SPEAKER_00: Hi, welcome to the Vine Life Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We're in Balder, Colorado, and we're following Jesus by staying limited in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: And if we can help you in any way, reach out to us at vinelife.com.
SPEAKER_00: For now, here's a short sermon from last week in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, this morning, uh, I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna jump in.
SPEAKER_00: And if we haven't met yet, again, my name is Luke.
SPEAKER_00: I am so glad to have you with us here today if this is your first time.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're gonna just a little word for us here today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we we we come to you today and uh we submit ourselves to you.
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, we say have your way with us, speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal our hearts and reveal your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we do pray, God, that you would revive us in your love.
SPEAKER_00: We love you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in your name that we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There's a an obscure Old Testament prophet named Habakkuk, which I guarantee very few of us spent a lot of time in Habakkuk in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But when you know the context of um uh um this particular minor prophet, it's very powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Um and it's in a time of captivity, and they were crying out to the Lord, and Habakkuk writes in chapter 3, verse 2, and says, Lord, I have heard of your fame, I stand in awe of your deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, repeat them in our day.
SPEAKER_00: In our time, make them known.
SPEAKER_00: In wrath, remember mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read it one more time.
SPEAKER_00: He prays, Lord, I have heard of your fame.
SPEAKER_00: I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Repeat them in our day.
SPEAKER_00: In our time, make them known.
SPEAKER_00: In wrath, remember mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And uh this heart cry is it's a very, it's a it's a beautiful prayer, and it's a prayer that we ought to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Um for any of us have heard about the fame of God, we've heard about great moves of God.
SPEAKER_00: There should be something in the people of God that from time to time we say, God, I remember, I've heard of your fame, but would you repeat your deeds in my day and my time in this generation?
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that's something God is doing in this time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and this morning I do want to give a little language to something that's happening uh across our country right now.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you might not know about this, so I'll catch you up, but you know, one of the things that we got to remember is we are a non-denominational church here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're not part of a specific denomination.
SPEAKER_00: Um we are, as you know, uh a building on top of a lonely hill.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so, you know, we're just kind we're kind of up here in this, like sometimes it, you know, geographically it looks like we're isolated, but the actual truth is that we are connected to a body that is global and that is universal.
SPEAKER_00: See, the body of Christ is as Jesus made a way for sons and daughters to come to the Father, his vision, forget our vision, his vision was for a people to be drawn to him in every tribe and nation and tongue all around the world to be called his bride.
SPEAKER_00: God's not coming back for many brides, he's coming back for one bride.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming back for one body.
SPEAKER_00: So, as lonely as we are up on the hill, we're actually not that lonely and we're not that isolated.
SPEAKER_00: We're part of what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And from time to time, it's very important that we turn our attention to what God is actually doing in other parts of our nation, other parts of our world.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and and because it reminds us that we're actually part of a larger story.
SPEAKER_00: You can look around and kind of survey a room of this size and say, okay, this is what's going on here, and that's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually part of a larger story.
SPEAKER_00: And the and the reality is history, global history, has been shaped by times and seasons of what we could call great outpourings or great returnings to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we read this all throughout Scripture and we read through all throughout history that um say in Scripture, what would happen is in times of moral decay, times of great darkness, oftentimes God would raise up people to be mouthpieces, to be messengers, to carry uniquely a call back to the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes He would raise up a person or a remnant of people that would uh that that would that would somehow give language or be a catalyst to a people coming back into repentance or to holiness or right alignment with the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: We see this all throughout scripture with you, and we could call them even revivals where this happened through Moses, Elijah, Hezekiah, Jehosaphat, King Josiah, even at eight years old, as he realized that they had completely forgotten the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Go get that book.
SPEAKER_00: And they they read the book and they were torn in their hearts and they were render uh something happened inside of them because they realized how far they had they had left God.
SPEAKER_00: They realized how far they had come away.
SPEAKER_00: This happened with Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: We spent some time in Nehemiah this last year.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist had this call in his life to call people back into repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And we see this all just continued through the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Peter would go out and preach a sermon, and thousands would come and respond to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Philip, as he would, as he was obedient, he would, his message went on to affect all of Samaria and create a great move of God in Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly as Paul was traveling all across Asia Minor, establishing the churches, we read about these pockets of churches where they were experiencing the power of the gospel in such unprecedented ways that Gentiles were coming into the faith.
SPEAKER_00: People that weren't supposed to come into the faith, weren't supposed to be there, were now there.
SPEAKER_00: They were now a part of the story.
SPEAKER_00: And I mention all that because God has a way of shaping history through moments and times where He uh where He allows He He allows a fresh experience of His presence, a fresh calling, a fresh stirring, a fresh outpouring that would draw people back, that would remind us of things that we've forgotten and draw us back into the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is something we can even look back in American history and see that our country, our nation, has been shaped by great moves of God.
SPEAKER_00: The first Great Awakening in the 1730s with George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards.
SPEAKER_00: It was just a, it was, it was a massive worldwide time in Europe and here.
SPEAKER_00: Second Great Awakening in the end of the 1700s through Charles Finney.
SPEAKER_00: We read even at the turn of the century that in the 1900s, a Sousa Street revival with William Seymour in California.
SPEAKER_00: It was a it was a revival that that really was marked by speaking in tongues.
SPEAKER_00: It was marked by these new uh expressions of the Spirit of God being poured out in a way that they didn't expect.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't try to conjure up.
SPEAKER_00: It's just something that God did in a time and season.
SPEAKER_00: He responded to people in a unique way.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in the Jesus people movement in the 60s and 70s.
SPEAKER_00: I thank God that my parents got saved in the in the on the tail end of the Jesus people movement, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And so you have all these hippies that meet God and then just take their hippie ways into the church, and it was a great time for music in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so, yeah, and so my parents were hippies and then they got saved, and they were still hippies.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and that's what led to the whole vineyard movement.
SPEAKER_00: Um, all these, like, they're just they're just these young people with guitars.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they didn't know what they were supposed to smoke or not smoke.
SPEAKER_00: They just knew they loved Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they're getting baptized, they were encountering the Lord in a in a fresh way, and it was fresh because there was a um there was an innocence to it.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what they were supposed to do or not supposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in in Toronto in the 90s with the the Toronto, we call the Toronto outpouring.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody did anybody ever make it up to Toronto in the 90s?
SPEAKER_00: A few people?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Um and it was just this Canadian revival that lasted for years, and it was really marked by an outpouring of joy, the joy of God.
SPEAKER_00: That was one of the flavors of that revival.
SPEAKER_00: And then Brownsville, uh, down in Florida, um, that would happen years later.
SPEAKER_00: It was a it was a it was a gathering, just this nonstop gathering for years, uh, marked by the fire of God and salvations and a call to go to the lost and to send people out to the lost.
SPEAKER_00: That was the flavor of that.
SPEAKER_00: I remember in high school going down in vans of young people and standing in line all day to get into a church service.
SPEAKER_00: And um, anybody ever stood in line to get into a church service before?
SPEAKER_00: That's not a common experience in our time, but I do have memories.
SPEAKER_00: And in a lot of ways, like Habakkuk, I'm like, God, I I've heard of your fame.
SPEAKER_00: Repeat your deeds in our day, repeat, renew your ways in our day and in our time.
SPEAKER_00: That our kids would know what that is like to spend their whole life just trying to get into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so these things, renewals, revivals, awakenings, we have a lot of words for this in church world, so it kind of gets a little confusing to know what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we have these fresh outpourings of God in our nation's history, in global history, and the reason why they're so important is because they actually shock the system back into alignment with God.
SPEAKER_00: And there's times and seasons where things get so far off, and our hearts can even become a little crusty, a little hard, a little familiar with how we live out our faith, that God loves to send new things over the face of the earth to shock the system back into alignment, to say, everything that you think that you know, there is more still to be experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you have settled for, there is more to be experienced.
SPEAKER_00: And so these are important things that we have to be both open to and aware of.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as has already been said this morning, there's a really interesting thing happening in a little town in Kentucky, this Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, which I don't know that many of us were even aware of this little town in Kentucky, um, or anything going on in Kentucky before this last couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And um I'll catch you up, and I want to play it just a little news clip for you in a second.
SPEAKER_00: But it started just a couple weeks ago on a Wednesday morning.
SPEAKER_00: They do a Wednesday morning chapel service, and uh February 8th, and it was a very, you know, I went and watched this sermon, this service afterwards, and it was very ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: Um nothing wild or spectacular, but it ended with this simple prayer revive us with your love, God.
SPEAKER_00: And a handful of students, and this is a free Methodist university, um, a handful of students stayed after this chapel service and just they just felt like they wanted to keep singing, and so they kept coming.
SPEAKER_00: And then later that day, something it became apparent God was doing something.
SPEAKER_00: There was a fresh sense of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of their classmates and the students started flooding back into this room, and so um they've been meeting nonstop 24-7 since February 8th, so it's just been under a couple weeks, and since then, people from all over the nation and world are starting to come in to get a sense of what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: So uh just just in the last couple days, some of the actual news stations are picking up on this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what news station you watch.
SPEAKER_00: This is from Fox News, it's not an endorsement, it's just it is what that's the news clip I got.
SPEAKER_00: So um uh let's I want you to take a look at this.
SPEAKER_00: This is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people are starting to figure that out.
SPEAKER_01: And the good news is a lot of people are starting to think more about what happens when you die.
SPEAKER_01: They're becoming much more interested in the spiritual life, which has been basically extinguished in the public square for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a sign that people are becoming more interested.
SPEAKER_01: Asbury University, which is a private Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky, outside Lexington, began hosting a prayer service a week ago, but it never ended.
SPEAKER_01: It's still going on.
SPEAKER_01: People just keep showing up from around the world.
SPEAKER_01: The university has even set up overflow chapels to accommodate demand.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01: There haven't been many news stories on it, but it's all over social media, on TikTok, actually, of all places, and reports that people are flying in from Singapore and New Zealand to join whatever this is.
SPEAKER_01: And so we thought it'd be worth finding out.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: Alison Perfader is the student body president at Asperger University, and she joins us.
SPEAKER_01: What is this, do you think?
SPEAKER_02: Right, what is this?
SPEAKER_02: That's what we can't.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's the question, right?
SPEAKER_02: And um, a theme or a Bible verse that we've all been sharing with each other is Habakkuk 1.
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord says, look at the nations and watch, for I'm doing something in your day that you wouldn't believe if you were told, and it's happening, and we can hardly believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it seems remarkable.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so many stories you see them, and you're you think that's very different.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not quite sure what it means, but it's worth learning more.
SPEAKER_01: So, my understanding is this began in a completely conventional service, and a boy got up and started talking about his own flaws, and then it just something changed in the atmosphere and it never ended.
SPEAKER_01: Is that fair?
SPEAKER_02: That's completely what happened.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so here at Asbury University, three mornings a week, we have chapel at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_02: sharp.
SPEAKER_02: The whole student body gets together and we we sing praise to the Lord, and we hear a message from a speaker, and for seemingly no reason at first, on on Wednesday, February 8th, it didn't end.
SPEAKER_02: And that's that's kind of the logistical side of what's been going on.
SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, on the on the deeper side of things, what's been happening here since Wednesday is there's a there's a young army of believers who are rising to claim Christianity, the faith as their own, as a young generation and as a free generation, and that's why people can't get enough.
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So you you felt like something like this was gonna happen, because everything finds equilibrium, I think.
SPEAKER_01: Who are the people who are coming?
SPEAKER_01: Where are they coming from?
SPEAKER_02: Um, we don't know most of them.
SPEAKER_02: Um we've obviously been getting calls, hundreds of calls to the university switchboard number.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but we have friends here from Brazil, from Indonesia, um almost every state, um, and and they just keep coming.
SPEAKER_02: And and it's no wonder, you know, and it's like you said, I mean, uh especially in the midst of tragedies like what we've seen in Michigan State University and and even farther back to 2020, especially our generation was impacted so much.
SPEAKER_02: And so you have to wonder, you know, what's gonna break?
SPEAKER_02: And in this case, the Holy the Holy Spirit has interceded for us here at Asbury and and uh across the nation.
SPEAKER_01: I assume you don't know how long this will continue?
SPEAKER_02: I could not tell you, and I wouldn't want wouldn't want to guess.
SPEAKER_01: No, you wouldn't.
SPEAKER_01: Alison, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Great to see you.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: It's really thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so everyone's kind of trying to wrap their heads around what exactly this is or what it isn't, or are we be too quick to call it revival?
SPEAKER_00: History books will tell us.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of that kind of stuff happening.
SPEAKER_00: Um what's really interesting though, if you were to go and kind of look at clips online of what's happening in Asbury, uh, any trips uh clips you track down.
SPEAKER_00: What's funny is in my perspective, there's actually not even much to see.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when you look at these clips, it's a bunch of young people singing in a room, but it's even like hard to pay attention uh to what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we use words like revival, um oftentimes we have specific things coming to mind, like everybody's laid out on the floor, rolling around, you know, everybody speaking in strange languages, or just this whole outburst of signs and wonders and all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: Um but so when you look at some of these clips, if you didn't know any better, it would be easy to miss.
SPEAKER_00: It would just look like, oh, this is just a this is just a really good worship service that just keeps going, but maybe not quite a revival.
SPEAKER_00: Um what's interesting though, somebody, I think it was one somebody in the student body, as we pointed this out, and I'm just gonna read this.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is so important that we see because this is important for us to train our eyes to see what God is doing and recognize when He is moving in a new way in our time.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know it's easy to miss what God is doing when we're looking for something old?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm gonna paraphrase here just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Um forgive me, I don't I don't I forget who who posted this, but they said the movements of the spirit always exist in the middle of a cultural moment.
SPEAKER_00: A generous interpretation of these movements reveals unique traits for each one.
SPEAKER_00: For example, overwhelming joy in the Toronto outpouring or zeal for the loss in the Brownsville revival, acts of healing in the Kansas City awakening, and a manifestation of tongues at the Asusa Street Revival.
SPEAKER_00: And each of the move the spirits, God clearly manifests in a specific way for that generation.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, this Asbury outpouring is marked by a tangible sense of peace for a generation with unprecedented anxiety, a restorative sense of belonging for a generation amidst an epidemic of loneliness, an authentic hope for a generation marked by depression, a leadership emphasizing protective humility in relationship with power for a generation deeply hurt by the abuse of religious power, a focus on participatory adoration for an age of digital distraction.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound familiar to anybody?
SPEAKER_00: So I think for many it's it might not be the revival that we were looking for, but it's the revival that Gen Z has needed.
SPEAKER_00: And now it's spreading to a lot of other campuses.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: It could go for a week.
SPEAKER_00: It could go for years, we don't know.
SPEAKER_00: We have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: But when you look at it, some of the things that are really important to see the unique properties, how Jesus is showing himself in a unique way.
SPEAKER_00: It's just all these clips, you're not going to see lights and even screens.
SPEAKER_00: There's no lyrical screens anywhere in the room.
SPEAKER_00: There's no big name worship leaders, there's no speakers you've ever heard of.
SPEAKER_00: There is leadership, but it's very hidden and very subtle.
SPEAKER_00: And really, in this particular outpouring, the name of the game, if you ask me, is it's just really simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's really simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's all student-led.
SPEAKER_00: And it's students that just can't get enough of Jesus, and they show up, and all they have are their songs, and they're praying for each other, and repentance is happening.
SPEAKER_00: God is drawing students and Gen Z that aren't haven't been jaded by the church, and they don't have a whole list of history and experiences that that put them, you know, to puff their heads up.
SPEAKER_00: They're coming in simplicity and innocence because they are hungry for to experience God in a new way in an age of loneliness and distraction and anxiety and depression.
SPEAKER_00: And they say we w we need God to do something new in our day.
SPEAKER_00: And so the reason I bring this up this morning, because there's a few different responses to this, and it it it you know, it it even begs the question like why do we even is it important to even talk about this kind of thing?
SPEAKER_00: We're in Colorado, this is happening in Kentucky, and I would say yes, okay, that's why we're doing this.
SPEAKER_00: Um but there's a few different reasons for this.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it's critical that we look at our own response when we hear about these types of things happening in another part of the states or another part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's critical that we evaluate and we take a step back and evaluate our own response in our head, in our heart, to the move of God in another part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, that same response reveals what we will do when God starts to move in our day, in our location, and in our time.
SPEAKER_00: And it's critical that we take a moment to look at the heart response when Jesus shows up in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's only in there that we can become the kind of community that can actually participate in the new flow of what God was doing and not hinder it, that we can actually move with the movement of God and not shut it down in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: We have to develop eyes to see and ears to hear, and all through the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It's not assumed that everybody has eyes to see and ears to hear.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, God would even harden hearts that were proud, that felt like they knew the right answers all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And heart, he would blind their eyes and heart and and make their ears deaf so that they wouldn't even be able to see because of the pride and the arrogance that with.
SPEAKER_00: Which they were coming into, even experiencing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So a few things I want to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: A few of these responses, and these are responses that are tendencies of ours, but all have the potential to become obstacles in new ways that God wants to break in.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys tracking this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So number one, the attitude of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: When something doesn't look like what we think is revival or an outpouring or awakening, it's easy to judge that.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to write it off.
SPEAKER_00: It might even be easy to get offended at how things are looking.
SPEAKER_00: If there's not a multitude of salvations or a multitude of people getting healed, it's easy just to say, oh, that's not legitimate.
SPEAKER_00: And this is even what Jesus confronted when he was healing along the countryside.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture actually says, Matthew 13, 57, it says, And they took offense at him, and Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, in his own household, and he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: And this passage alone astounds me every time I read it, that it is actually possible that an attitude of our own hearts can actually stop the God of the universe from being able to break through in the miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_00: It says that Jesus was not able to do many miracles because of unbelief, unbelief in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: And specifically, it wasn't just doubt or questions.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: God's okay with your questions, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: God loves your questions.
SPEAKER_00: God even loves, He even says, bring your doubts to me, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, Thomas came with his doubts.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus didn't shun him.
SPEAKER_00: He just showed him where the scars were in his body, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, God isn't afraid of doubts, but unbelief is actually a spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelief is a spirit of offense and it's a spirit of superiority, even.
SPEAKER_00: And so the fast, one of the fastest ways to shut down a new, fresh work of God is to judge what God is doing and judge the people that we're in a room with.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody is dancing differently than you would like them to dance, what is going on in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: If somebody is waving a flag and that is just a little bizarre to you, what is happening in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: If somebody is speaking a language that you don't do not know, what is happening in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Are you moved towards curiosity or are you moved towards judgment?
SPEAKER_00: Because judgment will kill a move of God faster than anything else.
SPEAKER_00: It'll shut it down.
SPEAKER_00: It actually inhibits the work of the Spirit to come in.
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's not a thing of, you know, we got questions.
SPEAKER_00: We got to work through things, we've got to discern through things sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But guys, I just want to caution us today.
SPEAKER_00: When God starts to move among us, and I believe he is, and he's going to continue to do so, will we become a people who are not moving in judgment?
SPEAKER_00: Second thing, there's a tendency to want to recreate.
SPEAKER_00: And this is actually probably a pendulum swing over.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us judge a new thing that God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: But if you were to take a pendulum swing over, some of us get so excited to take what is happening that we want to take it and superimpose it onto another reality.
SPEAKER_00: And that's also kind of dangerous because we have to be able to receive what God's doing, but ask Him for a fresh expression of that in our time.
SPEAKER_00: See in Acts chapter 19, the seven sons of Skeva, that we get to this really interesting passage where there's this whole group of sons, and they were so enthralled by what Paul was doing and casting out demons across the countryside that they're like, hey, let's try that.
SPEAKER_00: If he can use the name of Jesus, we can use the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so they started praying to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is they were trying to use a methodology without intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying to do something that they watched on the news, so to speak, but it didn't actually, it wasn't birthed from within.
SPEAKER_00: So there was no authority.
SPEAKER_00: And it said that the demons actually, you can read this in Acts 19, the demons actually uh beat them up, actually came out and it turned into a fallout brawl, left them bloody and naked.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it was not the type of thing you want to get into.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just put it that way.
SPEAKER_00: But I think one of the things that we can learn though is sometimes when we uh um when we're inspired or we're catalyzed by something God is doing, it's easy to take that and to just try to make it happen in certain places and times.
SPEAKER_00: And it's coming from a pure heart.
SPEAKER_00: But here's here's here's the probably a good metaphor that's really helped me.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's the difference between laying sod and planting seed.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to a part of the world where God is doing something fresh and unique, and you say, I'm gonna take this.
SPEAKER_00: You can take the sod and you can say, I'm gonna take this to Colorado soil and plant it, and then you're surprised when it doesn't grow.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a different thing when you take the seeds of what God is doing in a part, and you say, God, what does this look like when we plant it in the soil of what you're doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, how might this look fresh in our day, in our time?
SPEAKER_00: And that is it, that is a it's a culture of honoring what God is doing without having to superimpose it in our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: So we we have a tendency to judge, we have a tendency to recreate.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have a tendency to inflate, even out of zeal, try to make it more than what it is.
SPEAKER_00: And so even there's a lot of famous worship leaders calling Asbury saying, Hey, do you need help?
SPEAKER_00: We want to come and you know, we want to come lend our support.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, hey, thank you for the offer, but we're doing just fine.
SPEAKER_00: Our students are leading just fine on their gem bays and acoustic guitars.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and sometimes, you know, there's this thing of wanting to turn it into something.
SPEAKER_00: This has got to, you know, we have this weird thing in church world taking these things God is doing and then broadcasting it all around the world and turning it to these massive live stream events.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what will happen with any of this stuff, but I think there's a tendency to inflate stuff and to try to make it huge.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the the lesson, I one of the lessons I think we can learn is God is moving towards hearts of simplicity that aren't trying to make it more than what it is, but just trying to respond as best they can in the moment to a heart stirring for God.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: So we judge, we recreate it, we inflate.
SPEAKER_00: But here's a fourth one.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is probably the most sinister out of all these is we can be indifferent.
SPEAKER_00: We can just be indifferent.
SPEAKER_00: The worst response is not just to be infatuated with a new revival or judging it.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually indifference.
SPEAKER_00: And I've I've heard it said before that the opposite of love is not hate, the opposite of love is indifference.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, at least hate involves passion.
SPEAKER_00: Indifference is hardness.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is you hear about something like this, you see, you know, Tucker Carlson or whatever, you see this online or people making a big deal, and it's easy to say, hmm, well, we'll see.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to do it, he'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's we're not moved, we're not provoked, we're not moved towards any kind of response.
SPEAKER_00: And we just think, well, if he's gonna do it here, he's gonna do it here.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I think that we're in danger sometimes of an attitude of indifference, of ah, seeing what God is doing, but just thinking just because this is part of something happening in Kentucky doesn't mean that it doesn't involve me in my life and what God is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's very, very dangerous because part of the work of Jesus, part of the work of the cross, part of the work of the resurrection is to take hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a new heart, and it's gonna be a heart of flesh, a heart that can feel again, a heart that is moved, that is moved.
SPEAKER_00: And that really leads towards this last response, which is really responsiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that the guy who preached the sermon right before all this stuff is started, as he was praying that they would experience a revival of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: He said over them, he says, I pray that this message sits on you like an itchy sweater.
SPEAKER_00: Which I think is great.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this sits on you like an itchy sweater.
SPEAKER_00: You can't ignore an itchy sweater.
SPEAKER_00: Try to ignore an itchy sweater, you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I and I and I and I think love it or hate it, responsiveness is key, that you've been given a heart to feel to feel deeply.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I believe that one of the invitations for us is to continue to maintain hearts that are tender towards the Lord, tender to the work of the Spirit, not moving in judgment, but moving in curiosity, not moving in superiority, but moving in wonder, openness, tenderness, welcoming.
SPEAKER_00: Do we have the ability when we experience something that we haven't even experienced before?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of the stuff I'm sharing with you, you're like, I have literally no experience with any of these things that you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds a sound a little bizarre and strange, but I'm telling you, even for you, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But even for you, there's still an invitation for you today.
SPEAKER_00: Because are you at least a little curious to what would it look like for God to break through barriers, to God to show up in new ways in your family or your school or in this church or this region?
SPEAKER_00: Are you at least open to it?
SPEAKER_00: Because openness, I'm not talking about naivete.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about just going with everything.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a the you know, the word of God must must prevail in every move of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God cuts through.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not talking about naivete, I'm not talking about childishness, but childlikeness.
SPEAKER_00: Childlikeness in these times and seasons will test the childlikeness of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It will test the judgments of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you guys, I do not want to be the kind of leader, the kind of person who is unable to move with the new things that God is doing in our day.
SPEAKER_00: And I've just been praying this last week.
SPEAKER_00: God, reveal, expose me.
SPEAKER_00: Expose me where I've made judgments in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Towards your people, towards the ones who get it or don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: God, take me lower, make me humble.
SPEAKER_00: Make us humble, God, because we don't want to miss what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to shut it down.
SPEAKER_00: I think one of the another leader who put some really beautiful language to all this is Glenn Pacquiao.
SPEAKER_00: I mean he's just talking about how, you know, it's it's really interesting because in when you look at what God's doing, the presence of God, it's like we're all in the ocean of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um and it's always there.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're all we all have access to the ocean of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: But from time to time, the ocean swells.
SPEAKER_00: There's times and times where the the ocean will swell.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever tried surfing, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I've tried this and tried it miserably and failed terribly many times.
SPEAKER_00: I maybe had one or two times on a longboard, and it was just a kind of a good day, and the wave was kind of small.
SPEAKER_00: I was able to kind of ride it in.
SPEAKER_00: Um but there's there's times and time when you're living in an ocean, you can see when there's a swell coming in.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime there's a swell coming in, it's an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: It's an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Are we going to are we going to move with this wave?
SPEAKER_00: That's an opportunity to experience the ocean in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: And it has nothing to do with being super spiritual, it's just it's where we get to experience the ocean in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like God's showing off, here's what I'm really capable of.
SPEAKER_00: You can't manufacture a move of the spirit, you can't recreate it, but you can watch for it and wait for it.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever surfed, you can point your surfboard the right direction, and then when that wave starts coming in, you can start paddling.
SPEAKER_00: And and then there's times where you can catch a wave and you can let the work of God actually carry you into a new experience of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And I just feel like that's the invitation for us.
SPEAKER_00: Can we be the kind of people who recognize, who can see when there's a swell of a new thing that God is doing, and we don't judge it, we don't ignore it, but we turn, we, we look, we turn our surfboards in the direction of the wave and say, God, take us where you want us.
SPEAKER_00: Take us where you want us to go.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be able to stand up in this water and go where you want us to go.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really it this morning, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to pray for us today.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, you know, we'll see we have some new teaching series planned over the next uh several weeks of things that God wants to unlock in our community in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we are always open to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I just want you to know that that's that's not going to change.
SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna change.
SPEAKER_00: And we're we're we're we're watching the ocean, and I hope that you are too.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to be a part of what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: So across the room here today, let's just close our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to read a couple passages of scripture that are invitations for us here today.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 3.20.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 36, 26.
SPEAKER_00: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
SPEAKER_00: I will remove you, move from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in you.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 44 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and the streams on the dry ground, I will pour out my spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 5 14.
SPEAKER_00: For anything that becomes visible is light.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 85, 6.
SPEAKER_00: Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?
SPEAKER_00: Acts 2 17, in the last phase, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all people.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, God, as we share the space together, you know what our hearts need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And as I pray across the room, God, you would show us how you want us to respond to you.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that I believe that we're in a day where we're gonna experience you in such a powerful way that we're gonna forget what used to be.
SPEAKER_00: But the the the watermark will be set at a new level.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Jesus, together as a people across the room, we say we're open.
SPEAKER_00: Pour out your spirit, God, give us new breath, God.
SPEAKER_00: Show us the ways that we've limited you and limited what's possible.
SPEAKER_00: Free us from our judgments, God.
SPEAKER_00: We repent of of the ways that we've observed and we've we've spoken and the the thoughts that come to mind that do not honor you, God.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we want.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you to speak here this morning, God.