Once and Future Kings - "Jesus and A Fresh Start"
[powerpress] To begin the year, we'd like to have an exhortation from one of our congregants that can encourage us going into the new year:
Esther King grew up in the ministry with her parents being missionaries to Mexico. From 2 years old, ministry has been clearly seen as a part of her calling. As a family, the Kings started Christian schools and helped establish churches through evangelism and humanitarian outreaches. Esther would speak to crowds of over 5000 people about the gospel from the time she was 10. She is a graduate of ORU, having enjoyed chapel 5 days a week along with her academic studies. She is a graduate of Northwestern Law, where there is an expectation of excellence, and she is here to speak to you about that subject today. I've seen both godliness and this type of character reflected in Esther's life, which is why I've asked her to share with you as we begin the new year together.
From Esther Joy King:
Today, I’m speaking from my passion, who I am, and that means, I have to be really vulnerable with you. I wish I could tell you I have arrived, but I’m here sharing with you from the middle of my journey; and despite my failures, I am making a conscious choice for excellence. But I’m going to show up as I talk, and I’m going to ask all of you, to make it personal. There will be moments where we’re going to stop and reflect on God’s word to you, and I’m going to ask you guys to engage, to be here. I’m asking that you would make this time we share together a sacred space to open your heart to what God is saying, and to open up to how the concepts of excellence apply in your life. As we do this together, I think we will be creating a sacred space for God to show up right here in this room and change us.
Together we will:
1. Open hearts
2. Participate
3. Commit to taking what we learn here together out into 2014.
You might want to get out an old fashioned pen and paper to jot down your thoughts, what reflections you have. The words I speak are neither hear nor there, but what is important are the concepts and ideas I’m communicating and how you’re responding to them.
Do I have an agreement from you that you’re going to make this morning a sacred space in your life and allow God to move?
Christmas is the traditional birth of Jesus, and we’ve been following the story through the Once and Future Kings series. Today, we’re going to do this by following along on the journey Mary and Joseph took with Jesus from His birth to Egypt.
They obeyed God, and He worked through their action.
How many of you really want 2014 to be a year of growth? Do you really believe our God takes us to a new level? I’m going to be talking about breakthrough concepts of what excellence can look like for you.
Then we’re playing tag, and Pastor Rollan’s going to pick up the story of Mary and Joseph. We will continue on their journey with them about the real side of things. Why do we not always live up to everything God has for us? What if we fail? Do we have hope? And what can we learn about God and our relationship with God through this whole thing.
Let’s jump into Mary and Joseph’s story. Let’s look at what God is saying to Joseph:
Matthew 2:13
This is God talking. We see His character revealed in His words. We can learn Him by listening to Him. This is who our God is. God is speaking, and He’s saying, “Get up!”
This is the same God that spoke to Abraham, and said get up, stand up, and go into the Land of Promise.
Four hundred years later, the same God said to Joshua, get up, stand up, be strong and courageous, and go into the Land of Promise.
The same God that said to David, get up, stand up, because you are called to be king.
The same God that said to Esther, get up, stand up, and go before the king.
This is who God is; this is His character. Our God is a God of action. He is not limited. He does not have a limited mindset. He does not speak negative things. He believes all things are possible. Life and life more abundantly. A God of more than enough. That can do abundantly above all we can ask or think.
Because this is who He is, this is who we are called to be. It’s our destiny. God is saying to you, get up, stand up and go, and move into something greater in your life.
In contrast, we’ve all been through seasons that were mediocre, where we just fit in, just get by, settle, compromise, just except what life is handing out, but we are turning a corner and living with a spirit of excellence in 2014. We are living life with excellence in 2014. Our task is to find our greatness.
God is saying to you, get up and start relentlessly pursuing excellence.
STOP. EXERCISE: What really matters to you in 2014? What does it look like to live fully alive, to live every moment, engaged, obeying God’s instructions?
Relationship, finances, health, career, family, habits, routines, commitments, values, legacy. Peace. Favor.
What is excellence? It is multi-dimensional. Let us wrap our minds around this idea:
Excellence is an internal commitment to get up, stand up, and go. Playing life all in. Being better than you were yesterday. Fully engaged. Above and beyond. Leaning in. Abundantly above all that you could possibly ask or think. Standing out. Finding your greatness. Uncommon. Leaving it all on the field. Taking big risks. Relentlessly pursing your destiny. Limitless. Excellence is representing God’s greatness to the world. Stand up and stand out.
This is what we’re a part of; this is the God we serve! We belong to Him, and He belongs to us. Our God is a God of, “Get up, and Go!”
...whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
We are representing a King, our Father, the Creator of the universe- how are we going to be anything less than the best?
We’ve talked about the why, but the big question now is how. How do we become excellent? We’re going to go through three steps to becoming excellent.
Mathew 2:13-14
“Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you...” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt.
Verse two: Joseph did it!
When we obey God, do it right away, with urgency.
Step 1: Obey God
What do I mean? I mean a commitment in your heart to obeying him, a general commitment to His principals, and a specific commitment to pursue His plans for your life. Make it a disposition.
Oral Roberts was a man of God who did huge crusades in the 1950s and 1960s. My family got to meet him, and Oral Roberts gave me this advice, “Obey God.”
There are two sides to the will of God: 1. The general will of God (how to be in fellowship, what He’s up to on the earth, and how we fit in). 2. The specific will of God (His purpose and will for your life as an individual).
(Esther shared the story of her experience about reading a book about spiritual discipline and how God can speak through imagination.)
Idea: God has a specific way to connect with you!
Step 2: Build Habits
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24)
General Principal: Thoughts->Action->Habits->Destiny
We all wrote out our goals earlier. I recently read an article called, The Science of Building Good Habits and How to Make Them Stick.
We make "micro quotas” to reach “macro goals.”
Quotas make each day approachable, and your goals become achievable because of this. The author told his own story:
For me, cracking the code on flossing was to put the floss right by the toothbrush, and to commit to myself that I would floss one tooth — only one tooth — every time after I brushed.
I could floss them all if I wanted to, but the commitment was just one tooth.
[This works] because I was training the behavior. Maybe once every few weeks, I’d only actually floss one tooth, but a majority of the time I’d end up flossing them all.
STOP. EXERCISE: Small things: What is a small action you can take today toward reaching your goal?
Here is a lesson from Warren Buffet: “Just imagine you could be given 10% of the future earnings of one person you know,” Buffet says. Would you pick the smartest person? The most talented person? No. Buffet says, “You’re going to pick the person that has the right habits.”
It can still be hard to commit day in and day out, so what do we do?
Step 3: Do it together
COMMUNITY: We do it together.
“Take the woman and child with you.”
We do this together. It’s part of our mandate as Christians.
(Esther shared her story of Lindsey and her going to workout together.)
There’s a second side to the coin. As we grow and become more mature, we also have the responsibility to bring people up with us.
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus (Romans 15:1-5)
Fully engaged with the tension of destiny. Life, living in the fullness, clear about what it is you are called to do, and you’re passionate about what it is, step into God’s plan for you. One-hundred percent fully engaged with life, with the people around you. Life living in the fullness of the purpose of God, and experiencing the overlap of what God intended to happen.
You are called to live a life of more- of greater, abundantly above all that you could ask or think. This is living excellence.
In the Common Era B.C., there lived a man named Daniel. Daniel was taken captive from his homeland of Israel, and taken to Babylon. When he went there, Daniel was chosen to attend the king's school, to learn the ways of Babylon. At this school, all the men were wined and dined. But they were served food that had been offered to idols. Daniel said no. He stood up and stood out and said give me vegetables and water. He refused to be like the others.
At the end of their schooling, the Bible says, Daniel was found to be ten times superior. The king noticed, and, long story short, Daniel became one of the king's most trusted advisors. Daniel influenced King Nebuchadnezzar. And Daniel influenced the nation.
Daniel was 10 times superior. The demand for greatness is higher now than ever before. Our culture, the world, is hungry for what we are called to be. We are to influence culture through excellence, and live in our destiny.
The world will be attracted to the reflection of God’s nature that it sees in us. The world will know:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
From Pastor Rollan Fisher:
If excellence is the standard and this is part of our identity in Christ, what is it that can keep us from living in such a manner? It is many times the discouragement of the trials that we face. However, as we enter into a new year, the transforming truth is that: the King comes to bring new hope.
As we look again at the Epiphany, we are in the time immediately following the visit of the Magi. It is interesting that what was subsequent to a major milestone in the history of the church was a major trial. Be encouraged, God has hope for you despite the trials that you have or will face.
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:13-18 NIV)
King Herod was on a rampage to protect his right to rule. Though parents to the most important life ever to grace the planet, Mary and Joseph were undoubtedly challenged by these events. However, God had left the seeds of hope in His Word.
There were two distinct prophecies that Matthew referenced in regard to the infanticide that Herod ordered precipitating Jesus' family's flight to Egypt. The first prophecy is from Hosea 11:1. This reference was a constant reminder to the Israelites of the Passover, God's deliverance of His people from their oppression and slavery in Egypt. It was a foreshadowing of the hope to be found in Jesus, the deliverer who would also make His way out of Egypt, to save His people from their sins. He will deliver you as you choose to turn away from self-sufficient living. He will deliver family, co-workers, neighbors, and friends as you reach out to them with the good news of Jesus.
The other prophecy is from Jeremiah where centuries earlier King Nebuchadnezzar gathered the Israelites preparing for the Babylonian exile in the city of Ramah. Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, was personified as the mother of Israel's children who would be carried away to a foreign land because of their sin, but who would also have the hope of restoration after their disciplinary service was over (Jeremiah 31:31-34). This again would be a foreshadowing of the new covenant that Jesus would establish with His people after their difficulties.
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:19-23 NIV)
Here are some takeaways we can learn about God and our relationship with Him from this scenario:
1) God wastes nothing. The size of the trial can be an indicator of the size of the redemptive purposes of God on the other side.
There were two major instances where a deliverance was at hand, and the spiritual forces of darkness employed rulers to try to stamp them out. The first was in the account of Moses who would deliver his people out of slavery in Egypt as a foreshadowing of the work of the Messiah. The second was now Jesus, the Messiah. Both had their lives threatened at birth.
What has Satan tried to steal from you? Your testimony of God's rescue will be part of what glorifies Jesus. We need to look for the excellencies of God in the midst of our trials.
2) God is involved. In the midst of world affairs and the trials of your life, God speaks with specific detail.
Do you regularly seek God to hear His voice? The people of God who walk in excellence will listen for the voice of God.
“Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.” ― Socrates, The Apology
3) God is timely. As Esther said, it is important to obey God when He speaks. Immediate obedience can mean the difference between God's protection of your heart, career, and relationships or, resultant mistakes that can take months or years to restore. In the case of Herod, it was the difference between life and death for the young Jesus. As we obey, nothing can thwart the plans of God. We need to remember that when it seems like we've been displaced, as Christ's family was in Egypt, God is still in control and, in His foreknowledge, working all things out for His gospel ends.
Do you obey God's instructions quickly or pay the price for procrastination? A life of excellence is the result of quick obedience to the voice of God.
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.” ― Steve Jobs
4) God is wise. He gives precedent for how to handle life. Many times, a year of trial can be the very thing that God uses to set you in the place He desires for your true calling and His redemptive purposes (i.e. - Joseph in Genesis 37-50, the scattered church in Acts 7 and 8).
Have you asked God what He wants to do with your present placement? There is a pattern in God's Word for both encouragement and a direction for living (Romans 15:4).
Do you have a discipline of studying the Word of God? Excellence is a result of being a student of God's word.
5) God is merciful and works things out that seem detrimental to fulfill His Word and gospel purposes. There is an eventual reprieve from trials, though it does not come as quickly as we would like. It is estimated that King Herod died within a year of the assassination attempt on Jesus' life, showing that God does not give us more than we can bear.
Will you persevere until God turns your darkness into light? Excellence can be the product of how we respond to life's circumstances, learning God's unchanging character and purpose in the midst of them.
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.” ― Steve Jobs
6) God is consistently choosing to be with His people in obscurity, as well as in prosperity and the public ministry to thousands that Jesus would enjoy. You can be just as pleasing to and secure in God in trials as you are in times of blessing. Trials are not a measure of God's blessing, though they are always a good time to evaluate whether there is sin with which to reckon. Jesus was sinless and grew excellent in the midst of His trials. In taking on flesh, Jesus was our example for living and the most excellent of men. It was said of Him that He did all things well (Mark 7:37).
Do you practice in secret or obscurity what you would want to be displayed publicly (Proverbs 22:29)? Excellence begins in the secret place and obscurity.
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” ― Aristotle
7) God is sovereign and sees the big picture.
The key is consistency that He uses to prepare the way for everything to come. If you do not strive for obedience and excellence now, do not expect His blessing later.
During this time Nazareth was a small, agricultural town of around 500 people. Though it was not significant politically, religiously, or militarily, from a height on a ridge within a ten minute's walk, the people of the city could see the major trade routes and Herod Antipas' capital city of Sepphoris, which were the seats of influence.
How do you respond to humble beginnings?
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.
Those who are massively effective use the same fervency for excellence in their small beginnings as they would when they've achieved their lofty goals.
We need to be excellent in our small beginnings so that Jesus will entrust us with the fruit of His gospel, making us ruler over much.
All of history, including your life, is a part of God's redemption story in Jesus Christ. Because this is who God is and we are to be for the display of God's splendor (Isaiah 60:21-61:3), let's approach this year with a new hope that Jesus will receive glory from the excellence of our lives. As we commit to Christ-centered living, excellence will be the result as we do all things for the sake of the gospel that will transform the city and the lives of the people therein.
“When you do the common things in an uncommon way, you'll command the attention of the world.” ― George Washington Carver
Second City Church- Once and Future Kings Sermon Series 2014