Easter Salvations

Something amazing happened at Open Door on Easter Sunday: 34 people surrendered their lives to Christ! You could tell something was happening. There was a buzz in the air and the church was packed. It was as if a great momentum was building as people kept raising their hands to respond to the draw of the Holy Spirit. It’s even bigger than you think. We have had people coming to Christ every week for the last six weeks. Something is happening!

What we are experiencing is no accident. We have been doing some very specific things lately that we need to keep doing. I believe revival is starting, and I want to see more of it. Here’s how:

Keep praying. About 6 months ago, we took the names of almost 3,000 pre-Christians connected to our congregation. We have been praying over those names in weekly prayer meetings, 24 Hour Prayer Vigils and Life Groups.

Keep inviting people to Life Groups. Many of the people who have come to Christ these last few weeks have done so in Life Groups or at church after being invited by a Life Group. Life Groups are our most-effective evangelism environments.

Keep doing the 5Bs. If you don’t know what this is, pay attention to what is happening in May at Open Door.

Keep serving. The more people that come to Christ, the more help we need making room for new believers. Our Children’s Ministry is full of children. We need more volunteers to oversee them. We are adding people to Life Groups so fast that we really need to be planting at least one new group every 2 months. That means new leaders need to step up to volunteer. There are dozens of other ministry needs for hosts, tech team volunteers and teachers.

By the way, some of you remember a sermon I preached on Acts 1:6-14 about how pre-revival prayer is always Unified, Purposeful and Continual. In the sermon, I mentioned some characteristics of revival:
The Holy Spirit shows up
The gospel is preached
People repent

All three happened Sunday. So, is this revival?

Prayer, Pride and Surrender

It is 4:18am and I just returned from the 24 Hour Prayer Vigil. It is very late, so I will not take too much time. However, I have realized something about surrender that I really must share: Prayer is an act of surrender. Asking God for help is like saying, “I can’t do this on my own.” Prayer is a humbling experience, but it is effective. I am concerned about why we don’t pray more. Consider these things:

Prayer is never left unanswered. I’ve studied church history and realized that every time God’s people have come together to pray in unity, God has done something tremendous (Acts 1-2, The Great Awakening, every revival since the day of Pentecost). Not only that, I’m looking at my own life and realizing that not only are my prayers always answered, but most of the time the answer is “YES.” How many times have I prayed for financial provision and never missed a bill? How often has He forgiven me when I asked for it? He always answers. We keep records of the requests our Prayer Team covers as well as their subsequent answers. And, even there we see God answers every time. God says “yes” to our prayers more often than not. So, why don’t we pray more?

We don’t like to surrender. I can’t say that I know all the reasons why we don’t pray often, but I think it has something to do with our pride. We don’t like to acknowledge that we can’t make it on our own. Prayer is admitting we are weak, and we don’t want to be weak. Interesting that the biggest excuse for not praying is: “I don’t have time.” What are we spending our time doing? We spend it trying to do what we think God can’t. We have this terrible fear that we are holding everything together, that if we stopped doing all the things we are doing, God would let it all fall apart. It is pride and lack of faith that keeps us from stopping to ask for help. Saying that we don’t have time to pray is like telling God that we don’t need Him. We have deluded ourselves and it is time to stop.

I don’t want to see the same results I’ve always seen. I don’t want to keep going to church and watch everybody stay the same. I want to see the lost surrender to Christ by the hundreds. I want to see alters filled. I want to see Life Groups evangelize friends and family in their homes. I want revival and there is only one way to get it: Pray.

What kinds of things are stopping you from praying, and what are you going to do to change them?