SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : General Topics : What would it take for people to repent or for a revival

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( Previous Page 1 | 2 )
PosterThread









 Re:

Evangelist Ray Comfort often hands the microphone over to someone with a question or even an opposing thought when he is street preaching. Who else does that?

 2020/1/28 5:56
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re: Sense the spiritual resistance


I have street preached for years, I have also done much one-on-one witnessing as well.

It has been my unfortunate experience to listen to Christians (pastors and others) who disdain street preaching or at the least speak about it with some contempt.

They will note some poor folk didn't get to speak while the preacher was speaking, or they will note someone got mad or will note someone cried or walked away.
Shortly afterwards comes the solution. Avoid street preaching because in his/her mind a negative reaction means God isn't in it, God didn't anoint it, God doesn't like it.

The reality is far different.

The condemnation coming from various leaders are the same ones who have sermon series "sermons to sleep by" or a 7 week series on "using Christianity to better your situation".
My point is
1. Devils will cause a crowd to get uptight, angry or hostile, you can sense it. Why? Because any gospel preaching can have serious reprocussions to Satan's rule in their lives.
2. Street preaching is no 'sermon to sleep by', God uses it to stir people to think, and when they do...maybe for the first time they don't like what they hear or think.
3. Condemnation of street preaching is usually to make sure the congregants don't get any ideas about taking their Christianity into the public where the Church or the Pastor could suffer reproach. It's a rare thing to find pastor who has the slightest idea what it means to think and minister as an evangelist.

In short, usually condemnations are motivated by fears of reproaches, fears of demonic reprisals, fears of loss of reputation.

When you preach to the same group week after week, it's comfortable, easy, and needful to create sermons designed to keep everyone safe and secure.

Street preaching is far from that.


_________________
Marvin

 2020/1/28 11:37Profile
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re:


In our modern culture, street preaching has become far more confrontative. Instead of respecting the speaker, folks jeer, talk-over, ask angry questions, make noise or seek to disrupt the speaker.

Today its fashionable to show hatred toward Christianity because the LGBTQ crowd has shown they should be hated.

Its fashionable now to mock God, Christians, Jesus with no repercussions at all.

Here's the worst part, many Christians take up the torches to light the street preacher on fire. They are happy to vilify the street preacher along with the pagan crowds listening. They will side with the abortionist, approve of the mocking of the gays or criticize with the atheist some attempt to put the gospel in the public court.
This kind is of the mindset that Christianity should look like a hallmark movie or maybe feel Christianity should stay within the Church walls. Of course, in such a state as that...one wonders if what's in those walls constitutes a 'Church'?


_________________
Marvin

 2020/1/28 11:48Profile
davidkeel
Member



Joined: 2006/5/11
Posts: 519
West Sussex, England

 Re: What would it take for people to repent or for a revival


I do admire people that do the preaching but there are many on the internet that I don't feel care about others. What do you think of some of the preachers you see on the net Marvin ? I did see a guy walking through a Muslim area of London on one of them. He was shouting at them as he was walking along. I wouldn't be able find the video again.
If people like yourself are sincere I hope you get some real fruit from it of course. I was trying to say why I thought that people in today's world are turning against the preacher.


_________________
David Keel

 2020/1/28 12:52Profile
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re:


Hi David:

Ive seen numerous ones on youtube who I thought were doing a great job...even though the crowd was really mean. Others had attentive listeners and folks were getting healed.

Sincerity and mannerism are two very different things.
Its rare that Ive seen someone who's sincerity I questioned, but I have definitely questioned mannerism.

I personally am not that guy with the sandwich board with "the end is near" on it.

If I had to take a recollection of street witnessing/evangelism the vast majority were as sincere and caring as one can find in any church. Where mannerisms get dubious is where the mockers get to the guy and he gets angry or judgmental. Some one-on-one conversations go bad where the newby Christian gets stumped by someone and gets cold feet or fear comes upon them and they loose confidence in the ministry of the Spirit through them.

I have seen some street preaching that was just plain poor, bad theology coupled with a fear of rejection leads to a lop sided presentation of sin and grace.

Ive witnessed a very few who thought old-testament judgments were best.

In every case where the evangelist was goofing it up, he needed some training, patience, encouragement, prayers and support. I don't want them to quit, I want them to recognize they've slipped into the flesh and its noticeable.

Way back in the day I ran into scientologist doing the street preacher thing...which I confronted with the word of God. Most false teacher/ preachers speakers fold up like a wet towel when confronted.

The fruit of course is up to Jesus, on the streets its difficult to masquerade our screw-ups and it's also easy to tell if there is conviction. In Church it's not near so easy and church is not geared for conviction it's geared for comfort and conformity.

As to why the world is turning against the preacher? Well, there are many reasons, but one that stands out to me above all else is the spirit of the age has given sinners an approval to dismiss any call to rethink their pattern of life. Any lifestyle is permitted and encouraged and anyone condemning any lifestyle in another deserves hatred and retaliation.


_________________
Marvin

 2020/1/28 13:35Profile
davidkeel
Member



Joined: 2006/5/11
Posts: 519
West Sussex, England

 Re: What would it take for people to repent or for a revival


Thanks for your reply Marvin. You've made some good points.


_________________
David Keel

 2020/1/28 14:55Profile
Oracio
Member



Joined: 2007/6/26
Posts: 2094
Whittier CA USA

 Re:

Yeah, we cannot throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to street preaching. On the internet you will find the good the bad and the ugly. There are also many bad preachers behind pulpits who preach from an angry spirit but that doesn't mean we should discourage all pulpit preaching on account of that.

So what will it take for people to repent or for a revival? I'd say fervent and desperate prayer and like Len Ravenhill said, we need some hell-fire preaching on repentance.


_________________
Oracio

 2020/1/29 0:40Profile









 Re:

Many people claim that the last great revival in the western world was the Hebrides revival of 1949-52.

While many are well-intentioned in explaining why, I believe it is ultimately an insult to God - and to His own - to say that He hasn't worked profoundly in the western world since then.

What about the Jesus movement of the '70s? It was huge and far-reaching. Even secular media couldn't ignore it. Many, many people were saved in it, and many baptized in the Holy Ghost. Strangely, someone like Leonard Ravenhill never spoke of it as a revival. In Acts 2 Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, and over three thousand were saved in a day, and broke bread from house to house. Most use this text as a benchmark and litmus test for revival. May I suggest that there were far more than three thousand saved during the Jesus movement, and many even lived communally (not that it is a requirement), breaking bread from house to house?

Humanly speaking, things are spread out across a wide area in the United States alone, but from a heavenly perspective the Lord could easily give numbers of redeemed souls in this nation within the last few decades that might shock some (in a good and encouraging way). Yes, there is gross compromise and apostasy, but there was such in the first century A.D., too. For every verse of Good News in the Bible there are untold numbers of paragraphs of bad news which were not reported there.

Sometimes a span of years is encapsulated in a single verse of Scripture. It is easy to think that certain localized events were all-encompassing. Let's go back to the three thousand who were saved at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. To put that in perspective, how many people were there altogether in Jerusalem at that time? And how many of these were saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? A small number compared to the total populace.

Many of us seem to be waiting for something that is already happening. God never stopped working. Yes, He uses human vessels in His redemptive plan, but we are by no means His only available resource.

 2020/1/29 19:44
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re:

great point alec:

2002-2009 I preached for the Union Gospel mission, their main building, the mens center and the women shelter. Around 6 some years.

hundreds and hundreds came to a saving knowledge of Christ, many were recommitted and found a fresh start again.

Jesus will honor his word, he will save those who respond to the message of the gospel, he will deliver those who surrender their lives to him.

I ministered to every kind of sin-sick person, Jesus was more than sufficient for everyone of them.

It's true I don't know how they all turned out, I don't know how many were truly saved or truly repented, but I do know this, Jesus was faithful to them in every little baby-step they made and every repentance done from their hearts.

Almost a 1000 people responded to the gospel over those years, and that was just when I was preaching, I don't know about the others. This of course was only the main building, the mens center and womens shelter were two more venues where God saved and delivered sinners, in those places I was able to mentor many of the men and teach the women.

My point, Jesus is faithful, always honoring his word, always keeping his promises and always seeking and saving he lost. I got to be a part of it in some small way.

I was able to reap in abundance there, but I have also watered and seeded for many others over the years as well.

I ministered to hundreds of men in the mens center, and hundred there followed Christ, repented and started anew. Not everyone is sincere, not everyone really gets saved, but all I can do is be faithful to live and preach the gospel and give everyone a message and a man with gospel.

edit to add:

What I am getting at is, I saw more saved in a day at the mens center than I did at my Church all year, or two! So, when scant few folks are saved at a Church venue it can lead folks to think "well nobodies getting saved anymore".
But I am here to say that's not the full story and Alec made a great point in what he said.



_________________
Marvin

 2020/1/30 11:35Profile









 Re:

Great report, Marvin!

There is so much good news of Gospel outreach, soul-winning, & discipleship out there, & yet many believers in different regions are unaware of it. Some of it is very sensitive (in hostile or dangerous locales) and/or personal, so it doesn't get broadcast to everyone. But with Christ in glory we will get the full report, & what a day that will be!



 2020/1/30 16:06





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy