Sabbath at Passion City Church | August 30

2:25 If you have scripture today, I would love for you to turn with me to Psalm 126. It's a favorite of ours and been around our story for a while. Charlie Hall, maybe the father or one of the fathers of worship in our house at Passion, wrote a song out of this psalm many, many, many years ago. and it's been in my heart all week long as I've been thinking about Psalm 126. The Psalm really got on my radar while we were in Israel two weeks ago. We had 350 friends journeying through the Holy Land together on the Passion Holy Land experience. Happy to see that you guys are here on the right time zone today. I know we've been struggling a little bit, but it was an incredible experience. And we had an opportunity to do a worship night on the southern steps of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That this would have been the way that the pilgrims came up to the temple in the time of Jesus. And these steps have been excavated. They are the steps that go up to the temple in worship. And as you arrive close to the temple, they're going to put a few photos up so you can just see this night where it's our group plus some locals had joined in, maybe about 400 of us just below the walls of the temple on these southern steps and having a beautiful night of worship, preaching the gospel. People got saved, by the way, on the southern steps that night.

3:53 God was just stirring and moving among us, but there are 15 of these final steps that go up to the temple. And we're on the steps, not the replicas of the steps. We're actually on those 15 steps, steps that Jesus would have walked as he went to the temple during the Passover and during the feast in Jerusalem. And of these 15 steps, we have the songs of ascent or the psalms of ascent. And so when you turn in your scripture to Psalm 120, it says the songs of ascent. And there are 15 songs of ascent that follow from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134. And as the pilgrims would finally make it to the last 15 steps, the tradition is they would stand on a step, recount that song, that psalm, meditate on it, take the next step, meditate on that psalm. so they weren't in a rush to get to the temple.

4:57 They were recognizing that they were going to the house of God, that they were going to the holy place, that they were not God, but they were going up to God. And because of that, there was going to be an acclamation process of mind and heart as they thought about who he was and who they weren't. and as they remembered his faithfulness. Some of the most powerful passages that you and I have known all of our lives, those of us who've been around church, come from the Songs of Ascent. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. These are words from the Songs of Ascent. I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord.

5:53 And then come to Psalm 126, a psalm of remembrance about what God has done. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men or like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

6:55 Step number seven on the southern steps. The pilgrim would be remembering the 70 years in captivity in Babylon. and remembering that even after seven decades of being carried away from Jerusalem, the temple being destroyed, being enslaved into Nebuchadnezzar's empire, God still had a plan. He still was able to rescue and restore. He brought back his people to the city of God, back to the temple of God, back to the place of worship and back to a relationship with God. So on step number seven, I'm remembering we, because of our own choices, got carried away into Babylon. But you, oh God, restored us again to the city of God.

7:50 And that's why this message today is called Out of the Ashes to Dream Again. The text says we were like those who dreamed. And I wonder today if there's anyone in this gathering who feels like your dream or more importantly God's dream for you has gotten buried under the rubble of life. a few key observations that i just want us to rally around today and the first one is this it's the nature of the spirit of god to put dreams in our hearts when the church was born and the holy spirit came peter stood up to preach and when he stood up to preach an outbreak had happened, and all these believers had started speaking the gospel in different languages of all the people who were in Jerusalem for the festival. And when people saw this, a lot of them marveled, but some of them thought that the people had had a little too much to drink, and they couldn't make much of the story. It's early in the day, and so that's kind of one of those weird things that you see in scripture of people going, wow, we don't know what's going on.

9:13 Maybe they've had too much wine is what they said in verse 13. But Peter stood up in verse 14 to clarify. And he said he stood up with the 11. He raised his voice. This is Acts 2. And he addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only 9 in the morning. now some of you that doesn't really discount people from being drunk and so um culturally things have shifted a little bit and you're like i don't know i've seen some people at nine in the morning coming out of the clubs and you know things were a little weird You're like, Louie, none of us have seen anyone coming out of the clubs at nine in the morning. We didn't even know that was a thing. No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

10:12 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. And what is gonna be the result? What has God been building up to all through time so that when the Holy Spirit comes, what is the result going to be? Well, the number one result's gonna be he's gonna pour his spirit out on all people. There's not gonna be a select group of people that get the spirit. Everybody in the house of God is gonna get the spirit. And when the spirit comes on all people, here's what's gonna happen. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will what? So we see there's going to be prophetic words spoken, not necessarily mysterious words that no one's ever heard before, but the words of God and God's purpose and God's plan and God's story are going to be proclaimed boldly in the spirit. But also young men are going to have visions and even old men are going to dream dreams because it is the nature of the spirit of God to put dreams in our hearts.

11:47 God does not want to raise up a dreamless church. And he doesn't want to raise up dreamless believers. He wants a house filled with dreamers, with visionaries, with people who boldly proclaim the things of God. To open our eyes to the not yet and to open our eyes to the we don't know how. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we are moving through life going, you know what? This hasn't come to pass yet, but it's going to. We don't know how God's going to do this, but God's going to do this. And that's what dreamers are all about. And God wants that for your life. He doesn't want to just give you dreams. He wants you to give you his dreams for you. See, the world's all, you can, you can find a, the largest section of books used to be in the bookstore to help me figure out my dream for my life section.

12:46 but God isn't interested in helping you figure out your dream for your life he's interested in helping you figure out his dream for your life God isn't on beck and call to help us fulfill what we feel like our destiny is God is in the story today wanting to put his destiny in your life his dream for you in your life but secondly if it's the nature of the spirit to put dreams in our hearts, it is the strategy of the enemy to squash and steal our dreams. And I think that's where a lot of us are today. Some of us have had our dreams dashed.

13:32 Some by our own choices and some by the choices of others. and others of us, I think, are just in a stalemate. We were in the airport a few days ago, flying home from the Middle East, and I was walking up to get a coffee and coming back, and one of the gates, and airports are all interesting and different, but in one of the gates, I want to try to explain this. I wanted to take a picture of it, because I thought, I want to talk about this, but I didn't want to take a picture of this family. God bless them. but in this gate there are just these rows of the seats i mean we've all been there right and they're all different angles and they're all set up in different ways and you end up sitting down you know looking at some people you don't know or looking out the window if you're lucky enough or looking towards the concourse well in this gate let's just say the gate was as big as the stage or bigger there was one structure in it and i didn't stop to figure out what it was Was it a closet? I don't know, but it was like this big square. And so I'm walking down the concourse. There's the square thing and there's seats everywhere. And there's a row of seats coming down by the square thing that you could barely walk between the wall, which is this long and the, and the row of seats. And there were no people sitting in the gate except three people in of family in the three seats directly in front of the wall, which was right here. You could touch it with your hands. And they were camped out for a while. This was not going to be a short-term moment. They had their stuff and all their gear, and they were just there for a minute. And I was like, why did y'all sit in front of the wall? There are a hundred seats here where you can breathe air and see light and look out the window. And they're just sitting there looking at a wall.

15:30 And I went, that is such a picture of so many people in this generation. They are sitting in God's story, looking at a wall and whatever has happened. I don't know, but they have become short sighted, myopic. They have become hopeless, depleted, or maybe they're just in survival mode going, I don't really have energy to figure out what the other seats are. Thank you very much. And I think that's because the enemy comes along and he steals dreams. And I don't know what happened to your dreams, but I know one thing for sure. I know God's not stymied by stolen dreams. Because the third thing I want us to see today is God wants to lift you out of the rubble to dream again. psalm 126 verse 4 says restore our fortunes oh lord like streams in the negev now when we're sitting at home especially if we're in the west and you're reading that verse you're like okay restore our fortunes i kind of get that like streams of the negev i don't know what that means but i guess i can sort of picture the connotation well the negev is a part of israel that's south and east of Jerusalem.

16:51 And it's arid desert. It's dry. In fact, the word Negev in Hebrew means dry. Could mean south, but totally means dry. But in the Negev, there were dry riverbeds. And at certain times of the year and certain seasons of the year, storms would come, a thunderstorm would happen. And all of a sudden, this barren desert with a dry riverbed would have a torrent running through it. I mean like that now, a rushing river is coming through a barren land. And this is what those who are on step seven are remembering. They're saying our God can restore our fortunes. And maybe it's been a season. Maybe it's been decades. Maybe it feels like forever. But just like that, God can restore our fortunes. And he has.

17:42 Seventy years we were in Babylon. But like that, God brought down Nebuchadnezzar. He brought down Babylon and he restored us to his dream for our lives. And God wants to do that for you today. The 15 steps going up to worship may seem like they're a hundred miles from you right now. But God wants to put you on the pilgrimage road today. one of the things that was amazing for us on this trip is a few of us, our location pastors, were able to spend a little bit of time with one of the leading archaeologists in Israel. And he took us to a couple of active archaeological sites where the public is not allowed to go at this point. And one of those places he took us was to the pilgrimage road. And that doesn't maybe mean a lot to most people, but in these festival times in Israel, millions of people would come to the temple to worship. Not hundreds, not thousands, millions of people would come from all over the known world. And as they would come, they would have to be ceremonially clean.

19:04 They'd have to bathe in a pool before they could approach the 15 steps and then be on the temple Mount. And one of the places where thousands of them would come to bathe is called the Pool of Siloam. In the Pool of Siloam, there's a site that has been built later in history, but the original Pool of Siloam, where the man received his site and the story of Jesus, that pool had not been found. And some people thought actually maybe it was an allegory and wasn't an actual place. But lo and behold, some people fixing a sewer pipe in the early 2000s found ruins. An excavation happened in the pool of Siloam has been discovered. And from the pool of Siloam, they would have known there was a pathway, if you will, a roadway that would have led up to the 15 southern steps and to the temple mount because people would bathe in the pool and they would immediately go to worship.

20:04 And so they widened the excavation to look for the pilgrimage road and they have found it. And some of it you can go and see, but a lot of it is still being excavated because it's under many houses who have been built on the ground above it. And so very carefully they're working in this slide. I think we've got just a couple of images so that you can kind of put your mind around it. If you see this picture, and I don't have my laser pointer with me today, so sorry about that. But down at the bottom, you see the pool of Siloam. And this is a rendering, of course. And then from the pool of Siloam, you see moving up and winding around the pilgrimage road. About a third of a mile, this road goes up. And of course, now this is under layers of the city of Jerusalem. But you can see them going up, winding up, approaching the Temple Mount, turning to the right, and then you see the 15 southern steps over to the right side of the temple wall, the ones where we had our worship gathering a few nights ago.

21:07 So this archaeologist is kind enough who he actually discovered the Pool of Siloam, so he's got all the passwords, and he said, come on. And we went up this way, the next shot's going to show you to this sign that you want to see. You are entering an active archaeological dig. Please watch step. So we went in up this little way through the door. And if we can just keep going with the images, that's what you find down underneath layer after layer after layer after layer. And now we're in this place where you can see they're building this incredible structure above it to keep the houses who are on top of this from collapsing down. But you can see underneath our feet on the left side, the stones of the pilgrimage road, stones that Jesus would have walked up on his way to the temple. We're underground, layers underground, in a place that very few human beings on earth have seen yet.

22:15 a place that God knew was down there all along. And that's the message that I always come home with from our times in Israel. A, give God time.

22:38 And B, down below the layers, God's still got a story for you. Underneath all these layers was the original pilgrimage road up to the house of God. Still being excavated. I'm thinking we'll be open to the public all of it at some point in the few years ahead. But here's the message today. The stones don't lie. A, there's been no significant archaeological dig in the Holy Land to disprove one thing about the gospel story of Jesus. B, every single year, there's another archaeological discovery in the Holy Land to shine light on the story of Jesus. And to amplify the very things that you and I have staked our lives on.

23:37 But the stones don't lie. And what they say today is that God has been with you and God is for you the whole time. I don't know about your dreams. But I do know that what God sees is a pilgrimage road today. And you can get on it. And you can return to the house of God. and you can dream again. we had a friend with us on our trip who was working with our team, who came on this trip with a lot of dreams dashed in their life. And we just watched God time over time through these little snapshots where we were, reinforce the message, God's still got a plan.

24:34 God's still got a purpose. And you can dream again. I don't know who you are today, but I know there's somebody in this gathering, and God wants to open your heart to the belief today that you can dream again.

24:54 At some point, we're learning all this story, and the archaeologist who's with us, he turns to me, and he hands me this. He just picks it up off the side of the thing we're doing, and I guess it's okay for me to have it. He gave it to me. He's the dude. I made sure someone else brought it home in their suitcase and not me. No, an archaeologist gave it to me, I promise. But here I have proof just in case, you know, somebody needed it. And as they would dig down, and as they're doing their excavation, they would, you know, try to find bedrock. And so they're drilling through limestone that's centuries of years old. It's Mount Moriah for crying out loud. And so they have these samples just sitting on the side of the road and he just picked one of them up and he said, here, thank you for loving Israel and supporting us and bringing all those people here. I want you to take this home.

26:02 and I think it was God's way of speaking to somebody in this room today to say that it may look like layers have passed you by, but when God digs down and takes a core sample of your life today, that core sample says, I am still in the story. I'm still in the story. And you can dream again. Isaiah 60 is on the same pathway. Isaiah being a whole prophecy about God restoring the fortunes of his people.

26:56 And by the way, you can pray that today. God, restore my fortunes. It's not all about God, restore my physical possessions, although that could be included in the recovery for someone in this room today. But it's God, restore the dream that you have for my life again. And in Isaiah 60, we see this happening, and I wish I could read the whole chapter, but just come to the last verse. It says, The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord. in its time, I will do this swiftly. See, that's the picture of the Negev, that the Negev wasn't a, oh, there's a little trickle. Oh, maybe God's going to work. Oh, I don't know if something's happening. Maybe, maybe not. No, the Negev was thunderclouds, rain, and then a rush of restoration.

27:55 And that's what Isaiah is saying. He's like, I can take this smallest clan and turn it into a mighty nation. I can take these people in captivity and I can restore them again. And I, the Lord will do this in its time quickly. That's exactly how a sovereign God works, by the way. He does it in his time, but when he does it, it's quick. We just want him to do it quick, not in his time. We want him to do it on our time quick. No, he does it on his time quick. So he might not do it this afternoon, but he's going to do it. And when he does it, it's going to be sudden. He may not do it when you think it's the right moment to do it, but he's going to do it at the right moment. And when he does it, it's going to be sudden. And people are going to go, what happened? And you're going to go, God moved. because it is God's heart to lift you out of the rubble to dream again. Two quick things and we'll close. Number four, to discover the pilgrim's road requires you to take a step. So see today, you could go, oh my goodness, there's a pathway underneath all this rubble. It's still there.

29:09 There's a way back to God underneath all this disappointment. There's a way to the temple underneath all of the mess of my life. And I found it. It's still down there. But when it's down there, you've got to take a step on that pilgrim's road. and maybe the step isn't a mile long. Maybe it's just a few inches, but when God gives a dream, he always requires a step.

29:42 This word dream in Hebrew means to be healthy and whole. Is there anybody in this gathering today that you're like all of a sudden realizing that God teed all this up for you today? To say to you, it's possible that you can be healthy. and hope that you can dream again. I remember when the vision for passion came, I've talked about it a lot, won't talk about it again today, the biggest vision that I've ever received.

30:23 But it wasn't enough that there was a vision. Eventually, there had to be a step. And I don't know what your step is today. When I look at all the ways he's spoken to people through scripture, sometimes the step is go. Sometimes it's say. Sometimes it's wait.

30:53 Sometimes it's give, return, fight, believe. But if God shows you the pilgrimage road, today is your day to get on it like our friend did who was with us in Israel and say this is God bringing me back to the start to begin again with him. and then just lastly I want to make sure we understand how and why God is working the end of this restored dream is the glory of God and I believe if you get this today this is going to be the key that unlocks the door when the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.

31:56 We were like men who were restored to health, people who were restored to health. Our mouths were filled with laughter. That's what you want, by the way, when you come to worship. You want people who come through the door going, the Lord has brought back the captive from the land of deserted valleys and he has brought me back to Zion and I am coming in today and my mouth is filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy. And then it was said where? Among the nations. the Lord has done great things for them. And then they echo the Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.

32:54 Israel and their one true God had become the laughingstock of the world. this monotheistic faith in Yahweh, not 10,000 other idols or the Asherah or the Baal. No, these people who say they're the people of God, these people who say their God is Yahweh, look at them now. Their temple destroyed. their best and brightest carted off to Babylon. Daniel and all the other bright ones hauled off into a distant land. Man, what a God they serve. What a God they worship.

33:47 What a God, the God of Israel. They were the laughingstock of the world. And I'm guessing there are people in this gathering today and you become the laughingstock of your world. and God says, I'm going to raise you up out of the rubble, and you're going to dream again, and when you do, you're going to dream again.