Revival is not a moment you wait for. It is a life you build. This past Sunday, Pastor Chip Dean closed out the God of Revival series with a message called “The Lifestyle of Revival” from 2 Chronicles 29-32 on one of the least known but most remarkable revivals in the entire Bible. The revival of King Hezekiah.
A King Who Did Not Waste Time
Hezekiah became king at twenty-five years old. His father Ahaz had spent sixteen years undoing everything good that had come before him. The temple was closed. The Passover had been forgotten. Sacrifices had stopped. The priests went home. The people of God had learned to live without God.
Hezekiah stepped in and immediately changed course. In the very first month of his very first year as king, he opened the doors of the temple and repaired them.
Pastor Chip made the application clear. When God puts a calling on your life, that calling is worthy of your immediate obedience. Not next week. Not next year. Now. You may have come from a family without God. But it is your responsibility, in the power God gives you, to make sure the family you lead is all about him.
If you think you are too young or too old or too far gone, Hezekiah was twenty-five. Joash was seven when he became king. Noah was six hundred when God called him to build the ark. If you are anywhere between seven and six hundred, God can still use you. If you still have a heartbeat, God still has a purpose.
Revival Always Begins with Repentance
The first thing Hezekiah did after opening the temple was restore the sacrifices. Bulls, rams, lambs, and goats were brought as sin offerings for the nation. Every animal pointed forward to the one sacrifice that would actually accomplish what all of them could only symbolize. The death of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Chip was straightforward. A lifestyle of revival always begins with repentance. Daily. Not as a one-time event, but as a daily posture before God. Confessing sin. Being cleansed. Being consecrated. Being purified.
The Lord’s supper was observed during the service as a living reminder of this truth. Jesus is our one and only access to God. When you believe in him, you believe in God. When you worship him, you worship God. When you pray to him, you pray to God. His body broken for us. His blood shed for us. Once and for all.
The Return to the Passover
Hezekiah also restored the Passover, a celebration that had not been observed in decades under Ahaz. He sent letters across the land, even to the rebellious tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting everyone to come to the house of the Lord.
The Passover was the meal God gave his people to remember that they had once been slaves in Egypt with no hope, no help, and no way out. God sent ten plagues. The final one was a death angel. Everyone who applied the blood of a sacrificial lamb over their doorpost was passed over. God delivered them.
Jesus came hundreds of years later and took that Passover meal with his disciples and changed it into something even greater. No longer a remembrance of physical deliverance from Egypt. Now a remembrance of spiritual deliverance from sin through his own body and blood. He called it the Lord’s supper, and he said to do it in remembrance of him until he comes again.
You Are a Minister
After restoring worship and the Passover, Hezekiah reappointed the priests and Levites, each to their division and their service. Pastor Chip brought this directly into the room.
In the Old Testament there were thousands of priests. Every single one of them pointed forward to the one final eternal high priest, Jesus Christ.
24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. – Hebrews 7:24
First Peter 2:9 says that when you give your life to Jesus, you become part of a royal priesthood. Every believer is called to minister. To God in worship, prayer, and giving. To others in serving, teaching, and sharing the gospel. There is a ministry for every person in the church because God created every person for ministry.
Generosity Follows Revival
When the revival under Hezekiah took hold, the people gave. They brought in heaps of grain, wine, oil, honey, cattle, sheep, and tithes. The temple had been closed and empty for years. Now it was overflowing.
Pastor Chip shared what generosity looks like at First Baptist Powder Springs right now. Vacation Bible School is fully funded this week. Around two hundred kids will hear the gospel and not pay a single penny because of the faithful giving of the church. Over the month of May the church gave nearly $12,000 to Paulding Pregnancy Center Services, money that will fund a 24/7 nurse hotline so that expectant mothers can choose life for their children at any hour of the day or night.
That is where the tithe goes. That is the difference faithful giving makes.
The Enemy Always Attacks Revival
Right in the middle of everything God was doing through Hezekiah, the king of Assyria invaded. The most powerful military in the world marched toward a nation of roughly one hundred thousand people.
Wherever revival happens, the enemy attacks. The greater the revival, the greater the resistance.
What Hezekiah did next defines the lifestyle of revival. He did not look at his circumstances through physical eyes. He looked at them through spiritual eyes. He told his people, do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all his horde. There are more with us than with him. With Assyria is an arm of flesh. With us is the Lord our God.
When Sennacherib sent a letter mocking God and declaring that no God had ever been able to deliver a people from his hand, Hezekiah took the letter to the temple. He spread it out before the Lord. He prayed over it. God sent one angel. One. The entire Assyrian army was routed.
The bad news is you are no match for your enemy. The good news is your enemy is no match for your God. There is nothing the enemy can do to you that God cannot undo, cannot stop, cannot overpower.
The Danger of Pride
The last lesson from Hezekiah is the one that is easiest to miss. After all the revival, all the victory, all the miracles, Hezekiah got proud. His heart lifted up. Wrath came upon him and upon Judah.
Pastor Chip was honest. Pride is the subtle danger that follows every season of success. When God blesses, when God moves, when God brings the victory, the enemy will whisper that it was you. As long as we give God the glory, God will give us revival. The moment we take the credit, the revival ends.
Hezekiah humbled himself. Wrath was turned away. The revival continued.
Pastor Chip closed with the reminder that sits at the center of everything. The wrath of God for our pride, for all of our sin, came upon Jesus. That is why it does not have to come upon us. A lifestyle of revival is a life that keeps returning to that truth. Returning to worship. Returning to repentance. Returning to the sacrifice of Jesus. Keeping your eyes on the king who fights your battles. Giving him all the glory because it is all by him, all through him, and all for him.
There’s a Seat for You
Whether you are just beginning to pursue God or you have been walking with him for decades and need a fresh spark, you belong here. We are a church that believes revival is not a season you wait for. It is a lifestyle you choose every day.
Plan Your Visit and come be part of what God is doing here. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We would love to live this out alongside you.