About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government!
Why? Because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.
Lynn Anderson, writing about this event, made this point: “With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.”
Recently my heart has been afire with a new emphasis at our church… reVision stPete.
Vision is seeing. In your own life or in an organization, vision means seeing the future; seeing where you or the organization is headed; what you want to achieve and accomplish. It is this meaning of vision the writer had in mind when he wrote the verse in the Bible: “Where there is no vision – no long-term, future-seeing directive – the people perish.”
To re-vision then, means to see again; to re-visit the future of my life or of the organization, so one can either confirm or change the direction and resulting goals one desires to achieve and accomplish. To re-vision is to see again and ask: Are we doing well? Are we headed right?
Ask yourself, or your church: Are we doing well? Are we headed right? Can we do better?
The purpose for reVision stPete is to encourage each of us to participate in four actions that will help us have a clear vision of what Christ can do through us to impact our city. Let us keep in mind these words of Lynn Anderson: “With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.”
At the heart of reVision stPete is a plea. A plea from my heart, and I hope that as you hear about this, a plea that will arise in your heart as well. My plea, our plea to God, is for this… a refreshing new movement of God to sweep into our hearts, through our church, and out across St. Petersburg.
Notice we are asking God for something…
• refreshing – Fresca is refreshing; as is lemonade, iced tea, a cool glass of water, or jumping in a pool on a hot summer day.
• new – something different than the norm, not what we’ve experienced before.
• of God – so it’s supernatural, powerful…something awe-causing, jaw-dropping.
• that creates movement – it begins, then spreads; like a wild-fire across the dry plains.
reVision stPete includes four actions. The first of these is prayer.
We are being called to PRAY. We are asking God to do something special in our hearts, in our church and in our city! We are praying for two specific things:
1. Extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
2. Brokenness among God’s people.
If we see a refreshing new movement of God sweep into our hearts, through our church, and out across St. Petersburg, it will be because God sends an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us, which brings brokenness among His people.
Look briefly at each request. First, an…
1. Extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
What is an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit? What does it look like? Does God do such things today?
To the last question, the answer is, “Yes! God does, on occasion, still send an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” In fact, know this – write it down: Refreshing, new, movements of God always include an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
If something extraordinary begins to happen that is refreshing, new, clearly of God and then moves through His people and into the world around them… you can be sure the Holy Spirit is involved; and involved in a big way!
We see an example of this truth in Scripture. Read Acts 2:1-16. This event is known as Pentecost. Notice it has all four marks that also are part of our plea to God:
a. It was refreshing. The Holy Spirit filled the house and filled each of them. Peter, who had denied even knowing Jesus, stands before the crowd who had crucified Jesus and preaches Jesus! How could he do this; how could he change so much? Peter was refreshed!
b. It was new. Obviously, something new happened. Verse four tells us the most significant new thing that happened that day: “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” For the first time, the Holy Spirit did not just work among and around men; He indwelled them!
c. It was of God. Unlearned men stood up and preached Old Testament scripture and made accurate and perfect application of these passages to Jesus Christ – who is the fulfillment of each of the passages quoted. And they did so in languages they did not know! This happened so every person who heard could clearly understand the message and have an opportunity to receive the Gospel that very day! This obviously was of God.
d. It created movement. At that very moment the New Testament church was born and has continued across 2,000 years to us today – we are part of the same church movement.
So at Pentecost, when God sent an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a refreshing, new movement of God began. Study Pentecost carefully. For that is what an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit looks like!
Have you ever experienced something like that?
John Avant and the people of Brownwood, Texas have. They experienced an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit and west Texas, and many other places, were impacted.
Would you like to experience such a movement of God? If so, then join me in this plea. PRAY, ask God for… a refreshing new movement of God to sweep into our hearts, through our church, and out across St. Petersburg (or your area). PRAY that we all would experience an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
But be careful; for there is a result that always accompanies extraordinary outpourings of the Holy Spirit that may frighten you. It is the second part of our prayer to God.
2. Brokenness among God’s people.
Take a moment and read Acts 2:41-47. From lives of greed, pride and self-interest to ones of joy, generosity and fellowship, these first Christians were changed. They were new, different than before. They had gladness in their hearts as they humbled themselves before the Lord and each other.
Multiple other Scriptures also show the results of extraordinary outpourings of the Holy Spirit. In all of these you see submission, confession, repentance and then as cleansed and forgiven believers, you see people with genuine joy, a new spring in their step – because they have experienced brokenness before God.
Have you ever experienced brokenness personally? Have you ever been in a church where God’s people were genuinely broken before Him?
Would you like to? Perhaps, many of us, if we were absolutely honest, would say, “No. I really don’t want to broken like that…it would be too embarrassing.”
If this is you, then there is your problem. There is our problem.
Listen, we will NEVER experience the extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit if we are unwilling to experience brokenness as God’s people. The Bible says: “The Lord is near the brokenhearted…” (Psalm 34:18a) “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, you will not despise a broken and humbled heart.” (Psalm 51:17)
Brokenness is necessary for an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit – for genuine revival. The sad thing is, the really tragic thing is, some in the church are ok with never experiencing brokenness. And that breaks my heart; it breaks my heart for you.
If this is you – if you are one who refuses to be broken before God and with God’s people; if you are resolute in your stubbornness; if you are absolutely sure – you already know, beyond any doubt – that you are never going to allow yourself to be “embarrassed” like that…
Please, do one of three things:
Either, (1) PRAY. Ask God to soften your heart and bring you into a fresh, new, place in your relationship with Him. This would be my preference for you.
Or, (2) CONSIDER. Consider if the joy, the fellowship, the refreshing and renewed passion of God flowing through your life – consider if this might indeed be okay. Consider that experiencing an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the brokenness that requires, might be worth it. Just consider the possibility.
Oh, but dear friend; if you are resolute in your defiance. If you are absolutely unwilling to PRAY or even CONSIDER…then you must…
_______________ (You fill in the blank). What do you think the third option should be?
I thought it probably should be…
(3) GO. Go find another place where you won’t have to be challenged. Go find a place that will never ask you to allow God to break you so He can mold you and make you into the wonderful creation He has in mind. Go find a church – there are many – were repentance and brokenness are not valued; so you will never again be confronted with your need for both. Go. Go breath the stale air in some dead and dusty church.
You always can go somewhere else, but is that what you really want? It’s not what I want for you. Just the opposite. I want you to stay where you are. Because I know: even if you aren’t close to the fire, if you are nearby you can still be touched by its light and warmth. So stick around. Maybe God will change you yet! Just please, don’t interfere with God’s extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
Now for those who are willing to pray for an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the personal brokenness that requires, it’s okay if there are only a few of us who truly and deeply desire this. Remember Gideon.
Gideon started with over 30,000 men; the enemy had more than 300,000. For those of you who like to figure the odds: that’s 10:1. Or to put it in perspective, that means each of us has to fight 10 of theirs, all at once.
As bad as these odds are – and they are, this is bad – God said Gideon had too many! He whittled the number down to 300! Now the odds are: 1000:1. Each of us now has to defeat 1000 of their guys!
Now God was ready to demonstrate His power. You see, God can do more with 5 who are broken and committed, than He ever will do with even 5,000 who stubbornly refuse to be either.
It’s okay if those in the world, and some in the church, don’t want to be involved in this. It’s even okay if they sneer at us. Look at how some in the crowd at Pentecost responded to the disciples. Read Acts 2:12-13 and you will see that many sneered, thinking the disciples were drunk!
I’m convinced that as followers of Jesus, we need an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit and we need to be broken, humble and honest before God and with each other! I need this. You need this. No matter what anyone else thinks.
So join with me and PRAY. PRAY for a refreshing new movement of God to sweep into our hearts, through our church, and out across St. Petersburg (and in your town).
PRAY specifically for an extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
PRAY that I, as a pastor, will experience genuine brokenness.
PRAY that you will experience true brokenness too.
PRAY that our churches will be repentant and humble before God, so that He could lift us up and move through us to touch lives and change our cities with the Gospel!
You see, reVision stPete is not just a series of messages. It’s a new commitment. It’s birthed from a renewed desire to experience genuine revival. It’s not a program, but a priority, calling each of us to PRAY.
To pray so that we can – and so that we WILL – experience a refreshing, new movement of God in us, through us, and out from us into our city and around the world!
We have been challenged to pray. So now, let us pray together. I’m asking you, if you will make a commitment to pray this prayer, to begin praying it right now… with me… where ever you are!
Join me now in prayer.
