America Too Proud to Kneel — E.A. Johnston

The Chinese Church's Humility in Prayer

I have a photo taken by a friend of mine who was at a prayer meeting at a church whose guest was the Chinese evangelist Brother Yun. Brother Yun wrote the wonderful book, The Heavenly Man, and if you've never read that book, friends, go out and get a copy of it at any cost.

The photo that my friend took on his iPhone is startling as it reveals the condition of the American church as compared to the church in China. My friend took a picture of a prayer meeting in progress at a church in the Midwest and in the photo Brother Yun is on his knees with his face in his hands and he is weeping.

The American Christians are all standing, many in casual stances as they pray. The photo captures a striking difference between the church in the West as opposed to the church in the East and I'd like to draw out several distinctions for us today, friends, between American Christianity and Chinese Christianity.

Elijah's Persistent Prayer During Judgment

My message is entitled, America Too Proud to Kneel, for it reflects the heart of the American church in our land today. My text can be found in the book of 1 Kings in chapter 18. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 42 through 46. Allow me to read that striking passage of scripture to us at this time and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. So Ahab went up to eat and drink.

Allow me to pause here, friends, for an observation. I believe that old King Ahab is a good picture of the apostate American church, more eager to eat and drink than to be on her knees in prayer like the prophet Elijah.

Now let's continue with our text. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. Let me pause here again, friends. Here is a humble man of God on his knees before the Almighty.

And that's exactly the photo I have of Brother Young, bowed in humility and weeping before the Lord while the proud American church stands casually at his side. Now let me continue once more. And said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea.

And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go again seven times. Allow me to pause here again, friends. The mentioning of the seven times speaks of the importunity that the prophet of God exercises in his desperate prayer on behalf of the land, a land which is suffering from a powerful drought from the hand of God in a remedial judgment against a strange sinning people.

The drought is making the crops lie waste. The cattle are dying in the fields. It's a desperate condition across the land. And what does the king do? He goes up to eat and drink. And that's the picture of the American church today, which exists in a land that is in remedial judgment from the hand of God.

Things are growing more severe each and every day. Every day, someone new is gunned down by violence. Our cities are laid waste with blood in the streets. Our youth are addicted to sex and drugs, and our politicians promote evil in the land.

The country lies in moral decay, and the church goes up to eat and drink rather than fall on her knees and humble herself in an unfortunate prayer and weep over the sins of the land. That's why we're not seeing revival, friends.

The American church is too proud to kneel. Now let's get back to our text. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, behold, there rises a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand. And he said, go up, say unto Ahab, prepare that chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

I will stop there. Oh, what a wonderful picture this is of revival, friends, how the prophet of God bows himself in humility before his Lord. And through desperate, unfortunate, prevailing prayer, he receives an answer from on high.

The sky grows dark and a wind comes and the heavens burst forth with an abundance of rain to bring healing to the parched and dry land. Oh, friends, how desperately we need revival in our day. But will the people of God in the West do what is necessary to move God in heaven?

Revival and the Contrast Between Western and Chinese Christianity

And here lies the vast distinction between the church in the West and the church in China. And allow me to make the following contrast, friends, between the two as visualizing that photo of Brother Young at the American prayer meeting.

Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In China, he is building his church with those who have counted the cost and understand that persecution and suffering is part and parcel of following a crucified Christ.

Jesus has built his church in China for no denomination can lay claim to it. No man can boast of it, for Christ alone has built his church. And all we can do is stand back and say and wonder, this is the Lord's doing.

It is marvelous in our eyes. In the West, we have grieved God's manifest presence away from our sanctuaries with our arrogance and pride and corporate sins to such a sad degree that Ichabod hangs on many church doors advertising the fact that the glory has departed.

We in the West have a form of religion but not the power thereof. In China, the underground church is imbued with power from above. We in the West listen to a sermon. The Chinese live the sermon. To illustrate this point, I will relate a story about an American pastor who was allowed access to an underground church in China.

He preached several messages back to back. And when he was through, his Chinese hearers began to sing the following song. Oh, we don't listen to sermons. We don't listen to sermons. And the American pastor thought to himself, why in the world are they singing that?

Until they sang the next few verses. Oh, we don't listen to sermons. We live the sermons. We live the sermons. In the West, we worship in lavish churches with expensive sound systems. The Chinese gather in barns and caves and worship in prison.

America's Opportunity for Repentance and Revival

We do everything we can to be as carpal as we can. They do everything they can to live uncomfortably for him. East and West, two extremes. The East can teach the West how to live on her knees. I really believe, friends, that America is being given an opportunity by God to repent and turn back to him.

I believe we have a window of opportunity here before this nation fills up the cup of her iniquity to the degree where all that is left for God to do is to destroy us as a nation. The church in America is being given an opportunity as well.

But I fear we are missing this opportunity because the church in America, for the most part, is too proud to get on her knees and do the following, and that is to humble herself, repent of her pride, repent of her sins so she can be an instrument of great blessing to this sin-sick nation of ours.

That's the main reason why America is not seeing revival. The American church is too proud to get on her knees. Listen to what God declares in his written word from 2 Chronicles chapter 7 and verses 13 and 14.

And you tell me, friends, if there's not a great similarity between our passage about Elijah and old Ahab and our land and the church today. We are living in a time of spiritual deadness in the church and a time when the church is self-absorbed, self-sufficient, and self-reliant.

The average churchgoer shows nothing but apathy and indifference to the decadent society in which they live. It is a dry time, friends. You can't deny it. The land lies in moral waste, where government officials call evil good and good evil, and the church lies in spiritual apathy and self-indulgence like old Ahab.

All she cares about is rising up to eat and drink. Listen to what God declares in his holy word. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let me ask you, friends, does our land need healing? Listen, friends, the church in China is not too proud to get on her face and cry out to God for the sins of her land. The church in China is growing by leaps and bounds with true conversions and a holy ghost revival.

Spiritual Apathy, the Narrow Way, and Coming Persecution

The church in the West is in decay, both numerically and spiritually. There are more lost church members today than any other time in this nation's history. The gospel's been so watered down and Christianity's been so watered down that few today in the West know what it means to take up their cross and follow Jesus along the narrow way.

But the fact remains that the American church will have something in common with the church in China, for persecution is on the way to the American church. It's already here. Soon more Christians will be viewed as enemies of the state and in prison for their testimony for Christ.

When will the church in the West humble herself and fall on her face in nights of desperation and repentance and prayer? How can you call yourself a church if the carpet in your sanctuary is not wet with the tears of brokenhearted saints weeping over the sins of the land and crying out to God to come save the lost in their community?

Like I said, we in the West listen to a sermon. The Chinese live the sermon on their knees. What kind of major catastrophe must this nation face before it turns back to God? How much longer will the people of God continue to live selfishly for themselves while the nation falls into moral and social chaos?

It's spinning out of control now. What kind of national tragedy will have to take place for the churches to be full again like they were back on 9 -11? 9 -11 was a wake-up call, but a fear. We all went back to sleep, and the church sleeps the sleep of death.

Heaven help us all.