RevivALL for Eternity

Amen. Good morning, everybody.
It’s such a privilege and a blessing and an honor for me, my wife, my daughter, and my son-in-law to be here with you this morning. The Boston Church is one of the most inspiring groups of people that I think has brought so much inspiration to many countries around the world.

If you’re just visiting today, you didn’t walk into a local church. You’ve stepped into a fellowship that has a heart and a dream to change the world.

I have slides—are they going to work? Yes, they will. We'll get started.

RevivAll for Eternity.
I’ll say “next slide” whenever we need to move on.

Introduction

My name is Shawn. I was born in Kansas, but 33 years ago, I went on the mission field and I’m still there. Amen. God gave me an amazing wife—she was the 104th baptism of the Moscow church. The Moscow church saw 850 people become Christians in the first year. She became a Christian there. God bless me—not every day in Kansas do you find your match in Moscow—but it happened for me.

That’s our dog, Cakes—an incredible missionary as well. Next to me is my daughter Diana (we call her Goun) and her husband Mark, kind of over on the side. Then there’s Andrew, my son, and his wife Sasha. We feel very blessed to have a family.

I was an atheist but became a Christian and went on the mission team to Kiev, Ukraine. This is the Kiev mission team. We spent two and a half years leading the church in Kiev. The church grew from 150 to 1,600 in that time, becoming the largest Christian fellowship in Ukraine.

That kicked off a series of challenges with the KGB and the mafia, but I won’t go into that today. Amen. We got kicked out of the country and basically landed in Moscow, Russia, where we started Hope Worldwide to work with orphans and the elderly. At our first orphan event, we invited Michael Jackson—and he actually came! (That’s me and Michael Jackson.)

After ten years working with the poor and needy in Moscow and helping the Moscow church, we moved back to Ukraine and worked with the church there again. This is my favorite picture of the Kiev Church of Christ—more than 2,500 people in the photo. It’s an amazing church. Please continue to pray for Ukraine and the church in Kiev. They are going through a horrifically difficult moment spiritually.

Thank you for all your support—you guys take up contributions to support our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. We are very thankful for that.

Our Work in Eastern Europe

This is Eastern Europe—16 nations, four churches with full-time ministers, six churches waiting for someone to come. We’re thankful you’re sending us the Arsenals: Ken, Katie, and Josie. We’re fired up to have them. What a blessing.

I want to say, the Mains, the Thorns, and the Skinners—this is the land of milk and honey. Can I get an amen? God has blessed this city, this church, this part of Boston in an amazing way with incredible spiritual leadership. I’m so thankful personally for Kevin and Melissa Miller. Kevin is one of the most inspiring, gifted leaders I’ve met in Christianity. Any chance to spend time with him is an incredible honor and blessing.

Pray for Eastern Europe. Amen. We have a lot of work to do: we need six new full-time ministers, and to plant six churches. There’s lots to do, but the good news is, in the last three years, thanks to the incredible support of Boston Church and EMS, we’ve seen the churches grow from 348 to 444 brothers and sisters in two and a half years. God is blessing, and we are very thankful.

Revive Ministry

We’re now doing Revive—me, my wife, and an incredible group of young people go to a new country every year. We’ve been living out of two suitcases for five years, never spending more than 10 or 11 months in any given country to help those churches.

This is when we started Revive. COVID happened, but we still went, which I’m not quite sure was wise, but God blessed. We went to a country where we didn’t speak the language for cold contact evangelism during an epidemic shutdown—and God blessed.

Half of these pictures are visitors who came out on Sunday—in Odessa, Ukraine. Even though everything was locked down, 12 people became Christians in the Black Sea area, which is amazing.

We were supposed to go to Zagreb but ended up in Kishnov. We couldn’t understand why we couldn’t get to the countries we wanted, but God had a bigger idea. In February, the war started, and after a year in Odessa and a year in Moldova, we took almost the entire Odessa church into Moldova as refugees. We provided 11,000 nights of warm beds and 33,000 hot meals to support brothers and sisters who fled the war.

The Revive team became refugee workers—we just do what needs to be done. Amen. Many of those refugees became Christians, which is incredible.

The basic idea of Revive is to help every Christian have the best spiritual time of their life. This is when we landed in Kishnov, and this is the church when we left 10 months later.

In Romania, we had a great team for Revive 4.0. The Bucharest church grew from the time we landed to a midweek gathering a few months later. Then for Revive 5.0, we went to three cities simultaneously, including Sofia, where we started with a church of 13 members that God grew into an amazing fellowship.

Here’s a video recap of last year’s work:
[Music video plays]
Our youngest team member is three years old—never too young to sign up for Revive. Amen!

Moving Forward

In four weeks, we’re moving for the sixth time this year, covering five countries including Croatia and Hungary. Please pray for us.

These are all your new brothers and sisters who became Christians through Revive. Thank you so much for your prayers and sacrifices. Boston Church, you are amazing. Thank you for your generosity. If these people could hug you and look you in the eye, their eyes would water up thanking you for giving them a chance to be saved. Amen—God is amazing.

The team going on Revive 6.0 has 62 people moving to Eastern Europe to help build churches. Amen.

The Biblical Text: 1 Peter 4:7–11

Let’s get started with the Bible. Can I get an amen? Here we go:

“The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as the one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” Amen.

The phrase “The end of all things is near” may not sound exciting. Should I get excited about that? Yes.

If you don’t have the right mindset about eternity, you won’t live your life the right way. If you don’t understand eternity, you’ll make mistakes in your daily life. Amen?

I’ve flown so many miles since becoming a missionary that it’s like going to the moon and back eight times. Every time I get on a plane, I don’t unpack—because the flight is not the destination. Life is just a flight. Our destination is not in the plane, and we want to get off to our real destination. The end is near. Amen, church.

When I get bored on planes, I like mazes, but I always get them wrong because I start at the beginning. The way to beat mazes is to start at the end and go backwards. In life, if you don’t start at the end, you’ll make wrong turns. The end is near. Amen.

The Titanic sank—a tragedy. But in the movie, people boarded the ship in different classes: first, second, third, last. When the boat sank, people were rescued and taken to America, where two huge boards were set up: one for saved, one for lost. Every name on the boat ended up on one of those two boards.

In our world, we worry about passport, skin color, education, money—but God looks at two lists: saved or lost.

There is no third list. The only two lists that matter to God are saved and lost. If you’re visiting this church, God loves you and wants to save you. He wants us to be with Him in heaven. Amen.

How to Invite Others

Jesus says, “Come with me if you want to live.” There is no way to be saved without Christ. Come with Jesus. Amen.

Priorities If the End Is Near

If eternity is most important, what do we do? What are our priorities? Peter lays them out:

1. Be clear-minded and self-controlled so you can pray.
   The most important thing is your relationship with God. Nothing is more important today than praying, talking to God, listening to Him through His Word.

Sometimes, when I pray, I start by thanking God and end up distracted five minutes later. We have to be clear-minded so we can truly connect with God and be grateful.

The Story of Princess Alice

In 1878, Princess Alice’s three-year-old son had diphtheria, a contagious disease. They kept mother and son apart. After two days, the boy asked, “Why won’t Mommy kiss me anymore?”

Princess Alice ran to him, hugged and kissed him despite the danger—and three days later, she was buried with her son.

Why would she risk her life? Because she loved him so much she couldn’t stand not showing it.

Why would God come to earth and give His words and life, knowing it would kill Him? Because He cannot bear the thought of you not knowing how much He loves you. When difficulties happen, He wants you to know His love—He came to hug, kiss, and care for you, even at the cost of His own life. Amen.

Persevering in Prayer and Faith

Be clear-minded and self-controlled—who’s been a Christian over 20 years? That takes serious self-control in your relationship with God. We have to persevere, not give up praying.

Andrea was a campus girl who became a Christian in Bucharest. She prayed for her parents, and her mom became a Christian. Her dad never came to church until after his wife died and he met the church community. The love he experienced led him to Christ.

Later, he called friends who had walked away, inviting them back. He passed away, but others returned to faith through his prayers. We never give up praying for one another. Amen.

Love Deeply

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. God commands everyone around you to love you.

I love church. When I walk in, there’s 400 people commanded by Jesus to love me. God wants us to feel loved and to love others.

The Russian translation says, “Love each other with an unchangeable love.” No matter what I do, you never stop loving me. That’s how God loves you—unchanging, forgiving, and helping.

The Bee in the Honey Jar

A boy helping his dad put honey in jars found a bee stuck in the honey. The bee was stuck and would die. The boy’s dad said to scoop it out and leave it on the table—dead bees can’t be in jars of honey.

Later, the bee was gone. The dad said it must have been the bee’s friends, who cleaned him off so he could fly again.

This is us spiritually—we fall into honey jars sometimes. We just need others to come and clean us off so we can fly again. If you’re in the honey jar today, that’s okay—you don’t need isolation. Get around brothers and sisters who can help. Amen.

Hospitality Without Grumbling

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Hospitality literally means love of strangers.

Some of you are strangers here today, but God has been planning this day your whole life. This is your homecoming.

We open our lives to strangers without expecting anything back because we want them to know the greatest love this planet has ever seen. Amen.

The Invitation of Hospitality

Dale invited me to church at the University of Kansas three centuries ago. Somehow he had hospitality in his heart—he made space to invite, feed, and encourage me.

Because of that, I didn’t take a job on Wall Street but ended up in Eastern Europe. Praise God.

Now, here I am standing on a stage in Boston, with everything I own packed into two suitcases in a hotel room, on my way to Croatia. Amen. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. Amen. And if I don’t make it to Croatia — if something happens to me between now and then — guess where I get to go? Amen. There you go. We get to spend eternity with God. Amen, church. Amen.

There is no bad scenario in our life when we’re Christians because it ends in heaven.

Next slide.

I find this to be a very interesting slide because this is Don Lee. If you guys know Don Lee, he used to be a member of the Boston church way back in the 80s — like forever ago. An amazing, faithful brother. He was on the mission team to Hong Kong, to China.

He and his wife — his wife worked for Nintendo, and Don was a successful financial whatever — both retired to move to Eastern Europe. Now they’re living with us in Eastern Europe. Unbelievable. They just put in their notice, retired, and moved.

So now they’re with us — Don and Sophia in Sofia, Bulgaria, of all places.

Next to him is Adam Rael, whose dad is Bruce Riddle. It turns out Don studied the Bible with Bruce in the 80s.

Don studied the Bible with a guy in the 80s, and his son winds up in Sofia, Bulgaria, with him in the same small group.

Then Adam just walking down the street bumps into this guy in the middle — his name’s Alex. Alex was walking out of a bookstore, and Adam said, "Hey, would you like to take a look at the Bible?"

Alex thought, "This is some strange foreigner who got lost. Let me see if I can help him get some directions." But it turned out Adam had directions for Alex. Alex started studying the Bible and became a Christian. He was a philosophy student at the university.

He chose philosophy because he wanted to understand the reason he was alive. After becoming a Christian, he said, "I’m done with philosophy. What could I possibly learn? I know why I’m alive, and I know what life’s all about." So he stepped out of it.

He took a little more time because he was inviting all his friends to church. Now he’s joining Reviving, coming with us in September on Revive as a six-month-old Christian. Amen.

Next slide.

This is a picture of you. I took it when you weren’t looking. This is what you do as a disciple.

You’re either leaning over the cliff helping somebody up or, to be honest, every once in a while, I’m the guy hanging off the cliff. We’re in both roles all the time.

You’re helping someone who’s fallen off the cliff, then you turn around and you need someone to pull you up sometimes even in the same day. But we are rescuers. We are eternal rescuers. That’s what we do. Amen.

This is a picture of your small group that’ll be meeting next Sunday. Make sure you find out where your small group is meeting.

Next slide.

This is a picture of your small group. You’re rescuers. This isn’t a place just to have friends — although we have friends. It’s not a place just to be comfortable — although we feel comfortable. But you’re a rescuer. Amen.

We want to change eternity.

Next slide.

Each one should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others faithfully, administering God’s grace in its various forms. Amen.

God gave you gifts. Maybe you grew up using them at university or in your career, and you’re thinking, "It’s really cool I have these gifts because I use them for my life." But God gave them to you to build the church. That’s why you have them.

Now, it’s nice that you use them for other things, but that’s not why you have them. He gave them to you so that you would use them to build the church.

Everybody here has amazing gifts that they can use to encourage and love other people. Amen.

I know sometimes we think we’re different in this room, but we have a lot more in common than we have differences. We need everybody in this room to help build God’s kingdom.

Next slide.

This is 1904 at the World Fair in St. Louis — hottest World Fair ever. The hottest summer in years in St. Louis. At these world fairs, they put up little stands selling stuff from different countries.

Next slide.

There was the Italian gelato stand. It was so hot out that literally the line was a kilometer long for gelato. Everyone wanted the gelato.

Right next to the gelato stand, literally the next booth over, was the Norwegian selling pancakes. Hot pancakes on a hot day. There was literally no one in line. No one was buying the waffles. Everyone was buying the ice cream.

After about five or six hours, the ice cream guy ran out of cups.

Next slide.

The ice cream guy looked at the waffle guy. The waffle guy looked at the ice cream guy. They literally had nothing in common, but there was an opportunity.

Next slide.

The cone guy said, "Why don’t we make a cone that’ll hold the ice cream? That way I can sell my thing, and you can sell your thing, and we can keep going."

Sometimes we look around and think, "Oh, no, no, no. We’re too different. I’ll go find somebody I’m more comfortable with." No. God puts us all together differently, and He knows what He’s doing.

Just love one another. We gotta love one another and use our gifts.

If you’re not using all your gifts right now in this city to impact eternity, you’re missing out on how God even made you. His whole dream for your life — you’re missing it. It’s not in your career. It’s not in your next diploma. It’s impacting eternity. Use your gifts. Amen, church.

Next slide.

If anyone speaks, he should do it as speaking the very words of God.

I’ll go through this very quickly. It’s pretty clear what’s written here. Amen.

I have a book recommendation for spiritual formation — the greatest book I’ve ever read on how to build up your spirituality. It’s called — write this down — The Bible.

It’s also the greatest book on spiritual leadership, the greatest book on prayer, and the greatest book on marriage ever written. You gotta read this book. It’s called the Bible. Can I get an amen?

There are so many different books out there saying, “This is the new thing,” or “This is the thing.” Guys, the Bible is the thing.

Let me tell you, we gotta dig in because there are people trying to change the Bible, water down the Bible. Amen. We hold to the Bible.

If you want to say something, say the very words of God. I get on Facebook and say all kinds of stupid stuff, but I read the Bible and say something that makes sense.

Guys, we need to be in the Bible. Amen, church.

Next slide.

You need to turn on your JPS — your Jesus Positioning System. You need to punch in your destination — heaven. Amen. Punch that destination and then head towards it.

Let me tell you, you’re going to make a lot of wrong turns. I’ve made wrong turns left and right.

But what I love about the GPS is that every time I make a wrong turn, it just says, “Please turn around. Please turn around.”

I’m making seven times seventy-seven wrong turns in a day, and it’s still got this nice patient voice with me, saying, “Please turn around. Please turn around.” I’m sure it’s thinking, “What the heck is wrong with this guy?”

That’s what Jesus will do if you’ll let Him. He’ll guide you. He’ll get you.

Okay, Sean, come on. Turn around. Okay, Sean, come on back here. Okay, Sean, come on. Let’s go.

We’re not going to change the destination. Don’t change your destination and stop worrying about it if you’re imperfect. You’re not supposed to be perfect, but keep running with all your heart toward heaven. Amen, church.

Next slide.

This is Maria in the middle, and is it your right, the bigger guy with the darker shirt? Andre.

He’d been a disciple for 18 years, and his mom never came to church or anything.

Finally, a sister asked Andre, “Could I come over and just read the Bible with your mom? Would she be open to that?”

Andre asked his mom, and she said, “Yeah, I’ll read the Bible with somebody, but don’t ask me to come to church. I ain’t coming to church ever with you.”

He said, “Okay, we’ll just come over and read the Bible.”

She came over and started going through the book of Acts — about repentance, changing lives, turning around, baptism.

Just reading all the things in Acts connected to that. At the end, she said, “What are you saying?”

The sister said, “I haven’t said anything the whole time. We just been reading the Bible.”

She said, “Are you saying I need to be baptized? That I need to change my life and be baptized?”

The sister said, “I didn’t say anything. We’re just reading the Bible.”

She said, “Call my son.”

So they called her son and said, “Andre, come home. I’m getting baptized.”

Andre said, “What?”

He said, “Okay, we can read some other topics, too. Like, let’s look at the Bible.”

She started studying the Bible, and two weeks later, she became a Christian just from reading the Bible.

Sometimes I think I need all this wisdom about how to say the right thing, but it’s the Bible. Just read the Bible with people.

Now, a few months later, Maria fell into a stroke. She was in a coma, not waking up.

After two and a half days, she opened her eyes. The room was empty except for a bed next to her with one other woman laying there.

She looked over, and the woman was looking at her. Word for word, Maria said, “You need to get your life right with God.”

Not, “Hi, my name’s Maria.” It was, “You need to get your life right with God. You need to study the Bible.”

They chatted for about 30 minutes, and then Maria fell back into the coma.

Her family came over a few hours later, and the woman said, “Your mom woke up.”

They asked, “What did she say?”

She said, “She said, ‘You need to get your life right with God and study the Bible.’”

The kids were deeply happy to hear that’s what was on their mom’s heart at that moment.

That night, Maria passed away.

Galina, next slide — the woman laying next to Maria — realized if this woman came in with a stroke and was in a coma, woke up 30 minutes to tell her to get her life right with God, and then passed away, it was time for her to study the Bible.

She studied the Bible and got baptized. Amen, church.

What can the Bible do? It’s all about the Bible. Amen, church.

Okay, coming in for a landing.

If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

The amazing thing about Christianity is when you do something for God, you can expect miracles. Miracles.

Don’t do anything for God without expecting God to do something miraculous because He can.

Sometimes we don’t ask. We don’t expect. But we need to believe and know God is big and can do anything. Amen, church.

Next slide.

My first pet was a goldfish. Can I get an amen?

Easy to manage. But this was his world. My goldfish was very happy in his world.

But I wanted to make his life a little more interesting.

Next slide.

You put some decorations in there. Sometimes we get into our little fishbowl spiritually. We get used to our life, and we’re happy.

Sometimes we put things in our life — a new job, a new career, something to serve or do — to decorate the bowl.

But we’re still living in our bowl.

We’re not really begging God to do something impossible.

I want to encourage us to step out even more on faith. This church does this very well, but let’s keep stepping out on faith.

Next slide.

This is what happens if a goldfish gets thrown into a lake. You can Google this later. It’s actually true. Same thing with koi ponds.

According to the size of the area you put them in, that’s the size they grow.

So your Christianity — is it in a fishbowl or the ocean right now? Is anything possible?

Or do we think, “No, I’ve tried that. We did that. That doesn’t work. That’s it. We know the walls of our fishbowl.”

Or are we living in the ocean?

What can God really do? Could we have a million brothers and sisters in the U.S.? Could we have a million brothers and sisters worldwide? What can God do?

I just need to get out of my fishbowl. Can I get an amen, church?

Next slide.

Let’s come in for a landing.

I love this small group in Kharkiv in Ukraine that exemplified miraculous trust.

There were three brothers who had lost their desire, heart, or belief that someone could become a Christian through them.

So they said, “Let’s do something radical.”

They got up at 6 a.m. and went into a park-forest area to sing and pray and beg God to help them find someone open and seeking God.

Three brothers standing there at 6 a.m. singing songs to God and taking turns praying and singing.

At about 6:30, 30 minutes later, a guy comes down from a tree above them with a rope in his hand.

He said, “Can’t a man commit suicide in peace?”

This guy came to that park 15 minutes before them and climbed a tree to hang himself, but three people showed up underneath at 6 a.m.

They sang songs about amazing grace, mercy, and love for 15 minutes.

He listened, climbed down, and said, “My relationships, my whole life, it’s not working.”

They said, “No, you should study the Bible. We were just like you. You can change.”

They studied the Bible with him. He got baptized and became a brother.

Next time you walk through a park and see a tall tree, check it out. You never know how God’s going to work. Amen, church.

God will always work. To Him be the glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Amen.

It’s always about forever and ever.

That’s why you’re here — because you want to be with God forever and ever.

Last slide.

When I worked for Hope for 10 years, I spent a lot of time in orphanages.

There was an orphanage we would go to, and a brother and sister from the States came to visit us to see the work with the orphans.

They fell in love with one orphan — a tiny little girl, very thin, shy — but they fell in love with her.

They talked to the orphanage director and said, “We want to adopt this girl.”

The director said, “That would be awesome. She’s a sweet girl but beaten down, shy, and quiet.”

I said, “Okay, what do I need to do?”

They said, “We’ll go back to the States, do paperwork, then come back and get her. But you should talk to her because she’s 11 years old and you want to make sure she agrees.”

They sat down and said, “Hey, we want to bring you home. I want to be your dad. Mom wants to be your mom. This is a picture of your home in America. This is your older brother, your sister, your dog, your neighborhood, your school.”

They asked, “Do you want to be part of our family? Do you want to be our daughter?”

She burst out, “Yes! I want to come! I want you to be my mommy and daddy! I want to be with you!”

There were hugs, tears, and happiness.

She said, “I’ll be right back. Let me get my one stuffed animal and a couple pieces of clothes. I’m ready to go.”

They said, “Oh no. We have to go home and do paperwork first. But we’ll come back and get you.”

She said, “Okay, I’ll be waiting. I have a mommy and daddy, a brother and sister, a doggy.”

She was fired up.

Coming back to the orphanage the next few days, watching her in the orphanage, she was totally different.

She was bouncing up and down the hall, super happy, skipping.

She showed all her friends, “This is my doggy, my brother, my sister, my house, my mommy, my daddy.”

But the weird thing is she was still in the orphanage. Nothing had changed.

She was still in that tiny, broken bed with one stuffed animal, with people making fun of her, lonely.

She was still in the same place.

Why was she so happy? Because she knew dad was coming back to get her and mom was coming back to get her.

That’s us.

I love Boston, but it’s an orphanage.

You’re still in the orphanage, but He’s coming back to get you.

So you’re fired up. You walk around the hall and say, “This is my brother, this is my sister.”

We don’t have any dogs in here, but okay, amen.

This is my house. This is where I’m going. This is my dad.

Look at the New Testament. Let me show you who my Daddy is.

He’s amazing. He’s coming back to get me.

I don’t know when, but He’s coming soon.

I hope He’s coming soon.

I can’t wait to go home.

There’s a skip in our step even when the world’s going crazy.

There’s a skip in our hearts.

We want to offer that adoption to everyone around us.

This isn’t your home.

The end is near.

Pray.

Love one another.

Show hospitality.

Love strangers.

Use your gifts.

Lean on the Word of God.

Expect miracles.

We will be together forever and ever. Amen, church.

Thank you so much for all the support and love.