Jason McKnight

As we round the corner after Thanksgiving (still full from the feasting and thankful for our blessings), we come into the final lap of 2008. Right before the finish line is the biggest holiday on our calendars: Christmas. What a transformation Christmas brings: we gather with family, we redecorate our homes, we have special church services, we sing special songs, we give gifts, we cook feasts, we party and we are even allowed to greet strangers with a smile and good wishes! Truly this is a special cultural event!

As the people of God, we fully grasp the meaning of Christmas, even if it is misplaced at times in the hustle and bustle. We know it’s about God’s rescue mission to earth, “peace on earth, good will to men”, the “rising sun” coming to us from heaven, as Zechariah sang, to lead us into the path of peace.

To me, one of the most moving Christmas hymns is O Holy Night. The tune is stirring and the words bring tears to my eyes. Allow me to bring to mind just one line: “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” How long was the world pining for help? How long was it mired in sin, prone to error? Longing for a thrill of hope? Too long. Even up to today.

How many of our friends, co-workers, neighbors, classmates and family are pining for something more out of life? How many of them are hungry for food that satisfies, for drink that quenches thirst, for the Gift of Gifts that surpasses even a flat screen at Christmas! What would it be like if he appeared in their days this Christmas? Might their soul, at long last, feel its worth?

What a thought – “the soul felt its worth.” There is a God-given dignity and value in each and every human soul. A dignity and value that is corroded by sin’s cancer, imprisoned by the Enemy’s dominion, and frittered away by our own stupidity when left to ourselves.

What would it be like for the soul to feel its worth? It would be life and peace. It would be generosity and hope. It would be forgiveness and goodwill, gentleness and kindness, honesty and contentment, conviction and love, strength and self-control! That’s what happens when He appears in a life, in a community, in a nation.

How will souls around us feel their worth? How will he appear in Eastern North Carolina this Christmas and in 2009? Through you and me—the body of Christ. I read Garth Rosell’s account, The Surprising Work of God, which details the amazing revival and awakening across the US in the 1940s and ‘50s. It relates the friendship of an anointed evangelist, Billy Graham, and a faithful and visionary pastor, Harold John Ockenga. From 1936 to 1969, Ockenga pastored the venerable Park Street Church in Boston, just down the hill from the gold-domed Statehouse. During that time, he and Billy became great partners in the work of the Lord – founding together, among other things, Christianity Today (1956) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (1969)

On New Year’s eve, 1949, Ockenga invited Graham to preach in Boston to the youth there. What followed was an amazing outpouring of God’s Spirit throughout New England. Between January and April (when Billy came back for four weeks of meetings) 10,000 people gave their lives to Christ. The revival and awakening spread from there throughout the US and around the world. It’s really an amazing account of God’s sovereign grace redeeming those who long lay in sin and error pining.

Brothers and Sisters, I think it’s time for us to pray with eager expectancy for another work of revival and awakening such as we have never before seen. If the events of the last 3 months have brought anything to the fore, it’s that the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ is our only hope. If these last 5 years have taught us anything, it’s that God uses surprising events and people to accomplish his purposes. What if the next Great Awakening started in Kinston? What if we got to be on the front lines of a explosion of grace?

Rosell records that during the 1950 meetings in Boston, Billy Graham laid out 4 conditions for revival of the church: Repentance, prayer, unity and obedience to the Word (pp.135-6). Repentance involves our true sorrow for our sins, a willingness to renounce them (let’s not pretend we’re repenting if we say “sorry” but don’t make any changes!), confessing our sins both to God and to someone else, and a genuine faith and trust in Christ.

Billy’s second condition for revival is prayer. “If Christians would put everything second to prayer… we will see a revival in [this city] greater than anything the city has known…” (p.136). This surely still holds true today, doesn’t it? Keep on asking, seeking, knocking, because if we’re bold, God is willing (Luke 11). Here is the embarrassing part: do I put everything second to prayer? Frankly, do I put anything second to prayer? What would God do in our midst as more and more people joined in the Thursday morning hospital prayer group (6:30am, Oxford room) or the Monday morning prayer group at Grace (10am, Gathering Hall), or the several other groups throughout this city. What do you put second to prayer?

Thirdly, unity among the body. On this level, we are experiencing some of God’s grace in this city: Erasing the Lines, the Association of Congregations, Kinston Men’s Fraternity, The Gate are all building bridges (through the key people involved, like Lee Parker, for instance, who serves as the AOC secretary and a helper at The Gate and a prayer walker through the city… all because of a desire for a spiritual awakening to change this city!). There’s more to do – but there is a great start. Watch for ways and initiate ways for us to come together! Also, within Grace – don’t let gossip, back-biting, bitterness or hurt feelings gain a foothold. Let’s keep short accounts covered in grace.

Finally, study of and obedience to the Word. We have been going very slowly through Ephesians over the last 6 weeks, because we are plumbing the depths of God’s purposes and will, so that we can “Walk Worthy of our Calling.” What do you do when you get home? Do you ask God to change you in one way from that morning’s text? Do you ask him to remove your heart of stone and give you his new heart and his new Spirit in greater measure?

Repentance, prayer, unity and obedience. Billy Graham’s keys to revival from the midst of the greatest revival of the last century. Of course, over all of this is the Spirit of God. We can’t fabricate revival. But, don’t you think God is just waiting for us to live into the preparatory conditions for him to send his Spirit in a super-special way? Think about it: if you were God, and you’ve already given your Son for our sins, why would you withhold your Spirit when your people are following your pathway?

What about it, Brothers and Sisters? Let’s make this Christmas and 2009 the time when we long for, seek after and prepare ourselves for revival (through repentance, prayer, unity and obedience). It’s how the world’s soul will feel it’s worth. It’s how He will appear, and bring “a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious day.”

Oh, may that new and glorious day of Christ’s kingdom break into life after life after life through us and our joyful and faithful discipleship!

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