Stepping Into Revival预览

Trust Fall

Right now, our generation takes more antidepressants than any other generation. We walk around with so much anxiety and stress. This world needs a revival of joy. It needs a revival of laughter. It starts with having fun together.

I'm not even asking you to get together and have Bible studies. I think that will naturally flow out of this. I'm asking you to get together and laugh. Open your homes. Go out for coffee. Go see movies together. Build community because unity cannot happen without community.

I'll never forget my mission trip to China. We were laughing together, singing songs together, and beat boxing. It was funny. It was ridiculous. We were laughing, and guess what? Everybody likes that.

An atheist sat next to us on the subway in Hong Kong. She had been watching us a little while and then came up to us and said, "You guys are having so much fun together. Who are you guys?" I said, "We're Christians." She was like, "Whoa, I've never seen Christians like this." She was shocked and asked, "Christians have fun?" I responded, "Yeah, we do. I'm sorry that you haven’t seen that from Christians."

God wants us laughing together, enjoying each other. He doesn’t want us to just tolerate each other, but to loosen up.

God doesn’t want us to be stiff-necked, religious Pharisees. He wants us to be disciples that love one another, having fun together. Because when we build up a joyful community, it is contagious. It is revival waiting to happen.

Church is exciting! Jesus is cool! David killed giants. Joshua made the sun stand still. Moses miraculously won a war by raising a staff for two days. Solomon was basically the “Gandalf” of the bible.

These amazing, awesome things wouldn’t have happened without God. Let’s get people excited about who God is and what He is doing!

God wants us to be disciples that love one another and love each other so much that we're having fun together—that's spiritually attractive, and that's attractive Christianity.

Unity can be scary because unity requires trust. You can’t build unity without trust. It is a vulnerable thing. Any time one builds relationships, it's always going to be a risk.

Have you ever gone to camp? Remember the “trust fall”? You stand up an elevated platform and people stand behind you. You have to fall into their arms and trust that they will catch you. I’m asking you to “trust fall” into a community of believers.

There are a few people in my life that I trust. I can trust them with anything. They know where the hidden key is to get into my house. They can come in. They have refrigerator rights. They don’t even have to ask me.

God wants us to be in such a strong community with each other, where open trust is commonplace. The only way to get to this point is to get real with one another. We need to create space to be real and to get down to the nitty-gritty. We should be able see the dirt in each other’s lives, and continue to love in spite of it.

Unusual camaraderie is not an accident in a church. It happens with people who are intentionally relational. The Bible says weep with those who weep. Laugh with those who laugh. Celebrate with those who are celebrating. Sympathize with those that are going through pain.

God wants to bring revival in and through your life, but it all begins with trust: trust in God and trust in your life-giving relationships.