Thrive: In God’s Plan

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Thrive: In God’s Plan

 Lead Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Focus:  We will thrive in every season when we learn to sow into that which God is doing.  

• God Has a Plan

• Sow into that Plan

• Reap with Christ

God has a plan

To thrive, we must acknowledge that God has a plan in the place in which we find ourselves. 

Genesis 26:1-5 

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Everyone, even the people of God, experience times of famine when they’re living in a fallen world.  

What you do during times of famine matters more than you realize and can affect your destiny in Christ.  

God made sure to intervene with Isaac to cut off our natural human proclivity to take flight when times get tough. 

Isaac learned from God that we should never make life altering decisions in the midst of famine without first seeking his counsel.

We may miss the voice of the Lord if we only make decisions based on felt needs that we perceive.  

There is a promise on the other side of famine when we cling to the unchanging purposes of God.

What did Isaac learn about God’s plan?:

God cares more about where we live than we do.

Where you live should be a calling, not just a concern.

When we embrace this biblical truth, we learn to thrive, living PRODUCTIVELY in the land to which God has called us. 

This means that we begin to serve our cities rather than using them, and understand that we have to spend time in them to cultivate them. 

Isaac was wealthy, having received an inheritance from his father Abraham, and had the means to leave Canaan during the famine, or any other time that he wanted to, for that matter.

Yet God instructed Isaac to stay, rather than opting for the freedoms that his upwardly mobile life provided, so that Isaac might fulfill God’s plan to build a legacy for the Kingdom of God in that land.

The question is:

What do we do with our freedoms and mobility?

And even before that:

What is the vision that God has given you and the people with whom God has called you to walk to be productive in the land to which HE has called you?

There was purpose in God calling Isaac to stay.

Why was God so intent on Isaac remaining in the land in the midst of famine?

God knew he would provide for Isaac, but was determined to also preserve something through Isaac’s influence in the land.

Something will always fill the intellectual, spiritual and cultural voids of our lands.

It will either be the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Darkness.

As the church, Jesus has said that we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16).

Too often the church has abdicated its role to be salt and light in industries, cities and nations because they have been swept up in delusions of comfort, wealth and personal satisfaction above all else. 

Yet Jesus warned against such things in his teaching of the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20).

When we are more saturated by our culture’s idea of fulfillment rather than driven by the pleasure of God, we abdicate territories to Satan being relegated to merely commenting on the violence, corruption and sin that have filled the void that Christians have left.

This is why notable theologian John Piper says:

“The task of all Christian scholarship—not just biblical studies—is to study reality as a manifestation of God’s glory, to speak and write about it with accuracy, and to savor the beauty of God in it, and to make it serve the good of man. It is an abdication of scholarship when Christians do academic work with little reference to God. If all the universe and everything in it exist by the design of an infinite, personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God’s glory is not scholarship but insurrection.”

― John Piper, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God

So what are we to do with our lives?  

We are to sow into the plan of God where we find ourselves.  

Sow Into that Plan

To thrive, we must learn to sow where God has planted us.

 Genesis 26:6-16 

So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord  blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him. (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

By the command of God, Isaac settled in Gerar.  

What God knew was that:

TO AFFECT A PLACE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD, YOUR LIFE MUST BE INTENTIONALLY SOWN THERE.

Yet there were other lessons that Isaac needed to learn to be the man of faith, the seed, that God wanted to sow into the land. 

The first lesson that Isaac had to learn is that to thrive, he needed to realize that the environment is not always the problem - it’s our life patterns. 

To thrive, Isaac had to learn to break the faithless patterns that were passed down to him by his father Abraham.  

There was another reason that God came to remind Isaac not to leave the land of promise to go to Egypt. 

During his time of famine, Abraham did what seemed natural to meet his needs, but got he and his family in trouble when he went down to Egypt.  

Now God was gracious  enough to cover over Abrahm’s mistakes and put him back on track in the land of promise, but Abraham had to go back to the place he left to rebuild altars of worship to the Lord (Genesis 12:10-13:4). 

Abraham, and now Isaac, were driven by fear and self-preservation rather than faith and the purposes of God.

They both had to learn that God had a plan bigger than theirs that involved a place, a people and a purpose. 

And when God shows you these things, by faith and with faithfulness, you sow into that plan.  

It is no different for us today in Christ.  

Most people end up in unfulfilled wanderings throughout their lives because they forsake one or all of these three things about which God is concerned.  

Yet God is determined to teach us how to live by faith, and will use life’s circumstances to provoke this.

God supernaturally provides as we sow by faith into his plan - even during times of famine. 

Isaac did not hoard his time, talent or treasure during the famine. 

He knew that each of these things were a seed that he could:

1. Consume and have no more

2. Horde and have nothing but false security and wasted potential

3. Sow and reap a harvest

By faith, Isaac sowed and in the same year reaped one hundred fold.  

*Even in famine, the place of God’s choosing, not ours, is where we will most thrive. 

Think of your marriage, city, ministry assignment and career. 

You will thrive when you learn to sow the word of God into each of these areas to shape them rather than letting your fear of lack in these areas shape you. 

Learning to sow by faith in the land which God has given you will allow you to thrive in any season, despite the circumstances.  

What types of famines have you experienced recently?

Relationally?  In your marriage or parenting?  In your career or financially?  Spiritually?

In what ways does God want you to sow by faith into that which HE is doing to bring a harvest in the very place you thought there was nothing left for you?

When we sow by faith into that which GOD is doing, like Isaac, we begin to thrive as we enter into God’s divine calling on our lives.

“You can’t submit a resume for a Divine calling. A calling is initiated by God, and has more to do with his plans and purpose than our dreams.”

-Christine Caine

What was the result of Isaac sowing into God’s plan?

*The people began to envy Isaac in the land not because he got lucky, but because he obeyed God by faith and began to reap the fruit of that which he had sown.  

Many times people want the fruit of what you’ve labored for without doing the work.  

God doesn’t work that way.  

This same principle of doing things God’s way and investing into what God is doing will apply to our marriages, child-rearing, relationships, work and ministry life as we learn to sow by faith into God’s plan.  

Reap with Christ

We will thrive when we find the life-giving waters in the land to which God has called us digging them along with those with whom he’s called us to walk. 

Genesis 26:17-33 

So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well. When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army, Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

Again, Isaac learned from his father Abraham that there will always be a people, a place and a purpose for you as you follow God (Genesis 12).

When you are a spiritual nomad without roots, you think that you will find the call of God by moving to an easier environment or seeking different relationships, but it’s the internal patterns that follow you that can keep you disconnected from God, his people and his purposes.   

Warfare did not mean that Isaac was to leave the land to which God had called him.  

It meant that he had to search for the life-giving waters within that land.  

Within the land in which God has called you, you may need to be ready to press past the warfare to find the wells that will bring you life. 

This means that you have to fight to find ways to meet with God in the midst of daily responsibilities and fight for the relationships in the church community that will strengthen you and help you grow. 

Do not give up because it is challenging to build relationships.  

Don’t let the fear of rejection keep you from thriving in Christ. 

Genesis 26:34-35 

When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

To thrive, we must have a culture of discipleship where we pass these principles down to our children.

Esau departed from the path of faith and became a bitter pill for his parents Isaac and Rebekah. 

Jesus, on the other hand, was perfectly pleasing to the Father.  

Under the threat of not a famine, but Herod’s infanticide, in a dream God called his parents to take him to Egypt.  

After Herod’s death, Jesus returned to the small, seemingly inconsequential of Nazareth to grow and be prepared for God’s plans. 

In the land of Galilee, Jesus sowed after a 400 year period of famine where the prophetic word of the Lord had become rare around the time of Malachi.  

In Christ’s sowing, he reaped one hundred fold in miracles, demonic deliverances, teaching regarding the Kingdom of God resulting in the multitudes being saved through his sacrificial work on the cross.  

Because his focus was making disciples, after his resurrection from the dead, those who would follow him lived in that same faith to bring the gospel to the world. 

The 120 disciples who remained after Christ’s ascension remained in the city to which he called them until the day of Pentecost when they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s plan. 

As they were, operating in the same signs, wonders and miracles as Christ, they went into a hostile world to turn it upside down with the love and good news of Christ. 

Now there are billions worldwide who call on the name of the Son of God.  

So again, where you live should be a calling even more than a concern that you might reap with Christ.  

In the place to where God has called you, he wants to use your life to be a disciple and make disciples of the unreached who do not know Christ but will come to know him through your life.  

This, your placement, is of eternal consequence. 

Paul summarized God’s plan to the Athenian onlookers of his time when he said:

Acts 17:22-31

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

So finally, what is God’s plan for the place where we live?:

1. That we would be provoked through that place to seek him and his Word.

2. That in seeking God, we would encounter him in Christ his Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. That in encountering God, we would become testimonies of thriving in every season by his grace so that others might come to know him as well.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

Thrive: In Your Inheritance

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Thrive: In Your Inheritance 

 Lead Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Focus: You will thrive through each season of your life when you look to God for your inheritance.  

• An Inheritance From the Father

• Don’t Sell Your Birthright

• The Inheritance of Christ

An Inheritance From the Father

You have to know that God the Father wants you to thrive and has an Inheritance for you in which you will do so as you remain in him. 

Genesis 25:1-11 

Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah. Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country. These are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife. After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.

We need to stay near to God to get the heavenly goods he desires to bestow (including the promise, fellowship and gifts of the Holy Spirit).

Luke 12:32

32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. -Jesus

Intimacy with God leads to a sure inheritance in him.  

God entrusts his Kingdom to those who will steward their inheritance well and continue his purposes based on his promises. 

Genesis 25:19-28 

These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Starting later in life does not mean that you missed your inheritance, whether it be with the grace or gifts of God.  

Have faith to pray for the promises of God spoken to you by the Holy Spirit. 

Like Abraham and Isaac, I can look to God to fulfill whatever promise he has made to me, whether in his written Word or by the spoken word of the Holy Spirit.  

This gives me the confidence to not only wait on my inheritance from God, but to guard against that which would look to steal it.  

Don’t Sell Your Birthright

To thrive we must know that which threatens our birthright, and then protect it.  

So what is it that the devil uses to try to steal my birthright?

*The desire for momentary pleasures outside of the will of God come to steal your inheritance.

You don’t want to forsake your eternal reward for your short-term desires being temporarily satisfied.  

Carnal needs come and go. 

The inheritance of Christ is eternal.  

I need to learn to trust the Lord to thrive while suffering in a godly manner when I am in the in-between place.  

*Remember - thriving in God and suffering are not two mutually exclusive conditions.

(Our greatest example is Christ on the cross - Isaiah 53).

Genesis 25:29-34 

Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom. ) Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

What was the birthright in that culture?

Esau despised his birthright from Isaac and ultimately God by trading it for temporary relief from his hunger.

We will all face times of hunger or want, when we feel like we will die if we do not have some natural need met - whether it be for provision, companionship, a sense of purpose or pleasure. 

Again, Esau sold his birthright to experience relief from his hunger.  

Will you?

Have you?

“The world is not composed of religious and non-religious people. It is composed rather of religious people who have differing ultimate concerns, different gods, and who respond to the Living God in different ways.”

“When any individual or collection of individuals acts in disobedience to the moral order, short-term gratification may be experienced; but such behavior produces an inevitable deterioration of the personality and leads to a long term loss of what is truly worthy.”

-Ronald H. Nash

What you give up for short-term pleasure can not be regained nor can the misplaced hunger  truly ever be satisfied.  

For what have you been willing to sell your birthright?

A relationship?

A one-night stand?

Selling out holiness for a sense of gratification on Instagram or a few extra likes on Tik-tok?

Do not let the temptation to live for immediate gratification have you forsake the inheritance of God. 

 Hebrews 12:14-17

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. 

You will never be able to do what God requires of you in the secret place because you live for the fickle and anemic accolades of men - whether in the workplace, in relationships or on social media.  

You will thrive when your heart learns to truly look to God for its reward.   

Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18

6 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

What has your walk with God been like this year when people have been separated and no one has been watching  you?

Has it been something that God would look to reward?

Or have you been willing to sell your birthright for momentary pleasures in the name of relief?

If you have sold your birthright, what do you do?

Repent and turn to Christ for redemption and his eternal inheritance.  

“Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.”

-J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit: Finding Fullness in Our Walk with God

The Inheritance of Christ

Christ gives an Inheritance that is both satisfying and eternal.  

Hebrews 12:28-29 

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

When God is a consuming fire to us, he causes us to thrive in life despite challenge, loss or hunger.  

“God doesn’t want something from us. He simply wants us.”

-C.S. Lewis

I must remember that truly thriving means entering into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.  

Because of his sinless life, I have a model to follow that will lead me to thrive in God’s eternal plan. 

John 5:21-24 

21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Because of Jesus’ substitutionary, sacrificial death on the cross, I can thrive in repentance from my sin.  

Because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, I don’t have to sell out my birthright for temporary pleasures, because I know in him I have eternal life and a never ending reward.  

Story of the Inheritance and the Son:

Years ago, there was a very wealthy man who, with his devoted young son, shared a passion for art collecting. Together they traveled around the world, adding only the finest art treasures to their collection. Priceless works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others adorned the walls of the family estate. The widowed, elder man looked on with satisfaction as his only child became an experienced art collector. The son’s trained eye and sharp business mind caused his father to beam with pride as they dealt with art collectors around the world.

As winter approached, war engulfed the nation, and the young man left to serve his country. After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram. His beloved son was missing in action. The art collector anxiously awaited more news, fearing he would never see his son again. Within days, his fears were confirmed. The young man had died while rushing a fellow soldier to a medic.

Distraught and lonely, the old man faced the upcoming Christmas holidays with anguish and sadness. The joy of the season, a season that he and his son had so looked forward to, would visit his house no longer. On Christmas morning, a knock on the door awakened the depressed old man. As he walked to the door, the masterpieces of art on the walls only reminded him that his son was not coming home.

As he opened the door, he was greeted by a soldier with a large package in his hand. He introduced himself to the man by saying, “I was a friend of your son. I was the one he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you.” As the two began to talk, the soldier told of how the man’s son had told everyone of his, not to mention his father’s, love of fine art. “I’m an artist,” said the soldier, “and I want to give you this.” As the old man unwrapped the package, the paper gave way to reveal a portrait of the son.

Though the world would never consider it the work of a genius, the painting featured the young man’s face in striking detail. Overcome with emotion, the man thanked the soldier, promising to hang the picture over the fireplace. A few hours later, after the soldier had departed, the old man set about his task.

True to his word, the painting went well above the fireplace, pushing aside thousands of dollars of paintings. And then the man sat in his chair and spent Christmas gazing at the gift he had been given. During the days and weeks that followed, the man realized that even though his son was no longer with him, the boy’s life would live on because of those he had touched. He would soon learn that his son had rescued dozens of wounded soldiers before a bullet stilled his caring heart.

As the stories of his son’s gallantry continued to reach him, fatherly pride and satisfaction began to ease the grief. The painting of his son soon became his most prized possession, far eclipsing any interest in the pieces for which museums around the world clamored. He told his neighbors it was the greatest gift he had ever received.

The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. The art world was in anticipation!

Unmindful of the story of the man’s only son, but in his honor, those paintings would be sold at an auction. According to the will of the old man, all of the art works would be auctioned on Christmas day, the day he had received his greatest gift. The day soon arrived and art collectors from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world’s most spectacular paintings. Dreams would be fulfilled this day; greatness would be achieved as many claim “I have the greatest collection.” The auction began with a painting that was not on any museum’s list. It was the painting of the man’s son. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid. The room was silent.

“Who will open the bidding with $100?” he asked. Minutes passed. No one spoke. From the back of the room came, “Who cares about that painting? It’s just a picture of his son. Let’s forget it and go on to the good stuff.”

More voices echoed in agreement. “No, we have to sell this one first,” replied the auctioneer. “Now, who will take the son?” Finally, a friend of the old man spoke, “Will you take ten dollars for the painting? That’s all I have. I knew the boy, so I’d like to have it.”

“I have ten dollars. Will anyone go higher?” called the auctioneer. After more silence, the auctioneer said, “Going once, going twice. Gone.” The gavel fell, cheers filled the room and someone exclaimed, “Now we can get on with it and we can bid on these treasures!”

The auctioneer looked at the audience and announced the auction was over. Stunned disbelief quieted the room. Someone spoke up and asked, “What do you mean it’s over? We didn’t come here for a picture of some old guy’s son. What about all of these paintings? There are millions of dollars of art here! I demand that you explain what’s going on here!” The auctioneer replied, “It’s very simple. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son…gets it all.”

Let us therefore draw near to God at the cross through repentance and faith, to honor his Son, Jesus Christ, and thrive in every season as we look to our eternal inheritance in him.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

Thrive: Finding Your Ride or Die

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Thrive: Finding Your Ride or Die

 Lead Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Focus: You will thrive when you allow God to be the author of your relationships.  

• To Whom You are Hitched

• Why It Matters

• Thriving in the Bonds of Christ

To Whom You are Hitched

*You will thrive in life when you allow God to be the Lord of your story.  

Genesis 24:1-9

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord  had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter.

*When you are actively walking with God and still think you are missing something, God is, in fact, protecting you.  

God was the one who inevitably said of Adam, “It is not good for Adam to be alone.”

This applies to marriage, but not only.  

There are some with the gift of celibacy so that they may be fully devoted to the Lord.  

Why It Matters

*To thrive, God wants to be involved in all of your most important and defining relationships in life.  

Genesis 24:42-51 

“I came today to the spring and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you are prospering the way that I go, behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,” let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son.’ “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also. Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms. Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son. Now then, if you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.” Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the Lord; we cannot speak to you bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, as the Lord has spoken.”

Why does it matter to whom you are yoked?

*To whom you are yoked will either light a fire under you or attempt to smother the purposes of God in your life.

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

What was a yoke in biblical times?

It was a wooden cross piece that was fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they were to pull.

It is a matter of common values and common worship of the one true God in Christ.  

God means for you to thrive as you are yoked to life-long partners in pursuit of Jesus.  

Think of the Lord saying, “For as long as you are single, I want you all to myself.  I want to use your life in ways that are undisturbed by common marital concerns.  At this time, worrying about how to please someone else will distract you and demand more of your attention than I want you to give.  I want no person before or above me in your life.  I love you and will use your life greatly as you wait.” (I Corinthians 7)

Regardless of marital status, the body of Christ, the family of God, is what God gives you to thrive in relationships.  

The purpose of God-given relationships is eternal.  

God forever has eternal gospel purposes and his Kingdom in mind.   

*How do your relationships reflect the pursuit of these things as their foundation and chief aim?

Tony Stark in Age of Ultron:

"We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there... that's the endgame.  How were you guys planning on beating that?”

Steve Rodgers:

“Together.”

You can not be fully satisfied in life without God-given, eternal Kingdom purpose.  

Your God-given relationships are meant to help you thrive by pulling these purposes out of you.  

2 Samuel 1:25-27 

“How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! “Jonathan lies slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women. “How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!”

Here, David is not speaking about homosexual relationship, but about a covenant bond that was powerful for propelling David into the purposes of the Lord and advancing the Kingdom of God.  

Thriving in the Bonds of Christ

*You will be able to thrive during challenging times when God has been the author of your story during the easier ones. 

 Genesis 24:62-67 

Now Isaac had returned from Beer-lahai-roi and was dwelling in the Negeb. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

The relationships that God authors for you are for both good times and bad.

God helps you thrive in these bonds by giving you those with whom you enjoy life and those who were built to help you walk through loss or mourning.  

Do not compartmentalize your life into things you do with God’s influence and those you do without.  

True biblical fellowship allows you to thrive by giving you those with whom you share all of life.  

What should you be doing with those whom God has given you?: 

1. Rejoice with them in triumph.

2. Stand with and comfort them in pain.

3. Pursue greater depths of fellowship with them while provoking them to greater intimacy with God.

4. Fight to stand as witnesses for Jesus while making disciples together in the world around you (Matthew 28:18-20).

What God has done for you, incarnate for others.  

This is what Jesus did for us in his sinless life that he lived for us all the way to the cross.  

Once he bore our sins and burdens there, Jesus was resurrected to life eternal and offered it to those bound to him through repentance and faith.  

This invitation to eternal thriving is offered not only to us, but is to be offered through us to those who are harassed and helpless in the world without God.  

This applies to the rich or the poor, the seemingly successful or obviously destitute - all are in the same place before God without Jesus.  

How am I to treat those who stand opposed to God’s Word and the gospel of Christ?

“We are bound to be just and right towards all men as men, whatever their religious convictions, or irreligious notions. Injustice is no friend to truth. We must not fight God’s battles with the weapons of ill-will. For us to hate those who are in error or talk of them with contempt or wish them ill, or do them wrong, is not according to the Spirit of Christ. You cannot cast out Satan by Satan, nor correct error by violence, nor overcome hate by hate.  The conquering weapon of the Christian is love...”

-Charles Spurgeon

2 Timothy 2:22-26 

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Let’s meet Jesus afresh at the cross today and pray for others to join us there.  

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

Thrive: Abraham’s Test

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Thrive: Thrive: Abraham’s Test 

(Abraham’s Treaty with Abimelech + Abraham’s Test Genesis 21:22-23:19)

God uses TREATIES and TESTS so that we can THRIVE.

Location

Beersheba: well of seven OR well of the oath.  The place Abraham and Abimelech settled their differences over a well. This well is where the man of faith made peace and became the southern border of Israel and today is Be’er Sheva.  It is Israel’s 8th most populous city and the center of it’s tech industry.  It’s also referred to as the capitol of the Negev region. 

Scripture

Genesis 21:22-34

https://my.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.21.22-34

“At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” And Abraham said, “I will swear.” When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭21:22-34‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/gen.21.22-34.esv

- King Abimelech noticed the weening festival of Isaac and fear fell on him. 

- God will make even your enemies to be at peace with you, but this peace does not supplant the promise. 

- Abraham made peace, he thought. But then…

- Abraham paid Abimelech 7 ewe lambs for the well…even after he thought the land had been offered to him.  He did this not because God hadn’t promised to give him this land, but that Abimelech and others may know God’s promise. 

- The two men representing two kingdoms made a covenant of peace. Abimelech should have come under the faith and leadership of Abraham, not just coexist or tolerate God’s promise. 

- Beersheba means ‘well of seven’ or “well of the oath”. 

- Two of them came into agreement so the place got a new name they both knew and could relate to.

- A well and a tree.  A living reminder of God’s promise.  An everlasting God can always keep His promises.  

Genesis 22:1-19

https://my.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.22.1-19

'After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord , because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba. '

- The time of this test was a time of peace and prosperity. (A covenant was just made with Abimelech and Isaac was weened and growing.)

- Isaac is Abraham's special and unique son in whom God’s promise is to be fulfilled. 

- Mt. Moriah is where David stopped the plague with a sacrifice and where Solomon built the temple for worship. 

- The journey was a 3 day journey akin to the time Jesus was dead in the tomb.  To Abraham, because of his commitment to obey God, his son had already been dead for 3 days.

- Even in mourning Abraham speaks in faith that God can bring them both back.  Worship can raise the dead!

- Yet, Abraham was fully prepared to make a sacrifice by bringing the knife and fire.

- Isaac was strong enough to carry the wood, yet a struggle from being bound is not mentioned. 

The account repeats God calling “Abraham!” and Abraham responding immediately “Here I am!”  The second time God calls Abraham's name twice ,”Abraham! Abraham!”. 

*God will stop you if you are genuinely trying to follow him.  

Abraham obeyed they very next morning 

*Delayed obedience is disobedience.

Abraham says “Here I am!” At the call to go and “Here I am!” At the command to stop.

*Do you hear God’s voice so clearly and quickly that God could use you to save a life?  To share the gospel with the person beside you?

NOW God knew he could trust Abraham even though Abraham loved his son, the fulfillment of the promise.

Q: Does God still test people today?  Yes he does, because he wants you to thrive eternally. 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:2-4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/jas.1.2-4.esv

God tests us but does not tempt us. 

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:12-17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/jas.1.12-17.esv

Q: What has God promised you that he may be withholding because He can’t trust you with it yet?

We are not owners, just stewards of God’s resources.  The bigger the test of stewardship, the bigger the blessing for us and the whole world. 

Supporting Scripture

Hebrews 11:17-19

17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.

Your faith isn’t just about you.  Your faith is to be passed on so that the next generation might grow and continue in their faith as well.  Not just faith in Jesus, but faith to live by faith.  

Don’t eat the seed of faith. Plant the seed so that you, your generation, and future generations can thrive on God’s provision. 

““And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.””

Mark‬ ‭14:32-42‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/mrk.14.32-42.esv

The greatest test in “The Crushing Place”

- Jesus was in anguish the disciples were sleeping

- Jesus brought his three closest friends

- Supernatural strength for the test

- Only the son of God could have passed this test

Jesus Christ the descendant of Abraham of the flesh and son of God passed this test so that the world may be reconciled to God and thrive eternally.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

Thrive: Free To Thrive

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July 4th 2021

Thrive: Free To Thrive

Happy July 4th!  Happy Independence Day!  Happy Freedom Day!

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2:15-17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://www.bible.com/59/1pe.2.15-17.esv

*We must use our freedom for good, and the ultimate good is God’s purposes.  If we do not, we will lose it. 

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Galatians 5:1-3

Quote 

“You won’t get more than you’re living for” 

- Alison Kraus, Too Late To Cry lyric

*Freedom is unto the purpose of righteous living.  Righteous living leads to a thriving life.  Freedom abused unto unrighteous living will actually destroy you, your family, your nation, and the whole earth. 

Last week Pastor Rollan shared about the miraculous birth of Isaac.  

We learned that “We will thrive in every season when we embrace the perfect timing of God”.

Focus:  God wants you FREE so that you can THRIVE

The Thrive Series Goal: 

• Receiving

• Becoming

• Doing

Receiving all that Christ purchased for us to become.

Becoming all that God created us to be.

Doing all that he tells (commands) us to do. 

Look into Genesis 21:8-21

*Through faith in God, Abraham was free to thrive.  

When we separate these three: Faith, Freedom, and Thriving we miss the blessing and goal God has for us.  The most work together for each of them to be complete.   

What we need to know as we read the scripture:

Time Period

This was about 14-16 years after Hagar ran away from Sarah due to abuse.  God told Hagar to go back and submit to Sarah.  God also promised to Hagar (that regardless of Sarah) 1) that he sees her and her situation 2) He will bless her Ishmael as she cooperates with God’s big picture plan. 

Definitions and Context

1. Isaac: “he laughs”. Important because the more we look at the situation concerning Isaacs birth and God’s promise to bless the world through him…it can seem a little absurd without the eyes of faith and cause us to ‘laugh’ or ‘mock’.

2. Weaned: Isaac is probably between 2-4 years old now. He has graduated from needing Sarah’s milk to eating food. Today we see this as a milestone. To the people of their time it was a cause of celebration. There was a high infant mortality rate and Isaac made it! Party time! Plus, all of Abraham’s and Sarah’s “eggs” were in this one “basket” with no other options for a lineage…than possibly Ishmael.

3. Ishmael: “God listens, God hears, or God obeys”. He was 14 - 16 years old when Isaac was born.

4. Hagar: She is the Egyptian slave of Sarah who upon duress from Sarah bore Ishmael to Abraham. Hagar dishonored Sarah. Sarah abused Hagar in return, so Hagar ran away. God told Hagar to return and submit to Sarah. Now, the next generation (Ishmael) is laughing in mockery at Sarah’s son Isaac, repeating the same offense.

5. Sarah: Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. Her name means “Princess”. Sarah is Abraham’s wife, Hagar’s boss and Isaac’s mom.

6. Mt Sinai: This is the location in the desert where the newly formed nation of Israel received the law of God through Moses. This is also where they tested God by crafting and worshipping a golden calf. The laws was meant to guide them and be pursued by faith…but ended up becoming death to them as the pursued it in pride or forsook it all together.

Scripture

Genesis 21:8-21

https://my.bible.com/bible/59/GEN.21.8-21

'And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. '

Isaac is weaned.

Ishmael mocks Isaac. (Generational sin duplicating his Mom Hagar)

Sarah is stirred up and tells Abraham to cast “the slave woman” out with her son. 

Sarah’s request displeases Abraham because of his son Ishmael.

God corrects Abraham saying obey Sarah and do not be displeased about Hagar (the slave woman) and Ishmael (the boy).

God calls Hagar the “slave woman” and not wife though Sarah had given her to Abraham as a wife.  God calls Ishmael ‘the boy’ rather than son.  

*God renews our mind by His word.  Every subtlety matters.  We can hang on His every word.

Abraham must have been confused about the promise of God, regarding where his descendants would come from.  But Sarah, his wife, knew God’s plan. 

Abraham knew God’s heart. 

*You can know the love of God, love God, and have saving faith…yet still be confused about God’s plan to bring about His promise.  

Abraham did know God’s heart of compassion though, just as he had interceded for Lot in Sodom. 

*You can intercede for others showing God’s compassion and always be correct.

HARD TRUTH: Just as the mocker was dismissed from the family of promise, so those today who mock Isaac’s descendant Jesus Christ will be cast out of God’s eternal family as well.   

Yet, God promised to prosper the slave woman’s son (the mocker) into a great nation simply because he was Abraham’s ‘offspring”.  This confirms to Abraham what God had already spoken to Hagar 14 or so years earlier about Ishmael.  

*Compassion is always a part of God’s plan.  This is why like Sarah we speak the truth, and like Abraham we do so in compassionate love. 

*Sometimes God will prosper your mistake, but that doesn’t mean that He is bringing about His promise through that prosperity. Do not be deceived. 

God brings about his promises despite our mistakes, not through our mistakes.  Jesus died because of sin.  Yet, He works all things out for good.  

We are to choose and act on his path to the promise, like Abraham did.

Q: What hard choices are you in the throws of  making right now?  Are they a path to prosperity but not the path to God’s promise of eternal life? (True prosperity and thriving)

Abraham obeyed God and Sarah by sending them away early the next morning.  Abraham sent them with bread and water. (Showing God’s compassion and playing a part in God’s ultimate plan for Ishmael and his descendants: showing them mercy until they one day come to Jesus Christ for eternal life.  This is God’s long game and must be our too when we are given mercy and give mercy)

Abraham had a history of 24 hour obedience.  This is why he the father of faith:  he acted quickly when God spoke.

*Delayed obedience is disobedience. 

Hagar and Ishmael wander aimlessly in the desert of Beersheba.

When the water ran out she put Ishmael (teenager) under a bush and went about 100 yards away to cry about the boys certain death.   Ishmael was about 16 years old and about to die of dehydration wondering in the dessert!

Q:  Parents, is your heart broken for your teenagers search for identity?  Their trials? Your teenager needs you!  Your prayers and intercession matter!  Ishmael was about 16 years old and about to die of dehydration wondering in the dessert!

Though Hagar cried, God listened to the voice of the boy.  

Q: Young people and teenagers: God is there for you!  He hears your cries!  He has a plan for your life…and your parents are a plan of bringing it about.  So listen to them!

God comforted the mother reminding her of His promise to make Ishmael a great nation.  Now she could go and encourage and comfort the boy.

God opened Hagar’s eyes to a whole well full of water!  He didn’t make a well, he showed her a well.  She was so despondent that she could not see the provision available with in eye shot until God encouraged her.

*God opened her eyes to what was already their and that He made available to bring about his plan for her family.  Parents, God has given you what you need.  Let him show you. 

You have to survive on God’s Word before you can thrive on God’s Word. 

God gave them enough bread and water through the compassion of Abraham to last them until intervened and gave them a well. 

From here she gave the boy water and found a way to help him settle in Paran and train as an archer.  She went back to her people in Egypt and found Ishmael a wife. 

 

Supporting Scripture 

*(We use the New Testament to interpret the OT)

Galatians 4:21-31 ESV

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
    break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!  
For the children of the desolate one will be more
 than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

To be free and to thrive, is to be free from sin and made alive by faith in Jesus Christ, who is Isaac’s descendant according to the flesh, and God’s son according to the promise.   Like Abraham, we must put all our eggs in the basket of the promise.

Romans 9:6-9 ESV

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Today, by faith, you can become a child of God through his promise to break the power of sin in your life, forgive you of sin now and when needed in the future, and give you eternal life through repentance and faith in his son Jesus.  

The Gospel is this:

Stop trusting in your self or anything else for thriving, for eternal life. 

Jesus, the Son of God, lived the perfect life for you.

Jesus died the death that your sin demanded of you; for you.

Jesus rose from dead by the power of God as a proof that his payment for your sin is complete and that he can fulfill his promise to give you eternal life. 

Pray with me today. 

*Don’t’ eat the seed that God gave you to plant and tend so that the next generation can thrive.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

Thrive: In God’s Perfect Timing

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Thrive: In God’s Perfect Timing

Lead Pastor: Rollan Fisher

• Has the last year and a half been a waste, simply a bust?

• Have we lost a sense of the call of God?

• Is there a way to get back on track to once again thrive in the life and purposes of God? 

We’re going to answer these questions today as we look at the life of Abraham on the verge of receiving his son Isaac, digging into a few words that Jesus expressed about his Kingdom and the understanding it gave the Apostle Paul in regards to this Kingdom. 

Focus: We will thrive in every season when we embrace the perfect timing of God.

• Lost Time

• You Have Not Missed It

• The Perfect Timing of God

Lost Time

We will begin to thrive when we realize that time we thought lost was actually useful to God.

Abraham had a promise from God that he received at the age of seventy-five.  

Yet in between that promise being given and where we pick up in the story today, Abraham could have had moments of questioning God’s sovereignty. 

Despite his many detours, Abraham would come to find that God’s Word remained true that:

Romans 11:29 

“…the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

Genesis 21:1-7

The Lord  visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.

Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” 

Preparing to thrive begins with thanking God for what he has already given you rather than what you do not have.

Abraham was blessed financially and societally, but still lacked one of the deepest needs for the human soul to be fulfilled - the need to build a family.  

*God was letting Abraham know that to truly thrive God would give Abraham and Sarah a family that the Lord himself would build.

This same blessing continues today as God builds his spiritual household in Christ.

You are never wasting time when you are building God’s family in Christ.

Everyone who belongs to Jesus is a part of that family and a lineage that far proceeds and will far exceed them.

It is not that you can not survive without a strong attachment to family.  

It is that you will not thrive as Christ intends bereft of the fundamental need that God has given you for family (both naturally and spiritually) to define you, shape you, strengthen you and bring you into the multi-generational purposes of God.

Family is God given - both naturally and spiritually.  

What you feel like you are missing naturally, God will always exceedingly provide with spiritual family in Christ (Psalm 27:9,10 ; Matthew 19:27-30).

The first (natural family) is your base and has all the benefits and potential failings of Adam. 

The second (which should include the first) should be an expression of the second man, Christ, and be intentionally reflective of his redemptive gospel purposes.  

Isaac is the bridge between Abraham and Jacob - the link between hearing the promise of God and seeing its first-fruits (Christ).  

Isaac would represent the stage between taking the first steps of faith towards God’s promise and seeing the manifest momentum of that promise. 

For years, Abraham and Sarah were marked by the cultural stigma regarding what they did not have, rather than what they did.

God made them a promise with it’s foundation in his purposes to bring salvation to the world through Jesus Christ.  

Abraham received the promise to have Isaac at seventy-five years old (Genesis 12:4).  

Sarah, his wife, conceived at age ninety (Genesis 17:15-17) by the supernatural intervention of God.  

Isaac was finally born when Abraham was one hundred years old (Genesis 21:5).  

What this tells us is that whether a child of destiny like Isaac or feeling past your prime like Abraham and Sarah, you have a call in God to fulfill today!

What you are doing now matters. 

You are where you are, at the stage of life you are, doing what you are doing with whom you are doing it for God to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit through you!

Just as Isaac’s birth was a miraculous testimony to everyone who surrounded Abraham and Sarah, you are where you are in the stage of life you are to reach the people who surround you with the good news of Jesus Christ. 

As Isaac was born, we see that God’s promise to make Abraham a mighty nation through which all nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12) was evidence to Abraham that though many years of unfulfilled longing had passed, he had not missed the purposes of God.

With twenty-twenty hindsight, how can you see that God has been using time that you thought lost?

You Have Not Missed It

We will begin to thrive when we begin to recognize what God is doing in our period of waiting.

As you love Jesus and obey his commands, God is with you in the waiting.

What did Abraham and Sarah learn during their time of waiting?

1. The call of God on their lives was more than just about their personal comfort, fulfillment or dreams.

2. The promise of God in their lives was to reveal their son, and by lineage, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to the nations.

3. The purpose of God’s delay in their lives was to demonstrate his miraculous power.

In our modern cultures, we are often too self-focused. 

Abraham’s life was lived in humble devotion as he worked his business, led his family and sought the face of God.  

Don’t miss the will of God because of a romanticized picture of your destiny.  

As Abraham intentionally walked with God, he did not miss the purposes of God for his life or family, though nothing visibly ostentatious came from it for seventy-five recorded years.

And you are not missing it where you are if you are faithfully seeking Jesus, loving your family, church and community, making disciples with the opportunities where you find yourself today. 

God used all of that time to prepare for the nation of Israel, the coming of the Messiah and eventually the birth of the church of Jesus Christ. 

God uses our waiting to develop the character, perseverance and strength of Christ in us.

If you are looking at what you don’t have, you will miss God’s program for utilizing what you do have.

***What you have the opportunity to do TODAY is the will of God.

****You are not missing life or your destiny if you are faithful to live a godly life, seek the Lord and make disciples today.

The opportunity that you have right now IS the place, will and call of God for you.

***How faithful you are with these daily opportunities determines the measure to which God opens up others for you. 

Do not forsake your future harvest by despising what God has given you to cultivate today.

Proverbs 28:19

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.

God here is referring to the land that you have today, not that which you hope to inherit at some point in the future.

The internet, boasting of social media and our entertainment fill us with fantasies, devoid of the posture of devotion to God, hard work and perseverance required to attain such things.  

That is what some of you feel like after this past year.

Whether it be in regards to marriage, parenting, your career or ministry calling, you have not missed anything God intended for you if you remain in step with him.

What God is doing in the waiting is building perseverance and strength to fulfill the call in his people.

“Behind every strong person is a story that gave them no other choice.”

-Anonymous 

Jesus as the Son of God would not begin his ministry until after thirty years of obscurity working faithfully in a tiny town of Nazareth in the small nation of Israel.

It is from this place and in the perfect timing of the Father, at a time that the world had been connected in new and significant ways through the Roman Empire, that Jesus would begin his worldwide discipleship campaign to save the nations.

Every fulfilled work of God begins with a seed.  

After years of barrenness, Abraham had to continue to sow seeds of faith with his wife Sarah for Isaac to be born.

That is where many of you are today - needing to learn to sow seeds of faith to see the first-fruits of the promises of God manifest. 

The priorities and focus of your life need to be that seed offered in sacrifice to God.

John 12:20-33

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.

31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Many times God is teaching us through circumstance that we need to die to ourselves and our selfishness before we can truly live.

Jesus clearly expressed over and over again that the Kingdom of God is the only thing that truly endures.

We begin to truly thrive when we anchor ourselves in eternal rather than temporary things.  

*Many of us need to rehabilitate from the social anxiety produced over this past year to relate in healthy manners with the world again.

Yet even as we do, we must acknowledge that what is constant is that circumstances change.

Life is finite. 

Loves will be lost as people inevitably age and pass away.

What God is trying to give you is eternal, that which can not be shaken, stolen or faded.

When we embrace the fact that God will lovingly use all things to press us into a healthy dependence on him and a focus on his eternal Kingdom, we will interpret our times correctly and continue to thrive.

The Perfect Timing of God

We will thrive in our lives when we acknowledge that God’s perfect timing is meant to reveal and form Christ in us.

Galatians 4:1-7

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

God is always perfect in his timing to accomplish his Kingdom purposes.

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine

Just as Abraham and Sarah had to the reach the limits of their physical capacities’ to truly enter into the miracle life of God, so let us meet Jesus at the cross today, so that by repentance and faith in his God’s perfect timing, we might thrive as we submit to God’s greater Kingdom purposes in Christ.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021