The New Normal

Service Opener

Good morning and welcome to OneChurch Online.

Pastor Matt Redstone

Lead Pastor

We are so excited that you are joining us for this morning’s service.

Just want to let you know about a few ways you can interact with us this morning. If you are joining us on Facebook or YouTube, we have hosts that will be welcoming you to the service. If you have any questions or would like prayer, just indicate that in the comments and one of our hosts will reach out to you and help in anyway that they can.

As well, during the message there will be questions and polls posted. If you are comfortable, please answers the questions and the polls. We just want the service to as engaging as possible.

If you are watching on your smart TV and don’t have access to the comment section, the polls will be available in the Faithlife app, along with all the scripture. If you hit “Read” on the bulletin, you will see all the questions, polls, and scriptures right there. You can even tap on the scripture and it will open the bible app so you can highlight or makes notes throughout the service.

With that, lets pray as we prepare our hearts for worship.

Sermon

Intro

We are starting a new series this morning called, “The New Normal”

When Michelle and I arrived in January, there was a lot of adjustments that we had to make.

We weren’t living in our own home, and we are forever grateful for Brian and Lorna opening their home to us for those first couple of month. So we were trying to develop a routine and get our bearings, but if you’ve ever been in a season of transition, it is hard to create consistency when you know the current setup is only temporary.

There were times out on the farm when Michelle would say, “I just want things to go back to normal,” but we both knew deep down that there was no going ‘back’ to normal; a new normal was going to have to be found

Then we moved from the farm to the church, and needless to say, normalcy was not to be found there. I had a terrible time disengaging from ‘pastor mode’ as my wife calls it. I was always on, from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed, church was always on my mind. It was all around me, how could I stop thinking about it.

How many times have you moved? What was the easiest part? What was the hardest part?

On top of all the personal transition, a little virus hit and turned the whole on it’s head.

Now, not only was my family trying to adjust to their new surroundings, their new home, a new town, and not only was I trying to adjust to the new role of lead pastor, now the church as a whole was trying to adjust to it’s new reality. As we enter into the re-opening of society as a whole, the media is talking about the New Normal.

The truth is, we can never ‘go back to normal’. There are a lot of people who are hanging on to the hope that things will just revert to a time before Coronavirus, but that simply is not the case. Those businesses, countries, and even churches that hit the rewind button will themselves irrelevant and out of touch.

How has COVID-19 changed things in your life?

Ecclesiastes 1:9 CSB

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

The New Normal for the Disciples

Our last series was all about the Holy Spirit, who He is, what His role is, and significance of Pentecost. Now we pick the story and look at the lives of the disciples. We quickly discover that the early church knew a little something about ‘New Normals’. We’re going to re-read a passage we read last week to set the stage for the rest of the series.

Acts 1:4–9 CSB

While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Place yourself in the disciples’ shoes

For the last three years, they have been lead and taught by Jesus on a continuous basis. They watched Jesus teach large crowds with unheard of authority. They watched him heal the sick, feed thousands with very little food, and even cast out demons.

Now Jesus is gone, ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God. Who is going to lead them? How do they move forward from this moment?

Not only that, in ten days they are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and given gifts they had only heard about or seen at work in Jesus. In fact, Jesus said in John

John 14:12 CSB

“Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

d. Greatness was waiting for the disciples. But in order to accomplish everything Jesus had left for them to do, it meant changes would have to be made. These changes are what we are going to be talking about over the next number of weeks.

They were going to do things that had never been done before.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit was not a common practice in those days, yet it would become a more and more common experience among the believers. Over and over again in Acts we see the disciples experiencing the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit, resulting in power displayed and God’s glory being proclaimed.

They had to change the way things were done

They were still praying, but they were praying different because they had this gift of tongues they had never had before. Their vision was different, because it wasn’t just about the Jewish people anymore, but the gospel was for everyone equally, but God’s image is in every man, woman and child.

They had to let go of the old things

They were going to stop doing things that had always been done. Their teaching was different because it was based off of grace, not works. This was going to be the biggest point of contention. The Jewish leaders weren’t ready for this new teaching, this grace that was being freely offered. And so the religious leaders, when faced with the option of change or resist, chose to resist the change and tried to squash this new teaching and this new movement.

3. Which do you struggle with the most? Starting something new, changing the way something gets done, or stopping something that had always been done?

We are at a turning point as a church. There is no going back. Changes have been and will continue to be made. Things are going to be done that have never been done before. Things are going to be done differently, and we are going to let go of things that seemed indispensable. We are going to be doing this corporately as the church, and each of us needs to consider what we are going to do individually.

We can’t meet as a large gathering, so either we just don’t get together, or we gather in different ways. There won’t be any large community gatherings to do outreach in, so either we don’t do outreach or we find new ways to share the gospel with our friends and neighbours. Missions is going to be difficult with all the limitations put on international travel, so do we stop doing missions, or do we find missions fields that are little closer to home. This past week it was made very apparent how important it is we focus on what is happening in our own communities. We don’t have to go to Mexico to find people who are being deprived of their basic rights and needs. We don’t have to go to another country to find people who are being treated unjustly. Racism and prejudices are happening right here and right now and the church can no longer turn a blind eye to it.

Micah 6:8 CSB

Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.

God’s idea of justice is to find those who are oppressed and end the oppression. All through scripture we are told to look after the widows and the orphans because in those days, widows and orphans didn’t have a voice or any way to get by. It may not be the widows and orphans, but there are still groups of people in need of a voice. We need to show more empathy towards those who are being wronged and not stand by and watch it happen. How can we offer hope of eternal life if we aren’t willing to fight for a better life today?

OneChurch, God is calling for change. We need to think differently, talk differently, and we need to change the way we see the world. Are we going to embrace the new normal, or are we going to resist it and get left behind? What are the changes God is calling each and every one of us to make today?

Let’s pray.