Word of Encouragement: Part 5
Pastor: Rollan Fisher
Focus: You can be happy, while you are holy, as you remain rooted in Christ.
You can be Happy
While you are Holy
As you are Rooted in Christ
You can be Happy
Know that you can be happy as you do things God’s way because God delights in blessing his people.
Psalm 1:1-6
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
You can be happy in life.
Among other things, blessed means happy.
To walk in a happy state means that you have to embrace the world as it is and navigate it as God commands.
What is the present state of the world at large?
1 John 5:19
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Because we live in a fallen world, with the majority of people living in rebellion to God, to not walk in the counsel of the wicked means you will have to proactively seek righteous counsel.
Be careful of the trajectory of your life - whether in righteousness or wickedness.
In all things, you first walk, then stand and then sit in convictions that you’ve developed - whether actively or passively (Romans 12:1-2).
This is why the apostle Paul exhorted the nascent church:
Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
To “be conformed” in this Scripture is a passive (tense +) activity - meaning if you are not resisting conformity, you will be subdued.
*You begin to walk in the counsel of sinners when you lack discerning thought, filtered through the Word of God, to actively distinguish between right and wrong.
*You are conformed to the pattern of this world by imbibing the ideologies that surround you without proactively filtering and rejecting what is incongruent with the Law of God.
You begin to stand when you make it a habit to practice what they are doing.
“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.”
― John Wesley
You begin to sit in the seat of a scoffer - judging, mocking and deriding the things of God - when you’ve stopped fighting the evil one and take the easier road of conformity.
“The story of Daniel and his friends is a clarion call to our generation to be courageous; not to lose our nerve and allow the expression of our faith to be diluted and squeezed out of the public space and thus rendered spineless and ineffective. Their story will also tell us that this objective is not likely to be achieved without cost.”
John C. Lennox, Against the Flow: The inspiration of Daniel in an age of relativism
We treat God as if he is infringing upon our rights when he gives us commands that cut against our wills.
However, we must remember that as Creator, this is God’s world and we are his tenants.
God sets the rules and orders creation with inputs and consequences according to his grand design for good (Genesis 1).
When things work according to that design, they are blessed and human flourishing is a result as we inhabit his world.
“Men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver.’ It was this conviction that led Francis Bacon (1561–1626), regarded by many as the father of modern science, to teach that God has provided us with two books – the book of Nature and the Bible –“
John C. Lennox, God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
When we disobey God’s commands, things deteriorate, break down and ultimately die - whether it is your body, relationships or mental well-being.
Death is always the consequence of sin (Romans 3:23).
Happiness can not dwell there.
Yet happiness abides in holiness (Hebrews 1:8,9).
While you are Holy
Holiness is a prerequisite to true happiness because you enter into the backing of God.
We’ve got to define what a good and holy life looks like.
“The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”
G. K. Chesterton
Jesus came to restore and give life.
Was Jesus concerned with righteousness (adherence to the Law of God) - or simply love and grace?
Matthew 5:17-20
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was concerned with both.
In fact, it was Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the law that enabled him to be an unblemished sacrifice for humanity at the cross, to bear the punishment for our sins and provide forgiveness for the repentant.
We are now called and required to follow his example.
We become holy and enter into Christ’s life by delighting in the law of the Lord - meditating on it day and night.
By doing so, we begin to walk by the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:16-26
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Pursuing the leading and submitting daily to the direction of the Holy Spirit allows us to lead a holy life.
“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
G. K. Chesterton
It is the anchor of the word of God and direction of the Holy Spirit that plants our roots by streams of living water.
In this way, we are forever connected to God, his desires and his Kingdom purposes to be a disciple and make disciples of the nations.
It is in this context that we yield fruit in season, and our leaves do not wither.
Because God is at the helm, we hold to the promise that we will prosper in all that we do.
But to be holy, we must not be a mixed bag.
The question is:
What are you feeding yourself?
The music, types of news mediums, entertainment, inner musings and conversations in which we indulge all matter.
They are shaping agents to our thoughts, attitudes, actions and ultimately, life.
We need to wake up to that which is shaping us - that which is either enhancing or stealing our joy in the Lord.
Romans 13:11-14
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
We must learn to clothe ourselves with Christ.
As You are Rooted in Christ
To remain rooted in Christ is to remain focused on the hope of eternal life and the happiness that springs from it.
John 14:1-7
14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
This was matrimonial language.
Though the wicked will not stand in the judgement, God’s promise is that the faithful will enter into their master’s eternal happiness (Matthew 25:14-30).
“this world is not going to be trampled and smashed by brutal, amoral regimes forever. A day will come when God will bring to an end the state war-machines, the terrorist bombs, the consummate evil of totalitarian oppression, the gas chambers, death camps, killing fields, and countless other infamous instruments of death. There will be a judgment.”
John C. Lennox, Against the Flow: The inspiration of Daniel in an age of relativism
Through turning away from our rebellion and putting our trust in the finished work of Christ for us at the cross, not only do we have access to the forgiveness of our sins, but the blessings of God’s eternal bliss.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher