The Great Experiment - Day 7 (day)

The Great Experiment, Day 7 (day)

Here are this morning's video devotional, Bible reading, prayer points, and guide for Day 7 of The Great Experiment.

Blessings,

Matt Bennett
Founder and CEO, Christian Union

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Transcript:

Hi, I'm Chuck Hetzler with Christian Union Day and Night and Pastor of Bethesda Grace Church in New York City. Praise God for The Great Experiment that you're taking part. Today what I want to talk about is for us to think a little bit about being set apart in this world.

As I walk the streets of New York City, which I know is not the most common experience for people to live in a city like New York, but I see evidently around me a city of sin. I see graphic images of a sexual nature that are against the purposes of God, both heterosexual and homosexual. I hear foul language and hatred just in the conversations around me. Whether there're children around or elderly people around or whatever it is, there's always this sense of just hatred.

There's a constant stimulation to want to have more. To want to have the newest things and to have more money and to have more access to more pleasures that we could partake of. And I know that even if you don't live in a city like this where you walk around on the streets and see this everyday, if you turn on your television, if you surf the internet you see these images and hear these very things all around us.

And as Christians we need to remind ourselves that it's good to be set apart from the world. Sometimes we want to contextualize the gospel and we want to make ourselves relevant to the people who are not believers. And there's something to be said about that. But yet at the same time we can never do that in such a way that we are not clearly walking in the light versus walking in the darkness.

And Paul reminds the believers in Ephesus about that in Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 7. He says, "Do not become partakers with them. For at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light." And I encourage all of us as we're walking through this Great Experiment, that we will set ourselves apart in our conduct, in our speech, in the things that we look at, the things that we think about, the things that we partake in in this culture. That we do not become like darkness which we once were, but we stay light in the Lord.

And we're never self-righteous about that and we're never hypocritical about that. But we keep our convictions sincere and squared upon following Jesus Christ as his set-apart disciples. And that is our calling in this world: to live as light in the darkness. May God help us to do that. Thank you for being a part of that effort here in this nation. May God bless us and may God bless this nation as we seek Him for the sake of it. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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

1. Read and Pray

Acts 1:8 – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Read Acts 1:1-11 for more context.

This morning's Prayer Points

• Seek the Holy Spirit’s presence and power to witness for yourself and for your local church and its leaders.
• Pray for the spread of the Gospel in every nation on the earth.

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.