Matt Brown - Awakening: How Gods Great Move Inspires & Influences Our Lives Today

In the middle of our trouble and hard times here, just knowing how youre doing keeps us going. Knowing that your faith is alive keeps us alive.

1 Thessalonians 3:8 The Message

O n July 4, 1776, an unseasonably mild midsummer day in the typically hot and humidPhiladelphia, the United States Declaration of Independence was finalized and adoptedby fifty-six men, and was soon signed and distributed throughout the colonies. JohnAdams had convinced the Continental Congress, then at war with Great Britain, toallow the young Thomas Jefferson to compose the initial document formally explainingtheir choice to declare independence from Great Britain.

Also on that day, across the Atlantic Ocean, legend has it that King George III ofEngland wrote in his diary: Nothing important happened today.

Nothing important happened?!

This was perhaps one of the greatest understatements in world history. On that day,American rebels forged the Declaration of Independence, and although it took sevenmore years until the Americans fully achieved independence from England, the writingof the Declaration was the beginning of the end of Englands reign over America.

The king assumed nothing important had taken place on that day because he hadntheard of it yet. He didnt live in the day and age of tweets and texts and cameraphones and search engines. His was a day of smoke signals.

It is my fear for the Western church today that, on the coattails of King GeorgeIII, we make generalizations and assumptions about the fate of our Christian faithin this day and age and end up being wrong about what we think, or even say, to othersin passing.

Christianity is thriving around the world today. There is a sense of revival on manyfronts, but most of us havent heard of it yet, and so we write on the subconsciousjournal in the recesses of our minds: Nothing important is happening today. Andwe ask ourselves: Is this all there is? It is as if we think we have a cap on whatGod is doing around the world today.

But you and I have the chance to be a part of something really great. Its happeningall over the world and we dont want to miss it. Remember how I asked you to getlost in the sense of the smallness of your own efforts and reach for, grab hold of,the greatness of our God? Do you have any idea what it could look like if we reallydid this out of our genuine desire to love God as he loves us? Mind-boggling, isntit?

As my wife and I have been driving the highways of the Twin Cities over the pastfew months, I have been making mental notes on the many companies located along thesprawling metropolis of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There are thousands of massiveoffice buildings that bring in billions of dollars, and I have never heard of mostof these businesses. I dont know what they do, but each one of them has a story.

And this is just one small region compared to the surrounding states and nearbymetropolitan areas. The United States is just one small region in the vast expanseof the world economy and population centers. Buenos Aires, the capital city of thenation of Argentina, for example, is a region filled with European immigrants mergedwith the Spanish-speaking world. It is quite a delightful place to visit. Surprisingly,their capital city is four times the size of New York City, the largest metropolitanarea in the United States. The same could be said of many other cities around theworld. We rarely think about the impact of other people, their businesses, and theirstories because we are so focused on our own.

In a similar way, the Christian church around the worldthe sum of countless localchurches across the earth todayis so much bigger and more impactful than we cangrasp with our human intellect or sum up with our pithy statements and negativegeneralizations. We need to be awakened to the vastness of God and the church. Thereare so many more good things happening than we can wrap our minds around, and thisreality should excite and invigorate us and our faith. The great works of God happeningaround the globe are exactly what inspired the awe of the disciples as they watchedJesus at work. We have the opportunity to be part of a life-changing season in history.

At this stage in history, the church has grown into many beautiful and powerful variationsof practicing faith and represents billions of individuals and families and backgroundsand stories. And thats worth far more, eternally, than the sum total of a personsnet worth. The sense of longing for more, looking for more, has been placed in ourhearts from the beginning of time by the One who created us and longs to see us movein his direction. Lets focus on that thought for a minute.

Consider for a moment where weve come from. At first glance, Christ wrote no books,established no government-recognized organizations, and posted no tweets. Instead,he taught many large crowds and poured his life into a few close followers.

The first followers of Christ continued to spread his message even after he leftthe earth, and his movement has grown into billions of followers. Think about that!What other religion can say its leader came to earth and was fully man (not a kingenthroned with regality), was crucified and rose again, and before leaving the earth,charged followers who would believe in him (not a forced belief but of their ownchoosing) to give everything to share his gospel with others? Amazing!

Church history tells us the apostles divided up the known world for evangelism, andeach began to travel to the ends of the earth, preaching this exclusive gospel oftrusting in Jesus. One of the terms coined by Christs earliest followers was theDoor of Jesus, which referred to Jesus as the one way to the one true God. Theytrumpeted this exclusive message in their day and age, when historians estimate thatonly one in three million people had ever heard the name of Jesus Christ.

There are Christians today who still give everything to bring this gospel to others,but times have changed. We typically think of this happening in other countries,and many of us wouldnt dare share the gospel with our next-door neighbors. Wouldthey be offended and avoid us, or even talk to others about their preachy neighbors?Surprisingly, today one in three people you run into on the street claims adherenceto and faith in Jesus Christ. Did you know that?

One of our greatest challenges in this day and age is not whether something is happening with Christianityits that amazing works are happening, and we never hear about them, so we never plug into them.

Sure, weve now got social networks, camera phones, and multiple forms of messaging,and its easier to share something than ever before in history. We are a long wayfrom smoke signals, and yet the majority of Christians remain in the dark about theamazing ways God is moving around the world, and stay in the dark when it comes tosharing Christ with others. Why is this? Why dont we take greater interest in talkingabout what God is up to rather than what we are up to? If we did, it could awakenus to our lifes purpose and inspire us in our lifes direction. We spend a lot oftime on a lot of things that dont have as much significant meaning as the gospel.But the gospel at work in peoples lives? It is not just a Sunday event; it is adaily treasure.