September 1 · length unknown
It’s not my habit usually to go home for lunch but sometime ago my travels had me at the right place at the right time. I had an early breakfast that morning, and I usually do get up that early. Finally, I got around to lunch, I was really hungry. I came in ready for a major lunch. I grilled a hot dog in the toaster oven. That was a good start, and then my wife went to cook some more things on the stove for me. Would you believe that the stove decided not to work at that point? And she said, “Wait a minute! Nothing’s heating up.” I said, “Well, that’s okay. I know there are some chips here. I’ll just load up on potato chips.” So, I went to get the chips out of the cabinet. What chips? My son had fed them to his friends. So, I enjoyed my lonesome hot dog very slowly. I ate everything I was served. I was still hungry.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Why We're Restless.”
I’ve spoken in different congregations over the years and I’ve often told them, "I’m a restless Christian. I keep feeling like there’s got to be something more than I’ve experienced.” You should see the reaction. I don’t think I’ve been in a place where there haven’t been a number of people who have come up and said, “You too? Well, restless, that’s what I am.”
I’m still discovering believers all across this country who are feeling as I did after my little lunch. They’re eating everything they’re being served spiritually. They go to the meetings, they’re going to the activities, they’re serving in their places that they need to serve, but they’re still not satisfied. Are you like that? You say, “I’ve eaten everything I’ve been given and I’m not satisfied.” Good! That kind of unsatisfied appetite sets the stage for a banquet that God wants to feed His people, and He calls it revival.
It’s time for our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” Now you know, for centuries, restless people have been drawn to this verse; it’s the appetizer for the banquet called revival. It calls God’s people to create the conditions in which God can spawn revival.
Revival isn’t some special series of meetings that we hold. Charles Finley, the great revival preacher, said, “It is the renewal of the first love of Christians, resulting in the awakening and conversion of sinners to God.” Revival is the supernatural arrival and presence of the Holy Spirit in a way we’ve never seen Him - a unique power. Christians open up everything to the Lord; whole churches are changed. People begin to deal with all the darkness in their lives. Christians run to reconcile with each other. The lost are swept into the church even without evangelistic crusades. Aren’t you hungry for something like that? Oh, it’s happened. But it happens when you are restless enough to pay the price for it.
Why don’t you begin to band together with some other restless Christians and beseech God to do a reviving work where you are? That prayer movement is growing around the world. Let it start with you. Humble yourself in a desperate prayer to God, “Lord, I give up on trying to make things happen myself.” Forget the programs and the schedules, and all the old ways and the boxes we’ve kept God in. And then this verse says, “Pray.” Seek His face; look for intimacy with Him. Root out those sinful strongholds. You’ll begin to know Christ as you’ve never known Him before.
If all your work, and all your meetings, and your study, and your experience, and your theology still have you hungry, go for the banquet. Join the growing ranks of believers all over the world who are saying, “Lord, I’m radically Yours. Whatever it takes, satisfy our hungry hearts
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