, but we need transformation in our lives. And then we need transformation to go beyond us. It needs to go beyond us to our family. It needs to go into our communities. It needs to go into our school systems. It needs to keep going, and that needs to bring reformation to our cities, our policies, the school system, uh, all of those things. We need reformation, uh, in our government, in, in our laws. We need righteousness, uh, to, to be, um, a beacon of hope for the lost, and it starts with the church So last week's title was Revival Can Change a Nation, and part two this week is Revival Can Change a Nation: Can God Trust Us? Can God trust us? You are familiar with the statement, "In God we trust," right? Just grab any piece of currency, uh, and you'll see, "In God we trust." It's the official motto of the United States. The US Senate, uh, and the, and US Congress, I mean, adopted it in 1956. It replaced E Pluribus Unum, um, and, and, uh, we see it on, on all currency. You see it on government buildings. In God we trust. Now, it wasn't just formulated in 1956. Actually, it was first, uh, printed in 1864, uh, in God we trust. And so that, that statement has been on coins and has been on dollar bills and has been throughout our nation. And so we are familiar with that, but, but is God able to trust us? Because he wants to partner with his people to bring heaven to Earth. He doesn't just move sovereignly. He can. He just doesn't move in his providence. He can. But revival is not just a sovereign move of God. It's a partnership with heaven because when he does move, he wants to know if he can trust us to allow that to continue. What are you gonna do with the move of God? And this is what God has, over the centuries of human history, throughout the Word, and throughout many revivals all across the globe, this is the question: What does God's people do with the move of God? Do we shut it down? Do we embrace it? Do we pass it on? Do we just say, "Oh, that was nice"? God wants to trust us. The question is not can God send revival. The question is can he trust us with revival? And, and there's been many, uh, revivals all across the world, and, uh, I wanna talk a little bit about this transformation that needs to take place within the Body of Christ. The first perspective is this: Revival must produce holiness. Revival must produce holiness. Look with me, um, in 1 Peter 1:15, "But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" Woo! Now that's a statement right there. I think one of the greatest dangers is confusing God's presence with God's approval It's dangerous to confuse that because He's present because He's faithful He's faithful to every generation. And he says, "Where two or more gather, I will be present." But just because he's present doesn't mean he's approving what's going on Doesn't mean that he's approving what you did last night just because you're in church this morning. And, and don't get it twisted, because revival must produce holinesses, holiness in our lives. Remember, Israel had the Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God. It traveled with them. They ha- they had to care for the presence a certain way, but yet they also lived in rebellion. Just because they had the presence doesn't mean that they had holy living. You can have the presence and rebellion at the same time Be holy yourselves in all your behavior because it's written, "Be holy 'cause I'm holy." Woo. In all of your behavior. He cares about your behavior. Now, here's the good thing. You can be holy because you already are the righteousness of God in Christ because of the cross. So you're forgiven and you're made righteous. Because of the cross, you're justified. You don't ever have to be justified again. Justification is a one-time thing. Jesus did it on the cross. If you accept him and you accept his sacrifice, you believe him, you are now born again and you are justified. But sanctification is a lifetime process, and you are becoming more saved. You, you can, you can become more saved. And, and let the fear of the Lord, let salvation come to you each and every day, more and more and more and more and more. You're saved, but then you can become even more sanctified in your life, and that's why it says, "All of your behavior." So here's the key. What he's saying is, you're righteous on the inside, so let it out Let your inside affect your outward life. That's why be holy in all behavior. I can't do it. It's too hard. Yeah, it's too hard, so you can't do it on your own strength. You have to have the righteousness of God in you, and let it out. Walk it out. Walk out your righteousness. Look at, uh, in chapter one, same, 2 Peter, but look at verse three. It says, "For His divine power has granted us everything," say everything. Everything. "Pertaining to life and godliness." His divine power has given you everything you need for godly living. "Through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Through these, He has granted us His precious, magnificent promises, so that by them you can become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that's in the world on account of lust." Wow, you've escaped corruption in the world. You've already escaped it. Don't, don't welcome it back in. Don't welcome lust of the world back into your life. But here's what I love in verse four. You, through His glory, through His glory, you and I are partakers of the divine nature. Wow. I mean, that's amazing. Because He loves us so much, He doesn't want separation. We carry His glory. We have knowledge of how to live. You have everything you need for godly living. That's what He said. You have everything you need for godly living, and you and I are welcome to partake of the divine. I mean, you can choose not to, though. And then complain that your life s- sucks But even when your life sucks, you still need the divine in your life 'cause He makes all things beautiful. He can turn it around. He takes ashes, and He gives beauty. Yeah. He takes broken, torn apart things, and puts them together again. He gives beauty for ashes. Yeah. He's the only one able to do it, and His divine power has granted you everything you need to live a godly life. Don't let the enemy fool you. But he doesn't just stop there. Verse five, six, and seven, look how brilliantly, beautifully, um, this, these three verses stack on top of each other and create something amazing. Verse five, "Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith," say faith. Faith. When you're diligent, watch what happens. "In your faith, supply moral excellence." We, Lord, we need more moral excellence, don't we? In your moral excellence, knowledge. In your knowledge, self-control. In your self-control, perseverance. In your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness. And in your brotherly kindness, love. Woo! You are partakers of divine nature, not just for your own good. It's so that you can be on a journey that now is creating something that ultimately leads to love He says, "Faith supplies moral excellence." We need that in our churches. We need it in our nation. The body of Christ should be excellent with m- moral things. But it doesn't stop there because that leads to knowledge. We need to know how to live. We need to know the word. We need to know the answers. We need to know what to do in situations of, of, of destruction and turmoil. You need to have answers. So we need knowledge. So it leads to that, but then knowledge goes to self-control. Hello, somebody. You're gonna need self-control at lunch today But what does self-control give you? It leads to perseverance, meaning it's not a one-time thing. You can persevere. You can make it through. When you get tempted, you have self-control now. It's not a one time because you keep using self-control, using it, using it, using it. Now, when you're tempted, you have perseverance. You can make it through the temptation all the way. And then that leads to godliness This perseverance leads to godliness. But what? It doesn't just end with godliness. It, that leads to brotherly kindness. Man, we need more kindness. We really do. I mean, Christians can be mean. I mean, just downright mean to one another. And what does kindness, more kindness brings you to love. We need to love each other better. We need to love the Lord better. Holiness isn't perfection, it's just becoming more like Jesus. And revival isn't just God visiting you, revival is God changing you, and you carrying it forward. It reminded me of, you know, s- I talked a little bit about moves of God last week, I'll mention a couple, uh, again today. But the Welsh Revival, again, it's just one that's been dear on my heart, and, and Brother, um, Evan Roberts, who was a young coal miner, who gets saved and became a preacher. And in two years, this nation of Wales was changed dramatically because of his, um, uh, be- be- because of that conversion. But here's what happened in the Welsh Revival, if you, if you weren't here last week, uh, I mentioned that it, it drastically changed the nation. And, and Evan would preach in one church, and then he would literally, when it was over, he'd go across the street, there'd be another church filled with people already, and he would preach there. Then he'd go down the street, there would be people standing in the streets, and they're ready to preach, uh, ready to hear the word, and he would preach. And people were just praying. There was just a revival in the streets. There was a revival in, in... And it caught on in a community, literally changed the community, and then impacted the nation. And in this coal mining town, um, what would happen, it, it was very impoverished. The pe- the families were very poor. And, and one of the main reasons they were poor was because the dads would work all day, then they would leave work, and instead of going home, instead of getting their paycheck and going home and providing for their family, on the way they would go to the tavern, and they would spend their earnings in the tavern. They would drink them away, eat them away. Um, and then they would get home and the, the, the wives didn't have enough, uh, uh, you know, produce in the, in the pantry, and the kids were eating bread. And I mean, you can see all this, it was documented. There was a lot of, uh, you know, poverty and, and malnourishment and such. Well, what happened in the revival, all these coal miners started getting saved. And then when they got saved, they bypassed the tavern, uh, on their way home. A- and so now taverns were closing 'cause they didn't have enough work. And the men would bring their money home, and now they're buying food for their kids. And so now the grocery stores are making money. Instead of closing, now they, they're earning money. And the kids, instead of going to the hospitals, the k- the hospitals are emptying because the kids aren't malnourished anymore. And marriages were put back together. See, revival isn't just feeling God in the street. It transforms your community And there's a whole lot of great stories out there, and I'm sure a few of them are embellished, but one particular story, it's very true though, you could look back. So the miners used horses and mules and such to do their, their labor, uh, these beasts of burden. And so, um, the, the... What was said with, with this behavior change, because they got born again, Spirit-filled, their behavior started changing, their language changed, and so they stopped cussing so much. But here was a problem. What the problem was the horses didn't understand the new language. They didn't follow the commands anymore because the commands didn't have four-letter words in them. The horses only knew the bad words. They didn't know the good words. And so it, it literally, the, the whole horse community needed to be retrained. Imagine that. That's what revival does. It changes you from the inside out. Your behavior begins to change. The way you treat your brothers and sisters begin to change. The way you treat your own children begin to change. The way you spend your money changes. We need more of that, Lord, in our community. Amen? The miners changed so completely that their work environment is what noticed it. Thousands were converted. It was, it was just an amazing time because here's the thing, I think true holiness is when your coworkers notice your change rather than your pastor I should be one of the last people that recognize you're different. It should be your coworkers that, "Man, something's different about you." It should be your wife. It should be your kids, "Daddy's different." And then the pastor, 'cause y'all know how to act in church, but I don't know how you were acting on Friday So, so that's what holiness is. The people around you recognize, "I'm different now because God has touched my life." The greatest evidence of revival wasn't what happened in the church, it was what happened on Monday morning. That's evidence that you are changed. So re- revival requires holiness, but revival also requires repentance. There is no revival without true repentance. We often want awakening without repentance. Uh, but the Bible never separates the two. All the moves of God through the scripture, the church needs to repent. James 4:8-10. We typically know the first line and we know the last line. We like them, but the in-between part is kinda ouch. Yeah. Watch. Romans 4:8, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." Oh, what a promise. It's amazing. We sing songs, you know, draw, draw me closer. You know, come- Draw near to God, He'll draw near to you. "Cleanse your hands, you sinners." Hello, there's a wake-up. "Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will exalt you." We like the last line. We like the exalted part. Yes, Lord, exalt me. Draw near to God, draw near and He'll draw near to you. Oh, that sounds great, you filthy sinner. Yeah. Repent. Weep. Mourn. Now, I could see if that was in the Old Testament, there's lots of that. This is James. This is the New Testament. Where's he getting this from? And this is why James is, uh, you know, so unique. A- and in the Book of James, you see it's kind of like Old Testament framework with new covenant promise. So James is a very disciplined, uh, author, he's a disciplined writer, and it's still the very inspired word of God. And so what happens is, see, see, it sounds like John wrote the first line. "Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you." That's something John would write. You know, he's the one that, that, that, that he thinks Jesus loved the most. You know, he, he, he's the one who understands the love of God, and I love reading John. As a matter of fact, we're gonna be doing a series coming up in the next few weeks on I, II, and III John called How's Your Love Life? I'm gonna be talking about your love life. I'm gonna be right in your ear. But, but James, uh, uh, it's like James is giving us truth that we need to recognize ourself, that in order to be in God's presence, we can't allow sin in our life. We need to repent. We need to mourn for our mistakes. We need to, we need to have joy, but you need to mourn, you need to weep sometimes over what you've done or haven't done that's been sin in your life so that you can humble yourself before the Lord so He will exalt you We don't need political repentance or, or some type of newspaper repentance. We need personal repentance. We need corporate body of Christ repentance. We need national repentance. One of the most famous sermons ever preached really in the United States was f- first preached on July 8th, 1741. July 8th, that's just last week, 1741, by Jonathan Edwards in the First Great Awakening. But the title of the message was Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Many of you know that. S- now, that doesn't s- that doesn't sound like one of Bill's sermon titles, you know? But, but And it sounds harsh, and it sounds l- l- like all, you know, wow, that's rough, sinners in the hand But you gotta realize that Jonathan didn't have a microphone and, and he didn't have all these giant churches. He was, he was in corn fields and in, in, in communities, and he's preaching to the wicked people in the, in the town that weren't the churchgoers. And he was saying, "You need to repent. Your sin leads to death. You need to repent. Hell is real. You need to turn your life over to Jesus. God is angry wi- with what sin has done in the Earth." And this is in 1741. And he would preach it, and there was a mass move of God of repentance, and it swept all across the colonies at the time. But here's the interesting thing. He was not known for his, his orator skills. He wasn't known for being, um, a, a preacher of preachers. He, he wrote the sermon word for word, and he stood, and he read it And I've, I've read the sermon. You can get it online, you can see it. It's, it's one of the m- most preached sermons at, in those days. And he would just, he, he wasn't famous for his style of preaching, but God was on his words, and he would just read it, read the scripture, and there would be massive amount of people weeping and wailing in repentance under the Lord. That's a move of God, whether you like the title or not. It said that there would be people under tents and poles. They would be holding onto the poles just weeping profusely Just needing to hold onto something because they realized that they needed a born-again experience. We need a revival like that again, 'cause we think revivals are emotional preachers. Like, the more emo- and I'm an emotional preacher, you know, I'm, I'm all that. But, but there's something... Like, you can do all that, but if God's not on it I mean, some preachers are better comedians than they are 'Cause if God's not on it Remember a couple years ago, our theme for the year in 2024 was Psalm 24. Remember? And the, the thing I said at the end of '23 is we need a Psalm 24 revival. We need a Psalm 24 revival. God needs to move on that. And it doesn't mean that when 2025 came, or 2026, that now we no longer need it. We still need it. So I'm saying today, we still need a Psalm 24 revival. And let's just look at the, a couple verses in Psalm 24, because we spent a whole year in the psalm. Remember, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in His holy place?" This is the psalmist. This is the question. Who has the right to be in God's presence, to ascend i, into His presence, and to stand in His holy place? And then the answer's given immediately. This is who gets to do it. "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully." Wow, clean hands. What does James say? Wash those hands in the Spirit. That's where he, that's where he says, "Cleanse your hands." You need to have clean hands and a pure heart. What is that? That's the inside and the outside. It's, it's you living outside just like you believe on the inside. It's your behavior reflecting who you are in Christ. Clean hands and a pure heart. And what I love is the parallel psalm is Psalm 15, and we, we s- we spent time in Psalm 15 as well. And, and I love it in The Message translation. You might remember this. We, we have a hoodie w- with it on it. Psalm 15:1, "God, who gets invited to dinner at Your place? How do we get on Your guest list?" Now stop right there. Man, that's the same question in Psalm 24, just said a little differently. Wouldn't you like to know how you can be on God's dinner guest list? Who gets invited to God's dinner? Who gets invited? What do you ne- how do you need, how do your name get on the list? Well, then he answers it, and it's very similar to the answer in Psalm 24. Psalm 15, look at it in verse two. Ready? Read it aloud with me. "Walk straight. Act right. Tell the truth. Walk straight. Act right. Tell the truth." What do you gotta do? You gotta- Walk straight. Act right. Say it again. You gotta walk straight, a- Tell, tell... Look at your neighbor and say, "Walk straight. Act right. Tell the truth." Look at your other neighbor, 'cause they need it too. Walk straight. Act right. Tell the truth. That's what you need to do. That's how you have dinner in heaven with the Lord. Because God cares about your behavior on the outside. I mean, sometimes you have to say it like, you know, parents say it this way. You know, you have to say it with a clenched tooth. Like you say, you say, "That's right." Act right. You know, you're going to dinner somewhere. You're, you're meeting people, trying to impress them, and you're like, "Guys, when, when we get in there, you better act right. You had better act right." And the more my molars touch, the more serious it is. It's like, or when you're driving your kids in the back, and you're like, "Act right." You're just swinging the air. You're not even, you're not even, you're not even reaching your, their point of contact. Are you allowed to do that anymore, by the way? Yeah. Do you get caught if you, if you swatted those kids? I used to, I used to do that. Don't tell any stories. Say, "John, act right. S- s- stop, stop touching her." Stop saying that. Act right. And that's what God says to us. Kids, walk straight. You're on the crooked road. Why are you so crooked all the time? Walk straight Children of God, act right. And by all means, tell the truth. Yeah. Stop lying, and stop lying on each other Hello? Revival produces justice and compassion. It produces justice and compassion. I wanna read a passage, um, in Isaiah 58. We read this every January. Every January we do a fast, and this is part of our, um, scriptures that we revisit, because God has fasts in the Bible for reasons. And, and the children, the prophet speaking, he's like, and God's like, "I didn't tell you to fast for that reason. I'm telling you to fast for this reason." And God still today is telling His church, "When you fast and pray, these are the kind of results I wanna see. This is why I'm calling you to fast and pray, because revival produces justice and compassion." Look with me, Isaiah 58:6, "No, this is the kind of fasting I want." He's real specific. "This is the kind of fast I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned. Lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people." Break every chain. Break every... You sing it. "Share your food with the hungry. Give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them. Don't hide from relatives who need your help. Then your salvation..." Watch the then. He tells you to do all this, and He says, "Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will heal quickly. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind." Somebody needs your behind protected. Then, watch this, "Then you will call on the Lord, and He will answer. 'Yes, I'm here,' He will quickly reply. Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors." Sheesh. Tell- Walk straight. Shut your mouth. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors. Feed the hungry. Help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and your darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you're dry, restoring your strength. Watch this, you will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. And some of you, see some of us, some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you'll be known as a rebuilder of the walls and a restorer of homes. Woo! Lord, let Oasis City Church be, known as a restorer of homes, a rebuilder of things that are ruined. The other translations say you're the repairer of the breach. You go in and you take broken things and you put them back together again. That's what God wants to use you for. God wants to use you to restore people, wants to use you to set the captive free, wants to use you to feed the hungry. He wants to use you to, to minister to the poor, and to the needy, and the lonely. He wants to use you to set, make the oppressed go free, to break yokes of bondage off of people's lives. He wants to use you, and He wants to flow over you. He wants you to be a well-watered garden. That means an ever-flowing spring. Any time somebody's around you that's needy, they can drink from your life Revival does that. It's not just a touch from heaven. It changes communities. When the poor are now cared for, it changes that city When those who are naked have clothes, it changes those kids When those who are oppressed with darkness and addiction and all the, all the ugliness of oppression in life and they're set free, it changes their lives. Woo! Whew. Notice the progression. It starts with God freeing people, then He heals communities, then He rebuilds cities. That's the progression. That's what this whole thing's about And we need to be part of that in Westerville. We need to be part of that in Columbus. We need to be part of that in the state of Ohio. We need to be part of that in our nation. We need to be part of it around the world Revival requires unity. It's not a buffet ingredient or item that you can just walk by. It requires unity. Even the words of Jesus himself, he prayed a famous prayer. When Jesus prays, you better be listening and reading. What's he saying? Why is he praying this? He has this famous prayer in John 17. I only have time to read a couple verses, but, but look at the impact of this. He's praying to the Father. He says, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be all one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you've given me, I've given it to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them just as you love me." Now, this is not just a prayer of those disciples living in that day. How do I know that? Well, I know it from the rest of the prayer, but also look at what Jesus said in verse 20, "I don't ask for these only, but for those who believe in me." He said... So, so 2,000 years later, his prayer is still happening. It's not just for those there that were alive right then in the Garden of Gethsemane or, or on the hill or up the Olive Grove. It's not just for those who were following him to his death. It wasn't just for those who were sleeping. It wasn't just for those who were at the Mount of Transfiguration. It wasn't just for those who were feeding... uh, who got fed, the 5,000 and the 4,000. It wasn't just for those who were healed in the pool. It wasn't just for those. It was for anyone who believed in me. And that's you. That's you. So this applies to you. So why, why is he saying this? Why, what's the purpose of this prayer? Oh, the very next line, "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I'm in you, that they may be in us, so that the world might believe. The glory you've given me, I've given to them." See, our theme this year has been more glory. It's been evangelism. It's been taking God's glory, uh, out of, of just an experience in, within the four walls of the church, and we're asking for glory. We are saying, "God, come and disrupt our lives with Your glory. Come and interrupt us with Your glory. Come and do, do things in Your glory that we don't even expect. Lord, come and move in our life." Why? So that we can carry that glory, the glory that G- go- that Jesus has. He says He gave it to you. Now, why did He do it? The why is the next line of His prayer: So that the world will know See, our unity is a key for non-believers to become believers. The unity of the body of Christ is not just for the body of Christ. It's so that the world may see it, and they may know. And the world may say, "I don't know about those Christians. I don't know about, I don't know about, you know, all the Bible stuff. I don't know. But here's what I do know, man, I don't see them fighting and arguing. I see them loving each other. I see, I see the church, uh, solving the community problems. I see the church affecting the school system. I see the church... I mean, every, every time I, I show up and I see a Christian, they, they have a smile on their face. They have a kind word. They hug me. They pray for me. I don't know. I- there's something gotta be on it. I don't know who's got the answers, but let me tell you, I know the church has the answer." In a divided society, only the church can model unity. Only the church. It's the hope of the world, 'cause the world will believe when believers love each other. Those are the words of Jesus That's why Azusa Street was so powerful, and I taught on it more last week with William Seymour. A, a one-eyed Black man in segregation in 1906 leading a church filled with Black people, white people, Asian people, Hispanic people, to the point where the news article said That color was washed away in the blood. Here's a man who's not even allowed, because of segregation laws, to do what he's doing. But a revival broke out. A revival broke out, and the color line was washed away. The boundaries, what separated us, was washed away by the blood of Christ, and that's the power of unity. That Azusa Street Mission was, was, in that revival, modeled what Jesus prayed in John 17. It wasn't coming because they had the best seats in the church. It wasn't because it was the most beautiful building. It wasn't because, uh, they had the best sound system, the best praise band. It was unity in revival, and people got born again, spirit-filled, and they said, "Man, we don't care about segregation laws" I didn't love you yesterday, but I can look in your eyes and love you today I'm gonna end on this point, but I have more. Just warning you. I have to preach in a couple weeks or something Revival must become mission. Revival must become mission Just like in the Book of Acts, the movement of the church didn't end at Pentecost. Pentecost launched the mission of the church, and it's still launching and going. Revival's always moving. And another one of the commands of Jesus, another one of the instructions of Jesus is r- really famous. As a matter of fact, um, all, all the denominations can agree on this one. E- they might not agree on speaking in tongues or the gift of the Spirit, or they might not agree on orthodoxy, but they, everybody that's born again, uh, believes this passage, preaches it. Matthew 28:18, you know it. "And Jesus came up and he spoke to them saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.'" I mean, that's a power-packed three, three verses, and it's the instructions of Jesus to His church. Revival always becomes mission, and this is the mission. This is the Great Commission. This is, this is, if you're a follower of Jesus, these are your instructions. But we sometimes, I think, forget the, the, the passage in the middle says, "Therefore," but we forget what the therefore is for. Any time you see therefore, you should wonder what it's there for. Read it. What's in the previous verse? Jesus says something so incredibly mind-blowing, and we forget about it, as a church I think we do, as Christians. "And Jesus came up, spoke to them saying," look, it's the first one he said, quote, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Therefore Now, why do we need to get this? Because if all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus, how much does the devil have? I mean, he said all. He could've been like, "50/50. Up here I'm good, down there you're on your own." So we're not saying, we're not, we, we have to recognize, you know, there's demonic forces, there's spiritual warfare, there's all this, but all authority, the final say, absolute all authority, has been given to Jesus, and then he gives it to us. That's why you have to see it. You have the battle, you're gonna win, but don't run from the battle, because all authority's been given to you. Go therefore and make disciples. Baptize them. Preach the gospel. Teach them. Why? Because you have authority to do so. Yes. You have authority to change the way people think. You have authority to make disciples, make new followers of Jesus. You have authority to baptize people. You have authority to preach the gospel. You go do it. He's relying on you. Can God trust us? He's not sovereignly sweeping in and baptizing Could he do it? Absolutely. He can do whatever he wants. What does he want? You to baptize. He wants you to make disciples. He could make a robot if he wanted. He could just give you, he could download the whole Bible in somebody's, in some wicked sinner's brain all at one time. If he wanted to, he could do that. They'd just automatically get saved, spirit-filled. They automatically preach the gospel. They automatically, you know, on YouTube have podcasts, overnight success. He can do it if he wanted to. What does he wanna do? He wants you to preach the gospel. He wants you to take his authority. He wants me to go on mission and extend his kingdom and his word and his power. One of the, one of my favorite missionary, uh, stories and truths is the Moravian Revival from the seven, from 1727. The Moravian Revival, uh, took place in Saxony, Germany, by Count Nicholas Zinzendorf. I like saying his name, too. Zinzendorf. Now, here's the interesting thing about the Moravians 300 years ago. The Moravians were, um, refugees, and they ended up on his land, on his property. And at that time, the church, the greater church, he's a believer, but the greater church is having all kind of schisms. They are disagreeing over everything, doctoring. They're fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. And these refugees come up, and he's like, "Listen, you can stay on my property." And they were, they were bickering and everything, and the whole story, and he basically said, "Listen, we're gonna stop all the fighting. We're gonna pray John 17, that we're gonna be one and unified. We're gonna, we, and, and everybody here is gonna sign a covenant. We're gonna sign a covenant that we will be unified, that we're not gonna let anything separate us, and that we're gonna glorify Jesus because of the blood of Christ, and we're gonna, everything is submitted to the blood of Christ." Now, that wasn't the exact words, but that was basically it. It was, like, three sentences. Everybody signed the covenant, and they started a prayer meeting. He said, "This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna pray. I'm not gonna preach. I'm gonna... We're gonna pray." And they started a prayer movement that, for 24 hours a day, every hour was covered of somebody praying. That prayer movement lasted 100 years A hundred years But it didn't just stay in Germany, because these people that were getting born again because of prayer, they started praying. They started recognizing that God needed to send them out as missionaries, and there became a movement of the Moravians missionaries, and they went to hundreds of nations Started prayer movements. One of the first places they went from Germany was the West Indies, and they started ministering to slaves on the islands in the Caribbean. And one thing was interesting, this morning after church, one of the ladies came up to me and she said, "I'm from the West Indies. I'm Moravian." I said, "What?" She said, "Yeah, my whole family." She said, "And my, I'm bringing my family here, and my son, he's Moravian, too. We know the Moravians." He said, "We're going back to St. Kitts. I'm taking my family because I want them to see the Moravians, what they did in this island." I was like, "That's so cool." Why was it at the end of my message? Could've had that lady testify. But isn't that cool? Right there, second row, right where Mike's sitting. She was sitting right there. She said, uh, she went and then go, "I'm Moravian." Black woman from, from the West Indies, "I'm Moravian" Hundreds of years later, relating to a revival from 1727. That's what prayer does. That's what revival does. It takes the church on mission. It takes the church to other nations. That's why we showed you a video today. That's why we have missions in this church. You need to support missions. If you can't go, you should give And you should still consider going. Yeah. And if you can't go, you should give and help somebody go, in this church. We, we love missions in this church. Our network, Reconciliation, we do missions trips. We love it. Covenant Church of Nazareth, we do missions trips. And, and, and, uh, I, I mean, I mean, we, we just were in South Africa, we're in Colombia, and then we're in Peru this year, September, me and Lynn, in Lima, Peru. We're taking a team from our churches. Go on with us. Now, here's the interesting thing. You wanna hear that story? Yeah. You got a second? Yeah. Um, you know, we were in Col- Well, four years ago, four years ago, I had a prophetic word from Papa Joe, you know, Joe Ewan from Scotland, and he's been in my life for, uh, 20-some years. And, and he was just praying for me, and he said something he's never said to me before, and nobody ever has. It was, like, one sentence. "Bill, when South America calls, you need to go." I was like, "South America?" Now, at that time, I had never been to South America. I had never had an invitation from a, a church to come to South America. I, I, I just... And I didn't, honestly, even really have a desire. Like, we focus on Jamaica, we focus on South Africa, uh, we focus on our other, you know, regions around the country, um, and some other nations in Africa, the person that we go to and invest our time in, and I never even thought of it. And then my phone rings, and then, and I get my first invitation. I have this, "Hey, oh, I gotta say yes. Say yes." And then, then I was in Dallas, and a guy came in and he said, "You know, I'm from Bogotá, Colombia. Will you come, uh, next y- in a conference in, like, three months from now? Would you come, and would you preach at this worship conference?" And, and co- And I had the word in my head, "When, when they call, say yes," so I said, "Okay," so, "Yes." And then a few months later, I had a guy come to my office in Pittsburgh. He said, "Hey, would you come to Brazil with me? Could you, could you, would you come? Would you bring your son with you? We're gonna do this prayer thing with teenagers in Brazil. Would you come and preach?" And I, I was like, "What did the word say? Say..." So then, so then I'm back in Colombia, this is last year, back in Colombia, and I'm preaching in a tent, about 800 people in this tent. Beautiful church, amazing church. Mostly young people, as it was, like, a summer re- revival for teens and, and college students. And, and the way they have this tent, they have this long catwalk, uh, a- and, and they're out there preaching, and, you know, the stage is behind you. And I'm out here, and I'm b- pretty high up, and all these people are there, and it's nighttime, and I'm just preaching. In the middle of my sermon, I have a word of knowledge comes to me from the Spirit of the Lord about Peru. Now, I'd never been to Peru. I'd never been invited to Peru. I'm in Colombia, and God's talking about, about another nation. So I have a choice. Do I risk it, or do I keep preaching? 'Cause I had a pretty good sermon. And so I'm like, "I don't know Peru. What if I say something wrong? I don't even know, I don't know the capital. I don't know what it looks like." I mean, God, I'm having this conversation with the Lord while preaching. You can do that, by the way. So I'm like, okay, and I'm like this. I said, "Is, is there any Peruvians here?" And I'm like, one eye open, winking, like they're gonna say no, and I'm gonna just keep going back. As soon as I say it, in the back of the tent, all the way in the back, it was an uproar. "Ah!" High-fiving, standing up, and I'm looking like, "What is going on?" And there was like 40 people in the back, and they did not wait for me to say anything else. They stood up, high-fiving, and they just ran to the front of the altar. And they were like, "Prophesy over us, pray over us." And I'll tell you, that's when the meeting was over. Well, I mean, it went on for about three more hours. That's when the sermon was over, I should've said. So I said, "I see Peru, and here's what I see..." And I started describing a city center, and, and I started describing this and this, and prayer movements, and prayer walks, and all this stuff, and I'd saw it in my, in... I saw the vision. I started prophesying, and all these people are hungry, crying out for the Lord, and they're like, "Pray for us. Come down here and lay hands on us." So I had to run away from the catwalk and down the steps and come over, and Lynn joined me, and we started praying, and people were just b- b- b- b- b- everywhere. And then all the other nations started coming forward, "Pray for us. Prophesy over us." And, um, and it was glorious. It was amazing. And after the meeting is over, and I'm tired, and I'm ready to leave, and it's hours later, so... And, and, you know, I was preaching with an interpreter. Nobody speaks English. Well, not nobody, but very few. So I'm preaching with, and I'm trying to make sure this prophecy's accurate and, and, and this little g- little, young, young, sh- short, I should say, uh, young woman comes up to me. She speaks, like, perfect English. She en- ends up being a, an interpreter. She comes and she says, uh, "Apostle Bill and, and Pastor Lynn, would you meet my parents?" I said, "Of course." She says, "I'm from Peru. You just prayed for us. But I want to introduce you to them, and I will translate for them." So we keep, we, we meet them, and we pray for them. And as we're leaving, they said, "Will you come to Peru next year?" Now, I wanted to say, "I don't know about Peru. I've never been there. I don't even know who you are. I, I, I trust you're good people, but, like, I don't..." But what was the word? So I said, "Yes, we'll come." And we've been in touch with them for a year. Um, she's in Lynn's, one of Lynn's mentee programs, and, and we're going to Peru in September. I have never been there. I don't know what we're gonna do, but we have a team of people with us. You can come if you want. We have a team of people, but I said to everybody... They said, "What are we gonna do?" I said, "I don't know. We're gonna preach. You're gonna lay hands on the sick. Any type, any person we walk by that needs prayer, you're gonna lay hands on. You're gonna pray, you're gonna prophesy over them." I am, yep, if you're going on the trip, that's what you're gonna do. You are the ministry team. You might be preaching. I don't know. I don't know how many sermons I got. I don't know how many speaking opportunities. Lynn's doing a women's night revival meeting. I was like, "You're, ladies, you're going with her. Guys, you come with me, we'll, we'll do something." But church has to be on mission. You've gotta be on mission, and maybe for you, maybe for... Yell out your street right now that you live on. That's your mission field right now. Yell out your school district. That's your mission field. Yell out your employer. That's your mission field Don't be going to South Africa if you can't even witness to your coworker. If you can't represent Jesus behind the cash register, or in the clothing aisle, or behind the accounting desk, if you, or in, typing the email, if you can't represent Jesus there, stop trying to go somewhere else. You need there. Make that a mission field, and then go on mission Okay, I'm done I'm gonna, I wanna, I wanna say one more thing I want you to stand, 'cause that will help me know that I'm done. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. It might help me. We'll just start singing again and Chanda called me a few days ago and she said, "Hey, I have a question." I was like, "Anything for you, Chanda. What do you want? You're one of my favorite people." And she said, "Would you lead a song on Sunday with the team?" I was like, "What?" I said, "Chanda, I haven't done that in like four years. I sing every once in a while up here with the people." I said, like, I s- She said, "Yeah." I was like, "Well, I just said I'd tell you yes, so I said yes." So thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. I'm gonna end with this. I'm not gonna preach it, but I- this is important to know, though. Revival must be generational, 'cause we've seen all these moves of God, and they end. And, and I understand they end, and but, but, but there is in the heart of God, He wants a continuation. He wants another 100-year prayer movement, okay? And there's a passage in Judges, I won't be reading it, but here's, here's the passage. It said that Joshua was alive, and as long as he was alive, and the other leaders around him, that Israel obeyed the Lord. He died when he was 110, and it said that the elders who were still with him, so he dies, that means some of the guys are younger than him, but he was the... Even when they were alive, they served the Lord. It... But then a few verses down, it says, "When they had all died, another generation rose up and did not acknowledge the Lord, and they served other gods." Because see, revival that doesn't become transgenerational just becomes old religion And in this case, they didn't even serve Yahweh anymore. They served the Baals Idols. And it was just one generation after Joshua and all of his elders. That's how easy it can be dropped. That's how easy it could be missed. And that's why, for as long as the Lord tarries and we're on this earth, we, and as, as, as, as young as you are, as old as you think you are, you need to always be preaching to the generations, because we cannot afford even for one gap of a generation to miss it. Father, I pray for the people of God here right now at Oasis City Church. Under the sound of my voice, those watching online, I pray for you right now, those who are hearing, listening, whether you're watching live or on demand on another day, I pray that presence of God would be in your life. I pray the fire of God in your belly. I pray for revival fire. I pray, Lord, for the cloud of glory that would go with you. I pray that you carry the glory of the Lord, not just for your sake, but for you to be one with other believers, and for the world to see it. I pray that you will go with the authority of Heaven. You'll make disciples. You'll heal the sick. You'll raise the dead. You'll cleanse the lepers. You'll cast out demons. I pray that you'll go on the mission field. You'll raise money. You'll give money. You, you'll find money. God will bless you with the, the funds and the resources to be able to do it, but you won't stop, uh, m- ministering to your community, your city street, your school system, your workplace, that you will be bold in the power of Heaven because you have all authority that Christ has given you to go extend the Kingdom in the earth. I pray for miracles, signs, and wonders upon you, work through you. Use your hands for the glory of God. I pray that you will have clean hands and a pure heart. I declare that you will walk straight, you'll act right, you'll tell the truth, you'll repent for your wicked deeds, you will live a holy, righteous, and pure life, in the name of Jesus. Come on. And Lord, would you grace us with revival again? We wanna be a part of it. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. We hope you enjoyed today's message. I wanna personally invite you to Oasis City Church in Westerville, Ohio. We have two services on Sundays at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. You can find all of our information on our website, oasiscitychurch.com. You can also watch our online services on YouTube. You can listen to our weekly podcast as well. Go check us out. We'd love to see you. If you'd like to find out more about the church that brought you this program, check out oasiscitychurch.com and look up our social media and live stream on YouTube. Oasis City Columbus is a diverse church that celebrates all cultures and backgrounds, no matter where you've been, because that's the way the kingdom of heaven is. We invite you to join us Sundays at our main campus in Westerville, right off I-270 on Eastwind Drive, and you can find all the details at the oasiscitychurch.com website. Thanks for listening today. Revive All is a presentation of Oasis City Church Columbus.