When we cook, following recipes or instructions is important. As you become experienced, you still follow a recipe, it’s just that the recipe is in your head. Your dash of this is still equal to a measurement, but you’ve learned to eyeball it without taking out the measuring spoons and you and often adjust to taste.

But, there are some meals that just cannot be salvaged if you mess up the recipe. It is important to follow the instructions on the box....or else!

I had one of those moments last night. I completely ruined mine and my family’s life so bad that we had to spend all day at church because we refuse to go back home. We are taking offers to sleep at someone’s house tonight if there are any takers.

You see what happened is I decided that for our family movie last night I would make some popcorn. By the groans and the grins, I can tell that some of you have PBPS - Post Burnt Popcorn Syndrome.

Well, I put the small bag of popcorn, not the big bag, into the microwave. It was supposed to be Movie Theater Butter with extra butter. I proceeded to put 3 minutes on the microwave and walk away. I had a momentary lapse of judgment. I don’t know why I chose the number 3, but that three minutes has changed everything.

I nuclearized my popcorn. I almost turned it into diamonds. I have never in my life seen something so burnt. I knew what I had done immediately and tried to open the microwave and throw out the popcorn into the yard. The cats evacuated the premises. The house smelled worse than if tear gas had been deployed. I had to take the microwave out onto the front porch where it is still sitting and open every window and turn on every fan and even God is not happy with the mess I’ve made.

I’m telling y’all it is so bad that the neighbors have “for sale” signs up in their yards and one of my neighbors just finished building a house that he will never get to move into because of 3 minutes of scorched earth.

Now I just walk around and people in my family look at me and just shake their heads in disappointment. One of my sons even threw my church keys on the roof of the church this morning so we would have to stay here because he was so upset with me.

So I say all of that to say that you must follow the recipe or you will make a mess. Well it’s the same way with revival. We see a pattern emerge when we look at revivals in the Bible.

Tonight, let’s take a look at what the recipe is for revival in Nehemiah 9.