Josh Howerton - This is How God Sparks Revivals (01/12/2026)
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Summary:
In this sermon from Nehemiah 7-8, the preacher describes a powerful national revival where God’s people hunger for His Word, leading to deep conviction, repentance, and overflowing joy. The key idea is that true revival always begins with returning to the authority of Scripture (Reformation), which sparks repentance and restores the joy of salvation. Ultimately, he emphasizes that God’s love and righteousness are freely received through faith in Christ, not earned—and this grace can transform anyone in a single day.
Introduction and Personal Note
All right, all right, good morning, LakePointe family. Now here’s the deal: I just need you all to know this—today is my and Jan’s 18th anniversary. Today, like right now, today! So our marriage can vote now. And, on top of that, my family is already sitting on a beach waiting for me. I moved my flight so I could preach this sermon. Okay, now you have to make it worth it! All right? Make it fun! Here we go.
The Series Context: Getting It Back
We are in this series, and I basically planned this entire «Getting It Back» series to get to this week. So here’s where we are: this is my last week preaching «Getting It Back, » and this is the week in Nehemiah where this whole time we’ve been talking about them getting back the power, the presence, and the anointing of God. You are about to read what has historically in church history been called—a story of Revival. That’s what you’re about to read. Nehemiah 7 and 8 is about a national Revival.
Defining Revival
Now, I need to explain what that is, and then we’re going to get right into it. Okay? Theologians historically distinguish between the ordinary operations of the Spirit and the extraordinary operations of the Spirit. Most of the time, it’s the quote-unquote «ordinary operations» of the Spirit. Most of the time, it’s like pastors are preaching the Bible, churches are discipling people, they’re meeting needs, you know, disciples are being made, people are being baptized. That stuff is ordinarily happening. But every now and then, in history, the God of Heaven decides to break open the floor of Heaven, and Heaven kisses Earth, and God decides to do something in days of His power that would otherwise take decades without His power. That is what we are getting ready to read about in Nehemiah 7 and 8.
The Bible as a Timeless Book
Now, before I even get into it, all right, I need you to know there are certain sentences that I say often because I want them to get on you—I want them to really get on you—and this is one of them: the Bible is not an old book, the Bible is a timeless book. So it doesn’t just tell us what happened, it tells us what always happens. This concept of Revival, Spiritual Awakening, like Supernatural Heaven touching Earth, is something that doesn’t just happen in the Bible; it has happened all throughout history. I’m going to give you three examples to kind of stir up our faith, and then I want to go all the way in. Okay? Here we go.
Historical Example 1: The 1857-1858 Revival in New York
On September 23, 1857, somebody put a sign on the outside of a church in the middle of downtown New York City. All the sign said was, «Prayer Meeting from 12:00 to 1:00. Stop 5, 10, or 20 minutes, or the whole hour as time permits.» At noon, there was one person praying. His name was Jeremiah Lamphere. By 12:30, one other person joined Jeremiah. By 1 p.m., there were six businessmen in the middle of downtown New York City praying together, and they looked around and said, «Man, the Lord met us! Let’s do it again next week.» The next week, there were 20 people. The third week, there were 40 people, and they decided this should happen daily. That prayer meeting in the middle of downtown New York City, in a matter of a few weeks, went from six businessmen to more than 5,000 people gathering every day to assault the Throne of Heaven for a move of God.
So many people began to want to pray that they had to establish rules to keep people’s prayers short because so many people wanted to pray and get into the room to pray. Eventually, 10,000 people were praying daily, and over the course of the next two years, a million Christians were added to American churches at a time when the entire population of New York City was not yet two million people!
Now maybe what I’m getting ready to say was the greatest miracle of them all, okay? It was such a powerful move of God that the New York Times—I’m just going to leave that right there—the New York Times in 1858 published this: «The Great Waves of Religious Excitement, which is now sweeping over this nation, is one of the most remarkable movements since the Reformation. Travelers relate that in cars and in steamboats, in banks and markets everywhere through the interior, this matter has become an absorbing topic. Churches are crowded, schoolhouses are converted into chapels, converts numbered by the scores of thousands. In this city, we have beheld a sight which not the most enthusiastic fanatic for church observances could ever have hoped to look upon. We have seen a business quarter of the city, the busiest assemblies of merchants, clerks, and working men, to the number of 5,000 gathered a day for simple and solemn worship. It is most impressive.» This is the New York Times.
«It is most impressive to think that over this great land, tens of thousands of men and women are putting themselves in a simple and serious way to the greatest question that can ever come before the human mind: What shall we do to be saved from sin?» The New York Times.
Historical Example 2: The Hebrides Revival
Now, fast forward just a few years to the 1940s. There’s a tiny little island in northern Great Britain called the Hebrides Islands. There were two women in their 80s—by the way, never underestimate the power of praying senior saints; never underestimate that! These two women in their 80s were grieved because they wanted to see a move of God among the young people in their city. So they decided to meet each other to pray, and they became gripped by this verse from Isaiah 44: «I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon dry ground.»
These two women in their 80s began to pray and continued praying until 3 or 4 a.m. Until eventually, a young man wandered into the church, stood up, confessed his sin, and fell down on the ground. This simple act of vulnerable devotion cracked open the floor of Heaven. The presence of God fell on the Hebrides Islands to the point that there was a tangible zone of the manifest presence of God. John Tyson talked about this encounter; the presence of God supernaturally rested on this island. Over 70% of the people converted during this revival didn’t even make it to a worship service; just the sense of God’s presence had people pulling their horses and carts over in ditches, coming under conviction and giving themselves to Christ.
Nearby, on another island, the presence of God tangibly extended out into the ocean so that there were reports of immigrants sailing around the top of England, passing around the top of Northern Ireland, and people on the boats were sending SOS messages to the shore saying, «People are coming under the conviction of the Spirit. Have a chaplain ready at the landing to lead them to Christ.» This did not happen for like a weekend or a day; this happened for three years on this island until theologians called it a «burned-out district.» In other words, every person who would be saved was saved. The only people who weren’t saved were people who were so hardened in their unbelief they were never going to be saved—a burned-out district.
Historical Example 3: The Jesus Movement in the 1970s
One more, I’m just curious. Make some noise: who has solid memories of the 1970s? Anybody? Where you at? All right, well, I said make some noise. That’s not a type of crowd that makes noise. Okay, that’s it. The 1970s!
In 1966, if you remember back—I don’t—there was the rise of secularism, especially on college campuses, the rise of atheism, the birth of the sexual revolution, experimental drug culture started to be a thing. Unbelief was just sweeping and rising in the United States to the point that the cover of Time magazine in 1966 asked the question: Is God dead? Now fix this in your heads; I’m coming back to it. So in 1966, Time magazine is asking the question: Is God dead? God, I think, took that personally.
In the midst of the 70s, here’s what was going on: you had racial tension, racial riots, rioting and looting, people distrusting the government—there’s radical gender, marriage, and sexuality ideologies on the rise—the sexual revolution, the rise of godlessness and unbelief. Does any of this sound familiar? Sometimes what God does is He shakes a culture so that everything that can be shaken is gone. The only thing that’s left are the things which can never be shaken. And God did that. This is what He did right here. He did that in the 70s, and there was this dude—so the presence of God broke through. There was this guy; his name was Chuck Smith—like not this young, hip, cool preacher. He was just an older guy in a tucked-in shirt—not like that. He was just preaching verse by verse through the Bible in California, and all these hippies started, you know, with sex, drugs, and rock and roll; they started hearing the love of God in the Scriptures and giving their lives to Christ.
They started coming to Chuck Smith’s church, and the people in the church—little traditional people—were like, «Man, like they’re not taking a lot of baths. They look a little shady. They’re barefoot and they’re walking in from the beach, so their feet are messing up our church.» So the people in the church demanded Chuck Smith stop them from coming because they were messing up the church. Chuck Smith had this beautiful solution. So the next week he showed up at the front door of the church with a basin of water, and he knelt down, and every single hippie that was there to hear about the love of Jesus, he personally hand-washed their feet on the way into the church.
What God did is this one simple act of devotion sparked the love of God. There was this outpouring of the Spirit, and so people by the hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands—all these hippies who were just sick of being degraded in this lifestyle—started coming to Jesus, and this mass movement for salvation happened in this hippie culture. This is a picture of Pirates Cove in California. You can see them all—these hippies holding up one finger—because that was like their motto. Their mantra became «There’s one way; Jesus is one way, the only way.»
There was an outpouring of the Spirit; 4,500 people were baptized in a day right there outside of this church! So many people were converted, it just swept all across the country—college campuses—so many people were converted that in 1966, Time magazine was asking the question: Is God dead? Five years later, in 1971, this was the cover of Time magazine: «The Jesus Revolution.» The Jesus Revolution sweeping the nation, and it culminated—y’all! It culminated right in our backyard in 1972. It was called Explo '72. This is a picture of it. It was the largest—it’s to this day the largest gathering of young adults in America—almost 100,000 converted hippies descending on the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. Y’all, Dallas, Texas—the largest gathering in history!
The Big Idea: God Reserves a Remnant for Revival
Now, let me ask this question: man, do you believe that can happen again? Man, yes! It has, and it will! The question is, who will experience it? Now what you’re getting ready to read in Nehemiah 7 and 8 is this: it’s a Revival. And here’s the big idea you have to understand: the big idea is that God always reserves a remnant for Revival. He always does.
Sometimes it feels like, man, people are walking away from the faith, but God reserves a remnant, and then He sparks the remnant for Revival. But here’s the big idea: it has requirements. There are things that God’s looking for where He’s like, «Okay, that’s it! I’m ready. Let’s descend.» So I want to walk through those because I’ll be really honest: man, I love seeing our church grow. I love seeing people saved. I love all the things. What I want more than anything else is to see a move of God in our generation. I want it so bad!
Requirement 1: Revival Starts with Reformation
So, let’s go. This is what we see in Nehemiah 7. Number one: requirement number one—Revival always starts with, I’m going to use a big theological word here—Reformation. Let me just say this: sometimes people are like, «Josh, you can’t use big theological words in church.» Man, my mentality is if you can learn the language to order at Starbucks, I can use theological language at church. That’s my mentality, so I’m going to do it, and you’ll figure it out, man. We’re big boys and girls in here.
Revival starts with Reformation. Now let me define these terms. Revival is a return to the Spirit of God. A Reformation is a return to the Word of God. These two things are always related: Revival and Reformation. You can’t have a Revival without Reformation because the Spirit of God authored the Word of God, so the Spirit of God operates in tandem with the Word of God. Listen, wherever the Word of God is not preached, the Spirit of God is not active. You have to have in your life, in a church, in a nation—a returning to the authority of the Word of God if you want to see a move of the Spirit of God.
This, in fact, is what triggers this thing in Israel in Nehemiah 8. Check this out. This is what it says: verse 1—"All the people came together as one in the square before the Watergate.» They told— I love it so much—they told Ezra, who was the preacher, the teacher of the Law: «Bring out the book! Bring out the book!» It’s like a chant, man! «Bring out the book! The whole arena’s full! Bring out the book!»
Now here’s what normally happens: the preachers beg the people to listen to the Word. I’ll just be honest, man. It’s like my whole life is like begging you to listen to the Word of God. We’ve got all these buildings, we do all the lights, and you know, we’ve got to have everything just right. We remind you on social media, and we’ve got the app. I’m constantly saying, «You’ve got to get into the Word!» When the Word—not the world—is the majority of your week, your life will start to change. We do all these things—the LP news—and we’re like reminding you, and we plan the services so they’ll be powerful and compelling.
I even like, when I write my messages, I write all the Bible teaching, and then at the end, I’m like, «Oh man, here’s where they’re going to get bored. Let me find a stupid little joke, » and I’ll put it right in here. I gotta, like, keep your attention, you know? And so what I’ve noticed is if we do everything just right, you attend 1.7 times per month. And if the service is 64 minutes instead of 62 minutes, it’s like 30% of you rush for the door at the end. We see you!
So this usually happens: the preacher is begging the people to listen to the Word. When a Revival happens, it flips: the people beg the preacher, «Give us more! We want more of the Word! Go teach! Go harder! Let’s get deeper! Man, give us the Word of God!» This happens right here in Nehemiah 8. So they beg him, «Bring out the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.» And he read it aloud—I love this—from daybreak till noon! It’s a six-hour sermon! I don’t want to hear any complaints anymore; that’s a six-hour sermon, man!
Now, I’ll just say this—I just need to point this out. A six-hour sermon—sometimes people are like, «Man, Josh, why do you preach so long?» You know, I’m usually 38 to 42 minutes, right in there, and I’ll be really honest: a lot of times, people are like, «Man, it’d be great if you could get it down to 25 minutes—that’d be more convenient, » and I’ll be really honest: it actually would be more convenient. We could turn our parking lots at our campuses faster, which means we could add more services easier, which means we could actually grow a little faster. It’s like, «Man, if you could just get it down to 25 minutes—what if you could just give us, like, three jokes, two verses, and a poem? That’d be awesome!» Man, that’s great, but—and I have literally tried; I’m still trying to figure out how to make it more concise. What I’m figuring out is I just can’t do it.
The reason I can’t do it is because I talk for a long time about the things that I love. If I love it, I want to talk about it. I’ll listen; if I love it, I’ll talk all day. You ask me about my family, I’ll talk all day! Man, I’m gonna tell you Elana is tumbling her way in; she’s a cheerleader for the Providence Lions, man! I’m loving it! I’m embarrassing her every single week! I’m having a blast! Man, Felicity’s got all A’s right now! I’ll tell you about how hard she’s absolutely crushing it!
We finally at least got Hudson to stop peeing in the front yard facing the street! It’s like, you know, it’s like baby steps, man! It’s like, I’ll talk about my family all day, all day long! Man, you want to talk about bass fishing? I’ll talk all day! Man, you want to talk about quarterbacks? Let’s talk about Joe Burrow’s ankle! I can give you the whole thing. «Lord, heal him right now, Lord; we need it right now today before noon! We need it!» I’ll talk about all that stuff! Man, we come in here, y’all, and we’re talking about this. This stuff matters! Man, this stuff matters, and I talk for a long time about the things that I love.
So here’s my assumption: you got your whole family up and fed and dressed. You got all the way over here, you managed a parking lot. You got down to your seat. You did all that work. I’m assuming you came because you wanted to hear the Word of God. That’s what I’m assuming you came to hear.
And so this is what they do: it’s like he tells them «daybreak until noon, » and as he faced the square before the Watergate in the presence of the men, women, and others who could understand, all the people listened attentively to the book of the Law, and Ezra, the teacher of the Law, stood on a—this is really important—high wooden platform built for the occasion. A high wooden platform built for the occasion.
Now, can I point this out? They built the platform so that the Word of God would be above the people. This is really, really important; you’ve got to get this. There are two ways for you to relate to the Word of God. Either the Bible stands in authority over you, and God’s Word looks down on your life, and it’s the authority, and the Bible says to you, «That’s right and that’s wrong, that pleases God, and that doesn’t. That will lead to life, and that will lead to death.» The Bible stands in authority over you and the Bible judges you.
What some people do is they want to put the Bible down, and I want to—there’s like for the illustration, I want to stand on it, but I literally cannot bring myself to stand on the Bible, so I’ll just do this—what some people do is they want to get over the Word and they look down to the Word and they judge the Word: «Ah, I like that, I don’t like that. That’s true, and that’s not. That’s good and that’s antiquated.»
But listen: you have to understand this! God does not bless people; God blesses a place. The place He blesses is under His Word. If you want your life to be blessed, put yourself under the authority of the Word. That’s where God commands His blessing! So this is what the people do: they build this high platform to say, «Man, the Word of God is our authority, » and they gather in front of it.
Now I need to say some things right here. I set them at a counter, but only half of our church was there. So I need—there’s something I need to say that I actually need to level-set. I’ll never have to say it again. Let me just move on to it. Man, you just need to know, I am going to unapologetically preach the Bible as it relates the whole Bible to the whole issues of our world. I am going to do that.
Now, here’s why I need to talk about this. What some people think is, «Man, in order to get a move of God, you actually have to avoid parts of the Word of God.» Like this is for real! I was coached this way when I started planting a church. I was started leading a church, I should say. People were like, «Man, if you want your church to grow, you need to avoid anything controversial and never preach anything higher than, like, a sixth grader could understand.» Okay?
Now, there are two problems with that. The first problem is like what the Word actually says. The Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians says, «Hey, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God, or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would no longer be a servant of Christ.» In other words, he’s saying if I’ve got to choose between offending you or omitting things the Word says and offending God, my choice has been made—it’s going to be you.
So number one, this is the Bible is the problem with that strategy. Here’s the other problem with that strategy: it doesn’t work! I just don’t think it works. What I have found, the longer I’m a pastor, is if you baby Christians—you get baby Christians. If you baby Christians, you get baby Christians. What I found is the opposite: that when we will preach the whole counsel of God to the whole issues of our world, here’s what I found: the harder I preach, the bigger we get because the Word of God attracts the people of God!
Now this is a part I just need—I need to say it once, and then I’ll just point back to what I said that one time in a sermon. Here’s like the objection that I’ll get now: I’ll get this is, «Man, Josh, sometimes you’re getting political. You’re getting political.» Okay! Now can I just say this? Y’all gotta understand: we live in a culture now, guys, everything is political! Everything, everywhere, is political! If I preach on loving and reaching the Hispanic community, I’m getting political. If I preach on race, I’m getting political. If I preach on gender dysphoria and gender, marriage, and sexuality, I’m quote-unquote getting political. If I preach on abortion and God’s limitless love and forgiveness to women who have had them, I’m getting political.
I targeted in a sermon three weeks ago, and you’re like, «Oh, you shouldn’t have mentioned that. Should me, what’s he going to do? You going to start talking about Bud Light next? What you going to do?» He’s going all in, man! So let me just say this: listen, I live in a world—we live in a world—I am pastoring in a world where everything is political. So if I want to avoid being political, I have to stop being biblical. I will not do that! I will not do that!
So listen, here’s what Nehemiah says: you want a move of God? Here’s what you do: open the book, tell people what it says. The Word of God attracts the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God attracts people! That’s how you get a move!
Now let me apply this to you personally. If you want Revival in your life, spiritual Awakening in your family—all these things, the blessing of God—you have to return to the Word. You have to have it! And you gotta understand this, man: something happens when you read! A Word gets on you, and it gets in you, and it starts to change you and change your family. That’s what the Word does!
Here’s why that happens: because the Word of God is not just a book; it’s living and active. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces the thoughts and intents of the heart! So when you start to read the Word of God, the Spirit of God gets active, and He releases His power into your life! That’s when your life starts to change! Like everyone who reads the Word—if you’ve been reading the Word at all with any level of surrender in your heart, you have had this experience!
What’s funny is everybody from different denominations, they call this experience different things, okay? Presbyterians—you know, the Presbyterians are quiet. I never ask them to make noise! Presbyterians, they’re like, «Here’s what they say: they call it illumination. Oh, the Spirit illuminated this to me in the text today.» Presbyterians, Baptists, they’ll say things like, «Oh, it stood out to me, this stood out to me while I was reading the Word today.»
People from a non-denominational background, they’ll say, «Oh, this verse, it just jumped off the page!» Our Pentecostal brothers and sisters, they’ll be reading it, and they’ll say, «I got a rhema word in the Scriptures today! Glory!» You know? God spoke to me! Gen Z young people, they say, «Sheesh!» You know, «Bussin!» You know, whatever it is! I don’t know, man! It was awesome! You know, whatever it is!
Now here’s the deal: they’re all talking about the same thing. They’re talking about the reality that when we read the Word, the Word reads us because it’s living and active! Guys, you can read a verse you’ve read a thousand times before and see something you’ve never seen before because the Holy Spirit is saying something to you He’s never said before. The Word is living and active!
Requirement 2: Reformation Results in Repentance
Okay, so number one—Revival requires Reformation. Okay, number two—Reformation results in Repentance. I’m going to use an old-school word we don’t use enough in the church anymore. This is a Bible word all throughout the Bible: repentance! Repentance from sin, conviction! This is a wonderful thing; there is a holiness without which no one will see God, the Bible says, and this is a good thing!
Check this out, Nehemiah 8:9. Watch what happens as he’s doing his six-hour sermon: «Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God. Don’t mourn or weep.’» They just started reading the Bible, and people in mass start weeping—for all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the law.
Now they’re weeping; this is a word the Bible calls conviction. Let me explain this, okay? Especially if you’re a new Christian, let me help you explain an experience you’re having—because the Holy Spirit is holy! When He gets around unholy things, He gets uncomfortable! Now when you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you, so now when you sin, the Holy Spirit inside of you gets uncomfortable, and that makes you uncomfortable! That’s called conviction!
Now watch this: conviction is the emotion, but the purpose of emotion is to put you in motion. So conviction is the emotion of grieving sin; repentance is the motion of turning away from sin. Now conviction—you’ve got to get this—it feels bad, but y’all, it’s so good because conviction leads to repentance! That means to turn, and repentance is an exit ramp off a highway that leads to death. Do you understand this? Sin leads to death!
Like, guys, when God gives us a command—when God says, «Don’t, » He means «Don’t hurt yourself!» God doesn’t give us commands because He loves rules; He gives us commands because He loves you! Watch this: sin—it leads to death! Think about what the Bible says about sin. James, the book of James says, «Sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.» The book of Genesis says that sin is crouching at your door; it desires to devour you!
Like, here’s my analogy: you guys ever seen those news stories of like somebody that was—they were keeping a wild animal, like big game—like a big cat? They were raising it, like a lion or a tiger in their house, and then eventually, like it grows up, it becomes an adult, and it eats their face off? And then they always do the interview with like the family member or the neighbor, and they’re like, «Man, I’m just so surprised. I can’t believe this happened. I don’t understand.» And I’m reading, I’m going, «I—yeah, I do! Because you were literally keeping a lion in your house!»
And lions don’t sit on laps; lions eat faces off! That’s literally what they were designed to do! You’ve got to understand this! This is how sin works! You think, «I’ll just keep it in its place; it’ll stay right there—the addiction, the thing; it won’t grow any bigger; it’s going to stay right there.» No, no, no! It’s going to get fully grown, and it’s going to eat your face off!
And conviction is when the Holy Spirit says, «That’s not who you are. You don’t have to do the things you used to do anymore, because in Christ, you’re not the person you used to be anymore!» And repentance is the action of turning away from this! Now, the worst thing about sin is not its consequences; the worst thing about sin is that sin forfeits the presence of God in our lives! That’s the worst thing! There is a holiness, without which no one will see God!
Here’s—so I’ve got Jan’s permission to tell this story on our anniversary, and I’m revealing how immature I was as a 22-year-old newly married man, okay? So the first year married—it just heads up for you guys who are getting married—when you get married, there are all these things from single life that you didn’t even think, «Oh, I might have to change that.» And then you get married, and you’re like, «Oh, I gotta change that.»
This is one of mine: okay, so we get married, and it’s like the first few months of marriage—it’s like the dawn of Facebook—it’s like five right? So like, I’m responding to all these DMs on Facebook from old college friends, and I’m responding to one of them. Jana walks in the room, and it’s a girl I’m responding to—it’s a girl! It’s a friend from college. Jana walks in, and she sees it, and she sees the profile picture, and she just says, «Who’s that?» The hair on the back of my neck just began to— I was like, «I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but it’s definitely something, and it’s not going to go well for me.»
You know, she’s like, «Who’s that?» and I’m like, «Oh, it’s just a friend.» And Jan’s like, «Oh, did you all ever date?» You know, and I’m like, «Man, I’m just going to be totally honest, » so I’m like, «Oh, we never dated! You know, she did want to for a little while, but we never dated; we’re just friends.» And Jan said, «Not anymore!» That’s what she said! She said, «Not anymore!»
Now I’m hearing some amens—some high-pitched amens is what I just heard, «Not anymore!» Now some of you right now, you’re like, «Oh, Josh, you all should be more progressive and enlightened, and she should have been okay with that.» Okay, not Jana! Jan’s a woman! And so Jan’s mentality was: «If I’m in, she’s out! If I’m in, she’s out!»
Now listen, there are those are feminine claps is what that is. That’s what that was right there! Now listen, guys, the Bible says that the church is the Bride of Jesus Christ, that we have been intimately wed to Him in a relationship, and there are things in our lives that God looks at, and He says, «If I’m going to be in, that’s out!» That’s repentance! That’s repentance!
And when we get rid of those things, we get more God! Repentance is understanding there’s not enough room in our lives for both God and sin. Repentance is getting rid of the sin so we can get more God. There is no Revival without repentance—there is none! So that’s number two.
Requirement 3: Repentance Restores Rejoicing
Now check this out for number three: is the best part! Repentance restores rejoicing. Repentance always leads to rejoicing. Check this out: Nehemiah 8: «Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people lifted their hands.» That’s biblical; You see that? They lifted their hands and responded, «Amen! Amen!» And they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
Now check out the joy language here: Nehemiah said, «Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord! Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.» Then all the people went away to eat and drink and send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.
Now some of you may be reading this, and you’re like, «Whoa! It sounds like they were weeping and rejoicing at the same time!» You’re right! Do you know why they were doing that? Because when the presence of God draws near, two realities become very hot in your heart: I am a great sinner, but He is a great Savior! I am a great sinner, but He is a great responder— weeping and rejoicing. But repentance always leads to rejoicing.
Now, you may be going, «Okay, Josh, so why are they so, like, just kind of jacked up with joy? Why is it?» Check this out, man; I love this so much! Okay, Israel had been in active disgusting rebellion against God for 142 years, but they were restored to the love of God in one day—in one day!
Now do you know why that is? I want to explain this, man; this is the best part of the sermon right here! I want to do you know why that is? Because the love of God is something that is received; it is not achieved! That is so—it’s the most important reality you’ll ever understand.
You guys, I don’t know how many of y’all are on TikTok; I’m gonna like not lose 90% of you and gain 10% of you, and I’m willing to pay that price! So I’m like scrolling TikTok the other day, and there’s this trend called «girl math.» Is yeah, yeah, I hear you! It’s girl math!
And so like, here’s the little video—it was like this girl in the department store with her friend, and she looks down, and she’s got these pants on that she loves. She looks at the price tag, and they’re $250 pants. At first she’s like, «Uh, you know, » but then she starts—you see her wheels turn, and like a lightbulb pops on, and she goes, «You know what, though? I’ll probably wear these pants like about 50 times, so they’re really like $5 per wear is what they are!»
And then her friend goes in the little video, her friend goes, «And that’s just the price of the coffee you get every day!» And then she goes, «Oh, you know what? When I wear these pants, I won’t get the coffee. These pants are free!» Okay? And you see that? That’s it! It went like #girlmath is what it did!
Now let me just say this: I don’t know anything about girl math! In fact, I am actively opposed to girl math! But I know a lot about God math! And here’s God math: you could have been in rebellion against your Savior for 142 years, 142 months, 142 days; you can be restored to His love in a single day! In a day! One day! Today! That can happen today!
Man, check this out! Because what the Bible says is when you place your faith in Christ, God doesn’t trade with you; Jesus trades you! Like He goes, «Give me all your sin; I’ll give you all my righteousness!» and I will impute my righteousness—the righteousness of God gets laid on top of you the minute you place your faith in Jesus so that now when God looks at you, He doesn’t see sinful you; He sees perfect Jesus!
So that’s why the love of God is received; it’s not achieved! In fact, this is why the Bible all throughout the Bible says calls everyone who’s placed their faith in Jesus—calls you a saint! Ephesians 2:19: «You are no longer strangers and aliens; you are saints and members of the household of God.»
Now let me finish it like this: I want you all to see this, okay? There are two ways to become a saint: there’s the Catholic way and there’s another way. Now Catholic, I love y’all, man! There’s a lot—I know there’s a lot; I hear from y’all a lot, man; there’s a lot of you! I love you! I’m not against you; I just need to correct some theology really quick!
Now what I got this—what I’m getting ready to do—I got from Joby Martin; he’s my preacher. I listen to him every Monday; I love this so much! So two ways to become a saint— the Catholic way or another way! Now in the Catholic Church, if somebody wants to become a saint, it’s a four-step process.
Step one: there has to be cause for your beatification and canonization, so somebody else has got to nominate you. And oh, by the way, you gotta be dead for five years! So like you don’t even get to find out if you made it—you know, it’s like kind of a bummer. So you gotta be dead for five years, and somebody’s gotta think, «Like, that dude was an awesome guy!»
Okay, if you get that, then step two is the Catholic Church creates a case, and they bring all this documentation of your heroic virtue to this big panel of people in funny hats, and they look at all your life; they kind of investigate everything. And all these Cardinals take a vote, and if you pass the vote, you become a «venerable servant of God.» If you pass step two.
Step three is a toughie: you gotta do a miracle! That’s a toughie! So it’s like, man, you gotta somewhere along the way have worked up a miracle, and if somebody claims you did a miracle, like they take this real serious. They get everybody together; they like do a bunch of interviews and eyewitnesses. It’s like Christian Mythbusters. They get all up into it. They look at all this stuff and do interviews. If they’re like, «Man, he/she/they actually did a miracle, “ then they do all these interviews, and they vote. If you pass step three at the vote, step four—it’s like, man! You got over one hump!
Step four is you gotta do a second miracle! It’s like, „Man, I already did a miracle!“ It’s like trying to work up another miracle! Now if you get two miracles, you’re a pretty good guy! You’ve been dead five years, and the Pope can perform a ceremony of canonization, and you become a saint. And when you become a saint, that means they are positive that you’re in heaven, and two, your job as a saint is to help people who are still on Earth. That’s why Catholic people pray to saints! Like, „Man, the Lord’s probably a little busy, and so I’m going to pray to this saint; he’s probably got a little more time on his hands; I’m going to do that!“
Okay? Now, there are—in the Catholic Church—there are patron saints for like all kinds of stuff. I love some of these; they’re funny! There’s a patron saint of accountants in April! You can—that’s who you need to figure out! All you accountants, call that saint! There’s a patron saint of abdominal pains, okay? It’s like State Fair; some of y’all have been having too many Fletcher’s corn dogs; this is the patron saint you need! This is who you need!
There’s a patron saint of bachelors, and there’s ten of them; so sing, dude! There are ten guys in heaven trying to get you a date—that’s what that means! Okay? There’s a patron saint of breastfeeding—amazing, wonderful, beautiful! There’s a patron saint of clowns, a patron saint of dentists, a patron saint of gallstones. There is a patron saint of hangovers—early services! There are people like, „Oh man, God, yes! Amen! Amen!“ Here’s one of my favorites: there’s a patron saint of unattractive people. That guy is helping more people than y’all realize—he is!
There’s a patron saint of spas, and here’s what’s awesome about this one—this is no joke. The patron saint of spas is John the Baptist! Do y’all—that’s the least Spa guy in the whole Bible! Like John the Baptist, like never shaved, wore camel’s hair, ate grasshoppers! That’s the least spa guy in the whole Bible, okay? There’s a patron—he didn’t cuss; I don’t know why I threw that in there; take that out. There’s a patron saint of anything that goes boom—Michael Parsons—patron saint!
There’s a patron saint of disappointing children! I’m G; move right on! There’s a patron saint—no, I’m no joke—there’s a patron saint for girls from rural areas. There’s a patron saint for girls that are forny campus! That’s what that means! That’s amazing, man!
Now here’s your amen moment: it can take you a long time to become a saint that way, and you’re going to have to work really hard and be really good, and it may take you 142 years, or there’s a shortcut! You can, in one moment, place your faith in Jesus Christ and receive His perfect righteousness! And in that moment, every sin you’ve ever committed is gone, and His righteousness is imputed on you, and you are seen by God as perfect and beloved in His sight!
Listen, guys, God loved, so He gave! And if you believe, you will receive! Some of you are like, „Yeah, yeah, man, but like, Josh, you don’t understand what I’ve done.“ No, no, no! You don’t understand what He did! He stretched out His hands and had nails go through His hands and ankles, and He was crucified for your sin, canceling the record of death that was held against you so that now God sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus for anybody who places their faith in Him!
You may be going, „Yeah, Josh, but you know, it’s too late!“ I’ve already done it; I messed up! Listen, it’s too late to prevent it! It is never too late to reverse it and redeem it by the power of the Holy Spirit! That’s never too late for that, man! So God loved, so He gave! And if you believe, you will receive! And that can happen today! And some of you that needs to happen, like, today!
Altar Call and Response
And so right now at all of our campuses, I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes right now. And some of you right now, you’ve been hanging out here, man; it’s getting on you; something’s changing inside of you! You’re like, „Man, something’s happening to me, “ and you’re realizing that you need to cross a line of faith and give your life to Christ.
And if that’s you, then I just want you to pray this prayer with me from a sincere heart right now, silently in your seat. Just like whisper it to God: just say, „God, I know I’m a sinner and that I’ve put other things besides You first, but I believe that You died for my sin. I believe that somehow, in some way, the cross counted for me! And from a sincere heart, pray this: from this day forward—as best as I know how—I will live for You first! Thank You, God, for adopting me as a son or a daughter! I receive the free gift of Your salvation apart from anything I’ve ever done, simply as a gift.“
Now without saying amen, keeping your heads bowed and your eyes closed, man, if you prayed that prayer to cross a line of faith today-man, on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand! I want you to raise your hand like you mean it; like lock that elbow, man!
And here’s why I’m saying that: it’s because something solidifies in you spiritually when you respond physically. So on the count of three, you’re crossing a line today! One, God loves you! Two, you came here for a reason today! Three, right now, wherever you are, I want you to raise your hand right now, like real high; like lock that elbow, man! Like, „Man, I’m coming home! Yeah, man, I’m crossing the line today; I belong to Jesus! I receive that gift right now in your seat!“ Man, wow! Wow, man! Amen! Amen! Amen!
Hey, Lake, y’all put them down! Lake One family, can we celebrate with like dozens and dozens and dozens of brothers and sisters who are coming home? Man, amen!