PRAY. FOR. REVIVAL.

On November 15, 2016 by Bobby Blakey

revival-09Question: How do we keep praying and not lose heart?

Answer: A motivation to pray for the future is to remember how God answered prayers in the past.

Let us rewind to July 4th, 2009. At that time I am a youth pastor. I am praying God will save students at our summer camp called Revival. Our goal was to have our summer camp at a place where we could emphasize the worship and the preaching. In other words, we needed to upgrade from meeting in a tent to a building, from sleeping in tents to rooms. Unfortunately, the only place we could find was in New Mexico.

New Mexico! I mean, we couldn’t even find a place in California or a state next door? We had to go two states away!

This required an all-night bus ride to get there.

I had to fly on an airplane to go and get camp ready and then fly back home to get on a bus with the students.

All of this work to get camp ready fueled my fire to pray God would save the souls of young people.

I remember waking up the day of the camp and saying “This is the most important day of my life!”

Someone challenged me on this and said, “More important than the day you got married? More important than the day your kids were born?”

I thought to myself, “Actually, yes it is! Today is the day of salvation!”

Sure enough, God answered our prayers to save! In fact, I sat there on the long bus ride home with names of students I didn’t even know before camp who had called on the name of the Lord to be saved!

dominicFast forward to November 4th, 2016. 7 years and 4 months later. I am officiating the wedding of Dominic & Kristen Scarmardo. Dominic is one of those kids who Jesus saved at Revival 09! If you ask him today why he went to that crazy summer camp in New Mexico all those years ago he can’t really tell you. He didn’t really know anyone. He had never been to our church. I will tell you the reason he came was in answer to prayer as God was drawing him. Dominic will tell you that Revival 09 was when he got saved!

After the emotional wedding ceremony, I am signing the marriage license with Dominic’s best man, Jeremy Watkins. Jeremy and Dominic have been best friends for the last seven years since they met at Revival 09. In his best man speech, Jeremy pointed out they were saved on the same day. When they were in high school, Jeremy and Dominic led a Christian club on their campus that spread the gospel to many more young people, some of whom have also professed faith and were there at the wedding. Now they have been the best man in each other’s weddings as Jeremy also got married recently to Nicole.

Dominic. Jeremy. These were two of the names on my list of students who had professed faith at Revival 09. Another name on the list was Allie. I recently saw Allie and her husband Rudy when I was guest preaching at my old stomping grounds of Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo. They had the glow of newlyweds. They had both served with me as leaders in our high school ministry and it was so great to see them now as a married couple.

You see, I was just praying for God to save young people. But not only did he save them, he is using them for his glory beyond anything I could have imagined on the bus ride to Revival 09.

3 Changed Lives ~ For seven years, I have seen God’s sanctifying work in Dominic, Jeremy and Allie. Not only has he matured them as individuals, but he also ministered through them to impact the lives of others. We cannot underestimate the ripple effects of the power of the gospel in one person’s life.

3 New Families ~ Dominic, Jeremy and Allie all got married! Dominic married Kristen who Jesus saved as an answer to our prayers at Revival 12. Jeremy married Nicole who he met in our old college ministry as we reached out to the local community college. Allie married Rudy who has been a brother to me in the Lord as we all served together in high school ministry. Not only does God save individuals, but he impacts entire families. Lord willing, the children he blesses these couples with will be taught the gospel at a young age and come to faith in Christ as well, thus passing the revival along to the next generation.

oc-compass-triangle3 Compass Bible Churches ~ I got back in touch with Dominic and Kristen as they came to Compass HB. In fact, through our time together of pre-marital counseling I am closer to them as their pastor now than I was as their youth pastor before. I can’t wait to see them after their honeymoon. If you worship with us at Compass HB, you may have recently seen Dominic serve by playing electric guitar.

Jeremy and Nicole are serving at a new church plant: Compass Tustin. They are working hard every week in the Kid’s ministry. Because a new church plant only starts with one service, they don’t even get to go to it because they are serving the kids at the same time. It was great to hear from Nicole at the wedding about how Pastor Mike Elliott has another time on Sunday afternoons where he teaches those who were serving the kids during the service.

Rudy and Allie still worship Jesus at Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo. It was great to see them, and so many other old friends in the faith, a few weeks ago when I was there. It is this original Compass Bible Church that chose to invest in the Revival 09 summer camp that is still bearing fruit today. It is this Compass Bible Church that has now invested heavily in these two church plants here in Orange County, California. It is a church whose impact clearly extends beyond not only their own walls but even their own city!

Now instead of Revival happening for a week in the summer, I see it happening every week of the year here in Huntington Beach.

So, keep praying! Pray today for someone to be saved, even if you don’t know their name yet. You are not only praying for the soul of that individual. You are praying for future spouses, for children yet unborn and churches yet unplanted. You are praying for the glory of God in heaven to be revealed among us here on earth.

If there is one thing I encourage you to do for our future it is what I have learned to do from my past:

PRAY. FOR. REVIVAL.

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