Invitation To An Open Heaven
Pastor Cole Parleir
Finish with hope because…
Focus: This year has been God's divine setup for you to experience more of Him and His coming kingdom next year.
Incorporating the past
Kingdom Transition
Weeds in the kingdom
Heavenly momentum
Incorporating the past (Romans 8:31-39 ESV)
Your past has divine purpose.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[i] against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.[j] 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Your past sins don't have to condemn you.
Rather they can bring you great comfort when brought to Christ.
This is the Good News called the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
God knew your past when it was still your future and he still sent Christ to die for your sins.
Your past with it's sin can be proof of God's great love for you as displayed in his patience and provision in Christ.
The priceless gift of Christ dying for us while we were still sinners confirms that our sinful past, when given to Christ in repentance, does not forfeit future blessing. (vs 32)
You are free from the devil's direct accusation as well as those unknowingly employed by him to be his mouthpiece. This can be lies or reminders of sin you've repented of. (vs 33-34)
The devil is the master gas lighter, but Christ is the Judge and dispense of mercy and grace.
Have hope knowing that God's willingness to give you a second chance in Christ is also a third chance, a four chance and so on because Christ now intercedes for you until His Kingdom comes in full one day.
Do not let your failed attempts at righteousness or ministry to others this past year inform your hope for the future.
Because of Christ we can truly can count trials, challenges, and persecutions as successes in forming Christ in us. James 1:2-4
2 Count it all joy, my brothers,[b] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Because of Christ, the Christian who perseveres by pursing righteousness can never fail.
Your past has divine purpose.
Kingdom Transition
Plan for Righteousness (James 4:13-17 ESV)
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
God has plans and you have plans.
You have to choose life or death, blessing or cursing, eternal success or failure this coming year.
Though these decisions have to be played out daily, like a marriage covenant you can pre-choose with a plan for righteousness and to be led by the Spirit of God.
Be clear in your understanding:
God's blessing on your life comes when you choose to participate in what he says he is doing.
God's wrath (absence of blessing) comes when we engage in rebellion. Rebellion is choosing to use our life (time, talent, and treasure) in our own plan rather than God's.
Prophesying is kingdom planning.
When you choose to surrender your life to Christ and his kingdom of heaven coming through your life, and are committed to enacting what his Word and Holy Spirit says, then you are choosing to prophesy in your planning.
In God's reality your life and mine are blips on the radar, drops in the ocean, dust specks in the universe, and to imagine I can construct and implement on my own a plan for eternal impact is nonsensical.
Question:
Do you know the 'right' thing to do and are you doing it? (vs 17)
Planning is an act of faith AND discipleship and therefor will take some work and power.
The old word comes with new power (Matthew 13:51-53 ESV)
51 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52 And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Matthew 13 is a series of parables and prophecies. The theme of the parables are people who recognized the value of God's kingdom and sold everything to secure their place in it.
The disciples ask Jesus for the meaning of the parables while others went away perplexed and later some in his hometown who were familiar with him ended up rejecting him.
To enter into God's plan of His Kingdom coming in and through your life you will
Need to follow Jesus as Lord and have the Holy Spirit abiding in you
need to become a 'scribe who is trained for the kingdom of heaven' who knows God's revealed will in his Word (Bible). You do this by interpreting the Old Testament through the New Testament asking God to reveal Christ as you do. (John 5:37-40 ESV)
listens to the Holy Spirit for implementation and receive power.
When God's will is your plan you will have God's power to accomplish it.
Now you can transition with the strength of God's blessing and promise for life and mercy.
Questions:
What did you treasure (sacrifice for) in 2023?
What has this treasure done for your faith and life in Christ?
If your treasure was Christ and His Kingdom you can expect a firm foundation to build on in 2024.
Everything else is a weed crowding out the life God has for you in his kingdom.
Weeds in the Kingdom (Matthew 13:24-30)
Even when you do everything right there will be weeds only God can deal with.
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds[c] among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants[d] of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
The reality of pursuing God's Kingdom as a disciple of Christ, making disciples of Christ, and doing good works as you go, is that there will be weeds.
Jesus defines the weeds as "sons of the evil one".
These people along with their leader come to kill, steal, and destroy the work of God.
These means that even when you are perfectly in sync with the Holy Sprit, knowing and doing God's will, you will still be in a spiritual fight.
This fight will continue until the end of 2024…joke…but until the end comes. Probably your whole life.
Illustration:
My father-in-law meticulously digging up dandelions in my yard
Helped…but the wind is still blowing from others peoples yards (lives) into mine
Keep digging and casting
Until all dandelions in everyone's yards IN THE WHOLE WORLD are burned up…I'm digging.
The promise of Matthew 28 is yours: "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
The result of that promise is hope to fight until we win.
Heavenly Momentum (Matthew 16:18-19 MSG)
The good work of the past will multiply into the future.
17-18 Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.
19 “And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.”
God is building you, your family, and His Kingdom.
When you and your family live out a confession of faith in Christ Jesus you become rocks on which God build's his church and kingdom.
Though the devil may rage you can be assured that any past, present, or future work done in the name of Jesus Christ will not be burnt up.
Even more, momentum will be developed as last years work becomes a spring board for this years work.
Prophetic Summary
I don't know exactly what 2024 holds for you, your family or Second City Church…but I do hear God saying He invites us to more of his manifest kingdom in 2024 IF we will work with him by faith.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher
