Latest / The Daily Article / Why young adults believe revival is coming to America: A Maundy Thursday reflection
Transcript
- 0:02[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Daily Article Podcast from Dinnison Forum.
- 0:05[SPEAKER_00]: It's Thursday, April 2nd, 2026.
- 0:08[SPEAKER_00]: The Daily Article is authored by Theologian and cultural pastor, Dr. Jim Dinnison.
- 0:15[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrator.
- 0:18[SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday was filled with headline news, including Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court as the justices considered the question of birthright citizenship.
- 0:31[SPEAKER_00]: NASA's Artemis II mission to circle the moon launched last night at 635 pm Eastern Time.
- 0:39[SPEAKER_00]: Watching the rocket lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida was awe-inspiring.
- 0:44[SPEAKER_00]: President Trump addressed the nation last night stating that the United States or strategic objectives in Iran are nearing completion a month after Operation Epic Fury began.
- 0:56[SPEAKER_00]: However, I want to focus on this Monday Thursday on news that isn't making headlines in our culture, but it's being celebrated in
- 1:06[SPEAKER_00]: recent study show that 80 million Americans believe a spiritual revival is coming to our nation.
- 1:13[SPEAKER_00]: Of those participating in the survey, young adults, statistically the most unchurched generation in history are surprisingly the most likely to agree.
- 1:23[SPEAKER_00]: A story I read this week,
- 1:27[SPEAKER_00]: Jenny Allen is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of The If-Gathering and Gather 25, part of what Christian Post describes as a, quote, vision to mobilize our global church.
- 1:41[SPEAKER_00]: According to the article, she has been visiting college campuses with the United Ministry and was invited to speak at Southeastern University in Florida last month.
- 1:51[SPEAKER_00]: The Dallas-based Bible teacher said we have been blessed to be on the road on about 20 campuses and we have seen over and over again a huge response to repentance to the gospel who baptism and it's just been beautiful and amazing in quote.
- 2:08[SPEAKER_00]: This was especially true at Southeastern.
- 2:10[SPEAKER_00]: After her message, she said, the room did confession, which I've done in many rooms before, but a girl yelled out abortion as loud as she could.
- 2:19[SPEAKER_00]: The student then collapsed to the floor.
- 2:22[SPEAKER_00]: Alan said, I think after that, it got real.
- 2:26[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone began saying things that were harder to say.
- 2:29[SPEAKER_00]: and quote, the gathering continued for hours and eventually days, with students staying for worship and prayer late into the night.
- 2:37[SPEAKER_00]: Alan, a mother, a four, said she personally baptized hundreds of students over the past two and a half years.
- 2:43[SPEAKER_00]: According to her, the desperation, many young people feel, is fueling their spiritual openness.
- 2:50[SPEAKER_00]: She recalled, quote,
- 2:56[SPEAKER_00]: I never knew God loved me.
- 2:59[SPEAKER_00]: Gen Z's faith gives her hope for the future of the church.
- 3:02[SPEAKER_00]: Alan said, they're so compelled by the love of God that they want to make a difference.
- 3:07[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus changed their life and they want other people to experience that too.
- 3:12[SPEAKER_00]: In quote,
- 3:17[SPEAKER_00]: On this night, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrendered to the soldiers and was illegally tried and condemned by the Sanhedrin.
- 3:28[SPEAKER_00]: The next day, he would be crucified, but one part of what happened then has riveted my attention today.
- 3:35[SPEAKER_00]: As you know, Jesus shared what we call the last supper with his disciples on this day recorded in Matthew 26 versus 26 through 29.
- 3:45[SPEAKER_00]: This is the phrase that caught my eye in verses 27 and 28, drink of it, all of you, or this is my blood of the covenant.
- 3:54[SPEAKER_00]: Remember who is at the table with Jesus that night, Judas, who would betray him, Peter, who would deny him, and neither the disciples who would abandon him, only John would be present with him at the cross.
- 4:09[SPEAKER_00]: The rest would fail him in his hour of greatest need.
- 4:12[SPEAKER_00]: Yet astonishingly,
- 4:15[SPEAKER_00]: He included them all in the supper that symbolized his body and blood given for them, and just as astonishingly he includes us as well.
- 4:26[SPEAKER_00]: All of us, any of us who know him as Lord, will be with him at his table in Paradise.
- 4:33[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah saw a day when the Lord of hosts will make for all people's a feast of rich food.
- 4:40[SPEAKER_00]: A day when he will swallow up death forever and wipe away tears from all faces.
- 4:46[SPEAKER_00]: As recorded in Isaiah 25 vs 6 and 8.
- 4:50[SPEAKER_00]: On that day, Jesus said in Matthew 8, verse 11,
- 5:01[SPEAKER_00]: He compared this event in Matthew 22 and Luke 14 to a king who gave a wedding feast for a son.
- 5:08[SPEAKER_00]: Now comes the most amazing part.
- 5:11[SPEAKER_00]: At the marriage supper of the Lamb, the bride is us, declared in Revelation 19 verses 7 and 9.
- 5:19[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world according to John 1 verse 29.
- 5:25[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as a bride adorned for her husband, noted in Revelation 21, verse 2, we are from verse 9, the bride, the wife of the lamb, referenced also in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 2.
- 5:40[SPEAKER_00]: And from Isaiah 62, verse 5, as the bride groom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
- 5:49[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my point, the Savior loves you as passionately and unconditionally as a perfect husband loves his wife.
- 5:57[SPEAKER_00]: When you said, I do, to him as your Savior and Lord, you became his bride.
- 6:02[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing can change your status as his beloved.
- 6:05[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing can make him love you more or less than he did when he died for you.
- 6:10[SPEAKER_00]: You are loved as you are no matter what you do or do not do today.
- 6:16[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, everything in our culture conditions as to believe the opposite about ourselves.
- 6:22[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a student, your progress depends on your grades.
- 6:26[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a job, your income depends on how well you do it.
- 6:31[SPEAKER_00]: If you're an athlete, a musician, a painter, an actor, or in my case a writer,
- 6:40[SPEAKER_00]: Even your family is not exempt from transactionalism.
- 6:44[SPEAKER_00]: Your spouse can divorce you, your children can disown you, and your parents can disenherit you.
- 6:50[SPEAKER_00]: By contrast, as Henry Nowen wrote in his marvelous book, Life of the Beloved, Spiritual Living and a secular world, but the world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this.
- 7:07[SPEAKER_00]: Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself, these feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself.
- 7:19[SPEAKER_00]: The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God.
- 7:31[SPEAKER_00]: Now in assured us that being the beloved expresses the core truth of our existence and he added, that is the spiritual life.
- 7:40[SPEAKER_00]: The chance to say yes to our inner truth, the spiritual life, thus understood radically changes everything.
- 7:49[SPEAKER_00]: Will you say yes to our inner truth today?