MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Powerpoints used with this message are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #151.)
I think that there is nothing more exciting than discovering what God is doing in our world today. But I don't want just to hear about what God is doing, or to read about it in some magazine. I really want to be a part of what God is doing.
PROP. And it seems to me that God is doing 4 things. Now, I am sure He is doing much more than that. But in regards to the church it seems there are 4 things God is doing that have great impact on the church today.
I. GOD IS CALLING HIS PEOPLE TO PRAY
A. The first thing is this, God is calling His people to pray. Now we know that the Lord has always wanted His people to pray. But I'm convinced that there is something special going on today.
It is as though a special call to prayer has come forth from the throne of God. And God's people are answering it in ways that we have never seen before.
Christian historians are telling us that we are at the early stages of what is already the greatest prayer movement in history. Christians are praying in greater numbers & with greater effectiveness than ever before.
ILL. Did you know that the world's largest church is located in Seoul, So. Korea? It is a congregation that was started in 1958, after the Korean War, by a Korean Christian, his wife, & his mother-in-law.
They began holding services in a discarded army tent, & focused on prayer. They taught the people to pray to pray individually, to pray in family groups, in house to house prayer services, & in neighborhood gatherings. Their church services emphasized prayer & praise & Bible study.
The result was that the church grew & grew & grew some more. When I first heard about that congregation it had become the largest congregation in the world, with about 250,000 members. One of their prayer goals was to so witness for Christ that they would have 30,000 baptisms that year alone.
Well, a number of years have passed, & that church still focuses on prayer. Every morning they have two early morning prayer services. The first one begins at 5 A.M. But if you want to attend that service, you have to get in line at least an hour ahead of time.
By 4 A.M. the line waiting to get into that service already stretches a mile down the street from the church building. You see, the problem is that their building can only seat 21,000 people at a time, & oftentimes thousands are still waiting in line when the building is full for the 5:00 prayer service.
They have two prayer services like that every morning. And on Friday nights they have an all night prayer meeting. You guessed it 21,000 people praying together there all night long.
Oh, by the way, it is still the largest single church in the world. Only the congregation is no longer 250,000. Despite having sent many of their members out to start more new churches in Seoul, they now number over 800,000 members!
To accommodate the crowds, in addition to their prayer services, they hold church services every day of the week. And on Sundays they hold 7 services, one right after another all day long, each with its own orchestra, its own choir, & its own preacher.
During these services, an overflow totaling 2 to 3 hundred thousand people are packed into adjoining buildings, watching & worshipping with them on TV. All in all, they have 179 pastors on staff, & each service is translated into 16 languages!
It's a phenomenal church, & this emphasis on prayer is spreading all over the world. Many churches with great attendances are convinced that they are growing as the result of prayer, prayer in the lives of their people, & prayer in the lives of their leadership.
The exciting thing is that this same prayer emphasis is also developing in the United States. There are literally several thousand churches that are regularly having early morning prayer meetings, or all night prayer meetings.
I don't know if you realize it, but this ame prayer emphasis is also beginning to happen in a very small way in our congregation. And you can be a part of it, too. It can be exciting to be a part of what God is doing in the area of prayer.
II. GOD IS CALLING THE CHURCH TO REVIVAL
A. But you need to realize that God is not calling the church to pray simply so that you & I can feel good about our own prayer life. God is calling us to pray so that we can be a part of the 2nd thing which God is doing in the world today. He is calling His church to revival.
Now when we mention “revival” the first thing that usually pops into most of our minds is a week or so of special services called a “Revival.” Do you remember the series of revival meetings that used to be so common?
Now there is nothing wrong with revival meetings as long as you don't get confused about what “revival” really is. You see, the definition of a revival is when God's people come under the life changing conviction that God is really present & working in their lives.
This is something that has happened at various times historically from the days of Israel in the O.T. all the way through the history of the church. Time after time, when things seemed to have hit bottom, God stepped in & revived His people.
ILL. In this country, from the mid 1720’s until well after the Civil War, we experienced 3 different periods of revival which have been called "great awakenings." These were times when religious excitement & great revivals erupted along the American frontier.
History records that when a time of revival started, there were many communities in which literally every person became a Christian. Can you imagine living in a town where everyone believed the Bible & accepted Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord of their lives?
ILL. And “revivals” didn’t happen only in the United States. In 1904-1905 some amazing stories came out of Wales, in the western part of England. During those years they had a very intense time of revival, so intense that it literally shut down the Welsh economy for weeks.
You see, the Welsh economy was based primarily upon coal mining. Welsh miners dug out coal from pits & hauled out the coal in carts pulled by ponies.
Well, history tells us that the pony drivers & coal miners were such foul mouthed, vulgar, profane men that when they were converted in the great Welsh Revival of 1904 1905, their new cleaned up language was changed so much that the poor ponies didn't understand the commands any longer.
It took weeks to retrain the ponies & open the mines again.
A skeptical reporter from the London Times came & interviewed the police chief of the Welsh county that was the very center of the great revival. During the interview he said, "I understand that as the result of the revival you no longer have any crimes to deal with. So what do your police officers do?"
The police chief answered, "Well, we have 16 police officers. We use four of them to direct traffic around the churches at night. And the other 12 we divided into three quartets who sing nightly in the churches."
B. Folks, sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when you look at our nation. But if you have studied the history of revival, you'll discover that every time God got ready to revive His people, the first thing He did was to call them to pray. He started people praying just like He's doing today.
It would begin small with individuals & groups, & then it would grow & grow & grow over weeks, months, & even years until it reached a critical mass. Then revival would break out among God's people.
And the exciting news is this. If you & I are living in the early stages of one of the greatest prayer movements in the history of the church, guess what's coming? Guess what you & I will be able to be a part of, if we will answer God's call to pray?
III. GOD IS CALLING HIS PEOPLE TO TELL THE WORLD ABOUT JESUS!
God is calling His people to pray so that He can revive His people. But the purpose of revival is not to have better meetings. The purpose of revival is not for Christians to walk around with smiles on their faces, though that may happen.
The purpose of revival is the third thing that God is doing in the world today. He is calling His people, His church, to finish the task of world evangelization, to tell the lost about Jesus.
Out of the great revivals of the past there always came a great missionary thrust. There was always a growing concern & compassion for the lost. And many of us believe that out of this coming revival we will once again see a great concern for the lost & for world evangelization.
IV. GOD IS CALLING US TO HELP PREPARE FOR JESUS TO COME AGAIN
A. There is a 4th thing God is doing in the world. God is calling us to have a part in preparing for Jesus to come again.
In Matthew 24:14 Jesus says, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, & then the end will come." The gospel is going to be preached to all nations. Jesus said so. And then He will come again.
Now the problem is the word "then." Did Jesus mean that the minute the last people group is reached that He will come then? Or does "then" mean later on that day? Or later on that week, or that year?
We don't know when Jesus meant by "then", but one thing is very clear, God is moving toward that day. He is calling His people to pray, so that He can revive His people, so that we can finish the task of telling the world about Jesus, & then the end will come.
B. There is another passage of Scripture that I think you will recognize because it's an O.T. passage Jesus quotes in the N.T.
In Isaiah 56:7 God is speaking & He says, "These I will bring to my holy mountain & give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings & sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
You say, "Oh, I remember that passage. That's the one Jesus quoted when He was cleansing the temple. Jesus said, “Is it not written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11:17)
Now, when Jesus was talking about His Father's house then, He was talking about the temple in Jerusalem that is no longer there. But does God still have a house in which His Spirit dwells?
Yes, He does. Scripture tells us that you & I, as individuals, have become the house of God, the temple of God's Holy Spirit.
C. So then, why don't we pray more? Why is prayer such a difficult thing for us to do? David Butts, who leads prayer seminars all over the world, says that he has yet to have someone come up & say, "Dave, I have a problem. I am praying too much."
That is not our problem, is it? Folks, I must confess that it is easier for me to preach about prayer than it is to spend much time in prayer. It is easier to read a book about prayer than it is to pray, because prayer can be tough.
Perhaps that is why a recent survey about prayer states that the average Christian in the U.S. prays 1 & 1/2 minutes a day. Now, I'm sure many of you are above that average. But we all struggle with a lack of prayer in our life.
All of the surveys on prayer indicate that in the U.S. especially, there is one reason given for that far more than any other. And it is simply this, "I'm too busy," or “I just run out of time to pray.” Haven't we all used one of these excuses?
We have gotten up in the morning with every intention of spending time in prayer. But then there is the press of events, & by the time we got into bed that night our prayer ends up being, "Lord, forgive me. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better tomorrow." And that was about it, wasn't it?
I think there is another reason why we have difficulty praying. We have an enemy, the Scripture says, & he's called the devil.
I believe that the devil would rather have us do anything than pray. For when we pray we begin to exercise the spiritual weapon that defeats him. So he will do anything to keep us from praying.
ILL. David Butts said this point came home to him very vividly a number of years ago after he attended a prayer conference. He had come back really excited about prayer & he decided to get up early the next morning & pray.
He got up at 5:30 & splashed some water on his face. Then he knelt down by his bed & began to pray. But he had no sooner begun praying when suddenly he had an overwhelming urge to wash his car.
Suddenly he remembered his car was dirty, & he had some meetings to go to that day, & he would be so busy that there was going to be no other time to wash it. If he was going to get his car washed it had to be right then.
All of these thoughts popped into his mind as he started to pray, & at 5:30 in the morning he felt an overwhelming urge to get up off his knees & wash his car.
Suddenly he stopped & thought, "Dave, when was the last time you got up at 5:30 in the morning with an overwhelming urge to wash your car." The answer of course was, "Never."
So where did the urge come from? Isn't that how the devil tempts us? Doesn't he put thoughts into our minds to draw us away from God?
You see, Dave realized that his real desire was not to wash his car at 5:30 in the morning. His real desire was to get up & pray.
And once he recognized that his desire was to pray & Satan's desire was for him to wash his car & not to pray, it was easy for him to make a choice.
It may not be washing the car at 5:30 in the morning, but if you have ever decided to get serious about prayer you've experienced something like that. You decided to pray & then a knock came at the door, or the phone rang, or the doorbell rang, or other distracting thoughts crowded in.
Where did those distractions come from? Why is it that every time we begin to pray distractions come along? When we recognize where they come from then we can begin to handle them. That's how we can win the victory.
CONCL. This morning I would like you to accept a challenge. It's a challenge to take a step of power that every person here can take. It's very simple.
Here it is. Would you pray more today than you did yesterday? That's a step of power. Would you pray more today than you did yesterday? Now for some of you that will be pretty easy because you didn't pray yesterday.
But assuming you prayed 5 minutes yesterday, would you pray 10 minutes today? Would you just add on a little bit more & begin to grow in your prayer life? Pray more today than you did yesterday.
Get used to that & then continue to grow in prayer. Become the person of prayer that God has called you to be, to be a "house of prayer" that God can use to change our lives, our families, our church, our nation, & this world.
INVITATION:
