Title: Revival For Whom?
Contents
Who is the revival for?
12 Moses said to the LORD, Behold, you say to me, "Bring this people up, and you do not tell me who to send with me." You said before, "I know you by name, and you have found favor in my sight." buy it
13 If I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, that I may know you, that I may find favor in your sight, and count this people as your people.
14 I myself will go, says the LORD, and I will give you peace.
15 Moses said to the LORD, "If you do not go, do not send us up from here.
16 How shall we know that I and thy people have found favor in thy sight, doth not thou distinguish me and thy people from among all the peoples of the earth, because thou art with us?
17 The LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you say, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.
I.
i. The solution from the back
On a Sunday afternoon, a father lay down in the living room to take a nap. But his little son annoys him, saying, “Dad, I am bored.” So the father was looking for toys and found a picture of the earth in the newspaper. I cut the picture into 50 or so pieces and suggested, “Put this puzzle together.”
And take a nap again. The father thought his son could sleep for an hour and a half or two hours to complete this puzzle. Because this child does not know the geography of the world very well yet.
But in less than 15 minutes, the boy wakes him up. “Dad, you've done it, you got it all right,” I ask the child, wondering, the father who fell asleep and woke up again. “How did you fit the world map so quickly?” The son answers. “The back of a newspaper had a human face drawn on it, so it became a world map by matching it with that.”
This is the story from the first page of Rick Warren's book 'The Road to Recovery'. As I write a book on the subject of recovery, can you guess why I put this story in the first place? This story contains how we can solve the problems of our entangled lives. Our church is carrying the banner of restoration and revival. How do we unravel the complicated entanglement of our life's recovery and revival? Our recovery and revival seem more impossible than the task of a child who has to solve a 50-piece puzzle without knowing the geography of the world. We can also look at the back and match. If you look at the back, it comes off surprisingly easily. The other side is your relationship with God. When our relationship with God is restored, our lives can be restored easily. The higher the intimacy with God, the higher the quality of life. So, we are continuously looking for the solution of restoration and revival in this age through the event of restoration between Israel and God in Exodus 33.
ii. Revival through prayer
Last week, I gave a sermon under the title of 'Prayer and pray again'. Even if there is God's answer to prayer, do not stop there and continue to pray persistently.
If you look at the Bible or the history of the church, you can see how earnestly the people God used prayed before the revival came. This was the case with Moses, who rescued the people from slavery in Egypt and led them to Canaan. It was Nehemiah to build the fallen walls of Jerusalem, and so was Esther, who saved her people from the day of death called genocide.
Many movements are taking place this year to recreate the great revival in Pyongyang that occurred in 1907 in the Korean church. As a company, a historic revival movement began in Pyongyang exactly 100 years ago. According to the diagnosis of historical theologians, this great Pyongyang revival in 1907 was also a revival through prayer.
The beginning of revival is people. A person who prays in particular. So, the beginning of revival is prayer. God pours special passion, power, and compassion on those who pray. God's light of life that saves dry bones begins to shine on this earth through prayer.
iii.
Sorry, but I'll tell you a little bit about my experience. 11 years ago, at the age of thirty-nine, I was in Sydney, Australia. It was heartbreaking to see the people living in faith there. The country is a developed country, and the level of the saints living in it seemed to me to be 10 to 15 years behind the people in Korea. Despite Australia's reputation as a Christian country, what happened in Australia felt like a dry rice field that had been changed by a drought. As I felt sorry for them and felt pity for them, I thought about how I could help them.
Working life was difficult, but every morning I prayed at church. The distance to the church was about 25 km, an indescribable distance. The more I prayed, the more I felt special affection for the Australians, so I had no choice but to pray. When I pray for them, I start to cry. I don't remember crying that much before that, but every morning the floor where I sat and prayed was wet with tears. Perhaps the tears shed on the spot for a year can fill a bottle of sesame oil.
But when I pray like that, change begins... I change first.
Before the people I was praying for changed, God changed me first. You threw a fire into my heart, and through prayer you made it come alive. We hold and talk to young people who have studied abroad. I had fellowship with fellow deacons and encouraged them. Expectations and good resolutions that had never been seen before were born to them, and a new will for life arose.
I returned to Korea and started conducting again at the church. I've heard from many people that "the conductor butler has changed". I can't say exactly what it is, but when I speak, I feel more moved than before and I feel the power of my words. Exhausted crew members gathered and enjoyed practicing, and new members kept gathering.
The men's choir, which had been suspended for more than a year, started collecting again. The choir was twice as loud as before. The enthusiasm for praise has been restored to those around me.
The reason I am telling this story in the sermon class is not to say ‘I am that kind of person’, but to tell you that the work of restoration and revival takes place through ‘people who kneel and pray’.
When I spoke, people were encouraged by those words. Because God gives the authority of heaven to those who pray. Prayer is the pipe that connects the earth and the sky. The power of heaven comes to man through prayer. Although we pray for earthly events, the sound of our prayers does not go up from earth to heaven, but becomes the power and authority that is proclaimed from heaven to earth. Through prayer, heaven's command to this earth is proclaimed, and through prayer, fire comes down from heaven and burns all the satanic cords that bind this earth.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about 'my' right now, I'm talking about 'prayer'.
God cares about a person who prays. In order to expand his kingdom on this earth, God calls a person to pray and changes him, thereby changing the people around him as well. There is no recovery without prayer. There has not been a single history of revival without prayer.
It is a special morning prayer for halftime starting tomorrow. 25 short-term mission teams from Korea will also pray together. Come out and pray. As far as I know, some people put off their travel plans to Korea because of this early morning prayer. If you truly want restoration and revival, if you want to be changed and the land to be changed, if you want to experience God's work in the second half of 2007, join this prayer rank. If transportation is not available, come the evening before and sleep at the church. Beds are also provided. Breakfast is also available.
The fruit of revival begins to bear fruit only when your relationship with God is restored. Who wants to change your life in the second half of the year... God's call to change this land?...