Preaching Revival Meetings

It is ironic sometimes we use different terms to describe our meetings. One is this concept of revival meeting or kebangunan rohani or pembangunan rohani as it was called for the two-meeting series on Saturday, one in the morning and one at night. Sometimes the last thing one feels is revival either for the lack of turnout or response before and after the sermon. Saturday morning session is especially difficult as most people relax or go out for recreation or activity after a long week at work. Even many teachers have to return to School for extra curricular activities. So when I am scheduled to preach on a Saturday morning I have to pray especially hard for this men’s meeting (persekutuan Wira) knowing that getting 50 men to come would be a success. But praise God about 90 men turned up and at night possibly cloae to 200 men with a few women. 20 years ago I would expect double the numbers at night but this is the sign of the times when men especially men experience famine of the hearing of God’s Word as the prophet Amos said.
But whatever the numbers I preached my heart out by God’s help and the first session made a deep impression on the heaters. The District Superintendent who came for in the morning and came at night and he said that the sermons blessed him mightily that he had to come again at night. One man who attended the night’s seesion returned on Sunday and told me he could not get enough of God’s Word and that encouraged me greatly. The night sermon went well but I did not especially feel His power because the waiting time between the end of the first service at 11am to 8pm was a long time and I stayed at the pastor’s house. There must be at least 10 times outage and current was intermittent. I was sweating in the room and there was not much to do around the church when there was no meeting. I think that affected my rest and preparations for the night service. It just goes to show providing good facility to rest and to regather strength. I could not even find a table in my room where I love to read and write out notes for my preaching. But God knows everything and when I asked the church to respond I was surprised that more than half stood up. I expected 10 or 20 but more than 100 responded. I preached about a man after God’s heart (Acts 13) and Psalm 40 and explained what it is to love God and to do all His will like David did.