When God created the world in which we live, He had a plan.
Your life is not to be lived as if God is an accessory or designs the times and places in which you live without thought. Every skill, interest, opportunity and aptitude was given to you by God with a redemptive purpose in mind. When you have submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it means that you no longer live for yourself, but find your place in the plan of God in the times and places in which you live.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
How do we discover God's plan? We realize that there are four fundamentals of the story that God is unfolding: God has a place for you God has a people for you in that place God has a purpose for you there God has a picture for you (We will cover more next week.)
Judges 1:1-10 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland. And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba, and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
Pastor Rollan gave a history of Israel up to this point.
God has a place for you
God's desire is to transform not only individuals, but families, communities, cities and nations by the gospel of Jesus. Someone has to go first.
God wants you to love, bring blessing to and help shape the city culture in which you live. You do this one person and environment at a time.
In a truly globalized community where you can go anywhere, anytime you desire, it is increasingly challenging to wrap your mind around the fact that God intends the impact of your life to be realized and felt in particular locales because what God is building is cities. From Genesis to Revelation, you see the constant progress of God starting with a garden and teaching His people to cultivate the land so that in the end, He would have a city (the new Jerusalem) full of a culture in which He lives, rules and receives glory.
He places you in a city to be a part of that change. It is your inheritance that you are to fight for with the love, compassion and truth of Jesus Christ, making disciples.
God has a people for you there
Healthy people make healthy cultures.
Just as Judah needed to appeal to Simeon to defeat kings that had a history of dominance in that territory, so you will never fulfill the purpose of God on your own.
Jesus is building His church to be the agent of change. Find your place and relationships in it to begin purposefully taking the land together. Anything less is self-centered spirituality and not the gospel that Jesus taught or preached.
John 12:24-26 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. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 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.
God has a purpose for you there
If God has placed you in this city with this people, begin to find ways to invest your time, treasure and resources in a manner that will begin to reshape the city through the gospel.
God has a picture for you
God's promise is fully extended to every area of your life.
Your life is made up of the way that you spend your time, talent and resources.
Jesus said in John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
When you think of the promised land, you need to search the Scriptures and imagine, "What would my life look like if they were fully under the rule of Christ?" What about how I spend my time? My finances? My self-image? Would I have appropriate boundaries and direction in my career?
Would I have more peace or less? Would I have more rest or less? More joy or less? Would I have more satisfaction or less?
The answer to each of these questions is more and is part of what Jesus means to have life to the full.
We want to make sure that the way we are spending our time, talent and resources is not simply the product of our own desires but is reflective of the cross and person of Jesus.
“Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from the love of the thing he tells, to the love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him”
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Let's come to the cross again and live for Christ's glory alone.
Second City Church- Designer God Sermon Series 2015