Pastor Jeff and Cheryl Orluck
Pastor Jeff: Well, good morning.
Cheryl: Good morning.
Pastor Jeff: I've got a sniffle now because they made me cry,
Cheryl: I know that we out here have everything that those three people coming will need.
Pastor Jeff: Yeah. Amen.
Cheryl: We do.
Pastor Jeff: Yeah. Lots to give them. One of the fun things about being able to share the message on Sunday morning is we get to honor somebody I know. I've talked about this before, but we have wonderful prayer warriors who are part of hope. We have people who, uh, meet every Sunday morning before the service. We have people who pray together every Friday, women who pray together every Friday. We have men's prayer gatherings. We have monthly prayer gatherings for the whole church. We have all day prayer days. We do a lot of prayer. We even have people who come purposely to this site in the middle of the week when nobody would know they are here and they just pray for us. I honestly can say if anything good happens at Hope, those are the people that we can thank.
There is one of those prayer warriors who's been with us probably since our inception and I particularly would like to honor her. And that prayer warrior I'd like to honor is Bernie Leaf. She is a mighty woman of God. She has been around for a while. She's seen a lot of good things, good, bad, and ugly, but she has persisted to pray and to intercede in very prophetic ways for us as Hope and for the kingdom of heaven. Bernie, we just want to thank you for your faithfulness and how you have carried us in prayer and how you've warned us when the Lord shows you things and how you've been diligent to pray, prophetic prayer and prophetic intercession before the Lord.
As I was pondering this, the Lord gave me a picture of a huge bonfire. The Lord wanted me to tell you that, uh, to be careful not to regard yourself as somehow insignificant or somehow like to wonder even as you are getting older, what am I here for? What do I still have a purpose or what is my value in this church or in this world? Because what I saw was this massive bonfire. It was such a bright light. It was burning so brightly that the Lord, the Father sitting in heaven could see it. He sees the fire that you are. You are carrying it in your heart. And there are times at home when you are praying and you are interceding before the Lord and he sees the fire. And there are times you are here at hope and you are doing the same and you are in prayer meetings and you are doing the same. But the fire is something that you carry inside of you. It's a prophetic understanding of who God is and what he's bringing to the nations of this world. It's a prophetic understanding of what he's doing in this church. The Lord honors you for that, and we honor you because you've carried that fire for so, so long. And thank you, Bernie, for who you are in our lives.
Cheryl: Thank you, Bernie.
Bernie: [Inaudible 1:08:44 -1:09:10]
Pastor Jeff: Did y'all hear that? She had to spend some concerted time in her basement praying and worshiping because she was being attacked by the devil, trying to tell her that, trying to convince her there was no reason to continue praying. Well, thank the Lord. We thank the Lord for you. You are a gift to us, Bernie. You are definitely a gifted human being and a gift to all of us. I got sniffles again.
Cheryl: You better get the box of Kleenex
Pastor Jeff: I better get the box of Kleenex. This isn't a tearful word. I'm hoping this'll be-- well, I really believe this is a prophetic message more so than maybe some of the others we've had. Give credit where credit is due. Cheryl is the one who was inspired with this. It started with something that she said that she believed that Hope needed to hear. We are going to just dive right in, in the interest of time. I can't quite see the clock. I got one right here. Okay. Just don't want to hold you too long. It's been a busy morning already. But, uh, we want to wrap it up. The name of this message is the Jesus Way, because that's what we've been teaching: the Jesus Way. This one is the New and the Old together. And we are going to start out with Matthew chapter 13, verse 52. This is in the Passion Translation.
Cheryl: He responded, every scholar of the scriptures who is instructed in the ways of heaven's kingdom realm is like a wealthy homeowner with his house filled with treasures, both new and old.
Pastor Jeff: Someone who is a scholar. And of course, back in the day, Jesus was actually talking in some of the translations, it says ascribe or a teacher of the law. People who studied the word of God, people who knew the Word of God, theologians of the day. And I think we'll bring it up to this era, theologians of today, those of us who are given the word, study the word, believe the word, quote the word, live the word. That's a lot of us. We have a treasure in our home. When we bring the treasure out, he says, we bring both new and old. The reason that he said that is because he was trying to help the Pharisees and the teachers of the law of that day understand that as much as they had embraced and understood or thought they understood the law and the prophets, that there was more for them to understand and that they needed to embrace what he was bringing. That was totally foreign to them. It was a brand new thing, but it was very important that they added to their treasure in their home.
We don't have to go to it, but it says in Hebrews 13, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. God doesn't change ever. But God is big. We went on a trip to Alaska back in July. And I got the opportunity to fly in a special tourist plane, around Mount Denali. There are actually three mountains. There is Four Acre hunter in Denali. And so the pilot says, well, before we hit Denali, let's go say hi to Four Acre. And so we are flying directly at this mountain, and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger, you know, so from far away you can see the peak. Well, pretty soon all I can see is the cliffs in front of me. The peak is way above me. And I'm starting to think to myself, shouldn't he be turning soon?
Cheryl: Because you are sitting beside him in the pilot seat.
Pastor Jeff: I'm sitting beside him in the co-pilot seat, and it seems like we are coming up on the rocks pretty quick. And suddenly he says, "Well, right now, we are about a mile and a half out." And I'm thinking, what?
Cheryl: Still that's close.
Pastor Jeff: It's humongous. And I'm a mile and a half away, and I'm feeling completely dwarfed by this massive piece of rock. I get back to the house and I'm sharing this with Cheryl, and she says, "Well, if you think that mountain was big, what about the galaxy?" If you think the galaxy's big, what about the universe? Who created the universe? God, if you think the universe is big, how big is God? I mean, really, how big is God? When she said it, I realized we are going to live forever. It's going to take forever to actually understand all of who he is.
Our little finite minds, we think we understand the word of God. We think we understand the things of God, but let me tell you, there is a lot more to learn. The Pharisees thought they had it all, and then Jesus brought something fresh and they needed it. And God is always bringing something fresh. God is always bringing something new to his people because he's moving us from faith to faith and glory to glory. He's taking us beyond where we are, into what we will be always, if we will, if we will.Jesus came, in Matthew 5:17. Maybe we'll read that one. You can put that one up, Rosina.
Cheryl: Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
Pastor Jeff: Jesus fulfilled them first by being the Passover lamb and dying for our sins. And his was the blood sacrifice that was required by the law for the forgiveness of sin. But he also taught how to fulfill them. And what he taught, we find in Matthew 22, which we are all very familiar with, but let's just read it together.
Cheryl: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Pastor Jeff: Pharisees thought they understood how to follow the law. They had all kinds of rules for every part of your life that you needed to follow. And they kinda got a little upset when Jesus didn't follow those rules. I mean, who in the world doesn't know they shouldn't heal on the Sabbath? Can't work on the Sabbath healing his work. He just violated the law. What Jesus brought was a new understanding of the law. He said, look, it's not about all that. It's not about tithing your little spices. It's about love. Think about it, the 10 Commandments are only practical suggestions on how to love correctly. Because if you love people, you won't steal from them, right? If you love your wife, you won't commit adultery and vice versa.
He says, all of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments, or the law is completely fulfilled in these two commandments. So what he taught was the right way to fulfill the law. It wasn't by following all the rules, just perfectly. He took the understanding that men and women had of God at that time, and he brought it to a whole new level. He brought it past the rules into love. Now, that's pretty radical, and it didn't go over very well. But you see, that's the way the Father is. He's always bringing us. He doesn't abolish the old; he fulfills the old. But at the same time that we carry forward with us, things that we've already embraced, he's bringing us into new things that we need to embrace as well that cause us to increase and grow and be fruitful in our relationship with God and our mission. If we don't accept what God is doing that's fresh and new, we are going to just end up, we are the Pharisees killing the messenger, right? Let's go to Luke chapter five. This is kind of the cornerstone verse of our message. And we are going to linger here for a bit. Take a few sections of it and then we'll go from there.
Cheryl: And he gave them this illustration. No one rips up a new garment to make patches for an old worn out one. If you tear up the new to make a patch for the old, it would not match the old garment. And who pours new wine into an old wine skin? If someone did the old wine skin would burst and the new wine would be lost. New wine must always be poured into new wine skins. Yet you say the old ways are better and you refuse to even taste the new wine that I bring.
Pastor Jeff: Let's just look at that last statement Jesus made. Yet you say the old ways are better and you refuse to even taste the new wine that I bring. We get so comfortable with the old that the new becomes a threat because what's new threatens what has already been established and we are comfortable with, and we tend to not like change. And yet change is an ongoing part of living in the kingdom because God is constantly bringing new and fresh things to us.
The best example I have is 20th century revivals in America. 20 years ago, I spent a lot of time studying these things. They are a passion of mine. But let me just say to begin with that revivals are from God. There are seasons that he brings for a specific purpose at a specific hour. And when he brings revivals, he is no respecter of persons. He does. He comes to do what he comes to do. And you can either get on board or get out of the way.
There is a prophetic preacher that I enjoy listening to, and he talks about a vision he had. Jesus was walking down a path and he was determined to get somewhere. People would jump in, in front of him in the path to stop him, and he'd throw him out of the way. And so this preacher jumped in front of the path to stop him. And Jesus had said get outta my way. And he paused for a second, and Jesus reached to take his hand and throw him all the way. And he quickly jumped off the path out of the way. And Jesus walked right by me. He turned around and he said, now, follow me.
Cheryl: You don't want to let Jesus throw you.
Pastor Jeff: No, it's better to get in line and follow him. Yes.
Cheryl: I think we are all familiar with the first great awakening that happened in the 1700s. The evangelists that birthed and carried that was Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards, theologically, was a Calvinist. You may or may not know what that is. Probably the most onerous part of that theology to some of us is the idea that people are pre-selected for salvation or not. When you are born, you are destined to either meet Jesus or not meet Jesus, and you have no control over it. You are born destined to heaven or hell.
We tend not to accept that as true, but it was a very real thing. And it continues to be a very real theology in the church today. Jonathan Edwards was a Calvinist. And God brought this massive awakening to America at a time when Christianity was almost lost. And he birthed the revival through Jonathan Edwards that restored Christianity to it's proper place in this country.
Then in the 18 hundreds, there was a second grade awakening. Many of you know about that. That was led by a man named Charles Finney. Charles Finney was an Armenian in theology. Now, you may not know what that is, but let me just say that Armenians and Calvinists think in completely two different ways. They are diametrically opposed in their understandings of salvation. So God used a Calvinist to bring a great revival in the 1700s, and he used an Armenian to bring a great revival in the 1800s. He doesn't care about our theology. He's going to do what he's going to do, and he's going to walk all over our theologies if we are willing to. Well, he'll do it anyways. You can let him or not. You can follow him or not.
In the early 1900s, there was the Azusa Street revival that was led by a black man in the early 1900s, William Seymour. William Seymour, backtrack before him. There was a man named Charles Parham. In the late 1800s, there was a real healing movement in the church. And there were a lot of places that were called healing homes. We might call them a hospice now. The sick, the infirm, people with terminal diseases would go to these healing homes. The only difference is they would receive prayer there. And the point wasn't, they didn't go there to die. They went there to get healed. But you were cared for in those homes until you either died or got healed.
Charles Parham was a man who ran a healing home. But in the midst of that ministry, God gave him a revelation out of the scriptures that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was something that men and women could experience after they met Jesus. And that the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues. And so he moved to Texas, started a Bible school, and began to teach his new doctrine. William Seymour was a black man who wanted to attend that school. William was black. He couldn't sit in the classroom with all the white students; he had to sit in the hallway.
But after he'd been in school for a year or so, there was a church in Los Angeles that wanted to conduct revival meetings. And they reached out to Charles Parham to see if he might have someone that could come do the meetings. And he suggested William Seymour. William Seymour went up; I think Charles Parham actually gave him $10 to buy his train ticket. He went up to Los Angeles with no other money, one suitcase knocked on the church door. They welcomed him in. And he did his first meeting that night of the revival meetings. He preached the message that he had learned in Bible school from Charles Parham.
The next night he came for the second meeting and the door was padlocked shut. There was a chain around the doors and a padlock. They shut him down. Can't have this kinda message going on in our church. So there he is, homeless, no money. But there was one family that was enamored with his message that invited him to their home, and they started Bible studies. And that was on Bonnie Brae Street. If you ever heard somebody talk about Bonnie Brae Street, that's where the birth of the Azusa Street revival was. And so they began to study the scriptures and teach these things that William Seymour had learned.
After some time together, the very first person in that little Bible study received the gift of tongues and started to speak in tongues. And then it began to just move like a wave of fire. And they ended up on the porch of Bonnie Brae Street, and people were gathering on the front lawn. And pretty soon there were hundreds. They were spilling out into the street, hundreds of people coming to hear this message. One night, they had such a crowd on the porch praying to receive the baptism and the Holy Spirit and the gifted tongues that the porch caved in.
That ended the venue. They had to go look for another place. And they found this old stable on Azusa Street. They got it for basically nothing. It wasn't being used at the time. They cleaned out all the old hay and horse manure. They built some benches. They built a pulpit out of empty orange crates. And Williams Seymour started to preach the message and Azusa Street, and it became this massive revival. Church leaders, men and women from all the states of the nation, flocked to Azusa Street to hear this message and receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues.
They went from that meeting and the big thing, the most amazing thing about that revival, this is 1906, the differences of color have been washed by the blood.
No more color division men. Black men, white sat side by side in the pews, weeping, praying, worshiping phenomena unlike any other. But when God moved, he had his way and he did what he wanted. And so these men and women would go back to their churches with this new fresh awakening in their lives. And revival was birthing out of all kinds of parts of America. Just like it was with the Pharisees, these guys will go back to their denominations. And some of those church denominations said, this is of God. And they flowed with it. And some of them said, nah, this is too controversial. We are not going to do this. And they rejected it. And then actually the Assemblies of God was birthed out of this revival.
Also, what happened with this revival was a massive missionary movement. Missionaries were sent out of these revived churches by the thousands, by the 10 thousands into the nations of the world. Probably the greatest missionary movement in America happened as a result of the Azusa Street Revival. And just like it was with the Pharisees, some people wouldn't even taste the new wine. It just didn't fit their theology, fits God's theology.
Cheryl: When new things come, I can see how it's hard to take it in. Yeah, I can get it. But I was thinking this morning, it's our responsibility to stop and lay it before the Lord and ask him, could this be something that you want us to take in? I can't imagine how many revivals died because so many people resisted. When the new things come, I'm just saying take it to the Lord. Don't just immediately cancel it out. That's so important.
Pastor Jeff: Fast forward 40 years and you had another revival, the Latter Rain. Now the Assemblies of God and these Pentecostal denominations, Church of God in Christ, all these Church of God. Now, they are established in their theology, their Pentecostal theology and then the Latter Rain movement begins new, a fresh move of God in the churches. They brought to us teachings and new understandings of what the kingdom of heaven was really about, what the kingdom of God was about, what the fivefold ministry is about. That all came out of the Latter Rain. But all those established Pentecostal churches rejected the Latter Rain because of its abuses and its extravagance.
And then a few years later, another decade or so later , we got Woodstock and that generation, and we just saw the movie about it, the Jesus Revolution. The Jesus Revolution comes, an amazing, massive move of God that swept through people from the ages of 16 to 30 who were completely lost and wanting to find some meaning in their lives. As a result of that revival, a whole new generation was swept into the church, a whole new look. Instead of suits and ties, they were barefoot with bell bottoms, a whole new music. Instead of organs, they had guitars and drums. As you saw in the movie, so it was in America. These young people were not well received. Most churches when they walked into them said you are welcome here if you cut your hair, take a bath and put on some decent clothes and get rid of that stupid guitar because that ain't God's music in all. Oh, go ahead.
Cheryl: That beat.
Pastor Jeff: That beat, that was not good. That's of the devil. That's of the devil. That was preached. And then on the heels of the Jesus Revolution came, the charismatic wave, charismatic revival. The charismatic revival was really powerful because it infiltrated every single denomination that was in America. It started with the Presbyterians. It didn't start with the Pentecostals; it started with the Presbyterians, moved into the Lutheran church and the Episcopal Church and the Catholic church. And this amazing, refreshing move of God moved through all of these churches. You know what was interesting about the charismatic movement, just to get you an idea how God is moving us forward all the time. It emphasized the 12 gifts of the Holy Spirit and the whole concept of the gift of tongues being the first evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit that got lost along the way. So we don't talk about that anymore, but we talk about all the other gifts and we walk in them. And that was given to us in the revival of the charismatic renewal.
The charismatic renewal also wasn't well accepted by Pentecostal churches. I think now there has been a blending where you can't really even tell the difference. In fact, the charismatic renewal is what really brought about the types of worship that we have today, right? Through the vineyard in Hosanna. Now, you can go worship and you can sing the songs we sing. It doesn't matter if you are Evangelical Baptist, charismatic Pentecostal. We've all received the same worship that the Lord has inspired and he brought it through that. But we still want to argue about theology.
Of course, then there was a Toronto blessing with all its chaos. Nobody like that one. I mean, whoever heard of barnyard noises in church, right? Right. Lions roaring roosters crowing. What's this about? This can't be God.
Cheryl: I told Jeff this morning, I've been in a barnyard, and it was louder than any barnyard I've experienced. Because we were there.
Pastor Jeff: We were there. We were there. Do you know that the only flights coming out of London, Toronto during that period of time were filled with people going to the Toronto blessing. The Anglican Church was totally transformed in England by that. And so were many of our lives. But there is a lot of critics, people who wouldn't taste the wine. We are all trusting God for revival. We are excited about the possibility of revival. But what I want to ask is when revival comes, are we going to accept it? Are we even going to recognize it? Do we think it has to come the same way it did last time? Or are we ready to embrace what God brings to us now, fresh, new, alive? Just asking. Let's go back to that scripture. I gotta find it again to remind myself. Luke 5. Go back to Luke 5.
The wine skin, do you understand that idea? A wine skin is fresh leather. You put in grape juice. And then as the wine is fermenting, as the grape juice is fermenting, it expands. And so then the skin has to stretch to accommodate the expansion that happens with the new wine. And once a wine skin is stretched, you can't use it a second time. That's why he says it will burst. It's already stretched. You need a fresh wine skin to allow for the expansion. Every time Jesus brings something fresh, there is an expansion. And the wine skin is a picture of something functional.
Sometimes, even our structure needs to change. I mean, think about it. In just the recent changes, we've moved from organs to guitars. Now, more recently we moved from altars to green screens in our churches right now. A lot of the more popular churches you go, it's dark out there in the auditorium. You got all kinds of stuff flashing on the green screenings behind the speaker. And it's just a whole new setting. Young people love it, right? Offering baskets to kiosks.
But really the real issue with the wine skin is not those physical changes. It's the mindsets. It's the mindsets. Are we willing to change the way that we are thinking or are we so locked into what we have that we are unwilling to accept what might be? But remember, God is constantly moving us forward. Because there is more of him to know. The scriptures don't change the basic tenants of the gospel. They don't change. We have, we have the old, but we have to embrace the old with the new because other things are going to change, or what we have is going to be enhanced. God is constantly bringing us forward into fresh new things. I'm not saying this because I have a fresh new thing for you. God has a fresh new thing for you.
But in Isaiah 9:7 it says, of the increase of his government, there shall be no end. It actually says, of the increase of his government, end of peace, there shall be no end. But sometimes when the Lord brings these things, we don't find peace, we find struggle. Let's just ask for a second, all these new things, how do you know they are not from the devil?
Cheryl and I were talking this morning. I said I've had all kinds of great new ideas come my way. And I said, ah, I don't think so. When God is moving, one thing I always teach people about hearing the voice of God is you need to trust yourself that you can hear God. And you need to trust your father. Jesus said, "If you being evil, if your children ask you for a piece of bread, will you give them a stone? How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask them." You have a loving heavenly Father who wants the best for you, who wants more for you, who wants you to have more of him? You can trust him. You can embrace him. He will lead us. He is faithful.
In fact, isn't that why he sent the Holy Spirit? He said in John 16, when He, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. And he will help you understand what is yet to come. Yes, that's what he does. Hopefully, he does it every time you read the word. And it's so easy when we read the word to get locked into the patterns of thought that we had before. I've said this before, and how important it is to get out of those ruts of thinking and let him pull us out of there and see a fresh path. Because the word of God is alive. He said, "My words are spirit and they are life." It is not dogma.
We tend to want to use the word of God to build doctrines. You are missing the point. This is your food. This is your life. This is what transforms us. Read the word; ask the Lord questions. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you. He'll awaken something new every time you do. Someone asked one of the pastors we listen to, how much do you read the word? He says, "I read until he talks."
Back to Luke. He talks about clothing. Clothing is for adornment. Every, every morning, especially if you are doing something special, like going to church, you go to your closet and you pick something out that's going to make you look nice, right? Clothing is for adornment. And so I wonder how the church looks to the world. And I wonder if we don't need a new wardrobe. A church that looks legalistic, judgmental, unfriendly, oppressive, needs a new wardrobe. Functionally, a church that is probably still playing the organ might need a new wardrobe. I mean, if you want to attract 20-year-olds, right?
Cheryl: We had a friend who played the organ in our high school, and I just thought, oh, how boring. Until I heard him play. It's how he played the organ. It was amazing.
Pastor Jeff: Yeah. It was. When we talk about a new wardrobe, we are not talking about our marketing. We are not talking about how we present ourselves on social media. I mean, that's all well and good. I have nothing against us presenting ourselves on social media. But you see, what we really want when we talk about a new wardrobe is the fresh breath of God that inspires us individually every day and affects us as a church often. That's what we really want. One last scripture here. Let's go to the Song of Songs, my favorite book of the Bible. Maybe you didn't know that. I'm a romantic at heart. This is a very romantic book.
This is the bride or the bride to be talking to her groom to be. This whole chapter is a long line of just superlative descriptions of how each of them loves each other and how beautiful each of them is and all of this. And then she responds to him, and this is what she says:
Cheryl: There, the mandrakes give off their fragrance. And the finest fruits are at our door. New delights as well as old, which I have saved for you, my lover.
Pastor Jeff: New delights as well as old out of the garden. Cheryl had a great point with this. She suggested that what that really speaks of is plants that have been there for a long time, but every season they give you a fresh new fruit. You see, the truths that we hold dearly have been around for a long time. We have embraced them our whole lives. They changed our lives. Nothing is changing about those. But every season, those plants, those truths, those realities that have become part of who we are, bring forth a new and a fresh fruit. If it gets boring, if it gets the same old, same old, if we are preaching the same message a year from now, something's wrong. We need fresh fruit. We need to let the Lord bring fresh fruit from these plants that have been carefully cared for and gardened really for centuries now.
But the church today doesn't look like it did a hundred years ago. It didn't look at a hundred years ago like it did a hundred before that. And we didn't look at it at the church, didn't look then like what it looked like in the Middle Ages. It didn't look in the Middle Ages, what it looked like in 400 AD. And it didn't look like in 400 AD like it looked in the book of Acts. And don't let anybody tell you, oh, that we could go back to the book of Acts. Those were the good old days. That was just the beginning. And God has moved his people forward ever since.
If we will let him speak to us and stir us, and if we let him bring us, he's got a new place for us to go. He has got a mission to accomplish that affects the nations of the world. And he has called this church to do that just among many, right? As Pastor Robert said, we are just one of many. All kinds of great churches and great pastors out there with the same mission. But as much as we can, since we are a family together, we want to be open in our hearts to what God wants to bring to us. Because whatever it is, it's going to be new, not look like it used to.
Do you know one way that that will be? Just look at this congregation. What percentage of people would you say in this congregation are over 50? The new and the old together, that's also talking about generations. Are you, are you ready to accept another generation in this church? Are you eager for them to be welcomed here? I want 15 year olds, 25 year olds and 35 year olds. I want them however they look and whatever they believe, whatever music they like, may not be my kinda music. It may not be my kinda humor. I will never get The Office. That is a different generation. .
Cheryl: You gotta stay fresh for him.
Pastor Jeff: In the mid-nineties, I was involved in outreach to high school kids. And from really the mid seventies to the mid nineties, Cheryl and I did not listen to any music that was not Christian. We missed U2; we missed the whole Bee gees era. We missed it all.
Cheryl: I snuck some in. Just some not much.
Pastor Jeff: But I realized in 1995 when I was going to Osseo High School to talk to these at-risk young kids that I probably should at least get an idea of what they are listening to, so I started listening to alternative music. I actually found out I liked it. And there were some awesome songs back in that day. Joe Osborne was singing, "What If God Were One of Us?" Some of you might; you alternative fans might remember that one. Or was it The Verb... It wasn't my responsibility. It was about a friend that committed suicide. It was just a powerful song about culpability, responsibility in other people's lives and on and on and on. Then those were the days of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and all that kinda stuff and Pearl Jam and Ever Claire, oh, and Smashing Pumpkins. Listen, smashing Pumpkins. Daniel's, like, who?
It's funny, we got friends.
They got like a 22-year-old son in college. His favorite bands are Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. It's just like, really? But Smashing Pumpkins, if there was any band in that era, they had a pulse on their generation, it was them. They understood the heartbeat of 18-year-olds when they said, what was it? after, da da da, "I'm still just a rat in the cage." Right? They understood how their generation was feeling and they put it into words and music and they sang it and people identified with it because it was how they felt. We maybe didn't like that music, but it was prophetic. U2 music was prophetic and Bono was a believer. I remember when we were-- go ahead. Were you going to say something?
Cheryl: Newness was in.
Pastor Jeff: Newness, boy, didn't sit well with us. We came home from a church meeting one night, and Angela was about 15. She's listening to U2 down in the basement, and we come storming down," Turn that music off. We can feel the devil in this house." Honest to God, we did that.
Cheryl: So embarrassing
Pastor Jeff: It didn't work.
Cheryl: We have changed so much.
Pastor Jeff: I told you guys, once the Lord spoke to us about Angela, he said, "Look, if you don't lighten up, you are going to lose her." We took that seriously. That was the beginning of some important changes in our mindsets.
Cheryl: And we didn't lose her.
Pastor Jeff: We didn't lose her. Thank Lord. His mercies are new every day.
Cheryl: It's beautiful. When it comes to generations, we need new music. I love Welton and what he brings. Thank you, Welton, for your gift. And that's not to say I don't love Brian and Jacque. I've been listening to them for a lot of years and I'm still stirred when they lead worship. I want a band up here that's 20 years old. I want their music.
Cheryl: Maybe someone out there will hear us,
Pastor Jeff: Lord, hear our prayer. We need 20-year-old preachers. We need Lonnie Frisbees. What I'd like to do to close is I want to ask God to send them. I want to ask God to send them because God's got a new thing he wants to do. This is a place of healing and hope and belonging for everyone. I don't care what age you are, if you come in here, you are so welcome. We want to know that you can belong here. You don't have to qualify just the way you are. And you can be 70, 80, 90, 15, 20. You can have tattoos, your whole body tattooed. You can have piercings in the whole front of your face.
I saw this thing someone sent out. There is a picture of this guy. His whole face was tattooed and pierced. I mean, eyebrows, nose, everything. The caption said, "This is what happens when a tackle box hits you in the face. You are welcome here. All fishermen welcome,
Cheryl: What we are talking about today and what we are going to pray about is if you build it, they will come. It's what you are building in here to welcome.
Pastor Jeff: Oh, you are quoting a new age movie, you know ?
Cheryl: Yes, I know. Some things are prophetic.
Pastor Jeff: They are prophetic, whether they were made by Christians or not.
Cheryl: And I'm open to this. I'm open to staying fresh for him as each of us need to do, staying fresh,
Pastor Jeff: Are you eager for this? I'm eager for this. Can, what I'd like to do, just to close, is that we stand together and let's call in the next generations from the north, the south, the east and the West. Let's the Lord know that our hearts are hungry from the next generation. Let's trust him to continue to bring a fresh new thing here, because he's not done. In fact, he's hardly even started. Are you okay with that? So, father, we just choose to embrace everything you want tobring to us. Help us, Father, when it's different. And we want to go tilt to hear your voice, to seek your face, to understand what you are doing, to receive you, Jesus, when you come.
Lord, we thank you for the next generations. We are hungry for them. We welcome them. And Father, right now, in obedience to you, with our hearts inclined towards you, we just call in these new generations, these younger generations, we call them in from the east and the west and the north and the south. We call them in. We call in more 15 year olds and 18 year olds and 20 year olds, 25 year olds, 30 year olds, 35 year olds, 40 year olds. We call them in, Father. We call in families, we call in singles.
Father, we know they are going to come with all kinds of things that are different from us, but we welcome them. And we thank you that you give us the privilege of bringing them into your love and teaching them your ways. And we commit ourselves to that as best as we can. And we yield ourselves to you, father, to know that we are not teaching them like the Pharisees taught, but we are teaching them out of your heart. And with your passion and with your truth. In Jesus' name. Amen. Pastor Brian.
Pastor Brian: Well, that was great. Thank you, Lord. Let's give them-- Yeah, that was very good. Thank you, Jeff. Remember most of that I was raised as a classical musician. I got an undergraduate degree in piano performance from the University of Minnesota, got married, Jacque and I kind of incorporated that classical background into all the stuff that we were doing. The Lord blessed us with two sons. They wanted to form a band and they formed a punk band and traveled all across the country singing about the good news of what it means to live according to God's design.
It changed my life. Sometimes God uses family to do that. He uses family to help us wake up. And we are family. I know that most of us are of an age that if the Lord doesn't do something in bringing a younger generation here, it won't be very many years and this church won't exist. I'm not going to be the pastor here 30 years from now. How many know that? I might be worshiping around the throne of God. I'll still be worshiping, but it won't be here. We need to be a multi-generational church and we need to pray for that. And that needs to be a heartbeat for us. To do that, we also need to not just ask all the generations coming behind us just to conform to everything we've always done. We have to be able to open up a new thing.
God says that in Isaiah. We read it today, Isaiah 43:19. Behold I will do a new thing. What I like about it is, now what shall spring forth so we don't have to wait a decade. So let's just, let's just expect God to do something in the immediate future for us. Most of you know that we are building a water tower over here. We are not. But the city's building a water tower over here. There is a water treatment plant going in across the street. Development is coming to this area. And there are going to be people coming here.
When we bought this property 25 years ago, Jacque said to me, "Aren't you supposed to build a church where there are people?" Because this was all cornfields, wasn't it George? It was all cornfields. A field of dreams had just come out. And I said, if we build it, they will come and they are starting to come. We have developments happening to the east of us, to the south of us, and there is going to be major development happening right on this property, and people will be coming. They are not all going to be in the senior facility.
There are going to be other multifamily residences here for people, single, young marrieds that are just going to be married, needing a place to live. And this is a place that needs to welcome them. It needs to welcome them. So let's be excited about what God's going to do for us here in the future. Amen. Amen? Let's lift our hands together.
Now, may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. And may the Lord make his face his shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. And may we open our hearts and minds to the new thing that God wants to do. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thank you, Pastor Jeff and Cheryl. Wonderful. For those of you who want to have communion, we'll be serving communion over here to the right. And we'll also have prayer for people as well. Dave and Louis will be serving communion. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 8-27-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.