The Great Experiment - Day 1 (night)

The Great Experiment, Day 1 (night)

Here is this evening's video devotional for Day 1 of The Great Experiment.

Blessings,

Matt Bennett
Founder and CEO, Christian Union

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Transcript:

Hi, Matt Bennett here. Thanks for being part of the Great Experiment. We are seeking the Lord to do something extraordinary and wonderful during these ten days. I look forward to testimonies coming in from across the country as people share what they've done, how the Lord's opened doors, as the Lord opens doors for them to witness and people coming to faith in Christ. Every time we do these Great Experiments, we hear stories of God changing lives and doing some wonderful things. So thank you for participating in this with us. As you know, we send out videos morning and evening for each of these ten days to stimulate and to bring us together as a community.

As I mentioned in my previous video, I am in Fiji Islands. A number of us from Christian Union are here to learn about revival. Communities here for 20 years have been experiencing God in extraordinary ways. The Healing the Land Team goes from village to village and some who've never had them come before, I mean there's hundreds and hundreds of villages here in Fiji. 300 islands, 200 of them are inhabited. And then I don't know how many villages there are. There are hundreds, there's about 900,000 people in Fiji. So the stories have been absolutely extraordinary and wonderful and faith building for all of us.

I mentioned in the other video how each of these communities, they have a number of major sins that need to be repented of as a community. And it's prompted discussion among us and our team thinking, well what are the major issues in our cities and our nation? I live in New York City and we all live here in the United States. So what are the three, four, five major sins that we need to confess?

One of the ways of thinking about this is it's sins that typically affect both Christians and non Christians because it's so heavy, it's so dominant in the land. So one thing I think of here is this passage in 1 Timothy 5. This is a passage that talks about widows and the conditions under which widows would be financially supported by the church. They had to meet certain criteria to do that. They needed to be a certain number of years old. They needed to have been faithful to their husband. Then it also says this in 1 Timothy 5:

It says, "She who is truly a widow left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who is self indulgent is dead while she lives. Command these things as well so that they may be without reproach."

So you have this situation where a widow, if she's not continuing to pray day and night, she's considered self indulgent and dead while she's still alive. That's very sobering. I think about that from the United States. I think among Christians and non Christians, we have become self indulgent. We don't take the time to fast and pray. We don't take the time to tend to Jesus Christ's priorities over our own priorities.

There's nothing wrong in enjoying life and doing good things, but when the good things outpace the things that the Lord requires us to do, then we become self indulgent. And as it says of the widow here, dead while we're still alive.

So I believe as a nation we need to repent of being self indulgent, as communities, as families. That means at night, turning off the Netflix, turning off these other things and having a family devotion or morning devotion or fasting. Yeah, food tastes good, but sometimes you got to fast. And also pushing yourself out to witness and doing things, things that'll cost you and be difficult because the Lord wants you to, even though it's much easier to sit back and enjoy ourselves with sports and all these other things.

Again, there's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves, but if we become a lover of pleasure, a lover of self, we must repent or else we will not experience the Lord in the way he's designed us to experience.

So thank you for being part of Day and Night. I'm very glad that you're doing this Great Experiment with me and so many others. I'm excited about my Joshua Faith Challenge, which will be coming up here in a few days I'll do. I return to the States in a couple of days and we'll see what the Lord does. So thank you so much, and God bless.

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

1. Read and Pray

Nehemiah 1:5-6 – And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned.”

Read Nehemiah 1:4-11 for more context.

This Evening's Prayer Points

• Declare the unstoppable power of God despite all circumstances or schemes against His purposes.
• Confess your sins, the sins of His people, the sins of your family ,and the sins of our nation.
• Ask Him to forgive our sins and shine His grace on us twice as much as we sinned against Him.

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.