JOINING GOD AT WORK - God Revives His People

Pray – (1/2 minute)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy seven male lambs and, as a sin offering, twelve male goats. All this was a burnt offerings to the Lord.” (Ezra 8:35)
      Passage: Psalm 25:1-15

Falling asleep in church is not unusual. Someone said that if you laid out everyone who falls asleep in church end to end . . . they would be a lot more comfortable. It’s one thing to get comfortable and fall asleep physically in church. It’s totally another thing for a believer and a church to fall asleep spiritually, because they have become comfortable and complacent in their lives.

Fifty eight years after the Temple had been rebuilt in Jerusalem, God’s people had slipped backward in complacency, comfort and compromise and had fallen asleep in their spiritual lives. God sent Ezra to Jerusalem and used him to help revive His people. The first thing Ezra did was to gather the people and lead them in worship. Burnt offerings meant that every part of the animal was burnt on their altar to indicate a total act of surrender toward God. That offering in worship prepared the way for the people to experience revival in their hearts. God wants to revive every believer and every church to be all they can be in His hands. He worked in Ezra’s day. He’s still doing it today.

Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)