Radio Interview From Sudan Eritrea Border - Part 3 — Kevin Turner

This is Sid Roth saying, I have a vision. Now is the set time to blow the trumpet in Zion. Shalom, Mishpochah. Shalom, family. Mishpochah is a Hebrew word. It means family. We're the Mishpochah, the family with a Jewish heart, made up of Jewish and non-Jewish people that are one new man in Messiah Yeshua, Messiah Jesus.

Getting ready, Mishpochah, to blow the grandest shofar on the grandest trumpet in Zion. And we want everyone everywhere to hear the good news. We want everyone everywhere to be red hot for the Messiah.

I have on the telephone Kevin Turner. Caught up with him at his base just outside of Sudan, Africa. And he is president of Strategic World Impact. He works in three areas, war zones, disaster areas, and areas that Christians are being persecuted in.

Why the American Church Is Not Growing

He wrote an article, and that's why I called him. The article is called, Why Isn't the American Church Growing? Kevin, why isn't? I mean, when we see other parts of the world, it's growing so fast, we can't keep track of the number of people that are being saved and radically discipled.

But here in America, the church really isn't growing.

Why? Well, in fact, that might astound people is that I speak in churches all over the United States, what is the largest Christian country in the world? And of course, a lot of people say the United States.

In the numbers right now, the country with the largest amount of Christians in it is Communist China. The largest Christian. Where preaching is restricted and you can't hear legally the gospel until you're at the age of 18.

And they have the largest population of Christians. And the reason that I believe, is I've worked in almost 100 nations. And here's what I've seen over and over again. Calamity, calamity strikes. We're no longer concerned about the mortgage.

Persecution Purifies While Prosperity Pollutes

We're no longer concerned about the lawn care. We're instantly absorbed with one important thing. And it teaches us. And there's another principle that I use all the time as I'm preaching and it's this, that persecution purifies and prosperity often pollutes.

American Christianity and the Idolatry of Material Blessings

Well, would you define 21st century American Christianity as polluted?

It's hot tub religion at its best. When Christians speak of their blessings in America, they point to things. They say, look how God has blessed me. I have this, I have this. I've got this boat, I've got this lake home.

And it's this whole thing of having heaven now versus living your life. You know, there were two young men who started one of the largest mission revolutions that we had seen since the disciples. They were two young Moravian men.

They were with a man named Count Zinzendorf in Northern Germany. They experienced a massive revival. God had so touched and quickened their hearts. And these two young men became aware that in the West Indies, which would be modern day Jamaica, that there were 5 ,000 black slaves on an island that were owned by a godless man who said publicly, no Christian, no man of God will ever step foot on my island and pervert the mind of my slaves with this foolish Christianity.

The Moravian Missionaries’ Costly Love and Surrender

When these two young men heard that, they were cut to the core. They prayed, committed themselves and did the unthinkable. There was no way they could access that island except one way. They sold themselves into slavery.

Simply to be a love slave for Jesus. The man was such a miser that they actually had to use the money from the sale of their bodies to pay their ship fare to get there. Within 20 years, had sent out more missionaries than all of Christendom before that time.

Surrendering to Jesus Beyond Theological Debate

We come to the place of utter resignation and say, Jesus, you're the Lord. Take me where you want me to go. That's when you're ready for a revolution of power.

You know, it really clarifies your theology. Here in America, we strain at a gnat and swallow a camel and argue about different jots and tittles of theology. But where the rubber meets the road is what you're talking about.

More than just some pie in the sky theology. And believe me, I study the word of God. I have a 11 ,000 volume library. I love to read. I've studied theology and to study theology is to know God. And, but when our aim becomes simply knowledge rather than to know him, it's when we run askew.

And that's where we have swivel chair theologians in America sitting in ivory towers, handing out edicts to the people down below. And we're producing cookie cutter Christians that have never had an experience with Christ.

And this is the reason I believe with all my heart that the church isn't growing because they have no raison de vivre. They have no reason for living. My passionate heart cry is that the church once again would say, Jesus, I sell myself to be your love slave.

I give you my life. The man who discipled me, Leonard Ravenhill, said this. He said, Kevin, you lay your life down on the altar and let God burn you up. And he said, he'll do more with the ashes of your life than you could if you possess the whole thing.

Persecution as the Fire That Reveals Jesus

Kevin, what will it take for our version of Christianity here in the West to change?

Leonard Ravenhill, he said that in America, we will either have, and then he said, or perhaps we'll end up having Pentecost in the prison camp. I believe that Jesus loves America so much that he'll let us suffer persecution.

I believe he loves us so much that he will take us through the fire. And I tell people all the time, remember, when the three Hebrew children were thrown into the fire, it's then that the pagan ungodly world looked in and said, hey, who's the fourth man?

If we wanna see Jesus revealed to the world, then we will be willing to go through the fire, not around it. And this is how we become Jesus with skin on. This is how we, you know, people talk in theology, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.

In other words, he was that thing which took away the anger of God. And his cross became that propitiation for us. Our cross, our cross is for propagation, to get out. It's to lay your life down. It's so that people know that Jesus is alive and well and he rose again from the dead.

This makes my heart leap.

Repentance and Brokenness in a Prosperous Culture

Obviously, persecution could end up being a two-edged sword, a blessing as well as persecution. But what about someone that says, I wanna be like Kevin, but there's no persecution going on in this country.

I don't wanna just be persecuted to be persecuted. How do I get on fire like him?

Well, to be honest with you, I hate to use the term, I think everything's been unlocked. If there's anything that I miss and repent, you see what happens when you

How are you broken? Wait a second. How can you be broken and repentant when you have everything your heart desires that's purchased with money? When we're living in this culture, I turn on TV, I see homosexuality in my face.

I see sex outside of marriage in my face. I see abortion, women's rights, they call it. What about the child's rights in my face? We see it so much. I'm wondering if we're not growing so used to it and saying, this is just the way it is.

How's it going to change?

I see that to a world that mocks God and raises their fist and utter defiance of Jesus. And in the morning, when I wake up, I look in the mirror and you know what? I realize what I'm capable of without Jesus.

And it breaks me. You know, there's an old hymn that's my savior, lest I die. Renewal is simply this, realizing who you are without Jesus and realizing what you've become in him. And that breaks me. Because when I realized that God left the glory of heaven, Psalms 113 nails it for me.

Rending Hearts Through Repentance

It's a testimony of my life. Who's like unto the Lord, our God, who looks down upon the poor and the needy and he lifts them out of the ash heap and the dunghill. And he sets them at a table with princes, the princes of his people.

If God could literally leave heaven and think of this, God had one son and he buried him on the mission field. One son and he buried him on the mission field. God would just apprehend us with the spirit of brokenness.

And once again, we'd rend our hearts and not our garments. Is that how we should pray? For the spirit of brokenness? How should we pray, Kevin? I just say, read the word and see what he's done for you.

And if that doesn't break you, I don't know that anything will. A good old fashioned baptism of repentance is what the church needs. We need to repent of our big churches. And I'm not saying that to have a large church is wrong.

What I'm saying is to focus on that is wrong. I'm not saying that to have money is wrong. It takes me money to live here in Africa. I'm not saying that those things are wrong in and of themselves. What I'm saying is that anything that takes your focus off the lamb of God becomes sin.

Anything.

I have to believe here in the West, it's idolatry is the big sin.

Yes, it is. It's the golden cow of materialism. We've fallen down at the altar of materialism and we've worshiped and we have forsaken the God of Israel. And it grieves me. And I'll tell you what grieves me most when I see it in my own heart.

You know what's amazing? We have these huge, beautiful buildings with perfect sound systems, the mood lighting, the carpeted aisles. And yet I meet God in a mud hut somewhere in Afghanistan where a few people who used to be Muslims now call him the name of Jesus and they bury their face in the dirt because the glory of God comes down.

Kevin, we're out of time. I want to pick up right here on tomorrow's broadcast. Mishpochah. Kevin did a special cassette. We call it Kevin's Cassette. Are you lukewarm? Are you praying, God, make me like Kevin?

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