Pastor David continues in his second installment in his three part series on revival - how seemingly small things can make a big difference.

<p>Pastor David continues in his second installment in his three part series on revival - how seemingly small things can make a big difference.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Three Essentials of Christian Living

David Shin

The Word: The Bedrock of Revival

Also a genius and has incredible ability when it comes to languages as well as mathematics He has mastered 10 languages English Finnish French German Lithuanian Esperanto Spanish Welsh and Icelandic matter of fact I watched a documentary where he took the challenge to learn Icelandic in 1 week.

Icelandic is reputed to be 1 of the most difficult languages in the world, and after that 1 week he went on live Icelandic television and did an interview.

And when it comes to mathematics, Daniel Tammet doesn't need a calculator.

I watched an interviewer sitting there with him and punching numbers into a calculator.

And he was asked, what is 27th, 27 to the 7th power?

Which is 27 multiplied by itself 7 times.

And he rattled off, just in case you didn't know this, everybody knows this right, he rattled off 10, 460, 353, 203.

He said the number just appears in his head and he was writing in 1 of his books about how numbers are like pictures.

Each number has a different texture and feel.

He said there are actually beautiful numbers.

He took the challenge of also memorizing Pi.

And he sat down for 2 weeks to memorize Pi, and he sat down in a controlled setting for 5 and a half hours and recited Pi, you ready for this?

I can't imagine having this type of mind.

He is a genius known as a savant, 1 of only a few hundred in the world that have this type of ability.

Aren't we fearfully and wonderfully made?

When I get to heaven, I'll be able to do this.

Now, today in order to frame our discussion and our study, I want to go to The geniuses of Jesus' day, the biblical savants, the biblical individuals that knew their Bibles, and they are the Pharisees.

Today we use the term Pharisee in a pejorative term, meaning that it's not a compliment.

If you called me a Pharisee, I would be offended, deeply offended.

It has the connotations and being synonymous with legalism.

But in Jesus's day, being called a Pharisee was a compliment, believe it or not.

These were the elites of society, the quote, spiritual people, the people that knew their Bibles and the individuals that people looked up to.

And at a very early age, if you were training to be a Pharisee, this is what you went through.

You went through the first stage called Beth Tsefer.

From ages 6 through 10, they would memorize the Torah.

That's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

By the age of 10, they had memorized the entire Torah and completed Beth Tziver.

Can you imagine a 10-year-old running around knowing the 5 books of Moses from memory, the Torah?

Now if you mastered this and you were seen as promising, you went to Bet Talmud.

Now, the best of the best students would continue on.

Roughly from ages 10 through 14 in Bet Talmud, you would memorize the rest of the New Testament and by the age of 14 they would have memorized Genesis to Malachi the entire Old Testament.

Let me see if I can find Malachi in my Bible.

This is incredible when you think about the minds of these young people that were to be the religious leaders.

The New Testament hadn't been written in the day.

A 14 year old, in order to be a part of the Sanhedrin, you had to be brilliant.

You had to have a mind that was on a level that we find incomprehensible today and it would make the scholars today seem very, very small in comparison to these individuals.

And it would seem that if anyone would be able to recognize the Messiah it would be the Pharisees.

It would be the individuals that could just scroll through their mental data bank and go through every messianic prophecy from memory and be able to spot the Messiah.

They had been raised at a very early age and primed for this position and they came face to face with the Son of God and did not recognize him.

The famed atheist Bertrand Russell was asked the question, what will you do, Mr.

Russell, if after you die you find out there is a God?

Bertrand Russell didn't miss a beat and he said, I will tell him he just did not give me enough evidence.'" Not enough evidence, Bertram Russell said.

And perhaps the Pharisees of the New Testament could make the same claim that Jesus did not present enough empirical evidence for being the Messiah.

And I want to, as we set the stage for our discussion today, to invite you to open your Bibles with me to John chapter 11, verses 38 through 45, as we look at 1 of the most powerful evidences as to the nature of Jesus having divine characteristics.

This is that story that we're familiar with, Lazarus.

And you Remember the account, Jesus knows that Lazarus is sick, he doesn't go.

Jesus knows that Lazarus is on the brink of death, he still doesn't go.

He doesn't go immediately, but he waits not 1 day, not 2 days, not 3 days, but 4 days before going to Lazarus' tomb.

I believe this was to eliminate any doubts as to whether Lazarus was actually dead.

So Jesus goes there, and let's pick up in verse 38, then Jesus again groaning in himself came to the tomb, it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead how many days?

Jesus said to her, did not I say to you that if you believe me, you would see the glory of God?

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.

Jesus goes there, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, and I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by I say this, that they may believe that you sent me." Now when he had said these things he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth.

And I just imagine in my imagination, it's kind of an echo, and there's a pause, and people look at the tomb, and suddenly They see movement.

And Lazarus, who's bound in grave clothes, starts to shuffle out of the tomb, and there is an audible gasp throughout the witnesses that are there.

And when he had, and he who died came out bound hand and foot would grave close and his face was wrapped with a cloth Jesus said to them loose him and let him go.

At the very least, if you were an eyewitness there, you would come to the conclusion that Jesus was unique.

And that Jesus deserves a fair shake as far as being given a chance to show that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, and they did indeed believe in Him.

A man in broad daylight calls out to another man and he is raised to life.

Now I want you to look at the reaction of the Pharisees to this.

You pick it up a chapter later, turn with me to John chapter 12 verses 9 through 11.

1 chapter later and you'll see the response of the Pharisees to the empirical evidence that is given in regards to the Messiah.

Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there, and they came not only for Jesus' sake, but that they might also see who?

So people are coming to see this man that has been raised to life, whom he had raised from the dead.

Prayer: The Lifeline of Revival

And thank you so much for that wonderful bouquet of flowers and your appreciation.

Tennille and I are absolutely thrilled to be with you.

And Erin, could you give me a little bit more in the full?

Well, it's not applause, just in case someone voted a different way.

Well, regardless of how you voted, I think everyone can agree that we're thankful this is only once every 4 years.

And I want to read, before we get into our message proper, Paul's admonition of who we are to pray for.

1 Timothy 2, verse 1 and 2, First of all, then I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered on behalf of all men, for kings, and all those in authority, so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all goodness and dignity.

This is good and pleasing in the sight of our God and Savior.

Pray for this country and our leadership, and we know that ultimately the Lord is in control, and we know the end of the story.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to come into your presence.

We thank you that we can check in any time throughout the day.

We thank you that you're a God that hears and answers our prayers.

We pray for this country and the new leadership.

We pray that you would bless this country.

We thank You for the privileges and the religious liberty that we now experience.

We pray that You would be with us now as we open Your Word.

May You speak to us, for we ask these things in Jesus' name.

In his book, Malcolm Gladwell – well, imagine that you see his book on the screen.

In his book, Malcolm Gladwell describes little things that can make a big difference.

It's in his book called The Tipping Point.

And he gives this interesting illustration of using a piece of paper to describe something called geometric progression.

Oh my, we're just having a wonderful time today, aren't we?

He describes this called geometric progression.

You get a piece of paper and when you fold it in half, the thickness of that piece of paper doubles.

You fold it in half again, it doubles again.

And physically, it's only possible to fold the piece of paper 7 times.

You can't do any more than 7, maybe 8, but it gets very difficult and virtually impossible.

But according to the laws of geometric progression, if you were physically able to fold that sheet of paper, let's say 43 times, the mathematicians have come to the conclusion that the thickness of that sheet of paper would be the distance from the earth to the moon.

And I didn't believe it either when I first read this.

I've got to make sure I'm reading the right genre here.

43 times, and I double checked this, 43 times it reaches the moon, and if you were able to fold it 50 times, it would reach almost to the sun.

You fold it 1 more time, 51, and it's to the sun and back.

Now, Malcolm Gladwell goes on in his description saying that as human beings we have a hard time with this kind of progression because the end result, the effect, seems far out of proportion to the cause.

In other words, when we have something of such a great effect like reaching the sun with just 50 folds of a simple sheet of paper, we naturally assume that it must have some huge cause.

Great effects must have proportionally great causes and vice versa.

And this is not only true for the physical world, this is true for the spiritual world as well.

And today I'd like to talk about something that seems so basic, yet has exponentially profound results.

And I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me this morning to the book of Mark chapter 1 verse 35 as we look at the life of Jesus at the private life of Jesus and we see a glimpse as to what that inner sanctum of his private life was like.

And this is at the beginning of his ministry in Mark 1, verse 35.

The Bible says, now in the morning having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed.

Matter of fact, there's other times when the Bible actually tells us that Jesus went off to the mountain to pray and he spent the whole night in prayer.

The Bible says in Luke chapter 5 verse 16, but Jesus himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

So this was something that Jesus did on a regular basis.

He would pull away from the multitudes and he would go apart and spend significant time in prayer.

Now as I reflected on this notion of Jesus spending significant time in prayer, We're not just talking about praying before a meal, which we often forget, or we often forget that we've prayed.

You pray and it's become so ritualistic, and then you're like, did we pray?

All right, Or have you ever been praying and you get lost in thought?

I remember when I was single, I'd be like, Lord, I pray for Mary, please be with Mary.

And then I would doze off and then I'd wake up and I'd be like, oh Lord, I need to get married.

You know, and you go off in your thoughts and so forth.

But this is talking about significant, intense time in prayer that Jesus spent with His Lord.

Now, I ask this question, Why did Jesus need to pray?

The very posture of prayer implies that you have a need.

He prayed before the most important events.

And I think of this puzzling verse where in John 5, verse 30, Jesus said, I myself, I can do nothing.

This is unusual because Jesus said I can do nothing except through the Father.

Now the mystery of the incarnation is this, is that when Jesus came to this earth, he set aside his divinity.

He was always God, but he chose not to tap into his divinity and he depended on the Father for everything.

Everything that he did, he depended on the Father for.

I read this incredible statement in Desire of Ages, page 664.

Jesus revealed no qualities and exercised no powers that men may not have through faith in him.

His perfect humanity is that which all his followers may possess if they will be in subjection to God as he was." Wow!

In other words, Jesus was so dependent on the Father and everything that he did on this earth, he did through the Father's power.

He is an example of how we are to depend upon him, amen?

And That's why he says in John chapter 15 verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

In other words, the way that Jesus overcame by depending on the Father is the same way that we can overcome by total dependence upon Jesus.

The key for the Christian is that paradigm of making sure that we are always connected.

When we start focusing on the fruits, now The Bible tells us that if we are connected to Jesus the fruits will naturally result if you're connected to the vine the fruits are a natural byproduct of that connection and What the devil likes to have us do is get so focused on fruit manufacturing that we sever our connection.

And so we try this impossible task of trying to produce fruit without being connected to the vine.

But if we are connected to the vine, the fruits will naturally result and the devil gets us into legalism where we are trying to manufacture fruit without being connected.

So the paradigm of the Christian is total dependence upon Jesus every single moment throughout the day and prayer is That medium of how we stay connected to Jesus.

I think of this quotation from the book on prayer, page 12.

We can get by, I don't know about me, but several weeks without food.

We can go days without water, but we can only go minutes without breathing.

Matter of fact, breathing is so foundational to life that we are hardwired to breathe involuntarily.

Our Witness: The Fruit of Revival

Father in heaven, we thank You for this opportunity that we have to come together to worship You, to give praise to our God.

We thank You for this opportunity that we have to open Your Word.

We pray that You would speak to our hearts, for we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 6, as we conclude our three-part mini-series on revival.

Today we are talking about the result of revival.

Isaiah 6 beginning in verse 1 as we look at Isaiah's experience.

Isaiah 6, verse 1, in The year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

With 2 he covered his face, and with 2 he covered his feet, and with 2 he flew.

And 1 cried to another and said, holy, holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory, and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of Him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke." Isaiah is witnessing a vision of God sitting on his throne, dazzling brightness, the splendor is unsurpassed, and above the throne of God there are 2 seraphim, angels, and they are covering their faces and their feet and flying above the throne of God, Proclaiming His holiness, holy, holy, holy.

Some scholars believe that this is an allusion to the triune God there in the repetition of holy, Holy, holy.

And in the midst of this incredible scene of God sitting on His throne in vision, I would imagine that likely Isaiah even in vision is squinting because of the glory of God which is unsurpassed to human eyes.

And in verse 5, we have the universal reaction of anyone that has seen God.

He says, "'Woe is me.'" Now, I want to look at a few verses prior to Isaiah 6 because you'll see that this term, woe, is used numerous times, building up to Isaiah 6, Isaiah 3, verse 9, woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves.

Isaiah chapter 3, verse 11, woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

Isaiah chapter 5, verse 8, woe to those who join house to house, they add field to field.

Isaiah chapter 5 verse 11, woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink.

Isaiah chapter 5 verse 18, woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as if with a cart rope.

Isaiah 5, verse 20 through 22, woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.

Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink." And then he sees God and he says, woe is me.

In the verses and the chapters prior to the experience of chapter 6, he's saying woe to that person and woe to this person, woe to that individual, But suddenly he sees God in his glory and he says, woe is me.

This is the universal reaction of individuals that have had an experience with God.

Remember Peter, he said, depart from me for I am a sinful man." This paradigm of recognizing one's wretchedness after Seeing the purity of God is something that Isaiah is experiencing.

He says, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, why, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." What a reference point Isaiah has for his own lack of righteousness.

I heard a prominent speaker a number of years ago, and she said, I haven't sinned in 2 years.

That kind of sounds prideful, doesn't it?

And there is a statement that I reflect on many times.

The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes.

It's easy to look good as long as we're comparing ourselves amongst ourselves, isn't it?

At least I'm not as bad as that person Did you see her or him?

We call it a relative righteousness Easy to look good As long as you're comparing yourself among Ourselves or ourselves among ourselves the closer you come to Jesus the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes, for your vision will be clearer and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature, but do not be discouraged.

This is evidence that Satan's delusions have lost their power, that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you, and your indifference and unconcern are passing away.

The closer we come to Jesus, the more faulty we appear in our own eyes.

It's important to keep our eyes on Jesus, not our own faults.

But I don't believe that any Christian will come to the place of prideful arrogance for their own spirituality.

So the closer we come to Jesus, the more faulty we will appear in our own eyes.

And I believe that there will come a day when God looks down, like he said to Noah, and says, here is a perfect man, but that is God's perspective, not ours.

And it's not perfection because of our merit, it's perfection because of the merits of Jesus Christ that are applied to our account.

So here Isaiah is going through a dramatic transformation because he is rebuking other individuals, pointing out the faults of others.

He sees God and he says, woe is me, for I'm undone.

For I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King.

And I have talked with countless individuals that are newly baptized into the church, and they come to me later and say, pastor, I thought this church was perfect." And they start to see the foibles and the wrinkles and the warts because the church is made up of people.

And as long as we are in that proper perspective of keeping our eyes on Jesus, we can look at others with compassion, recognizing if it wasn't for the grace of God, There go I.

Isaiah sees God, he recognizes his own sinfulness, and in verse 6, beautiful story here, then 1 of the seraphim, the angels, flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken from the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth with it.

And behold, he said, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.

And it always begins and ends with a vision of God.

This is the way the gospel works, friends.

Praise God for the good news of the gospel.

He has just experienced transformation, forgiveness, justification, the gospel, whatever you want to call it.

And In verse 8, notice what happens afterwards.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Series

Three Essentials of Christian Living

Prayer: The Lifeline of Revival

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

The Good Soldier

54m

ECYC 2011 Seminar: Seekers

All These Things

48m

Marriage Heart to Heart

Money Matters

47m

The Mount of Blessings

Sins of the Heart

43m

Origin Stories: Creation vs Evolution

Creation vs Evolution

1h

Because He Was a Beggar

38m

How to Study the Bible- A Contextual Analysis of Psalms 1

50m

Power in the Church

55m

Plenary Meetings

It is Enough

47m

How to Thrive Spiritually During COVID-19 Isolation

33m

Microbacterium Laprae

52m

WYC 2009 Plenary Sessions

No Reputation... Form of a Servant

25m

Sound Doctrine