Shavuot 2021 - "Rebirth Of The Church"

2020 the year in review barna barna's top releases of 2020. this was a article that i came across as i was doing my research barna's top 10 releases he's been doing a project for the last year called state of the church and he listed 10 things that he discovered i just want to share three of them with you three of the ten number one there's an article that he put out that was entitled one and three practicing now there's a difference between professing and practicing okay one in three practicing christians has stopped attending church during 2020. the second article was number of practicing christians has dropped 50 percent since 2000 to where now it's only one in four americans practicing not professing number three the pandemic added to young adults loneliness and anxiety the younger demographic in our churches are longing for connectivity their longing for a relationship and it says that the pastors are struggling to find the answer how do we do this the younger demographic that's why coming into this year we felt our vision for this year should be connect to god connect with people and then find hope because it's in the church it's in the fellowship of the brethren that we find hope that we're able to get connected to one another and fill that void that's in all of us the question is how to be the church in a post-pandemic world how do we be the church after 2020 and moving forward let me just share some of the articles that i found on the internet and when i googled the church the post-pandemic church i just want to just share some of the articles with you the first one read this churches face post-pandemic challenges and uncertain future uncertain future don't expect churches another one said don't expect churches to return to normal after pandemic third one one in five churches facing permanent closure another one the pandemic and the demise of the church now when i read these things it wasn't real uplifting or encouraging and you sense that hell is predicting the end of the christian church in america hell is predicting we know that 2020 was a dark time we had the covert 19 we had the rioting in the streets we had the storms we had the controversy in the presidential election it was a tough time and churches across america took a hard hit and now they're struggling with how to be the church in a post-pandemic world hell is predicting the demise of the church but matthew chapter 16 it reads and i tell you jesus is speaking i tell you you are peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail he said i tell you i know the articles i know the predictions of hell i know what hell is trying to say but jesus said i'm telling you that i will build my church and hell will not prevail before hell's prophecy jesus decreed it he shall not prevail so can we just take a deep breath right now can we just breathe deeply that before hell made its prediction jesus prophesied jesus decreed that i will build my church and the gates of hell will not lock us in it will not lock us out he will not win we know how this is going to turn out how many believes that greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world shavuot pentecost you see two thousand years ago on the first shavuot of the church the first shall be old the church was born in acts chapter two and today at sunset shavuot 2021 begins and perhaps is it possible just perhaps it could be the rebirth of the post-pandemic church look on the day of pentecost acts chapter 2 upper room there was only 120 people we have more here today than they had then think of the possibilities of that day and the possibilities of this day at sunset with shavuot with pentecost beginning is it possible just a question is it possible that god could breathe again and we could experience at least in our church at least at this location of 2350 east texas freeway is it possible that we could experience the rebirth or the restarting of our church in this post-pandemic world let me take your attention to acts chapter 2 verse 1-4 but i want to read it to you out of my jewish bible okay acts chapter 2 verse 1 through 4 the festival of shabu oat arrived and the believers all gathered together in one place suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which separated and came to rest on each one of them they were all filled with the ruach hakodesh which is holy breath in hebrew rock hakodesh and they began to speak they began to talk in different languages as the spirit enabled them to speak now i will address the elephant that's in the room across america it does appear for the moment that the church has had has had its wind knocked out of it the church has taken a gut kick and it seems like across the nation churches and pastors are trying to catch their breath but i want to believe that god's going to exhale again i have to believe that that god's going to exhale again and the church will catch its breath and it will once again find its voice and speak notice this as in chapter 2 of acts as the spirit enables them to speak we have to find our voice we have to relearn the language of god we have to catch our breath i believe god wants the church to be reborn and everyone said amen let's title this shavuot 20 21 the rebirth of the church god bless the reading of your word in jesus name and everybody said amen you go let me talk to you now undivided attention a nation a church is born in a moment and that's a fact a nation and a church is born in just a moment understand that pentecost for you and i shavu oat is on the month of stephen this is the third month of the religious calendar that starts in the spring the civil calendars in the fall religious calendar is ecclesiastical calendar as we call it that starts in the spring april april april month of april so when you look at the the month of stephen it's late may early june it fluctuates of course on the hebride calendar it's called shavuot because this was the time on mount sinai when god gave them the torah gave them the ten commandments or the ten words pentecost of course in the greek means fifty this is the counting of the omer from passover exodus exodus chapter 12 coming out of egypt to sinai the giving of the torah pentecost 50 days later coming out of the the the land of egypt coming in to their promised land sinai they get the torah they get direction they get instruction this was the birth of a nation in exodus chapter 19 and the birth of a church in acts chapter 2. i want you to see the correlation in exodus chapter 19 pentecost shavuot birth of a nation acts chapter 2 shabu o pentecost birth of a church two experiences that go side by side the traditional reading for shavuot as you know is exodus chapter 19. it talks about thunder lightning thick cloud loud sound smoke fire earthquake you can read it and on the day of pentecost in acts chapter 2 thousands of jews were leaving the third hour of prayer having just concluded the reading of exodus chapter 19 only to encounter the same manifestations coming from the upper room acts chapter 2 sound fire languages and they're walking out and they're witnessing this and they're dumbfounded they just read it in sunday school and now they're coming out to witness it and it shook them up rabbi joseph hurts said this the revelation of sinai was given in desert territory belonging to no one nation the divine voice divided itself into 70 tongues then spoke on earth so that all men might understand now that's what the jews believe happened in in exodus chapter 19 sinai that they heard a thunder they heard thunder but you got to remember the word thunder in the hebrew means voices or languages they heard thunder on the mount moses is on the mount israel is down at the bottom they hear thunder and it means voices and languages and we have an example of that a confirmation of that in the gospel of john because it says a voice came out over heaven said this is my son a voice came out of heaven and the people said oh it thundered god was speaking about jesus and the people standing say oh well we heard thunder again the same experience that they had in exodus chapter 19 thunder voices and languages the jews believe mount sinai there were voices that were released on the mountain that was able to preach that gospel to give that word to all the nations that were represented at that time and then you come in the book of acts and you find that again on shavuot there's thunder or there's voices and the nations were there in jerusalem for the feast and it lists them out in the book of acts and they heard the message in their own language i want you to see the correlation between these two experiences so we see that the significance of pentecost is the birth of a jewish nation and the birth of a christian church exodus chapter 19 verse one on the first day of the third month after the israelites left egypt on that very day say that very day they came to the desert sinai they call this rashkodesh seven rashkodesh stephen jewish tradition says that that wording that very day it refers to rosh kodesh seven that's what they call it that very day rash qudesh stephen you see in the hebrew rosh kadesh means head of the new moon the beginning of the month something new a new beginning stephen is called the month of revelation because it was the giving of the torah so whenever they say rosh cades stephen what they're saying is it's the beginning of a new revelation so in exodus chapter 19 mount sinai it's the beginning of a new revelation they get the torah the ten words of god and the book of acts chapter two on shavuot they get again a new revelation it's the beginning a new revelation it's a fresh start how many believe that the church needs a restart how many believes that the church needs a new beginning the possibilities of that lie within this time that we're in right now the feast of the lord this time of shavuot it is the new beginning you see isaiah 66 and verse 8 reads can a nation be brought forth in a moment when god again asks a question he's not looking for information he's trying to help us understand the obvious answer to that is yes a nation can be born in one moment in one day god can give birth to a nation in acts chapter 2 verse 2 again and the bible says and suddenly there came a sound from heaven do you understand that suddenly in one day the church was born one day the nation was born one day the church was born i say that because on the day of rosh kodesh stephen or on the day of pentecost everything can change everything can change do you understand that do you understand the suddenlies of the lord the suddenlies of the lord i was doing some research and i came across a preacher and he was i clicked on a uh his message i'm just listening to him he's talking about salvation and just just talking about the word of the lord and i hadn't seen him in a long time and so i just clicked on to see what he was saying and just getting caught up with this guy and he was just talking about salvation and just he was asking the question do you remember the day you got saved do you remember where you were and i was thinking yes i do i know the date i know the place i know roughly the time i even know what i was wearing i even have it in my i can remember the shirt that i had on when i was born again and in that suddenly everything changed i remember a week later when i was filled with the holy spirit suddenly everything changed i remember when god called me to preach suddenly everything changed i remember these things these are mile markers that mark us that change us forever there's suddenly do we understand that in one moment everything can change everything can shift if we pay attention to what the lord is doing you see the suddenlies of god spring from a season of tarrying jesus said to the disciples terry in jerusalem until there's a suddenly the suddenlies of god come from a season of us patiently waiting expecting looking for i said it to here a number of weeks ago that in my lifetime i may never see what we call a sovereign move of god but i will not stop pursuing it because it's in the pursuing that i find him the pursuing is probably as important and more important than the actual destination reaching that it's the journey that matters my hunger for him my experiencing his presence my going after him giving him my heart and my life being hungry for him we as a church are always looking for god to move in our services for the sake of people to see people's lives transformed and turned around listen we are people that believe in the suddenlies of god the kairos moments where we watch the the the the chronological time we're always watching okay we know what time to start we know roughly the time we're going to get out but in the midst of all that we're always looking for that kairos moment where god interrupts our time our schedule and god begins to move because it's in that moment that things begin to happen [Applause] things change in a suddenly and so we look over this last year and we realize that we need a suddenly in just a moment a moment everything can change just in a moment one touch of his hand and everything changes we have to understand not only the the relationship or the the the correlation between exodus chapter 19 and acts chapter 2 but i want to pull your attention to genesis 11 also genesis 11 verses 1 through 9 i will paraphrase that this deals with the breaking of the curse of babel when you look at genesis 11 you find that man spoke with one language in order to make a name for themself and they built a tower to reach up to the heavens god saw their pride he saw their unity and the power of that so he confused their language and scattered them across the earth so god comes down he sees their their pride their unity they speak with one language so he confuses them and he scatters them okay i want you to see the contrast between babel and pentecost at babel man tried to reach heaven at pentecost heaven came down to man at babel man tries to exalt his name at pentecost god's name is exalted at babel god confuses the language that scatters man at pentecost god empowers the language and unites the church i want you to see this while the tower of babel separated mankind through the language of the flesh pentecost united mankind through the language of the spirit their pride they were trying to make a name for themselves and so god had to confuse and god had to scatter them across the earth 2020 here in review barna's top 10 releases of 2020. let me show you number 10. i gave you three earlier i want to just give you one more number 10. this was an article a teaching he released it was it was it was titled christian millennials are most likely generation to lean towards charismatic worship this one caught my attention the most likely now there's a graph that he has that's called the importance of weekly faith practices by generation okay it talks about worship through song and praying aloud are seen as the central practices elders the older generation consistently ranked the importance of a range of weekly worship expressions more highly except when it comes to pentecostal or charismatic act of glossalia or what is more commonly referred to as praying in tongues or prayer language meanwhile over one-third 36 percent of the millennials they believe that this is a very important expression that should be done weekly look at that only one in five gen x 14 of boomers and six percent of elders saw the same 36 of the millennials 36 percent of the millennials believe that this charismatic experience is something that should be expressed or experienced on a weekly basis the elder generation only six percent felt that way six percent through the years somehow we've lost something but this younger generation that's coming up is saying we're hungry for an experience we're hungry for this glossy layla this charismatic experience we're hungry for this another graph he used was called top pressure points mentioned by pastors during the pandemic pastor's number one concern you'll see at the top of the list was maintaining unity in the church number one concern maintaining unity dealing with conflicts and complaints within the church that was their number one concern the younger generation recognize the need for what we call pentecost the younger generation says we need the presence of god we need this experience pastors are concerned with maintaining unity in our churches and deal with conflict there was an article put out by the christian chronicle that said the virus hit us where we ain't the virus hit us where we ain't satan used douglas macarthur's strategy to divide us after a year covet 19 how can we reunite instead of attacking well-defended positions macarthur selected highly defended objectives during world war ii pacific theater bypassing hard targets in favor of soft targets macarthur suffered relatively few casualties during 2020 satan hit us where we ain't so the article was just addressing the fact that during 2020 with all the stuff covet uh rioting storms the presidential election the enemy came in and he found the weak places within the church and he struck there and so we got divided over wear a mask don't wear a mask we got divided over black and white we got divided over democrat and republican we got divided over these issues we allowed the evil one to come in with the spirit of leviathan and twist things and get brothers to turn on brothers sisters own sisters people leaving churches the enemy came in and hit us where we ain't he hit us where we were soft targets he hit us he hit us where we ain't and we as a church in a post-pandemic world we have got to wake up to this and realize that we have got to get back we have got to get back to the one thing and that is the unity of the spirit we've got to get back to this this is our hope this is our answer the millennials have said it we have got to get back to this charismatic experience we need god in our services ephesians 4 paul said make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace this is the hope that we have the answer to the confusion of babel the answer to the division of 2020 the answer for the church today in 2021 the answer for a post-pandemic world the church the answer is the possibilities of pentecost the possibilities of pentecost birthing of the church then and rebirth of the church now unifying of the church then reunifying of the church now the church finds its voice then the church rediscovers its voice now then they spoke as the spirit empowered them and enabled them now the church can speak again as the spirit empowers her empowers us or enables us we can do this but we need shavuot once again we need pentecost we need this encounter how to be the church in a post-pandemic world maybe just maybe and this season we're in holy spirit wants to give us a new language a new language i get it in a post-pandemic world church is going to change new wine takes new wineskins and everybody said amen so we as a community of believers we've got to adjust to where we are as a nation we're going to change our methods but keep our message and we we have to do that and i yield to that but we have to realize that as we're changing as we're shifting as we're moving forward perhaps just like on the day of pentecost over 2000 years ago he gave them a new language perhaps now we need a new language we can't do this in the arm of the flesh we have to do this in the arm of the lord we need holy spirit to breathe on us again i need to learn a new language but it has to be the language of the spirit it can't be the language of the flesh and we saw that at the tower of babel we saw that you see in genesis 11 9 it said therefore its name is called babel because there the lord confused the language of all the earth and and from there the lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth the word babel means in hebrew get this confusion by mixing you see mankind's language that once spoke of elohim their creator god now was polluted with pagan practices man that spoke one language and that at one time spoke of elohim out of that garden experience elohim is our creator god they knew him as elohim they spoke of him their language was of elohim but through the years mankind became polluted and they picked up pagan practices and god said this can't be and so he steps in confused their language and he scatters them across the earth to weaken them to dilute them to spread them out they were trying they were putting their trust in the arm of the flesh and they needed to put their trust in the arm of the lord is it possible that the church in america we got too proud is it possible that we said we're going to build a tower and make a name for ourselves is it possible that we learn how to do church instead of being the church is it possible i'm just asking questions and some of you may leave here today irritated with me but leave here irritated but knowing that i love you enough to tell you the truth that is it possible that in america somehow we've drifted too far and american marketing pagan practices have have wormed its way into the church to where now we're just we're more about performance than we are about presence is it possible that pagan practices have come in and now we're like the tower of babel and god had to step in i'm not saying that god causes the pandemic but i'm telling you god will allow it and god will use the pandemic is it possible that through all of 2020 somehow something happened in america to get the church's attention and so god confused our language because we have all the articles seven steps to success 12 keys to a large church mega this mega that is it possible that god allowed allowed it to happen to confuse to confound to scatter so that now we're forced to come back and deal with this issue because of the mixing god confused them but there's hope because the possibilities of pentecost in acts chapter 2 verse 4 all of them were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them enabled them the word enabled there in the greek means to speak by inspiration inspiration remember exodus chapter 19. sinai ten words were given the torah the word torah in the hebrew means instruction so on mount sinai they're given there's the birth of a nation and the giving of instruction in acts chapter 2 on mount zion there is the birth of the christian church and inspiration was given instruction inspiration think of this the birth of the church on this pentecost i want you to know that we can break the curse of babel whatever 2020 did i don't know about you and maybe it's just me but since 2020 with all of it pandemic rioting storms election all of it ever since then the atmosphere has never felt right it's like with the pandemic that came in there was something there was something regurgitated upon this nation there was a there was a nastiness that came and it still doesn't feel right but i'm here to tell you that through the power and the possibilities of pentecost we can break the curse of 2020 we can break the curse of babel i'm here to tell you that on this pentecost we can rebirth the church we can unite the brethren we can relearn the language of god and we can find inspiration to change the world he gave him instruction at sinai he gave us inspiration at mount zion i believe on this shavuot we can be inspired how many is looking for inspiration again pastors churches across the nation are struggling to to find their way forward and i want to tell you something guys i'm sorry i don't believe going to a conference and getting the seven steps to success is going to fix where we are if i thought it would i'd load up this group of staff and i'd haul them to wherever it was and i'd say sit there for eight hours a day for five days and learn what they teach and let's go home and fix this mess but it's not going to do it no book i can read no conference i can go to no no teleconference i can i can walk there's nothing i can do it's not gonna fix it pastors across the nation they're struggling their articles are going out the demise of the church one in five churches are closing christianity's dying in america it'll never be the same we can never go back hell is regurgitating that on this nation predicting our our demise and our undoing but jesus over 2000 years ago he prophesied and said listen to me i'm telling you in advance i'm prophesying in advance that i will build my church and the gates of hell will not stop it how to be the church in a post-pandemic world how to be the church my heart has been so heavy for over a year now on tuesday march the 10th in a staff meeting i told the staff i said guys listen we've heard about the covet 19 in china there's a case i think it started there was one in new york there was one over i think it was in seattle and i said we're hearing about this and i said guys we need to start talking today about what we're going to do as a church if this thing hits here that sunday we shut down on the 15th for the first time for the first time we had to shut down but over a year ago little did i know it would be just one hit after another just hit after hit covert 19 dividing our churches racial divide hitting our churches the presidential election hitting our churches and yes the prophets the division that came in this church and other churches about what do you do with the prophets why is it pastor preaching what the prophets are saying division brother against brother sister again sister people turning on their pastor the curse of babel but i'm here to tell you that we can break this thing and when i was digging this out [Music] and i came across this article over one-third of millennials believe glossly laid glossolalia is an important expression that should be a weekly part of their worship experience when i read that i said there's there's hope because new wine takes new wineskins and we can do this i can work with that i can work with that i got this that was like they opened doors like a the break the little light was coming through 36 percent of the millennials i can work with that if they believe that this needs to be a part of our weekly experience i can work with that i find hope in that because genesis chapter 11 again the tower of babel now this is a principle that applied then and it applies now they had one language of the flesh acts chapter 2 one language of the spirit same principle and the lord said indeed the people are one and they all have one language and this is what they begin to do [Music] now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them if they with one language of the flesh could provoke that kind of response from god what could one language of the spirit provoke from him now there's nothing there's nothing that we propose our purpose our plan to do that we can't do there's nothing there's nothing that we can't do if the church would come back to shavuot pentecost the rebirth of the church the restarting of the church and not do it in the arm of the flesh but do it in the arm of the lord to come back to the basics the basics of just getting back to just the basics of worship and the word and prayer and holy spirit getting back to the basics of preaching the cross and the blood getting back to the basics just getting back and then learning a new language of how we move forward in a post-pandemic world i'm here to tell you that if we'll re-learn how to speak the language of god which means we speak from the spirit if we'll relearn the language of god jesus said to the disciples when you come before men don't worry what you'll say because at that moment holy spirit will give it to you [Music] inspiration it's time for the creativity of elohim the creator god it's time for the inspiration of holy spirit it's time for the rebirthing of the church it's time for us to move forward but moving forward under his inspiration under his leadership as the book of acts said they found their voice and they spoke as the spirit enabled or inspired them it's shavuot 2021 and i'm calling for the rebirth of the church

Channel: One City Church

Views: 158

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: One city church, one city, cathedral church, cathedral in the pines, pastor feldschau, randy feldschau, Beaumont, Texas, tx, not in my city, nimc, shavuot, 2021, rebirth, church

Id: RV7qVKnIiQc

Length: 38min 37sec (2317 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021