Revival Begins With Us | Celina Tan

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

So remember that revival does not start from the external.

It has to go deep into the internal. And internal

means our heart. So in this scripture we learned that,

you know, David didn't ask God to change his external situation.

And this scripture, if you read deeper right, this was

a scripture which is a communal prayer. I think it

was after the whole Babylonian exile, and they were praying

to God and ask God to give them a clean

heart and renew the spirit. Okay, And here they are

asking God to give them a new heart, a clean heart,

and along with it they also ask for a step

first spirit so that they can continue in the way

of Godliness. And they are telling God that you know, Lord,

we need you. David is a that Lord, I need you.

Even King David, you know, the man after God's own heart,

is saying that Lord, I need a clean heart. I

need you in every area of my life so that

I can continue to live a life that pleases you.

We all know the life of David. He followed the

way of the Lord. Yet every day he will pray

and ask God to help him. So how do we

know that God does not look at our external feature?

In first seven, chapter sixteen, verse seven here that the prophets,

the Lord said to Simuel, do not look at his

appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.

For the Lord does not see as man sees. For

man looks at our appearance, but the Lord looks at

the heart. That is how we know that God don't

look at our physical appearance when God come and examine us. Right,

God doesn't say that poor new hairstyle today are very nice?

Or new clothes today? What new? Sure? No, God looks

straight into our heart, even though you may be coming

in a beggar's suit. But if your heart is renewed,

your heart is clean, that is what God is after. Okay.

But that doesn't mean that next day you're coming in

your pajamasa. Still dress your best for the Lord. Okay,

all right, So God looks at our heart. Okay. So

that is something that we need to remember. That we

can always come to church every Sunday, but remember this,

we need to pray. We need to ask God that

you know every single morning when you wake up Lord,

I pray that you will revive my heart this morning.

I pray that you will give me a clean heart,

give me a clean hands, a pure heart, so that

I can continue to worship you, so that I can

continue to walk in line with you, so that I

can continue to hear your voice. We need to open

our heart every single day to invite the Holy Spirit

in and allow him to take over. It's not our

own self. It's no longer our will to be done,

but his will. So what does a true personal revival

looks like? That? We will have a deep hunger for

the presence of God. We will be sensitive to his promptings,

and we will obey to the Lord in everything that

he says to us. You know, when God ask us

to go, we won't say that God, wait, let me

check my calendar person. Or you know when got as

you to do something, then you like, but God cannot

lae this Sunday haul I got you feeling the bland yourself? Okay,

but more of like you obey the Lord immediately. There

is no compromise, there's no butts, there's no accepts, because

you know what is important. So when everyone began to

experience a true revival internally, then you will see revival externally.

So it doesn't mean that true revival internally only happened too.

Maybe myself and anti Julie and maybe John and then Joel,

then you will see revival. No. Everyone, everyone has to

experience the true revival internally, because before the Holy Spirit

came upon the church in except to what did the

scriptures start off with? The scripture start off with that

all the believers were meeting together. They were all with

one accord. All of them came together. They were hungry

for more of God. They were hungry for God to move. Okay,

So that is what we all need in one accord everyone,

because when all of us are united in that sense

that all of us have the same hunger for more

of God, that is when God will move. So that

is what we know about revival, right. But do you

know what prevents revival to happen? Okay, many of us

have been praying for revival, but we do not see

anything happen, right, And it's not happening. It's not because

God is not feeling. Okay. God is always one thing

to move in every person's life. God is wanting to

move in every church okay, and it all begins in

earth I mentioned just now. It is not happening. It's

because we are not ready for it. And then how

we are not raised the first point we are lack

of hunger. Okay. I know everyone is hungry now waiting

for lunch. Okay, but it's not the physical hunger, but

the hunger for more of God. You know. We are

living in a generation that is full of distraction. We

want to be comfortable at where we are at. Sometimes

we are too self sufficient, and hence we will not

hunger for God. You know, a lot of times we

say that, why I need God? I'm okay, it's okay,

you know, I'm enough. I have house, I have car,

you know, I have children, I have you name it.

Why do I need God? Because we are so self sufficient? Okay,

we are so comfortable with our life, we stop hungry

for more of God, you know. And that is also

a saying that we all like to say. I'm good, ma,

Why do I need to rock the board? You know, sailing?

You know, singing in the calm sea. It's so nice

while I go and send send some wind and wave

to rock my boat? Right nounedla Right? We are afraid

that if we pray for revival and ask for revival

and it really happens, that means what It means that

we have a lot of work to do, right, we

want revival, but we scart off the work after that. Okay,

Hence Keller, since Pasa cannot say that this year is

a year reever Keller, I just pray, Nila, Okay, I

pray when I remember La. I pray when Selena asked

to prayer the rest of the day. No, Nina, right,

we don't have such hunger, okay, because we don't want

the world. We don't to rock the boat. Just let

be it go through. The motion will be good. Okay,

So we don't have the hunger. Okay. I'm not pinpointing anyone,

because some days I'm also like that I've forgotten to pray.

You know, I only pray when I remember or I

this the Passa can summon. Oh yeah, this year Passa

says is your revival. I need to pray for revival. Okay.

We need to have the deep hunger. If we want revival,

we need to have the deep hunger. And then that

brings me to the next point, because we do not

have the deep hunger. Hence we don't pray enough right

and jamshp the forwards too. He says, you do not

have because you do not ask. If you don't ask

from God, how God gonna give? Right, it's just right

if I don't go and ask. Okay, this is after that.

If I don't go ask Genie for the uh foot okay,

the tie toy vegetate. If I don't ask from her,

I would not get okay. Okay, I didn't ask from her.

I just told her I like NA. Then then they

say she gave me okay, So if I don't ask,

I would not get. I cannot suddenly just go to

the you know, go to Auntie Julie house. And then

I go to a house sit down, and then I

expect her to fit me. Of course she will, but

then she said she will say that, but I'm going

out already, never by our sit down. Then should like,

but I'm really going out never by us sit down.

But actually I'm very hungry. I need her to fit me,

but I just needn't ask. Can you say? Okay? So

we need to ask. So if we don't ask from God,

God will not give. So remember that revival to happen

in church is not just the prayer of the pastor

or the church plank coordinator, or maybe one or two leaders,

but it's everyone. It's corporately collectively. Everyone has the same hunger.

Everyone pressed on in prayer, urging God, saying that Lord,

we want to see salvation happen in Examba every Sunday.

It should not just be Selina's desire. It should not

just be Joel's desire or Genie's desire only. It has

to be everyone's desire. Do you desire to see people

getting safe or you just care about your own salvation only?

Do you desire to see the sick coming and they

be healed, or you only care that your own health

being healed only? I know that the come on strong,

But this is how the word hit me. Did Jesus

only die for Selinatan only, or Jesus die for everyone

on this planet Earth? If Jesus is dying for everyone,

and hence for those of us who hear the gospel firsthand,

we need to be the mouthpiece to bring the word

and pass on to the next person who may not

have the opportunity like me hearing it firsthand. I will

be there firsthand, I will need to go and share

with them that Jesus is real. Jesus still heal. But

the most important it is do you believe that Jesus

is real? So we need to believe that God will

move powerfully, and hence we need to pray for the opportunity,

and we need to be obedient when the opportunity comes.

You know, we can pray God will open the door

for you. You get into the grab, you know, many

times I can tell you honestly, I miss the opportunity.

I get into grab so many times. And there is

a couple of times the grab driver suddenly tells me

not not sharing their their their grandmother's storyline. But it's

just to say that, oh, you know, it's it's so nice,

you know that you have a holiday, you know, but

I still have the work because I have family to

feed and then share a little bit of their life story.

That is a opportunity for me to say that, hey,

can I pray for you? But I scared? I scared

the Philodos fatchman go away after that. Okay, But sometimes

God gave you the opportunity. But are we grabbing hold

of the opportunity? Are we sensitive enough to the prompting

of the Holy Spirit. Do we have the discernment, you know,

to be obedient when God says, move and pray. So

I'm trying to learn to move with the prompting of

the Holy Spirit. Okay, sometimes because I feel like I

feel that's why I I put a roadblock there. But

God says, if you love me my commandments. So God

doesn't move when there is resistance. God moved when there

is surrendered. God moved when there is obedience, and he

moved when we are willing to sacrifice and worship him

and him alone. So we need to have a deep hunger,

we need to pray. When there's opportunity, we need to obey.

And then the last point of you know what preventing

revival is this the trap of comparison. So today I'm

going to give you a little bit of what I

usually do in ex kids. Okay, so before that trap

of comparison. Comparison is one of the quiet killer of revival. Okay.

In actual fact, when I prepared this message, this was

the first picture that God showed me. I'm like, Lord,

are you trying to ask me to teach? You know,

the adults liked how I teach in ex kids. Yeah,

so well that is what I got, and this is

what I'm gonna share. The trep of comparison. So we

tend to look at others, their result, their success, their accomplishment,

their house. So I prepare a house. Thank you to

GERMANI very nice. Right, Yeah, this is my house I wish. Yeah,

this house. Everybody wants to come. Right, everybody loves this house.

So when our eyes are focusing on what's great on others,

we begin to compare, and then we begin to imitate,

and then we begin to complain. Okay. So the danger

of comparison is this. It produces this contentment, It produces

imitation without calling, it produces frustration. Okay. In Second Concients,

Chapter ten, verse twelve, Paul warners this, don't compare yourself

with others, because such comparisons are measured on human skill,

and it is not wise, it is not smart, it

is not of God. But we should allow the Holy

Spirit to measure us through God's words and through God's

kill okay, in which he looks at our heart. Okay.

And God wants us to be faithful with what we have.

So go back to the picture very nice. Right, so

I will try to build the same house. Okay, you

look at the house so nice, Look at my house

so nice? Right? Which house you want to go? That

house or the house? You want to go to the

house with swimming pool, or you want to go to

the house that is empty and barren? Which one? Right?

So this house it's big, it's nice, all right, everybody

wants to go there, Okay. Every neighbor say like, oh God, God,

place to chill at Pinut Colada, do drink? Okay, that's

so nice. Okay. And then you try to imitate. Okay,

So you have things, so you try to imitate. Okay,

the fellow has a swimming pool, Let me build a

swimming pool. Okay, the swimming pool is like that, the

swimming pool I never okay. The house got treekay? Okay,

let me behind a tree? Yeah yeah? And did Julia,

I need a bigger land? I got no enough, treader,

I need to build the house. The house is brown

in color? Yeah? Why not same? When God, I imitate exactly?

Why why not same? When the fella has a swimming pool,

I have a swimming pool. The fell I have a

brown house. I have a brown housework the fellow has

a tree, I have a tree. Why is it different one?

Why nobody wants to come to my house? This is unfair.

How come you give the person's house so nice? Everybody

wants to go to the house every day, got parties

inside there every single day, got low sung every single day,

got unbout to take. But my house, nobody wants to come. God,

this is unfair. And then God said this, I'm not

making you to be like someone else. I'm not making

you to be another person. I am making you you.

And I need you to build yourself based on my blueprint,

based on my plan. And this is what God said.

Read my word daily and meditate upon it to know

what I'm trying to do in you. And you begin

to be consistent with your quiet time. You begin to

read the word of God. And the Lord say, rest

in me, and you rest in him, and then say

and then the Lord say, you know, pray. You pray,

and the Lord say, listen to my voice, and you

begin to be still and know that he is God.

And you listen to his voice one step at a time,

and God say, pray for your neighbor, and you begin

praying for your neighb and God says, worship me, and

you say, yes, Lord, I will worship you. Slowly and surely,

one step at the time. You begin to obey what

the Lord wants you to do. Growth begin to happen. Right.

Does it look the same as your neighbor? Does God

want you to look like your neighbor? No? What is

God building in you? God is not trying to make

you a house. God is making you a meddle. A

place where people can come and rest A place where

people can come and refresh, a place where people can

come and be healed, a place where people can come

without being judged. A place where people can come to

find joy and restoration. A place that not only the

rich can come, the poor, the sick, the abandoned, you

name it. A place that people find refuge. You may

think that, yeah, revival looks like the one that's in

the picture, a big house. Many times we want to

be like our neighbor. We try to topicate ourselfs like

our neighbor. But is that what God wants us to do?

Did God say that, you know, for revival to happen

in example, you need to be like the other church

next door. No, God didn't ask us to be like

the church next door. God caught us to be us. Okay,

my illustration may not be very pretty and text to

Gemini next picture Niki, this is what God has called us,

and open space for people to come and open space

for people to be restored. And that can only happen

if we ourself our revife. Not only we are comparing

church to church. I'm talking about our self. Stop comparing

yourself with your friend and look at your friends and

saying that you know, wah, I want to be a

worship leader just like Joell, but my calling is not

to be a worship leader. I can't even differentiate abcde

okay until we g but I can differentiate phoneicks from

it to that. You know, it's still ABC, but it's different.

It's different kind of calling, it's different kind of people

that we're reaching out to. It's different kind of revival

that we have to experience. So for this to happen,

we need to understand that we need God. And as

much as we say that we need God, God also

need our response. So in X chapter four was twenty

nine to thirty one. Here it says, now the Lord

look on their threads and grant to your servant that

with all bonus, they may speak your word by stretching

out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders

may be done through the name of your Holy Servant, Jesus.

And when they had prayed and placed where they were

assembled together, was shaken and they were all filled with

the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God

with bonness. So this is in X chapter four, and

you read here in X chapter four was twenty nine

to thirty one. When the people prayed before the Holy

Spirit move. The people pray, they didn't pray for their

own personal preference. They didn't pray for the personal gain.

What they asked for the bondness to praach the boness

to do what the Lord has told them to do,

the boness to see God move. This year, Spasa kind

of has declared that it's a year of revival. Let

us all have the same boldness, the same bondness to

experience the revival of God, the same bondness, the same

desire to see people coming in here to be safe

and to be healed. And we need to pray for

the Holy Spirit to move, so we cannot produce revival.

But we can prepare for it even as I close.

You know, how can we prepare for it? We need

to desire it. We must want God more than our

own comfort. We need to want God more than our

own convenience. We need to want God more than our

own control. And then we need to pray for it,

not once a week, but every single day. And then

be obedience, and last, but not least, be faithful with

what we have. You know, God always starts with what

we already have. It's just like when God asked Moses

to lead the Israelite out of Egypt. God didn't give

him like many many horses and chariots to transport the

people out. What did Moses have in his hand? He

only has a staff. People must be thinking crazy for

with just one stuff you want to lead the whole

multitudes out of Egypt? How you know? Egypt has so

many chariots and horses and army in general. And who

is Moses? He's the guide that stuttered, and the most

he has in his gang is whole Arran. That's it.

But God is able to use what we have in

our hands for greater purpose. And all we need to

do is to trust him and surrender it. So revival

is when the Holy Spirit take over. Remember that it's

not something we produce on our own. So question to

ask ourselves is that are we relying on ourselves instead

of God? And are we ready to let the Holy

Spirit take over? Revival is when our heart comes alive.

Our heart's hungry for God and are we ready to

ask God to give us a new and clean heart?

And revival is when life are transformed. So are we

comparing instead of obeying? Or are we faithful with what

God has given us? And are we ready to see

God move? So question to ask all of us here

is are you ready to see salvation happen every Sunday?

Are you ready to see healing take place every Sunday?

Last year is a year of discipleship. It didn't stop

in six Yeah, it continues on when revival happened. Are

you ready to disciple someone new? Are you ready to

teach the person and walk through different journey with that person?

Or maybe one day through this door, maybe ex convict

work in here. Are we ready to receive this person?

Maybe a prostitute will walk through this door? Are we

ready to accept this person? You know different kinds of

people will walk through the doors of ex Ambound and

we have that. You know, we have people drunk of

the party coming in. Do we say that no, you

cannot come to church, but are we ready to receive them?

When revival happened, we will have all kinds of people

just like what I said here, All kinds of people

will come to us. Are we ready for it? And

I pray that all of us are ready, and I

pray that all of us will have a surrender hut.

Can I invite the extreme thing to come forward? You know?

I have shared what I needed to share this morning,

and I pray that you know that as I shed

the word, I pray that this word would touch someone's

heart this morning.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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hit for you. God bless