Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question is Revival A vibe this is

prompted by a New York Times article by

Lauren Jackson that actually quite a few

of you sent me about the stemming of the

so-called religious decline in America

uh various articles over the last few

years have made the case that America's

spirituality was declining people were

leaving churches distancing themselves

from religion but according to Miss

Jackson that is changing people are no

longer leaving their churches or their

religions in mass in fact at present 92%

of Americans say they hold to spiritual

beliefs including 83% of people saying

they believe in God or some kind of

universal spirit and you're seeing this

in more and more cultural places

politics uh pop culture references even

the tech industry where one billionaire

Mogul after another is starting to

represent and Advance his or her

spiritual cause and this has been the

motivation for some enthusiasm those of

you that sent me the article Senate to

me celebrating that spirituality is no

longer declining I actually am a part of

a few text threads where pastors were

celebrating this uh and believe it or

not I'm going to go the other way on

this and say actually I'm a little

concerned about this now first of all

let me say this Trends are just that

they're Trends uh things rise and fall

in their popularity but the Bible

reminds us in passages like Hebrews 13

that Jes Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday today and forever the gospel

moves forward the kingdom Advance

advances God is constant in fact one way

of reading the book of Revelation is a

lot of crazy things are going to happen

between now and when the world ends but

at the end Jesus wins so Trends are

Trends but I never want us to ride the

wave of them too much certainly as an

American I would like our country to do

better more than worse I'd like us to be

more interested in God than less

interested uh but I believe deeply in

the resiliency of the Gospel remember

Matthew 16 Jesus says that the Gates of

Hell will not Prevail against his church

that's all I need no matter what the

trends say Jesus threw down the gauntlet

but here's the thing spirituality is not

the same thing as Clarity it's not the

same thing as Truth uh the fact that 92%

of Americans hold spiritual beliefs or

83% believe in God or some kind of

universal spirit is not in and of itself

a net positive for example if I went to

Saudi Arabia I would find that a lot of

people there believe in God but they

believe in the god of Islam not the god

of the Bible that belief in God in and

of itself is not a good thing for them

and it is not a sign of any kind of

Revival Jesus said it this way in John

14:6 I am the way the truth and the life

no one gets to the father but by me in

line so-called on the day of judgment uh

if one person in line has no faith in

God and one person has faith in any God

other than Jesus Christ both are headed

towards the same outcome on the day of

judgment so you might be feeling good

about the increase in spirituality but I

would just argue this the world needs

Clarity they need answers that's what

Peter meant in 1 Peter 3 when he says we

need to be ready to give a defense of

the things we believe to articulate

truth this is what the apostles were

praying for in Acts 4 when they're

saying in the in the face of persecution

God give us courage to keep going listen

even if the people around you are

spiritually minded spiritual mindedness

must ultimately lead to saving faith in

Jesus Christ what this article should

cause us to believe is that people are

more open than ever to actually having

spiritual conversations you don't have

to assume the people around you don't

want to talk about God they might very

well be just as interested as you are in

spiritual things so bring it up be

specific point with Clarity to Jesus

because spirituality on its own means

nothing it's just another form of

rebellion but spirituality that leads to

Jesus saves people and changes the world

let's be Clarity in the midst of a

confused albeit spiritual World hey

thanks so much for watching this episode

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