Do It Again, Lord | Dangerous Prayers, Week 6 | Rob Hall | New North Church

Hey, welcome to the New North Church podcast.

It's great to have you listening in with us.

Our vision at our church is to be an authentic community of Jesus followers who love and serve people.

So if we can help you in any way at all, just reach out to us.

The email address is hello at new north.church.

With that, let's go right to this week's message.

And I know the image in the book of Revelation of the throne of God, a people thrown in the altar, and yet it was difficult for me to go get past two things.

One is just what people would think.

And the other is is this a stage or is this an altar?

It was liberating.

And yet I still had to wrestle with it a little each time, but it's getting it's getting better.

And um it was really an a uh a closer encounter with God corporately.

And and people have been so gracious.

I'm beginning to kind of rest in that.

You know, uh, we all have that dialogue, that inner dialogue.

Is is that you, Lord?

And and I love that scripture where where young Samuel uh is encouraged as he goes to talk to Eli.

He says that that's God, you know, it's like uh ask him, you know, uh, is that you, Lord?

And then respond to that, and just ask that question, is that you, Lord?

And the Holy Spirit will help you work through that.

And once you really sense that, is just find the find the courage to respond, hear from God, make the adjustment, move forward, and knowing you're going to the altar, not to the stage, you know, and um yeah, and and then and then you just feel the presence of God in a way that is is I think different.

I think it's more uh connection.

You feel that nudge, you know, to come to me as you are, come to me.

And uh so it's been very liberating.

I I would say that don't be afraid to let your guard down.

You can be yourself and you can don't worry.

Uh uh, you know, people people are going to respond to in in a loving and gracious way.

Let like the apostle Paul said, let your love be sincere.

That that's what's happening around here.

And um so just take take the uh you know, take the chance.

Take the chance when you feel that tug, that nudge, and um respond.

Hear from God, make the adjustment.

I love Mike, he's a great guy.

Um love his family.

Thanks for sharing Mike.

He's actually in this service.

I won't point him out, but he's right over here.

Um and we're gonna give you guys a chance to respond later and come to the altar.

But before we get to that, really what I want to do, this is not like a normal sermon for me.

I usually have a text and I stay in that text.

I want to do something very different this morning.

I want to give you a vision for what we're after at New North Church, a vision for the Bay Area that's bigger than any church, that's bigger than really any of us.

And that's what I want to do this morning.

If at the end, if your vision for what God can do in the Bay Area is bigger, then I've done my job.

But I want to first tell you a little bit about, you know, the place that we live at, and many of you know this because I share this all the time, but a lot of people are surprised that the San Francisco Bay Area is the only metro area in the entire United States of America that has never experienced a genuine, authentic revival.

And when I say revival, I'm talking about a move of God that is so powerful, that is so overwhelming, that is so transforming that it literally changes our culture.

And instead of revival, what we hear every year, what I hear every year is from people like Barna or Gallup Pole.

They love to tell us how the San Francisco Bay Area, year after year, is the least Christian, least church, most pagan area in the entire United States, with less than 3% of professing Christians.

Thank you for that reminder every single year.

You don't need to tell us, we live it, we know it.

And the Bay Area has a lot of beautiful things and also a lot of problems, and there's a lot of solutions, but in my opinion, more than all the solutions that the Bay Area have come up with, better than tech, more than innovation, more than bioscience, all those things, what the Bay Area desperately needs more than anything is renewal, revival, and an awakening of God.

We need a move of God here that is so transforming, so powerful, where the kingdom of God actually breaks into this place as it is in heaven.

Now, if you're a follower of Jesus and most of you are here, that means you're learning how to think like Jesus and live like Jesus and even pray like Jesus.

And as you walk with Jesus, what happens is he gives you power to live for him.

And the more you have that power from the Holy Spirit, your life begins to transform.

You actually start to experience a revival in your own heart.

But what often happens is that revival then spreads out to your home, to your community, and others around you.

Jesus, in his most famous sermon called the Sermon on the Mount and the book of Matthew, he actually taught us how to live with him and what life in the kingdom of God looks like.

And then right in the middle, though, of that teaching, he pauses and he teaches us how to pray.

We did a whole sermon series on this.

And he taught us a prayer that was more than just for ourselves, a prayer that was for the world.

Listen to what he said.

He put it this way.

He said, This then is how you should pray.

And again, if you grew up in church, if you have a Catholic background, you've memorized this.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

And then here's the verse Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And so, like, what in the world does it mean to pray your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven?

Again, I did a whole sermon on that.

You can go on YouTube and find it, but it means a lot of things.

It means praying for God's reign, his rule, his authority, for God Himself to break into the present.

It's praying literally for heaven to come to earth right here, right now.

It's praying for our world to change.

It's praying for evil to be dealt with, for justice to prevail, for the power and glory of God to actually be encountered and experienced in real, tangible ways.

This is a prayer for renewal, revival, and awakening.

Now, some of you might be thinking right now, well, wait a second, Pastor Rob, like, wait, wait, hold on.

Like, why haven't we seen a move of God in the Bay Area?

Right?

You think about it, you're like, we have some good preachers, great churches, there's worship conferences, there's uh theologians who live here, missionaries who do their ministry here, like we serve the poor.

There's a lot of great things.

And then if you step back, you realize, gosh, there's hundreds of Bible translations, all kinds of Christian podcasts and church conferences and t-shirts and all of it.

And yet very little has changed.

Why?

Here's why the Bay Area is resourced.

We have a lot, but we're not revived.

Why?

Because what Barna and Gallup and other people don't realize is we're also the most prayerless area in the nation.

We have everything here, but we're not desperate for God.

We're not persistent in prayer.

If I'll do a test, don't raise your hand.

If I brought the best worship leaders and pastors on a Thursday night here, we would pack this place out.

If I said, hey, we're gonna get together and pray, five people would show up.

Right?

Because we're the most prayerless area in the nation.

We're not honest about our sin and our struggles.

And I've shared this before, but this a few years ago hit me in a new way as we were kind of coming out of COVID and our church was growing again and things were happening again.

I grew very unsatisfied.

Oh, thank you for that.

I'm gonna need that.

I beg I grew very unsatisfied with just growing a church again.

I've like, I've done that, and adding more services and having a church with all the good programs.

I like got tired of like Christian leadership conferences and I stopped going, and all the church growth statistics and books and resources just made me kind of want to vomit.

Um and and God just convicted me of not really like my lack of prayer.

Like I prayed, but my lack of belief in the power and the priority of prayer.

We would do a lot of things and then pray for God to bless it.

And so God began to grow my heart in prayer, and the heart of our leader is in prayer, and uh and that's what's been happening through the year of prayer.

He's done that.

I've severely underestimated the hunger of you guys, you know, and what you want and how you hear from God.

So as we end the year of prayer, here's what I want to do.

I want I wanted to do one sermon for a long time about what I pray over the Bay Area, a vision of the Bay Area for the nine million people that are living here, and it's a vision for renewal, revival, and awakening.

And I'm very serious about this, thank you for bringing my backpack.

I forgot it, because I literally keep what I call a revival backpack in my car.

Yeah, all my pastor friends call me revival raw because I do this, and this is not just like a gimmick, this is real.

Because what I believe is when revival comes, when when God comes to a church or to a prayer gathering or to a conference, I'm gonna be there for as long as God is gonna be there.

And so, for example, I have uh gentle skin cleaning cloths for my greasy face.

I have a um uh toothbrush little like disposable toothbrush uh pack in there, deodorant.

Um I haven't looked in this in a while, so I'm actually a little nervous when I'm gonna pull out.

Oh, you gotta keep the hair looking good.

I got some hair product in there.

Um I got a I got a polo shirt, I'm not gonna show you my underwear on some socks.

But literally, as my wife, I keep this in my car and I call it my revival backpack.

I've made a couple for some of my pastor friends, some of our church staff, and I have it because I want to be ready.

Because I actually believe this is gonna happen.

Like this is not just a message, just a talk.

This is, I believe, on God's heart for the Bay Area.

Now, you may be thinking, well, where'd you get this from?

Well, the Bible and history.

So I want to just briefly look at the Bible.

Um, we don't have a lot of time, so I can't show you all the passages.

But revival is definitely not a word you're gonna find in the Bible.

I get that, but the idea is all over.

Let's just look briefly at the Old Testament, for example.

In the Old Testament, after receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses struts down from the mountain only to see God's people worshiping not God, but a golden calf, idolatry, and indulging in all sorts of craziness that TMZ would love.

Uh and Moses is outraged.

He throws the Ten Commandments down, they break, he confronts God's people, but he prays and he says, Oh God, please don't take us out.

And God hears his prayer.

God relents from disaster, and this spiritual renewal comes over God's people.

Years after that, there's another revival under King Assa, and then later under King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles.

I just finished 2 Chronicles in my one-year Bible, and you see the story and the cycle over and over again.

Israel collectively turns from their idol worship.

They pray, they fast, they seek God, and God comes in power.

King Hezekiah was huge.

He tears down all the idolatry and all the false worship sites.

He reopens the temple, the center of worship for the people of God and the entire nation.

We're talking hundreds of thousands of people repent, they confess sin, they come back to God, and God comes.

Later, King Josiah rediscovers the book of law and the temple.

He opens it up and says, Oh my gosh, we're not doing any of this.

And one of the most massive spiritual renewals in the history of Israel begins in 2 Kings 22 through 23.

Then you get to guys like Nehemiah or Ezra, as the exiles from Babylon return, they rebuild the wall, they rebuild their lives, they rebuild the temple, but what they do is they confess sin corporately.

They come to God, they prepare their hearts, they seek God, they pray, and God comes in power.

And you see that over and over and over again in the Old Testament.

Let's get to the New Testament.

This is when everything changes.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, lives a perfect life.

He's murdered on a cross, and in three days, he's raised from the dead.

Every single revival points us back to Jesus.

Dead people becoming alive again.

God raising people back to life.

That's what he's doing.

And then after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the disciples are overwhelmed.

Persecution has come to the church.

The disciples are in what's called an upper room, scared, but they're praying.

They're seeking God.

They're saying, God, what do you want us to do?

And God comes in power.

The Holy Spirit descends on them.

And the church of Jesus Christ is born.

As you go through the book of Acts, you see this cycle all over again.

People getting together and praying.

The Holy Spirit coming and then preaching in power and thousands and thousands of people coming to faith.

This is why we're going to study the book of Acts in a couple weeks.

Later, the church in Antioch.

So there was a church in Jerusalem, church in Antioch.

They gathered together, they fasted, they prayed, and they sent out Paul and Barnabas, which becomes or became the launch pad for the good news of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection to go out into all the ancient world.

Again, here's the biblical pattern: desperate prayer.

The word of God, confession, and power from the Holy Spirit all bring renewal, revival, and awakening.

Now, before you think, well, wait a second, that's just the Bible times.

No, it's not.

You see this all throughout history.

This same cycle.

After the early church, things actually were quiet for a few centuries because, well, make a long story short, Christianity became institutionalized and lost its heart.

There were flickers of renewal movements for maybe you've heard of people like the Desert Fathers or monastic movements of people who would pray and seek God.

And then the big one, but this was more of a theological renewal, was the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s.

A guy named Martin Luther was tired of the status quo, tired of religion.

He started to pray.

He started to read his Bible again, namely the book of Romans, Romans chapter 8, and boom, a massive theological renewal came that literally changed the course of Christianity.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And then there was this interesting group called the Moravians.

Maybe you've never heard of them, but in the early 1700s, they gathered together and started to pray all day long, all night long, all week long, and more and more people came.

That prayer movement for 24-7 lasted, watch this, for 100 years.

Can you imagine?

Like, hey, are we done yet?

No, bro, we got 99 more years to go.

I mean, and the Moravians actually fueled this huge global movement of Moravians that went in all over the world to share the gospel.

And then, of course, we get to the first and second Great Awakenings that came to the American colonies that came to Great Britain with guys like maybe you've heard of them, Jonathan Edwards or George Whitfield, where they saw literally thousands of people come to faith, thousands of people that will respond to preaching and to prayer gatherings.

There was this deep conviction of sin.

People would just come into these revival meetings, just confessing their brokenness.

And actually, these two awakenings fueled social movements like the abolition of slavery and women's rights.

Then in New York City, soon after, a group of leaders just would get together to have lunch.

And then they would, instead of having lunch, they decided to pray, and boom, this revival begins in New York City and spreads all across the U.S.

It goes all the way to Los Angeles to the Azusa Street revival that gave birth to the modern Pentecostal movement.

Now, one of my favorite revival stories, I'm actually reading a book on it right now, is the Hebride revival on the islands of Scotland.

I'd never even heard of the Hebrides.

But it's a crazy story.

It was two 84-year-old sisters, or one was 84, one was 85, and they just were people of prayer.

And so Peggy was nearly blind, and Christine was like bent over from arthritis, so they couldn't get to church.

So what they decided to do is pray together a lot all the time since they couldn't go to church.

And it was Scotland and it was cold.

I guess what else could you do?

And so these women would pray long into the night, and one day it's been noted that Peggy has this vision from God.

That God comes to her and shows her that hundreds of young people are gonna begin to flood into the church.

And so she gets on the phone or sends a pigeon, I don't know, and she gathers a group of farmers and fishermen and a pastor and says, Hey, revival's coming.

We need to pray.

So they get into a barn, literally, a barn, and they pray all night long, and the Holy Spirit meets them in a powerful way, and suddenly men and women, young people are starting to feel this, just they couldn't describe it, just this deep conviction of sin.

They started weeping, they started crying, no one was preaching, nothing was happening.

But along comes this preacher named Duncan Campbell, and he he has a he goes to a church service and he preaches at a night service, and hardly anyone was there.

He was so discouraged.

He's like, God, why did you bring me to the Hebrides?

And he walks out the church doors.

It was late at night, and suddenly he sees literally hundreds of young people walking towards the church, weeping, crying, going, We need to we uh we don't know what to do.

We need God.

And boom, revival breaks out on this tiny little island in Scotland that you can visit today.

Why do I love that story?

Because it's wild.

Two nearly blind, arthritic, 80-year-old sisters praying in a tiny cottage and a tiny island of Scotland did more to prepare for revival than any program or any conference or any preacher or any strategy the church ever had.

And no one knew their names, and no one gave them a mic or a platform.

These two old ladies just prayed and believed, and God came.

And then, of course, there was the Jesus movement of the 60s and 70s that yes, it started in in San Francisco, but it quickly left San Francisco and was headquartered in basically the Orange County.

The Calvary Chapel movement gets started by a guy named uh Chuck Smith.

Um, and then man, if we had time, I could look at all over the world what God has done and what he's doing in places like China, where the church is exploding, Korea, Africa, especially East Africa, Argentina, and even, believe it or not, in Iran.

But let me tell you one of my favorites, because it was the most recent one called the Asbury Awakening in 2023.

The story, maybe you're familiar with the story, it was just a normal Wednesday morning chapel service.

On February 8th, 2023, at Asbury University in this tiny little town called Wilmore, Kentucky.

I couldn't even point it out on a map.

I barely can find Kentucky.

And a student gets up, the preacher gave a sermon, he said, I didn't really feel good about it.

But then a student gets up and he shares just what God's doing in his heart.

And something is stirred.

And suddenly, like no one left the chapel service, and students and a large auditorium just start to come down to the altar where they're weeping, where they're praying.

They're laying prostrated.

They're confessing sin.

The worship team is like, what do we do?

And they're like, I don't know, just keep playing songs.

So they just kept worshiping.

They kept praying.

And literally the ministration says, hey, we should cancel class.

They cancel class.

This goes on for two weeks non-stop.

It can't happen all day, all night.

And within a few days, literally thousands of people from all over the country and all over the world descended on this tiny little town.

It overwhelmed the town.

It overwhelmed the university.

They gave away every single Bible they had.

They ran out of food.

They ran out of water.

And this outpouring lasted for two weeks, nonstop.

And here's what I love about it: there was no marketing campaign.

There was no famous preachers.

Oh, the famous preachers came, but they said, we don't need you.

There was no popular worship leader.

They just kept doing the same songs over and over and over again.

No program, no production.

Just a generation of hungry and desperate and honest college students who wanted God to come.

God came in a powerful way and they stayed for two weeks.

Now the reason why I share all that is because Asbury is not just a Kentucky story.

This is a San Francisco Bay Area story waiting to happen.

This is why I'm here, and not in Texas or wherever.

Because every revival in history is really just a smaller story of the person and life of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit coming on the disciples.

And so from the Bible and from history, what becomes clear is these themes that I've outlined, what I've realized is four common themes that spur on revival and renewal and awakening.

You cannot manufacture it, it's all a thing of God, but there are four common threads that I've seen.

And the first is this, and it's obvious prayer.

Prayer.

Every single revival story in the Bible and in history started with a small group of people tired of the status quo and desperate enough to pray long, hard, and often through the night.

Second thread is God's word.

As they prayed, they were met by God through his word in just these fresh ways.

Verses were highlighted, chapters were read.

The third thing you see is just honesty, just confession.

Confessing sin and repentance is huge.

There is personal confession, corporate confession.

That's why there's weeping and there's tears that are just normal in these outpourings because God is doing a work in hearts.

And the last common thread is that the outcome is undeniable.

There is real, tangible, lasting change.

This is not just a camp high and you go back to work on Monday.

No, it spills out into mission and social change, and the whole culture is changed.

Now, let me stop and say this.

Revival, and if you're paying attention, is like very popular in Christian circles right now, the word.

Oh, come to our revival night and revival t-shirts and all of it.

So let me just clarify what it's not real quick.

It's not like an event to promote.

It's not like a big, awesome church with the greatest preachers and the most gifted worship leaders.

It's not full stadiums.

It's not an evangelistic crusade.

It's not, and I'm gonna break some hearts here, it's not a Forrest Frank concert, no matter what they tell me happened there.

I know, some like, what?

I was there, it was amazing.

Yeah, it ain't revival.

Nothing's been changed in the Bay Area after Forrest left.

Now, can God use all those things?

Absolutely.

But the church cannot manufacture revival, it is only a work of God, and in my study, it often starts quietly with a few people praying together.

That's how it starts.

So I put it this way: here's my definition of revival.

Revival is a lifestyle of desperate, honest, and prayerful people that God meets regularly.

Revival, man, I'm hot, y'all.

I gotta take this thing off.

All right, there we go.

Is a lifestyle of desperate, honest, and prayerful people that God meets regularly.

See, true revival, it impacts the church in such an undeniable way.

The church is renewed.

There's an evangelization of an entire generation.

There's deep wholeness in people that come.

And actually, an entire society.

Oh, did you just turn on the fan for me?

Thank you, Jesus.

Oh man, thank you.

Wow.

I thought the Holy Spirit was coming behind me.

I was like, wow, that's a fan.

I was like, he's coming.

Ha ha!

I love it.

Like we didn't turn that on earlier, bro.

You see me like sweating up here.

All right.

That's kidding.

Just kidding, John.

Oh, where am I talking about?

What am I talking about?

Revival.

Okay.

Do you guys like the um we uh um had the podium uh spray painted nicely so it doesn't reflect?

Don't you guys like it?

Matt Black.

I love it.

All right.

Um okay, give me back, Lord.

Uh but before we talk about revival coming to our city or to our neighborhood, we gotta look at our own hearts first.

Because that's where it begins.

Let me ask you a couple questions.

Where do you need God to revive you?

What do you need to confess?

Like, when you really consider your life, are you hungry for God?

Like, but have you gotten comfortable, distracted, maybe even cold towards God?

That's okay.

Bring that to Him.

And so what I've learned is we can't manufacture revival, but we can prepare for it.

And that's what we've been doing as a church for a couple years now, preparing for it.

That's what I'm doing with other pastors, preparing for it.

So when revival comes, if it's not our church, I got my backpack, I'm gonna make a beeline to wherever revival is coming and support them.

So, what can we do?

A few quick things.

One, we gotta be people who are in community doing a few things.

And first and foremost, it's reading and studying the Bible together in community.

Like there's no shortcut for life with God, there's no shortcut for revival.

We need to be people of the book, people who get in this book and get this book into them.

There's no way around it.

Secondly, we need to be people who pray and fast in community.

That's why we did the whole year of prayer, to aim our church toward revival.

And so, prayer, of course, is not the only thing we do, but it's one of the most important things we do.

A couple years ago, it wasn't a priority.

Now it is a priority.

And fasting, too.

Again, I've talked a lot about this.

There's no other spiritual practice that I know of that increases our hunger and our dependence from God more than regular fasting.

Now, if you're new to faith or a new Christian, don't do all this tomorrow.

Start with five minutes of reading the Bible.

Start with one meal a week that you fast from, and then grow from there.

And then third, we got to be people who look at our time, our talents, and our resources and use it to love God and love our neighbor.

We've got to be people who serve God in community, both in the church and outside of the church.

And here's the question: if we all did this, and if other churches in our areas did this, if we became people of the word, people of prayer, people who served others, what would happen?

The Bible is clear, history is clear.

We would see renewal, revival, and awakening.

Why?

Because God comes where he's wanted.

And so, real quick, I'm gonna plug an announcement for myself.

Um, but I want to invite you if this is interesting to you, if this is like, wow, I want to learn more about this, I'm gonna start a short online community group for 10 weeks where we're gonna go through these incredible resources called the Awakening Library.

There's a bunch of these little booklets, and we'll read each booklet before you come.

We'll hop online together.

There's a great video we're gonna watch for each of these books, and then um we're gonna pray together for 10 weeks.

I'll tell you what, I've taken pastors in the Bay Area through this, it's changed their churches.

I've taken our staff through this, it's changed the trajectory of our church.

So if you want to join me Thursday afternoon, just email Amber and we'll get you signed up.

Alright, we're gonna close differently today.

I'm gonna invite the band back up.

But as we close the year of prayer, as we close this series called Dangerous Prayer, is that Tola up there?

Is that you up there?

Did you finally get to church?

Good to see you, man.

No, I love you, man.

I'm glad you're here, Elizabeth.

Good to see you.

Here's the dangerous prayer for us.

It's very simple.

Do it again, Lord.

That's it.

Do it again.

I know you can do it.

You've done it.

You've done it all over the world.

Do it here.

I put it this way: if not us, then who else?

If not right here, then where, God?

If not now, in our day, in our time, then when?

If not Jesus, then who?

And so our response is gonna be a response.

Just like Mike shared in the video, just like we saw at Asbury, we're gonna end with an extended time of worship and prayer, and we're gonna invite anyone who wants to come to the altar to worship and to pray.

And again, there's nothing magical about coming to the altar, but I'm telling you what, God meets his people when we posture ourselves to receive it.

There's something about our physical bodies that we do when we raise our hands, when we get on our knees, when we worship, where God meets us in a special way.

And so I want to invite you to come.

If you want to pray for revival to come to your family and to your home, come to the front.

If you want to pray for revival to come to your city or your community, come.

Hey, if you've never given your life to Jesus, man, the most dangerous prayer you can pray is not, do it again, Lord.

The most dangerous prayer you can pray is what I prayed at 17.

Jesus, I need you.

Come.

And the altar is an interesting thing because I remember at 17 years old when I gave my life to Christ, the preacher shared the gospel.

He asked us to get out of our seat.

And this was a very conservative church, should not charismatic at all.

But they said, if you want to receive Christ, come, man.

I remember coming down to the altar, weeping, being prayed over.

And they gave me a Bible.

And there was something about that encounter that changed my life.

Our prayer team will be up here.

They have lanyards on.

They would love to pray with you and for you.

If you want that, I'll be floating around as well.

But I want to invite you to come.

So let's stand together and let's respond.

Let's worship.

Let me just pray for our time.

Let's pray together.

Father, you have a vision for the Bay Area that is beyond any one church.

God, you want to do here what you've done all over the world.

God, make us desperate.

Make us hungry.

Help us to be people of prayer, people of confession, people who want nothing more than all that you want for us.

Oh God, would you come and do it?

And if and if it comes to, if you come deliver more, I will be there.

I won't be happy, Lord, but I will be there.

But would you come right here to New North Church, not because of us, but in spite of us.

Would you come, Jesus?

Would you come, Holy Spirit?

Pour yourself out as you did throughout all generations.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we pray.

Hey, thanks for being with us, and we really pray that God spoke to you through his word today.

And we want to stay connected.

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And if you'd like more resources or to donate to our ministry, just simply go to newnorth.church.

Thanks again for joining us.

God bless you, and we'll see you right here next time.