“Heed The Call” – Revival Recap
Wow, is the word that comes to my mind when I think back on our revival that just concluded last night. If you were not able to make it, you missed out on powerful singing, preaching, and fellowship. We averaged over the 3 nights a 165 people in attendance, it was awesome to be shoulder to shoulder with God’s people and truly inspiring to hear all of those voices raising praise to God.
I want to thank Allan Wright for coming and bringing 4 powerful messages on “Heed The Call”, I’ll talk more about those in a minute, but Allan did a phenomenal job preaching the word of God. I also want to thank Sam Bogle for stepping in and playing for us in the absence of Ms. Anita Newlin, keep her in your prayers! Sam did a fantastic job and was great to work with. A huge thank you to Whitney, Skylar, and Meadow who stepped up and used their gifts of singing to lead us in song! Also, thank you to Ms. Ryan for pouring into our kids over the 3 nights! A final thank you to all of those who attended any of the nights. It was an amazing 3 nights.
I know I have said it was a great three nights in many different ways in only 2 paragraphs but what made it an amazing 3 nights, well I’m glad you asked, because I have some thoughts.
1)God’s word being proclaimed. God’s word is powerful, true, and transforming. Every time it is opened, read, and studied truth is revealed. These past couple of days we heard the truth of God’s word, we were challenged by God’s word, and at times convicted by God’s word but through all of it we were encouraged by God’s word. Allan did a great job of breaking the word down and helping us to apply it to our lives.
2) The Church coming together. On any given night we had several local congregations represented. Thinking back in one night I believe we had over 10 different congregations coming together for worship, that is incredible. Our voices were lifted in unison to God and we all heard and were challenged by the word of God. For me everyone coming together was amazing. I witnessed people catching up in conversation and others meeting new people for the first time.
3) The witness of the church. For three nights those in our community people drove by and saw the church lit up and the parking lot full of cars. As they scrolled through Facebook, they were repeatedly met by post of people sharing about what was happening. I saw families brings kids from practices or games still in uniforms to come and be there for Worship. People moved parts of their weeks schedules to be there and made Church a priority. All of those things, that we probably don’t stop to realize are a witness for the Lord.
The three reasons above and many more made the last couple of days pretty awesome, but here is the challenge. How do we keep it going? Revival is a time for us as believers to be sure that we are putting Christ first. It’s a time where we spend 3 consecutive nights in the House of the Lord to be renewed recharged, and refocused. Revival just ended but I have already had several conversation with people who have talked about how good it was, they were encouraged in their faith. Now, we as the Church must respond. As Allan talked about we must “Heed The Call Of The Lord”
Heed the Call to seek the Lord above everything else. Heed the call to salvation for some that is accepting Christ, for those of us who know Jesus it is heeding the call to live in light of our salvation. We are to heed the call of service to the Lord, are you serving him? If not why and how can you serve him? Heed the call to sacrifice and suffer for the Lord. What is getting in the way of your relationship with Christ, whatever it is sacrifice it to the Lord and follow him above all things.
For this preacher I was encouraged by the sermons, the singing, the fellowship, and the witness of the past few days, but now all of those things are in the past. These summer revival services are done, the big question is will you heed the call and serve the Lord above everything else or let the impact of the last couple days become a memory only. Let’ keep the momentum going, and lets keep making our relationship with Christ a priority.
Church, it’s time to act and live for the Lord in the here and now. Heed the call, live for the Lord! Live for him openly, lovingly, and sacrificially and lets change our community with the good news of Jesus!
In Christ,
Dustin Leek