CULTURE SHIFT

Intro: It is such an honor to be here with you all tonight. Natalie and I feel so blessed to be your Youth Directors here in Florida. She will be preaching tomorrow night, so you do not want to miss that.

Before getting started with the message, I just want to say that your Pastors are amazing! Pastors Mike and Renee are just so incredible. Also, we have been good friends with Pastors Sam and Allison. We are blessed to be their friends. We have known each other for a while now, and we just love what God is doing through them. It is so evident that God’s hand is on their life and ministry. Thank you both for following God’s call and for being such an encouragement to us and these students.

We are not strangers here at Deland First Assembly, we have been here several times now and we love you all so much.

Tonight I want to share a simple thought with you surrounded by two key words.

Vision and Culture

Scriptures:

Acts 9:1–31 (ESV)

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.

1. Vision is God given

a. Sual was on a tragetory, but God had other plans

b. He could not see what God sees!

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Acts 13:1–3 (ESV)

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Illustration:

Several years ago, Natalie and I served as youth pastors at a church not to far from here. We were praying for God to do many things through the ministry and the lives of the students, but we realized that the only way this was going to take place was if God was to open their eyes to see His Glory and the culture would shift in the ministry. It was not going to happen through our own strength.

We did a summer camp event every year. During one of the nights, we decided to have a prayer meeting with the students and it was in that moment that we opened the microphone for the students to pray. One by one, students would go up to the front and start praying for their generation and for God to use them to reach the lost and the hurting. Everything that we had been hoping for God to do in their lives started to do that night.

Eyes were opened to the power of God, an annointing started to flow in the room which was so powerful. This moment was organic and a passionate ferver. There are very few moments in life when a response becomes so powerful that you sit back in awe of God’s powerful release.

2.