ARISE AND SHINE | SUNDAY 26TH APRIL | PS AARON MORE

May you be seated in the presence of the

Lord.

Hey, we've uh come out of our Lent

season, the lead into Easter, and I know

some people are pretty pleased to see uh

the end of Lent, and we did our

wilderness series through Lent. And

today, I want to approach the word a

little bit differently. While during our

Lent season, we went sort of verse by

verse through a passage of scripture.

This morning, I want us to notice the

recurring context in which heaven breaks

in to the earth. What is the context of

a move of God? And so, uh, if I start,

I'm just going to ask the, uh, team to

pop up a video. This is Pete Greg from,

uh, 247 prayer. And uh this is just

something he put out recently. Let's

check this out.

>> I want to show you something amazing.

This is the site of more than a thousand

people being baptized over Easter by my

friends at Kingdom City Church in Perth,

Australia. Supposedly one of the most

secular places on earth.

>> I just feel like it's a new beginning.

Like something is about to shift in my

life, about to change. And I'm so

grateful for this amazing community that

I get to do it with. And here we see

more than 3,000 young adults gathering

in London to pray just last Friday at my

friend Al Gordon's church in Hackne.

Honestly, everywhere I go right now, I'm

seeing such blatant signs that this

generation really is waking up from the

fever dream of secularism, the beautiful

possibilities of faith. A record 21,386

people were baptized into the French

Catholic Church this Easter. It's the

same trajectory in America with a 38%

increase in Catholic dascese. Here's a

cover story from the American fashion

magazine Eevee

and all these people are lining up in

Manhattan Sunday before last simply to

get into church. There was a survey

published here in London last December

by King's College which showed that 18

to 34 year olds are much more likely to

believe than their parents.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph last

week, Lord David Frost fleshed this out,

arguing that Britain is quietly

awakening to what he called a fullfat

supernatural Christianity.

Talk like this of a slow, quiet

awakening is supported statistically by

robust research from the mainstream

publishing industry which shows a

dramatic 19% increase in British Bible

sales in 25 and an eye watering 134%

growth since 2019. Meanwhile, Alpha

reports a record-breaking 2.8 million

guests worldwide last year, more than

ever before. Here in the UK, Alpha

experienced a 38% increase last year.

Uh, and half of those guests were under

the age of 25. What does that mean?

Well, I mean, it means people like the

18-year-old Christian rapper DC3, who

just won the Mobo Award for best

newcomer. And then there's the

28-year-old soul singer Ray, whose new

album went straight to number one last

week with lyrics just full of hurt and

hope and faith and prayer.

>> I know you're hurting, she sings. I said

a prayer for you. I hope it's working.

Please don't stop believing.

>> Amen and amen. Lord of the harvest, let

it be so.

>> Wow. Isn't that exciting? I think I

think that's probably more exciting than

a golf clap even. Like, yes. Isn't that

amazing to see what God is doing across

planet Earth? And yet at the same time,

how many people know I could have got a

clip that would have shown what's

currently happening in Ukraine?

I could have also got a clip that would

have shown what's happening in Iraq.

Let's not even begin to talk about

petrol prices. Although, who am I

kidding? Telling Kiwis not to talk about

petrol prices is kind of like telling

Australians not to lie. like um it's uh

I'm I'm I'm sorry if if you're an

Australian here, but well done. You did

escape, you know. So um

you know, and uh just in case like

you're not of the petrol talking

variety, at least we have some extreme

weather events. So, Kiwi water cooler

chat is well set up because uh in lie of

talking about petrol, we can always talk

about the weather, right? And so we have

these mixed reports and you might ask

the question, do we see signs of chaos

or do we see signs of the kingdom

breaking in?

And the answer is yes.

Do we see signs of chaos or do we see

signs of the kingdom breaking in? Yes.

And in fact uh in in highlight a recent

social report in New Zealand, the

summary of the report said this

describing New Zealand. It said

financial stress, political allegiance,

institutional distrust and social

isolation are reinforcing each other

producing a population that is

frustrated and disconnecting. And so we

have on one sense this amazing thing

that God is doing on the earth and in

another sense we can see the brokenness

of humanity. And can I tell you, I wish

it was just out there that I could see

um God doing amazing things and also

brokenness. But if I'm honest, sometimes

I look in my life and I go, God, you're

doing so many amazing things. And I also

am acutely aware of my brokenness. How

about you?

And uh there's a scripture in Isaiah 60

where uh Isaiah is prophesying. And uh I

don't want to claim that what Isaiah is

speaking about is necessarily our time,

but I do believe it is a picture of how

God works. And in Isaiah 60:es 1:5, it

says this, "Arise, shine, for your light

has come, and the glory of the Lord

rises upon you. See, darkness covers the

earth, and thick darkness is over the

people, but the Lord rises upon you, and

his glory appears over you. Nations will

come to your light, and kings to the

brightness of your dawn. lift up your

eyes and look around you. All assemble

and come to you. Your sons come from

afar and your daughter daughters are

carried on the hip. And so this is

talking about a particular time in uh uh

that was to come for Israel.

But it's interesting. We can see this

reality gross darkness at the same time

as a commission to rise and shine. And

many times when we talk about a move of

God and if you've been in church for any

length of time, one of the things we

love to do is tell the stories of the

past and how there were moments in time

where God invaded the earth. But one of

the things that happens when we tell

these stories is often we tell the

highlights of those stories. We don't

tell the full context. You see, we often

tell the highlights and it makes sense

that we want to tell the highlights. But

many times what that means is we end up

with a romantic view of what it looks

like when God shows up because we tell

the arise shine but we neglect that at

the same time there was actually often a

gross darkness.

And can I suggest to you this morning

that there is a principle in what Isaiah

is sharing that is when we see darkness

on the earth, there is actually a

mandate for the people of God to arise

and shine. It doesn't actually say gross

darkness covers the earth, so you better

spend a lot of time talking about it.

Like like I don't think we should ignore

the brokenness of humanity.

But when we see brokenness of humanity,

it is an invitation to ask the Lord,

what would it look like for your glory

to flow through me in this environment?

What would it look like for your light

to shine? God, what would happen? I

don't want to live life just impressed

by darkness. I remember a few years

back, many of you will will will recall

we had a debate within our nation about

euthanasia and um I was quite uh

passionate about uh that law and and and

had some concerns around aspects of it

and uh man I I I signed petitions. We we

we we did our bit politically,

but then I realized something. And I was

like, man, we actually have like a rest

home down the road from our church

that's struggling to care adequately for

the people in the rest home.

And I was like, man, what are we going

to do? Are we only going to reject the

darkness or are we going to be the

light? And uh what was amazing, it

wasn't my idea. I don't want to claim

like it was something grand from me, but

some of the ladies from our church began

to volunteer and go into that rest home

multiple days a week and help at feeding

time. And they actually saw people get

saved. They were a blessing to that

place. And it was like, man, there was

darkness on the earth, but it's not just

enough to just be against the darkness.

Sometimes that's actually an invitation

that we can arise and shine because our

light has come. It is a character of God

to shine in dark places.

But you know often we have to choose

what our focus is going to be. Again I

don't believe we should be ignorant to

the brokenness of humanity. I don't

believe we should be ignorant to the

darkness of our world. I do believe we

should push back on moral issues. That

part of being the light is making a

moral stand for things that are going to

be destructive for people. That we

should be petitioning the system to see

righteousness come. But I also believe

we have to be very careful that our

focus does not become consumed with the

darkness but we sense the invitation of

what it means to arise shine of what it

means to allow the Lord within us

permission to not that he well in one

sense he does need our permission not

that we control God in any way but many

times he is wanting to move through us

and we are the block.

And so, you know, it's all about how we

see things. We sang that uh fall like

rain song. I remember uh when Sarah and

I first moved to Alexandria, we had our

first Blossom Festival weekend. Uh

Blossom Festival is the big celebration

in central Targetago. It's a huge

parade. Uh hundreds of people uh come in

to visit and um you know it's always

quite ironic cuz um central it men are

known for being pretty tough but I love

it that they spend a week talking about

Blossy. Oh, Blossy's coming up, you

know, like um there's no good nickname

you can give Blossom Festival and still

sound manly. And so in the end it was

Blossy. And so it was our first Blossom

Festival. We're like, "Wow, wonder the

heaps of visitors. Man, church is going

to be uh it'll be amazing to see who

comes to church." Well, we had two

visitors in church that that um that day

and um the first one came up to me at

the end of the service and I thought we

might have got a lot more visitors, but

she said to me, you know, you you guys

need to be a bit careful in this church.

And I kind of thought, "Oh, okay." And

she um she said, "Yeah, you got to be

careful about the songs that you're

singing." And I thought, "Oh, oh no,

here we're going to have a debate on the

theology of worship, whether we sung

something that wasn't quite

theologically correct." and she said,

"Uh, you know, there's that second song

that you sung during worship." And I

said, "Oh, let it rain." And she said,

'Yes, that's the one. You shouldn't sing

that song. And so, in my mind, I'm

thinking, "Okay, she's anti-carismatic.

She doesn't believe in the reign of the

Holy Spirit. That's okay. We're probably

not going to be the church for her.

That's okay. Just smile, nod." And uh

and but I it took a bit of a plot twist

when she said that song Let It Rain,

like you need to be a bit careful

singing that cuz there's the dam up the

road.

And I kind of looked at her and was

waiting for her to smile and maybe laugh

a little bit. And then I realized, I

stared into these intense eyes of

passion as she continued to rebuke me

that singing Let It Rain might cause a

downpour, subsequently to cause a flood,

that Alexandra might be in trouble if we

kept singing that song. In one sense, I

admired her faith for what our worship

could do. And on another sense, I was

like, "Okay, how do I get out of this

conversation quickly? I'm looking to see

where Sarah is and she's got her eyes

down just walking past. Um

little smile, you know. Uh and

but it's interesting. Obviously that's a

humorous story, but it is interesting

that sometimes two people can take the

same thing and come up with a completely

different take on it. Someone can take

something and look at it and go, "Wow, I

can only see negative there." and

someone else can look and say, "Man, I

see the opportunity for God to break

in." You see Jesus in Matthew 9:35, what

Matthew 9:35

happens is he's got a crowd of people

around him and it says this that he

looked upon the crowd and he saw the

people that they were harassed a and

helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

So here Jesus is. He looks and he's

like, "Man, I see the brokenness of

humanity. I see what's going on in this

world."

And then amazingly what he says is the

harvest is plentiful but the workers are

few. You see Jesus did not deny where

people were at. He saw the brokenness of

humanity. But at the same time as seeing

the brokenness of humanity, he also saw

the nature of the kingdom. That yes,

there was a brokenness of humanity. But

he didn't spend ages talking about the

brokenness. He began to talk about what

the solution is. That God would send

forth laborers into the harvest. that

yes, there was brokenness in people's

lives, but the solution to the

brokenness was the kingdom of God being

carried by the people of God to bring

about breakthrough.

But if we do not understand that these

things coexist,

then many times we live very aware of

darkness,

not realizing that many times it is the

very context for a move of God. And that

if we will not ignore the darkness, but

if we will allow the darkness to frame,

maybe this is a place where the king of

glory can invade. You know, I believe

part of why we're seeing what we're

seeing across the world is because we've

had such a period of secularism. We've

had so much uh humanism that it's

created this darkness that the gospel

now and meaning and life in Christ is

now opening up to a new generation like

never before.

As a staff, one of the things we do, we

kind of have a a a staff meeting each

week. And I try not to make it too long

because I know there's a fine line

between a staff meeting and a hostage

situation. You know, we've all been in

those meetings, right? Where um but one

of the things we do every week is we

start with like just going around and

saying, "Hey, let's share highlights or

testimonies of what God's been doing."

And so we have about an hour meeting and

about the first 20 minutes we actually

just sit around. We go around everyone

um gives their uh highlight or testimony

or something that they think uh that

they've seen God doing. And it's

amazing. I wish I could take you there

to hear some of the amazing stories that

every week there's just story after

story of what God's doing. But I'm sure

you can understand like some weeks I can

see like I've got stuff that I want to

cover in the meeting and I'm kind of

like, "Okay, let's let's do testimonies

and get through." And some weeks I look

and I see another staff member just

going, "Okay, yep, this is good, but we

could probably move on about now." Like

there's a list of things to be done and

we need there's some boxes that need to

be ticked and it's lovely hearing

stories, but let's move on. But why

would we take a third of our meeting?

Because what we realize is we are going

to walk in and see the effects of

darkness on a daily basis within our

society. So we better walk aware of what

the glory of God is doing in our lives.

Like we better have a narrative of not

just gross darkness covers the earth,

but we better also have a narrative what

happens when God's spirit pours out.

What is Jesus doing? What areas can he

cause us to? And it's amazing because

you hear a testimony and someone will

say, "Oh, I went to uh and got my hair

cut." Obviously not me. And then they

they they'll share like and this is what

happened. And then I'll find myself in

an environment, not a barber shop, but I

found myself in a waiting and I'm like

all of a sudden I'm like, "Oh, there's a

person there. Wow. I I remember that

story of what God did through that

person when they were waiting for a

haircut. maybe I should talk to this

person while I'm in a waiting room. And

so all of a sudden, I have courage to

believe that God might turn up in a

waiting room because what I've done is

fed myself not just on the darkness that

is happening, but also on what happens

when the Lord arises on us. You see, the

thing about revival is this. Revival

doesn't come in perfect times.

Revival doesn't come to perfect churches

and revival doesn't come through perfect

people.

And a and if we don't realize that we

can miss the beginning stages of a move

of God because in the midst of what God

is doing, there is always the m

brokenness.

And being honest, that's not just in the

world. That's in the church and that's

in all of our lives.

that all of our lives steward the

goodness and the glory of Jesus and all

of us also are being healed and

transformed from our brokenness and are

on a journey of pursuing wholeness from

God.

And one of the great challenges is you

know we should expect a church to do

things well. We should never

intentionally hurt people. We should

expect to have good systems and things

that honor people and that don't allow

abuse and all of those things. And then

at the same time, we should know that

even when we are doing our best efforts,

the church on its best day is still a

group of broken people gathering

together. It's still going to be a group

of broken people, broken leaders. And

but the good news is in the midst of

that revival does not need to come

through perfect people. It needs to come

through people that are surrendered and

saying Lord it's not about me. I realize

I may not be perfect but you are. So

what how can I arise shine and reflect

you in this season?

Uh, some of you will be familiar with

the Brownsville Revival. Uh, I know uh

Dave and Robin Muspra actually uh went

to the Brownsville revival. I don't know

if anyone else here ever went to

Pensacola, Florida while that revival

was happening, but uh what happened in

was Father's Day 1995.

And uh they had a visiting minister come

and the pastor John Kilpatrick actually

says part of the reason why he invited

the visiting minister was because his

mom had died uh five weeks ago and he

was still deeply in grief, grieving his

mom's death. And so he wakes up on a

Sunday morning and he thinks, "I've got

a guest minister coming. I don't

actually want to go to church this

morning." He's, "I know. I'll just tell

the team, hey, run the service. I'm not

going to come in." So that's what he

does. He's like, or that's what he's

about to do. Then all of a sudden, he

remembers, oh, it's Father's Day and I

have to present the father of the year

plaque to one of the guys in church. And

it's uh something he always did every

year that he was the one that presented

it. So he's like, "Oh, I've got to go

because I've got to go and present this

Father's Day um thing to the father of

the year." So he goes and uh you know,

this is kind of traditional Pentecostal

church. So the preacher actually sits up

on the stage, you know, so he's the

pastor, but he's sitting on the stage.

Um don't worry, that will never happen

here.

I promise.

Um, so he's sitting on stage and he does

his thing and then he's listening to the

guy preach and he's actually like

Steve Hill keeps repeating this line

that you know God we're going to pray

for people and God's going to touch them

and he just keeps saying it and the

pastor is actually sitting there just

going if HE SAYS THAT ONE MORE TIME.

He's like oh I just just let the people

go. It's Father's Day. They're meant to

be going out for lunch. You're preaching

long, man. like just get it over and

done with. So he's sitting here in all

his humanity just going just end it

buddy like

cut it. And then the altar gets opened

and people stream to the front and he's

kind of like, "Oh, I guess I have to go

and pray for some people." He's still

like not that excited about it. And he

says he gets down and he he he showed in

the video I watched where he talked

about it. He showed he knew the exact

part of the auditorium. He's like, "I

came down here. Had no real desire to

pray for someone. Began to lay my hands

on them and heard a

come into the room."

And uh he said, "You know, in that

moment, my life changed for the next

five years." And Brownsville was not an

imperfect church. And if you Google

Brownsville Revival, you will hear um

the mixed reports of what happened. But

without doubt, in my mind, in my

research of it, it was a supernatural

sovereign move of God where 4 and a half

million people went to a church over a

5-year period where uh reports within

the city where police would pick up

drunken, disorderly people and say,

"Hey, you need to sober up. We can

either take you to the cells for the

night or we can take you for the to the

revival. Where do you want to go?" and

they would say, "I'll go to the

revival." And they would come in and be

instantly sober and then would come to

the front confessing their sins. Just an

outpouring of God's spirit in an amazing

way. But what's so crazy is the context

was it happened on the day when John

didn't want it to happen. It happened on

the day where he was more concerned

about lunch than the move of the spirit.

Now, he had spent years praying for

revival. I'm not suggesting we can just

go, "Oh, well, hopefully if we if we

suck, God might turn up." No, I do

believe we're supposed to uh pursue God.

We're supposed to pray. We're supposed

to believe for breakthrough. But man,

the time when it came was when he was at

his weakest. You know, he he could see,

I guess, darkness in a sense, the

darkness of grief in his life. And in

that moment, there was this invitation

to arise, shine. In that moment, it's

like, wow, he was under this darkness of

grief, but there was a call to no longer

focus on that and to shift and focus on

what God was doing. Charles Spurgeon

used to tell a story about dealing with

life's difficulties or an analogy. And

what he would say is this, a jeweler

always chooses a black backdrop for his

most precious rings. He will always put

his most precious rings on a black

backdrop. Can I tell you if we see

darkness in the world,

it is not a time to be impressed by

darkness. It is actually a time to say,

"I know I have nothing to give, but I

also know in and of myself, but I also

know that there is a commission from the

Lord that when there I see darkness,

there is an opportunity to arise and

shine."

And so I wonder for us this morning

as we even think about this

concept of arise shine of God breaking

out in darkness and as we see Pete

Grigg's video as a backdrop of what God

is doing in the earth. I wonder for some

of us if there is an alignment shift, a

shift of focus that the Lord is inviting

us into. You know, maybe it's that there

are genuine things going on in your

world, and it is not that we should deny

them. It's not that they don't exist,

but maybe there's just been so many

things, be it relational breakdowns,

financial pressure, cost of fuel, maybe

even just things like the war actually

for you, you find it hard when those

things get reported. They don't just

remain on the outside, but they get on

the inside and they begin to get uh

produce anxiety and all of those things.

And maybe in that context this morning,

the Lord is saying, I am not saying the

darkness is not there, but I am inviting

you into a change of perspective. I'm

inviting you into a change where you can

begin to perceive what I am doing on the

earth and partner with me.

He's not looking for perfect people.

He's looking for available people who

will be humble enough to in the midst of

great darkness say, "Lord, what are you

doing and how can I partner with you?

Wow. Thank you, Jesus.

I had this

mental picture come into my mind. It

wasn't really a vision, but it was just

just this thought. And and what it was

was uh it was like there was someone

coming in who had been out in the

darkness of the world and they had been

in and seen a lot of things and they

were really hopeless and they like

shuffled into uh down the back of like a

meeting place where Christians were

gathering and they just began to easing

like man I wonder what like I wonder

what hope there might be here. And then

as they began to ease drop on the

conversation, the conversation uh began

to be about petrol prices. And then it

moved on from petrol prices to Donald

Trump and someone had one opinion and

someone had another opinion. Then it

moved on from Donald Trump to Israel and

a and and someone gave one opinion and

someone gave a different opinion and the

person just slowly turned and walked out

the doors. I'm not saying none of those

issues are important, but I am saying we

live in a time where people are burning

and desperate for hope. And we need to

be aware of the season that we are in.

That we are carriers of hope. that we

are to not be impressed by darkness, but

we are actually sometimes having to

force ourselves to say, "I'm not going

to consume myself with that. Yes, that

problem's real, but Lord, thank you that

you're more real."

And even this morning, I just sense a

grace of the Lord here. And I was going

to open the altar, but uh I'm just going

to invite Isaiah to come and maybe we

just stand where we are. If uh if you

want to stand to your feet,

I just believe the Lord wants to release

a fresh grace.

that maybe some of the things we focus

on would grow strangely dim in the light

of his glory and grace. That maybe some

of the darkness that's actually had an

unhealthy focus in our lives

would begin to fall away and that the

light of Jesus would begin to be

magnified. That the commission to arise

shine. And even for some people who

know, man, my focus has been off. Right

now, there's a flood of like, oh yeah, I

know I focus on the and there's like

this overwhelming thoughts and the the

good news is there's freedom. Like it's

not that you need to be anxious about

it. It's that you just need to open

yourself to the grace of Jesus.

Wow.

Lord, right now in the name of Jesus,

I just speak fresh grace over each

person here.

Lord, in the midst of personal trials,

Lord, in the midst of

national calamities and societal

breakdown, Lord, would we also have eyes

to see and ears to hear what you are

doing? Lord, we do declare you are doing

amazing things on the earth. And it may

have a a dark backdrop, but we thank

you, Lord, that in the midst of

darkness, you are calling your people to

arise and shine.

So Lord, I bless each person here in

Jesus' name with a shift of focus.

Father, that we would not be consumed by

darkness, but Lord, we would be consumed

by the fact that our light has come.

Lord, we would be consumed by the gospel

of the kingdom. Lord, we would be

consumed by the anointing of the Holy

Spirit. Lord, I bless each one here with

a fresh grace to focus.

Lord, where we have allowed other

things, we repent. And Lord, we turn

back to you.

And Lord, we ask that

you would be our great focus

in this season.

Lord, I bless each person here who feels

like they are insignificant, like they

can't do this, like they don't have

something to contribute. Father, I pray

that you would even just put put on

their heart the cup of cold water that

they can give in your name, that would

bring breakthrough, that would bring the

kingdom, that would see heaven come. And

Lord, we do pray, Lord, for the

continued moving of your spirit. Lord,

we do pray for a multi-generational

revival, Lord, that would touch every

generation from young to old, that would

touch every lifegiving church across our

city, that would touch every lifegiving

church across our nation. You know,

Jesus actually said to his disciples

when he saw the brokenness, pray for the

Lord of the harvest that he would send

forth laborers into his harvest. So,

we're just going to conclude the

service. Uh what what we're going to do,

I'm going to ask you to do something

that some of you might find

uncomfortable, some of you won't. But

I'm just going to ask you to start

praying out loud that we would begin to

pray that God would send forth, that

there would be a move of the spirit,

Lord, in Jesus' name. Come on, let's

begin to open our mouths and pray. Lord,

we we declare, Lord, your kingdom to

come, Lord. We declare salvation. Lord,

we declare miracles, signs, wonders.

Lord, we declare people being

apprehended by the goodness of God.

Lord, we declare Lord fresh

eyes to see. Lord, we pray across our

nation in Jesus mighty name.

And Lord, even as we sung this morning,

God defend New Zealand. Lord, we do pray

for our nation. We pray for that move of

God. Lord, we pray, Lord, you would

continue to open hearts, open lives,

open minds, and Lord, that you would be

pouring out your spirit in the mighty

name of Jesus. And everybody said,

>> "Amen." Amen. Awesome. I'm going to hand

back over to Calvin and he'll uh close

our service out.