Revival Come (Week 3)

It is such an honor to be here for multiple reasons.

One, I am so impressed by your guys as pastors.

When I first met Forrest Emily, I could tell that they were humble and hungry.

And that's what KP, my wife and I, pray for.

Whenever we interact with leaders, if they're humble and hungry, we can run with them.

If not, then we'll like send them a Venmo, DoorDash gift card, and then call it a day.

You know?

But they're humble and hungry, and that's what's needed for church planning.

My wife and I have planted, I've planted a couple times in Colorado, and then we planted in Lexington.

I no longer pastor there, but like what they are doing is heroic.

So if you're out there uh wondering what they're doing, they're being superheroes.

Humble superheroes.

Uh because their heart has broken for Frankfurt for this space.

And I just want to take an opportunity to give you a shout out because we remember those days.

And it is uh hard work.

I also am glad to be in a movie theater.

This is redemptive to me.

Um I did not grow up here, but I grew up in a movie theater or in a place that had movie theaters, uh, Colorado Springs.

And uh the church I actually gave my life to Christ uh was planted at a movie theater.

That same movie theater I would sell drugs and make out with girls at.

But that's fine.

Christ's blood washes all that off.

Um we're jumping into revival come, which is really hilarious that that now is a part of my story because I could not be more unexpectant uh for the concept of revival.

I remember being in conversations, being in Lexington and being in Kentucky, we've experienced lots of profound moves of God.

And then I was a I'm a volunteer soccer coach at Asbury University, and that's what helped me get to campus.

And they would talk about the revival in the 1970s.

And I was kind of that guy who was like, okay, I don't really, I don't drink that Kool-Aid.

Let's just read the Bible, preach the Bible, lead people to Christ, call it a day.

And then I find myself pastoring and preaching on February 8th.

But before we get to that story, I want to ask you this question because you might not really give a hoot about revival, but you feel dead and broken.

Like if I just come and I just talk about a couple days in Wilmore that God met us, then it will be about Zach and it'll be about Wilmore, and it will be about Asbury, which really cannot help any of us.

But if we talk about Jesus, who is in the business of reviving, I want to ask this question.

What do we need to be revived?

What do we need to be revived?

Is it your marriage?

Is it your own spiritual life?

Is it your disciplines?

Is it parenting?

Maybe it's you look at Frankfurt and you're like, it needs a move of God.

Dead things need to come to life.

You think of Kentucky State or or different other organizations in this area, you you know it needs to go from death to life.

And that's what Jesus is up to.

Uh, this is not from smart uh biblical study or even a whole lot of preparation, but during my quiet time this morning, I was on U version.

Anybody else?

U version.

And they had they talked about the concept of hope.

Did anyone listen to that?

Great.

So I'm straight up copying them.

But I do feel like it's for us.

They talked about two kinds of hope, and I could fake it because I did grow up Jewish, that I know these Hebrew words, but I am straight up copying you version.

There's two kinds of hope.

Yachal, I put a little in there to prove that I'm Jewish.

And um, which is the concept of waiting when we talk about hope.

We are hoping for something, so we're waiting for it to happen.

And then there's the word kaval.

Kaval.

And that's like, you know, when you, if I were to give a giant rubber band to forest and stretch it out, there's so much potential in that tension.

Does that make sense?

That's a different kind of hope.

The hope for the explosive energy.

These are two words that were used in the Old Testament for hope.

And I think both of them probably have a lot in common with what we are feeling in the world today.

What we're feeling in church planning, what we're feeling in our families, when we're feeling in our own personal lives, about a job or uh a uh a breakthrough or provision financially.

We're waiting for it and we feel the tension of it.

Um my wife and I thought we were gonna be missionaries in Israel, and you guys probably know what's been going on in Israel.

Uh, Israel is in turmoil.

Palestinians are in turmoil.

The whole area is tense, right?

Like that giant rubber band, and that we would have hope that God might move miraculously.

So, what do you need to be revived?

Maybe it's your hope.

And I pray that any story from Asbury outpouring for 16 days in February would only do that, would just inject some hope.

I have nothing to prescribe you.

There's nothing that I could say, okay, y'all, you need to do this, this, and this.

Get rid of lyrics, get rid of clocks, um, don't be that good at preaching, um, awkward worship leading.

That was pretty much what we had, right?

Like, I can't prescribe anything, but I can describe something.

And I pray that through a description, it might be provoking, provocative.

So the Asbury outpouring is a part of my story now.

Like I said, I was a volunteer goalie coach.

They found out that I used to be a pastor, so they asked me to speak in chapel.

I just want to let the pressure off, okay?

If you guys are like, we need a fresh outpouring of his spirit in Frankfurt, which I imagine you're up for, right?

The night before the revival, it's been so funny since uh God has moved at Asbury.

So many people have been like, Zach, what were you doing?

Were you just like fasting for weeks?

Were you up all night praying in tongues?

Like what I was doing the night before I preached on the 8th was listening to a true crime podcast as I was driving from Columbus back to Kentucky eating a nerd rope.

Because I was late.

I thought I was gonna do sermon prep the night before, couldn't get to it.

Woke up early, did sermon prep in a coffee shop in Wilmore, and preached.

I share that not to be like tongue in cheek, but just like God is looking for ordinary people, like movie theaters and old grocery shops.

That's where he wants to move.

Because if he only moves among rock stars and superstars and big, beautiful buildings with all the perfect things, then like then why would Jesus have gone to a manger?

So he uses ordinary people.

And we preached the ordinary sermon on Romans 12.

And Romans 12, 9 through 21 has 30.

Uh, it starts with, Let your love be without hypocrisy.

Anybody down for that?

The world needs that authentic love, right?

And then I was like, okay, I'm gonna preach on that.

And then I look at the rest of the verses.

There's 31 statements on how to have authentic love.

And I had 18 minutes in chapel that day.

So I decided to preach that they couldn't love each other authentically, which is biblically untrue.

So I was hoping for God to give me like the landing strip.

And he did.

He get he led me to 1 John 4.

1 John 4 is uh we love because he first loved us.

So if we want to really have authentic love, if you want to reach Frankfurt, if you want to love that campus, if you want to love one another in new ways, you really actually have to experience God's love.

You can't muster it up to love authentically.

You can't muster up church planning.

You can't muster that up.

You got to experience love from God.

And we just asked if they wanted to experience the love of God, would they stick around and pursue that experience?

And 19 kids stayed.

Once again, ordinary, right?

It was not like as soon as we said amen, a thousand of those kids ran out of that chapel for lunch or class or naps.

But 19 kids stayed.

There's more than 19 people here.

19 kids stayed.

And I sat in the front row thinking, okay, they're gonna come to me for prayer.

We're gonna see the love of God fall on them.

Not one person came to me for prayer.

In fact, I was on my phone taking videos of them, very spiritual, and I was texting my wife that I had laid a stinker, that means preached bad, and that I would be home soon for a nap.

I never got home for my nap.

We stayed there for 16 more days, and we saw God move in miraculous ways.

We saw healings, we saw tons of people come to Christ.

We saw people receive callings, but it was in an ordinary, obscure place that God decided to move.

And from the 23rd, when we stop till today, that's been what I've been doing is just going around and encouraging us to be ordinary.

That's the word I have for you today.

It's from 2 Kings 4.

And if I if I was cool and had titles for sermons, do you have titles for sermons?

You seem, yeah, you're cool.

Like, you probably have a really cool sermon if you can pull it out or like real quick.

I just want to title this empty.

Anyone can relate?

Moms who are tired, dads who've been working hard, students, grandmothers empty.

So a little spoiler alert, I know you were in Elijah last time.

Uh, you're gonna continue in Elijah, but there is a moment when Elijah leaves.

I won't tell you how, because it's pretty sweet.

And Elijah leaves and he passes it off to a guy named Elisha.

Okay, and Elisha finds himself in a very similar spot as Elijah found himself in actually what you talked about last week.

He found himself with a widow, a widow who didn't have a whole lot to offer.

This is 2 Kings 4, if you want to turn there.

2 Kings 4, I'm gonna read it, and when I go places, this might sound super, super spiritual and impressive.

It's not.

I just love God's word.

So if we would stand, I'm gonna read these seven verses, okay?

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that he is revered the Lord, but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.

Elisha replied to her, How can I help you?

Tell tell me, what do you have in your house?

She says, Your servant has nothing except a small jar of olive oil.

Elisha said, Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars, and don't ask just for a few, then go inside, shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all the jars.

And each of them are field, put it to one side.

She left them, shut the door behind her and her sons.

They brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring.

When all the jars were full, she said to her son, Bring me another one.

But he replied, There is not a jar left.

Then the oil stopped flowing.

She went and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil and pay your debts.

You and your sons can live on what is left.

Some people might say, This is the word of God, and we believe it.

You might say, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

I didn't know all that stuff.

I didn't grow up in church.

I grew up Orthodox Jew.

So when people asked me to stand up and say things, I rolled my eyes.

But we're all welcome here.

So in this passage, we see Elisha handling a woman who doesn't have a whole lot to offer.

And I wonder if anyone could relate.

It was definitely how I felt during the outpouring of God's Spirit at Asbury.

I did not have a whole lot to offer.

Even as a church, maybe community, you say, okay, we don't have all that we would love to offer.

But Elisha has asked to use a little bit of oil miraculously to fill these vessels.

These vessels.

Why did they want to fill these vessels and sell them?

What was at risk?

You can speak up.

Their sons, the next generation.

I want to just pause right there.

I'm 33, so I'm not an old man.

But I do feel old when I think of the next generation, what they have handed to them.

If we just look at the church, what we've handed them when it comes to the church is not like remarkable, right?

They're struggling.

A lot of them have walked away from the church because it's not meeting their needs.

And when you look outside of the church and you look at culture, it feels like people are coming for them to slavery.

Maybe it's not slavery to addiction, maybe it's not slavery to uh intense brokenness, but maybe it's just slavery to the slog of everyday life, or maybe it's the slavery of scrolling through their phones.

I don't know about you, but when I think of any church plant, or I think of any missional movement, I'm thinking about the next generation.

So the creditor is not being extra nasty.

This was just normal that if you owed money, the creditor could go get their kids.

So the kids needed breakthrough, and all they had was a little bit of oil.

What kind of vessels?

What kind of vessels were gonna be the solution?

Big, beautiful ones?

Strong ones?

What kind of vessels?

Empty.

Empty vessels.

That is good news for me.

I don't have a whole lot to offer.

We have a Peloton in our house, that's where we hang our laundry.

I'm not anything special.

But I can be empty.

What about you?

Do you need a big beautiful building?

You're gonna get one, but you don't really need it.

You just need emptiness.

A movie theater, empty.

You, empty.

What kind of vessels do we need?

So, quote, the vessels had to be empty before they could be filled with oil.

It did no good to bring the widow full vessels.

Let's just pause there.

I think when we think of like a move of God, a fresh outpouring of his spirit, we think that we need to bring our charisma.

We need to bring all of our competencies, we need to bring our wallets, we need to bring all those things.

All those things are needed, but that's not the essence of what we need.

All that is just the vessel.

A full Christ is for empty sinners.

Is that good news for anybody?

And for empty sinners only.

And as long as there is really empty soul in a congregation, so long will a blessing go forth with the word and no longer.

It is not our emptiness but our fullness which can hinder the outgoings of free grace.

If I came to Jesus with everything I could to impress him, he wouldn't be impressed.

He came for sinners.

What we experienced at Asbury was him coming for sinners, for brokenness.

What I believe he will come and do in Frankfurt is not going to be because you guys are extra sparkly, but because of a deep need and desperation.

Anyone can do that?

I don't know about you, but if if it was the other way around and I needed to be impressive, I would be a lot more nervous if this is going to happen.

I can definitely sign up for being unimpressive.

So what do we need to empty ourselves of?

Empty of what?

I think the first thing is ego.

We saw that at Asbury.

Something that we said over and over again was the kindling of whatever God had set ablaze.

The firewood was radical humility, purity, and hunger.

What can we empty ourselves of?

Ego.

Radical humility.

Jesus is gracious, powerful, and kind, but he will not share his glory with you.

He will not share his glory with multiply.

He will not share his glory with you.

Even if you're a father and you are wanting breakthrough in your family, he will not share glory with you.

And do we want your family to be impressed by you, or do you want him them to be moved by Jesus?

My wife is a superhero.

Over the last couple years, or that last couple months, I've traveled a little bit to share the story.

What I have seen in her is not her glory, but Jesus' glory moving through her as she loves our girls.

That's what we want.

What do we empty ourselves of our ego?

Something that I'm even seeing in your videos, which I just want to praise, is emptying ourselves of our agendas.

Is it convenient to go and do all those things that you guys are doing?

But when we empty ourselves of our agendas and say, Jesus, would you make us aware of what you're up to and that we could join you?

We have an opportunity to be agents of God.

Would this church, would you possibly lean into emptying yourself of your agendas, what you're entitled to, what your preferences, your egos, so there would actually be empty vessels.

I don't know about you, but if he's pouring out his spirit, if he's pouring out his spirit in a vessel, there's so many times I'm like, I'm gonna be at least like 20, 25% full.

So if this doesn't fall, if this if this falls through, I got a little bit to offer.

But you know what you miss out?

25% of fresh oil.

Supernatural, miraculous oil.

We emptied ourselves of entitlement and preference.

Who does that sound like?

Jesus.

Philippians 2 is one of my favorite passages in all of scripture.

If you are struggling with pride, I would invite you to memorize Philippians 2, 1 through 11.

Philippians 2, 1 through 11.

Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any coming common sharing in his spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Don't do anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking for one of your not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.

If we just pause there, that would be a really good charge for your church, for your family, for your communities.

But verse 5, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset of Christ Jesus, who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by being obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and in heaven and on earth, and under earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

This is called the Kenosis passage.

Have you guys ever heard that word?

Kinosis or the canonic hymn.

Kinosis or canonic is just the word for emptying.

In the early church, this probably was a song that they would sing about their Jesus, who emptied himself of all of his rights and reputation.

He emptied himself of his agenda and his prerogative.

He emptied himself of everything he was entitled to.

He didn't empty himself of his essence.

He was still God.

But he emptied himself of all the things he could have clung to.

Title, position.

He releases that to take the form of a servant.

Not just a servant, but one that would die, and not just die, but die a horrible death.

That's who we serve.

Isn't that beautiful?

Once again, I think the Lord is looking for empty vessels.

For empty vessels, we might need to do some kind of vessels do we need more than another one.

They said, Is this revival?

I said, I don't really know what that means.

So I don't really like terribly care.

But I do know that God has shown up.

And in John 9, a bunch of Pharisees were trying to get this blind man who'd been healed in trouble in John 9.

And they're like, Is he the Messiah?

Is the guy who healed you?

Is he the Christ?

And this guy says, All I know is I was blind and now I see.

So that's why we call it an outpouring of his spirit.

An outpouring of his spirit, because what we saw in February was a fresh pouring out of his spirit, and we want to be vessels that are empty in need.

This widow borrowed as many vessels as I guess she could find.

If she borrowed a few vessels, she would have had just a little oil.

If she borrowed many vessels, she would have had them all filled, and she would have had much oil.

She was herself to measure out what she would have.

And I believe that you and I, in the matter of spiritual blessings from God, have more to do with the measurement of mercies.

I'm going to say that again.

Have more to do with the measurement of mercies than we think.

We might make our blessings little because our prayers are little.

When they were filling vessels and and she was like, okay, bring one more vessel.

And they're like, Oh, we ran out.

That would have been hard.

I bet it was awkward to go ask people for empty vessels to knock on doors, to lug them back to their house and shut the door.

But for an outpouring, what kind of vessels do we need and how many do we need?

I guess it matters how much you want to catch.

I want to put that up there.

It's a question.

How much do you want to catch?

If he's pouring out his spirit, how much do you want to catch?

The more empty we are, the more we get to catch.

The more empty we are, the less competition that fresh oil has.

How might we repent on missing out because of the things that we cling to and rely on?

Multiplied church, what kind of vessel are you?

Mom, dad, what kind of vessel are you?

Leader, nurse, teacher, businessman, what kind of vessel are you?

As you move towards a new building, what kind of vessel will that be?

As you grow and make a greater impact in Frankfurt, and these seats are full, or that building is full, what kind of vessel will you be?

I'll say this to my brother.

As this grows and you grow and you make impact, what kind of vessel will you be?

I pray that this room is full of empty vessels.

Empty vessels.

Your homes are full of empty vessels.

That the Starbucks in Frankfurt will be full of empty vessels, that the Chick-fil-A I've gone to multiple times will be full of empty vessels because if he's pouring out his spirit, which I believe he is looking for places to do it, I pray that there's no competing values, no competing charisma or competencies, just Jesus, just his favor, just his anointing pouring into empty vessels.

Is revival coming?

I can't tell you.

Is awakening coming?

I don't know.

Is the outpouring of his spirit coming in power, manifest presence?

A couple months ago I didn't think it was coming, but for the last nine months I've seen it happen all over the world.

Would we have hope?

I was in Budapest Hungary and the Lord fell.

I was in Houston and the Lord fell.

If the Lord can fall in Houston, it can fall here.

If the Lord can fall in Budapest hungry, it can fall in your living room.

Would the outpouring of his spirit fall when you do bedtime stories with your kids?

They don't need empty vessels.

When you're leading a meeting and you're wanting them to experience the love of God, would you be an empty vessel?

I don't really know if they're coming, but I do know this.

When it comes, what do you think I want to be?

Empty.

Empty.

A lot of empty vessels here.

That's my prayer.

So let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for what you have done and you will do and you are doing.

And Jesus, I pray that we would get out of the way.

Jesus, I pray that in our emptiness we'd be filled up.

I pray for those who are even frustrated with this word, that they're sick of feeling empty.

Jesus, I pray that you would redefine emptiness for them.

For those who are frustrated because they're tired and they've ran out.

Jesus, that's a different kind of empty.

So, Jesus, I pray for radical humility to mark this church.

For radical humility to mark their leadership.

As they move into this new building, would it would it fall uh would it fall on people who are uh empty, radically humble?

And Jesus, I pray uh that we wouldn't glorify old moves of God, that we know that there's new wine coming.

So would you do a new thing and would be ready for it?

And Jesus, I pray if anything is from Zach, even in these last couple minutes, would it be forgotten and fall to the ground like dust?

But anything from you, Holy Spirit, will find fertile ground in their hearts.

Jesus, give us the freedom of being empty.

Give us the freedom of not being impressive.

Give us the freedom of being obscure and ordinary.

Because those are the places that I see you pouring out your spirit.

Would you celebrate and dignify those who feel empty and ordinary?

We say it's your name.

Amen.