2024
Revive Us
Passage: Psalm 85
“Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands…We want still to be in charge, guiding the chariot through the religious sky in the direction we want it to go, shouting ‘Glory to God,’ but modestly accepting a share of the glory for ourselves in a nice inoffensive sort of way.”
— A.W. Tozer
SERMON OUTLINE:
- What is Revival?
- How can we have Revival?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
John Wesley wrote, “Where is the joy I knew / When first I saw the Lord?” We come to feel the creases of life in disillusions with work, sickness or aging bodies, and fractured relationships. How have you wrestled with the impact of these “creases of life” on your joy in the Lord?
Read Psalm 85. What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in this psalm? What phrases stand out to you that help shape your understanding of God’s character and your identity as a child of God?
What has shaped your understanding of revival in the Christian faith?
Revival cannot be scheduled, does not necessarily include extraordinary signs and wonders, but is real and addressed in the Bible. What does Psalm 85 specifically teach us about revival in our lives?
Revival is a movement of God in the church that is spiritual, moral, and communal. How are these aspects reflected in Psalm 85?
In verse 8 the psalmist declares, “I will listen to what God the LORD says.” To listen like this, we need silence, we need to hear God through his Word, and we need to seek understanding and engaging with God’s Word to us. What does this kind of listening look like in your life?
Verses 1-7 remember how God has been faithful and calls out to God to do it again! Christian Missionary Sammy Tippit wrote, “Revival is not the discovery of some new truth. It’s the rediscovery of the grand old truth of God’s power in and through the Cross.” Consider the relationship between remembering and receiving the joy of the Lord. What do we need to remember in order to revive in us God’s peace, salvation, and restoration? What hinders or encourages this kind of remembering in your daily life?
PRAYER
Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?
Zephaniah 3:17 / “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”