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So we've been talking about revival and today I want to talk about revolution.

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Not many people talk about revolution. It seems like everybody talks about revival and I think

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that's because of the way in which the evangelical church is kind of wired.

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We're kind of wired for short, quick, fast, want things to happen like overnight,

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get all pumped and excited about it, then go back to normal. And I'm just not wired that way. I'm

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much more of a belief that we should be working hard towards something that really truly impacts

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the entire culture and society. And it's way harder work than a revival. So I use a term

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around the church here, a kingdom of God revolution. So I'm going to try to explain

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that. So let's go back over what I talked about as far as definitions of revival.

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I mentioned that different writers have terms like a special blessing, an outpouring, a showering of

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the spirit, manifest presence of God, awakening, all those different terms. Jonathan Edwards

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called it a surprising work of God. A noted revival historian, Stephen Alford has defined

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revival as quote, that strange and sovereign work of God in which he visits his own people,

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restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of his blessing. And I like that too.

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Those are all really, really good. So basically a revival is where dead people come alive.

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People who have lost their fervor, lost their zeal, and the spirit of God comes. And I think

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a lot of times there are people who think they're believers. I mean, they've grown up in the church

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or they've had a simulation of religion in their life. And when revival comes,

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it, that's actually where they get saved because that's when they really encounter

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the Lord. A revival is in a location, one location, and then it spreads out from there.

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We have a movie that's come out. You may have seen it. Jesus revolution movie produced by

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Greg Laurie and John Irwin distributed by Lionsgate. And this movie depicts the early

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stages of the Jesus movement. So they talk about the Jesus movement. And in the 1970s,

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I think it takes you like maybe a little bit of 1969 up to about 1971. And it's a story of

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Pastor Chuck Smith, an evangelist, hippie evangelist named Lonnie Frisbee. And then the

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evangelist later and pastor of Riverside at Harvest Christian Fellowship, Greg Laurie.

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And there's kind of the intersection of these three individuals in the movie. I'm sure you've

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seen it, but Time Magazine in June 21st, 1971 on the cover had Jesus revolution. Isn't that

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interesting? Doesn't call it a revival. I've actually never heard anybody call the, the,

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I'm sure people have, I just haven't heard of people calling that time period in America

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in Haight-Ashbury as well as in Southern California as anything more than the Jesus

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people movement or Jesus revolution. I haven't actually heard it called a revival. So I'm going

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to, I'm going to go with that and say that I think that was a revolution. And I think there's

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a profound difference. I think there's a profound difference between a revival and revolution.

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I think that a revival is in one locale. It is short lived. It's an expression of heaven.

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It's an expression of heaven coming down in an area that touches a group of people in a profound

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way. And it's sort of the answer to that prayer, thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as

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it is in heaven. And, and then it goes away. It ebbs and it flows. But a revolution is really

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different. A revolution is different in scope and in magnitude. So a revolution is a work that

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impacts all of society. Think of it as like the American revolution, the American revolution

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in one sense is still happening today because there's countries around the world that are

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becoming democratic for the first time. And they would look to America as their example of the

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way we have built our nation on laws, built our nation on checks and balances, built our nation

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on Christianity, those different qualities. Well, that was birthed in the Puritan

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Revival or the or the separatist revival when the Pilgrims came so you could argue that that

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Revival coming out of scruby England and then coming out of London

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in the 1600s was key to what later became known as the American Revolution and

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So revival sparks revolution. You don't you don't have a revolution coming out of nowhere

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There's going to be some kind of revival work of God

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that sparks people that sparks them to want to impact all of culture, so a

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revolution is a

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Ideology if we're going to think of it in a secular sense, but in a Christian sense, it's the kingdom of God

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through

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fired up

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Holy Spirit

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Anointed men and women going into a rent the arena of media going into the arena of entrepreneurship

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going into the arena of

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Sports or the church the family and bringing the kingdom there in it and it's so impacts

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the whole culture that

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people can say

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That this was a revolution. I mean this was something that did a 180 this was changed

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And I believe that's what Jesus came. I believe it when Jesus came. He brought not a revival

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He brought a kingdom of God revolution. He spoke over 100 times on the kingdom of God

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the greatest sermon ever given

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every noted historian theologian and

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and even sociologists would say the greatest speech ever given is the kingdom is the

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Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 6 & 7 and that's really the ethics

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That's the ethics of the kingdom of God and in Matthew 6

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He Jesus says something very interesting seek first of all the different things

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You could seek with your life seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things

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She'll be added unto you and what he's speaking of here is the things that we we normally pursue

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So if you look back at verse 25 of Matthew 6

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He says well you're worried about this and you're worth six times that you're worried you're worried you're worried and then he names

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All those things that we all worry about

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material things clothing

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Finances and then he says look here's the solution of life

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Here's the most noble thing that you can do

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Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you

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So he's saying that if you'll seek the highest good if you'll seek the most noble purpose that's been given to man

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Then all the secondary issues of your life will take care of themselves

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But make the seeking of the kingdom of God first the most important thing in your life

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So Jesus came bringing the kingdom. He he came he could have said he could have said seek first

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revival

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seek first that you would have this touch of the Holy Spirit and

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Start shaking and fall over. He didn't say that Jesus is not a revivalist

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There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that Jesus even thought of himself as a revivalist

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He was a revolutionary though, and he came to revolutionize

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planet Earth

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One person at a time and I can say for my life I could say for all my friends here

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At the road, we've all experienced a kingdom of God revolution in our hearts

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We are what we're doing today is not at all what we were doing before we got saved

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So God brought a revolution our lives

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And so what a revolution is the kingdom of God revolution is when a larger a large group of people

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that's enlarging more and more people are being so touched and shaken by the kingdom of God in their life and

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Doesn't mean you become a missionary doesn't mean you become a pastor whatever it is

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You're doing that you'd experience God there. And so that's what Jesus came doing. Now. Here's what's interesting. So

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By the end of Jesus earthly ministry, he's only got about a hundred and twenty people left

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Even though he had spoken to thousands. He only had the twelve disciples and about a hundred and twenty people

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Left and he if you recall in Acts chapter 1

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He's spending his time

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last few days before he ascends to heaven talking about the things of the kingdom of God and even then the disciples are

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Confused they think that he means oh, you're gonna bring the kingdom to Israel

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He said no, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my

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Witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea Samaria in the remotest parts of the earth. So Jesus is preparing them for some

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thing that's about to happen that's going to literally change the world now in Acts 2

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after a prolonged period of about 10 days of prayer the Holy Spirit falls upon the 120.

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They're filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter preaches the gospel and 3,000 get saved. Now that

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is a full-blown revival men and women. That's a move of God. First 120 are touched and then it

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spreads out into the community. Well the rest of Acts is the kingdom of God revolution. If you want

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to know a kingdom of God revolution is read Acts the book of Acts because the the revival was

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sparked by by the Holy Spirit coming down and then that revival then sparked a revolution

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that by Acts 17 6 in Thessalonica the elders of that town say oh those guys who have upset the

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world have come here also. Now that's a kingdom of God revolution. So as we look at revolution

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I'm going to look at revival and revolution in the last three episodes from scripture and the

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next time we're together we're going to actually look at Josiah King Josiah and what God did when

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they discovered the law of God and I've got two others after that but we're going to look at

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examples of revival sparking revolution that affects the whole nation because that's my goal

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honestly men and women we as we start empower you for that purpose my prayer for starting empower

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you is to empower you to bring a kingdom of God revolution in your community bring kingdom of God

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revolution in your marriage bring a kingdom of God revolution in your family and in your community

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wherever you live and that's that to me is a trajectory of where the gospel should go it's

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always bringing the kingdom of God and you may say well what is the kingdom of God well the kingdom

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of God is a reign and rule of Christ the kingdom of God is when Christ is on the throne of your life

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your friend's life your wife's life your husband's life I mean it's when a group of us have made

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Jesus Lord ruler over our lives that's the beginnings of a kingdom of God revolution if you

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get enough people that have that kind of a mindset that kind of a heart set and that kind of a vision

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you can really start to affect society around you and impact it in a major way that's a revolution

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so more on revolution next time and we'll be looking actually at several key passages in

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scripture that give us an example of what a revolution looks like and then how that can be

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utilized in our own life and impact our own communities so thanks for listening