Welcome to
Zion Bread of Life Christian Church

Sunday, 5th May 2024

Rev Daniel Xi An Poon

What is revival? In the original scripture, revival means to be raised up from the dead. If there is no death, then there is no revival. If we want to have revival, then we must first experience death. Why does God want us to have the revival? Because it’s difficult for us to see blessings and it’s easy for us to see curses. We can so easily think about the things people say or do to hurt us and complain about things that don’t go well for us. It’s the sins Adam and Eve committed in the beginning, by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and we become judgmental. Therefore we need revival, we must first die to our old self, then we can rise up together with Jesus Christ.

1. To Know , To Understand God 要認識,認識神

Hosea 6:1-3 “Come, and let us return to the Lord; or He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth.”

Do we really know God? Our definition of ‘know’ is very shallow, it’s like we thought we know a person, but we only know one aspect of them. So how well do we know God? Who is God in our lives? Do we see Him as a God giving us challenges and telling us to do this and that? When God told Moses to cross the Red Sea, He didn’t tell Moses how, He only told him to go. People saw Moses put the rod in the Red Sea, and the Red Sea parted, but they failed to recognise the almighty power of God behind parting the Red Sea.

God is love, God is kindness, we may be afraid of God, we may be angry with God, but seldom we see the goodness of God. We can all remember how our parents and our authority hurt us, but we don’t often realise how hard it is for our parents to provide for us and to raise us up. We carry the hurt all our lives, we hold onto the things and people that hurt us, and we don’t know why people hurt us, we don’t really know our parents, we don’t really know our authority, and we don’t really know God. The devil wants us to accept the statement of us being hurt, and to hold our grudge all our lives.

Our strength is from God, only when we receive His strength, then we can forgive and forget. We must first know and understand God, He wants us to receive His blessings, He doesn’t want to hurt us or to judge us. He comes to heal and to save us. When will God judge? When He returns, and He will judge the world together with us. God created us on this world for a purpose, to have a relationship with God, then to walk out, to disciple the nations and to preach the Gospel. God wants us to walk out of our comfort zone. Do we know God’s heart for us?

2. When We Are Lost, God Shines 人迷失神光照

Hosea 6:4-10 “O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and your judgments are like light that goes forth. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But like men they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me. Gilead is a city of evildoers and defiled with blood. As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem; surely they commit lewdness. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: There is the harlotry of Ephraim; Israel is defiled.”

It’s easy for us to become lost. Because we tend to walk in our own path, use our own understanding and knowledge to make choices, then when we lose track of where God is going, we go in our own way. And we become lost. In Hosea 6, it talks about Ephraim and Gilead. When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God appointed Ephraim and Gilead as the cities of refuge. In these cities, there were priests, there were elders, and God’s presence was in there. Everyone entered the cities of refuge would receive mercy and kindness.

But in Hosea 6, people didn’t feel love and acceptance in Ephraim or Gilead, instead they experienced robbery and murder. God established churches so we can be loved and accepted, so we can receive kindness and mercy. But is this how we feel when we come to church? Is this how others feel when they come to church? In the city of refuge, people committed crimes by accident, they didn’t hurt others on purpose, and they could hide in the city of refuge to find peace. We are accepted by God, we can find comfort in God’s church, but we must truly repent, to know our sins, and to ask for forgiveness.

3. Return, Change Direction, Enter Harvest 歸回轉向進入豐收

Hosea 6:11 “Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you, when I return the captives of My people.”

God is faithful, He tells us not to give up. He knows our weakness and failures, but He also promised us harvest if we return and change direction back to the path He appointed for us. Jesus also talked about t