Sermon
God's Work Historically in Prior Generations
Cornerstone Church of Ames
Speaker: Mark Vance, with Tony Lee
May 17, 2026 · 52 min
PrayerDiscipleshipEvangelism & OutreachChurch / EcclesiologyRevelation 3:14–222 Kings 22:1–25Nehemiah 8:1–38
Summary
The church in North America faces unprecedented decline with 40 million adults leaving churches in 25 years and religious unaffiliation rising from 9% to 37%. Revival—an intensification of the Holy Spirit's ordinary operations—historically emerges from spiritual darkness and desperate prayer, as demonstrated in biblical and American awakenings. The pastor calls believers to pray desperately, live courageously through church multiplication, and sacrifice personally to spark a third Great Awakening.
Highlights
God goes wherever he's wanted. The problem is not God's availability and power to meet our desperate spiritual need. The problem is when you become blinded by growth and material wealth, you never ask. You never open.
Revival comes out of dark times because dark times produce praying Christians. Complacent Christians don't pray. Easy times never makes a praying church.
We will never actually get back what is lost just by doing addition. We have to do multiplication. We have to plant new churches.