RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Revival and Evangelism: The Fuel for Revival
I want to welcome you to this third week of revival and evangelism. I pray that this study is just setting your heart on fire to reach people for Christ. That God is renewing your heart – renewing your life and that there’s a great work that’s taking place.
Today we’re going to talk in this first day of the third week of this study guide that we’re going through .. we want to look at prayer as the fuel for evangelism. There’s something that prayer does. It’s like .. it lights .. it’s the fuel that causes the fire to burn. Now, the fire is the work of the Holy Spirit within us but that fuel for that fire is prayer. And so God wants us to make sure we have plenty of fuel so that that fire can burn brightly. And when we put the right kind of fuel on there’s no limit to what might happen.
In fact, my ministry was actually begun in a revival and one of the reasons that I have such a burden for revival and evangelism and the way that they work together is because of a revival that began in Monroe, Louisiana. I mentioned this to you in the first week but I want to give you a little bit more detail about it.
There was a pastor by the name of L.L. Morris in Monroe, Louisiana. And he had a burden for the young people .. the young people weren’t coming to church and it was a small church and he said, “Sammy, I just believe God wants to do something among the young people in our church.”
So I said, “Pastor Morris .. let’s pray and I’m willing to do it.”
And he said, “I’ve been praying and I believe God wants to do something.” So he asked me to come and meet with the young people. I did .. and to be honest, there was no interest. Only a handful of young people .. they could care less and I thought to myself – this is not going to work.
And I said, “Pastor Morris, the young people aren’t interested in this.” He said, “I’ve been praying.” He had a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face and he said, “Sammy, God’s going to do something.”
Well, we went and that first night I preached .. there was a .. we sang .. there were about 25 people there .. and nothing happened. I looked at pastor Morris and wanted to say, “I told you so.”
But he had that smile on his face and the twinkle in his eye – and I knew what he was thinking. He had been praying and so we went back the next night, I preached again, nothing happened.
But after the service closed, a man came to the front and he said, “Pastor, I just need to make things right with God. I’m a leader of the young people and I’ve been a poor testimony to them.” And he just wept and was broken .. and he asked the church to forgive him. And in that moment, God came and moved.
Well, by the time Friday night got there, there wasn’t room in the church for the people. Then Saturday and Sunday, I had to walk blocks to get to the church. And God was moving in such a mighty way.
Pastor Morris came and said, “Sammy – we’ve got to continue these meetings but we don’t have enough room in the church – let’s move to the university campus.” We moved on the university campus and there wasn’t enough room there.
We went from that building to another building – and then he said, “Sammy, let’s go talk to the former governor of Louisiana who owns the local television station.” I said, “Okay – but I don’t think he’s going to do anything for us.” He said, “I’ve been praying and God’s going to do something.”
We went and talked to the governor and he gave us two 15 minute programs to do whatever we wanted to. And oh, I want to tell you what – God moved in that city .. the last night of that meeting that started with 25 people ended up in the civic center with thousands of young people coming. The hardest drug dealer in the whole region came to Christ. She was a young lady who was totally strung out on drugs .. Jesus Christ set her free .. liberated her .. she was free from that day until the day .. actually, she’s already passed away .. but she was set free and God came and changed her life.
Young people .. there were racial tensions and black and white students who had been at each other all of a sudden made peace with one another. And God moved in a mighty way. Thousands of young people’s lives were transformed
Why? Because you see, prayer is the fuel that is poured into the hearts of people. As you pray, the Holy Spirit takes that fuel and He lights a fire and it can spread throughout a community and ultimately what happens is that it releases the glory of God. And God’s glory is known – and that’s what revival is.
Revival is when God is being glorified in our lives. Revival is when God’s glory is made known in a community. Revival is when the glory of God is in a church and so the fuel that is placed for the fire to burn is prayer.
So I want to encourage you to pray as you have never prayed before. Pray for the glory of God – let that be the end for what you pray – and watch – what God – will do.