======================================================================== REVIVAL AND THE ECONOMY by Edgar Reich ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking God's face and turning from wicked ways as a condition for God's forgiveness and healing. It shares personal stories of God's incredible love and mercy, highlighting the need for repentance and revival. The speaker discusses potential signs of judgment in the American economy and geopolitical landscape, urging listeners to reflect on their relationship with God and the consequences of sin. The message concludes with a call to accept Jesus as Savior, repent, and fulfill the calling to share God's love and righteousness. Duration: 40:53 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking God's face and turning from wicked ways as a condition for God's forgiveness and healing. It shares personal stories of God's incredible love and mercy, highlighting the need for repentance and revival. The speaker discusses potential signs of judgment in the American economy and geopolitical landscape, urging listeners to reflect on their relationship with God and the consequences of sin. The message concludes with a call to accept Jesus as Savior, repent, and fulfill the calling to share God's love and righteousness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ God gave me 2 Chronicles 7.14 yesterday morning to use as the highlight scripture. Even before Mr. Roberts spoke on that passage last night, I would also like to repeat that passage from 2 Chronicles 7.14. 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people who are called by my name, and we are the Christians, we are called by his name, will humble themselves without that pride and pray and seek my face, seek God's face, and turn from their wicked ways, four conditions here, to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek God's face, and to turn from our wicked ways, then God will fulfill his promises, which are, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. So he will hear, he will forgive, and he will heal. But there are four conditions that we are to meet, and I will speak only about one of those conditions, which is seeking his face. And before I talk about judgment that is evident already in the American economy, before I talk about a judgment that appears to be in the fact that America might already be given over into the hands of the enemies, I'd like to illustrate God's incredible love for you and for me. And I'd like to use a little bit from my life so that you would know how great God's love is. And he also confirms that in Psalm 139, 17, and 18. Psalm 139, 17, and 18, one of the most beautiful passages in scripture, because there isn't just judgment. Judgment is God's final attempt to draw us unto himself. He doesn't mean evil for us. He wants us to change. He wants us to be drawn unto him. And so in Psalm 139, 17, and 18, he says, how precious also are your thoughts to me, O God, how great is the sum of them. So how great is God's love? Listen, if I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. If you and I can imagine all of the sand of all of the oceans in the world, God's good thoughts towards you and me exceed the kernels of those sands and all of the oceans. What incredible love, what incredible mercy, what incredible kindness. And so when he says, draw near me, we always look at that passage and think this is an avoidance of judgment to draw near him. But God says this because he loves us. He wants to. He wants to be close to us. He wants to to make us shine with his glory. He wants us to endure us with his holy power. And he wants to love us and worship him. So when we say that we ought to seek his face, it is God's love that is drawing us. And so again, let me remind you that God's judgments are only his final attempt for us to be drawn close to him because we are a stubborn people. And I am a very, very stubborn man. I was born in East Germany in 1942. My father was shot between Moscow and Stalingrad at the time I was born. I never saw him. He never saw me. So why should I be thankful? Why should I think this is God's love? Well, he became my heavenly father and he's the father of orphans and of widows. Then there was the flight in the winter of 1945. My mother was a widow then. There were two children, the SS troops, the Nazis came, and they said, you have two hours to leave with your children. If you do not leave, we will shoot you. And my mother said, well, I have nowhere to go. I don't know what to do with two children, so shoot us. But I cannot leave. And then as she thought about it, within the next two hours, she realized she would be raped many times. She would be hurt deeply. And then she decided that she would try to save the children. So she gave her life for me, for my sister. She became my hero. And I mention that because an occasion later on happened that also shows that we are human and she was human and what happened in that. As we were refugees and we went over the River Oder, the bridge was blown up full with refugees. The German soldiers didn't take time to tell anyone they would blow up the bridge because they wanted to stop the advancing Russian armies. And because there was such a stream of refugees, they couldn't have stopped it anyhow. So I should have died. Why didn't I die? Is there a purpose and a hope for my life? Is there God's love? And then I came to Dresden with my mother on February 13th, 1945. Dresden was a city that was totally destroyed in the Second World War. Between 80,000 and 135,000 people died in those firestorms. God kept me alive. In comparison, in Hiroshima, 140,000 died with the atomic bomb. So the question is, why did God keep me alive? Why give him thanks? It is his great love. And then there was a train with 56 cattle cars. 55 were destroyed with bombs and fighter planes. And we were in the 56th car. So again, God had mercy. God is a God of love. And he saved my life. So give him thanks for whatever that you had to go through. I ended up in a refugee camp between Munich and Salzburg. And I started to die because of malnutrition and the cold. And by the way, I'm very, very thankful for the land of America. My mother went out on the street begging for my life. And she found an American soldier who came and gave his blood. Now she only spoke German. She didn't speak English. And American soldiers were very careful because of Nazis, underground Nazis, women and men. And how she got this man to give me blood, I don't know. I don't know how his blood type matched my blood type. It is the mercy and the love and the grace of God that I stand before you. Without him, there is no hope. Without him, there is no future. And you know, I mentioned before that my mother was also human. She was my hero. But at the age of 10 years, she misused me sexually. And that became a great, great burden in my future life. I suppressed it. And I said, this can never happen again. And when I suppressed it and I said, this can never happen again, I started to build a wall around this hurt young boy. And that wall stayed with me until the age of 55 years old. And I could not love people. When my daughters turned 10 years old, I could no longer hug them because these memories, these underlying memories prevented me from pulling them close because something might happen in my life that might hurt them. So you might say, well, how can he give God thanks for that? And it took me many, many years to understand that with my pride and the way I am, that God showed me that I can also love those that have been hurt, those with addictions, those that have been misused. And then as I grew up, I was terribly, terribly poor. My food was contaminated. And so we got worms. We watched the worm stands in our experiments. That's how poor we were. But God saved my life. It is his love that saved me. It is his love that carried me through. I'm going to jump ahead a number of years because time does not permit me to give you much more. You came to hear about the judgment of God unfolding in this country. But I want you to see God's love first before judgment, so that you understand how much he loves you. Now, in April of 1988, this is about 20 years after coming to Canada and becoming a Canadian citizen, I left my family, my wife and two daughters. I ended up living with a woman on the street for 18 years. But that woman was a better person than I was. So, when I said to you before, I honor you because you're all better than I am. I really do. This wasn't false humility. So, God had me run a large, large corporation of $900 billion in Europe. But I was addicted, proud, judgmental, over-controlling, selfish, looking out only for myself, looking to fulfill my desires and unable to love. I had built a white castle in myself, separating me from God and man. I was in a prison made of my own doing. And Satan uses that when we isolate ourselves, then Satan uses that to overthrow us and to use us for his purpose, not for God's purpose. Now, young people, that big corporation sounds good, money sounds good, but it has a zero eternal value. It means nothing. It means it's better to be a sinner saved by grace and to have this incredible eternal life. What a wonderful, wonderful thing this is. And God saved me in 2004 by a number of miracles. And then a couple of years later, he called me into full-time ministry. And I thought I was far too evil. How can God ever, ever, ever use a man like myself? It's not possible, God. And so I declined to declare that I was called of God. But then God brought different pastors into my life. He brought a Hispanic pastor into my life from the Baptist Convention in New Jersey. And that Hispanic pastor said, you are called of God and you are one that must do his will. And then as God had called me for revival, I thought, well, one day I better check on revival websites. And I was in New Jersey. I looked at the New Jersey websites and up came a revival website called revivalwallstreet.com, Pastor Bruce Berliner. And that was a Thursday afternoon. And I said, Lord, am I supposed to contact this man? What am I supposed to do? And then I didn't do anything. And the next morning at 7 a.m., I went to a man's prayer breakfast, 60 miles away from New York. And across from the table from me sat a man. And he said to me, good morning, pastor. And I said, good morning to him. But I'm not a pastor. And he looked at me and he said, yes, you are. You're called of God. And I got angry. I don't like it, you know, when people tell me these things. And I said to them, who are you? And he said, my name is Pastor Bruce Berliner from Wall Street Revival New York. And the Holy Spirit asked me to be here this morning. And I nearly fell off my chair. And then Pastor Bruce continued talking. And he said, I don't know why I'm here. I've got two churches to take care of. I've got a funeral this morning. I shouldn't be here at all. But I was drawn here by the Holy Spirit. And I was so afraid at that point of God, the fear of God came upon me. And I wasn't able to tell him then. I called him up two weeks later and we talked. And he then convinced me also that I must declare that God has called me, even though unworthy as I am, even though just a sinner saved by grace. So I give God thanks. And as he has called me into a revival ministry, I later on started a revival website, which is called RevivalUSACanada.org, RevivalUSACanada. And then the pastor of my church who asked me to become a preacher, he then promoted that I would stay with the church in New Jersey. I was initially rejected by immigration. And they asked me to leave the country in March of this year, of 2009. I then came under investigation by Homeland Security. Our church had to furnish all of its records. I told our pastor, please stand back. If it's too much of a problem, let us go another route. And he said, no, let the will of God be done. I will support you. And so here again, you can see the love of God for a fallen man. I should have died many times. I should have been dead. He should have struck me. Over those 18 years, I had two daughters praying for me for 18 years. They wouldn't give up on their fallen father. And so, dear brothers and sisters, if you have those that have turned from God, don't give up praying for them. Any young people here, don't give up praying for your parents. So now let us talk about this matter of judgment. And I've shown you the love of God through my life. But when God comes to a point of no return, he will use judgment to draw us unto himself. Each time the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, they were given into the hands of their enemies, the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Midianites, the Babylonians, and so on. Has God given the land of America into the hands of its enemies? In September 2009, the U.S. national debt hit $11.9 trillion. $11.9 trillion. This number is so big, I can't even explain to you how big it is. But perhaps to put some understanding to it, to service this debt costs $3.95 billion per day. $3.95 billion. This is like interest on a loan that you might take from a bank. You have to pay interest. And so our country must come up with this money every day in order to service this debt. The U.S. expects to borrow another $892 billion this year. Benjamin Franklin said, borrowing is soaring. If you are in debt, you are a slave to those that lend you money. You become a slave to financial matters. You become a slave to money because you must repay what you wanted because you wanted things, because you wanted to buy that house to live up to your neighbors. You wanted that car because you weren't satisfied with a 10-year-old car, but you had to have that new car and go into debt. And then you wanted that new television. You wanted that new furniture. You deserve that new house, you said. And so we are in debt, and the United States is in debt. The deficit this year by U.S.A. today was given at $1.2 trillion. Others are saying that it is as high as $1.8 trillion. To again give you a better understanding of that, the U.S.A. is underfunded in its current budget by 40 to 50 percent. So let us assume that you have a monthly budget of $2,000 for your house expenses, for your food, for your clothing, for everything that you need to pay, but your income is only $1,000. That is the scenario today of your federal government, that 40 to 50 percent is not funded in that budget. Now my question is how long would you last with that kind of a budget? Now the banks might support you for one year, two years, depending on how reputable you are. The U.S.A. also must borrow its money. How does it borrow its money? Well, it borrows its money from nations like China. It borrows its money like nations from Japan. It borrows money from Europe, and it borrows money from you. When you buy U.S. Treasury bonds, you are lending money to the American government. And so they have borrowed so far $11.3 trillion, and of that debt, China now holds $800 billion in U.S.A. Treasury securities. They may hold additional dollars, some say up to $2 trillion. But the figure that is given to us by the financial statistics is that $800 billion is held by China. If China, Japan, and Europe decline to lend further money to the United States of America for its continuing deficit, there will be a financial armageddon. When we borrow, we become slaves to the person we borrow from. The United Nations has lost confidence in the U.S. dollars. They want to replace this global currency with another type of currency. No one has arrived yet at a solution. But beloved, it presents a stage for a world leader also. It presents a stage for a world leader. To relieve some of the pressure, the U.S.A. is now printing money. China is alarmed by the U.S.A. printing money. What does this mean, printing money? Well, the money supply is based on the capability of a country to produce. There ought to be a balance between the money supply and the production of a given country. So when you print money beyond the productive capacity, beyond the output of your country, you create inflation. I've tried to write down a simple example here, and I would like to give you that on a 100 to 100 basis. So suppose we had 100 units of output, and suppose we had 100 dollars. That would mean one dollar for each unit of output. If currency is printed without economic value, and let's suppose we print an added 100 dollars, we now have 100 units of output, we have 200 units of dollars, 200 dollars on the other side. Before one dollar chased one unit of output, now two dollars chase one unit of output, and it has created inflation. China has started to sell the U.S. dollar. Everything is in place for a financial Armageddon. If God is giving the United States into the hands of its enemies in finances, then we will see a breakdown in the American monetary system. By the way, insiders are men who own stock in their companies. They're selling at a ratio of 31 to 1. Everyone that is buying stock in their company these days is balanced with 31 selling. Let me look at two other areas for a moment. We have a few moments time still. Iran is edging closer towards building a nuclear bomb. The clock is ticking as Israel is prepared to strike. Now Israel has an emergency Samson plan. What is the Samson plan? Well, this plan is based on the story of Samson in the Old Testament. Samson's eyes were gouged out by his enemy and his strength left him. But then as he was in prison and treading the wheat, his hair grew again and the strength of God returned to him. And then one day he was brought to the temple of Dagon, which is a false god by the Philistines. And as he was brought into this temple, he asked that his hands be put on the pillar that held this temple. And then he asked God for strength and he said, God, God, let me bring down this temple full with your enemies, with my enemies. And God committed him and gave him that strength. And so Samson brought down that temple of Dagon. He died, but the Philistines also died. And that is the Samson plan. If necessary, Israel will release all of its bombs, even so if it had to die in the course of it. So, beloved, is this a way that God will increase the war in the Middle East? We know that Israel won't be destroyed because we have scripture to tell us what happens with Israel. But we don't know what will happen in such a conflict. Let us look at another area. In security matters, is God giving the USA into the hands of its enemies? Is another 9-11 ready to unfold? Experts say something much worse will happen. There's an intelligence officer and a soldier by the name of Hill. He speaks fluently Arabic. He was formerly with the freedom fighters of Afghanistan, and he has met Osama bin Laden personally. He warned the USA of the 9-11 attack. He now says the next terrorist attack will involve suitcase nuclear bombs that will be detonated in small, low-flying, two-seater private airplanes. It could become an American Hiroshima. Has God given America into the hands of its enemies because of our sins? And I'm saying our sins, your sins, too, and my sins. No one is immune from what has happened in this country. You were here when the Bible was taken out of school. You were here when prayer was taken out of school. You are here with all of the babies that are being killed and that are laid on the altar of lust and burned. You say how terrible that the kings of old burned babies on the altar to another God, and that's what we are doing in our times. We are laying babies on the altar of lust, and we're killing them for the sake of the God of lust. And brothers and sisters, we all have a share in that. Is it not time for us to ask God to come in revival, to change us, for us to draw near to him? Because he will bring judgment. We will either come voluntarily, or he will try and draw us in judgment. Now, the suitcase bomb scenario is also supported by others. Suitcase nuclear bombs are missing in Russia. There are reports that such bombs have been smuggled via the Mexican- American border into the USA. In Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, materials were stolen suitable for a dirty bomb. Washington and Ottawa, Canada, the two capitals of America and Canada, have quietly prepared for dirty bombs and nuclear attacks. They have had nuclear exercises in each of those cities. Not highly publicized, I might say. Recently, 50,000 Muslims converged on Washington, praying to their Allah to give them the United States of America. A missionary leader, a friend of mine, visited this summer in the Middle East. His friends in the Middle East, non-Christians, are begging him to immediately leave the USA and to bring his family to the Middle East for safety. They said, we are willing to help. We're not Christians, but if you want to leave, we will help you. So, what steps do we need to take? Do we need to cry out for revival? Do we really need to mean it with all of our hearts, our soul, our mind, and our strength? Because God loves us, you know, and I don't know whether it's too late already. I don't know whether there is time at this point. The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil ways and reform your ways and deeds, but they will say it's hopeless, for we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act in accordance to the stubbornness of his evil heart. If we do that, beloved sisters and brothers, judgment will fall. Not the fire of God, but judgment will fall. So, beloved, let us go the other road. Let us plead with God. Let us reach out to God. Let us tell him that we love him because he loves us, for him to let the fire fall. Only he can return these scenarios at this time point. Now, some of you say, well, a loving God won't let this happen. Would you please turn with me in the book of Revelation to Revelation 9, 13-18. Revelation 9, 13-18. We are not yet in the times of Jacob's trouble. We are before the time of Jacob's trouble, but will God judge? Yes. Yes. So, let's take a look at this passage. The book of Revelation 9, 13-18. I'm reading from a New King James Version. Revelation 9, 13-18. Then the six angels sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the six angels who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Euphrates is a great river in the Middle East. And in verse 15, so the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill, how much? A third, a third of mankind. Now, the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million, and I heard the number of them. By the way, China has 1.3 billion people. India has 1.1 billion people. They can easily muster an army of 200 million soldiers. This has never happened in the past. Only in the last decade has this prophecy been fulfilled, if you will, because they can bring about an army of 200 million. And in verse 17, and thus I saw the horses in the vision. Those sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouth came fire, smoke, and brimstone. And when the people, when the apostle John who wrote this, saw this vision 2,000 years ago, he had to describe it in words of his time. But we know what fire, smoke, and brimstone looks like, and this is what it looks like as described in this text. And then in 18, by these three plagues, only three, a third of mankind was killed by the fire, and the smoke, and the brimstone which came out of their mouth. I came through the Second World War. In the Second World War, 70 million were killed. That's not even close to 2.2 billion people that will be killed, because let us assume this happened today. We have 6.6 billion people in this world. Divided by three, one-third, would be 2.2 billion people killed in the judgments of God. Who are you or who am I that we are exempt from such judgments? Only by the grace of God, only if we have Christ in our lives will we have that eternal life. And so we hope that we will be raptured and taken out of this world before these things happen. But when I get back to these numbers of 2.2 billion people, the United States has 308 million people. So in those judgments, more than seven times the number of USA citizens would be killed in those three judgments alone. On 9-11, 2,993 people died when four airplanes were hijacked by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists. We watched in horror as two airplanes hit the towers. We watched in horror as men jumped to their death as not to be burned alive. Now, dear brothers and sisters, God is a God of love. But when he comes to the end of our stubbornness and our sin, he says, I'm going to draw you, and I'll draw you with judgments if I have to. I will draw you with judgments. God says he's not mocked. The Holy Spirit came to convict us of sin, God's righteousness, and judgment. If you're here today and you have never yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, please don't be deceived. I ask you to accept the Son of God into your life today before you walk out of this auditorium. And I ask you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. This is what Scripture says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Believe on the Son of God. If you're a fallen Christian here today, will you repent? Will you turn around? Will you see God in a new way, asking him for strength, for faith that you can live the way that we ought to live? If you're here a Christian and you walk righteously before the Lord, then you also have a call upon your life. Because when Jesus left, he had come to seek and save which was lost. He left that task with you and I. Will you start and do what he has called you to do? If God has moved your heart and called you to reach a nation, God has equipped you and given you the capabilities to reach a nation. Reach them in love. Reach them in judgment. Will you give God thanks for your past? Doesn't matter what happened. Will you give God thanks for your present? Doesn't matter what happens. Will you give God thanks for the future with what must happen? And young people, these are extraordinary times. But don't be discouraged because great difficulties bring great, great opportunities. And Daniel 12 3 says, those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness shall shine like the stars forever and ever. So become a bright and shining star for the cause of God. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Judgment is God's final attempt to draw us. God said, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. If you draw near to God, if you seek his face, he will draw near to you. Thank you and may the Lord have mercy on us in this country destined for judgment. Thank you. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/mvGrEHoZZuk.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/edgar-reich/revival-and-the-economy/ ========================================================================