When God Moves Fast

Alright. It's great to be back here. We

we... Elena and I get here

sporadically

every couple years or so about our history

with the church goes back a long ways,

particularly through friends. I russell and mimi me

we've have known a long time, and many,

many others and so it's a delight to

be back with you. And

the last couple years, it's been

good to meet

get to know, pastor Austin and

and to get get to know him a

little bit better

and

see if I could get my little papers

so I can say on here.

So

we've really appreciate then Pastor Austin had asked

me

via email if I if I would, share

a a sermon. And part of that will

be a elaine will share a little bit

later in that. But let me just say

first, we are so thankful for first present

here in

Griffin for the

role you've had with us prayer and partnership

for many, many years. And I'm I'm serious

when I say that, you know, we're we're...

We were 20 years in Turkey. Some will

you remember that. But we've been 3 and

a half years in Belgium. It's an

interesting story. I won't go into all that.

But

We really believe that we could not see

the things happening that we are without your

prayers

for us and and giving and partnership. Thank

you so much. And we...

Others, many other churches and individuals have a

part in that too. So, we wanna thank

you for that.

So

next week starts the

20, 24

a limp summer Olympics in Paris.

If you're like a elaine and, we'd love

to

enjoy different events, including the opening ceremony. Right?

And and so we're we're looking forward to

that next Friday,

and a hundred years before that,

there was also an Olympics in Paris,

and many great athletes

emerge from that

1 in particular,

years later achieving greater notoriety, and that was

a Scottish

runner for the country of of for Uk,

and named Eric Little. And his life was

immortal

through a,

a film

that was done,

like, 25 year in the early eighties.

How many of you have heard of or

seen that film? Chariot it's of fire. Okay?

The older folks are

waving their hand, but it was,

it's a tremendous film,

and I just

watch that, and I... It's I'm almost in

disbelief

that the

director and producers. As far as I know,

we're not evangelical Christians.

Just a guy that had a, the his

other works were not anything along that line,

and then this comes up. And I don't

know. I'm sorry, but I just see it

as

1

just, a gift of god,

of the the the idea of faith that

comes out of that and many other things.

But I

It's a little

little side note, but I was a

early, a young missionary in Turkey when it

came out in the early eighties,

And I'd come down with hepatitis

at that time and that we had a

conference scheduled out of the country.

So our entire team flies away

and I'm left there by myself in this

istanbul.

And but 1 good thing, we we had

a Beta Max machine. I don't know some

of you remember that. It was... The 1

we had it just come out of the

size of a small car, and we had

it in in our room and a little

beta cassette you put in but somebody had

given us this cassette of chariot of fire.

So, of course, I watched in our team

before they left watched it. But then

the missionary community was really tight, and they

heard I had this, and they came over

1 by 1, So I think I watched

the film. I remember I'm bedridden.

I think I watched it 25 times. But

it would be my favorite even if I

only saw it once,

and it just some great

great principles come out of that. And Pastor

Awesome it was so gracious. I wanna show

a couple clips real brief. And then from

there, I'll I'll tie that into the message.

I've decided

I'm going back to Chime.

The commissioner have accepted.

Moving.

I've got a lot of running to do

first.

Jenny.

Jane, you've got to understand.

I believe that God made me for a

purpose.

For China.

He also made me advice.

And when I run,

A seal pleasure

To get it up with you the hold

and of content.

You were right.

It's not just fun.

To win

is the honor of him.

Jenny.

So what does the power come from

To see the race to hanging

from within?

Jenny,

believe god for this.

He also made me fast.

I would run

Yeah thank you, austin. So

this was... It's a powerful scene about how

he's talking about that he loves to run

and he said God.

Made me fast

and to not use that gift would be

to dish honor god.

And I'm I'm I'm drawing out of 1

word out of that, and that's that word

fast and talking about how God had gifting

him and made him fast physically.

But I wanna talk

today a little bit more about how God

himself works fast, not just in individual lives,

but in in our society and in our

country,

and

you know, it's interesting when I think of

god moving working in our lives. I normally

think of slowness.

You know how a holy spirit work your

life at years, it he's producing the fruit

of the spirit, A wonderful thing. It and

it it continues our our whole life until

we die. He's always at work. Of course,

you can make a case that the lengthening

of that work is sometimes our own

you know,

stubborn or dis disobedience, but he will complete

what he has what has begun, what he

has begun. But

I wanna look, take another tact if you

will and look at

cases where

Gone moves fast.

And I think that's encouraging to just see

another attribute of Gone. And we look in

the old testament of Ne my,

he and his labor built that wall and

the whole wall around Jerusalem after the exile

in just over 50 days,

Even

secular sources I understand look at Neo My

as a study in leadership. How how he

did or hal God.

Excuse me, worked through him.

And then new testament,

Jesus says in John 04:35,

John 4:35

do not do not say there yet 4

months.

And then comes to harvest behold,

lift up your eyes and look on the

fields

that they are white for harvest.

Believe Jesus is saying there. That harvest that

mission field, that harvest is always there ray

ready to be

tapped into Ready,

God is ready, and he's using us,

and he can act fast in in situations

you never think to

see that happen.

And then I've been... Also new testament. I've

been re

recently reading in the book of acts. A

paul's missionary journeys. Okay? Read a many times,

but a second or third look at it

What I saw was, Paul on the first

second, third missionary journeys,

he went into a culture

that was radically different from Jerusalem in and

J.

He went to the G Roman world. Now

can you believe this? He went to Be

preceding Antioch, he went to icon then later

on to Cor and philip. And if you

look at it, by the time he left

2 weeks later in he city,

there there were churches established.

So the core of Jewish people believe, they

always had this

connection of,

gentile god fears, then and and by time

he left, all these cities had the beginning

of a church. I just kinda marvel. I

forgot that it really happened that quickly. So

that's a reminder of how

how God can move an amazing way. So

I I just wanna give a quick

scan

in our own history, United States.

Of of how god has moved fast.

And

I wanna look at the term

revival. Now it's not a just holding a

tent meeting or

someone come to speak for a couple days,

you know, it could be that. But

revive. I'm here's a kind of a definition

I thought of, a revival is

a sovereign decision on God's part.

To reach down to his world

and to create a spiritual renewal many times

are all times and answered to believer prayers.

And I wanna add another little part to

that

when it's a a really

great revival

the secular world can't miss it. It's so

huge

that they have to take notice.

And

this is not to say,

we're always we're we're evan analyzing. We're d

decipher. We're reaching out to others. That continues

all the time. But when God chooses to

do a revival, he can accomplish more

in that revival time than many years of

our work, But it's his sovereign choosing to

do so.

Our our part is in there as well.

So I wanted to

look at a couple,

3 great awakening in our society. The first

1

happened even before our country founded. The first

great awakening

was in 17

32 to 17 45

2 main proponents were Jonathan Edwards and George

Field, and so great was this impact that

I don't know about you, but it... When

I was an elementary school here in Georgia,

we we we read about him and went

both of them together.

Great thousands

came to faith from New England all the

way down to to our here, to Georgia,

in a great great impact in our lives.

And in fact,

you can make a case that the American

revolution

may have come out of that. Why?

Because believers many believers came to faith. Their

lives were emboldened. They had courage

and they may may have led

some of them to be

a force to in in the American

revolution.

So that was the first great awakening.

And with all revival,

it doesn't go on forever.

There's

little tri

out of that that continue,

thankfully. And then the forces of, disbelief

and and evil continue their way. So

so it was in the 17 hundreds by

the time we get to 1800,

people were saying that our country was heading

to a direction of, un unbelievable and secularism.

And then we have the second great awakening.

And this

awakening was

perhaps even greater than the first,

and 1 name in particular stands out. There

were many was evangelist char Charles Finn had

had a had a great impact there. What

what were some of the things that happened

out of that?

America's first pioneer

movement, foreign missions happened out of New England

during during that time.

Other things were the

the, the the denomination of methodist baptist press,

and they started reaching out to Appalachia and

kent Kentucky and Tennessee,

frontier camp meetings.

Many, many people came to faith. Can you

think about what our country would be like

if that had not happened? It it it

churches were formed on the front here. It

it was... It made a it made a

big difference.

And from there... Oh, and perhaps the...

Let me check my notes here. And perhaps

the biggest thing of all was

coming out of that. Now again, it lasts

in many years was the ab evolution of

slavery and with that, the the American Civil

war and more than a million lives were

lost total on both sides.

But we think about that

and God's subsequent working,

it's it's hard to believe there our country

it could have been splinter in a hundred

ways, and God somehow cape kept our country

together

and and

unified. And I I'm... I just just intrigued

by history. What what if we had been

splinter, What would have happened in War war

2

with these 2

empires that would that were not

were not good things, basically. But our country,

particularly Us played a an unbelievable role in

that So

that was an incredible thing.

And then,

from the second awakening, we moved forward,

okay, 2 tri tri.

God continues to work in a great way,

not quite like the initial revival, and then

you have the

of disbelief

and

just lack of faith secularism,

so that was continuing. And so you... We

we fast forward to

War war 1 and World war 2.

And world war 2, our our soldiers came

back

from War 2. And some of them

were, red dedicated their lives. Some were became

came to faith, and they had been in

the orient, and they had been in in

Europe, and they went back as missionaries, 1

of the greatest forces in missions that we

have seen

will happen right after War war or 2

and a... So in kind of a weird

way, that's what caused a lot of missionaries

to go out.

And and from there, and I'm really proud

of this, the Wick Bible translators.

I don't think there'd ever been an f

organized effort to go out to bible tribes

and to translate the Bible

into their language.

And and that happened in in 19 thirties,

19 forties,

Wick bible bible translators. So the Billy graham

movement,

as you know,

crusade around the world,

the a para church group called the navigators.

You might... Maybe you know them, maybe you

don't, But they... His Dawson T

contribution was

1 man in disciples 1 or woman, or

or 1 or 2. In other words, don't

let people

you know, really show attention in the disciple,

you know, And some people think that

that idea has become a little bit forgotten

today. But that was a contribution of a

the navigators. And my our group campus crusade,

we we would similar navigators. We would do

evangelist

disciples ship would go out to the to

the world. In in our campus crusade in

house terminology,

we call that win build send. Okay? When

people to Christ, build them in their faith

and then send them out to reach others.

So,

campus Crusade has had a unique role as

well. And then

passage that was right it mainly after war

too. Then time moves on. And then we

hit a period

in the late sixties and all of a...

A lot of us live through this. When

it seems like we were coming apart at

the seams. There was the Vietnam war, and

I remember as younger teenager

every night would watch the news and find

out how many Americans died in battle that

night. That'll be that day. And that was

every day seeing that and all of a

sudden protests broke out around the country. Some

of the young protesters were killed by by

the

you know, government

soldiers,

and it it was a it was a

crazy time. We had the hippie movement

mountain California,

and with that increasing in morality and

and and and drug use was happening at

the same time.

And

so it looked like... Oh, and then maybe

the the touchstone of everything

was a 19 6

Democratic to convention. Now I don't mean to

highlight whatever party it just happened that if

you were there and watch that then it

was unbelievable. You're thinking, where our society continue.

This is like crazy.

And

So that that was 19 68. And then

all of a sudden, all of a sudden,

God showed up.

And you can almost put it on the

year 19 70. God showed up. What happened.

Well, in the Hippie movement, out in California,

who would have thought? Many of them came

to faith in Christ you can make a

case for had they not

been a part of that. They wouldn't... Maybe

you could say they wouldn't have been open.

But

this is... It it made many of them

came to faith in Christ and a whole

denomination came out of that Calvary Chapel.

So that... And then what what else was...

When else was going on.

So from from that,

a revival revival started breaking out in our

colleges, as very seminary in Kentucky. They... Many

students came to faith. They canceled classes,

and the students went across the country to

tell what what had happened in them. My

remember some kids in my neighborhood and had

had come and in making Georgia tell him

telling about that.

And then in campus crusade that I'm familiar

with and,

it just said

evidence of what happened. In in 19 68,

19 69,

the young people joining our staff, it was

very encouraging it was about, 200

or 02:50, something like that, starting in 19

70, a thousand joined. For the next 3

years, a thousand a thousand a thousand. It

was just an indication of what God was

doing. And from what I call this, the

third grade away kidding. Because I believe it

is an awakening. It's a

revival

in the same way as the the other

2 I mentioned. Jimmy Carter and Chuck C,

made the terms born again,

vernacular language.

Everybody, that was be talking about that. What

it... About born again? A person can come

to have her a relation of Christ. We

have the beginning of contemporary Christian music.

Amy Grant, Michael W Smith, and and that

that has continued to today.

Any any branch of music you look at

you could have pop, rock,

country, of course,

and and even heavy metal

all of them have a little sidebar

with Christian contemporary Christian music in it. I

I don't know that we've ever seen anything

quite like that. And then you get to

sports.

And,

say you're watching a

a game with the Scc a local team

And

the the star and they won the star

of the game, they won the they they

won, and the reporter will come up to

them, that 1 individual

tell us tell us what happened How to...

How were you able to do so well.

And and you know I'm going with this,

the the the the the athlete will say,

well, first, I wanna give praise to my

Lord Jesus Christ for what he did. And

and and, of course, the the sports reporter

can say nothing, but just let him speak,

and it... It's a great testimony in it.

Some people think that was the case years

and years earlier.

I I don't see it. I I see

it was something incredible God... God was doing

here. And then Hollywood,

more, probably more believers in Hollywood than we've

seen it a long time. And you wanted

to point out might be Mel Gibson

producing the,

the film that passion of Christ. And then

and then I grew up and macon in

Georgia and I. It it was... It alone

had a revival love its own. I was

talking in in Houston last month with a

a person that's in his seventies,

and he was involved a little bit with

the high school ministry in Macon. And, you

know, I I watch this as a non

believer,

what God was doing in people's lives in

macon.

I I... They were in all the all

the school assemblies and churches. And so as

your... I I just knew, Wait a minute.

I was going to church, but

they're acting, like, I'm a second class and

not nothing toward me, but just they're so

vibrant and exciting. And I I was just

it caught my attention. And later had a

impact in college. My first freshman year. I

remembered what I was hearing and that had

an impact for me. And I just... And

1 1 little analogy I have to show

share was our student body president

at Stratford Academy in macon Georgia.

They allowed them to come to all the

schools and share this. Well, he was... He

had came to faith in Christ. And if

you go back that far, you might find

this interesting. He he was given his testimony

and he said he referred to a product

back then called Deputy Do, and he said,

deputy do a little gel. You put on

your air and he said yeah. And that's

me. Religion was like that. A little bit

was enough, but he was saying now in

Christ that, you know, that's not the case.

He was loving God. And so

so there we go. God did an incredible

work. And how how do we how do

we respond to this? We can't conjure up

revival. Oh, you know, I'm gonna make it

happen, but I think the first step is

is prayer,

obviously,

in second chronicles 07:14.

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people

Her call by my name shall humble themselves

and pray and seek my face and turn

from their wicked ways.

I will hear from heaven

forgive their sin and heal their land. So

first thing is prayer, you probably could come

down with a list of 7 or 8

different things that you could do subsequently

to help revival take place. But I I

just wanna

simply have number 2 is take action

is to take out. You could be,

you could be taking action by going low

to the, I don't mean that to be

p

negative. But those that don't have the... That

are going through a rough patch in their

life in in and they need somebody's help.

Physically and even spiritually. It could be moving

out

in your neighborhood.

Those people you know and helping that maybe

sharing the faith

and helping them or even getting them in

a home group or a bible study. Now

it could be moving up, and that means

to the leaders of like here in your

town or,

the city counts are a school boards. It

could be trying by faith to make to

make a.

Impact in that in that area as well.

And then if you

if a person

absolutely can't find their spot.

To make a difference, and I'd encourage you

to follow a henry at Black bees advice

in that book experience Gone. He said, see

where god's at work and then just jump

in and have a part in it. So

that'd be another another thing we could do

to make an impact. But we feel like

god is moving fast in Belgium. We really

do. In Belgium this country of you draw

a line through it. The top part is

Dutch and fl

people. They're more dramatic. And the south part

is

French speaking. They're more Latin kind of people,

But it's it's 1 country.

We're not as... We're... Elena I live in

Ant in the Dutch part. And we all

what we know there is, they're very friendly

and they love Americans. And they're still appreciative

for what we did in war war 1

and 2. Which is really encouraging. And the

young people know English so well. Some have

no accent. I mean, the accent they have

is American accent because they're watching Netflix.

And things like that. And they pick it

up quick. And so anyway, so that's the...

That's the top part and the south part

is french part, where we'll get it there

eventually. But I ask a Elaine would come

up and wants to give you a short

kinda summary of what's going on in Belgium.

Yeah.

Thank you. And as Ra said, thank you

so much for your partnership in Belgium and

how you are making a difference in the

lives of the Belgian.

We have really 4

of our ministry there in Belgium.

We first went there just to start

with the leaders of the city, the

section of our ministry, called leader impact. And

it's helping the leaders of a community make

an impact in their community

for the gospel and for the health of

the community.

It as we went there, we didn't have

a lot of connections with the community. We

didn't know Ver many

individuals there either

And the couple that had invited us invited

us there. They were leaders in the community,

but they too did not have a lot

of Christian connections.

So begin to pray and for that reason

we did the dub of the Jesus film

an order that we would be able to

meet some of the leaders and also have

a tool for the communication of the message

at Christ.

In the course of that time, we god

brought to our across our path, some leaders

in the city.

1 of those was a young man who

had started a media company,

worked with,

in the finance area of a orbit of

a company. But on his spare time, he

He felt like

individuals in the city needed to hear the

gospel in their own language.

So many Christian films they would take it

upon themselves to dub those films

into fl.

And as Ralph mentioned, that's the language of

the upper part of Belgium,

but Fl is quite different from the Dutch

of the Netherlands.

It's like us listening to the

English of the Scottish

than the English of the Americans. If you've

ever listened to Scott, you can't quite figure

out exactly what they're saying

But there... But what was... What they saw

with that was that

the people needed to hear it in their

own language. So he helped us with the

Jesus film, but then as a leader in

his

organization, his company, he also said I really

wanna get involved with leader impact. I wanna

help

the people in my community know how they

can have a personal relationship with Christ. So

Frederick started a group there the second.

Groups that we had were in the city

of Ant. Fred is in the city of

Lu.

And we involved a lot of

individuals and 1 individual that

really love being involved and was so effective

in

administering to others was a young man named

Cad. Could do is actually Brazilian in background,

but is a member of our church and

has a real passion for the community that

he's a part of.

So Cad do has all started leading groups

as well in Belgium, The groups are

designed not just to bring Christians to begin

to grow and ask questions about their faith,

Ask more questions

about their faith, but also,

it's designed to bring in non believers.

And Frederick and Ka are both now

have ongoing groups. And 1 of the things

some of the non believers have said in

Frederick group is You know, I really appreciate

doing this because we're asking about what's important

in life. We're not just

dealing with normal things in life. We're asking

about what's really important.

Because 1 of the

foundations is 1 of the

series that will take them through and foundations,

deals with the questions of personal

professional and spiritual growth in life.

So please just continue to pray. We... When

we went there, 1 of our major prayers

was the prayer that was mentioned earlier,

We prayed the Lord to Harvest to raise

up laborers for the harvest field.

And we saw that here he has already

rated at that Cad do

and Frederick, and then there are 2 women.

1 was a former

consulate general... Assistant consulate general for the Caribbean.

And the second woman

is

works with the church and works with the

Eu writing articles,

on whether or not the laws, the new

laws that are passed within the Eu have

a compliance with Christianity.

But both individuals have a passion for the

European Union commission an area they both live

in Brussels and We're just asking God now,

what else do you wanna do that we

can help

the individuals in this community come to faith?

Just a few more

details about some of the other opportunities that

God has given.

As a result of coming there,

We had a group from Indiana contact us

and say, you know, we'd really like to

help reach out to campus students. Can we

come to Belgium? And help you. And since

we had been say, Lord, please write about

laborers for the harvest build, we couldn't say

no you can't call.

We, of course, we would love for you

to come. And over the past 2 years,

they have sent over 50 students

that came for week

times and 3 week times,

and we now have 2

individuals who are leading

the group in Lu and the group in

Ant. So we have 2 campus ministries that

have kind of spawned

from the upper opportunities that all of these

individuals have come and helped us with. And

during the past year or just the past

year, they had

conversations with over 200 students during their time.

And of those 200

conversations, they probably had conversations with another hundred

students where they were able to give a

clear presentation of the gospel.

So we're trusting that God will continue

to give us more students to interact with

the students in Belgium.

1 really special

example of God's... Concern for the Belgian people

was with 1 of our students

named Sherry Sherry...

Was Chinese background,

and been adopted by a family in America.

She was

on the campus looking for students and she

met a Chinese girl. Well, this Chinese girl

had been adopted by a family in Belgium.

And that girl started talking with Jerry as

she said you know?

I just always wanted to have someone

talk to me about this.

But as a result of her adoption talking

about her adoption she also was

talked with her about what it meant to

be adopted and to become a child of

god. So she we're trusting that this young

girl

understanding how concern god was for her. Sent

her somebody from America,

to help her understand what her adoption was

truly about.

And then the last sector that we are

seeing god open up is the sector among

the youth like the

young life, but it's called Shine ministry. And

in Cheyenne

ministry, we had a chance to train a

few students on using this

bracelet where they talk

very similar to our colored bracelets

has a heart a division across and a

question mark,

God loves you.

Were separated.

Jesus has the answer in. What will you

decide? Or what those represent. So if there's

any young people here that would like 1

of these to use with your friends,

come to me and I'll be happy to

give you 1. So thank you so much

for

the prayers for making a difference in Belgium

for

praying for labor as we've prayed for labor

and really for the future of the part

that you will play in this amazing country.

Yeah.

So just to wrap it up. Thank you

for your

listening and

what sharing. But for Belgium, you could pray

Matthew 09:36,

Matthew 9:36

the 30 and I think Elaine mentioned, raise

up labor for the as the... 1 of

the challenges of Belgium Belgium is they... They're

making it really difficult

for it to get people in.

Take people from,

internationally, it's really, really, really hard.

And

so we wanna see Belgian raised Belgium raised

up. But you could pray to send people

in and then creative ways for them to

get accepted by the Belgium government.

So that's a major request. And then

then who knows in our countries

facing some challenges as well, societal,

politically in many areas and maybe maybe God

will be gracious and give us AAA

fourth great awakening perhaps. Right? So

may... I may I could just close in

prayer. Yeah. Have many father, thank you for

a chance to

share

about what you're doing, and

reminders of your great

power in our in our past history that

continues to today, and we look to you

and ask you for you. Be, your gracious

hand to be at work individually in our

lives, in our families,

and then our society our country. And to

the world, thank you that America's has been

such a beacon of hope to the whole

world and Thank you. Pre please continue to

send workers from here and other countries around

the world. Thank for this wonderful time. With

at first perez Griffin today. We praise you,

and thank you. And your name, we pray.

Amen.