Some words from my first sermon on the new job

15/07/2018

I don’t have a big ‘manifesto’ for Bray & Wicklow – I’d prefer to pray and see where God leads us, but wherever that may be, I’d like us to be able to know and trust the God that is revealed to us in the Scriptures – that we would have complete confidence in Him, that we would be able to fully trust our lives to Him.

As I’ve been praying about my new role for the past few months, the word that keeps coming to me is “Awakening”. I’m praying for a spiritual awakening in Bray & Wicklow. At Conference, Cheryl Patterson thoughtfully gave me a painting with the word 'Awakening' on it, as i had mentioned it to her in a Peer Supervision group. Shortly after receiving the painting, God showed me that I needed to start praying for a personal spiritual awakening before I would expect to see a move of God in County Wicklow. As the song goes – Lord, send revival, start with me. I met Jim Feely at a prayer meeting recently, and he has the word “Visitation” on his heart, which is very similar.

I chose the 2 readings (2 Chronicles 6:40 – 7:3 & Matthew 4:12 – 25) because one is a Visitation and one is an Awakening. The Visitation in 2 Chronicles 7 came at the Dedication of the Temple. 

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, ‘He is good; his love endures for ever.’

It must have been something! But it didn’t come from nowhere – it involved sacrifice and prayer and commitment to the task of building the temple over a long period of time. There is usually a back-story to a Visitation of God, an Invitation for God to show up.

So, that was a Visitation, the Awakening in Matthew 4 is in relation to the start of Jesus’ preaching ministry. We had the Incarnation 30 years earlier with his birth, now we have a spiritual awakening, as prophesied by Isaiah about 760 years previously. 

‘Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

    the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,

    Galilee of the Gentiles –

 the people living in darkness

    have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

    a light has dawned.’

 From that time on Jesus began to preach, 

‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Before an awakening, biblical imagery is usually about slumber and darkness - there is a need for people to wake up from their spiritual slumber, to come out from spiritual darkness into the light of God’s revelation. During Jesus’ ministry, people 'woke up' to the news of God’s kingdom, as introduced by Jesus, the Light of the World, and the church was born to extend that kingdom around the world. But Jesus didn’t do it all by himself – he needed people to commit themselves wholeheartedly to Him and to His cause. An awakening always demands a personal response.

We know from church history, that the power and growth of the church in the book of Acts wasn’t maintained ever since and at various times in various places, the church fell asleep, and in response to fervent believing prayer, God sent revivals – not least the 18^th Century Revival which birthed Methodism. And there were lots of others – the Welsh Revival, the 19^th Century revivals in America, let by Charles Finney and DL Moody. There was even a Revival in 1949 in the Scottish Hebrides and all sorts of mini-revivals all over the place.

And so I’m praying for an Awakening, however small or big that might be. It’s a big challenge, but we have a big God and we have a big message – a life changing message, that everyone needs to hear, so let’s have confidence in God and let’s have confidence in the Gospel as we journey together.