The Water Gate Revival

Let's all remain standing, if you are standing, if not, if you would stand to join us at all of our campuses for the reading of God's Word this morning. Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 1, and all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra, the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women, those who could understand in the years of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra, the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made just for this purpose. Beside him stood Methataiah, Shema, and Ananiah, Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Masaiah on his right hand, and Bediah, and Mishael, and Malkijah, Hashim, Hashabaranah, Zechariah, and Meshulam on his left hand. That's tough, right? And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people. And as he opened it, all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, amen, amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, here we go again, Bono, and Sherb, the J-man, AK, Shabby, Hottie, Macy, K-Lit, Ozzy Osbourne, Big Bad Joe, Han Solo, P-Dawg, and the Levites. Honestly, their names are way easier. Helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God indeed. You may be seated.

What a great morning, and what a great thing for us to celebrate this morning. Not just God's faithfulness to us over the years, but God's faithfulness to us through people like Chris and Michelle Gaynor. Well, find Nehemiah 8 in your Bibles, if you will, if you haven't already found that passage. And if you did not bring a Bible, no worries at all. I always put the text on the screen here for you. But if you don't have a Bible, we would love to gift you one. So you just stop by the Next Steps area at any one of our campuses on your way out, and we will gladly give you one, our gift to you. Just stop by and ask them for one. And then next week, when I say, open your Bible to Nehemiah 9 or something like that, you can open it with us. But this morning, Nehemiah chapter 8, June 17th, 1972, does that date mean anything to you? That is not the date Chris Gaynor started working at this church. It's close. But June 17th, 1972, was the date that five Republican operatives were caught rifling through some filing cabinets and planting a few listening devices in the Democratic Party campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C. What they were doing was not all that uncommon. Operatives from both parties had done similar things to each other over the years. But this time, investigators followed a cash trail that led back to the Oval Office itself. And that led to the discovery of a secret recording system that proved that President Nixon knew about the whole thing. Within two years, the Watergate scandal had become one of the biggest governmental scandals in U.S. history. And it led to the resignation of a sitting U.S. president, the only time that has ever happened. Watergate, historians say, was not just a scandal, Watergate was a defining moment for our nation.

Now, when we hear the term Watergate, we think of corruption uncovered. We think of a nation shaken and a turning point in American history. This morning, I'm going to do my best to redeem the words Watergate for you. Because in Nehemiah chapter 8, we come to another Watergate. A Watergate that was also a defining moment for a nation. But not because something scandalous that was hidden had been exposed, but because something precious that had been long neglected was brought back into the light. Nehemiah chapter 8 tells the story of the most significant revival in Israel's history since the days of King Solomon. It's called the Watergate revival because it occurred in a little public square right in front of the newly rebuilt. water gate, the gate through which people left the city every morning to go fetch water from the Gihon Spring, which was Jerusalem's primary water source. This chapter, Nehemiah 8, is a case study in revival, identifying five elements of any true revival, whether corporate or individual. There are actually more than five in this chapter, but through a sheer act of homiletic self-discipline, I'm going to limit myself to five. If you download the transcript, you're welcome. You can check out the other bonus ones that I left out. Some of these elements that I'm going to give you this morning are prescriptive, meaning they are things that we can and should do to bring about revival. Others, however, are descriptive, meaning they are things that only God can do. You see, revival happens as a combination of us doing what we are supposed to do,

and then God sovereignly choosing to move. When I was growing up in church, revival was a week-long event we put on our yearly calendar. And if the pastor felt like we were especially carnal one year, then we'd have both a spring revival and a fall revival. Our normal church attendance rhythm in the church I grew up in was three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, three to thrive, baby. But during revival week, we went to church every single night so we could hear sermons about the rapture and why Jimmy Carter may or may not be the Antichrist. Our philosophy in general was that if we were in church all the time, you just wouldn't have time to sin. It's like I've told you before, the only drug problem I had growing up was getting drugged to church on a continual basis. Now, I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. How many of you grew up in a context like this one? Raise your hand. Okay, a lot of familiar people out there. The truth is, however, revival is not based on a calendar. Revival is based on conditions and God's sovereign choice to move. So I'm going to give us a few things that we can do, but then ultimately we look to God for what only he can do. By the way, if you're new with us,

the book of Nehemiah that we are studying through chapter by chapter is the story of the rebuilding of the city walls of Jerusalem that occurred around 445 BC, so about 2,500 years ago after the end of the Jewish exile. Nehemiah had led the third wave of the Jewish return to Jerusalem after the exile was over. Zerubbabel and Ezra had led the first two waves. That's the book of Ezra. They rebuilt the temple and reestablished the city. Nehemiah was a Jewish official serving under Persian King Artaxerxes who became burdened by the dilapidated state of Jerusalem's walls. The city's there, the temple's there, but they have no protection, and so he leads an effort to rebuild them. Nehemiah experienced intense opposition from enemies both external and internal. That is Nehemiah chapter one through seven. But Nehemiah, by the time we come into chapter eight, he has prevailed and the walls are finished. However, the inhabitants of Jerusalem now face an even bigger need than rebuilt walls. And that bigger need that they face is the need for spiritual renewal which sets the stage for chapter eight where the focus shifts from rebuilding the walls with bricks and cement

to rebuilding the people with God's word. I'm gonna give you five incredibly powerful elements of spiritual renewal. And by the way, throughout the day, I'll be using the words renewal and revival interchangeably because they mean the same thing. Five things that will bring about spiritual renewal or five evidences renewal is happening. Number four, by the way, people never see coming. Element number one. Element number one is hunger. Verse one, chapter eight. I want you to notice that it's the people who took the initiative in this revival. Verse one says, the people gathered as one man and the square before the water gate. And they, the people, told Ezra, the really old scribe, bring us the book of the law. I love that phrase, bring us the book. You see, this revival wasn't a program put forward by Nehemiah. It wasn't an event he scheduled. It happened when the people said, bring us the book. True revival happens when people hunger for the book. Y'all, I remember when I first became a Christian, how hungry I was to hear God's word. I just could not get enough of it. I was 16 years old. I started to listen to sermons all the time. I basically stopped listening to music,

and 80s music at that, which was the greatest decade of music in human history. Am I right? But I was a 16 year old driving around in my car, listening to preaching tapes and Christian preaching stations. Now, I'm not saying that's the way it has to manifest in your life, but I'm telling you, whenever somebody gets spiritually awakened, they develop a. hunger for God's word. Like I heard a story about a young single guy in our church and y'all, I've heard so many different versions of this story about so many different people at our church, but this young guy came to one weekend to our Apex campus. He sat on the back row so that he could slip out if he got bored. The row was empty when he first sat down, but because it was his first time here, he had not learned the rules of the Summit Church yet, which means a bunch of y'all choose to come in eight to 10 minutes after we start, which sometimes annoys me, but God sovereignly used it in this case so that to his dismay, his row filled up all around him so he could no longer slip out without making a scene, so he was forced to stay for the sermon. God used it to get ahold of his heart, and he told me that within the space of two years after that Sunday, he had gone back and listened

to every single sermon on our website twice. He knew my stories better than I knew them. He would even ask me about stories like, hey, you told this two different ways. Which of these two versions is correct? I remember he asked me, he said, why are there no sermons on our website pre-2008? And I was like, because I'm embarrassed of those sermons. I'm not even sure that guy was saved, to be honest. The point is this guy couldn't get enough of the word. Revival doesn't begin with a better strategy. It begins when people say, bring us the book, and that is because of one very simple biblical principle. And that principle is that the spirit of Jesus only comes and only moves where he is intensely wanted. John Tyson, who was here with us a few weeks ago at our men's conference, said something at Passion 2025 when I was there that I will never forget. He pointed out something very striking about Jesus's life, namely that Jesus did not do many miracles in the little town of Nazareth, even though Nazareth was his hometown. The place that Jesus grew up in was Nazareth. The place where many of Jesus's favorite people would have lived was Nazareth. His relatives lived there, his childhood friends lived there, his elementary school teachers lived there, and yet Jesus did very little of his ministry there and almost no miracles.

If you had to choose a place in scripture where Jesus hubbed his ministry, his virtual hometown was a place called Bethany. That's where he raised Lazarus from the dead. Bethany was the place from which Jesus commenced his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Bethany was the place Jesus returned to every night of the final week of his life. The last bed he slept in was in Bethany. Bethany is also the place Jesus went after the resurrection. Bethany was the place Jesus ascended back to heaven from. Why would he make Bethany his ministry hub and not Nazareth, especially since Nazareth was his hometown? Well, Matthew 13, 58 tells you directly. Jesus didn't do many mighty works there in Nazareth because of their unbelief in Nazareth. They said things like, wasn't that just the carpenter's son? You see, Bethany, by contrast, that was the place where Mary broke the expensive bottle of perfume over his feet. That was the place where she washed his feet with her tears and dried him with her hair. Bethany is where Mary and a lot of other people sat at his feet, hungry for anything and everything he had to say. And so Jesus established his functional home in Bethany, not Nazareth, even though Nazareth was his actual hometown. And that's because Jesus does not go merely where he's known, John Tyson says,

he goes where he's wanted. The same thing is true with Jesus of spirit today. Wherever revival happens, it is preceded by a hunger for God's word, an intense hunger where you want the presence of Jesus spirit in your life more than you want anything. It's why you fast, by the way, because you declare, I would rather have God's word than food. You are praying with your body. I am more hungry for your spirit than I am this meal. Without hunger, there will be no revival. Revival does not happen until everything in your life screams, bring us the book. So here's my question. Is your attitude toward the word of God, is it hungry or is it casual? Are you Bethany or are you Nazareth? And listen, I can tell you if your primary engagement with the word of God is coming in here every other weekend to hear a sermon, I can answer that question for you. It's casual. You might know Jesus. You might know a lot about Jesus, but do not expect him to do any miracles in your life because you're Nazareth and Jesus only shows up in Bethany. You might know him, but you don't hunger for him. That leads me to number two, our second element of spiritual renewal, preaching. Ezra verse four, the very elderly scribe

who had led the second wave of return from exile. Now, crazy old now. They built a little. Elevated platform right there in the new public square. And there it says he read from the little platform facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and all those who could understand because all the kids were off doing the kids ministry stuff and all the older kids were there and that's who he preached to. He built this little elevated platform and taught from in the people sat there literally all day long, hungering and hanging on every word. That elevated platform served two purposes. The first purpose was functional. It made everybody able to hear it. But the second purpose and the more important purpose was symbolic. The word of God was the elevated centerpiece of this renewal. By the way, verse eight in this chapter gives my favorite definition of preaching in the Bible. You Bible teachers, listen up, okay? I consider this to be my job description. It is the job description of any Bible teacher. Here's what verse eight says. They, talking about Ezra and his fellow preachers. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly

and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. That is literally what I attempt to do every single weekend up here. I read from the book, I give you the sense of it, meaning I explain it, I try to put it in terms you can understand. I tell you stories to help illustrate it and then I do my best to help you apply it to your lives. You see, it is not merely, you're welcome. It is not merely hearing the word that helps you. It's understanding the word that helps you. When I was a missionary in an Islamic country, many of my Muslim friends over there believe that just hearing the sound of the Quran, which they believe to be the word of God, had a converting power on your soul. So I was always get invited to go with them to somebody's house to hear reading from beautiful Al-Quran. It was their way of trying to convert me. They'd be like, you want to hear beautiful Al-Quran? I'd be like, do I have to? And they'd be like, yes. So we go sit in a room and somebody would read the Quran in Arabic. And while I was listening, they'd always be cutting eyes over at me, looking over to see if it was having any kind of effect on me.

But of course it had no effect because I couldn't understand it. And get this, most of them also could not understand it because they couldn't speak Arabic either. Most of them had never read the Quran in a language that they could understand, but to them that didn't matter because it's just hearing it, being in its presence, they believe that has the effect. It is what we call a sacramental view of the word of God. Just being in contact with it infuses grace into your soul. The Bible presents itself quite differently. It is not hearing the word or just being in its presence that converts you as if it has some kind of sacramental effect on you. It is understanding it. In fact, Old Testament commentator, Derek Kidner, points out how many times the word understanding is used in this chapter. Did you notice that? It's used in verse two, verse three, verse seven, verse eight. Understanding, Derek Kidner says, is everything. And that is because the Bible consistently says, get this, that faith is the center of the Christian life. Galatians 3.3 says, as clear as you can say it, that faith is the vehicle through which all of heaven's blessings flow into your life. And it goes on to say that faith only grows in your heart as you hear and understand God's word.

Romans 10.17 says the same thing. If you're jotting down references to look up later and want to check me out on this, jot those two down, Galatians 3.3, Romans 10.17. You can spend the whole week meditating on them. I was talking with somebody who visited our church recently and this was absolutely fascinating to me. Their only experience in church before coming to see us had been a high liturgical church where they were actually really regular. In this case, it was the Roman Catholic church. And so I asked them how they liked our service, which is always a dangerous and entertaining question for me to ask somebody. One of the things they said really struck me and I thought it was so incredibly insightful. The guy said something to the effect of this. He said, well, in this church, the center of everything is obviously the word. The largest single portion of the service is devoted to the word. You literally stand on an elevated platform in the center of everybody. There's not even any crosses or any kind of stuff behind you that I can see, but you stand there, you read the text, you put it on the screen, and then you explain how it applies to my life. That is the first time in church, and I've gone almost every week of my life,

that is the first time in church I've ever experienced anything like that. Previously in my church experience, there was always a time where the word of God was read, but it was always way shorter. And the guy who read it literally stood off to the side and he didn't really explain what he was reading or show me how it applied to my life. The main part of the service in many of those high liturgical kinds of churches is not the word, it's the sacrament. That's why the altar and not the pulpit is at the center. center. And it's why it doesn't usually matter how much you understand the word, just being in contact with it, being in its presence. That's what does the trick for you. The Bible teaches by contrast, that salvation and renewal only happen through faith. And faith only comes through hearing and understanding God's word. Faith, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1017 comes through hearing. And by hearing there, he means understanding. And we know that because in the previous verse, Romans 1016, he explained that hearing can only come through those who were sent to preach people like Ezra, people like me, who read clearly and then explain God's word. So summit, hear me, as God gives me grace. As long as I am your pastor, the center of this church will always be this book and this moment right here. Because this is everything. And I'm gonna do my best. I'm gonna do my best as God gives me grace to make sure that what you hear every week is not my uncle JD's wise thoughts about life, or funny stories about my kids, or one day my grandkids, what you're going to hear week by week is

this book, because this book and this book alone is the source of revival and renewal. Hearing the word, understanding it, putting faith in it is what brings life into you. It's like Pastor Brian said last weekend, this is more than just a textbook for us. It's more than the biography of great men and great women of history. This book is literally Theo Neustadt, Second Timothy 316, literally the breath of God. Think about other places you've seen the breath of God. Genesis 1, God breathed, then he spoke the world's into existence. In the gospels, Jesus breathed and spoke and the lame walked, the blind saw, dead men came out of graves. This book is literally the breath and the voice of God. And that means when you hear it and you encounter it and you do so with understanding and faith, spiritual life and renewal flow into you. You don't come to listen to the wisdom of a man or to be caught up in the lights and the sounds of a moment. You come to hear the word of God. In fact, I was reminded this morning, just about a year and a half ago, we were on a mission trip in Germany, and it was also a reformation tour. A lot of you were on that same trip with me. And one of the things we went into were all these big, huge Lutheran churches in Germany that had been built out the reformation. Most of them were built about a hundred years after Luther. The thing that's amazing about them and tragic is that they're all empty on Sunday morning. And the tour guy was explaining, he's like, yeah, he says, you know, people just don't come anymore. They built these huge Lutheran churches. They tried to compete with the beauty of the Catholic churches. So basically what you got is a different version of the same thing as they thought if people don't have all the beauty and all the sights and smells, then they're not going to come. So

they did that. Now he says they're completely empty on Sunday morning. And in fact, to get them, a lot of these, we'd see advertisements for art shows on Sunday. That was a way to try to get people into the churches. And I'm sitting there listening and thinking how tragic, because Luther's strategy was not bigger and wider and beautiful churches. Luther just, we'll go back and read his stuff. He basically read the Bible. He talked about talking to the poor people in the milk mains. He opened it, he explained it, and he yelled at everybody. Like that's what caused the reformation. You want to know what causes reformation in anything. It's not how awesome the music is or the smoke or the lights or this building. It is simply opening the Bible and preaching from it. That is the center of any movement of God. The first element's hunger. Second element's preaching. The third element is conviction. Conviction. Verse six says that as Ezra read, and he gave people understanding, all the people answered, amen, amen, lifting up their hands. They bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. The word didn't stay in their heads. It penetrated their hearts. And that manifested in a physical response. Soapbox warning. Okay. People say to me, I don't like it. People shout amen, lift up their hands, do demonstrable things in worship. I like quiet, somber, reflective moments. Fine. There is a time for somber, quiet, reflective moments. You're meaner than I am. Okay. But I'm just gonna tell you right now, if you don't approve of any of the amen, shout and hand raise and fall on your face dimensions of worship, I don't think you would have enjoyed Nehemiah's revival very much. And not to be rude, I'm not sure how much you're going to enjoy heaven either. Because

I'm telling you, there's a lot of that stuff happening up there too. The preaching of God's word gripped them and moved them deeply and their whole bodies manifested that. Verse 9 tells us that they began to mourn and weep for their sins. They were deeply cut to the heart. When revival comes, truths you know with your head suddenly begin to feel them in your heart. Hear me. Listen, revival does not usually come through new things that you learn. Revival comes when old things become alive in your heart. Jonathan Edwards, who oversaw the first Great Awakening in America, largest spiritual revival in American history. So much of our country, so much of your church experience was shaped by what happened in the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards described revival as the difference between knowing with your head that honey is sweet and then having that sweetness burst alive on your taste buds for the first time. You see, it's not common to us because every kid from the time they're two years old is sucking on a, you know, sucker and they know sweetness. But in those days, that was a rare treat. And you remember the moment when propositionally you had been told something is sweet and it suddenly becomes a reality in your mouth. Before, I knew what sweetness was. I understood the concept of it, but now I have a taste of it and a sense of it. He said, that's what revival is. Here's how he described it in his own life. Watch this. Sometimes, he said, only mentioning the name of Christ or an attribute of God will cause my heart to burn within me. He's not talking about learning something new.

He's talking about just an old truth that comes alive. Suddenly, God appears glorious to me. When I enjoy this sweetness, it seems to carry me outside of myself. I cannot even bring myself to take my eyes away from this glorious object. Revival, he said, is not the product of a new means of grace. It's a greater degree of the ordinary means of grace. Things like preaching and prayer. See, and I point that out because in a lot of circles, I picked on my more liturgical friends a moment ago. Let me pick on the other side now. In a lot of churches, revival is associated with something new. Some new weird thing the spirit is doing. Some fresh way he's working he's never worked before. Some new song he's singing. Scriptural revivals don't work that way. There's no new ways, there's the old ways. That suddenly become effective. The Word of God is preached, just like at other times, but it suddenly comes alive in people's hearts. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor turned pastor in London. He'd grown up in the Welsh revivals of the early 19th century. And Lloyd-Jones said that most of us don't crave revival, even though we sit in church most of our life, because we just don't know what we're missing. We've just grown accustomed to how difficult ministry is, how slowly it seems to move. Here's what he said. Dr. Lloyd-Jones said, he said, our problem is getting to a place where we realize how absolutely impotent we are. At first, he says, we persist in thinking. We can set the situation right.

We just write a new book. We need a new book that really answers everybody's question. Preach some better sermons. You're like, amen. Start some new mission works. Adopt a new program. This, we think, will stem the tide of the enemy. But then we come to realize at long last that it's just not working. At least it's not working effectively to stem the tide, save our children or our community. And so, we throw ourselves upon the mercy of God. Not so much an organized prayer meeting, he says, or prayer emphasis, not 40 days of prayer and fasting. Not so much that as it is an act of desperation. And then and only then does the power of the Holy Spirit come flooding upon us and into us. Watch this. He does in a moment what incremental organization could hardly accomplish in half a century. God does in a moment. Watch that. What incremental organization could hardly accomplish in half a century. Dr. Lloyd-Jones is using imagery there from Psalm 126, which was, catch this, a psalm written during the time period of Nehemiah. The writer of Psalm 126 wasn't King David like a lot of the other psalms. The writer of Psalm 126 is laying out the path of spiritual renewal. The psalm is really, really short and it directly corresponds to the time period we're studying. So, let me walk you through it really fast. Here's the way it reads.

Psalm 126, verse 1, when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. They said, among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. Well, you know what he's talking about? He's talking about the joy they had when they returned from exile to a newly restored Jerusalem. It's like a dream. It's too good to be true. It's amazing. God has restored us. Awesome. But then verse 4, the psalmist yearns for something more. Restore our fortunes, Lord. I thought you just said you did restore your fortunes. Yeah, I'm talking about something else. Restore our fortunes like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Verse 5, verse 6, those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, shall return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. Old Testament scholar, Derek Kidner, points out that in these verses, the psalmist identifies two distinct ways that God. brings about spiritual renewal. Watch this. The first way that God brings spiritual renewal is in verse five, sowing with tears. The desert region of Israel, just outside of Jerusalem, was called the Negev. Things like Sahara, but their version of it's the Negev, is very difficult to get any seed to grow there.

This is an actual picture of the Negev. There's a little plant growing in there. The psalmist is imagining soil so arid, so dry, that every seed for every plant needs to be put into the ground one at a time, watered individually with tears. You're like, well, wouldn't your tears, wouldn't the salt kill the plant? You're asking too many questions, okay? But just imagine how many hours of excruciating labor, imagine what exhausting patience that would take to dig individual holes, plant each seed one at a time, cover it up, water it with your tears. Hear me, listen. This is the normal way that God brings renewal into the world. We patiently plant the seeds of God's word in the hearts of those around us. We water them with our tears, and we fertilize them with our faith, and it feels long and laborious. It happens with your kids, it happens with your neighbors, it's something that's happening with a spouse, and these stories, I hear them, they last for years. But it's faithful ministry, y'all, it's faithful ministry, and you gotta be willing to do that. But, but, but this Psalm shows you there's another way that God can work. Verse four, restore our fortunes, like the streams in the Negev.

You see, once every 30 or 40 years, once in a generation, in the Negev, they had a torrential monsoon where they'd get about seven years worth of rain, and in 12 hours, form streams in the desert. That's where that phrase comes from. Couple days later, when those floodwaters recede, this is what it leaves. It's called the super bloom. The psalmist imagines God doing this spiritually in the hearts of these returning Israelites. God's spirit pours out on the preaching of the word, and more gets accomplished in the space of a few moments than normally occurs in a lifetime. Isn't that what you want to happen in your family? Isn't that what you want to happen in our community, on our college campuses? Isn't that what you want to happen in this church? How does it happen? Let me read that quote again from Dr. Lloyd-Jones. Maybe now it makes more sense. Our problem is getting to a place where we realize how absolutely impotent we are, but we come to realize at long last that it's just not working, at least not effectively. To stem the tide, to save our children and our community. So we throw ourselves upon the mercy of God. It's not an organized prayer emphasis as much as it is an act of desperation. And then and only then is the power of the Holy Spirit come flooding upon us and into us,

and he does in a moment what incremental organization can hardly accomplish in half a century. Y'all, there've been times in history where this has happened that I've mentioned the great awakening. The United States was fundamentally shaped and changed because of the great awakening. Praise God for it. You and I would likely not be sitting here today had it not been for that. It happened in Korea in the early 20th century. I've told you about that one before. It's happening right now in parts of South America and China where they say the church is growing faster than anywhere in history in any place. Honestly, I think it's happening in limited measure right now here. We had more than 2000 college students show up at our college services for Easter. 83 professions of faith just in college students last weekend. By the way, Summit, our total attendance for Easter last weekend, not counting our Good Friday services, just Easter services, our total attendance was 29,766, basically 30,000 people. Single largest attendance we've ever had by far. In Beth Parv, we had 253 professions of faith just last weekend. There is a wind of the Spirit that is blowing right now. And by the way, not to give him credit, but Pastor Brian did a great job with the message,

did he not, right? Okay. I have to correct one thing. He did not tell you the full story why he was preaching. Brian had confided to me over a year ago that the thing he missed most about being a senior pastor, because he was a senior pastor before he came on our team here. So the thing I missed most was preaching Easter. So I figured he had some pent up resurrection rage in his heart and I was right, okay? 253 professions of faith. I'm just telling you, there's the beginning of a wind blowing here and I want to see it turn into the streams of the Negev. Don't you? Don't you? Don't you? Number four, joy. Joy, that's the one I told you people won't see coming. Verse nine, Nehemiah says something odd. He specifically instructs the people. I want you to imagine the scene, okay? Everybody's down front at the altar, they're weeping, they're confessing their sin. They're laying their hands on each other and praying for each other and nailing stuff to the cross. I mean, that's a little anachronistic, but you get the point and they're doing it. And Nehemiah stands up, he's like,

whoa, stop, get up, get up. This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep. And he said, verse 10, go your way, eat the fat, drink sweet wine, do not be grieved. Somebody in the first service shouted amen when I said that. Why this clarification? Why? Well, he tells them at the end of verse 10, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Some of you recognize that phrase, by the way, from worship songs. This is the first time in scripture it's used. Revivals are not defined by days of mourning because of your sin. Revivals are defined by days of rejoicing in God's salvation. Revival begins with mourning over sin, but hear me, it never stops there. Write this down. Sorrow might be the beginning points of revival, but fat eating, sweet wine drinking, dance prompting joy is the destination. By the way, even for us Baptists, we get at least one out of the three. We don't do the wine drinking or the dancing, but man, we can do the fat eating thing. Am I right? One of the signs that God's spirit is coming into you is you go from sorrow over your sin

to joy in God's salvation. The gospel's first light is always to expose your sin. That's the dawn of the light in your life, but it never stops there. In John 8, when Jesus reveals himself as the light of the world, John 8, 12, I've told you this. He does that on the heels of the story of him exposing, bringing into the light, a woman who's been caught in the very act of adultery and then forgiving her. Woman got drugged, in case you don't know the story, woman gets drugged before Jesus, having been caught in the very act of adultery, still half naked likely from the encounter. The Pharisees asked Jesus what they should do with her since the law commands that she should be stoned, which they are correct about. Jesus kneels down, start writing in the dirt. Then he stands up after a few minutes and he says, "'Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone.' They all stare awkwardly at each other, drop their rocks and go home." That's the story. Now it's just Jesus and the woman. And Jesus says to her, "'Woman, where are your accusers?' And she looks around and says, "'There are none left, Lord.' And then he says those famous words to her, "'Neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more.'" The woman could have left that encounter, still full of shame and self-loathing because of her sin. That would have been easy. I mean, y'all, less than an hour before, she'd been committing adultery. Like I said, she's likely still half naked from the encounter. But I suspect that she went home with joy because that moment was not defined by her sin. It was defined by the incredible declaration of that man and his acceptance and her salvation. Mourning comes from looking at your sin. Joy comes from looking at him. Some of you are appropriately broken over your sin. You're in despair. I get it. I'm just telling you, it's time for you to embrace the more important part of the gospel. Neither do I condemn you. This is a day of joy for you, not sadness. And you need to let the joy of that salvation become your strength now. He is lifting you up out of the dirt, just like he did her. And he's saying, yeah, your sin was bad, but my grace is greater. Your dysfunction and your brokenness, that was devastating, but I brought the power of an empty tomb to it. Maybe there's a lot of people in your life

that you've hurt in your past. You know what he's saying to you? He's saying, get up. I made you a new creation. I appointed you to bring blessing and joy to others now, no longer to hurt them and bring sorrow. I need you to get up and start doing that. Maybe you've been an addict. What he's saying to you is get up, friend. I've made you a new creation. And if the son has made you free, you are free indeed. You're like, well, I just feel so sinful. I feel rejected. I feel defeated. I feel defiled. He literally cuts you off mid-sentence and says, yeah, but I've declared you righteous, accepted, loved, and forgiven. And my voice is louder than your sin. Your enemy spoke death. I speak life. He speaks condemnation. I speak forgiveness. You've been broken. I've made you more than a conqueror. The list of your sins is long. My love is longer. There's literally no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Stop staring at your sin and start beholding your savior. By the way, one of Gen Z's critiques of millennials, how many millennials we got in the room? Raise your hand. How many Gen Z people we got in the room? They're like literally zero Gen Z in the first service. I'm just gonna say that, okay? So you're not awesome on the time stuff, but you got this part right. One of the critics. Millennials is that they're too somber. The millennial generation has been characterized, everybody says, by being melancholy. And that's because social analysts say they've encountered the disappointments of the world in unusual ways. A lot of institutions and power structures let you down. That is fully legitimate. But your younger siblings, Gen Z, they got something to say to you too. And that is your story doesn't stop with depression, at least if you're a Christian. Yeah, we mourn the messed up world around us, but God is doing a new thing and the joy of the Lord becomes your strength.

And that brings me finally to number five, obedience. Obedience. One of the things they discover is they are listening to the book. That there's a feast commanded in the law of God they haven't celebrated in centuries. Look at verse 14. They found it written in the law of the Lord and commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month. They're like, wait a minute, this is the seventh month. This is August. The feast of booths was this holiday where the people of Israel erected these little tents and slept outdoors. It was kind of like Krzyzewskiville, Cave Hill, where Duke students leave the nice, comfortable indoor accommodations that their parents paid $94,000 a year for and stay outdoors in tents for weeks on end so they can get tickets to the Carolina game. This is kind of like that, but this tent village is not to get tickets to see Coach K lose his final game to UNC, but to remind themselves, okay, it's to remind themselves how God had miraculously provided for his people during the wilderness wandering. God had commanded them to observe this holiday once every year for a week in August. So the people were like, well, it's August right now.

So they go out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof and in their courts, in the courts of the house of God, their tents everywhere, in the square, the water gate, at the square, at the gate of Ephraim. Now watch this, verse 17. For from the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, Joshua, to this day, the people of Israel had not observed this holiday. They have not obeyed this command for 900 years. For the first time in 900 years, they're about to obey it. And when they did it, watch this, verse 17, there was very great rejoicing. Their first action after this revival was to obey a command they had not obeyed in 900 years for almost as long as they've been a nation. Here's my question for you. What command have you neglected? Maybe like Israel, you've neglected it basically your whole life. Maybe it's being honest in relationships. You're living a lie now with your friends, you're with your spouse. It's just what you've done your whole life. It's time for you for the first time in 900 years to come clean. Maybe it means asking for forgiveness. Maybe it means extending forgiveness to somebody. There are people listening to me right now that you've been holding a grudge for years.

It's become a part of your identity. That pent up anger, that bitterness, it's just a part of you. Maybe there's some secret habit you've nursed for years. It also has become a part of your identity and it's time for you now to give it up. Maybe you've never tithed. You've never practiced financial obedience. I'm just telling you, whatever it is, it's time for you to start obeying today. Like Pastor Eastall McCauley says, the goal of the word is not your information. It's not even your inspiration. The goal of the word is your transformation. So where do you need to obey today? Let me end this by coming back around to number one. How much you hunger for his spirit? See, I'm telling you the spirit of Jesus wants to make his habitation in your heart. It's called the fullness of the spirit. He wants to do this in your home. He wants to do it in this church, in this community. You show your hunger for that by your devotion to the word, by your repentance of everything you know grieves him and by how much you seek him in prayer. Listen, I will go on record and say this. I am willing, by God's grace, I am willing to be the person who faithfully digs a hole every week for you, for each seed, to plant it one by one, to water it with my tears.

As God gives me strength, I will do that for the rest of my life for you. But I long for those streams of the Negev, don't you? We can't force God to send those streams. The spirit's like the wind, Jesus says. He blows where he wishes. We can't control him, but we can. We can put up the sails and we can say, Jesus, send the wind here. When you send the wind, we're ready to ride. Everything about us, Summit, should put that hunger on display. Believers, your lives should be characterized by careful obedience. Our boiler room, which is the room where people. pray during the service, and they pray for the service of God's spirit will fall. Our boiler room is the indication to me of how hungry we are. I can tell how hungry we are by how many people are in that room. I am willing to do the slow, hard work of sowing and reaping, but I want an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my generation. I got one shot at this, y'all. I got one shot. This is the only generation I get to be a part of. These college campuses, the only time that we get to have an impact on them.

These kids in our church is the only time. These are the only people that are looking to us. I want the spirit of God to flow like the streams of the Negev in this church and in my family and in this community. I'm telling you, the life of our families depend on it. The life of our church depends on it. The life of this community depends on it. Those revivals I went to when I was a kid, there was a little hymn we always sang. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead. Why don't we end this this weekend by opening up the altars at every campus for those who want to come down and cry out for it? You say, well, I can pray in my seat. Of course you can. Of course you can. And you know what? We don't have the space for everybody to come down at every service, I get that. But I do think coming to kneel expresses a particular kind of hunger, doesn't it? I mean, in fact, that's what worship and corporate prayer is supposed to be. It's supposed to be putting our hunger on display. Maybe some of you are so desperate for God's spirit in your life or one of your kids or your family, you just want to come down here and ask God to do that.

You want to take a posture that says, I'm hungry. Maybe there's something you need to surrender. Some area you got to start obeying. Maybe you've neglected it for years, your whole life you've never done it, and it's time to start today. You know, it strikes me that in this chapter, after hearing the word, some people lifted their hands in worship, others fell on their faces in surrender. I think that's a good way for us to end. And one of those two is appropriate to you. Which one do you need to do? You need to stand with hands and surrender and worship. You need to come to the altar and fall on your face in a posture of hunger. Will everybody stand with me at all campuses, if we would. I don't know what the Holy Spirit's put in your heart. I'm not forcing anything. Father, I pray in Jesus' name. Holy Spirit, this is the most important part of our service because it's where people don't listen to me anymore. They only listen to you. And I pray that you would give them the ability to hear and to obey. Do it, Lord Jesus. I pray in Jesus' name. Even before our worship teams get up here with your heads bowed, if you wanna pray, you come down

at whatever campus you're at. I'm gonna put our prayer teams off to the side, as I always do, elders, pastors, counselors, they'll be over there. If you wanna pray with somebody, you got questions about Jesus, you just think it'd help, pray with them. Otherwise, you take your place at the altar or you stand there, it's fine, no judgment, okay? You stand there and you just worship and spend time with the Lord. But I know what we should be doing right now. Spending time with the Holy Spirit so you obey Him as He prompts things in your heart. And if He's telling you, you get down here and you put your hunger on display.