Greater Revival: Constitution
by Sam Hodum
September 9, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Acts 22:3, Acts 26, Acts 17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--greater-revival-constitution
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Thank you guys so much for being here tonight. We're we're continuing uh our our theme for after, you know, after we take time for Ethan. Ethan, thank you so much. Oh, you're welcome. For those joining online, I do have coffee and I plan a few slurps just for you. So, I mean, it's I don't know. Yeah. Slurps because I got a mic for them and so Yeah. It's like they're Oh, please. Oh, yeah. See, it's not a good one, though. Uh, thank you guys so much for being here tonight.

Um, we're continuing in greater revival. So in the vein in the past few months, uh, pastor and I have really been he's really been challenging me on this. Uh, and and and as I have listened to his wisdom and his counsel and and prayed on it, it really has it's challenged me as a person as as just what does revival look like? What does it need to look like in our lives and our and and in the past few months we've talked about it. I know last week he talked about handing out flyers. What does that look like? Is that revival? Is is a multi-ervice um multi-ervices in a row? You know, just, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Is that revival? What does that what does that look like? Um my grandfather, he he'll talk about it. He he would preach revivals six weeks long, six They'd be set six nights a week, and then he'd go home and preach on Sunday. And like, all right, Pops. More power to you. you know, and and then those probably had their time. It wasn't I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. That was uh for that day and age and for those but for us, we have to now figure out how we are going to allow God to uh to change us in the day in and the day out. We have to figure out how to connect with God because the reality is um we can find a little bit of everything to come in the way of that, right? No doubt you and I'm I'm not meaning I want you to understand that this is the audience I'm talking to. You're here tonight, but you made a choice to be here. There's probably a thousand other things that you had to think through, accomplish, get through to get here tonight. And that's no small feat. I mean, you had to come back from the beach. I Yeah. It was pretty hard. Yeah. See, like, h Seth, he I I don't really know. He just had he was looking for a place to get away from all the kids. So, free child care here for like an hour. We We all have that. We have those those steps that we have to go through and then we build those into our life to where it's not even a choice. It becomes the first choice. It's the first thing. But that's not always easy. It's not always uh in each stage in life there has to be a realigning of those priorities, those choices that we're going to make or not make. Um and and and in revival the any revival I've seen like that that an outsider would call revival, it started on the inside. It started with a longing for closeness to God, for a longing of the sharing of the goodness of God. A if you if you study any of the great revivals of past um Jonathan Edwards they they there was an autobiography I think or a biography whichever one I think the person wrote. Which one is that? Is that a biography? Autobiography. All right. Thank y'all. He uh there he wrote very detailed about what he went through and and he preached a sermon called sinners in the hands of an angry God. Very monotone and very like stoic almost but the anointing was in what God had put on him in that and and it wasn't something that was born out of a light place. It wasn't something that was born out of a passing fancy. Uh, and the response to it was not born out of a passing fancy. It stirred up a whole nation, a a a budgeoning bud a bud a growing nation. A new starting growing nation. I can see the word, but I can't say it. Bludgeoning. No, never mind. We're gonna leave that one there. Yeah, a young growing nation, people that were not a people. Um, and it stirred up in their hearts a great revival. It it changed the face of our nation. We had went we went from uh almost the Quakers or the the just that that stoic following this is this is how you have to be to people were were writhing in the spirit in in conviction. Uh and and when they when that happened it changed the course of this nation. It was the founding of this nation that it it set us on a trajectory to be a Christian nation. It set us on a trajectory to be people that that well I mean this nation gives more. This nation sins more. This nation as a people. It's just part of our culture to to give to others. That's not founded in in the humanities. That's founded in Christian and Christian roots. That being said, all of those things are grand and well to look at, but for us to stir ourselves and to stir up the hunger and the thirst and the things of God in us that so much that it affects those around us, it has to start with us.

Last week, Pastor Sloan, he talked about the calling of God. Um, we've done a we've done a uh a survey, a little like a little personal survey. Uh, and I've got one for tonight. Uh, and they'll they'll put that on the screen in just a minute. But in that, I'm going to talk about the Constitution of the United States. I'm just kidding. It's not of the United States. The Constitution or what we're made of. Um does anyone know what the preamble of the constitution? We the people in order it establish the foundation of how a nations operate. It is the it's the it is the guiding principles upon which we as Americans make decisions based out of regardless of culture regardless of creed, regardless of of background. It is all right as an American these are our these are our binding principles that we agree to and we believe are good for our people. Um and so you can you can look at it in the sense of the constitution is a system of fundamental principles according to which a nation, state or corporation or the like is governed. Um but it is there's also words like establishment and then the archaic form it's character or condition of mind, disposition or temperament. Um our constitution personally is a personal makeup including our gifting, our temperament, our our family circumstances and the countless things which are permanently attached to to us which make us who we are. So our character would be in our constitution, our uh our values. Um so when when God calls us the same call comes out differently and part of that difference is uh the constitution because somebody can have the same call of God but they have different makeups of who they are. Is that fair? So um and and I'm I'm going to if you need this they'll put up the QR code.

Now, if you would take your phones out, we're going to do this brief this brief long survey um about this and and if you would there there's a point to this because this is going to the overarching idea is the I'll draw it out as they're they have this it's in an email I sent to them but if they don't have it here you go you can you can scan this QR code Y'all going to have so many pictures of me on your phone. You're be like, "Why did we take a picture of him like that?" You never got it on your email. I don't You have to talk to your daughter about that. She made it. So, does anyone else still need this? All right. If you would take a moment, do those. You need to uh do part one and when you get part one done, let me know. Uh I got to draw this out real quick. So, it might take just a second. Yeah. Can't read any of that, can you? Y'all take y'all take that survey. It the the first one. Describe your personality and gifting. Uh what do you enjoy? What energizes you? What depletes you? What are you good at? Uh what are the strengths of my temperament? What are the weaknesses of my temperament? What are my talents and abilities? How would my friends and family complete this complete this sentence? He or she is so and like think of the positives. Uh, tell me when you get done with part one. Take your time, Brian. No rush. We're just waiting on you. There it is. And for those online, you can you can scan that there. Yeah, this one's a little like this one's a little harder. It's not just ABC, B, C, or D. This is it's a little more in depth. If you haven't taken a personality quiz, uh it's going to recommend one in there like a Myersbrig or a DISC assessment or uh if just let me know when we're done with part one. We'll hit part two in a minute because I don't want to take all day. We have to separate your two in the back over there. I'm just picking I'm just picking at um this is part of this is the this is a Van diagram. I don't know who Vin is but there's calling, there's constitution, there's context, and the overlapping it starts to define our purpose, but I didn't have enough room in there to write purpose. So, um,

last week was calling, this week is constitution. I, uh, this is, this is harder for me to describe or harder for me to define because it is a very subjective thing, but what you're made of is very much an archaic term. We'll find out what they're made of. Anybody ever heard an old old person say that? you know, we'll see what they're made of. That's that's the constitution of a person. When the when the going gets tough, the tough get going. You know, that's all right. Not every day is the uh the great depression, but when it is the great depression, you definitely want someone with that sort of constitution that can survive that around you. Uh and it's not these are not obvious things to know.

Is everybody done with part one? Almost kind of too introspective. Is this like like these are like introspective questions? They're kind of hard to answer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's It's like what would what would my friends and family say? He is he or she is so talented. It's like if you say funny, do you have to be a comedian? You know, yeah. It's like, so can I ask one? What depletes you? being asked questions like this. I get it. Yeah, I can tell you're a public speaker. Yes. Failure. That's a good Yeah, that that that one pretty much gets you on it. Okay, Kim, what what energizes you? Okay, that's fair. Um, Brian, what are the strengths of your temperament? Loaded question here. So, patience. That was a good answer. That's a good answer. sitting by a pregnant wife. That was a great answer. There we go. There we go. Um Oh, Sister Stacy, do you tend to be suspicious or trusting? Okay. Okay. Um, oh Lord. All right. Can Ethan, how would my friends and family complete the sentence? Ethan is so amazing. Fair enough. Fair enough. I asked for that, didn't I? Calm. All right. That's part of your constitution. Sometimes it's not easy to know what those are, right? It's you don't know till you know and then when you know you're like, I really wish I didn't know or I'm glad I know. It's it's either or like and some of that can honestly those talents and abilities can be affected by us but a lot of that is is just really not things that we can change that easily about ourselves. We may can change we can change what I'm good at over time, but you know what? It's really hard to change what energizes me because like you said, it's I like being around small crowds, not large crowds. I get it. I do not enjoy large crowds. The whole time I'm like head on a swivel the whole time. It's just me. It's like you don't know what's going to happen when when a you know like to me if I'm at like a at a ball game or something like I'm always like all right if this were to happen where do we go what do we do the whole time it's no fun you do not want to go to a ball game with me carried to a soccer game was like all right if we get if we get separated this all right if there starts a stampede this is where you go and he's like what what I was like I'm just saying dude this is you got to think of these things before they Uh, and that's that's a I don't know. That's that's what I do to try and be comfortable. It doesn't help. That's just I I don't really know what to do about that. Suspicious or trusting. That is more honestly probably more about what's happened to you or not happened to you. Sometimes that's a disposition to be chosen, but that's a really hard thing to make a conscious decision about. Start. It's part of our constitution. I'm g ask you this. um our personal our personal makeup including our gifting, our temperament and our family circumstances.

Uh consider this the call of God falling on three people. A teenager still living at home dependent on his parents and in school, a 23-year-old single college graduate, and a 35-year-old who is married with small children. How does the calling of God God calls them to do something? How how does their life circumstances, their their constitution? Because it's not just who they are, it's the things they're surrounded by, how does that affect what they're able to do with that call? So teenagers still living at home. God calls them. It's like, "Mom and dad, I'm going to Zimbabwe next week." They're like, "Dude, you're 15. Sit down." Or they send them to Zimbabwe and they're like, which would be bad for everyone involved. Um, right? Or they're like, you know what, that's great. How can we focus your life if that's what God's calling you to do? How can we focus it so that that's something you can actually do? That's one way, right? the the in the constitution of of that kid then all right does that kid have the ability to stand on their own two feet because if they go to Zimbabwe they probably they're going to have to do they have can they go to medical school or go to something to where they can sub subsist that's that's dealing with their situation their circumstances but they have to then be able to say all right am I am I okay to make a long-term plan for this calling That's not easy because the reality is a lot of us, I don't know about you, but I I accepted my call to preach at 15. I was like, now what do I do? And it took it's taken years and years and years and years. But that calling never went away. It actually it informed each decision that I would make and I have made that that part of that that 23 year old single college graduate. Eli, I mean, you're 25y old single college graduate, right? 24 man, you almost hit it. Yeah. Uh if if God was like, "Go to Zimbabwe." Like the only thing holding you back is Robbie going, "Yo, what?" And funds, you know? All right. So then you have to say, "All right, Robbie, we're getting married next month, but then the next we're going to Zimbabwe." She's like, "Hold it up there, cowboy." That would be a wild conversation to have, wouldn't it? 35year-old who is married with small children having the same conversation. How did that conversation go? I mean, y'all were 30, something like that. You were younger. Yeah. That was a conversation, wasn't it? The conversation started earlier 16 months family. How do we do this? And what do we do? Yeah. It's like, oh, that's at each stage in our life. No, it didn't. It's it's at each stage. It's hard. The calling of God, if I if I may, there's always something. And so part of us understanding the calling is then taking our constitution, what we're made of, and the circumstances around us and figuring out how to work that God. Uh consider this uh the go the call of God falling on these three people. Um a young person who's grown up in a pastor's home and who has lived for God since childhood. a young person who's recently converted who was raised by a single mom who was in and out of relationships, unemployed most of the time and addicted to drugs or a young married whose spouse is still being discipled and is uninterested in ministry. Call of God's going to hit all three of those. It may be this it's the same call of God. It may be even to do the same thing, but their their lens and capability to do is going to be very different. a uh a young person growing up in a pastor's home can hear the call of God. I'll say this, I grew up in a pastor's home. They know what the cost of the call of God is and they may be more likely to go the other way, you know, like they like, "No, I'm good." I've seen a lot of pastor's kids do that because they understand. And then there's the the person that was converted but doesn't have a stable home life. All right, let's do it. But then doesn't understand what stability looks like. It's like, all right, well, how do we learn that? How do we learn surrender? How do we learn stability? And then a young married whose spouse is still being discipled. Do you know the the calling of God is is not about it's not about sin. It's about qualifications. When you look at Titus and you look at Timothy, those are qualifications that either qualified you or disqualified you. And the spouse is part of that in the constitution and the makeup of who we are. Uh

you guys still have that quiz on your second part. Um this gets into the influences. You still have your quiz up. If you'll go to the second part, what primary influences have shaped your life? So that that gets to that that second consider the calling of that second the young person who's grown up in a pastor's home or the person that was just recently converted or the person that was is young married but disciplehip still being done had in the house. um influences in this in the second part questions here. What my life has been shaped by these these people, these events. If you're like me, I have looked more at what people done and tried to go away from it than particularly what than sometimes what some people have done. kind of like sounds on your phone while you're trying to teach. Somebody let me know when you're done with part two. This one it it gets into this. I've been educated and trained in the following ways. this person has shaped my perspective on life and ministry more than anyone else. And then my closest friends are and then how do my friends help or hinder the pursuit of my calling. Guess I could have made that a slide so it would be legible. I'll get Lauren to do that. I was going to make some of these right or wrong answers. Type in your like wrong what putting baptism in these events. It's like Anybody done with section two yet? Anybody done? Okay. closest. Are we like names? Yeah. And then if they're not valuable, probably don't put that in there. Um, as you're finishing up that section,

I want you to consider this. Uh, the calling of God on these three people, a an impetuous young bluecollar worker, a highly educated, strong willed single adult with a background in religious persecution, and a young, timid man who grew up with a godly mother and grandmother. That's Peter, Paul, and Timothy, an impetuous young blue bluecollar worker. I couldn't help but think about the call of God on their lives and think about who they reached based on their constitution. Who did Peter reach? He reached the masses on the day of Pentecost. They're like, "What shall we do?" He didn't get up there and be like, "Well, let me just give you this beautiful laid out, well-prepared sermon." He said, "Repent." They're like, "Okay." You know, and it it wasn't it wasn't a he wasn't a a philosopher. He he was a fisherman. He probably stunk still because there's, you know, like He who he reached was the common man uh was very successful in that uh Paul highly educated strong willed single adult with a background in religious persecution. Paul he reached the Gentiles but not just any Gentiles. He argued with the most educated and those in power. He wrote because he was highly educated way more than Peter ever did. And thus has affected us more than possibly Peter did. Not because he was more important, not because he was less important, but because he wrote. God called him for a reason. Okay, that's close. God called him for a reason. He uh if you if you look at Acts 22 he said in three he said I am verily a man which was which am a Jew born in Tarsus in a city of Sicilia yet brought up this up in this city at the feet of Gha and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers was zealous toward God as you all are this day. said I was I was taught Amelia was a foremost uh was a foremost teacher in that day. U if you read Acts 26 he's arguing to King Agria and and the argument he uses is based on the knowledge that a grippa has not on what Paul had but like Paul has that knowledge and so he's tailor making his argument based on what he knows a grippa's been educated in. It's very interesting and then he did the same thing in Acts chapter 17 on Mars Hill. He went up to the Grecians there and and there so at that time that was the center of knowledge. That was the center of just arguing for arguing sake. They would just sit around and talk about ideas. They love to hear a new idea. Uh and he went up and introduced a new idea to them and and spoke their language because he had been educated in that way. He affected them in that manner. Now he didn't convert any of those. And so we just kind of look at it passing. Well, what good was that? But he could do that. He could speak to them. He could convert the the guard or he could convert the philosopher. He was incredibly adept at that. And then if you look at Timothy, Timothy was more timid. He was weakly almost, right? He was he was not a whale guy, but somehow another he pastored one of the largest churches that we read of. He oversaw like some say like 40,000 people. in a city of like talk about megaurches like in in that day and age they couldn't even text about what was happening. I don't know how they spread information. They're like all right by the time all right we had to change the day that we were gathering and eight days later it finally got around and everyone missed the event. I don't I don't know how they did that, but somehow that in his constitution of it and maybe it was being brought up by a mother and grandmother that taught him how to care for people in a different way than the brash brash Paul because Paul just probably didn't know how to care for people that well. But it's they all three had an incredible calling on their life. But what they did not have was identical ministries. at all on purpose. None of them were like Jesus. They tried to teach the teachings of Jesus, but they were not they did not go about like Jesus. Paul did not try and make have have the the style of teaching that Jesus had. He was way more direct. Jesus would just tell a parable and people would be like, "Was he talking to me?" Paul's like, "I was talking to you." you like and he did in in considering these things. Uh it the the call of

God is not not generic, universal, or one-sizefits-all. It's a call that is answered through our circumstances, our giftings, our relationships, and through all the factors that make up who we are. Um it's the same call that may it manifests itself differently in different parts and phases of our lives. uh ignoring those things can lead to frustration that we're responsible for the call of God as it comes to us, not how it comes to someone else. So, I'm going to ask this question. How what does the call of God look like in my life? What does the call of God look like in your life? Ask yourself that today because the the reality is is that you have You have you have a unique calling, but you have a unique constitution that will that if I I I believe that if we will truly understand this that our that we will see a revival like none other. I think if we'll truly understand and try and stop trying to create recreate Paul's ministry, if we stop trying to recreate Timothy's ministry or Peter's ministry, if we'll understand what God has put a unique calling on us, there's there's there was the the prophecy of the will inside the will. And I don't even I don't understand the prophecy, but I can I can imagine this that all the workings of God are like this. And when we try and figure those out, we're just going to frustrate ourselves. But if we'll surrender ourselves to the call of God in the constitution in the context that we that God has called us in and we just start doing that God that that that God knows enough that that'll it it'll just it'll be like we won't make sense. It won't make sense. And all of a sudden it makes sense. We're like, "Oh, how did that work?" Well, guess what? I'm not God. You're not God. That's how it worked. in our lives, church. I believe that each one of us have a deep desire to be pleasing to God. I I believe that you wouldn't be here tonight. Okay? Your your presence is proof enough. I believe that I know that God has a call on each of our lives. And I know sometimes it's easy for us to to to not see how it can work, to not understand, but I got this going on or I got this. Can I can I implore of you to understand that everybody's got that, but to but to take a step of faith. I don't know what your call is, but can I tell you your call matters. God's got you here for a reason. He He He has got you where you're at on purpose. He is not a God of accidents at all. He is He has a plan and a purpose, but he's not going to make you. He's going to call it out of you. And understanding that, you know what? I may be Peter. I may be the impetuous young bluecollar worker. Or I may be Paul. I might be a little brash. I may be Timothy. I might be timid. But God has a has an incredible way of using all of those things in the right time, in the right manner to complete his will and his work. It does. Would you uh I'm I'm

I'm going to pray and then I'm going to ask you to to complete the the the questions because the next set of questions, they're the obligations in life. But I want us to pray before that because I want us to pray over how we answer and truly think about it. If you haven't filled those out already, if you would, would you pray with me?

Jesus, Lord, we love you. God, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness, your goodness, and your mercy. You've been so good to us. You have blessed us more than we can ever think or ask. God, I pray tonight though, Lord, that you would help us, God, to look inside of ourselves, God. You would help us, Lord, to hear the call, Lord, that the voice, the pull that has come to each and every one of us at some point in our lives, God. And I pray God that you would help us to start to understand the constitution, the circumstances, the skills, the time, the talent, and the treasure that you've given us, Lord. Lord, those things that you have blessed us with, God, I pray, Lord, that you would help us, God, to start to understand and hear the call because of those things and despite those things. God, that you would help us to understand, God, you've given us talents and and and and responsibilities for a reason. God, I pray, Lord, that you would help us, God, to start to see your plan and or at least start to trust your plan in our lives through every everything thick and thin. And God, I thank you and God, I praise you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.