Closing the Gap: The Key to Revival in America Ep 15

A lot of people are coming to faith in Christ in a lot of places in the world, but not the U.S. We're thankful for every good thing that does happen here, and there are good things that happen from time to time. After all, a million come to faith every year, but we're still losing more than we're gaining. Welcome to the Bennett Broadcast. I'm Matt Bennett. Thanks for joining me as we explore what it means to seek the Lord wholeheartedly, to grow strong in faith, and to be fully devoted to God in today's world. When we do, He will pour out His Spirit and bring revival like never before. Matt Bennett here. Great to be with you. And as we look at what's on my heart today, it's a summer evening in New York City, and things are hot the last couple of days. But we put our trust in the Lord, even for hot summers in New York City. But I was down in Texas not too long ago, and I was talking to a friend in Dallas. And as I explained what the Lord put on my heart, he said to me, so what you're after is seeking to help close the gap. And I thought, yeah, yeah, that's it. That's what the Lord's put on my heart. And I'll explain what that means. The Lord has asked me through prayer. impressions he put on my heart in other different ways and reading up the scriptures to help put forward a vision for Christians to live at a stronger level and a deeper level in the United States. I lead Christian Union, a ministry to college students and young professionals, and also Heritage Pastors Association, a ministry to pastors. And for both of them, the The calling is very similar, and that is to see a difference in what it means to draw close to the Lord so that we have more power and we're able to be used by the Lord in amazing ways. So as an introduction, I guess you can think about this famous verse in Jeremiah 29. You've no doubt come across it. A lot of people quote this verse in Jeremiah 29. It says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. And all right, okay, good. Praise God. Sounds like a good, encouraging verse. Always has to be understood in historical context. But let's look at what it says here as it continues. It says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes. So the part I want to focus on here is when it says, You'll come and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And that part is often left out when this verse is quoted, but it is a condition that's put on this promise. This is a conditional promise. It's a conditional grace. And assume it applies to us in the New Testament, which in ways it does. Those of us in the New Covenant, all of us today who are believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then it still has a condition to it. And that is seek God and find Him when you seek Him with all your heart. I remember talking to a friend, a devout friend and a Christian teacher some years ago and talking about the need to seek the Lord. And he said, he kind of got frustrated after a while, it was kind of going on and on. And he said, but we are seeking the Lord. And it really hit me in a stronger and deeper way how I need to think about and how I need to communicate. Because the level in which we're seeking the Lord isn't sufficient for the task, isn't sufficient for the current state of rebellion in the United States and drifting away from Him and to receive enough power and filling of the Holy Spirit to be instruments of His grace. And... I think of a number of kings in 2 Chronicles. There are a number of kings, and these kings are interesting because in some ways they're fantastic role models, in other ways they are a warning because they didn't seek the Lord fully and completely. And I'll mention each of them briefly. King Asa, he's mentioned in 2 Chronicles 15. And I love the story of King Asa. Prophet comes to him, tells him that they need to turn to the Lord. He takes courage, calls the people to renew their zeal for the Lord. They make a re-covenant with God. He even deposes his queen mother because she was worshiping Asherah. I mean, really, really dynamic and powerful. And they see great. However, it says in, well, it says in verse 17 of chapter 15, it says his heart was fully committed to the Lord. But not too long afterwards, he gets distracted and he relies on the king of Aram for something instead of the Lord. They're always to rely on the Lord and not foreign kings. And so the Lord gives some bad news because of that to him. And it says in verse 9, it says, The eyes of the Lord throughout the earth search throughout and reigns throughout to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. But that wasn't the case for Asa. And the Lord ended up bringing judgment against him. Not too much longer in chapter 16, it says he has an illness. But he didn't seek the Lord for healing. He only sought medical help. That was it. And so he died from this. And the lesson from King Asin plain is that when he sought the Lord with his whole heart, great things happened. But when he didn't and he was only half-hearted, then bad things came upon him. Now we see the same in Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Now it was amazing here. He becomes king. He clears out a lot of idols from the land. It's really beautiful and wonderful. But then he has a challenge that comes to him in chapter 20, verses 1 to 4. It says the Moabites and Ammonites, among other, a great horde come against him. And some men came and said to him, a great multitude is coming against you from Edom. from beyond the sea. And so Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord and proclaimed to fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek the Lord and the Lord delivered them in some incredible, amazing ways. They sang praise in the midst of their armies and battles and the enemy was defeated. Just incredible and wonderful. Yet, not too much later, even in the same chapter, it says, verse 33, and the high places were not removed and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their ancestors. So there was some movement and a great victory for a while, but then it all changed for him. And he wasn't what all that the Lord was. would have had him be. And then we have an example of Amaziah in chapter 25. He's another case. For a while, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He listened to a prophet at first and won a great battle, but then he brought back idols from Edom and ignored further warnings and picked a fight with the king of Israel and got crushed. And It says in chapter 25, verse 2, it says, He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. So in each of these kings, we have what happens all the time is that we may become believers and we may seek the Lord partially, or at least for a season, we'll seek him with our whole hearts. But then... That comes to an end. Or maybe the whole time we've only seeking him partially. And then we get all the negative effects of that. And the Lord wants us to be wholehearted for him. But we also got to understand what that means. And it's amazing to me. I know people who go around the world and take note of the incredible spiritual vitality in other parts of the world. What people call the global south. And they ain't perfect for sure. But at the same time, they're seeing great spiritual breakthroughs. a lot of excitement about the Lord. And this is true whether it's Africa, some places of South America, some places Far East, some places in the Pacific Islands. And these are very different cultures, yet they're all doing the same. They're spending a lot of time, prayer, fasting, repentance, obeying the Lord in all things and seeing great spiritual power released. You see many, many more people come to faith in Christ. You see even some cultural and change in the geography and the areas. It's really beautiful. But these cultures are all different, but they're all doing the same thing. And they're doing what the U.S. used to do years ago. It's been a long time since we've had a true revival in the U.S. And even as it is, a lot of times when people think revival is, they think a lot of spiritual gifts being poured out. And that's not what a revival is. That's more of a latter rain definition of revival. It's not the historic definition. And I believe in all the spiritual gifts, praise the Lord. But that's not what it is. It's when the Holy Spirit's poured out and people are radically devoted to the Lord. They're living righteous and devout lives. And there's a radical increase and people come into faith in Christ. And even institutions change. This is what's happened in American history in the past. We have maybe the best revival history in the world, but we've forgotten our roots. And even though there's every year, two years, there's signs in the media, people say, oh, things have turned around, revivals here, etc. It's not true. Once you dig down into the data and look at it, it's not the case. The U.S. has been declining, sadly, spiritually for decades. Every year there are a million genuine conversions to Christ, praise his name. But we lose two to three million Christians every year, either passing away because they're older or deconstructing, leaving the faith, etc. So, I mean, every few years there's some new reason people put out there in the news or social media how things have turned around now. But you look at the data and that's not the case. The good news is that the Lord will turn things around when we close the gap. The problem with the world, with America, is primarily with us Christians today. And I don't mean to say that the non-Christians aren't more wicked than the Christians. That's true. However, we're still not walking with the Lord close enough to such that He is pleased with us and He pours out His Holy Spirit on us so that we see great change. And I've been able to be part of a couple of very localized revivals in the past. in the U.S. and very limited space, territory, and also gone to other countries and see great, great change and met people from other countries who are leaders in different parts of the world. Really amazing, incredible. I think of a pastor in Bangalore I had met a couple of years ago Paul, I forget his last name. He's got a church of 40,000 there. And the principle, the center of their ministry, he will tell you, is their daily four-hour prayer meeting. Of course, not everybody comes to that. They can't. But that's the core of their power and why they're seeing God do so much There in India and in Bangalore area. A lot of people are coming to faith in Christ in a lot of places in the world, but not the U.S. We're thankful for every good thing that does happen here. And there are good things that happen from time to time. After all, a million come to faith every year, but we're still losing more than we're gaining. And so may the Lord help us. So what does it mean to close the gap then? If this is true, and the reason that we don't have the power of the Holy Spirit is because we don't seek the Lord at a sufficient level, I encourage you to go to danielspirituality.org. And in there, there's a link to a list of 20 videos that go through how to advance the kingdom of God. It's a lot of content, I admit, but I want you to see verse by verse and in church history. What I'm saying is true from the scriptures that we must seek the Lord with a lot of energy and a lot of faith, much more today. And when I talk to people about it, for many, it's a shock. I'll tell you that. But it's what our ancestors did in this country and a lot of time spent drawing close to the Lord. And it's very doable for us. We simply need to put to death a lot of idols in our hearts, greed and comfort and ease and slumbering spirit, complacency, spending so much time on frivolous pursuits and thinking it's important. If we're not scrolling through our phones, we're not going to be able to do it. Maybe we are watching some program on TV or movie or something like that. Things that don't add value long term or go to some sport event or whatever it is. We've got plenty of time. We've got more labor-saving devices than ever. It's just that our hearts are cold to the Lord and we don't seek Him as we used to. And I can't tell you how many pastors I met and talked to, they say they can't even pray 10 minutes. Well, that's not going to get us there. It needs to be a lot more. And I am very excited from time to time when I see people really make a change of heart and radically start seeking God. They see breakthroughs. They start to live the Christian life that they're always designed to live. And here soon, too, I've asked a number of young professionals in New York, as well as a number of pastors, to join me in a 40-day fast, liquid-only podcast. Sometimes I do water only for some of the days, some day at times one meal a day, sometimes liquid only. And there's different ways you can fast, but it's got to be fasting from food and not just refraining from other things, even though that's fine to do. But we need these seasons of drawing close so that our spiritual fountains can get deep and they can get strong. And we have the power of God in us to see real radical change in our communities and our nation. And the Lord is waiting, and he will wait another decade, another decade, another decade, until finally we as Christians will say we've had enough of the encroaching wickedness. We've had enough of the sin. compromise and problems in churches. I mean, in the last couple of years, there's been so much exposed, both in the charismatic stream and in the non-charismatic stream and the U.S. Catholic Church as well. I mean, so many issues and problems. We don't have the power of God. We need the Holy Spirit. We need his presence in our life. I'm not talking just about when we become a Christian and we're sealed with the Holy Spirit, but we need repeated fillings of the Holy Spirit as is taught in the book of Acts. And then we have strength. by the power of God to resist sin, to live a holy life, never perfect, but still so much better. And we also have great boldness in sharing the faith. That's the number one thing that's marked in the book of Acts when people are filled with the spirit again and again, is boldness for proclamation, but they also see fruitfulness way higher than normal levels of fruitfulness. And I think of the businessman's revival in 1857 here in New York City. And you can see the change in enrollment at churches. One year it's 300, and the next year it's 1,000. Church after church after church, because so many came to faith in Christ during that great move of God as people prayed like crazy and sought the Lord. So may the Lord give us that grace, and may He give us that help. So the Bennett Broadcast, that's what this is about, is help to inspire and to courage, to teach from the Scriptures, about what it means to seek the Lord and how to see great change in this country. New York City, because I'm here, but all over the country as well. And I've got family in Texas, so I'm a little partial to there as well. But this is for the whole country by the grace of God. Also, we, from time to time, we'll have... some students. We have a student ministry, Christian Union, and some amazing things and how their lives have changed by the grace of God. Also, from time to time, pastors with Heritage Pastors Association, I'll interview with. The Lord does have some wonderful things happening with some churches here in New York City. It's not nearly enough to shift the city, but it's a beginning and it's a start and it's part by the grace of God. We just need a lot of seeking the Lord with great energy. So there are some amazing men of God around. Just we need a lot more of them, whether it be lay Christians or whether it be ministers, vocational ministers or whatever else. So you may have been wondering yourself and thinking, Hey, are there any other believers out there who want to go radical after God, who want to pray and seek the Lord like they used to during the Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening? And the answer is yes. There aren't too many of us, but we're inviting more and more. It's elective. Everybody can be a part. Everybody can set aside their schedule, change their priorities and seek the Lord with a lot more time. And there is a growing community this way. Also, in August, here in a few weeks, we'll do our regular fast. We'll recruit people from across the country. If you go to ChristianUnion.org and you look on the main website, I don't think the button is up there yet, but it'll be there soon. We'll be starting August 7th. And that fast is going to be 21 days. But we also... Some of us are going to go further, hence the 40-day fast. But join with us. Join with many thousands of others. We usually have 5,000 to 10,000 who join us for that fast every six months. We do it in August when we do it in August. January, usually, by the grace of God. So there is hope for this country. There is hope for your family, for your community, your city. But it all begins with us turning back to the Lord and drawing close to Him and keeping our side of the new covenant. which is drawing close to him, living a humble and devout life. And then the Lord responds with great outpourings and strength of his spirit. And he speaks to us. It's really fantastic. It's a roller coaster in many ways, but beautiful and wonderful and life-changing. So many people are hurting, and there are so much problems in the world and so many difficult and mental health issues, etc. A lot of these get taken care of when there's an outpouring of the spirit, when there's revival. The Lord brings great change to people's hearts and communities when he comes in powerfully to a community. Praise his name. So we've got some good churches here in New York City that have been very, very strong in the past. I think a Brooklyn Tabernacle. church, I think of Times Square Church, and we want to get them back at the same level of zeal that they used to have here in New York City. They're still good as far as churches go in the USA, but not like they used to be in many ways and not at a level that needs to be there. And there's many other churches and many other ministries. We all got to do the same thing together. So we got to take a hard look at ourselves and say, in what way is there a gap and how do we close that gap? In terms of drawing close to the Lord So if you go to that danielspirituality.org And click the link for the 7 keys to kingdom advancement You will see it all there And we'll be dropping a lot more information here as well But we need to come together and seek the Lord And trust Him for great and incredible and mighty things When I get talking on this subject I'll usually go for hours after one people at a time Because it's so much in my heart And so much of my energy to see that happen But I get these encouragements from time to time. I was talking to a young pastor in his 20s, let's see, just yesterday, and was very encouraged about his heart and understanding to take the time to seek the Lord as well. So praise God for that. I do find, though, there are some people who talk revival a lot, and they teach on it even, but they don't take the time to draw close to the Lord themselves. They like the concept. They like the fruit of it. They want good things to happen. That's great. That's great. But we also need to deny ourselves and take up the cross. We need to do what the Lord asks of us in order to be rewarded by him and outpourings of his spirit. So that breaks my heart, though, to see many talk about revival, either misunderstand it or... Don't won't pay the price. And when there's outpourings of spirit in a certain geography multiple times in a certain community, then that's what revival is because then everything changes in great, great ways. But it's not just one outpouring in one place. And subsequently, but in the geography, the outpourings of the spirit, then the area changes and it's beautiful and wonderful. Much like you see in the Jerusalem church in the book of Acts, and arguably also maybe first in Thessalonica, you see this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Maybe also too in the city of Ephesus, you see that in the book of Acts, they're all coming together and they repent of their sins. They burn all the magic scrolls. And even in the chapters on rebuking the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Ephesus rebuke isn't that strong. And, It's not nearly as bad as the others. I think reflecting that they had incredible move of God there. The other churches, not so much, not so good. A lot of judgment. And a lot of times there are a lot of spiritual gifts operating, but not much power of God with full conviction and righteous living and humble and devout lives. So may the Lord give us grace and may we have breakthrough and may we have success in every way. It's such a joy to meet people and join with them. If you want to be part of this movement, go to Christiania.org slash Cornerstone. You can become a Cornerstone partner and help with this movement on campus and across America in every way. We really, really appreciate it. Helps us to get the message out to a lot more people. So covet your prayers. I want your prayers. And I think as I do more of these podcasts, hopefully I'll get better and be able to communicate better and focus in on what matters. bring up the subjects that do the most to benefit all those who are listening by the grace of God. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you just for you listening this long means that you have a heart at some level to seek the Lord and to enter into a different way of life by the grace of God. And of course, there are some of you There's not enough in America, but there are some who are taking the time to draw close to the Lord at the level and depth that are needed. So thank you. Thank you for this. Really, really appreciate it. So the Lord bless you. May the Lord give you grace. May the Lord fill you in every way. Father, we love and praise you. Lord, you're awesome and good and blessed and true and holy. Lord, give us grace. Give us breakthrough. We need you, Lord, for this country. Bring radical change, Lord Jesus. May the heart of Christians return to you with our whole hearts so that you're pleasing to us and that you smile down upon us and be joyful at what we're doing and how we love you so much. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So thanks again. Lord bless you. Take care. Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Bennett Broadcast. To learn more and find additional resources to help you grow in your walk with God, visit BennettBroadcast.com. To accelerate this movement of helping America return to God, visit ChristianUnion.org slash Cornerstone. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And I hope you'll join me again as we seek the Lord together for our lives, for our communities, and for the future of the nation.