Resolve To Finish
Resolve: Why are we talking about this?
We’ve recently gone through the book of Ezra and learned why and how to rebuild the altars of worship in our lives. Once these altars are rebuilt and we are worshipping our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ, we need to continue to produce fruit born out of worship for the rest of our lives until Jesus return. We need Holy Spirit empowered RESOLVE!
Definition of Resolve
Verb
settle or find a solution to (a problem, dispute, or contentious matter)
decide firmly on a course of action
separate or cause to be separated into components
Noun
firm determination to do something.
God’s Definition of Resolve
Zechariah 4:1-7
And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
God’s Word and the Holy Spirit will supply our strength and grace to finish the work!
“Blessed, but not blessed”
Malachi 2:1-3
“And now, you priests, this warning is for you.
“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.”
‘And now you priests’: We are priests, so this warning is for us
1 Peter 2:4-5
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
‘Resolve to honor my name’: We are called to abide in Christ, not only in name, but producing fruit that brings honor to Him. By resolving to abide in Christ through obeying Him, we honor Him.
John 15:1-17
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
“And I will curse your blessings”: Why are people blessed, but not blessed?
What does it mean to be blessed?
Psalm 32:1-3
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Called to be blessed in Christ through a posture of resolve.
Luke 11:27-28
27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
“Finished, but must finish”
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace
of our God and the Lord Jesus
“To this end”- The return of Jesus to be glorified in His saints
“Make you worthy of his calling”- to bring Jesus glory on the day He returns
“May fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith”- Jesus will work in you to desire and resolve for fruitfulness that brings Him glory
“By his power”- remember the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel? It’s by God’s Spirit and not our strength.
“So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you,and you in him””- When we abide in Jesus we are fruitful and He is glorified, and His glory is our glory because He is the head and we are His body.
“According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus”- again, resolve is a posture of abiding in Christ to receive grace to produce fruit.
JESUS has finished His work through His resolve and this provided for our salvation
Now in response we must have the same resolve to finish the work he has entrusted to us
We are all called to produce the fruits of the Spirit, make disciples teaching them to obey Jesus by loving God and people, as well as to specific callings according to
Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Application
Meditate on the resolve of Christ
“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."”
Matthew 17:19-20 ESV http://bible.us/59/mat.17.19-20.esv
“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a
Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not
welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.”
Luke 9:51-56 NIV
Test the posture of resolve in your own heart
Write down the heavenly vision to which you must apply your resolve
In your personal discipline and life (Galatians 5:22-23)
In JESUS’s kingdom work as a part of His church (Ephesians 2:10)
Second City Church - Resolve - Pastor Cole Parleir 2018