God Grows the Plant (What God does in Revival)

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Thanks for coming

and hanging out. I want to start today by talking

about my mate, Adam. That's right. That's a that's

a guy who knows Adam. That's the right response

if you know my mate gangers, right? So Adam is

a super talented drummer He's a really gentle

soul, but he has a very biting sense of humor

He reaches out to me constantly just to check

in We have kids of similar ages. Our wives are

basically sisters at this point and we enjoy

nothing more than splitting a six -pack over

a big tray of chicken wings. Yeah, that's right.

I received that. So, long before I came to church

for the first time and way, way, way before I

had a relationship with Jesus, Adam was busy

planting seeds. With each seemingly random text

message, With each shared album recommendation,

Adam will send you random indie artists that

you just have to listen to, according to Adam.

With every beer, with every chicken wing, Adam

had been planting seeds. Now Adam knew my history,

which included a militant stance against organized

religion, self -professed atheism, which I now

know was really just kind of like arrogant agnosticism.

and Adam went to work. Initially he was just

kind of, this is what I needed by the way at

that point in my life, Adam was just kind of

showing me that Christians can be super normal

people. I didn't think that was necessarily,

I'm a changed man okay, like I didn't know that

at the time so he knew that's what I needed right.

And so what he did is he planted all these seeds

and then he began to water seeds based on what

it was that I needed. Some of those things that

I needed is that Adam, better than anybody I

know normalizes vulnerability. He normalizes

care from one man to another man, which I think

most people in this room would acknowledge is

probably not always something that guys are super

good at. He modeled a model of generosity that

I hadn't really seen before. As I looked back

as I was writing this, I thought, how did I not

realize that pretty much every beer we drank

came out of his fridge and not my esky? And then

the amount of times we'd go to pick up takeaway

and it was met with a, nah, you're good, man,

you get the next one. I realize I am in the red,

friends. I owe that man some chicken wings. And

I just didn't see it. But what he was doing was

just continuing to plant these seeds and modeling.

a life that he believed in, that he saw. And

then he watered those seeds by introducing me

to Christian friends and not by going like, hey,

this is my Christian friend Stu. He would just

introduce me to the people in his life that he

loved and that loved him and cared about him

and vice versa. And the bigger thing that he

did to water those seeds that he'd been planting

is he just never hid his Christianity from me.

He never once for a second hid the person that

he was, what Jesus meant to him, what it meant

to his family, and the commitment that he had

made to that. And as, again, after he planted

all these seeds, seed after seed after seed after

seed, and then watering, watering, watering,

watering, watering. So encounter terminology,

if you will, I was Adam's plus one. So plus one

for those who don't know all the encounter terminology,

and I hope you do by now. That's just a non -Christian

friend who we are actively working to bring into

a relationship with Jesus. Now he had planted

these seeds, which were all based on actions

fueled by Jesus's example, by the way, and he'd

watered them by bringing others along for the

journey, whether they were aware of it or not,

and all of that was done for no personal benefit

for him. It was all done to actually see me refreshed,

to see me made anew. And then here came the critical

part, is he'd been praying for me. actively and

regularly. Actually, his whole family had been

praying for me because his whole family had been

praying for the Horners. Adam recognized that

he was but a man and he could only do so much,

which he did do, but here he was interceding

on my behalf. Holy Spirit, we pray, fall on text,

bring him into relationship with Jesus. Change

his life in a way that only you can because I

can only point to it. Now for those that know

my testimony, it's been tweaked and not tweaked,

that sounds awful. It's been manipulated. No,

I'm joking, right? For those that know my testimony,

it quite often starts with this idea and this

concept that Cadence invited me to church, which

is not untrue. The bit that kind of gets left

out, because this will make part of Cadence's

testimony, is that it was Adam's daughter Gracie

that first invited Cadence to church and then

in turn Cadence invited me to church. So Gracie

and Adam were a team. The ganglions, seeds and

water. with an imploring of intervention from

the Holy Spirit set a path for the horners that

changed our lives forever and those seeds that

were watered with hope and prayer played no small

part in the seeds that turned into a literal

plant in Encounter Henley. Woo indeed. So we

have spent a lot of the last month hearing about

the revival and the Hebrides, right? How many

people in this room have googled What is, where,

how and when are the Hebrides? None of you? I

had to, right? I was sitting in this room like,

yeah, man, revival and the Hebrides and then

going, somebody's got to help me out here, right?

So, revival and the Hebrides, it's like this,

you know what, I'm not going to, you Google it

later, right? So I had to, you do too. Basically

what happened is this region where in the UK,

where these two women in their 80s, one blind

and one who was crippled with arthritis, sowed

their seeds in the only way that they knew how.

Now the only way that they knew how was through

prayer and they would pray for five hours a night,

sometimes finishing three, four in the morning.

Don't forget to book your hour in the 24 -7 prayer

room. We're only looking for one hour, five hours,

come on. You can book our five if you want. So

they planted seeds with prayer because that's

what they had. and they warded them with tears

of desperation, and then their works in prayer

actually helped to spark a nationwide revival.

Bars were emptied, crime rates plummeted, courtrooms

were empty, 20 ,000 people came to faith in the

first five weeks alone. Generations transformed

by the Holy Spirit as it ripped through the countryside.

Pastors were beginning to preach in fields because

the churches were no longer big enough to hold

that many people, by the thousands. And it feels

a little bit beyond comprehension when you kind

of hear it spelled out that way, which is good

because sometimes movements of the Spirit should

feel a little beyond our comprehension. So if

revival is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit,

with the Holy Spirit being both the architect

and the sustainer of these miraculous events,

do our words, do our deeds, do our seeds and

plants, do they even matter? Now I would love

to ask that question of the church leaders in

a little town called Stornoway. So as this revival

is ripping through this area, right? Stornoway

is the capital of the Isle of Lewis, which is

one of the islands in this area, and is part

of the Hebrides. And during the revival, where

literally entire towns are being changed, do

you know what happened in Stornoway? Anyone want

to take a guess? No. Oh, that was a good guess.

It was like a 50 -50. Nothing happened in Stornoway.

Nothing. That's what everybody said. But you

are ahead of the game. Nothing happened in Stornoway.

Now as you go back, by the way, and the reason

for this is believed, there are still people

who are alive now today, by the way, that were

alive during the revival of the Hebrides. So

this is not hearsay. This was... this is present,

this is our people, you can go and talk about

this. The ministers and the church leaders in

Stornoway openly opposed the revival as it was

happening. And most believe that is the reason

that the Holy Spirit simply circumvented the

town of Stornoway. So if you think that our actions

and our seeds and our watering and the way that

we handle our business doesn't impact the Holy

Spirit, I'd ask you to consider if you think

the residents of Stornoway would agree with you.

Now in Paul's letter to the Corinthian church

from today's text, he's writing, because a bit

of a divide has actually been created in the

Corinthian church. Some are very eager to follow

Paul, because Paul is the one of course who planted

the church. Others are very eager to follow Apollos

who is the current leader of the church. Paul,

if you will, is the planter of the seed. Apollos

is the one over here holding the watering can

as we speak. And this part of Paul's letter,

it's a long one, you should go and read it. The

part of Paul's letter intends to make one thing

incredibly clear. He humbles the whole situation,

he brings it down to his bare bones. Pretty quickly,

which is basically this, Apollos, Paul, who cares?

It's not about either of them. And by the way,

not about either of them is either of us because

the person writing this letter is Paul. Each

of us has played our part. We've had a role to

uphold and we've either done so or we're currently

doing so. It is through us that you have believed.

However, I need to remind you that we are not

whom you believe in. Your salvation is through

Jesus, not us. We are not the focus here. And

Paul needs them to know that we can do all the

work we want, but it's God that makes everything

work. It's God that makes everything grow. And

I love this next bit. I don't actually need to

add any flourishes to this next bit of text.

It's basically, it doesn't matter who does the

planting or who does the watering. What's important

is that it's God that makes the seed grow. When

Paul's writing, he wants to make darn sure that

we don't entertain the idea of being concerned

about who is getting the credit for the building

of God's church. Because the credit isn't ours

to assign and it certainly isn't ours to claim.

This message isn't about which helper is more

than or which jobs are more important. The message

here is that God brings people together so that

they can help us and we in turn can help them,

but we're doing it all for the glory of God.

Great, so I don't have to do anything. Pause.

No. You'll note that nowhere does Paul say there's

no work to be done. Quite the contrary. Paul

goes out of his way to affirm that yes, there

is planting to be done, there is watering to

be done, but both must work together towards

the same purpose. Not only are we working together,

but we're actually working as a trio because

we're also working in conjunction with the Holy

Spirit. As with the revival and the Hebrides,

if God wants to, He can and will do all of the

necessary work without us. But I need you to

hear me church, this is not His preference. God

holds you Hear me on this. God holds you, each

and every one of you, in such high regard that

He wants you involved in His mission. Church,

we are pursuing a miraculous and expedited movement

of God. Revival is about the restoration of God's

presence to His people, and He wants His people

not just as recipients of that, but He wants

each and every one of us as an active participant

in that. So in order for that to happen, it has

to personally convict seeds. I'm going to keep

on using this, you know, like it's right there

in the title. I'm just going to keep on seeds

watering, get used to it, right? So he has to

personally convict which of those seeds and then

there's changes that can happen from the overflow

and the watering and that creates that perfect

fertile environment in which the Holy Spirit

can move. It's in that that the Holy Spirit will

spark a revival. Now Tim Keller tells us that

there are actually three movements that will

tend to happen during a revival. And the first

two are really, as we're following along, you'll

see these are kind of the ones that we've been

speaking into thus far in this series. So I'm

week five, we tried to work this out before,

I'm week five of the series, week six, Pastor

Michael bringing us home at the All In next week.

But you'll probably notice some themes as I talk

about some of these that we've already kind of

raised. The first movement during a revival is

that sleepy Christians wake up. The conviction

of sin and the assurance of who you are in Christ,

the assurance of God's love, it simply wakes

up sleepy Christians. Now when we talk about

sleepy Christians, we all know some of these

guys, they're probably, you know, yeah, I'm a

Christian, I go to church every Easter and every

Christmas as long as somebody really pushes me

to get there. Right, so step one of the revival

is those people, they might have a faith, they

might have that tiny seed of a faith and it gets

a woken up and then they get woken up, sleepy

Christians woken up. The second movement of a

revival is that nominal Christians are converted.

You mean Christians are converted? We're talking

people who think they're Christians already.

They might have been baptized, they might be

members of the church, they might be... Worship

leaders, they might be varistas, they might be

serving in the preaching team. And during a revival

they'll be so convicted that they'll quite often

be heard be saying like, I thought I was a Christian

and now I know that I never really was. I never

really understood what it meant to be saved by

faith. This is, I don't know if you ever have

this when you're singing a song sometimes or

you read a section of the Bible and it's almost

like you're hearing it for the first time. I

remember the first time Pastor Mike and I were

having a conversation he tried to explain the

concept of grace to me and I just, you might

as well have tried to explain to me like a decimal

point to infinity. Like I just couldn't get my

head around it and I still can't sometimes but

I think I'm starting to get there. It's that

kind of reinvigoration, that kind of reawakening

that happens inside of you. that is what happens

when nominal Christians are converted. Now these

first two groups and these awakenings, they become

that really vital foundation upon which the third

group will tend to grow from. This is where I

came from, this is potentially where many of

you came from, and potentially where many of

you are still sitting in. The third movement

during a revival is that conscious non -Christians

come to faith. Because when sleepy Christians

wake up, when nominal Christians get truly converted,

the result of that is that it beautifies the

church. The church becomes an attractive place

to be, and on top of that it becomes a powerful

place to be. Now these first two groups through

their conviction, they change, their behavior

changes, their action changes. They begin to

reach out to their neighbors in a way they weren't

doing before. They begin to interact with their

colleagues differently, with their wife differently,

with everybody in their surroundings, start to

see this real change in them. Their neighborhoods

become better places to live. Their workplaces

become nicer places to go on a Monday. Their

home becomes a more inviting space. people will

hear about that or they will see it or they will

feel the benefits of it and it's this noticeable

tangible change is where the good news really

starts to spread. Where whole churches end up

being filled with unconnected people, some coming

in because they're curious and in other cases

they come in because they've been brought in.

There's last two points, some are curious and

that's amazing. What's really powerful for me

in that is that some are brought in to the church.

Both of these the result of those movements of

the spirit and Christians that are normally born

out of a recommitment to repentance and holiness

of believers. Changes that are so big that they're

not only intriguing they can't be ignored. That

combination of seeds being watered. plants growing

with the Holy Spirit's inflection just creates

a beautiful crop ready to be harvested. Now Andrew

A. Bonar puts it like this, revivals begin with

God's own people. The Holy Spirit touches their

heart anew and gives them new fervour and compassion

and zeal, new light and new life. And when He

has come thus to you, He next goes forth in the

valley of dry bones. Oh, what responsibility

this lays on the Church of God. If you grieve

Him away from yourselves or hinder His visit,

then the poor, perishing world suffers poorly.

In this room are worshipers, prayer warriors,

meal trained participants, meal trained recipients,

small group hosts, and yes, I believe future

church planters. Your ability or desire to do

one and not the other doesn't render you more

or less useless than the other. More or less

useful than the person next to you. When your

abilities and your desires have been shaped and

formed by Jesus by the Holy Spirit, you will

be transformed and out of that transformation,

you're able to partner with other believers and

with the Holy Spirit for the transformation of

others. Those are the plants that we want to

see grow. You personally, I love you all, you're

amazing people of God, but you personally cannot

convict others. You can live in the light of

personal conviction You can live in the light

of the changes that come from that In a way that

is so compelling to your non -christian friends

that they can't help be intrigued Now it's this

point I really want to remind everybody Despite

what it sounds like this isn't faith and religion

is not about behavior modification But it's about

conviction. And it's about accepting Jesus' invitation

to your life, to live it in abundance, and then

to live out of that overflow. Hear me when I

say, your salvation is assured. You are saved

by grace. You are not saved by works and deeds.

But that doesn't mean there isn't work to be

done. Dallas Wheel Art offers us this. You may

be very sure that if your sincere intent is to

glorify God and bless others in your efforts

and you are not motivated by unloving attitudes,

you will see the hand of God move with you as

you expectantly do your work. And your part is

simply to expect it, watch for it, give thanks

as you see it and on the basis of your experience,

encourage others to do the same. Willard is just

one of the greatest Christian voices in history,

so if he has a quote it's normally worth listening

to. This is the part that jumped out to me in

this. Your part is to expectantly do your work

and then to simply and sincerely expect the hand

of God to move with you. Because if we're expecting

God to be with us in our works, then we can expect

that God will work to make the seeds that we're

planting and the watering doing, the watering

we're doing, we can expect that God will make

those plants grow. And church, here's my fear

is that we've actually forgotten to expect for

God to move with us. To do the things that we

deem impossible. To expect it. Matthew 6 .33

tells us, but he said, what is impossible with

man is possible with God. Guys, that word with

is what we're going to keep on focusing on at

the minute. God can do this alone and He wants

to do it with... you and with me and with the

person next to you. That is His preference with

God. That is why we work in partnership with

the Holy Spirit because only through Him can

we live out of faith that can help to spark a

revival. That revival starts within ourselves

and in such a way that it has to become undeniable.

So how do we partner with God in our lives and

in the lives of others? Bandai may be a bit premature,

but you can probably come on up. I was going

to say the slides not up yet. Does anyone want

to take a guess based on what I've been talking

about today? What is the first thing that we

can do to partner with God during this time?

So close. Plant the seed. I'll give you a guess

at number two after this. The first thing we

can do is plant the seed. Now we're going to

plant the seed. I believe we should be starting

with planting the seed internally. So I challenge

you, what work are you letting Jesus do in and

through you when no one else can see it? Are

you a sleepy Christian that simply needs waking

up? Pastor Jen talked about holiness, talked

about falling to our knees, the begging for the

intervention of God, that pursuit. We plant seeds

in deep and fertile soil in order to help them

grow. What are you doing in the secret place?

What are you doing in the deep? What are you

doing in the dark? Second way we can respond

to this. Anybody? We've planted the seed. We

now water the plant. I'm so close. We water the

plant. We plant the seed and then we water the

plant. Now again, Paul makes it incredibly clear

that making the plant grow is an independent

exercise. When Paul talks about us working in

partnership, it's also about finding those people

that have offsetting skill sets to compliment

each other. We're gonna compliment each other's

strengths, and we're gonna compliment each other's

weaknesses. Where are your gaps? Are you aware

enough to know where those gaps are? Are you

able to find someone or a few people to help

you fill them? I'd remind you, we are a team,

we are a family, and I think it's time sometimes

that we act like it. And the third part of this,

I'm not going to ask because you're going to

say pray again and that's not what's coming up.

The third part of this is that we expect God

to make things grow. How do we do that? There

is actually no more important relationship. I

believe outside of your relationship with God

and your relationship with, you know, your partner,

significant other, there's no more important

relationship you can have than a deliberate relationship

with a non -Christian. So I challenge you, do

you have a plus one? And if you don't, why not?

And if you do, what are you doing with that plus

one to bring them a little bit closer to Jesus?

I hear beer and chicken wings are a great start.

Maybe you're already at that point. Maybe you're

past that point. Maybe you've done the coffee.

Maybe you've done the dinners. Maybe you've done

the going out to the fringe together. Maybe you've

done all those things where you're really starting

to sow into someone and show them that you care

and that you are interested in their well -being.

You're interested in them as a human being. Maybe

you're at that. So what's the next step? What's

the next seed that you can plant and begin to

water? Because I'll be honest with you church,

we have to learn to kill apathy in this space.

Apathy is probably the biggest hindrance in revival

because it shows a lack of concern for the salvation

of the lost and in turn for the glory of God.

So I'd say the next step in this has to be that

we are bold in this. We get those first stages

and then what's next? How about this? I'd love

to read the Bible with you if you'd be interested.

Ask them if there's anything you can be praying

for for them. Most people will receive that quite

well, even if they're non -Christians. Shows

that you care. You've already shown them you

care, but it reinforces that. Maybe they're open

to you praying for them. Maybe invite them to

pray with you. One of my favorite things now

is when I see people where somebody says, Oh,

can you be praying for me? And they're actually

open to that. and then people go, sure will man,

on my list and they walk off. If somebody asks

you to pray for them, ask if they'd be okay if

you do it right now. Take the time, be bold.

But don't you dare do nothing. Now if you're

a bit confused and the question is still lingering,

just like text, is it my job to do the work?

Or is it my job to let the Holy Spirit do the

work? And the answer to that is yes. We've got

to do both. We've got to do it in partnership.

We do it as a group. You do the deep work by

yourself. You do the communal work with somebody

else. And then you work together with the Holy

Spirit to bring it all together. I don't know

about you. It sounds crazy. I want a revival.

I want to see generations transformed. I want

to see a nation rebuilt from the ground up in

God's image. I want His people drawn closer to

Him than they have ever been. All I'm asking

you to do to partner in that is to plant small

seeds of faith to be in that. You can water them

with your prayer. But then you need to be bold

enough to expect a holy intervention. Jesus was

willing to sacrifice everything in order to see

us restored to the Father. Again, Jesus still

did the work. He spent years ministering, preaching,

performing miracles, teaching. He didn't just

kind of like sit back and be like, well... crucifixion

is coming, the Holy Spirit will take over from

there, I guess I'll just not worry about it.

Day after day, year after year, doing the work,

bringing us closer to the Father and then leaving

the Holy Spirit in His place to make sure that

that connection was never lost, to ensure that

we always had access. He spent His time here

on earth planting and watering and planting and

watering and expecting those plants to grow.

All for us and all on our behalf. We cannot take

that for granted and we cannot keep it to ourselves.

Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

to hear from you on Instagram at encounterhemmy.

or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.