Title Mizpah Crusade (1 Samuel 07:1-11)
It is an annual revival meeting. It was decided that evening meetings would not be enough, so we decided to hold them until dawn and noon. What used to be 5 hours has increased to 10 hours. But even if it's 10 hours or 100 hours, if we don't have the preparation in our hearts, there will be no use in any revival meeting.
I hope that this revival meeting, which is conducted at a great expense, will be a revival society with some kind of income. In order to do that, the instructor must first fit in with our church. It should be appropriate to the circumstances of our church and to the level of our church.
Next, the problem is how much our members have prepared their hearts and attitudes in prayer. It is difficult to achieve fruit until our heartland becomes fertile soil. A thorny road will have to remove the thorns of the heart, a stone like heart will have to remove stones, and a roadside heart will have to block the road. Therefore, even after becoming fertile soil, depending on the amount of effort, 30 times, 60 times, or 100 times may come out.
Today's text is about the people of Israel who had forgotten God for a long time in Samuel's time and held the Mizpah Crusade and received God's blessings in order to find God again.
1. The Mizpah assembly was a meeting to long for God (verse 2). It is said that the whole house of Israel longed for the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant of Israel was captured by the Philistines. After returning, he brought them into the house of Abinadab, who lived in Mount Gibeah, and had Eliasar to keep them, and he left them alone. It's been abandoned for 20 years. And they were doing everything they could. Then the people of Israel longed for the Lord. I hope this crusade will be a crusade to long for Jehovah. In the New Testament era, the secret of Cornelius's family receiving grace is that all his family and relatives gathered in one place to wait for Peter, and then he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:23-48). The reason that Mary received Jesus and received grace was because she had a longing heart (Luke 10:38-42).
2. The Mizpah assembly was an assembly that obeyed the Word (verse 3). The whole house of Israel obeyed Samuel well.
(1) Return to the Lord with your whole heart (verse 3) To return with your whole heart means to return to the Lord with your whole heart.
(2) They were told to abandon the foreign gods. These foreign gods are the native gods of Canaan, and they refer to Baal and Ashtaroth. Baal and Ashtaroth refer to male gods and goddesses, meaning the god of abundance. Even though we say we don't worship Baal, we've become money almighty and serve the gods of material, honor, and power.
(3) They told you to turn your hearts to the Lord and stop serving them. Their hearts that left God are now back.
3. The Mizpah assembly was a prayer assembly (verse 5), Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. Becoming a prayer meeting.
We must (1) love the person we cannot love (1 John 4:20), (2) forgive the person we cannot forgive (Matthew 6:12), and (3) try to be humble with each other (Philippians 2:3).
4. The Mizpah assembly was a congregation of repentance (verse 6), drawing water and pouring it before the Lord, and fasting on that day, saying, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Let this crusade be a crusade that sheds tears of repentance.
(1) The sin of criticizing (Matthew 7:1) (2) The sin of not being reconciled to the brother (Matthew 5:23-24)
5. The Mizpah assembly was an answering assembly (verse 9). Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered a whole burnt offering to the Lord, and cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered.
Let's make the Misspah Crusade. Let's do our best to become a meeting where God longs for God, obeys the Word, prays, repents and receives answers. So let's make it a meeting full of grace, full of the Holy Spirit, full of the Word, and full of love.