Courage & Revival
Summary
TLDRIn this community group Bible study, the speaker emphasizes the balance between human effort and divine intervention in evangelism. Reflecting on various biblical passages and historical revivals, the message underscores that while Christians are called to share their faith, it is ultimately God who saves. The speaker calls for prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit, encouraging the congregation to seek God's power for a revival in their church and nation, stressing that true revival begins within the church and its people.
Takeaways
- 📖 Sharing faith is both a privilege and an obligation.
- 🙏 Overcoming fears of sharing faith involves trusting God's guidance.
- 🤝 Loving our neighbors is crucial in evangelism.
- 📜 Saving people is ultimately God's work, not just our efforts.
- 🌾 Pray for God to send out workers into His harvest field.
- 🗣️ The Holy Spirit guides us on what to say when sharing the gospel.
- 🚪 Pray for God to open doors for the message of the gospel.
- 🌱 Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God makes things grow.
- 📅 Faithful service may not always show immediate results, but God's timing is perfect.
- 🔥 Revival can come through persistent prayer and God's intervention.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the community group Bible study this term?
-The main focus is on how to grow in sharing our faith with others.
What are the key points covered in the previous sessions?
-The previous sessions covered how sharing our faith is a privilege and obligation, how to overcome fears of sharing our faith, and how to love our neighbors.
What potential danger does the speaker mention about focusing too much on our part in evangelism?
-The potential danger is assuming that saving people is entirely dependent on our work, effort, cleverness, and persuasiveness.
What does Matthew 9:37-38 emphasize about evangelism?
-Matthew 9:37-38 emphasizes that while we are to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest field, it is ultimately God who sends us out with the gospel.
What assurance does Luke 12:11-12 give to those who share their faith?
-Luke 12:11-12 assures that the Holy Spirit will teach us what to say, even though we should still prepare to explain the gospel clearly and give good answers to people's questions.
How does Colossians 4:3 guide us in our approach to sharing the gospel?
-Colossians 4:3 guides us to pray for God to open doors for our message, indicating that it is God who provides opportunities for the gospel to be shared.
What lesson can we learn from Dr. William Lesie's missionary work in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
-We learn that even when missionary efforts seem unsuccessful in the short term, God can be working in ways we do not see, leading to significant long-term impact.
What examples of historical revivals does the speaker mention?
-The speaker mentions the revivals under John the Baptist and Jesus, the Pentecost revival, the 18th-century revival with George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers, the 1859 revival in Britain, and the 1951 revival in the Isle of Lewis.
What is the main message of 2 Chronicles 7:14, and how should it be applied?
-The main message is that if God's people humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, He will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. It should be applied to the church, indicating that revival begins with God's people praying and repenting.
What is the speaker's prayer for the church and the nation?
-The speaker prays for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to revive the church, transform the community, and save thousands, leading to a new day in the church and the nation for the glory of Jesus.
Outlines
🌱 Sharing Our Faith and God's Role in Evangelism
This paragraph introduces the final session of a series on sharing faith. The speaker reflects on the previous sessions, highlighting the balance between human effort and divine intervention in evangelism. Key Bible verses are cited to emphasize that while humans have a role to play, it is ultimately God who enables the success of evangelistic efforts.
🌍 The Unexpected Fruits of Mission Work
The story of Dr. William Lesie, a missionary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is recounted. Despite feeling like a failure during his lifetime, a later visit to the area revealed a thriving network of Christian churches. This narrative underscores the theme that God's work may not always be immediately visible, but faithfulness in mission can lead to significant, unseen impact over time.
🔥 Historical Revivals and the Power of Persistent Prayer
This paragraph discusses historical examples of religious revivals, starting with the ministry of George Whitfield and John Wesley in the 18th century, through the revivalist efforts of Charles Spurgeon in the 19th century, to Duncan Campbell's experiences in the Isle of Lewis in 1951. These accounts illustrate how persistent prayer and commitment can lead to widespread spiritual awakening and societal transformation.
🙏 Call for Revival and Transformation
The final paragraph focuses on a call to prayer and repentance, urging the church to seek revival. It references 2 Chronicles 7:14, interpreting it as a call for the church to humble itself and seek God's intervention. The speaker prays for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to awaken the church and bring about a significant spiritual renewal in the community and the nation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Evangelism
💡Harvest
💡Holy Spirit
💡Revival
💡Faithfulness
💡Preparation
💡Privilege
💡Obligation
💡Fear
💡Transformation
💡Prayer
Highlights
Sharing our faith is both a privilege and an obligation.
Overcoming fears of sharing faith and considering people's responses.
Loving our neighbors as a part of sharing faith.
Recognizing that saving people is ultimately God's work, not ours.
Matthew 9:37: 'The Harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers.'
Luke 12:11: 'Do not worry about what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you.'
Importance of preparation in sharing the gospel, but relying on the Holy Spirit.
Colossians 4:3: 'Pray for us that God may open a door for our message.'
Example of Dr. William Leslie's mission in Congo, which seemed like a failure but resulted in a thriving network of churches.
Historical revivals, such as those led by George Whitfield and John Wesley in the 18th century.
The Welsh Revival in the 19th century, where thousands were saved and churches were filled.
The Isle of Lewis revival in 1951, where deep conviction of sin led many to seek God.
Revival starts with the church and individual believers turning to God in prayer and repentance.
2 Chronicles 7:14: A call for God's people to humble themselves and pray for healing and revival.
Isaiah 64:1: 'Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down' - a prayer for God's powerful presence.
Transcripts
[Music]
hi everyone and welcome to another of
our community group Bible studies and
throughout this term we've been looking
at how we uh can grow in sharing our
faith with others we've seen how sharing
our faith is both a privilege and an
obligation we've seen how we can
overcome our fears uh of sharing our
faith and How might people people
respond and last time uh we looked at
how we can love our neighbors and in my
planning I thought those three sessions
would take us up to the end of term and
obviously uh I made a mistake and
there's one more session and uh and as I
was thinking and praying about okay what
should I cover in this in this uh final
session I was thinking how we focus very
much on our part uh in Evangel ISM and
of course that's not wrong we we all
have a part uh to play we all have an
obligation uh to play and and so that's
important but the danger is that we
might assume then that saving people is
all down to us it's down to our work our
effort our cleverness our persuasiveness
and it isn't so just listen to these uh
Bible verses uh for a moment
uh in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 37 uh
Jesus says to his disciples the Harvest
is plentiful but the workers are few ask
the lord of the Harvest therefore to
send out workers into his Harvest field
we're certainly to pray but it is God
who sends us out with the gospel Again
Luke 12 and verse 11 Jesus said to his
disciples do not worry about what you
will say for the holy will holy spirit
will teach you what you should say now
of course that's not to say we shouldn't
take time to be prepared to explain the
gospel clearly and to give good answers
to people's questions we should and
that's why we're doing the big questions
kind of teaching series but in the end
the Holy Spirit teaches us what to say
Paul writes in Colossians uh chapter 4
and verse three he says
pray for us that God may open a door for
our message and of course when Provine
was recently uh with us from India he
spoke from Revelation 3:8 where Jesus
says I have placed before you an open
door that no one can shut it's not our
cre creativity in having great events or
or our speaking skills that open the
door for the gospel now of course we
want great events we want speak
well but we must pray that God opens a
door in our town uh and in this region
for the
gospel again the Apostle Paul summarizes
it like this in one Corinthians chapter
3 where where in the church Christians
were playing off one Leader's Ministry
against another and Paul says when one
says I follow Paul and another I follow
AP
are you not acting in a worldly way
after all what is Apollos what is Paul
only servants through whom you came to
believe as the Lord has assigned each to
his task I planted the seed Apollos
watered it but God has been making it
grow and so neither the one who plants
nor the one who Waters is anything but
only God who makes things
grow again and again the Bible makes it
very clear we have a part to play and to
not to overstate it we are disobedient
if we never bother to share our faith
with others because we are commanded to
do so
however at the same time we must
recognize it is God who saves it is God
who calls people it is God who draws
people
and down through history there are
people who who Faithfully pray and
Faithfully share the gospel and there's
not much fruit and there are other
Seasons where people pray and share the
gospel and there's Revival and hundreds
respond and hundreds are
saved for instance uh this is a picture
of the Canadian Dr William lesie who
supported by the American uh Baptist
missionary Union in
1912 went to a remote corner of the
Democratic Republic of
Congo and after traveling around and
preaching the gospel and teaching the
people for 17 years he returned to the
US and he died nine years later
believing that the mission had failed
and the that he had had completely no
impact
but then in
2010 a team went out to this same area
this same remote area of jungle
expecting to find an unreached tribal
people and yet in fact what they found
was a network of Christian churches
across a group of villages with a
cathedral if you like in the main
village and a Congregation of over a
thousand
people in his day he thought it he had
failed but God had been working God's
ways and God's timings of course are not
ours our call is to be
faithful however I wouldn't want us I
wouldn't want myself to settle for
simply being faithful because history
shows us that actually
sometimes God answers prayers and sends
a huge
Revival so as Jesus uh began his min
Ministry there seemed to be another
Revival obviously under John the Baptist
many had come to Faith then now Jesus
comes and and new life seems to break
out of the the religious
places another Revival again at
Pentecost a there was a a renewal
amongst God's people the preaching of
the gospel and thousands are added into
the
church such kind of events and
experiences have repeatedly occurred in
the life of the church and we want to
pray for such a move in our
day in his journal in December 1738
George Whitfield
wrote there seems to be a great
outpouring of the spirit and many who
were awakened by my preaching a year ago
are now grown strong men in Christ by
the ministrations of my dear friends and
fellow laborers John and Charles Wesley
I am every moment employed from morning
till midnight there is no end of people
coming to me and they seem more and more
desirous like newborn babies to be fed
with the sincere milk of the
word what a great work has been wrought
in the hearts of many within this 12
month that was in the December then in
the January of the following year the
Wesley and the the W George Whitfield
and other clergy they gathered together
for prayer until actually about 3 in the
morning and John Wesley then says the
power of God came mightily Upon Us in so
much as many cried out for exceeding Joy
many fell to the ground as soon as we
were recovered a little from awe and
amazement at the presence of His Majesty
we broke out with one voice we praise
you God we acknowledge you to be the
Lord and Whitfield wrote again in his
journal we parted with a full conviction
that God was going to do great things
among us and so began the the Revival of
the 18th century where tens of thousands
of people were saved not just in Britain
actually around the world in
particularly in America too and
thousands were saved the me Methodist
Church was launched and actually the
nation was
changed then about a hundred years later
Charles Spurgeon addressed a a wine MCA
gathering on January the 4th in
1859 and he said this we must confess
that just now we have not the outpouring
of the holy spirit that we could wish
the spirit is blowing on our churches
now with his genial breath meaning his
friendly his gentle breath and he says
but it is as a soft evening Breeze oh
that there would come a rushing Mighty
Wind that should carry everything before
this is the lack of the times the great
want of our country may this come as a
blessing from the most high and in the
early summer of that year
1859 then spurgeon's desire seems to
have been fulfilled because he wrote
then the times of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord have at last dawned
Upon Our Land and over the next few
months from Summer 1859 through to the
end of the year his congregation Grew
From 200 to over
1200 and a a year later than that he was
regularly Gathering between 5 and
10,000 and not just in London but
actually in other parts of the country
particularly in Wales the Chapels were
starting to be filled to
overflowing uh one Church leader Thomas
Phillips wrote The Awakening influence
at length uh the influences sorry The
Awakening influences uh reach the towns
of abist abon traron and almost every is
every District in the upper middle parts
of Cardigans Shire in Maran uh there is
a glorious work in progress from calan
pen Brookshire glamorganshire and
Monmouth they have not been left
unvisited the services in the churches
and chapels on weekdays and Sundays are
crowded hundreds are coming over to the
Lord's Side and there seems to be an
extraordinary work of Grace going
forward Among Us amazing amazing stories
of what God was doing then another
hundred years after that 100 years so
the Whitfield Wesley and revivals of the
18th century then the the Welsh Revival
and Spurgeon and then 100 years after
that in 1951 One Duncan Campbell visited
the aisle of Lewis and he wrote this I
find it difficult to put down on paper
what our eyes have seen and our ears
have heard this week Revival has gripped
the parish deep conviction of sin has
laid hold of the people and many have
found the Savior as many as 20 in one
meeting men who were never near a
meeting were suddenly arrested by the
spirit of God and had to give up work
and give themselves to seeking after God
places of worship are crowded and
meetings continue until the small hours
of the morning people walk through wind
and rain and we'll wait through three
services between 7:30 and 3: in the
morning we praise our faithful God and
so of course we we could go on many many
stories of
Revival and so on the one
hand we are to play our part in
evangelism serving Faithfully sharing
the gospel where we can sharing uh about
Jesus encouraging people to find
Salvation And yet at the same time let's
not settle for us simply uh just being
faithful obedient it's not settled for
that as good as that is but let's cry
out to God to revive us to revive our
community to transform our land a leader
in the uh Welsh
Revival uh I think was called Evan
Roberts uh he was once asked what's the
secret to Revival and he said there is
no secret ask and you shall
receive in uh many parts of the world
today the gospel is flourishing and yet
here in the west the church broadly
speaking seems in the doldrums now we
are happy for everyone who is saved the
Bible tells us Heaven rejoices over
every individual every person who
repents and believes and and we do too
we Rejoice over everyone and yet we also
long for so much more and our hope our
longing is just as God has done in the
past that he would answer our prayers
that he would shake the church from its
Slumber that he would transform our
nation that he would save thousands of
people and change their lives
2 Chronicles 7 and verse4 is often
quoted as a promise of Revival to to
Britain or to America or to any other
nation and it simply isn't that it is
the application of the law of Moses to
God's people
Israel so the law said if you obey me
I'll bless you if you disobey me I will
curse you so let me just read the
verse and remember it is given to the
people of Israel it's not given to every
believer it's given to the people of
Israel says
this uh is saying to Solomon in verse 12
I've heard your prayer I've chosen this
place for myself as a temple for
sacrifices but when I shut up the
Heavens so that there is no rain or
command locusts to Devour the land or
send a plague among my people that's the
law If my people who are called by my
name will humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their Wicked
Ways then I will hear from Heaven I will
forgive their sin and heal their
land meaning if the people of God will
turn to God In Prayer then he will
forgive them and heal their domain if
you like and so a better application is
not that this is a promise for God to
heal
Britain but as I say to heal the domain
of the people of God you might say which
is of course the
church and that is where true Revival
begins Revival doesn't begin out there
somewhere it begins in us and it begins
in the
church it's a this is a a promise that
if God's people will pray if God's
people will turn from sin if God's
people will cry out to him then then God
will hear from heaven and he will start
by healing the church now our prayer of
course is that that overflows out of the
church into our community and into our
nation but it begins with
us let's pray that God would do a work
in US change us wake us from our Slumber
wake our church from its Slumber wake
the church in Britain from its Slumber
and its sleepiness that we would cry out
to God that we would share the gospel
Faithfully full of power and full of
Courage let's pray I want to close with
these words from Isaiah 64 and then I'll
pray oh that you would tear open the
heavens and come
down father we want to firstly
acknowledge that we have a part to play
by your grace you choose to use us in
sharing the gospel with others in
proclaiming the name of Jesus and we
want to do that faithfully and so father
we say please come and fill us with your
spirit that we
would Faithfully share the gospel with
those around us and yet at the same time
father our prayer is that you would tear
open the heavens and come down in great
power come down in our church come down
in As We Gather to pray come down as we
uh gather to Proclaim your word God we
ask you for a fresh outpouring of your
spirit that you would begin in US revive
the church and we then pray God would
you revive our nation we cry out to you
for a fresh outpouring of your spirit
Lord that that hundreds and hundreds
would be saved thousands would be saved
by the gospel the powerful gospel the
powerful message of
Jesus Lord we pray come let there be a
new day in our church in this church uh
in the land and Lord in our nation we
cry out for the sake of the lost and we
cry out for the name of Jesus and for
his glory amen
[Music]
関連動画をさらに表示
Suffering: A Path To Revival | Pastor Charles Philip | NLF Dubai
APOSTLE JOSHUA SELMAN - [ NEVER GIVE UP ] GOD WILL MAKE A WAY FOR YOU #apostlejoshuaselman
BGBC 042124 SS final
SIMPLE FAITH
ALL Spiritual Gifts EXPLAINED in less than 10 minutes
Rebuild The Tabernacle Of David | Pastor T.V. Gopinathan | NLF Dubai
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)