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by Dr. Rev. David R. Mains
Text: Matthew 21:6-11
Subject: National revival. 
Desired Response: Discover the urgency of “Hosanna.”
How To: The “Aaron and Hur” challenge.
How Long: Put name on sign-up sheet today or next Sunday for this ten-week commitment.
Sermon in a Sentence: The window of opportunity for national revival will not remain open indefinitely; consequently, let us discover the urgency of “Hosanna” – “Save us now!”
Life can’t be lived in a constant state of urgency. You may say, “It is absolutely imperative that I get a haircut today.” But the truth is, it probably won’t make all that much difference if you put it off until tomorrow, or next week for that matter.
This is not to say there aren’t some issues that do require prompt attention. If you hear the police loudspeaker saying to evacuate your house immediately because the wildfire is quickly approaching your neighborhood, you would be wise to clear out as fast as you can. That’s a situation that calls for urgency on your part.
My topic today fits somewhere in between these examples. It’s not something that has to be acted on the moment you leave church. Then again, neither is it a matter that should be neglected for very long. It does require attention, and sooner rather than later.
We are nearing the end of our 50-Day Spiritual Adventure called The Remarkable Revelation. This is Sunday 7 of 8. It’s also Day 43 of 50. So we have just one more week to go. Let’s finish strong!
My subject is national revival. That’s right, even as many individual believers have known the presence of Jesus in a powerful new way, and churches have experienced an overwhelming sense of the presence of the Lord, so on occasion entire countries have been impacted by God manifesting Himself in a most remarkable fashion. 
You get glimpses of this in the Old Testament with the nation Israel. Some of the Scripture passages assigned for you to read this week, as listed in your Adventure Journal, are about such times. Does everyone repent and turn back to the Lord? The answer is no. But generally speaking, the scriptures indicate a change in the direction of the country, because so many do get things straightened out with Jehovah.
Believe it or not, the same has been true of America. Before I finish, I intend to tell you about one such time. Be aware that in his longer book Salt and Light, Bob Fraley also cites examples other than what I will share of revival times in America.
Earlier I referred briefly to a rapidly moving fire. Many people mistakenly believe that all wildfires can be controlled. Firefighting experts insist that this isn’t true. Some fires can’t be stopped until they burn themselves out. Others cannot be controlled at all.
For example, in 1967, the Tasmanian fires in Australia came on the heels of a considerable drought. More than 110 known fires were burning on the morning of February 7, consuming more than 650,000 acres in about five hours.
American preachers in earlier generations knew more than we do about what a revival can do. But they still struggled to come up with a vivid picture that could adequately convey its phenomenal power. The image they turned to most often was a sweeping wildfire blown by the winds of the Spirit and burning everything in its path. As sparks from one area that’s ablaze are carried by the wind to ignite somewhere else, so it is with revival. The stories of what’s happening in a given church are told elsewhere, and the conflagration spreads.
The revivals that touched numerous Christian colleges and seminaries in 1995 followed this pattern. As students from one school testified on other campuses about the convicting work of the Spirit, the divine flame touched down again and again.
I believe now is the time for pastors across the country to begin calling for a revival that in our day will sweep across America. We need a spiritual force so overwhelming it would be impossible to control—in part because so many fires would all be burning at the same time—110 in the Chicago area, another 110 around Atlanta, 110 more near LA, and at least 110 around New York and Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. In fact, there need to be flash points touching down everywhere across this continent.
For this kind of wildfire to begin and spread in America, today’s church needs to be convinced that the exponential power of revival is our nation’s only hope. It has to be confident that God is able to do something amazing and blazing in our day. If He could bring Nineveh to her knees through the preaching of one reluctant prophet, what might happen in our day with many willing servants of the Lord eager to minister on His behalf?
The church also needs to understand that apart from another great time of revival, this country faces terrible judgment. Since the beginning of the world, no nation has been allowed by God to sin with impunity. In other words, her citizens can’t live as though they will never have to pay for their evil. Even Israel, God’s chosen people, couldn’t get by with that.
The ancient warning of the prophet Amos is appropriate for our day as well. “Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.” It’s as though the man of God was saying, “Choose your fire—either revival or eventual destruction.” That’s what the options are, even if America is to become the beast in Revelation 13.
I say we should choose revival. But we don’t have unlimited options as to when that might be. Because our window of opportunity won’t remain open forever, we need to respond when God is calling.
You see, human beings aren’t as much in control of things as they sometimes think. Even in the matter of personal conversion a person is to respond when God calls. Said differently, the Lord is not under obligation to come at our convenience. We can’t expect the great God of the Universe to jump whenever we snap our fingers.
End of Short Preview for Sermon #7 | 
