Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Pentecost Sunday. Who loves the Holy Spirit? Oh, we're a pentecostal church. Come on. Some people are going to go over and shake on all kinds of stuff soon, probably. This is great. I'm a pentecostal preacher and I'm excited to share God's word with you. The sermon I'm bringing today was not birthed this week, not even this month. The sermon that I'm going to bring to you today was birthed last year, and I'm going to share a little bit about that. How we got to this place and how I believe God's got something for us this morning. I don't know where your faith's at. I don't know even perhaps what your mentality is coming in this room this morning.
But I have faith to believe with all of my heart that God has something for you this morning.
I believe he wants to speak into your life. No matter how many times he's spoken before, no matter how many times you felt his presence, no matter how much you know church like the back of your hand. I believe with all of my heart, as I've been praying for months over this sermon, that God has something he wants to do in this room.
Pentecost Sunday.
What a day.
Pete Gregg shared these words on Pentecost Sunday a few years ago. I noticed he submitted a similar version, but adapted online this morning, which you may have seen, but a few years ago he wrote this about Pentecost Sunday, and it always excites me when I read these words. Pentecost Sunday celebrates the birth of a 2000 year old, 2 billion strong revolutionary movement of love and justice. The Church of Jesus Christ, for all.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Of its many faults, is by far.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: The biggest, most socially, culturally, ethnically, and politically diverse community on earth. It is actively engaged in caring for the sick, fighting poverty, making peace, and shaping culture in countless contexts, from war.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Zones to hospitals and food banks to refugee camps.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Its numbers serve sacrificially as a beacon of hope at the heart of the church. Our millions of ordinary people like you and me. Hence the imperfections. And at the heart of our imperfect lives burn the incendiary power and presence of the Holy Spirit given from us at the feast of Pentecost.
That is who we are, church.
That is who we are.
Far more than the people around us, across the globe and the nations, there are people gathering all of one accord because they have been saved radically by the person of Jesus Christ, and they have been set alight by the blazing fire of the Holy Spirit.
That is why we gather this morning because we long for him to do it again. Today we celebrate the hope that arrives through the arriving of the Holy Spirit.
What would it look like for the wells of Pentecost to visit this nation again? Church?
What would it look like for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to come amongst the community of God?
What would it look like if our lives were flipped totally upside down and our future plans made insignificant because God grabbed our hearts and decides that he longs to do something with our lives?
What would it look like for dry and wearied souls to be refreshed by the waters of the Holy Spirit?
What would it look like for us to get a small taste this morning of what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives?
Not just good music, not just a good talk, but lives encountering the very presence and nature of God moving amongst his people.
I don't know about you, but I long for it to happen in my life, in my time, in my watch.
God, would you do it again?
Would you do it again?
Would you pray for me? And then I'll introduce my sermon this morning. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you that you speak to us still. You've not gone silent.
Thank you that we get to gather here and worship you freely.
Thank you that you have a plan and mandate for this time together.
Thank you for my beautiful brothers and sisters in Christ, my family who have had the joy of serving alongside for ten years.
And I pray this morning, Lord, people won't hear the voice of Shaun or the thoughts of Shaun, but I pray your living and active word would come and have its way amongst our hearts and our lives.
We pray this in your wonderful name. Amen.
There are seasons we go through in life where it feels like the rain stops falling and we navigate in a dry land. Has anyone experienced that before in their lives? We got any honest christians in the room? Hey, come on. It's not always good. It's not always easy. We know that some of you right now are going through that exact season that I'm explaining and describing. And when we. When we find ourselves or our friends or our family going through a situation where it's really difficult to navigate, where it feels like perhaps the presence of God isn't tangible as it once was, perhaps our prayer life isn't as blazing as it has been previously in those seasons, we're left with a question, and the question is, how do we navigate those moments? Or perhaps it's even how do we help someone else navigate those moments, the.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Times in life where we're looking for.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: A sign from God, a breakthrough from God, for God just to come and speak. And often it feels like he doesn't.
We struggle speaking about them within the church at times because we do believe in a God that speaks. Amen. We do believe in the God of the breakthrough.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: We do believe that God cares and.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: Has a plan and purpose for our lives.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: But the reality is, at some point in our journey of faith, following him.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: It can feel slightly different to that.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: It can feel like we're struggling to.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Hear the whisper of the spirit.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: It can feel like the word of God isn't jumping off the pages into our hearts.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: It can feel like a dry and wearied place.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: The reason why that is, it's not.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Because there's anything wrong with God or anything wrong with Jesus. The reason why is because sin and evil make its difference in the world. Right? We're navigating a broken land as broken people, trying to connect with a perfectly beautiful God. And it can be difficult.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Well, the reality is, a few months.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Ago in my life, I found myself in one of these seasons.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: I found myself in a season where.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: It didn't feel like light was invading my life.
I found myself in a season where it felt like emptiness was my portion.
There was a moment in my life.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Where it felt like God was distant.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: And weakness was my only gift that I could bring to people.
The strong shorn had suddenly diminished and.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: I was left on my knees in.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Tears most days because I couldn't walk the land that was before me.
There was one moment in the middle of this season that my amazing wife Emily said to me, come on, we're getting out of the house. You need to feel the sun hitting your skin and you need to breathe in some fresh air.
So we walked. Me, my wife and my beautiful newborn at the time was walking around and I stepped outside and I felt the light, the sunlight come and hit my skin, breathed in the beautiful Devonshire fresh air.
And just for a moment, I felt this lovely oasis of peace.
And then this dawning reality came back.
Of this moment doesn't reflect the current state of my life.
We were walking down the street and em wanted to go into a charity shop. Any charity shop lovers? Yeah, you shoppers and charity shops. Come on.
So my lovely wife is one of those people, and she said, come on, we're going into a charity shop. So I joyfully walked into this charity shop, so excited. It's like, this is why I'm alive, to go into charity shops and look at things that people don't want anymore. It's great.
We were walking around the clothes and the ornaments, and there was something in the corner of the room that caught my eye in this charity shop, and I was drawn towards it. I'm still convinced this moment that it was actually a little bit of a God thing. Sometimes God shows up in the most surreal, strange places. We know that, right? And I was drawn to this little sign, and I walked over to the sign, and I can remember reading it.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: And here's what this little sign said.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: In the middle of this charity shop, em was looking at some clothes of Elijah. And I picked up this little sign and hears the words. It said this. Reclaim rebellious hope.
Reclaim rebellious hope. And here's the tagline that it said.
Rebellious hope is choosing to remain hopeful, even when there's nothing to be hopeful for.
It's rebelling against the constant narrative that darkness wins because it does not.
The light of Jesus always wins. The darkest of days.
In that space, God started to speak to me. Prayers started to come from my life that have never really come from my life. And it was that day last year that this sermon was born. Because this morning, I want to speak about what it means to have a rebellious hope.
A hope that speaks against the narrative that darkness is winning. A hope that looks at the circumstances in our life that may not all be glitter and glam and look great, but we know deep inside that there is a plan of God and a purpose of God that will always prevail over the darkest of days, there is a moment in our lives, a hope that perceives through darkness and sees Christ in the middle of pain. There is a hope that can come across the church. And when the church grab hold of it, they look at the difficulties around them, and they march forward with strength and boldness, because they know. They know. They know. They know that the Holy Spirit is with them, marching, leading, guiding, protecting them through every season that comes their way.
Church, I want to invite you this morning to what it looks like to reclaim rebellious hope. I'm convinced some of you in this morning have walked in here, and you're desperate for hope, and I'm convinced God's going to give you it this morning.
I'm absolutely convinced. Some of your prayer lives are struggling.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: You're in a weary land.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: You don't feel like you've been connecting with God for a long time. And you've walked into this room thinking this is just the same old, same old. And guess what? God has marked out this date and his diary, and he has a plan to turn things around in your life? I'm convinced of it. I'm convinced that the spirit of God wants to fall on his people, so that people who are just walking normal lives will walk extraordinary lives for the kingdom of God in whatever setting they find themselves in. I'm convinced of it.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: We see it throughout scripture all the time. People who are in a difficult season.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Being lifted and refreshed by the powers.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: It's where Pentecost came from.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Acts, chapter two. Bewildered disciples gathering it in an upper room, thinking, was Jesus just a lie? Was the message that he brought just a lie? Where is he now? He did all these things, and now we're left here. There's a festival going on outside. We don't know where to turn, who to look to for advice. And they come together. And in the midst of their doubts and in the midst of their frustration, in the midst of their questions, they gathered together. And there what happened? The Holy Spirit fell upon them. Tongues of fire and different languages came from their mouths. And a bold witness, which is the Church of Jesus Christ, started to walk.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Forward for the first time 2000 years later.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Friends, that's why we're here. That's our history.
That's the wells in which we came from. We didn't come from good thinking. We didn't come from just some creative people. We came birthed from the Holy Spirit. And we stand here today as the same church that started 2000 years ago. We're not just a social club of people that long to be around the person of Jesus. We're not just a social club constructed by good ideas and principles and moralistic deism. We are here, alive with the flames of the Holy Spirit, to do a work for Jesus Christ as long as we have breath in our lungs.
This is what it means to have a rebellious hope, to believe that God would do something with our prayers, to believe that impossible situations can be made possible, to believe that God is still, he says in his words, right?
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Do you not perceive it?
[00:13:05] Speaker B: I am the one who can make a way in the wasteland. Rivers of fresh drinking water can drive through the deserty spaces of our life.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Because we are here.
Our whole lives are here for the person of Jesus Christ, to love him first, to love people, to serve him well. But we can't do it anymore in our own strength.
We can't walk in our own strength church.
We've seen it happen. We all look throughout christian history. We only have to look in modern terms and see people falling and failing because they're doing it in their own strength. Friends, we can't do it in our own strength. And hear my heart.
You can't do it in your own strengths.
You can't be the light of the Holy Spirit. You can't be the reflection of Jesus Christ. You can't be a carrier of his presence and your own strength. We need his power. We need his presence. We need his help. And the good news is that Jesus sent it freely as a gift for us to receive the only condition we have.
The only condition that's there. Lord, I want more of you.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: I want more of you. Not so I look good, but so.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: That you would look good.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: I need more of you so people see you. Because we know where their destination is going, and we long to put a stop to the marks of hell and Satan on people's lives. The only way that's going to happen is if you grab people through us. We need more of you. Life is short.
We come and we go. But the person of the Holy Spirit remains constant and steadfast, longing to use broken people for his mission, to drag people out of the pits of darkness and hell into his glorious light and church. The reality is he is coming again.
Jesus is coming back. We're on marked time and territory. It might not preach well, but it's the reality. He's coming back for a bride that is on fire for God.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: But we need him.
So the invitation, rebellious hope. I'm going to take ten to 15 minutes. I'm going to take you to scripture, and I'm going to use a character I've never preached on before, but it's been ever so close to my life and heart over the last year. And you'll probably know why when I say his name, it's a character called Elijah, the burning prophet, the weeping prophet, the one who knew what it meant to go through dark times, but to hold on to a rebellious hope.
I want to look at a few things from a passage of scripture about Elijah. And the questions I want to answer, hopefully try help this morning is, how do we get rebellious hope?
How do we grab hold of it in our lives? How do we receive it? And then I want to bring two thoughts of what rebellious hope does to us as a community, but also does to us as individuals.
By the power of his word, I pray he uses it to speak to our lives. We're going to respond. We're going to pray at the end. I'm going to call people forward. We've got a ministry time, a prayer team. We believe that some people are going to be prayed for and lives are going to be transformed. Amen.
One kings 18, 42, 46. It will come off on the screens. If you've got a bible, you can turn there. If you want to highlight and take notes, the word of God, I'd really advise you and encourage you to do that. It says these words from verse 42. So Ahab went off to eat and drink. Ahab was the king, probably historically the most evil king that's probably ever existed. Not a nice guy, and he didn't like Elijah and didn't like people that were following Yahweh. Ahab went off to eat and drink. But Elijah came to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
Go and look towards the sea, he told his servant. So his servant went up and looked to the sea, and he came back and he said, there is nothing there.
Seven times Elijah said, go back.
The 7th time, the servant reported, a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So Elijah said, go and tell Ahab. Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Meanwhile, the sky grew black and clouds.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: And the wind rose, and a heavy rain started falling. And Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the lord came on Elijah and took in his cloak and his belt. He ran ahead and went to Jezreel.
Context to this passage of scripture, many of you will know it. But at this point in time, the people who were following Yahweh were actually backtracking, fearful for their lives. They were not advancing. They were not doing signs and wonders. They were in deep fear because King Ahab had turned to false gods. And anyone that didn't turn with him to these false gods was slaughtered and killed. In previous verses, you can read it at a later date.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: It says there were 200 prophets of.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: God hiding in the mountains in fear.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Elijah was one of those people.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: And the reason why king Ahab was.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: So angry at the people that were.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Following Yahweh is because there'd been a severe famine and drought for three and a half years.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: No water had hit the land. Crops were dying.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: This was an agricultural disaster.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Livestock, animals, all dying.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Food was running out. Supply was running out. There was a shortage three and a half years.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Elijah was one of the people that.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Prayed in this drought because he realized that people started relying on other sources other than God. I don't know if it's a new fast to you, but when we start to rely on other sources other than God, things start to go wrong.
So Elijah is there and he goes into the secret place. For three and a half years. He doesn't appear, he doesn't show his head, he doesn't continue to do things. And then nowhere out of one. Kings 18 earlier on, he appears. He challenges King Ahab to who is the right God. Yahweh proves to be victorious. And then we take it up from here out of the middle of this victorious reign of Yahweh.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Suddenly the people who follow Yahweh are liberated and free and they start to.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Navigate slowly out of the mill, out of the hills and the mountains and the caves and out of that place. Elijah goes up to the mountain and he bends down, he says, he puts his head between his knees.
This, in the current context of when this was written, was the natural birthing position.
It was how women would give birth. I'm not going to try do it in front of you all. Don't worry.
But you can imagine what it looks like.
Gives the description to a labouring prayer, a persistent prayer, a defiant prayer.
We'll come back to that in a moment.
From this place, Elijah starts to pray and he starts to believe that the God of hope will send a breakthrough to the land.
Pete Gregg preached many years ago to the church when we were in the northern hay building. And he said he felt like he had a prophetic word for the church and hears the words that he said. I hear the sound of heavy rain.
I hear the sound of heavy rain and it's coming once again, I believe with all of my heart that rain is coming. And the Bible says that the rain of the latter house will far taste sweeter and greater than the rain of the former house, I hear the sound of heavy rain.
So in the midst of this crisis, in the midst of not knowing where to turn, in the midst of this retreat, fear, concern of life, Elijah has a bounty on his head. King Ahab wants him dead, has done for three and a half years hence the reason why he's been in hiding. And from this place of dryness, weariness, not knowing where to turn, Elijah we take up, goes to Carmel and adopts this position.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: And he starts to pray in a.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: Way like I long to pray in my life.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: In the midst of this difficult dark season, Elijah starts to show us what.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: It looks like to have rebellious hope.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: A hope that doesn't look like circumstances.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: A hope that doesn't look around us and say what's going on, that will.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Guide my emotions, that will guide my feelings, but a hope that sees beyond circumstances. Biblical hope is so much different. To average day hope, standard hope that people believe is just circumstantial.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: We gain hope when we feel good.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: We gain hope when it looks bright. We gain hope when the path before us looks steady and safe and we start to have hope for what is ahead. But biblical hope is so different. Biblical hope isn't optimism. It's not just optimistic thinking or goodwill. Biblical hope is a commitment to believe that God is doing something in the midst of darkness. Biblical hope steadies us and anchors us in the midst of great turmoil. It's the reason why the Bible says hope is the anchor to our soul. It anchors us. It ties our feet down. It brings a resolve to our hearts and our lives to believe. Even when the circumstances declare, the narrative of darkness is winning over my life, or over the nations or over the world. We have a hope that says we know the end of the story, Jesus is returning and all things will be made new.
We have a different kind of hope, a biblical hope, a godly hope, a divine hope. And Elijah shows us what that hope looks like. But in order for us to have that hope, we first must receive it. And this is why I love Pentecost. Because Pentecost is about the one that brings hope.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Holy Spirit.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: The Holy Spirit comes and it says we will have a life that overflows with hope. Not just a little bit, not just a marginal bit, not just a bit to get us through the day, but an overflowing, saturated life of hope. That's what the Holy Spirit promises us in our lives. So how do we receive it? What do we see through Elijah in these first few verses? Three quick thoughts. Firstly, I want to tell you that rebellious hope arrives by position.
Rebellious hope arrives by position.
I want to bring something that might not be revolutionary, might not be something.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Of a great revelation.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: But the reality is we will not.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Have hope if we are not positioned close to Jesus Christ.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: We will not have hope if we.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Don'T stay close to the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Rebellious hope will only be birthed in.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Our lives if we position ourselves correctly.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: The reason why hope has diminished in my lives at time is because I've tried to do it in my own strength and I've not stayed close to.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: The person of Jesus.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: Positioning invites revelation and revelation informs hope.
When we position ourselves to be close to Jesus, the only natural outcome to.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Our lives is rebellious hope.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: It's the natural connotations that come from.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: A life that is close to Jesus leaves us with a tricky question.
If we don't have hope.
Why is that?
The only way to get his perspective over situations is by positioning ourselves to be close to his perspective over this land.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: How many people know that?
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Prayer isn't about getting our agenda into God. Prayer is about getting his agenda into us.
Prayer isn't about God. Look at my perspective. Look at my circumstances. Prayer is more about God. Can you give me your perspective over my life?
The lens in which we view our lives and our circumstances and our pathway and our season is really important to how we will navigate that season. And I want to encourage you this morning to keep the lens of heaven over your life. Colossians three two is one of my favorite verses. I quote it all the time. Some of you are probably bored of me saying it. To see in ways that are heavenly rather than ways that are earthly, to operate in ways that are godly rather than ways that are fleshly. That we would be a people that see our lives through the lens of heaven. You know, when we do that, it releases a lot of anxiety in our lives.
It shifts a whole lot of weights that are on our shoulder, that the enemy has been manipulating time and time again to try keep us stagnant, distracted and still.
But when we start to operate from a heavenly perspective, a godly lens over our circumstance, in our life, these weights are lifted because we start to suddenly realize that God is not in heaven. Floundering around going, what am I going to do? Shaun's in a bad situation, but God is on the throne, at the right hand of the father, in control of all things, all things.
Control of everything. Your future, your difficulties, your tensions, the valleys and the mountaintops, the journeys in which we walk and we do life.
He's over it.
Guiding, leading, prompting.
He didnt promise that we would have easy times all the time, but he did promise that he would be with us through the end of the days, with us. Every step that we take, every step of faith, every step of change, every moment on the journey with us, never abandons us, never leaves us, never forsakes us.
You see, when we get that in our heart and our spirit, we start to walk a little bit lighter, dont we?
In order for us to get that, we have to be positioned right.
The two main Hebrew words from the Old Testament refer to the word hope. Largely find its root and meaning in the word wait. And I find that really interesting.
To hope for is to wait for.
How often do you wait on the Holy Spirit?
How often do you wait for hope to arrive?
How busy are we?
How distracted are we?
How much is going on in your mind right now? That parking ticket, that dog. I gotta get parking. I know it's there.
To hope for is to wait for.
James Ladarin gave a word at leadership summit that we've just come back from and he spoke about how the western church really struggles with spiritual stamina.
We don't know what it means to labour in his presence.
We struggle with waiting for a long time because we've got so much going on. I want to gently encourage you this morning that in order to be positioned to receive a rebellious hope is going to take some patient waiting.
It's not the quick fix.
It's not the super speedy, fast food faith.
It's a willingness to wait.
The Bible speaks a lot about waiting.
I'm not going to go into it right now, but it's a good search for you to do in your own time.
When we position ourselves and we spend time waiting, God holds up his end of the bargain and he fills us with his Holy Spirit.
And from the Holy Spirit, we find rebellious hope.
You know the Holy Spirit wasn't sent for better church services, don't you?
He was sent so that the people of God would overflow with hope in the mission to the lost and the broken.
You know that Pentecost didn't come and go, right?
Pentecost came and stayed.
And we get to live from that reality.
If you don't have hope, the answer isn't just think better, do better, work better.
The answer is to position to wait so that you can get a fresh touch. The Holy Spirit.
Noah, would you come join me? We're going to land two quick thoughts.
What happens when we receive this holy spirit?
What happens when we wait and he comes and touches us afresh? Andrew made a really interesting comment earlier, saying, we're all leaky buckets. We need to come continue to make sure that we're close to the presence of the Lord. We're close to the Holy Spirit, and I believe there's elements of that that's so true. Some of us feel like we're so used to church and I'm speaking to my own heart here. It's not from a judgmental place that I come in here and I think about other people being blessed and touched by God, rather than coming in here going, God, I'm hungry for you myself. I want to receive a touch. I want to have a hunger. I want to have a thirst for your things. I don't want to think about who else needs it. I don't want to think about who else wants it. I want to come in with my own direct ambition of God.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Please don't let me leave this place unless I'm marked by the power and.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: The presence of God.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: I want a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit in my life because I don't want to do it by strength. We've tried and tested it. It didn't work. We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the church and come alive by the blazing fires of Pentecost once again.
We need it in our own lives. I need it in my life. And I'm desperate for it. Because when we reclaim it, when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, things start to shift in our lives. I know there's people in here that are longing for a shift. They're longing for a change. They're longing for a breakthrough. They're longing for something to take place. It won't come through my preaching, but it will come through the presence of God. Meeting your life and changing your circumstances. We long for a rebellious hope to come back. Because when we're positioned to wait, he fills us. We overflow. And then things start to change. Here's one of the things that start to change. Our prayer life starts to change.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: Church.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: We start to pray differently. Rebellious hope provokes a persistent prayer, a defiant prayer. I mentioned it earlier on. Some of us have struggled with our prayer life for a long, long time. You long for it to change. Some of us look back in the rear view mirror and we think, oh, wasn't it good then, friends, it can be good right now. It can be good for the future. Your prayer life can come alive once again. You can know what it means to have a life of prayer, not just a simple prayer life. You can live at one with the Holy Spirit in communion with the Father, Son and spirit in your everyday. And the way we do that, again, I keep going back to, I know it gets repetitive, but the Holy Spirit is the answer. We need him. We need him to labor in prayer, to persist in prayer, to be defiant in prayer, to believe that our prayer changes things.
You know there's unlocking of things in your life that will only unlock by the avenue of prayer.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: You know that, right?
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Things will only shift if we learn how to pray. And I am on this journey so much early on on that stage, but I am believing that my prayer life in the year ahead is going to keep going up and up and up.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: And up because of the Holy Spirit, because of his ways.
I find it so interesting in this passage of scripture. It is fascinating. And this is where we get this persistent prayer from. Look at the verse that is underneath. Seven times Elijah said, go back. The 7th time, the servant reported, a.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Cloud as small as a man's hand.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: Is rising from the sea. You know, hope on the horizon sometimes looks differently to that which we expect.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: A small little cloud on the horizon is the 7th time of returning, the 7th time of going back.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: The 7th time of persistency. And it wasn't the servant's fault, but.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: Elijah had a persistent prayer that came from hope.
He had a hope that said, no matter what, even if it's empty blue skies on the horizon, I hear the.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Sound of heavy rain coming.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: I can see something that isn't in the natural, in the spiritual, and in the supernatural. I see something shifting. Something is changing. Three and a half years of dryness. Three and a half years of not having the fresh winds and rains of the Holy Spirit. Three and a half years of navigating decay and fear and frustration and doubt. And in the midst of all the.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Circumstances around him, I hear the sound of heavy rain.
I hear the sound of rain coming. Rain is going to shift things. Things are going to change in the.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: Spirit, I believe, even though my eyes can't see it. I live by faith and not by sight. Something is going to shift. Something's going to move. And Elijah had this persistent prayer, go have a look. Something's coming. The servant goes. He looks the first time and he says these words, there's nothing there.
Perhaps you've been looking for a breakthrough in your life. Perhaps you've been looking for a change in your life. Perhaps you've been wanting your prayer life to come alive. Perhaps you've been wanting the presence of God to touch you more honestly, perhaps you want the word of God to jump out. And when you go and when you.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Taste, it feels like those words, there's nothing there.
So what happens?
[00:34:28] Speaker B: The servant comes back, Elijah, there's nothing there.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Go again. Go back, go back, go back. Keep going back.
So he goes a second time. I've done this the first time.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Second time, I've still got a little.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Bit of hope, or should I say optimism.
I got a little bit of optimism.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: But the circumstances are saying something very different. I see nothing here. So I travel back. We don't know how long the journey was. He comes back to Elijah. Elijah is still in the same position, laboring in the spirit, praying to God, God, would you change things? Would you shift things? Would you move things? I can't do it in my own strength. But I believe in a God who can. The circumstances look dark around us, but I know your light prevails through the darkness distinguishes the darkness. I'm going to stay here in this rebellious hope. I'm not going to look at the circumstances. I'm going to keep going. The servant comes. There's nothing there. Go back. The third time, he goes back. This time, the optimism is dwindling. It still doesn't look like anything's going to change. There's nothing there. There's nothing there. He comes back. Elijah, how many times are you going.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: To send me nothing?
[00:35:35] Speaker B: No word of encouragement?
No. Gentle. It's okay.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Go back.
Fourth time. Fifth time. 6th time. I don't know about you, but I'd probably have given up by now, especially if my hope was built on optimism, because the circumstances would win this battle.
So many times I wonder in my life how many times I've stopped. On the 6th time, how many times I've gone to the well.
I've gone for the breakthrough. I believe for something, and I've given up. I've stopped. And the 6th time, I come back. And Elijah says, the 7th time, the 7th time, go back.
He comes back.
Three and a half years, not a sign of a cloud in the sky.
He runs back. This time, it's small, it's different. But in the distance, there's hope on the horizon, because I see. I see a small little cloud, and it's the size of a man's hand. I can put my hand up and I can see the little cloud. It's so far away, it looks like it's going to take forever to come.
I don't even know if it's carrying rain, but I can see something. We've not seen something for three and a half years. You've told me to come back seven times, and I can see this little.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Glimpse, this little breakthrough potentially on its way.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: And within moments, within moments, the clouds start to darken and a heavy rain, heavy rain starts to fall.
Here's a note, just a side note, of something that I read. And I found this really fascinating. If you read the later chapters, it said as soon as the rain started to fall, the crops started to grow.
That means that farmers were planting seeds even in the driest of seasons, because in the driest of seasons, rain will eventually come. I want to encourage some of you that you might be praying in the driest of seasons in your life, and you're just putting out seeds and it feels like nothing's coming back. You will reap your rewards. When the heavy rain comes.
A persistent prayer, a defiant prayer. I will keep laying these seeds over my family members, over my health, over my business, over my friendship groups. I will persist and be defiant because a rebellious hope says no to the darkness and yes to the ways of God. I hear the sound of a heavy rain.
Something special. When we grow in our persistency, we get his agenda and we get his hope.
Sometimes it can feel like we're praying in the desert. But if we're willing to commit to doing so, our seeds will reap a harvest. When the rain arrives, friends, the rain will come.
The rain will come.
If you find yourself in a position where you feel like you've lost spiritual stamina, your appetite for prayer has started to weaken. Then today the Holy Spirit can fan into flame a new hunger and persistency for your season, that you will stay close positioned for revelation, that you will have a new defiant prayer. And finally, you will find a rebellious hope that sees beyond the natural.
Sees beyond the natural.
Hebrews eleven one. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.
If all you can see is the, as we've heard earlier, the bulls in your life, the mountains in your life, the staleness in your life, the ruggedness in your life, the difficulties in your life, there's fresh hope on offer for every single one of you today.
And it comes through positioning, it comes through prayer.
And we get this download and we start to see our lives, oh, so differently.
So my invitation is really simple.
I'm calling as church, all of us, towards a rebellious hope, a hope that speaks to the decay of our society.
A hope that speaks. Speaks to the city of Exeter, to Devon, to Cornwall, to the southwest, and to the nations beyond, and says, no matter what we see with our natural eyes, my faith speaks a better word, a different word, a different narrative.
No matter what season you find yourself in, the invitation to you is come, receive a hope.
A hope that comes from the person of Jesus Christ. Lifted high on the cross, lived, died, resurrected in victorious power, so that we can know the fresh embers of hope from the Holy Spirit. The invitation is, would you wait, would you position yourself, would you labour in the areas of prayer? And would you receive the gifts that he has for you in this moment, in this season, and in this time?
