The Great Experiment - Day 1 (day)

The Great Experiment, Day 1 (morning)

Many Christians recognize the great spiritual need in America. In some ways American Christianity is in a slumber, powerless to hold back the rising secularization of our culture that has slowly been pulling our family, friends and neighbors away from God for decades. Perhaps more than at any time in our nation's history, we need to see God revive us with a fresh filling of His Spirit to help us stand strong in devotion to God and to bring many to faith in Jesus.

At Christian Union Day and Night, our ambition is to see many thousands of Christians inspired to seek God more fervently. That's why we've organized this ten-day "Great Experiment." Each morning and evening, we'll send you a video to encourage you as you press in to the Lord, plus a suggested Bible reading, some prayer points, and a reminder of the Great Experiment commitment. Look for all of those items below. By God's grace, we will be enriched, inspired and equipped to seek God's face all the more fervently.

Yours for a national revival,

Matt Bennett
Founder and CEO, Christian Union

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Transcript:

Hi, I'm Matt Bennett and we are beginning the ten-day Great Experiment for June, June 1 to 10. I'm excited that you're doing this with me. A few thousand of us are doing this across the country to seek the Lord during these 10 days of pressing in with these morning and evening devotionals, repenting of our sins every day, listening to the Holy Spirit and following up on what He says to do, of representing Christ and then our Joshua Faith Challenge. All of these are in the five commitments of what the Great Experiment is. Thank you so much for doing this with me and so many. I want to tell you where I am right now. I'm recording this a couple of days in advance. I'm in the Fiji Islands. I've never been here before. I actually got a shirt, maybe you can see this right here...And we're here, I'm here with some friends from Christian Union because there has been revival happening here for almost 20 years.

Village to village has seen an extraordinary things happen. Maybe you've heard of this, but if you go on YouTube and look up Transformations video or a video called Let The Sea Resound by George Otis, it documents what's been happening in this country and he actually is here with us and is showing us around and introducing us to the villagers and we've been hearing some incredible testimonies of villages that were completely swamped in idolatry. Some actually had a Christian presence but there wasn't much love of God or following after God in these villages. And then everything changes when they fast, pray, repent of their sins. The Spirit of God comes and there's just really some astonishing miracles. And I had heard of these miracles for years, but it's amazing to come over and sit face to face and talk to these people, hear their stories, hear about coral reefs that have come back to life as soon as they repented of their sins.

One village we visited a couple of days ago. They, I think before, I think they're just in their first week of returning to the Lord and the coral reef came back to life and they say that CNN is coming to do a story on it sometime soon because so many scientists find it so remarkable. And there's other tales of great abundance that have come to these communities where plants grow and give a lot more produce off of them, crops and that sort of thing. And of course, reconciliation and conversions and healings and all of these sorts of things. But it's all rooted in people turning to the Lord. I'm going to read a passage here about one of the churches in the book of Revelation. If you remember, there was a vision given to John on the island of Patmos of seven different churches, these are seven cities in Asia Minor, current Turkey.

And this is notable because every place had its own spiritual condition. And so it says here in chapter three it says,

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God."

And it goes on from there. And what's notable about this is that for each of these seven churches, there's a different problem. There's different ways in which they are commended by Jesus and different ways in which sins are called out. This team of people here called the Healing the Land Team, they go from village to village and they have four or five main sins that are pretty much characteristic of all of the villages.

And of course, they deal with other things as well. But these five main sins have to do with sexual immorality, idolatry--they actually have little idols that some of them will worship--, they have a lack of stewardship of the land, of really taking care of it as God's stewards, they have tithes and offerings. They focus on the people who've not been giving back to God. And that's been a problem for so many of them. And also fatherlessness. And so those issues, they really dig down deep on. They call people to repentance as a community. Lots of other different things. But that combined with extraordinary prayer and fasting, meaning praying all night together, fasting for a week at a time when the Healing the Land Team comes through...Over the course of four weeks, these communities are just radically transformed. It's really stunning. If we had this sort of mindset in the United States where we are in our communities and our churches, life would be very, very different.

And so our team together has been seeking the Lord together and asking ourselves, "What are our major sins for our community, our city, our nation, that we can repent of those together?" And then also that we can repent individually as well as pray and fast and seek the Lord so that He'll pour forth his blessings on us. This is our desire. We want to see this happen. And so thank you for joining in on these ten days of really pressing into the Lord. I pray that the Lord moves powerfully in your life, that he radically changes you, that He brings blessing to your family and community and does some wonderful things. By His grace and power, we will see communities, families, and even the nation change. Thank you.

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Here is today’s guide for the “Five Rs” of The Great Experiment, June 1-10, 2019.

1. Read and Pray

Psalm 34:8-10 – Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

Read Psalm 34:1-22 for more context.

Today’s Prayer Points

• Worship the Lord for His kindness and His promises to be good to all who seek Him.
• Ask that you will taste more of His goodness over the course of the Great Experiment.

2. Repent.
What sins do I need to repent of today? What hindrances to my devotion to Christ can I remove today?

3. Respond to the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, what is the one thing you most want me to do today? (Write it down, and do it today).

4. Represent Christ. 
How will I bear witness to Christ today? With whom shall I share the Gospel today?

5. Raise Your Faith.
Be bold and courageous in living out your faith (Joshua 1:8,9). Choose from one of the following options for a “Joshua Faith Challenge”:

1. Host an all-night prayer meeting. Set a date during June 1-10 and invite friends to come and pray with you for revival in America.
2. Every day, pray for ten friends and family members to come to faith in Christ and look for opportunities to share the gospel with them.
3. Share an evangelistic post on social media every day from June 1-10.
4. Anything else the Lord burdens you to take on that will require courageous faith.