We have heard the word “revival” mentioned in a message lately. Actually, “revival” is an Old Testament word. It is not found in the New Testament. The New Testament word is “repent.” As we saw last Sunday night in our study of the church at Ephesus this word refers to a change of mind that results in a change of direction. The Lord said to the church at Ephesus, the church that had left her “honeymoon love for Him,” “ . . . repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” That was His instruction to 5 of the 7 churches of Asia which needed some correction. We don’t hear much about churches having revival services these days. I haven’t heard of any such services anywhere in several years. For whatever my opinion is worth it seems that God’s people are just “too busy” with the things of this world to worry with a special time of getting right with Him. I shared a Vance Havner devotion dealing with that a couple of weeks ago. He said “The early church did not quake every time the ungodly had a spree in Jerusalem. The saints in Rome did not have the blues because attendance would be cut by a gladiatorial contest in the Colosseum. They had a robust, world-shaking power of their own that eventually put the Colosseum out of business.” Sometimes, all too often, revival services are little more than something “religious” we do in hopes of gaining God’s blessings. One church I pastored used to (and I guess still does) have “revival services” the last week in July “whether we need it or not.” (They needed it.) Many times these services are a “form of godliness” without the power of it. We often rate the success of a revival by the number of people that attended, or how many walk the aisles, etc. But the best way to find out if we have really had revival is to come back in six months and see if people are still committed to the Lord. In relation to the term “revival,” churches today are sometimes like Israel going after the Ark of the Covenant in I Samuel 4. They said, I Samuel 4:3, “Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.” It had become little more than a holy good luck charm to them. They may as well have said, “Let’s have a revival.” And we know the rest of the story. Israel was defeated, and the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant. Finally, after defeat by their enemies, the whole nation began to lament after God. They were tired of playing games. Wanted a true relation and fellowship with the Lord. In response to that, Samuel told them what was necessary if they were to be blessed. I want to focus on vs. 3 of our text in this message. Let’s read it again: “And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” In this one verse Samuel told them what was needed if they were to return to the Lord and be blessed of Him. The same is true for us if we want to be revived today.

I. OUR RETURN MUST BE COMPREHENSIVE.

II. OUR RETURN MUST BE CONSISTENT.

III. OUR RETURN MUST ALSO BE COMMITTED.

IV. OUR RETURN MUST BE COMPLETE.