Hey, good morning, everyone. Welcome to another morning devotion with Brother Mark, where we are walking together on our walk with Christ. Today is October the 4th, 2023. Well, today is the global day of prayer for revival. At Emmanuel, we have joined with other churches around the world, praying that God would send revival. We are spending the day praying and fasting, asking God to pour out revival around the world. In preparation to leave the church in this endeavor, I watched a sermon by Joel Beakey. The title of the sermon was The Urgency of Revival in Today's Church. Beakey made a statement in that sermon that really hit home with me. One of the points of his sermon was hindrances to revival. Before we look at all those points, let's remember what the scripture says in Matthew 21, 22. In all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. Matthew 13, 58. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. So believing in unbelief is important in our prayer life, and it was important in Jesus doing his works. So we wanna remember that our believing, our faith makes an impact. and a lack of faith makes an impact too. Beeky's points on the hindrance to revival were tradition over transformation, lack of prayer, and unbelief. This statement describes the third point. Doubting that God can bring about revival today stifles our prayers and actions. Think about that. Doubting that God can bring about revival today stifles our prayers and actions. Do you really believe that God will bring revival today? Some of us kind of have this thought that evil men and seducers are going to wax worse and worse, so we're just kind of fatalistic in our belief that, hey, the world's you know, horrible and it's going to continue to get worse and worse. You know, Biggie was talking about during the early 1700s in America how secularism had taken over before the Great Awakening and that there was a revival that took place then. He kind of implied, or the way that I listened, that it was worse then than it is today. And so, you know, Sometimes our doubt and we look at the world and we think it's so horrible that we're really kind of doubting God that he can bring revival. So I want you to think about that. I went back and listened to Beaky's message again because there was a statement in there that really impacted me and I wanted to make sure that I got it completely right. But I do want us to think, do I believe, do you believe today, that God will bring about revival in our land. So this was the statement that Beaky made that really struck me. When we are simply unbelieving or think that God cannot use our words and therefore we hold back, we are hindrances. So think about that. How often do I stand in the pulpit and preach the word of God without really believing that God's gonna do anything? Or how many times would I have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone and maybe I hold back on that because I don't really know if God's gonna use it anyway. And they're not gonna believe anyway, we might say. And so we hold back the words. When we do that, we're hindrances. To be honest with you, I was sitting, I substitute teaching today and I was sitting, it was in the gym and I was sitting there listening to that sermon And I just got hit with a strong conviction over that. How often do I hold back thinking God would not use my words? How often do I really believe that God would use my words to the saving of souls and the changing of lives? The scriptures that we read point to believing. Do we really believe that God will bring revival through the work we do? Do we believe the power of God is greater than any hardened heart? Can't we see that God can and does open blind eyes to see the glorious truth of the gospel? Folks, I don't want to be a hindrance to revival. Will you pray with me, believing that God will bring revival? God has a plan. He's going to bring his people into the fold. Those who have chosen before the foundation of the world, they are going to come and they're going to come through the preaching of the gospel. So he's going to accomplish his plan according to their spreading of the gospel. So let's pray today that God will bring revival to our land. And let's ask forgiveness if we have been a hindrance. And let's make sure we're not a hindrance to revival today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness. We thank you for your love. We pray today that you would bring revival. I pray, God, that we would spread your word in faith. We pray that your spirit would be mighty in our midst. Lord, forgive us if we've been a hindrance to revival. And God, help us to be the tools you use to bring revival to our land. We thank you that we know that you can and that you will. Help us to believe. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. Well, pray today that God would suspend revival. Until the next time, Brother Mark signing off.