Exodus Chronicles: Part 9

Exodus Chronicles: Part 9 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: We must learn new responses in our times of trial to see Jesus break through as the Lord - our banner of victory. 

• Learned Responses

• Keep Those Hands Up

• To the Lord Our Banner

Learned Responses 

We must learn new responses to God during our times of trial.  

Exodus 17:1-7 

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

God moves us into his promises by stages. 

God always has a plan.  

The Israelites were camped by the commandment of the Lord where there was no water for the people to drink, but again, God had a plan.

Familiar challenges are part of your walk with God (Remember the Israelites in Exodus 15:22-26 at Marah).

God uses the challenges to bring out what is in our hearts, that we might see clearly and be conformed to the image of Christ.  

*The wilderness is ultimately about our character development, not God’s faithfulness.  

God gives you similar challenges over and over so that you grow in your RESPONSES - learning how to trust the Lord (think of Jesus feeding the 5000 and then the 4000). 

Every place where God commands you to camp, he has a plan for miraculous provision to show both his sovereignty and care for you.

Despite this, like the Israelites, our tendency is to quarrel and complain.

God is kind to instruct us during those times as grumbling children on the path to maturity.  

Yet this grace must never be taken for granted.  

Leadership always needs to be ready to set the pace in seeking the Lord for a solution in times of trial, passing on before the people as an example.

Moses taking in his hand the staff with which he struck the Nile communicated that the same faithfulness that God showed his people before would be the same power and faithfulness that he would show them again - this time in new territory on their way to the promise.

The lesson that we need to learn is that testing the Lord is not good.

The presumption and audacity of people who casually talk about being angry with God and speaking ill words against him needs to stop.

To see the supernatural power and provision of God, we must walk in a humble fear of the Lord.

Massah and Meribah were so named to mark the Israelites immaturity and the Lord’s faithfulness in the midst of it.

*Where does the Lord need to mature you in the midst of your responses to life’s challenges?

Keep Those Hands Up

God’s breakthroughs come on the heels of prayer and praise.   

The right response to our challenges should be prayer and praise. 

Exodus 15 begins with a beautiful picture of how we should all respond in gratitude and thankfulness when it is clear that the Lord has delivered us.

Over the course of time, the further we get from the actual moment of deliverance, the greater the temptation is to allow our gratitude to dull and our thankfulness to wane.

Thankfulness is a muscle to be developed.

What God is showing us in Rephidim is that which comes  to steal our thankfulness and joy.  

Exodus 17:8-13

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 

The Hebrew root word for Amal had the meaning of: trouble, wearisome labor and toil. 

Just as of blotted out the Egyptian chariots, so he intended to blot out the Amalekite threat from the Israelites, which means there is no enemy, no challenge - past, present or FUTURE - that the Lord is not willing and able to give his people victory through.  

Here is the key:  As long as Moses' hands were raised, the Israelites were winning.  

Whenever they were lowered, the Amalekites were winning.

There is a direct correlation to prayer and praise here.

1 Timothy 2:8 

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

It starts with the men!

Aaron and Hur show us the need for community in the fight - STOP SKIPPING CHURCH! 

*There are fallacies to the idea of simply relying on a remote church experience. 

Stop fooling yourself - deception is spoken of over and over again in the Bible. 

The act of inconveniencing yourself to get out of bed and come to physically fellowship with other believers is good practice for the DAILY EXPECTATION TO DENY YOURSELF, PICK UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW CHRIST if you are to be a disciple (Luke 9:23,24).  

It is the same with the regular practice of tithing when I give my FIRST AND BEST 10% to God remembering that all of life depends on him and is to be stewarded for him.  

These are outward practices for inward character development. 

Luke 9:23-24 

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Everyone wants to shoot like Steph Curry, but few want to put in the work to be like him. 

People say they want to please Christ, but few want to fulfill acts of righteousness to be like him (think of Christ’s baptism). 

You are not living under God’s banner when you are picking and choosing what you will obey, and therefore should not expect victory.  

*We win in every area when we do what God says, Christ’s way.  

To the Lord Our Banner

When we learn to come to Christ and his church through our trials, we see clearly that Jesus is forever lifted up over every circumstance as our banner of victory.  

Exodus 17:14-16

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

In Christ’s glory, you will find your victory. 

John 12:27-33 

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.

God blotted the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.  

Christ would achieve the ultimate victory for all who would turn to him by forever blotting out the guilt of our sins by paying for our forgiveness through his sacrificial death at the cross.  

Though we were once objects of God’s wrath, we have peace with God and victory over sin as we look to Christ, our banner lifted up, now resurrected from the dead, that we might have eternal life through his finished work. 

*In this and every situation, we learn that the victories of Christ are not temporary, but eternal.  

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

God’s Wonderful Grace in the Wilderness

God’s Wonderful Grace in the Wilderness

The Exodus Chronicles Part 8

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

A Word about The Word 

Questions:

1. Why do we read and sit under the preaching of God’s Word, the Bible?

2. What is your expectation from time in God’s Word?

Study to do and teach (hear posture to know and obey God)

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to his statues and rules in Israel.

Ezra 7:10 

A Living Sword (scalpel)

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

A Fire and Hammer (clean and break up hard hearts)

“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23:29‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

God’s breath of life, God’s grace imparted (prepares the lost for salvation and equips for every good work)

“and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3:15-17‬ ‭ESV‬‬ 

Context for today’s Word

Previous chapter: 

Exodus 15:1-21 is a song of praise for God’s mighty deliverance of Israel. 

Then 22-27 is 3 days later when they grumbled against Moses saying “What shall we drink?”.  The Lord through Moses provided a supernatural solution in mercy without any rebuke of the grumbling. 

Here and now the Lord laid down the first rule for his freshly freed people in VS 26 “saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”  God has mercy on us while he teaches us his ways.  He reaffirms his role and heart as their healer.  He brings them to a place of respite with plenty of water, Elim. 

Today’s chapter:

Exodus 16 we find the Isrealites moving from day 3 in Elim to day 30 in the wilderness of Sin between Elim and Sinai. 

The 10 commandments had not yet been given, just a GPS (emphasis on relationship rather than law at this point)

The Word: Exodus 16

Focus: God’s grace saves us from slavery to sin and death and God’s grace enables obedience to His Word keeping us free from sin as He leads us to our eternal home. 

Points:

• Oasis to Wilderness

• Wilderness to Wonder

• Wonder to Rest

Oasis to Wilderness 

“They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Exodus 16: 1-3

‭‭Wilderness to Wonder

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.’” And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.”

Exodus 16: 4-21

Wonder to Rest 

“On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day. Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)”

Exodus 16: 22-35

Jesus declares he is Bread of Life

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6:47-51, 63‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses are departed from, the ends will change.”

- Ebenezer Scrooge, ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Today you can choose to eat of the bread of life, receiving Jesus as your Savior from sin and death and your Lord to lead you all the way home into the Father’s house. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Exodus Chronicles: Part 7

Exodus Chronicles: Part 7

Pastor: Rollan Fisher

Why does it matter where we live, to whom we speak and what message that we bring?

Focus:

As we follow Jesus into the life of freedom to which he has called us, it matters where you live, to whom you speak and what message you bring. 

• God’s Protection

• God’s Direction

• God’s Salvation

God’s Protection

As you follow Christ, it matters where you live.

Pray for families affected by recent Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, NY shootings, as well as those regularly occurring in our own backyard.  

What could have been done? 

Exodus 13:17-22

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

If we are following God, the places where God calls us to live are not always the most economic, the most convenient or the most inviting. 

They will, however, be the most fruitful providing Kingdom purpose and freedom for you and your family.  

“The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.”

— Corrie ten Boom

Keeping in step with God leads you to the safest, most satisfying and most liberating place you can be.  

Exodus 14:19-20

Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

Exodus 14:24

And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,

God’s Direction

As you follow Christ, it matters to whom you speak.  

Exodus 15:22-27

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

We must keep in step with the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s Kingdom mission. 

You are on mission in the places and with the people around whom God places you - in your family, in your workplace, in your neighborhood and in your schools.  

God’s Salvation

As you follow Christ, it matters what message you bring. 

Acts 17:24-31

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.”

Exodus 40:34-38

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

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Trusting God At The Red Sea

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Trusting God At The Red Sea

The Exodus Chronicles Part 6:

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

The Word: Exodus 14

Focus: God’s path of deliverance is designed to strengthen your faith while bringing about permanent victories in your life.

Points

• When God Says “Turn Back”

• When the Battle Intensifies

• When God Fights For You

When God Says “Turn Back” 

Exodus 14:1-4

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-Zephaniah; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.”

The road to freedom may seem inefficient.  It is actually God’s master plan to bring about a complete victory. 

The LORD said ‘Turn back and encamp” - Progress in God can feel slow and inefficient.  Don’t sweep your sin or fears under the rug.  God wants to confront everything that kills, steals, and destroys your life of faith in him including heart posters and mentalities that may have persisted for generations and throughout godless cultural norms you have been raised in.

The LORD said take your stand ‘By the sea’ - Where are the emergency exits?  By design God allows and even directs his people into circumstances that are vulnerable, unsafe, and do not make sense without a supernatural intervention.  This is unto the purpose of revealing where our hope is that it may be placed in Him alone.

Pharaoh will say “they are wandering…the wilderness has shut them in’ - Israel became the LORD’s ‘bait’ to bring justice upon Pharaoh.  To the eyes of the faithless your path to God’s freedom in Christ will seem foolish with pointless pain and suffering.   When God’s people humble themselves and become ‘fools for Christ’ it makes room for God to get glory over that and those which are opposed to Him. 

“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.””

1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:18-20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/1co.3.18-20.ESV

‘And they did so.’ - When we recognize the narrow path of God’s choosing is so that our freedom may be complete, we will trust and obey quickly and fully.

Question:  When God’s path for your freedom in Christ seems foolish and/or slow, will you trust him?

When the Battle Intensifies

Exodus 14:5-12

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”  So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.  The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sear by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly.  And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.  They said to Moses,”Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?  Is not this what we said to you in Egypt:”Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians”?  For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”  

When the battle intensifies around God’s people they can be assured of a final victory. 

When Pharaoh says ‘What is this we have done,…?” - God’s enemies will bring about their own destruction through an increase of rebellion and intensified fighting.  This is the fulfillment of verse 4 (I will harden Pharaoh’s heart), which prepares God’s people for the hot pursuit that is coming next, and gives them faith that God will also fulfill the end of verse 4 “I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host”.  The hard heart and the increased warfare are actually proofs that God will deliver his people and you completely.

The rebellious heart is steeped in pride and arrogance resulting in extreme folly.  Egypt was the world’s military superpower at the time.  Pharaoh unleashed their full arsenal (chosen chariots, officers, and army) on runaway slaves as if they were fighting a militarized nation.  This also is the Lord’s doing as he sought to completely set Israel free by drawing out all of the enemies resources for destruction. 

How does the LORD use ones own heart to bring about his justice and deliverance?  A good example can be found in Aikido - A modern Japanese martial art.  

Defined on Wikipedia as “the ‘Way of combining forces’ or ‘Way of unifying energy’, in which the term aiki refers to the martial arts principle or tactic of blending with an attacker's movements for the purpose of controlling their actions with minimal effort.  One applies aiki by understanding the rhythm and intent of the attacker to find the optimal position and timing to apply a counter-technique.”  Essentially, God uses their own intense folly to bring about their destruction because a hard heart is incapable of repentance.  Think Steven Siegal making someone look foolish when he simply side steps their angry attack and they hurt themselves. 

Aikido demonstration: https://youtu.be/DVs--uHf4sE

“…and they feared greatly.” - God’s greatest victories in our lives can also be accompanied by our greatest fears despite God showing himself faithful to us in in the past.  We are all like Dori of Finding Nemo when it comes to God’s faithfulness, needing him to introduce himself to us again.  We need the Gospel everyday!

“It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” -  in defense and sympathy of the Israelites faithless cries, God was about to do a new thing that had never been done in all of history.  There was no precedent for what he was about to do…and God had not yet told them what he was about to do.  He had only said “I will get glory over Pharaoh and his hosts”.  God’s glory was the only plan they knew.

Question: In times of uncertainty, are you living for God’s glory alone? Do you believe he can do a new thing?

When God Fights For You

Exodus 14:13-31

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” 

Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. 

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” 

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

When we do not give way to fear and stand firm on God’s word, he will work his complete salvation on our behalf.  

“For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.” - The LORD promises and accomplishes complete, final, and total victory over his enemies.  This is the appropriate expectation for those in Christ.

“Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them” 

- On your faith journey the Lord is present helping you in your weakness and protecting you from the enemy so that you can make it all the way home. 

How does the Exodus apply to me?  Only slaves need freedom 

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8:31-36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.8.31-36.ESV

This is the Gospel.  The son remains in God’s house forever. 

God came to earth as the man Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He lived the perfect sinless life we should have lived, died the death we as sinners deserved, and rose from the dead three days later confirming humanities penalty had been paid for all who repent and place their trust in him as savior and Lord.  For those trust this, they have the right to become children of God with a permanent place in the Father’s house, the promised land of heaven. 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:1-2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.1-2.ESV

And…

“By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:29‬ ‭ESV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/59/heb.11.29.ESV

Place your faith in Jesus Christ today, and you will have hope for tomorrow and all days to come as you walk free from God’s wrath as a child of God. 

Reflection Questions

• Do you identify with the Isrealites in any way in Exodus 14? The wandering? The vulnerability? The uncertainty of God’s plan for you and his glory as you walk into freedom?

• As the Isrealites by faith crossed through the Red Sea into the promised freedom from their slave drivers, have you gone through the waters of baptism by faith in Jesus Christ?

Pray and Act

Heavenly Father, you are holy and faithful in all your ways.  Thank you for the offer of true and complete freedom through the gift of forgiveness and unmerited forever purchased by your Son Jesus at the cross.  Help me to trust you to finish the work you began in me as you bring me and others home as sons and daughters into your eternal kingdom.  In Jesus name, amen. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 5

Exodus Chronicles - Part 5

Pastor: Rollan Fisher

What are the means by which God provides permanent change in your life?

Focus: Through the Passover, we see God’s mechanisms for ongoing and permanent change in our lives. 

• Ongoing Change

• Permanent Change

• Our Passover Lamb

Ongoing Change

To come into the freedom that God has for you will require ongoing change in your life.

Exodus 12:1-13

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Contrary to how Pharoah responded to God’s judgements, the Passover exemplifies how the Lord instructed his people to respond to his offer of freedom.

God would lead his people through commands that were to be obeyed and rituals that were to be observed that would construct their life of worship.   

*What you have to realize is that these festivals and observances introduced by God through Moses were all new for the Israelites. 

As you follow Christ, there are also new rhythms and rituals introduced into your life to continue the process of ongoing transformation. 

These changes bring us out of the bondage to which we had been accustomed to the freedom that is ultimately found in Jesus.  

Priorities 

God starts by changing your calendar and how you spend your time. 

In the celebration of the Passover, God made sure to say that the first thing the Israelites would celebrate year after year is a reminder of his deliverance. 

There will be no permanent change of life without a change in priorities.  

The whole congregation of the people were to celebrate - no one was an exception.  

Those who think themselves exceptions are those who inevitably find themselves deceived and eventually cut off from the people of God (Exodus 12:19).   

Because of the process of sanctification where you are destined to become more and more like Christ, you never have the right to stop changing as you follow Jesus. 

Each time that you worship, it is an opportunity to bring more, not less, of yourself to God.

The whole of the lamb was to be cooked - including the head and inner parts.

In coming to Christ God deals with the whole man, from his actions to the innermost ambitions of the heart - all motives are to be processed and submitted at the table of the Lord.  

The command not to leave any of the meal until morning speaks not only of submitting every area of your life to Christ - but not procrastinating in doing so.  

The more we relent to God through his prescribed manner of worship, the more we enter into the freedom for which Christ died to usher us.  

“Jesus taught that your highest priority must be your relationship with him. If anything detracts you from that relationship, that activity is not from God. God will not ask you to do something that hinders your relationship with Christ.”

-Henry Blackaby

This is why Oswald Chambers of My Utmost For His Highest said,

“Your priorities must be God first, God second and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God.”

*To the degree that we hold back or ignore his specific commands in various areas of our lives is the measure that we will remain in slavery in that particular area.

Think Routines, Rituals and Redemption:

Routines - we are a product of our habits and God introduces rituals to conform us to the image of Christ. 

Rituals - rituals are God’s mechanism of both teaching and reinforcing the priority of God’s redemption in our lives 

Redemption - the Passover celebration was to be a continual remembrance and foreshadowing of the redemption the people of God would have in Jesus Christ. 

Permanent Change

When God brings his people out of slavery, he intends for it to be a permanent change.  

The lamb that was to be sacrificed was to be without blemish.  

Christ was our permanent, sinless lamb. 

When the destroying angel saw the blood, it would pass over those homes and spare those inside.  

Blood on the doorposts - God continually emphasizes that worship starts in the home and moves into the assembly.   

It is not one or the other. 

Make sure that you have both a public and private life of faith.

Take root beneath and bear fruit above (Isaiah 37:30-32).

“Appletree roots can reach up to three times the tree's height and be around 25 feet long. Even dwarf apple trees which are shorter than this, have roots that can spread up to 15 feet. One of an apple tree's essential functions is stretching out and collecting water, oxygen, and nutrients from the soil.”

Private devotion provides the root system of your life and intimacy with God. 

Public devotion displays the glory and beauty of God’s work in your life - bringing others to worship, repentance and faith in the same God who has delivered you.  

God has always been missional and feeds the world by the fruit of your private and public devotion.  

Exodus 12:38-39 (NIV)

Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

Because of the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony you have a permanent change on which you need to take your stand 

Revelation 12:9-11

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Who is that lamb?

Our Passover Lamb

Jesus is our Passover Lamb who saves us through both ongoing and permanent change in our lives.

Jesus is the prophesied lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is why John the Baptist, in announcing Christ’s public ministry, referred to Jesus in such a manner.  

John 1:29-34

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The Seder Table was the place where the Passover memorial was celebrated.  

It meant community, sharing, prayer and reflection.  

Exodus 12:14-20

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

In this reflection we see Jesus as the guileless and sinless man who stood before Pilate - declared innocent, but voluntarily accepting his sentence to pay for the sins of humanity.

We see that just as the Passover lamb was shorn, Jesus was stripped naked and crucified.  

We acknowledge that as the Passover lamb was a male a year old, so Christ died on the cross in the prime of his manhood, around 34 years of age.  

Jesus was at the height of his strength and with that strength humbled himself to bear the wrath of God so that we might be forgiven and set free from our bondage to sin. 

Every time we participate in communion, we celebrate the fact that Jesus was almost four years in ministry after his baptism just as the Passover Lamb was set aside four days before the slaughter, and that Christ in his last Passover declared that his own body and blood would be given for the new covenant to be established.  

Each generation needs to be intentionally brought into this understanding and prioritization.  

The prioritization of God’s rituals for worship need to be modeled, above hobbies (i.e. recreational team sports when your child is on no trajectory to play professionally) and even activities that you think might better refresh you.  

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be eaten in remembrance of the haste with which the Israelites needed to leave Egypt, reflecting the necessity of our immediate obedience to the commands of God.  

As God calls you to obey in worship, he always has your provision in mind.  

No work was to be done because you need to trust God for your provision.  

No work was to be done because Christ alone would provide your righteousness. 

No work was to be done because you need to take time to stop and refocus on the fact that Christ is your life.   

This is what we effectively do with every Sunday gathering, functioning for the community as a Sabbath, to refocus and recharge our lives through rest and worship.  

Thus the Passover was the first of God’s celebrations instituted during the Exodus, to create mechanisms for ongoing and permanent change in our lives, ultimately through the cross of Jesus Christ. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 4

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Exodus Chronicles : Part 4

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: God places his finger on everything not submitted to him to bring you into a life that is truly new in Christ.  

• What We Think We Need

• What We Really Need

• Who We Really Need

What We Think We Need

What we think that we need is that which we think will make us happy, but often enslaves us.  

We must allow God to develop our theology of judgment to understand why I can't just live to get what I want.

Exodus 3:19-20 

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.

Someone is going to be on the throne of your life - either the benevolent Jesus or a harsh taskmaster with whom you thought you could make peace, but has actually enslaved you.

Many times we remain in a place of sin and slavery as long as we are getting some measure of what we think that we want. 

“To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.” 

― William Nicholson, Shadowlands

Exodus 8:6-7 

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

*We ignore the immediacy/urgency of our need to repent because the world produces counterfeit solutions to our problems - until they don’t. 

Things like government programs, self-help books and dating apps can all be helpful but have their limits.  

When we get a bit of respite from our nagging, gnawing desires in temporary outlets, we, like Pharaoh, return to a hardness of heart to govern our own lives rather than allowing God to do so.  

Exodus 8:13-15 

And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. The frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

We know that things don’t quite smell right, but we put up with substitutes for God’s goodness because it is that to which we’ve become accustomed. 

*Stop settling for counterfeits.  

Counterfeits ultimately disappoint in the end because unlike God, they don’t care about you (Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw song), can not hear your cries or answer your need for deliverance.

Exodus 8:18-19 

The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The problem was not that Pharoah didn’t see that he ran out of solutions, but that he thought his solutions were found only in temporary/momentary change/repentance.  

Exodus 8:25-28 

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” But Moses said, “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.” So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me.”

*Idols deceptively perpetuate and simply relocate your bondage from one place to another - often through your internal dialog and negotiation. 

“An idolatrous attachment can lead you to break any promise, rationalize any indiscretion, or betray any other allegiance, in order to hold on to it. It may drive you to violate all good and proper boundaries. To practice idolatry is to be a slave.” 

― Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters

God brings his judgements out of his mercy and kindness so that we will no longer long for that which is enslaving and killing us.  

This is what he was doing not only for the Israelites, but for Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  

We see this in the seventh plague - the destructive hail coming upon the land. 

Exodus 9:20-21 

Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field.

So again, affliction can act as a merciful and loving wake-up call in our lives - to help us clearly distinguish what is right and wrong, what is of God and that which is not.  

Psalm 119:67 

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

We need to invite objective, godly counsel into our lives to allow us to see clearly what the deception of our sin and circumstance will not. 

Pharaoh thought that because he was the high ruler of the known world at the time, there would be no recompense for his pride, self-centeredness or rebellion against Yahweh, the Hebrew God of all creation.

Like Pharoah, we often think that because we don’t experience the immediate consequences of our disobedience, that there will not be a day of reckoning.  

Pharaoh learned this was not true for him, nor will it be for us.  

Just as God called to account the way that Pharaoh treated his people, so God will also call to account how we have stewarded what is ultimately his - our time, treasure and talent.  

We live as if our lives are our own, but the Scripture makes it clear that when you belong to Christ, there is a new expectation in every area of your life.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

What We Really Need

What we really need is the life and freedom that can be provided by God alone.  

God makes a distinction between his people who trust and obey him and the world who fends for themselves to show what we really need.  

*Focus on the genuine article

This includes things that Jesus modeled that are at times counterintuitive to our culture:

• Sacrificing for children that those who come behind you might know the Lord and his ways.

• The joy of giving and not just hoarding or spending your resources on yourself.

• Laying down your reputation and comforts that others might have life.

The land of Goshen shows how God makes his distinction in the lives of those who look to him - not in the absence of pain, but in the midst of it:

Exodus 9:4 

“But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.”’”

When you see the people of God prospering as a result of obedience to God (I.e. - in blessed marriages, child-rearing, financially, etc.) it is meant to be a provocation in the kindness of God to draw you to repentance.  

It also shows you that to which you are looking instead of God as your idol.  

“Idols give us a sense of being in control, and we can locate them by looking at our nightmares. What do we fear the most? What, if we lost it, would make life not worth living? We make “sacrifices” to appease and please our gods, who we believe will protect us.” 

― Timothy J. Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters

Yet again, idols ultimately fail us.  

Exodus 9:25-27 

The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail. Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.

It is not that Pharoah in the struggle to hold onto everything that he controlled and held dear didn’t know that he was sinning, but he convinced himself that if he just held out, if he just fought hard enough, ignored the judgements and held on, he would eventually have his way. 

In the end, however, there is no plan or purpose that will outlast or avail against the Lord (Proverbs 21:30).

Proverbs 21:30 (NIV)

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.

We will either humble ourselves in trust and obedience to God, or be humbled in the judgement.  

“In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out." - Mere Christianity

The real road to tragedy was paved with this fact:

*Pharaoh continually had an uncommitted response to God that dissipated once there was relief to his pain. 

This is the proclivity of all human beings - to do the bare minimum until we get what we want, and then resort to the familiar manner of living, requiring no change.

Exodus 9:33-35 

So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and stretched out his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel go, just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

What would it take to go from Thor yelling at kids playing Fortnite:

 To Love and Thunder Thor?

A daily commitment to God’s ways and healing are required for lasting change - where Jesus is finally Lord of all of our hearts and lives.  

This is why Jesus said that we must remain in the pain of sacrifice to be his disciple - bearing our cross daily lest we return to selfishness (Luke 14:25-33). 

“My own experience was something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. 

At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world, and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources.”

“But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys.  Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over – I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 93. 

What God requires is a DAILY denial of self, a DAILY picking up of the cross and a DAILY choosing of him over all else.

Exodus 10:8-11 

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. And he said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But which ones are to go?” Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old. We will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.” But he said to them, “The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind. No! Go, the men among you, and serve the Lord, for that is what you are asking.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

How often do we wait until it’s too late before we repent of our sin?

There would be no turning back from the death of the firstborn. 

Who We Really Need

Who we truly need is Jesus, the Son of God who died sacrificially to bring us into the life that is truly life.  

God ultimately strikes the firstborn to show who we ultimately need for salvation in our present and future.  

*Find real life in Christ. 

In the book Mere Christianity, published in 1952, but adapted from a series of talks Lewis gave during World War II, Lewis discussed the influences “Satan” and “God” have had on humankind:

“What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could "be like gods […] And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The solution to this endless search was that God sent his only Son to reconcile us to God in Christ.  

In Egyptian culture, posterity held your hopes and the firstborn sons were the first sign of your strength.  

Just as God struck down in judgement the false hopes and dreams of a people that would attempt to live fulfilled without him, so he sacrificed his only Son at the cross for the very same people who, if they would but turn to him in repentance and faith, might find the life that is truly life.  

There would be redemption when God gave his own firstborn son, Jesus Christ, in sacrifice for the life of the world.  

Every provision that you need for life and worship God will provide as you leave your slavery in faith.   

(My story about changing my work schedule as a young man multiple times to be able to attend church)

Exodus 11:1-3 

The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

This is what God had promised when he said:

Exodus 3:21-22 

And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

You will come out of your time of slavery with what you need to worship and create a generational legacy of expectation of God’s faithfulness, his deliverance for all those that follow.    

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 3

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The Exodus Chronicles Part 3

• God’s Promises (Exodus 6:1-13)

• God’s Power (Exodus 7:1-13)

• God’s Provision (Romans 5:1-11)

Focus: God’s promises are that by which his power is revealed thereby bringing wrath on the stubbornly disobedient and salvation to those who turn and believe.

God’s Promises (Exodus 6:1-13)

6 But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty,[a] but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” 9 Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

10 So the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” 12 But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” 13 But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

God’s Power (Exodus 7:1-13)

“And the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” 6 Moses and Aaron did so; they did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.”

God’s Provision (Romans 5:1-11)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles: Part 2

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Exodus Chronicles: Part 2 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: As you follow Jesus into his abundant and eternal life, remember that things can get harder before they get better, but in Jesus you will be the victor. 

• Things Can Get Harder

• Before They Get Better

• Yet Christ is the Victor

Exodus 5:1-14 

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord , and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.” So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?”

Things Can Get Harder 

When we follow Jesus into his life of promise, things can seem to get harder before they get better.  

Have no doubt about it, when God has called you to himself in Christ and for his Kingdom purposes, the resistance to your forward progress will begin.  

Difficulties do not mean that you are not going in the right direction.  

Once you have received the word of the Lord, do not be discouraged by thinking difficulties are a strange thing, but be encouraged that they are signs that you are going in the right direction. 

There is intentional, Ephesians 6 resistance in the spiritual realm to dissuade and discourage the worship of God.  

Battle is a barometer, not a compass. 

To the naked eye, they may look similar, but they are not the same.  

What is a barometer?:

It is an instrument measuring atmospheric pressure, used especially in forecasting the weather and determining altitude.

The closer you get to God (altitude) and his purposes, the greater the pressure can become, but the closer you are to his strong hand being revealed (Exodus 6:1). 

Exodus 6:1 

But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”

That strong hand was the Lord’s. 

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”

C.S. Lewis

Just because things get harder doesn’t mean that God has forgotten you.  

Just because things get harder doesn’t mean that what you are doing is not what the Lord has called you to do.  

Ease does not equate to the will of God. 

Just because things get harder doesn’t mean that God is not planning to help you.  

You must stick to what he told you in moments of lucidity to complete what he has said to do in moments of challenge.  

The Silver Chair examples.  

Before They Get Better 

Things start to get better when we remember the person and promises of God. 

Exodus 5:15-23 

Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.” The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Do not be surprised when God is moving and making forward progress in your life that work becomes more demanding, family situations arise and it seems that you can not complete school assignments while serving God.  

It will feel like you are now having to choose between your immediate needs and what God is calling you into as good.  

They will seem in conflict with one another so that even those who were proclaiming the good news to you, encouraging your participation in church and the community of God now seem like opponents to you because all they are doing is adding “extra burdens” to your life.    

If you don’t recognize this cycle, it will never end. 

Christ’s antidote to this conundrum is simple.  

Seek his Kingdom first. 

Matthew 6:31-34 

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

We have the tendency to either overestimate or underestimate the importance of others’ involvement in our lives for the work of God to be accomplished. 

Remember that it was the same Moses (and these will be the same people in your life) who a chapter before was welcomed bringing the good news of God’s deliverance.  

Exodus 4:30-31 

Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. 

Moses was specifically sent by God to be used by God to set the Israelites free. 

Who might you be resisting in your life that God has sent?  

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

C.S. Lewis

How much more so does Jesus mercifully use others into our lives to wake us up to his direction when our eyes and ears are closed - voluntarily or involuntarily?  

The do’s and don’ts of the battle:

Do not be discouraged 

Do not blame shift 

Do not forget God’s promises

*When you put your faith in Christ, you are not putting your confidence in your ability to change but God’s ability to change you.  

Yet Christ is the Victor

Jesus is the victor that ushers us into his ultimate victory by his resurrection from the dead.  

Gethsemane and the cross are perfect examples of how Jesus is the ultimate victory for his people demonstrating that though times can get worse before they got better, Christ is the ultimate victor.  

“The author of the hymn 'Amazing Grace', John Newton, who once was a slave ship captain, and who became a Christian preacher and an enemy of the slave trade, once said: 'I have reason to praise [God] for my trials, for, most probably, I should have been ruined without them.' The author of The Gulag Archipelago , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered for twenty years in the hellish prison camps he describes in that book, wrote: 'Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.' This does not mean that Newton would have chosen to go through his trials, or that Solzhenitsyn in any way enjoyed the terrible suffering of his imprisonment. But it means that in retrospect they can see that God used those difficulties to bless them in the long run.”

Eric Metaxas, Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life

Christ’s cross comes before Christ’s victories in our lives.  

Always remember that this life is not all that matters.  

Romans 8:28-30 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

When we serve Jesus with faith and without fear, we properly interpret our challenges, turn from our sin to be forgiven at the cross and follow Jesus into his ultimate victory - life abundant and eternal!!

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

The Exodus Chronicles

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The Exodus Chronicles

Pastor Rollan Fisher 

• God Sees

• God Hears

• God Acts

God Sees

God sees the suffering of those he loves.  

Exodus 2:23-25

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Even when you find yourself in challenging situations, never forget that God will remember his covenant with you.

You need to read and understand the covenant to have confidence to cry out to God to be faithful to it.

“Because God is the living God, He can hear; because He is a loving God, He will hear; because He is our covenant God, He has bound Himself to hear.”

— Charles H. Spurgeon

God Hears 

God hears the prayers of those who cry out to him. 

Exodus 3:7-10

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

God desires to bring us into abundant life in Christ (John 10:10) based on his covenant.  

There are expectations in the covenant of God: faith and obedience.  

Romans 1:1-6

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

What can block us from the life of God or from God hearing our prayers?  

When we pick and choose which of his commands to obey.  

Proverbs 15:8

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

Psalm 66:18-20

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!

“Sin, transgression, and iniquity are different words in the Old Testament. Most of us are familiar with the Greek term hamartia, meaning “sin,” which conveys the idea of falling short of the mark. We are made for the glory of God, but sin causes us to fall short of the mark. Transgression has the very basic idea of crossing the line. God has given us His law, and we cross the line. Iniquity has the sense in Psalm 51, for example, of “twistedness.” There is a twistedness in us as a consequence of this. All of these words are different angles of one and the same reality: our disobedience to God, our againstness, our hatred, our diversion from Him.

They say that the more important something is, the more words you’ll find in that culture for that something. And there is an abundance of vocabulary in the Hebrew Old Testament for sin. But the great thing is, there is also an abundance of vocabulary for the idea of grace. So there’s bad news, but there’s also very good news.”

-Sinclair Ferguson 

You must honor the Son, not idols, for God to honor your prayers.  

“Those that name the name of Christ, but do not depart from iniquity, as that name binds them to do, name it in vain; their worship is vain.”

-Matthew Henry

God Acts

God acts on behalf of those who would respond to his saving hand in Jesus Christ. 

What King David learned:

Psalm 145:15-20

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

God ultimately acted by sending his son Jesus Christ to be the greater Moses to deliver us all from our bondage to sin.  

To call on God in truth means that you don’t make up your own form of religion or spirituality, but that you submit to the Lordship of Christ.  

When you fear God, it means that you are committed to obeying his commands because you know that he will judge all of your works.  

When you turn to God in repentance from self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, you are clothed with the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.  

Because of the cross of Jesus, God meets us in our weakness and failings to preserve us and teach us how to love him. 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

We Believe

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We Believe

Pastor Rollan Fisher 

• What We Believe

• Why We Believe

• Why It Matters 

What We Believe

We believe in a living God who sent his Son to the cross to pay for our sins and raised him to life with miracle power. 

“To preach Christianity meant (to the Apostles) primarily to preach the Resurrection. … The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in the Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences, were the ‘gospel’ or good news which the Christians brought.”  -CS Lewis in Miracles

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

“We find ourselves in a world of transporting pleasures, ravishing beauties, and tantalising possibilities, but all constantly being destroyed, all coming to nothing. Nature has all the air of a good thing spoiled.” -C.S. Lewis, Miracles

Why We Believe

We believe because there is evidence for the miracles of Christ and the resurrection all around us.  

1 Peter 3:14-16 

But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

“In short, I didn’t become a Christian because God promised I would have an even happier life than I had as an atheist. He never promised any such thing. Indeed, following him would inevitably bring divine demotions in the eyes of the world. Rather, I became a Christian because the evidence was so compelling that Jesus really is the one-and-only Son of God who proved his divinity by rising from the dead. That meant following him was the most rational and logical step I could possibly take.” -Lee Strobel

40 days of proof (Acts 1) and Evidence for the Resurrection:

1. No one dies for what they know to be a lie - the death of the apostles

2. The radical change of heart of the family of Jesus

3. No mass hallucinations - the 500 witnesses

4. Even his enemies said so - extra Biblical testimony

5. From Persecutor to Martyr - Paul the apostle

6. An earthquake, a split curtain and dead saints in the city (Matthew 27:51-54)

7. The empty tomb - they knew where, centurions losing their lives (Matthew 27:57-61)

8. Jerusalem would have been a hard place to begin such a lie (Acts 1-2)

9. Power feats that followed testimony of the resurrection in the book of Acts - C.S. Lewis speaks : Lord, Lunatic or Liar discussion

10. *Prophecies fulfilled regarding the death and resurrection of Christ (Isaiah 52-53)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

“Death is a safety-device because, once Man has fallen, natural immortality would be the one utterly hopeless destiny for him.” -C.S. Lewis, Miracles

Why It Matters 

Because the foundation of our faith is based on the miracle of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we believe God equally for miracles today.  

1 Peter 1:3-9 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.” - N.T. Wright

So what are we to do?

“Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in.” -CS Lewis in Mere Christianity

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Leaving Your Jar

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Leaving Your Jar

Pastor Jim Critcher

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.” (John 4:28–30, NIV84)
 

• “Come and See” - she came to the well to become a well!

• Exchange of the natural need and supply for the spiritual 

• The need for a different container - “new wineskins"

Parting the water 

2 Kings 2:13-14

And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

Healing the water

2Kings 2:19-22

Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

Believing for water 

2Kings 3:1-20

In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twelve years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it.

Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to battle against Moab?” And he said, “I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” Then he said, “By which way shall we march?” Jehoram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of Edom.”

So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?” Then one of the king of Israel's servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. But now bring me a musician.” And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry streambed full of pools.’ For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals.’ This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand, and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop up all springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones.” The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water.
  

Second City Church 2022

Life of Faith: Part 6

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Life of Faith- Part 6

Pastor Rollan Fisher 

Focus: We will reap the rewards of faith when we seek God for our triumphs and look to Jesus to keep us through our pains to ultimate victory.   

• Welcoming Faith

• Triumphant Faith

• Keeping Faith

Hebrews 11:31-40 

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Welcoming Faith

The faith into which Jesus calls us is a transforming faith.  

• Faith welcomes Jesus during both good and challenging times to rule and to reign.

• Rahab the prostitute, who would eventually become part of the earthly lineage of Christ (Matthew 1), was a perfect picture of God’s plan of repentance and redemption through Jesus.

• By putting her faith in the God who had just delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt, she received the ability to rewrite her own story by the transforming power of Christ.

• How have you chosen to be identified with Christ so that he might transform your story for his glory?

Triumphant Faith

The faith into which Jesus calls us is a conquering faith.

• One way or another in this fallen world, you will face trials.

• Yet the people of faith came to understand that in God’s Kingdom, ultimately under Christ’s rule, is where they would find the blessing - even in the midst of trial.

How?

• Faith conquers…fears, insecurities, demonic intimidation and kingdoms because you tap into God’s ability and not your own.

• Faith enforces justice because God is faithful to uphold his righteous cause for and through his people.

• Faith obtains promises as it holds to and believes God’s word.

We must learn to STAND on that word.  

• Faith stops the mouths of lions - accusers, oppressors and those who would come after your life and reputation - because God's testimony always has the final say.

• Faith quenches the power of the fire because you know there is another with you enabling you to come through and to come out of that fire without the smell of smoke (Daniel 3).

• Faith turns weakness into strength because you finally have a healthy dependence on God’s ability to move mountains that stand in your way of fulfilling his Kingdom purposes.

This is no hype session. 

• Faith makes you mighty in war, beginning in the Spirit with prayer, that the unseen battle might be won and manifest itself in the natural (Ephesians 6).

• Faith finally has you take up the full armor of God by which you can OVERCOME the enemy's schemes.

It means that if you do not give up, you WIN in the end because of Christ’s victorious resurrection from the dead (II Corinthians 2:14). 

To walk with God, do his will and fulfill the Great Commission of Christ is a fight of faith.  

Yet…

• Faith enables us to put armies to flight by the hand of God as we worship.

• Faith allows us to receive back that which we thought was dead by the power of God as we pray.

All of these examples in Hebrews were men and women of old trusting God and allowing him to show up miraculously in their lives AS THEY SOUGHT HIM BY FAITH. 

*FAITH WAS NOT PASSIVE. 

*THEY SOUGHT GOD BECAUSE THEY HEARD HIS WORD, OF HIS VERY GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES, AND ACTUALLY HOPED FOR SOMETHING. 

Hebrews 11:1 

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

*THE PEOPLE OF FAITH WERE NOT SATISFIED TO TAKE JUST ANYTHING THAT THEY WERE HANDED.  

THEY SOUGHT GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS EXPRESSED IN MIRACULOUS EXPRESSIONS OF HIS LOVE IN THE CONTEXT OF HIS KINGDOM.  

THEY CAME TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOD’S BLESSING WAS FOUND IN HIS KINGDOM - IN HIS TOTAL RULE OVER EVERY ASPECT OF THEIR LIVES.  

So the question is:

For what Kingdom pursuit are you SEEKING God with proactive, tenacious hope?

• Faith leads us to the triumphs of God.

• Yet faith is also learning to endure with Christ when the road to what was promised is not as we prefer or expect.

• Faith allowed women to receive back their dead by resurrection, yet they still had to endure the pain of that death.

Hebrews 11:35b-38

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two,  they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

It is never an all triumph and no suffering proposition. 

• Jesus leads us to great victories even as we endure the daily pain of the cross.

• And this is the resurrection life of Christ, that we learn to die with him that we might truly live!

• Long-suffering is a part of a Biblical faith that leads us to God’s eternal reward.

• By faith in Jesus and his atoning work for us on the cross for our sins, even in our shortcomings, there is always resurrection life on the other side of our pain.

• The world was not worthy of those who lived such a life locked into the faith of God’s redeeming, restorative plan for the earth through Christ.

• Yet God met them in their pain, continually reaffirming them of the hope of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness where death will have lost its victory, sin its sting (Isaiah 66; I Corinthians 15:54-58).

• With what do you need to come to Jesus by faith, that he might comfort you in your pains?

Keeping Faith

The faith into which God calls us is a keeping faith as we wait for the fulfillment of the promises of God.   

• Faith is ultimately all about exalting Christ and his Kingdom as he brings about his redemptive plan for the world.

• Your personal story is simply a part of the larger narrative of how God meets, transforms, strengthens, comforts and ultimately glories his people as they follow him, doing his will by faith (Romans 8).

• Your story is never to be central in your mind or lived alone.

• When we become myopic, we deviate from the historic forward march of the people of the cross leading to ultimate victory in Jesus for those who live by faith.

• Only together with other believers is the goal of faith fully realized and the advance of the gospel fully accomplished.

Faith should lead you in godly ambition to that which can only be fully realized when Christ moves fully in his people throughout the generations.  

THIS MEANS THAT YOUR SERVING, YOUR PRAYING, YOUR GIVING AND YOUR GOING TO THE WORLD TODAY WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS MATTERS!!

Hebrews 11:39,40

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

• The gospel of Christ is the gospel of the Kingdom, not just your personal salvation.

• Stop thinking that your walk with God is a solo act.

• There are perfecting partnerships of faith that God uses to help keep you in Jesus as you press on to ultimate victory in Christ.

Who are those people for you? 

• These are the people who strengthen you in disillusionment, lift you during discouragements and remind you of the faith that you share as you build to the glory of God.

• The purposes of God in your life are realized through interdependent relationships through which a mutual, baton-passing faith impacts the present and the generations to come.

• God has always intended his people to be part of an ongoing story directed by the Holy Spirit focused on building an everlasting Kingdom with Christ as King.

The government will be on Christ’s shoulders and the increase of his government will know no end.  

Your walk of faith is an indispensable part of unfolding that story. 

Only together with those who’ve come before you, united with those who will come after you, will the purposes of God be made perfect.  

With whom are you linked to build God’s Kingdom through a unified, multi-generational faith?

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Mercy Proclaimers

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Mercy Proclaimers

Pastor Peter Dusan

Focus:

That we display who we truly are and celebrate the one who made us His.

Introduction: 

Pastor Dusan shared his story of how he encountered our Lord Jesus thru his friend Josh. 

"I heard The Gospel: Jesus Saves Sinners. I ate it up like it was a bag of cheetos after a fast. I believed in Jesus and became his own, & began the real adventure of life with Him! I’ve never been the same since; in fact I’ve since dedicated myself to expanding the mystery of how simply & profoundly Josh impacted my life, just by enjoying and celebrating Jesus, and refusing to shut up about Him. Because of that, I’m not just a wanna-be baseball player, nor am I just a preacher or father, or husband, or American. I’m more; I am in my core identity: His possession"

1 Peter 2:9 

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. 

Quick Overview of the book 1 Peter

• This letter is written to various 1st century churches located in Modern day Turkey

• Churches that were scattered by persecution, pain, or disease.

• In their pain they had been under the care of the elderly apostle Peter.

Identity Imperatives / Effect of the Gospel

• Response to what God has done, or the effect which God has caused in the Gospel.

1 Peter 1:3-4; 10-13 (ESV)

[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 

[10] Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully . . . (:12) things that have now been announced . . . things into which angels long to look.

[13] Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

1 Peter 1:3-12 

“Because of His death & resurrection . . . his great mercy in making you born again” (Gospel / Cause)

Now therefore, you are HIS (identity), so . . . act like Christians (imperative, or command). 

1 Peter 1:13

Being sober minded--you ARE sober-minded (identity, because He renewed your mind) so set your hope FULLY on him (imperative). 

* Maybe you have reasons to feel anxious (real / difficult reasons), but you possess greater reasons to BE children of hope!

1 Peter 1:14

You are obedient children (identity), don’t go back (imperative). 

* FYI most of our disobedience has less to do with the things we do (behavior), & more to do with lies we believe about who we are. 

1 Peter 1:16

He is holy, (implied-you are his-identity), be holy. (do holiness) 

* It’s the sanctified #YouDoYou (you’re his-you’re holy--be holy) 

Be who you truly are, not just who you think you are or who you used to be. But to learn who you are, you have to get to know God more. 

1 Peter 2: 1-2; 9

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation

9 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 2:1-2

You’re born of Him (identity) like newborn babies! So, LONG FOR HIM, and put away malice/hate. (imperative) 

1 Peter 2:9

But you ARE a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession (IDENTITY), that you may (IMPERATIVE) proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light

• Displaying who we truly are and celebrating the one who made us His is our transcendent identity.

Chosen Race

• Texas vernacular : “all y’all are chosen.”

• By faith alone, you are regenerated by God the generator himself. If you have faith allegiance to King Jesus, you are not just descendants of Abraham, but direct descendants of the redeemer God himself! Chosen Generation/race.

Royal Priesthood.

• Before Jesus, Israelite priests (Levites) made sacrifices of animals to represent an atoning work on behalf of the people of Israel.

• Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sin.

• Jesus didn’t just represent atonement, HE BECAME THE SACRIFICE & died to fully & finally atone for our sin, and He rose from the grave to bring us new life.

And what happens to us when we really believe that? 

• We become born again, generated anew.

• A chosen race, but also even the extension of his ongoing atoning work, declaring and confirming his forgiveness to others HIM who we proclaim, making peace on the earth!

• We are sent from the king himself to extend his royal pardon

• We are the: Royal priesthood. Paul calls us AMBASSADORS OF RECONCILIATION!

Holy Nation

• The word Peter uses here for “nation” is ETHNOS, the Greek word from which we get our English word Ethnicity.

• When we believe in Jesus, we are the holy ethnos!

• When we’re born again, our past backgrounds, whether ethnically or nationally, aren’t erased; they’re subordinated under a greater, holy identity.

• When God gives us a good thing, like our ethnic heritage, it’s meant to be displayed for his glory. It must be neither eliminated nor elevated above the giver of the gift. Eliminate it and it robs God of his glory of producing diverse beauty; elevate it too much and it can be idolatry. (like any gift).

A People for His Own Possession

• “My life is not my own.”

• Your truest and deepest identity is not something you do (job), & not something YOU identify about yourself, but something HE CALLS YOU. Because you can’t know who you are without discovering whose you’re meant to be.

• I can’t discover WHO I really am until I GIVE MYSELF AWAY, so He can use me . . .

That we display who we truly are and celebrate the one who made us His.

Our calling to Celebrate the One Who made us His

1 Peter 2:9b

[9b] that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light

• The purpose of us being chosen and set apart by God also has a lot to do with our calling to tell others about it.

“We weren't just chosen instead of other people, but on behalf of other people.”

~Dr. Brian Taylor

• When God set you apart, it was to love you like no one else could, but also it was for Him to love your neighbor through your proclamation of His goodness. He wanted to do a work in you also ON BEHALF of those around you who would bear witness to it.

• “Proclaim” in KJV is “shew forth, ” original meaning: to tell out, make known by proclaiming, or CELEBRATING.

• Our faith is personal, but not private--enjoy Jesus publicly.

Evangelism can be as simple as living a celebration lifestyle and spreading Jesus

• Pay attention to the words of this verse! It doesn’t say, “Jesus has made you a HOLY NATION, now you go do something for him!” (it doesn't say that, but how often do we act like that’s what sharing our faith is?) ○ That’s not our burden! Peter didn’t say, “y’all should proclaim, ” but “that you may.”

• God removes the burden of what you think you SHOULD do in evangelism, & reveals the simple joy of what you CAN do.

• No longer do we have to do things FOR God, but we can proclaim/celebrate FROM our secure love and identity in God.

• And so, like the priestess JLo implores us: Let’s get loud! Except loud with the truth of a real savior, & not loud with any other foolishness.

What is it that we are to celebrate and proclaim? 

1 Peter 2:9b : HIS EXCELLENCY

• It’s hard to proclaim His excellency when your mouth (or mind or maybe your facebook timeline) is full of other things.

• If you are HIS, the calling to tell of Him is YOURS. It’s not about performing, it’s about displaying and celebrating.

1 Peter 2:10

[10] Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

• V10 is the cause of our identity and our imperative to celebrate it loudly, & Peter reiterates verse 10, in order to source verse 9.

• This is a couplet; 2 parallel statements stating one truth in different ways.

• There is a relationship between receiving mercy & having a true identity established. No mercy? No identity. because His mercy makes us His! And keeps us his (throughout all our scatteredness)

• Only the Gospel of mercy sets us right, makes us a people. 1 Peter 1:3 According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again . .

Bottom Line:

The Great Mercy seen in the Gospel is the only thing that truly renews

• When Jesus (the perfect sacrifice) died for us, it was an infinite act of transformative MERCY.

• When soldiers or police officers or firemen & firewomen lay down their lives for us, they garner for us certain privileges for which we all ought to be deeply grateful. But their sacrifice cannot cause us to be born again. An earthly priest can say you’re forgiven; a life coach can tell you to forgive yourself, but NONE OF THEM CAN ACTUALLY ABSOLVE THE DEATH SENTENCE BEFORE GOD, THAT WAS EARNED BY YOUR SIN.

• Only a perfect man, born of a virgin, can offer to trade the outcome of his perfect life for the outcome of our rebellious life; his life for our death

• Only Jesus can offer this and then actually deliver on it.

• Jesus did do ALL THAT. It’s so great it’s not even fair; it’s mercy. Great. Mercy.

The question is, HAVE YOU RECEIVED IT? 

Is it yours? And therefore are you HIS? Are you born again? Does your life demonstrate it to be so, and are you turning up in celebration?

Would you pray with me? 

• Holy Spirit, show us how to respond. Jesus, you are truly excellent and great. No words can fully express that. And you’ve made us your own. I confess that I live for less. So help me to love you back in a way that is fitting and thus miraculous.

○ For those that have not yet fully given themselves away, not to religion, but to you Jesus, the one who’s already given everything for us to have a whole new life, bring new life EVEN NOW, and faith, and show them what steps to take next to walk out new life with friends in church. 

○ For those whose CELEBRATION OF YOU is hindered in any way, grant the gift of confession and freedom and may their proclamation ripple into new life for friends and family, and may we see it in church this easter season! 

• May your Kingdom come!

Second City Church

Life of Faith: Part 4

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Life of Faith - Part 4

Pastor Rollan Fisher

• Faith of the Parents

• Times of Reckoning

• Crossing the Sea

Faith of the Parents 

• Parenting is meant to be a walk of faith.

Hebrews 11:23-29

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

Parents are called to have a life of faith in raising their children, pressing in to both understand and cultivate the call of God in their children’s lives.

Hebrews 11:23

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.”

We should ask God for eyes to see that which Christ sees.

By faith, Moses’ parents were not afraid of the king’s threats and hid their child from influence of the king because they saw that he was to be no ordinary child (NIV).

Your responsibility as a parent is not to be a child’s personal chauffeur or Uber driver that they might participate in every activity under the sun. 

You are a limited resource - as your children age, the more important it will be to sow into their calling and not just their hobbies.

Nor are your children’s activities to be the way that you vicariously make up for all that you did not experience as a child.

This can create unwanted pressures and negative consequences - your children are not supposed to be you. 

Cultivate by faith who God has created them to be.  

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

This is a call for the children to be taught how to live by faith.  

Times of Reckoning

• Moses built on top of the faith of his parents.

Hebrews 11:24-28

“By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.”

Though Moses had been raised in Pharaoh's court as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, a time of reckoning came where he had to decide by whom he would be identified. 

By faith, Moses chose to be identified with the people of God, though it cost him his position, affluence and comforts.  

The fleeting pleasures of sin will always be available and will be found on easier roads to travel.

The life of sin comes with less resistance and requires less in terms of our daily focus and efforts, but in the end costs more, including our lives.

There is a time in everyone’s development when they need to grow up and not depend on someone else’s faith for their relationship with God.

To leave a life of sin it takes faith - faith in God’s power to free you and faith that the God designed life is better.  

*Faith produces endurance, because your eyes are fixed on Christ who’s person and purposes never change. 

This allows you to stand, even in the midst of the midst of opposition, because you know the one who wins and rewards in the end. 

“By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”

Because of this, by faith, you also keep the rhythms, gatherings and celebrations of God, to honor him and remind you of the centrality of his eternal purposes in your life.

This is why we do not forsake the gathering of the brethren in church.

Hebrews 10:25-24,25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

In doing so, we perpetually recognize the importance of Christ’s broken body and spilled blood at the cross for the forgiveness of our sins as we continue to bear fruit in keeping with repentance from those same sins (Matthew 3:8-10).

Crossing the Sea

• Christ Jesus is the one who enables us to by faith enter into a new life.

Hebrews 11:29

“By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.”

You must live by faith to live in the promise of God to be freed from your old man of sin.

It is only through Jesus that we can walk in the freedom of new life in God.

It is the cleansing of God’s Word (John 15:3), the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb of God for us at the cross and the power of God’s Holy Spirit that enable us to participate in the righteousness of a Holy, perfect God.  

When the Egyptians tried to cross the Red Sea in their own strength and without right standing with God, they were drowned.  

Through the waters of baptism, by faith we leave the former slavery of our old life and enter into the freedom of new life by the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  

Let us meet Jesus at the cross and encourage others to the waters of baptism that we might all walk in the freedom and purposes for God for our lives, all by faith!

Second City Church - Pastor Cole Rollan Fisher

Life of Faith: Part 3

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Life of Faith: Part 3

Pastor Rollan Fisher

1. A City Whose Architect is God

2. Family Faith for that City

3. Bones in that City

A City Whose Architect is God

Hebrews 11:8 - 16

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

*The more we mature in Christ, the more faith becomes less about preference and more about God’s eternal Kingdom purposes in our lives.

You want God to be the architect of your life and story.

For this to be the case, like Abraham, we must seek God for the place, the people and the purpose that he wants us to devote ourselves by faith to fulfill his Kingdom call.

Such a story ends in God’s heavenly city, the home of righteousness, where those who belong to Christ will dwell forever.

What are the place, the people and the purpose to which God has called you?

Family Faith for that City

Living by faith is one where your family learns to make sacrifices to the Lord

Hebrews 11:17 - 19

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

There are different measures of faith required for different seasons of life.

Have no doubt about it - the older you get the more the life of faith requires of you - the more consequential the decisions will be impacting more and more people.

Yet God expects you to press in more, not less, to receive his direction that you might live by faith and obediently fulfill his call.

Why the command to sacrifice Isaac?

As your family grows, so will the need for you to press into God to grow in faith in the decisions that you make for the family.

To ensure that you remain Christ and Kingdom focused, God will bring you to moments of decision, big and small, where you are called to put God first above everything - even what others would tell you is best for your family.

When God calls us to sacrifice anything, it is with our family’s best in mind - not that they would have all of the comforts and pleasures of this present age, but an enduring faith in Christ resultant in eternal rewards in the age to come.

Too often we sell our families short just trying to make them happy and comfortable.

We end up spoiling their character, blurring their focus and dulling their faith by giving them everything that the world offers.

Abraham was teaching Isaac a life-long lesson of faith when he chose to obey God.

Sacrifice and faith go hand in hand.

There was nothing more important than family and posterity in Abraham’s culture.

The very child that God promised Abraham is that which he demanded of him to ensure that nothing, no one and no plan of Abraham’s would begin to trump God’s importance and direction in Abraham’s life.

For God to fully apprehend and keep your heart, at different points in your walk with him, he will require you to sacrifice that which you thought was part of his promise to you.

The truth is that some of the things we finally relent to sacrifice were a promise from God, some were dreams of our own making.

I.e. - What God has started in you, he wants to complete in Christ.

It is a challenge over the years to keep your hands off of the reins - but we must do so by faith to complete the mission of God.

*It will always be a test once we’ve been walking with God for a period of time, and have received part of his promise, to begin to think that we can take it from here - that we now have a better idea of how the plan should be completed and the story should end.

That which you thought was yours by right and promise can be required in sacrifice if it becomes idolatrous in your life.

What God requires in sacrifice he is able to raise from the dead if it is truly of him.

Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you have a better plan.

All the sacrifices of God are a foreshadowing of the provision that we are to look to in Christ.

God requires nothing more of us than what he was willing in love to give with his one and only Son.

Jesus, the perfect promised child, was beloved of the Father but prepared from eternity past to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

God is calling his people to nothing less.

Sow your life into that which endures for eternity.

Give your family that which lasts.

The greatest gift that you can give your family is not all of the toys, comforts and opportunities that society tells us they need, but helping them discover how to by faith live a life of sacrifice like Christ that they might fulfill his Kingdom calling and enjoy his eternal reward.

Show them how to lay their time, talent and treasure on the altar of Christ, in obedience to his commands for his glory alone.

Therein they will find a joy that they will never lose, the heavenly rewards that can never be taken.

So the question is: What is God calling you to sacrifice for the sake of his Kingdom call?

Bones in that City

Your life of faith is not just for your benefit, but for all who will follow you to the cross and into Christ’s Kingdom.

Hebrews 11:20–22

20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

The result of our faith should be bones that provide structure and a testimony for the generations that follow.

Let’s repent of anything that we’ve exalted above the purposes of God in our lives and by faith meet him at the cross to begin a life of which he is the architect!

Second City Church - Pastor Cole Rollan Fisher

Life of Faith: Part 2 - The Faith of Peter

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Life of Faith Part 2: The Faith of Peter

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

Focus: A life of faith in Jesus Christ is one that leaves everything, follows Jesus anywhere, and feeds others for the rest of their lives.

1. Faith That Leaves Everything

2. Faith That Goes Anywhere

3. Faith That Feeds God’s Word

Faith That Leaves Everything

Luke 5:1 - 11

1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

A living faith in Jesus Christ will cause us to leave everything.

• Peter’s brother, Andrew, was a disciple of John the Baptist who had told Andrew of Jesus being the Lamb of God. Andrew in turn told Simon Peter.

John 1:35 - 37

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

• God is always making himself known to humanity, preparing us to receive salvation when the Gospel is preached and Jesus calls us to follow him. Your part matters!

• Peter had to leave behind his weariness from the previous night’s work, his cynicism after a fruitless night, and his pride as a veteran fisherman to act in faith on Jesus’ Word.

• Jesus’ command to fish again led to Simon’s reward for letting Jesus use his boat: which consisted of business blessing, demonstration of the presence of God AND the first step of understanding who Jesus is as Lord of heaven and earth.

• True repentance occurs as we experience God’s holiness which in contrast uncovers our sinfulness. This led Peter to understand the just judgement and lawful rejection by God of him as a sinful man.

• Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to save it. So he commands Peter to not be afraid, but to follow him and catch others as he had been caught.

• A life of faith is one that is willing to leave everything and follow Jesus.

Faith That Goes Anywhere

Matthew 14:22–33

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

A life of faith in Jesus Christ will lead us into accomplishing the impossible and deepening our worship of him.

• Jesus had just spent the evening in prayer. He was about 3 miles from the boat…so his walk on water was much further than Peter’s! This was between 3am and 6am.

• The word ‘ghost’ may have meant the disciples thought an evil spirit was trying to deceive them.

• Here we see Jesus confirming and assuring them with the familiar “I am” statement of Yahweh’s voice at the burning bush.

• Peter was not content with just hearing Jesus’ voice so he asked Jesus to call him out on the water so he could also be with him.

• Peter is learning that with God, all things are possible, if it is God’s will. So he asked Jesus to call him if it was his will.

• Jesus walking on water in a storm, his “I am” response, his enabling of Peter to walk on water, and his saving of Peter drew the disciples to confess Jesus as the Son of God in worship.

Faith That Feeds God’s Word

John 21:15–19

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

A life of faith in Jesus produces an ever increasing sacrificial love for Jesus and that which Jesus loves.

• Satan had asked to sift Peter, but Jesus had prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail in the long run. In the short run, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times in a span of a few hours.

• Jesus’ prayers are always answered! We see Jesus willing to replay the very beginning of his relationship with Peter, essentially taking Peter back to the milk of the Word covering the foundations of relationship with him again.

• In the process of sanctification (maturity) in Christ we must grow in the teachings of righteousness and obedience. However, when we fail, Jesus will never leave us or forsake us if we abide in him.

• As we mature in faith we become more aware of our sin and failures as a result of being close to Christ. Be assured, Jesus knew the project you were when he called you and he still called you in love.

• Jesus called Peter and calls us to freely give the Word that we have freely received.

• To do so, we must carry the cross God assigns to us knowing he will give us grace to do so. It is the believer’s great joy to fellowship with Christ in this way.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Has the call from Jesus Christ compelled you to confess your sins, leave everything and follow Him?

2. If not, what is holding you back?

3. Has your faith matured to ask Jesus for the humanly impossible if he says it’s possible: salvation of others, miraculous healing (all forms), miraculous provision, etc?

4. Has your faith matured to love Jesus by feeding others His word?

Pray and Act

Lord, I want to be with you. Give me faith to leave anything holding me back, to ask for your will always and to feed others your eternal Word. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Peter’s faith in Christ gave him a new name, a new identity as Peter (rock)

Matthew 16:18

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Second City Church - Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

Life of Faith: Part 1

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Life of Faith: Part 1

Pastor Rollan Fisher

1. The Foundations

2. The Commendation of God

3. The Life of Faith

The Foundations

The foundations of the faith all establish proper belief in God and his saving work through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 5:11 - 6:3

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

The milk of the word ushers us into the eternal life of God - all by faith in the sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like a calcium source for strong bones, the foundations are the milk of the word of God and are important for establishing Biblical structure in our lives.

These are the things that lead to the person and saving work of Jesus by establishing the importance of the cross of Christ.

You will live and not die when you repent of your sin and put your faith in the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ for you at the cross.

The milk of the word helps us live free from sin, aware of our forgiveness and justification in Christ.

It shows us how to turn from sin, put faith in God and order our days in obedience to the commands of God’s Word in light of the judgement to come.

The Commendation of God

A life that God commends is one that is obedient to his written word and his dynamic direction in our personal lives.

Hebrews 11:1–7

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Living a life of faith means walking with God and his people in such a way that brings his commendation.

The meat of the word brings us into more than just orthodox belief about God.

The meat of the word ushers us into dynamic interaction with God, where the Holy Spirit guides us into God’s Kingdom adventure for our lives as we follow his leadership, with his people, by faith.

• The meat of the word addressed not just what the people of God are to believe, but how they are to follow Christ based on his dynamic direction in their lives.

The life of faith is exemplified by God’s interaction with the patriarchs and matriarchs.

They give us examples of how to live a life of faith commended by God, one that pleases him and brings his eternal reward in Christ.

Maturing in Christ means we continue to develop our relationship with God to move from:

• Mere acceptance to commendation

• Simply belonging to friendship with Jesus

John 15:14–17

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, 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.

God’s commendation involves the intersection of sanctification and consecration - being set apart for God’s pleasure and purposes.

Like a protein source, the meat of the word builds our faith muscle for movement with God.

The Life of Faith

When seen through the lens of Christ, the Old Testament examples of the patriarchs and matriarchs show us how to live lives of faith.

The meat of the word ushers us into the eternal purposes of God - all by faith.

The life of faith is one of consecration to the purposes of God - living as a disciple and making disciples of Christ.

1 Timothy 1:3–7 (NIV)

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

Let’s meet Jesus as the cross today and allow him to mature us to a place of walking with him by faith!

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Abide: The Word Keeps Us from Evil

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Abide: The Word Keeps Us from Evil

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: The Father’s words sanctify us and send us - away from evil and into mission.

1. Context

2. Christ Sanctifying Us

3. Christ Sending Us

John 17:6–21

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Context:

This week’s passage helps to conclude what is commonly known as the “farewell discourse” (John 14–17).

Last week’s discussion of “the true vine” was the middle section of this discourse.

This discourse occurs in John’s gospel immediately following the Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion just before his arrest.

Chapter 17 is the section of that discourse that takes the form of a prayer, and is often termed “the High Priestly Prayer,” (as it is labeled in the ESV and the NASB) but could also easily be titled “Christ’s Prayer for the Church.”

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the central component of Jesus’ prayers was the more private and painful acceptance of God’s will in the form of a cup of suffering.

There only Peter, James, and John appear to be close enough to hear his prayers.

In John’s gospel the central component of Jesus’ final prayers that are recorded happen before the garden, while he prays in front of all of the disciples.

In this way, this set of prayers takes on more of a teaching function and delivers doctrine along with the heartfelt cries of the Lord.

One of the central themes of the theological work of the gospel of John is “glory” or doxa and its intertwining with the Word (logos).

This theme is introduced as early as John 1:14 where we read “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Yet it runs throughout the gospel of John running as late as John 21:19 where Peter’s death is seen as a way of glorifying God.

This theme of glory and its interconnection with God’s word and revelation is an important component of Christ’s majestic prayer for the Church.

Another central theme to the book of John is drawn out in chapter 17—the contrast between the world and Christ, the world and Christ’s followers.

This theme is introduced in John 1:10–13 in that the Word came into the world, but the world did not recognize its own creator.

In chapter 17, this contrast is brought to a head in the prayer for Jesus’ disciples who “are not of the world” just as he is “not of the world.”

Love and unity are also featured significantly in the book of John and make their appearances in the high priestly prayer of chapter 17.

Christ desires the same unity in love between him and the Father to be present between him and his disciples.

This unity of love is presented as a central desire of the heart of Christ and a key requirement for the sanctification of the church.

In John’s gospel this prayer serves not only as the climax of the Farewell Discourse but also of his teaching to his disciples.

From this point on, the story unfolds the necessary fulfillment of the predictions of Christ’s suffering, and his teaching ministry as such has been completed.

The contrast between the world and Christ, between the glory of God and the evil of the world, is made even more clear in this climactic prayer.

In this prayer, Christ prays for unity, for glory, and for protection.

In the coming chapters, the world will divide (rather than unite), humiliate (rather than glorify), and destroy (rather than protect).

It is widely accepted that the gospel of John was written later than the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and that the author had some access to the gospels but felt free to write independently of them.

From this it may be hypothesized that John was being used to:

• To address the needs of a different audience (particularly non-Jewish seekers),

• To share elements of Christ’s person, teaching, and work that the other gospels did not present or emphasize, or

• To present a more theological-oriented than biographical- or historically-oriented work.

Christ’s Sanctifying Us:

As we abide in God’s word, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us by that Word.

To sanctify us means to set us apart to look like Jesus and fulfill his glorious purposes.

When we abide in the word of God, we develop God’s heart - for Jesus, the things of the Kingdom and the people of this world that Christ came to save through his cross.

At the same time, what we know is that Jesus understands that it can be difficult to be faithful to him in a hostile world.

As we abide in God’s word, God keeps us from the evil that is in the world that is opposed to His word and is hostile to those who cling to that Word.

Jesus’ high priestly prayer teaches us at least three key principles to guide us in hostile times.

1. The Word of God is the only reliable source of strength when we face the rejection of the world (vv. 6– 10)

   • Christ reveals he needed the words the Father gave to him

     • There are schemes of the enemy (Satan) to discourage and dissuade you in your walk with God

   • Christ sees something we need to recognize: if we believe what he says and do what he commands, we will be hated.

     • The enemy will use that hatred to shake us.

   • Clue to the gospel: Rejection and hostility do not have to spiritually derail us. Sometimes greater resistance is a sign we are getting closer to the goal.

     • The enemy can only win if resistance causes us to: back down, give in, grow bitter, or change sides

   • Resolution: When we press through resistance with faithfulness to the Word, God’s victory is ensured.

     • If Christ needed the words of the Father, how much more do we?

     • Christ makes it clear that he gave those words to the disciples so that they would be preserved. i. If the apostles needed the words of Christ, how much more do we?

     • Philosophies change. Self-help gurus come and go. Governments rise and fall.

     • God’s Word remains the same.

     • God’s ways remain the same.

     • God’s mission remains the same.

2. The Words of Christ guide us when the presence of Christ is hidden. (vv. 11–13)

   1. You need to spend time with God to be guided by his Word.

   2. You need to internalize the Word so it goes with you through the day.

   3. You need to search your life to find any area that is not surrendered to the Word.

John 17:19

“And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Christ Sending Us:

The third thing that we discover is that as we abide in Christ’s word, he sanctifies us to send us on mission with him.

3. The world’s resistance is often a sign we are closer to the mission of the Word. (vv. 14–20)

• Christianity’s missional effectiveness is dependent on a simple formula:

  • Surprising faithfulness to the Word

  • In the face of great difficulty

  • Surprising faithfulness + great difficulty = new belief in the word

What difficulty is God asking you to face with surprising faithfulness?

What would surprising faithfulness look like in the face of that difficulty?

What scriptures could guide you to stay faithful in that difficulty?

What should we do that our faith may not fail?

• Rethink the rejection of the world as a sign that you are not of it, but are sent into it.

• Prayerfully consider what kind of suffering might cause you to give in to the enemy.

• Surrender those areas of potential missional sacrifice to God.

Have you been avoiding mission for fear of resistance?

The disciples did too— and they soon scattered.

When the disciples returned, Jesus strengthened them with the Spirit and the Word.

Response time: It’s time to get back on mission with Jesus.

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher

Abide: The Word Bears Fruit

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Abide: The Word Bears Fruit

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

Part 1: The Word Became Flesh

Part 2: The Word Gives Life

Part 3: The Word Feeds Our Spirit

Part 4: The Word Sets Us Free

TODAY - Part 5: The Word Bears Fruit

A brief story of cars and gas gauges.

John 15:1–11 ESV

“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.

The Vine:

Jesus is the true vine: the true source and sustainer of life.

Have you ever plugged something into an extension cord and then learned the other end was not connected to an outlet? It’s only as good as it’s source.

In verse 1 Jesus uses his 7th and final “I AM” statement describing himself as the true vine.

Jesus wants us to know through his repetition that he indeed is one with God his Father and we can trust him.

He is the true vine as well as the Good Shepherd.

All who have come before him or after him claiming to be the prophesied and promised Messiah were and are false and not able to deliver eternal/true life.

As Jesus said in John 14 “no one comes to the Father except through me”. This is because there is no other possible way since Jesus is the true, one and only vine.

Acts 17:28 ESV

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.’

Question: What are some ‘false vines’ that present themselves to you promising life but have failed or you know can’t deliver?

Maybe it’s been religion saying “attach yourself to my to do list and work your way to God”.

Maybe it’s been your conscious saying “just keep me clear and you’ll be alright”

Maybe it’s been self-fulfillment through becoming the most successful person in your industry

Maybe it’s finding nirvana and disconnecting from life's troubles or expression, rising above them.

These will all prove temporary at bringing peace and joy.

The Vine Dresser:

Jesus’ Father is the vinedresser.

Here we see the relationship of God the Father and God the son. The son submits to the judgments of the Father as the owner of the vineyard and in choosing what is best for the vineyard, which is his creation.

The vinedresser’s goal is for the vine to be fruitful and everything he does is for the good of the vine in becoming fruitful.

God is the cultivator, pruner, and protector of his people.

The Branches:

The branches cannot produce life on their own as they must draw life from the vine.

Abiding in Christ is to keep in fellowship with him so that his life can work in and through us to produce fruit.

All who call themselves Christian are considered branches in the passage.

Not all who call themselves Christians are actually attached to the true vine.

EVERY branch (follower of Jesus who says I know him) will be either taken away or pruned. Every true believer attached to the true vine will bear fruit and be pruned in order to be more fruitful.

The branches who do not bear fruit are false disciples who will be taken away, gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. The missing fruit is the proof that they were never attached. This is most likely speaking of final judgment for those who are not found to be attached to Jesus Christ as indicated by their fruitless lives.

Our sincere faith is proven through the fruit that grows as we abide in Christ.

2 Peter 1:5–11

5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Fruit:

Fruitfulness is a byproduct of staying in the vine.

Branches do not concern themselves with what kind or how much fruit they produce, their main concern should be abiding in the vine. (Loving Christ)

Staying (abiding) in the vine produces the fruits listed in Galatians 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22–23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law

Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments. Abiding in his love breeds more love for him which helps us trust and obey him, leading to the fruit of righteousness.

This increasing love for Jesus will also cause us to ‘keep in step with the Spirit’ as he makes disciples among us, giving us a new desire for the lost and missions local and abroad.

This obedience in turn renews your mind to pray God’s will and not your own, making your prayers align with what God wants to do, leading to answered prayers and the joy of God filling your heart.

Action:

• Do you call yourself a Christian? Check your fruit to see if you are a true disciple abiding in the true vine of Christ. (Love for Christ that leads to obedience?)

• Ask God to show you where he has been pruning you already and thank him for making you fruitful.

• Join the Community Outreach group on Church Center for local missions or the Charleston, SC mission group.

Second City Church - Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

Abide: The Word Sets Us Free

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Abide: The Word Sets Us Free

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: Jesus is from the Father and speaks his words, and always pleases Him. Those who abide in Jesus’ words are truly his disciples. They will know the truth, and the truth will set them free from their sins.

Abide is an “experiential” word.

We don’t use it often, but it’s a word that really means “LIVE IN.” 

e.g., I live in the U.S. and I am able to tell you what America is like:

• The weather

• The culture

• The people

• etc…

Abide is an experiential word where one gets to be embedded, wrapped around, and feels that particular “world.”

Typically, when and where you abide, you abound.

• e.g., when you abide in fear, you abound in fear.

The series is meant to help us not just cognitively, but emotionally and in a heartfelt manner, bring us to “what it means if we were to LIVE IN that world of GOD’S WORD.”

Psalm 119 gives us a description of what we experience when we “ABIDE” in the Word.

The Word:

• Guides

• Keeps us from sin

• Preserves our lives

• Comforts Us

• Makes us wise

• Is a lamp unto our feet

• Is the joy in our hearts

In the New Testament, the WORD becomes even more real, because it is now the door to RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST.

John 8:23–36

He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The book of John helps us to BELIEVE that Jesus is the Son of God and that in him we may have life (John 20:31).

Jesus in the past few chapters uses different festivals to reveal who he is to the people.

This is one of them where he reveals that he is the TRUTH that sets one free.

Four Jewish Sacred Days:

John 5–10 is a recollection of stories that happened on four different Jewish sacred days.

1. Sabbath—Healing a man on the Sabbath (John 5)

2. Passover—Miraculously providing food for thousands (John 6)

3. Tabernacles—Recollection of the wilderness wanderings and Jesus at the temple courts (John 7–10)

4. Hanukkah—Rededication of the temple (John 10)

Although not stated, John 8:23–36 may have taken place shortly after the close of the Feast of Tabernacles while Jesus was still in the city.

Jesus’ Seven “I Am” Statements:

1. “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)

2. “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)

3. “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7, 9)

4. “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14)

5. “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25)

6. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

7. “I am the true vine.” (John 15:1, 5)

John 8:23–36 takes place after Jesus’ proclamation of the second great “I am”—“I am the light of the world.”

Jesus professes to be the genuine light by which truth and falsehood can be distinguished and by which direction can be established.

Here the Pharisees were challenging the claims of Jesus, as legally, a testimony concerning oneself would be unacceptable because it would presumably be biased.

Yet Jesus claimed to be an adequate and authoritative representative.

Chapter 8 begins with Jesus at the temple setting the woman caught in adultery free, displaying both truth and grace while exposing the “darkness” in her accusers’ lives.

Using that as a launching pad, he declares, “I AM the LIGHT of the world,” who delivers us from the power of darkness.

The Pharisees then have a debate with Jesus about his credibility, while Jesus used this to show his divine side desiring to strengthen the belief that others have in him.

The passage that we are dealing with is part of the ongoing conversation Jesus has with the Pharisees to help them see that Jesus’ version of truth and freedom is of a different level and quality.

Characteristic of the Truth:

In John 8, “the Truth” was not merely referring to the law but the living Son of God.

1. Heavenly versus Earthly (v. 23)

   Jesus claimed that he belonged to a totally different world from that of his questioners.

   To him the difference was natural; to them it was unnatural—something they could explain only by assuming that he belonged to the realm of the dead.

   But Jesus had come from the presence of God, and he asserted that only by faith could they attain his level.

2. Relating versus Reasoning

   Jesus demonstrated a relationship with the Father through the conversation with the crowd:

   • v. 18—The Father sent Jesus.

   • v. 28—The Father taught Jesus.

   • v. 29—The Father is with Jesus.

   • v. 29—Jesus does what is pleasing to the Father.

   The Pharisees, however, took the approach of mere reasoning:

   • v. 19—“Where is your Father?”

   • v. 22—“Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

   • v. 25—“Who are you?”

   Through their reasoning, the Pharisees failed to understand that Jesus was speaking to them of God and they missed the point of his unique relationship to the Father.

   Not only did they repudiate his claims, they completely rejected his person.

   To discover and embrace the truth that is Jesus Christ requires more than reasoning.

   It requires starting a relationship with him.

3. Son versus Slave

   Sin in this passage is in a verb tense indicating a habitual, continual action.

   The person in habitual sin is a slave of sin.

   A slave has no security, for he can claim no family ties that entail an obligation toward him.

   The son of a family has permanent status within it.

   Jesus enlarged this analogy by stating that while a son is rightfully a partaker of family privileges, the Son can confer such privileges.

   As the Jews thought they were descendants of Abraham with whom God had established a permanent covenant, they considered themselves exempt from any spiritual danger.

   The hope for real freedom does not lie in the ancestry of Abraham but in the action of Christ.

How to Respond to the Truth:

1. Accept it.

   • v. 30—“many believed in him”

   The first response to truth is to believe and accept.

   When the Pharisees heard Jesus speak they became more opposed to him.

   Yet there were many who heard the same words and believed in him.

   They believed despite the evident opposition of the religious leaders.

   The conversation shifts as Jesus starts speaking to those who believe.

   Though there were still gaps of understanding in the crowd, Jesus spent time revealing more about himself to them.

   There will be gaps in our understanding as we choose to believe in him, yet these will be revealed more and more to us as we journey with him.

   The first step is to ACCEPT.

2. Act on it.

   • v. 32—“know the truth”

   know—γινώσκω (ginōskō)

   Ginōskō is when you experientially learn something.

   Knowledge possessed through the intellectual process of learning is one thing.

   Knowledge gained by experience, by an active relationship between the one who knows and the person or thing known, is far superior to the former.

   Ginōskō is that knowledge that comes not just by reading and listening, but by action and obeying the Lord.

   You may intellectually know some truth but you don’t really "know" it experientially until you surrender and obey the truth.

   A person must be determined to obey the Word if he expects to understand it.

3. Abide in it.

   • v. 31—“abide in my word”

   abide—μένω (menō)

   In simple terms, “abide” means to remain in the same place or position over a period of time.

   Jesus was implying the maintenance of a stable and consistent fellowship with God.

   To abide in Christ means to depend completely on him for all that we need in order to live for him and serve him.

   It is a living relationship.

   As he lives out his life through us, we are able to follow his example and walk as he did.

   There is nothing between us and our Savior, no sin unjudged and not put away.

   This is how the truth sets us free.

Our response today:

1. Pray

   For those who do not know God, repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus, the Truth.

2. Practice

   For those who already believe in God, continue in your belief and because it’s not just a one-time activity. Practice abiding in Christ.

3. Point to Jesus

   Everyone should reach out to others.

   Truth not only sets us free.

   When we have received Christ’s joy and freedom, it compels us to help others be set free.

   No wonder John used one phrase from Jesus in John 20:21—“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher