2021: Guest Speaker Peter Ahlin

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Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

2021: Guest Speaker Jim Laffoon

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Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021

2021: From Bitter to Better

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From Bitter to Better

2021

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

Focus: When we trust God and His plan, He will take us from bitter to better.

Prophetic Word for 2021

Second City Church, in 2021 God is giving us the choice to get bitter or get better. We have the choice to remain in fear of life's uncertainties harboring anger and bitterness toward God for the circumstances He allowed that caused us pain in 2020.  This choice will be justified in the eyes, hearts and minds of an unbelieving world.  This choice will drive you into self-reliance unable to receive God's Word and plans for you in 2021.

 We also have the choice to get better in 2021 by believing and trusting in God's redeeming plan that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  He is the God of all comfort who also disciplines and prunes those He loves that they may be even more fruitful.  This lasting fruit brings God, our Lord, much glory and us much joy.

Today God wants us to know that He desires to take us from bitter to better as we move into 2021.

Pray

Genesis 50:1-26 ESV

'Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’” And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.”So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph’s own. And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.  

To move from bitter to better we must trust God with what was lost

When we trust God with what we’ve lost or what has been taken from us we are acknowledging his sovereignty and making room for His redemptive plan.

Trusting God with our losses is not approving of evil, nor empowering the evil One, or diminishing the real pain caused by loss.  It is simply acknowledging a good and powerful God at work in a fallen sinful world. 

We can trust God with our losses by not speaking evil of him or cursing those with whom the losses came through.  We mourn with hope in God’s redemption.

Romans 12:14 ESV

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

“Be careful, dear friends, that you do not misrepresent God yourselves. You who murmur; you who say that God deals hardly with you, you give God an ill character; when you look so melancholy, worldlings say, "The religion of Jesus is intolerable;" and so you stain the honor of God.”

- Charles Spurgeon

God has never done evil nor can he. 

James 1:13 ESV

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

God is working ALL THINGS together for our good.

'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. '

- Romans 8:28-29

Ex: Peter vs Judas (one led to suicide and the other to a holy earthly life and eternal life)

"As we pour out our bitterness, God pours in his peace."

- Pastor and Evangelist  F.B. Meyer

To move from bitter to better we must thank God for what was gained

God used the slavery and the famine to bring blessing to Joseph while fulfilling His redemptive plan for the world.

'See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 

- Hebrews 12:15-17

Gratitude is the shovel that digs up roots of bitterness. 

It can be a heavy shovel, and faith is the muscle behind the shovel of gratitude.

When we by faith ask God to open our eyes to see His good plan he is pleased to do so.

When we remind people of the gospel of Christ's redemptive work on the cross and resurrection, we are helping others with our faith dig down deep and uproot ugly bitterness.  

If bitterness is not DUG up it will SPRING up and defile not just you but your sphere of influence.  You have to make a choice to employ gratitude or let bitterness root.  There is no middle ground. 

'Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” '

- Mark 10:29-31

To move from bitter to better we must build on what remains

Because God is The Redeemer, He can and is always building even when the world is destructing.  

Joseph’s brothers destroyed their family and yet God turned that same family into a large nation which became the earthly lineage of God’s one and only son, Jesus Christ who would make salvation available to the whole world.

At the end of Joseph's life he became a prophetic voice to God's redeeming plan of salvation for his family, stating that God would deliver them from Egypt according to the promise of God made to Abraham.

God brought his one and only Son Jesus Christ into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it and redeem it.  

'Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

' Matthew 24:35

Because of the power of Christ’s sacrifice we can leave 2020 at the foot of the cross where the blood of Christ covers it, uses it for our good, and will one day bring justice to all the unrepentant evil. 

When we are pruned or shaken we are blessed to see what is at the core: Christ or self.

God has pruned you and now He can multiply you with fruit that will last.

Today the invitation is two fold:

• To the lost and bitter:

  Come to Christ as the Rock of Ages and only redeemer who leads you into eternal life. 

• To the believer:

  Don't miss the grace of God and allow bitterness to take root. 

  This is not God's plan for your life. 

  Trust him, thank him, and build on God's promises in Christ that are trustworthy.

Second City Church - Associate Pastor Cole Parleir 2021

Joy to the World: Those Looking for Answers

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Joy to the World: Those Looking for Answers

Pastor Rolan Fisher

We made it to the end of 2020!!!!  

Congratulate yourselves and praise the Lord!!!!  

As our lives have been turned on their heads, it has been God’s grace to us all helping us to search for the answers to life’s most important questions. 

Questions like:

• Why are we here?

• How do we respond to life’s challenges?

• Where do we go now?

We’ve learned the truth that:

“Serious circumstances remind us that the difficulty of finding the truth is no excuse for not looking.”

-Paul Copan

Focus: God brings joy to those looking for answers in Christ.  

• Looking for Answers

• Finding the God Who Cares

• Jesus at the Temple 

Looking for Answers

• We all have questions to which only God has the answers. 
  

Luke 2:41-52 

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Finding true joy in every circumstance is only possible when we look to Jesus for the answers.  

We are all ultimately here to know God and make God known through his Son, Jesus Christ. 

God is a constant tutor pointing us to this fact despite all of life’s varied circumstances. 

In the midst of a Roman occupancy that did not particularly affirm their faith, the people at the temple in Luke’s account were those who were looking for answers.  

They were giving God an opportunity to speak rather than camping in life’s discouragements or popular accusations against God’s goodness at the time.  

The truth is that God is not afraid of your questions. 

Isaiah 1:18-20 

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

When we come to God with questions, He doesn't always give us the answers that we want, but He ultimately responds with the answers that we truly need - those that lead to life and godliness. 

The great challenge of our worship is learning to humbly trust and obey God with the answers that He provides. 

We must come to grips with the fact that God can not be benevolent and sovereign when we like the outcomes of our circumstances, and treacherous or lack control when we don’t. 

That would be equating our opinions and preferences to God - and they are not the same thing. 

“Whenever I read the Bible and come across something that I disagree with, I have to assume I’m wrong.”

-Francis Chan

God is all wise and good all of the time. 

Christ’s advent is joy for those looking for answers because it reminds us of the great lengths to which God went to demonstrate His love, make Himself known and reconcile us to Himself through the cross.  

“Jesus didn’t come to win a debate, He came to win His people.  Jesus never answered a question, He answered the person.  Jesus never sought to win an argument, He sought to win the individual.”

-Ravi Zacharias

God intends our questions in life to ultimately lead us to Jesus. 

Yet when we FOCUS on the wrong things, we can end up in the ruts of life marked by cynicism, nihilism and despair.  

• If we’re not careful, even the routines of religion can make us think that we’re in step with God when really we’ve left Jesus behind. 

• Mary and Joseph had their own moment of this when they lost track of Jesus. 

• We know that we’ve lost track of Jesus when we find ourselves in emotional and mental ditches trying to answer life’s biggest questions without the Lord. 

2020 has brought plenty of opportunity for that. 

What has been your “thing” - the one focal point on which you found yourself meditating most, that which became a lens through which you interpreted all else this year?  

Was it the election, the economy, racial injustice, calamities in the world or the pandemic? 

All of these tensions could have made a person afraid to even leave their house if they were all upon which they meditated. 

You can fixate on such things or you can fix your eyes on Jesus and truly live, in every season, and at all times. 

Because through His Word, you find that there is a God who cares. 

Finding the God Who Cares

• Jesus is God who reaffirms his care for those who seek him in the world. 

God cares for us each individually. 

When you seek God personally, you find that Jesus is the all wise teacher and gentle healer that we all need it right now. 

Jesus is lowly of heart and is SO approachable. 

Though that is His nature, we need to beware of responding simply emotionally when we are looking for answers.  

Remember, as the Israeli prophet Jeremiah said, 

Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Mary was understandably emotional when she couldn’t find Jesus, and so are we when we don’t sense God or understand what he is doing in our lives. 

*However, Mary would have missed what God was doing if she didn’t give Jesus an opportunity to speak.

Jesus explained exactly why He was at the temple, revealing more about his nature and His unique relationship with the Father when Mary asked her questions.  

Think of how many of you would not have been in church or moments of worship like this if it had not been for the upending of our worlds.

Think also of the countless lives that God has been eternally saving in the midst of our difficult circumstances. 

But does God care for our world?

“Cynics point to the humanitarian problems around the world and then tell us that there is no God who cares. To answer the cynics who say that pain points to a God who doesn’t care, consider that the World Health Organization says that we could feed the entire world with food and clean water for thirty billion dollars per year. Yet we spend one trillion dollars on military worldwide. The cynics can’t honestly answer the question about human depravity. They fail because they point their rage at God rather than fellow humans who could solve hunger with 3% of their military budgets.”

-Rice Broocks in The Human Right 

When we meet Jesus, we find that He is the only one who provides in the moment, comprehensive and eternal solutions to life’s challenges. 

Mary and Joseph thought Jesus went missing and found instead that they were really the ones in need. 

The good news is that we can make our way back to Jesus and find that He cares for our whole world.  

Where do you find Jesus when you feel like He’s been lost?

You go to the place of worship where God’s Word is being taught.  

You will always find Jesus there.  

The Bible not only describes the problem with the world regarding sin, but also intricately describes its solution in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

And so even in His youth, at the temple Jesus was showing those who thought themselves older and wiser how much they still had to learn. 

Jesus at the Temple

• We find our answers and joy at the place of worship.  

When Mary and Joseph finally found Jesus, Jesus exclaimed, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”

*God meets us right where we are, but also calls us to be where He is. 

Those sitting at the temple with Jesus were committed to the worship gatherings where the heart and thoughts of God were revealed through God’s Word. 

In this same way, God continually brings encouragement and joy to us today as He reveals Jesus not only as a good teacher, but the great God and Savior for whom all mankind is really waiting.  

“It is impossible to read the Gospels or Paul and come away with the impression that Jesus of Nazareth thought of Himself as a mere man. Jesus said much about Himself that would have been outlandish if He were just a man.

“I am the light of the world.” —John 8:12

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” —Mark 13:31

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” —Matthew 18:20 NKJV

“The prophets who spoke for God prefaced their statements with the phrase, “Thus says the Lord.” But when Jesus spoke, He didn’t say, “Thus says the Lord,” but instead He made comments such as “Truly I say to you.” He spoke in such terms because the Lord was speaking. JESUS DEMONSTRATED HE IS THE MESSIAH”

-Rice Broocks, Man, Myth, Messiah: Answering History's Greatest Question

In response to their search, Jesus was pleased to return home with His earthly parents.

And so He is pleased to make a dwelling in your life, family and home as you repent of sin and believe the good news of Jesus. 

So where do we go from here?

Mary treasured the entire encounter that Luke recounts in her heart. 

As Jesus grew, the Scripture says that He would “increase in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

And so Christ’s impact on the world would grow as well. 

During our times of worship gatherings, we encounter both God’s word and the power of His Holy Spirit.  

We are to bring our questions to God and then humbly ponder the answers in His Word to allow direct application in the ways in which we live. 

Community groups are a great place to flesh this out with others!

We then allow the Holy Spirit to, like Christ, increase us in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men to take God’s gospel truth and care to the world.  

This is what it means to go and make disciples of the nations. 

“The Bible has built an entire civilization that has changed the world. We must see that the greatest steps toward justice have been taken by those following the cross. Vishal Mangalwadi says, “I call the Bible the soul of Western Civilization because it propelled the development of everything good in the West: its notion of human dignity, human rights, human equality, justice, optimism, rationality, family, education, universities, technology, science, culture of compassion, great literature, heroism, economic progress, political freedom.”

-Rice Broocks, The Human Right 

When we return to finding the beginning and end of all of our questions in Jesus, we will once again find the joy for which the world is actually longing!

Repent of your sin and meet Jesus at the cross today to receive this great joy!

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Joy to the World: The Learned

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Joy to the World: The Learned

Pastor Rolan Fisher

Focus: God brings joy when we allow our learning to discover life’s purpose in Jesus. 

• Following the Signs 

• With Special Revelation

• To the Feet of the King

Following the Signs

• Our joy is stirred when we begin to follow the signs in life pointing us to Jesus.  

Matthew 2:1-12

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?  For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The first thing we see in Luke’s account of the wise men is that the good news of Jesus is not an idea, but a recorded event.  

Jesus came at a particular, well documented point in human history - in the days of Herod the Great, the Roman appointed king of Judea who ruled from Israel and Judah from 37-4 BC.  

Two reasons the invitation to meet Christ would have brought joy to these wise men are:

1. It is a calculated certainty that we will all face God one day in death to give an account of our lives.  

PHD Stephen C Meyer during his interview by Lee Strobel for the book The Case for a Creator said it this way:

“If it's true there's a beginning to the universe, as modern cosmologists now agree, then this implies a cause that transcends the universe. If the laws of physics are fine-tuned to permit life, as contemporary physicists are discovering, then perhaps there's a designer who fine-tuned them. If there's information in the cell, as molecular biology shows, then this suggests intelligent design. To get life going in the first place would have required biological information; the implications point beyond the material realm to a prior intelligent cause”

-Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God

In essence, both then and now we see that resistance  is futile. 

We’re all going to physically expire one day.  

It was joy for these erudite men because for all their deep learning and achievements in life, it all amounts to nothing if you are damned in your destiny after the grave.  

King Solomon of ancient Israel, one of the wisest and wealthiest men who ever lived said it this way by the Holy Spirit:

Proverbs 11:4 

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

Jesus echoed this strongly in his teachings when he posited:

Matthew 16:26-27 

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Mortality is a liberating thing if we are right with our intelligent creator.  

Yet it is a fearful and daunting reality if you enter eternity without Christ. 

It is better to meet God now with the invitation of peace, than to face the wrath of His foretold judgment.  

2. The meeting of Christ would finally put the reason for all of their great learning, achievements and resources into proper perspective. 

God intends our great learning to ultimately lead us to Christ.

This is why the wise men deemed it necessary to make such a long, costly and time consuming trip to meet the King. 

As in all encounters with God, responses of active worship are not only what God is due, but are for the benefit our hearts as we remember both our place and responsibilities in life before God.  

Worship of Jesus puts our world and all that we deem is ours in the right order. 

As with the shepherds, an invitation was made to the wise men. 

“Wise Men Still Seek Him”

God put his creation to work using the star as a sign. 

Psalm 19:1-4a

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. 

Romans 1:19-20 

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

The wise men followed the signs of God’s revelation in the natural world to ultimately lead them to both the predictive and explanatory power of the Bible.  

What signs has God been giving you to lead you to meet Jesus?  

With Special Revelation

• Our joy is confirmed when we embrace the special revelation of God’s Word leading us to Christ.  

How did the wise men catch wind of the Messiah?

Scholars tell us that the term wise men originally referred to priests and experts in mysteries in Persia and Babylon where years before the Israelites had been deported in judgment. 

The Israelites carried the special revelation of the Law and prophets of God with them to Babylon speaking of the soon coming Messiah. 

By this time the meaning of the term wise men extended to those who practiced astrology, dream interpretation, study of sacred writings, wisdom and magic.  

It was not that God approved of these practices.

Rather God was demonstrating his love and missionary heart towards all mankind, meeting people where they were to bring them back to Himself through Jesus.  

*So it is today. 

It is not just good enough that we believe in something.  

God wants to bring us to Jesus who is the only means of reconciliation between fallen humanity and God because of what Jesus would eventually accomplish for us on the cross. 

When the wise men arrived in Jerusalem, they came into contact with God’s Word and were charged by Herod to diligently search for the child who was born King. 

Yet today, so many of us excuse our lack of faith with herd mentality euphemisms to simply justify the sin in which we want to live.

Both Herod and those in Jerusalem were troubled because the advent of Jesus threatened their perception of rule over their own lives. 

However, the joy and life that you find in Jesus are worth the prolonged search to make your confidence in Christ sure.  

“I started out as an atheist, utterly convinced that God didn’t create people but that people created God in a pathetic effort to explain the unknown and temper their overpowering fear of death. My previous book, The Case for Christ, described my nearly two-year examination of the historical evidence that pointed me toward the verdict that God really exists and that Jesus actually is his unique Son.”

-Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity

It took faith for the wise men to follow the predictions of Scripture to lead them to Christ.  

On what were are we basing such confidence today?

“Faith is not a leap in the dark; it’s the exact opposite. It’s a commitment based on evidence… It is irrational to reduce all faith to blind faith and then subject it to ridicule. That provides a very anti-intellectual and convenient way of avoiding intelligent discussion.”

-John Lennox

Is there a reliable source to tell us how to find the Lord?

In his apologetic, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, scholar Gary R. Habermas writes:

“We can start with approximately nine traditional authors of the New Testament. If we consider the critical thesis that other authors wrote the pastoral letters and such letters as Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians, we'd have an even larger number. Another twenty early Christian authors and four heretical writings mention Jesus within 150 years of his death on the cross.

Moreover, nine secular, non-Christian sources mention Jesus within the 150 years: Josephus, the Jewish historian; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a politician of Rome; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Lucian, the Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; and probably the historians Suetonius and Thallus, as well as the prisoner Mara Bar-Serapion.

In all, at least forty-two authors, nine of them secular, mention Jesus within 150 years of his death.

In comparison, let's take a look at Julius Caesar, one of Rome's most prominent figures. Caesar is well known for his military conquests. After his Gallic Wars, he made the famous statement, "I came, I saw, I conquered." Only five sources report his military conquests: writings by Caesar himself, Cicero, Livy, the Salona Decree, and Appian.

If Julius Caesar really made a profound impact on Roman society, why didn't more writers of antiquity mention his great military accomplishments? No one questions whether Julius did make a tremendous impact on the Roman Empire. It is evident that he did. Yet in those 150 years after his death, more non-Christian authors alone comment on Jesus than all of the sources who mentioned Julius Caesar's great military conquests within 150 years of his death.

Let's look at an even better example, a contemporary of Jesus. Tiberius Caesar was the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus' ministry and execution. Tiberius is mentioned by ten sources within 150 years of his death: Tacitus, Suetonius, Velleius Paterculus, Plutarch, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, Seneca, Valerius Maximus, Josephus, and Luke.

Compare that to Jesus' forty-two total sources in the same length of time. That's more than four times the number of total sources who mention the Roman emperor during roughly the same period. If we only considered the number of secular non-Christian sources who mention Jesus and Tiberius within 150 years of their lives, we arrive at a tie of nine each.“

The star reappeared after the wise men consulted God’s word, and led them full measure, with natural and special revelation working together, to the feet of Jesus.  

To the Feet of the King

• Our  joy is realized at the feet of Jesus when the purpose behind all of our talents, learning and resources come into full view. 

People often wonder at the great purpose behind their learning, their opportunities and the measure of their resources.  

God gives us understanding when we finally meet Jesus as He is. 

• There is no other way to truly meet Jesus except as King. 

• As with the wise men, when we finally meet Jesus as KING, it demands at least three responses:

1. Jesus becomes Lord of your time - the wise men made a trip from the East that would have taken 40 days over 800 miles if they averaged 20 miles a day by caravan along the main trade route from Babylon

2. Jesus becomes Lord of your treasure - the wise men came and laid their wealth at the feet of Jesus that their resources would not be their God, but their God would be the provider of those resources.  They understood what Jesus would say later, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24) and undertook great expense to travel to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. 

3. Jesus becomes Lord of our talent - the wise men would take their encounter with Jesus, along with their great learning, to become witnesses of Christ in the places in which they used their talents on a daily basis.  

• These three responses are right in the middle of the Christmas story because worship always comes back to this:

How will God see that you used your time, treasure and talents to worship Jesus as King?

Will these things have been used for the Kingdom of God to reap an eternal reward or will they have been wasted and one day buried with you?

The wise men ventured together with like minded individuals to meet Jesus. 

They ultimately found the joy of worshiping and giving to the One who would reign forever. 

So what does Jesus being Lord mean?

“Again; thousands are deceived into supposing that they have “accepted Christ” as their “personal Saviour,” who have not first received Him as their LORD. The Son of God did not come here to save His people in their sin, but “from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). To be saved from sins, is to be saved from ignoring and despising the authority of God, it is to abandon the course of self-will and self-pleasing, it is to “forsake our way” (Isa. 55:7).

“It is to surrender to God’s authority, to yield to His dominion, to give ourselves over to be ruled by Him. The one who has never taken Christ’s “yoke” upon him, who is not truly and diligently seeking to please Him in all the details of life, and yet supposes that he is “resting on the Finished Work of Christ” is deluded by the Devil.”

-Michael L. Brown

God reroutes us in life to ultimately save our lives.  

God sent the wise men a dream to warn them of the danger that Herod, who would try to remain his own king until his death, now posed to them. 

Will you allow God to reroute you?

Take an account of your life and begin now to reorder your time, treasure and talents in Christ. 

*Leaving any one of these out is sin. 

After meeting Jesus, the wise men returned home a different way.  

So when we meet Jesus let our courses forever be altered to turn us away from a life of self-sufficiency and sin. 

In doing so, we will find the joy of Christ’s advent and be a testimony of his true life to the world. 

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Joy to the World: Those in Waiting

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Joy to the World: Those in Waiting 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: God brings joy to those who wait on his consolation. 

• What are you waiting for?

• Joy in the waiting

• What is God waiting for?

What are you waiting for?

• We are all ultimately waiting for consolation from life’s pain.

Luke 2:1-21 

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The first thing we need to acknowledge is that God is constantly at work behind the scenes to bring about his spoken Word, including great joy to those who would receive him in the world.  

At the beginning of this recounting of Christ’s arrival, we see the historian Luke making reference to the events that would fulfill ancient prophecy. 

A contemporary of the prophet Isaiah, the Israeli prophet Micah wrote the following words approximately 700 years prior to the arrival of Jesus: 

Micah 5:2 

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

It was also significant that Jesus was born of the kingly Davidic line, as it was written:

Jeremiah 23:5-6

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.  And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’”

So God would order national affairs to fulfill the predictions spoken by the prophets as to the birthplace and lineage of His Christ. 

The point over and over again is that every word of God will be fulfilled.  

This includes God’s consolation and joy for his people who’ve experienced pain.  

Among other things, consolation means comfort. 

Though God wants to bring consolation, be careful what you allow to be that for which you most long, that which you think will give you comfort and joy.  

“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

And so it is interesting that God chose to first reveal himself to those who were ordinary men who were outside of the power circles in their society. 

The shepherds were those who would have been familiar with stigma, but were vital to Israel’s ongoing economy at the time.  

God thus declared that no one is too great or too small to meet his anointed king. 

The shepherds had observed the oppression of Roman rule from the wilderness, the outskirts of society.  

And God met them there. 

Now the shepherds rejoiced and travelled together to meet the Savior. 

* It was good news of great joy that was to be for all the people.  

Joy in the Waiting

• We find joy in the waiting as we together put our trust in God’s promises.

The shepherds found Jesus just as they were told. 

Just as at His first coming, so we will find God’s words true of his second coming.  

Yet as we wait the message of Christmas is clear.  

Fear not. 

Jesus is the savior that the world needs.  

“You never know God is all you need until God is all you have.”

-Rick Warren

Why?

“Every person has something that concerns her ultimately and whatever it is, that object of ultimate concern is that person's God.”

-Ronald H. Nash

And over and over again, these things in place of God that we hope to achieve and satisfy so often fail us. 

Yet God wants to put all of our concerns in right perspective.  

For every need that we have during the Pandemic, Jesus is the supply. 

Comfort and joy come from truly knowing who Jesus is. 

Jesus was proclaimed by the angels to be (Luke 2:11): 

1. A Savior

2. Christ (the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah”) 

- it was a title speaking of the anointed deliverer of God’s people 

3. Lord 

- proclaiming  to the shepherds that Jesus was God himself

Just as Jesus grew to fulfill the words of his prophesied miracle ministry, so our understanding of Christ can grow to meet him in new ways as we travel together.  

There is joy in togetherness as we collectively remind one another of those most important promises from God. 

As He grew:

• Jesus would bring stability in turbulent times and His authority would calm storms.

• Jesus would Himself know fatigue, hunger and thirst in his human frame, and so can understand and console us in our suffering.

• He is a miracle worker providing for those with felt needs, financial or otherwise.

• Jesus is gentle and humble in heart, inviting those who are weary and heavy laden.

• Jesus is a healer of sickness, pain and disease.

• Jesus is the Creator who calls us and knows our way when we feel lost.

• He is the builder of his church, setting the lonely in family.

• Jesus provides peace for those who’ve been under mental and spiritual oppression.

• Jesus is forevermore a resurrector of the dead.

• He provides forgiveness of sins to those who have gone astray

• He is Lord of the harvest rescuing a world set against God by turning them back to Him at the cross.

God intends good for the world. 

God sees you when no one else does. 

He sees you in isolation, in wanderings and in your own personal wilderness.  

God meets you right where you are and brings you to to meet his Christ.  

During the pandemic, it has been an amplification of the fact that people are desperately looking for peace and joy.  

* Yet this is important -  the peace that Christ brings is among those whom God is pleased, not just everyone.

This was true then. 

It is true now. 

It will be true at the second advent, Christ’s ultimate return. 

Not everyone will find Christ’s peace or joy, though it is offered to all the people. 

What makes the difference? 

What is God waiting for?

• God is waiting for a people made ready for Christ’s return.

Luke 2:22-40

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” 

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

Sometimes you are drawn to meet Jesus, sometimes he comes to meet you.  

Either way, respond when he comes.  

“I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do enter your room, you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling.”

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Details matter here as God is described as the great equalizer among men. 

Mary and Joseph are described as bringing offerings appropriate to those of modest or poor means according to temple requirements. 

They brought a pair of turtle doves and two young pigeons which were more affordable vs. the lamb that the well to do would have brought. 

At the same time, though we do not know Simeon nor Anna’s station in life, we know that God chose to define them by their proximity and relationship to him.  

They made choices that should matter to us as well.  

Neither Simeon nor Anna were said to be priests or of a priestly line, but because they were righteous and devout, found themselves right in the middle of the action of Christ’s coming to the world.  

May you have the same experience, regardless of your pedigree or profession because you have the same heart.  

Jesus brought  joy to Simeon as a faithful follower of God looking for Him to fulfill his prophetic promises regarding the Messiah. 

Jesus brought  joy to Anna who was affirmed that her life’s work in prayer for the Kingdom of God to come was not in vain, but a stewardship that God would reward. 

What are you waiting for?

What is God waiting for?

Christ came and He is coming again. 

Like Simeon, will you be waiting?

Like Anna, will you be ready?

If so, there is joy on the waiting. 

And because of Christ’s coming and his finished work at the cross, you will know God’s consolation as we together look to speed his return. 

So what should we do while we wait?

1. Believe the words of God like the shepherds, Simeon and Anna 

2. Make haste like the shepherds to meet Jesus.  

3. Once you do, worship him and make known this good news of great joy for all the people. 

Joy to the World: For Humble Servants

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Joy To The World: For Humble Servants 

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

FOCUS: God gives joy to His humble servants 

• Favor for humble servants

• Miracles for humble servants

• Everlasting joy for humble servants

Everybody wants joy, right?

Jesus came to bring great joy to the world, to all the people (Luke 2:10).  

Then why do so few people seem to have genuine, deep seated, lasting joy?  

Could this be because we have forgotten or never understood what joy is or where it comes from?   

A definition of Christian Joy by Theologian John Piper:

"Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world." - John Piper

Today on the second Sunday of Advent we are going to indulge the Christmas story truth that God gives this  joy to His humble servants. 

Main Scripture

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry,  

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

- Luke‬ ‭1:26-45‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Favor for humble servants

Joy starts with an invitation from God to let Jesus Christ live in you and bring Christ into the world.  

• For us, we do not have the opportunity to be the mother or surrogate father of Jesus, but we do have the invitation of the gospel to let Christ live his life in us and to bring the good news of salvation to our generation.

• God is already at work in the world fulfilling his promise to bring salvation to every people group on the planet. He will accomplish it with or without you or me….but because He knows there is no joy for you or I apart from humble service in His kingdom, he invites us to join in.
  

Joy comes from being in God's presence without fear 

Psalm 16:11

"You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Psalm 84:10-11

"For a day in your courts is better

    than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

    than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

    the Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold

    from those who walk uprightly." 

Humility is the path to favor and into God's joyful presence.

Luke 14:7-11 (The Parable of the Wedding Feast)

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We must ask ourselves "Where I have assumed a position or a role in life that God has not called me into it?  Where have I exalted myself?"

What are some ways we can choose to humble ourselves rather than God humbling us?

• Obey Jesus, Pray, Give, Serve, Fast, Study

• These are all 'spiritual disciplines' that like working out our muscles physically will make us weak but in the long run make us strong spiritually as we learn to lean on Christ.

• I recommend the classic book "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard J Foster

"Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honour and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify our pride and arrogance."

-- Richard J. Foster 

Miracles for humble servants

 When we, like Mary and Elizabeth, humbly accept God's invitation to know Christ and make him known he will do miracles among us. 

Humility is the essential ingredient to be used by God for the impossible.

We do not know if it was Mary's dream to be the mother of the one and only Son of God (probably not!). But the sanctified imagination and historical reality for young ladies at that time would lead us to believe that she did dream about being a wife and mother.  

Elizabeth and Zechariah served God faithfully as Levites performing temple service into their old age NEVER having their desire for a child fulfilled…then God miraculously healed her barrenness with the conception of a prophet. 

When we humbly surrender, wait for God's timing and serve him he will fulfill not only his plans for the redemption of the world using us, but will also grant the desires of our heart in the process. 

Psalm 37:3-5

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him, and he will act.

Nothing will be impossible with God. 

What are you longing for?  God doesn’t rebuke you for having desires.  He does command you to surrender those desires to him and make them secondary to his plan to bring Christ to you and your generation. When we surrender our desire to him he can mold it to be better than we can imagine.  

Mary became God's servant according to His word.   She exchanged her dreams for God's dreams.  This is the essence of being God's humble servant. 

Everlasting joy for humble servants

 Everlasting joy comes when we are united to Christ Jesus.

We were made to be one with God but our sin has separated  us from His presence and eternal joy.

Jesus came to earth to live the righteous and sinless life we should have lived.

Jesus died a sinner's death for you and me on the cross as a perfect sacrifice paying for our sins. 

Three days later God raised Jesus from the dead as proof the payment was accepted.

Today you are invited by faith to accept the gift of Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection as payment for your sins and receive everlasting joy being made right with God forever. 

For those united to Christ Jesus and serving him,  be assured that God is faithful to bring you home with great glory and joy:

Jude 24-25:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Joy to the World: Dreamers

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Joy to the World: Dreamers

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: We find the greatest joy in life when we allow God’s plans to become our plans. 

• Our Plans 

• God’s Plans

• Our Salvation

Our Plans

We all start out with dreams of how we think life should go, that which we think will bring us the greatest joy.  

Matthew 1:18-25 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

We are continually tempted to build lives with ourselves at the center. 

God’s Plans

The goal is to discover whether our plans are, in fact, God’s plans.  

When circumstances upend our plans, we don’t need to simply substitute the next best thing. 

We need to seek God to discover how he wants us to turn in our plans for His plans. 

When we truly meet God, He gives us a different dream centered around his Son and stewarding HIS plans.  

The significance you are looking for is found in being a submitted vessel to God’s eternal purposes.  

Our Salvation

Our great salvation and greatest joys come when we begin to build our lives on Jesus Christ.  

Jesus and his salvific work at the cross are the centerpiece of human history.  

The purpose of God’s shaking is that we might begin building our lives on Christ, around Christ and for the glory of Christ as we bring his good news to the world.  

Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

SOVEREIGN: In Personal Affairs

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Sovereign: In Personal Affairs

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: God’s sovereignty in our personal affairs gives us reason to be thankful at all times in Christ. 

Just as God is sovereign in our public affairs, so God is sovereign in all of our private affairs. 

• The Challenge of the Thorn 

• Knowing God’s Heart

• Sovereign in His Grace 

The Challenge of the Thorn

God is sovereign in the thorn. 

We must learn to acknowledge God’s sovereignty in our lives as readily when we are being shaped by challenge as when we see things going along with ease.  

There are different degrees of difficulty in life and even this pandemic has offered different measures to people.  

The goal though, through it all, is that we would get our footing in Christ alone when all of the extras stripped away. 

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,  a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

A person’s theology that gives them a picture of life without challenge or trouble causes greater anxieties, issues and problems because we think something is wrong or we are out of the will of God when we face them.  

Greater theology can equal greater peace. 

Could it be that you are actually in the will of God when you have a thorn in your flesh?

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life -- the life God is sending one day by day.”

- C.S. Lewis, The Collected Works of C.S. Lewis

The key to remaining in a good place is knowing God’s heart in the midst of His sovereignty.  

Knowing God’s Heart

God’s heart of love and care for us remains steadfastly the same.

It is imperative that we know God’s heart towards us even as we trust his sovereignty in our trials.  

Psalm 35:27-28 (NIV)

May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.” My tongue will proclaim your righteousness, your praises all day long.

3 John 1:1-2

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

The issue of our perpetual frustrations, misplaced faith and dashed hopes is that we are trying to create heaven on earth within our own little worlds.  

This is eschatologically problematic and emotionally draining. 

Just as God uses historical persecution towards the church to separate nominal Christianity from authentic faith in Christ, so he uses trials within our lives to deepen our trust in and devotion to him. 

“God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your ‘thorn’ uncomplainingly — that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak — is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace.”

- J.I. Packer, God’s Plans for You

Knowing God’s end game is key. 

“Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.”

- J.I. Packer, Knowing God

When we have a proper theology we acknowledge and put our hope in the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Until then, we are sojourners passing through. 

Sovereign in His Grace

God’s sovereign grace is sufficient for us. 

We know that as we learn to rest in God’s sovereign grace, we are freed to be thankful, turning places of weeping into places of God’s great joy.  

Psalm 84:1-12 

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

I’ve found that the greatest challenge to my joy can be the lack of control that I feel.  

I am by nature a fighter, and we are absolutely to be in the Kingdom of God for the purposes of God.  

The realization that I can fight by faith while not being responsible for the outcome is an exercise in trust in God’s sovereignty. 

It allows us to serve God with joy knowing God works all things for the good of those who love him.  

“Storms make trees take deeper roots.”

-attributed to Dolly Parton

God is in control now.  

He will forevermore be. 

Let him use the thorns that we face to press us into him.  

As we do, meeting Jesus continually at the cross, may we also know his joy and great resurrection power as a foretaste of the life to come.  

Repent of sin and believe the good news today. 

God is sovereign in our personal affairs.  

Second City Church - Sovereign, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

SOVEREIGN: In Public Affairs

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Sovereign: In Public Affairs 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: God’s sovereignty in our public affairs gives us reason to continually trust in Christ. 

• Truth (we need to embrace)

• Test (of where our deepest hopes lie)

• Trust (in God’s sovereignty and eternal plan)
  

The Truth We Embrace

We need to embrace the truth that even as we do our part, God is sovereign in the public affairs of humanity. 

What is the sound theology that we need to embrace?

God is sovereign in public affairs.  

Daniel 2:19-23 

“Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter.”

The Test

We need to know that  results in the public sphere  test our hearts regarding the sovereignty of God. 

What is a sound reaction?

How Did We Respond?

It is a surprise to no one that some people are elated and some people are mad.

It is especially not surprising to God

Proverbs 13:12 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Both our heart sicknesses and rejoicing are tells indicating where or in whom our hopes have been placed.

Because the church of Jesus Christ is serving an eternal King who is neither voted into nor out of office, our character and mission remain the same no matter who our public servants are.  

Make sure that your hopes are placed in Jesus even as we work with men and women for the benefit of our cities, nation and all who live in it. 

Be humble in victory. 

Be gracious in defeat. 

Why?

“Stability, predictability and manageability were never meant to be security for us.  We were made to hide ourselves in him.”

-Ruth Chou Simons

What remains true today whether you feel like you are one whose heart is sick because of the possibility of  election results or rejoicing because of the historic advances that have come from it, God is sovereign in what is happening.   

What is still true of the church by God’s sovereignty:

We are still those who worship Almighty God as king by the authority of his written Word. 

We are still those who are charged to live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. 

We are still those who are committed to bearing fruit in keeping with repentance when we miss it.  

We are still those who fight for Biblical justice. 

We are still those who live at the feet of the cross of Jesus forgiving others  who sin against us just as we have been forgiven. 

We are still a people who fight as one man for the faith of the gospel.  

We are still those who are peacemakers to see people reconciled with both God and one another in Christ.  

We are still those who are to go into all the world to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.  

These things will never change.  

For all humanity, the ultimate tree of life is in the paradise of God, which will never be found on earth in its present state, but will be enjoyed by all who accept Christ’s invitation to life.   

This is where our true and lasting longings are fulfilled - the very things for which people strive.  

Until then, it will only be momentary glimpses because of the sin in the world perpetuated by the evil of fallen men and women.  

So what are we to do?

Trust

We need to participate in God’s public sovereignty through prayer and testimony of his truth. 

What is our sound responsibility?

1 Timothy 2:1-7 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle ( I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Second City Church - Sovereign, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Be Christian: Wisdom Defined

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Be Christian: Wisdom Defined

Associate Pastor Cole Parleir

Today we are going to cut through the confusion of the days we live in and talk about ‘wisdom’. 

Is there anybody out there today who wants to be more wise?  I do!

With so  much information and opinions available at our fingertips, wisdom seems like a lost ideal in our day.  But, I’m here to tell you today that God wants you to be wise.  

God promises if we ”cry out” for wisdom and seek it, He will give it. 

 Let’s pray and ask God for wisdom.

Scripture 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:5-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

• Wisdom is a gift from God

• God wants to give you more than you ask for

• God won’t rebuke for asking 

• Faith is the price for wisdom

• Confusion is a symptom of faithlessness and lack of God’s wisdom

Before we jump to James chapter 3 let's take in a summary of James 2

Your tongue is powerful.  It produces blessings  and cursing.  If you want to be perfect you most first control your words.  

So how do you know if you or someone else has wisdom? Self assessment: 

"Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

‭‭James‬ ‭3:13-18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Two Wisdoms: Heavenly and Worldly 

Heavenly Wisdom 

• Sourced from heaven. A humble heart that is displayed in good works that backup good talk. Walk the talk. 

• Pure (motivation)

• Peaceable

• Gentle

• Open to reason

• Full of mercy

• Full of good fruit

• Impartial

• Sincere

• It sows peace and reaps righteousness

• Gives and promotes God’s abundant life

 Heavenly Wisdom is tied to righteousness. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective.  You want wise people praying for and counseling you. 

 “If it’s not godly, it’s not wise.” - Anonymous

Worldly Wisdom

• Sourced from hell and sowed by demons into human hearts in order to kill, steal, and destroy you. 

• Shows up in the heart as bitter jealousy (unhealthy competition) and selfish ambition. 

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”- ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

• Many become deviled  through disorder and every vile practice. 

 We can only come to know God through HIS wisdom and power. 

Christ: the power of God and the wisdom of God

“For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.””

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:17-31‬ ‭ESV‬‬

• The cross of Christ is God’s wisdom. 

• The cross of Christ is God’s power. 

• The cross of Christ disarms demonic wisdom freeing it’s captives. 

• Christ Jesus is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 

This heavenly Wisdom from God gives us understanding of his free gifts, beginning with salvation. 

Wisdom is the mind of Christ. It is the renewed mind. 

“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.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3:18-23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

 Will you become a fool to the world today?

Will you allow God to wash away your sins by placing your faith in HIS  wisdom and power displayed at the cross of Christ?

Will you believe the gospel today?

The Gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died—in our place. Three days later he rose for the dead, proving he is the son of God and offering the gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins to anyone who repents and believes in him. 

 Wisdom is to see heaven and move toward it. 

Second City Church - Be Christian, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Be Christian: Learning to Worship, Learning to Love God

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Be Christian: Learning to Worship, Learning to Love God

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Every day, we are answering two eternity shaping questions regarding God:

Do we worship him?

Do we love him?

Focus: To be Christian, we must learn what it means to worship and love God through Jesus Christ. 

Learning to Worship

Learning to Love God

Learning to Worship

Being Christian means learning to worship God the way the Bible prescribes.   

Psalm 145:1-12 

A Song of Praise. Of David. 

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your  mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

A life of worship to God, in service to him, begins with the acknowledgement and praise of who He is. When you come to God, he gives you a song to sing because you finally get a realization of his greatness, his majesty, his abundant goodness, his righteousness, his mighty acts and particularly what you realize that he’s done in your life.  

Being Christian ultimately means making the transition from acknowledging God as a king, to declaring him your king, the Lord of your daily existence.  

This is how the Psalm begins. 

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

Being Christian doesn’t mean just trying to be a better person - it means finally coming to and submitting to the one who will make you who you were always intended to be.  

A benefit of the worship of God is that being recreated in God’s image you find access to the greatest freedom, joy, peace, daily satisfaction and life fulfillment you’ve ever known.  

And this is only a small portion of the wonders  of God for which we extol him. This is why it has been said:

“The only one that can satisfy the human heart is the one that made it.”

-Unknown 

Praise makes this known. Giving God praise is something that can be done anywhere, at any time. Praise can be accompanied by meditating on the wondrous works of the Lord, singing, sharing testimony, dancing, clapping, shouting and leaping. 

These are all things about which the Psalms speak. Yet as far as frequency, praise needs to be every day and forever, meaning without end.

This means that despite what is going on around me, I am going to take the time to proactively praise the Lord. 

Why is this so?

*The art of praise is like the art of encouragement but with reciprocal effects. 

A friend recently posted about mental health awareness by sharing a quote from influencer Stephanie Peltier who said:

“Don’t tell a mother she looks tired; she already knows that.  Tell her she’s doing a great job; she may not know that.”

-Influencer Stephanie Peltier

Also avoid saying, “Whoa, you look like you have your hands full!”  Instead say, “You’ve got this” or “I’m here to help whenever you need it.”

Saying these things would be learning the art of encouragement and would only be made more powerful with the truth of God’s Word attached. Similarly, the art of praise works like this:

You are telling God what He already knows about himself but is that about which you need to be reminded. 

**The reality is that the life that you need in your soul (mind, will and emotions) comes through praise and worship - when you are declaring what is TRUE about God despite your feelings, what you perceive in your circumstances or what report you’ve been given.  

It lifts you to the place of God’s eternal rule and heavenly influence.  

This is what was demonstrated in a particular instance with the Israeli prophet Elisha who was referenced in a wonderful message spoken at our church right before the pandemic lockdown in March by Pastor Jim Critcher.  

If you’ve not listened to it, I commend it to you. 

2 Kings 3:15-16 

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.’

When we praise, it is preparing our hearts for the hand of the Lord to come upon us and for the power of the Holy Spirit to be released for healing, refreshing and deliverance in our minds, our bodies and our situations.  

Whenever we are singing songs of praise to God, we are joining in prophesying what God will do by his sovereignty, strength and might.  

When I praise, I feel like I’m singing the opening lines of Hamilton each time....

“Just you wait, just you wait....”

“The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”

- Martin Luther

Every time we stop to give praise to God, this is the truth we are declaring. 

This is why you need to praise God throughout the day and make moments every day (v. 2) - in addition to our corporate gatherings.  

People often say to me:

 “I need more faith”

I ask:

Have you been reading your Bible?

“I need more peace”

Have you been praying?

“I need more encouragement”

Have you been fellowshipping with other believers in the places provided (i.e. - church and community groups)?

“I need more joy”

Have you been worshiping?

Worship transforms you because you are over and over again immersed in the reality of God’s matchless worth. 

You need to know this:

More worship = more transformation.  

This ultimately leads to you learning to love God.  

Learning to Love God

Being a Christian ultimately means learning to love God.  

Psalm 145:14-21 

The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. 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. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

As the Psalm intimates, there are times that we feel like the things on which we have been leaning are removed, and possibly, that things are out of control. 

This is what much of 2020 has felt like.

When we feel like we’re falling, we find out what it is in which we’ve trusted most because we grasp hardest to maintain those things to sustain us. 

-Jim Carey who has recently made guest appearances on SNL said the following during a 2018 interview in the Talks when asked what had prompted his spiritual awakenings:

“I guess just getting to the place where you have everything everybody has ever desired and realizing you are still unhappy. And that you can still be unhappy is a shock when you have accomplished everything you ever dreamt of and more and then you realize, “My gosh, it’s not about this.” And I wish for everyone to be able to accomplish those things so they can see that.”

It is from the trappings of wanting desires that Jesus comes to set us free. 

The Scripture continually alerts us to the truth that without a Biblical love for Jesus, we will never truly be satisfied. 

The Lord upholds those who are falling.  

And then there is the bowing down. 

Worship in the Bible was often accompanied by those who were bowed down, kneeling and even laying prostrate before the person or thing to whom they were demonstrating an internal submission. 

In our time, the question is: to whom or to what have we been bowing down?

The Lord lifts up (encourages, sustains, refreshes and exalts) those who are bowed down to him. 

*Biblically we can see that any ideology that places the love of certain people, parties and systems before and above God is at the root of humanistic idolatry. 

This is why William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army which has done so much good in the world, was prescient for our times when he said, 

“The chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

- William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

There is no way to truly love God if you are placing any person, cause, agenda, group, pursuit or thing before Him.  

Why?

Because worship was never meant to go to an amorphous, ambiguous God, nor was love for God ever left to be obscure or undefined.  

John 14:1-7 

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

In the Psalm, God reminds us that He is the provider and sustainer of all life giving things and therefore, we should learn to love him.

So it needs to be said that:

Participating in a church service no more makes you Christian than stepping into a gym makes you an athlete or wearing Lululemon makes you a certified yoga instructor.  

Love for Jesus is what makes a Christian.  

So how do we love God?

Jesus made it a plain. 

John 14:15-27 

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Don’t allow our trying an muddled times to allow your love for God to grow cold.  

Don’t let your disappointments with people, frustrations with our political environment or the personal and emotional strains from the pandemic diminish steal the peace that Christ has for you.  

*Rather let everything deepen your love for Jesus as you recognize Christ alone is our standard of perfection and our eternal hope.  

“The LORD hath promised the crown of life to those who love Him. Only lovers of the LORD will hold out in the hour of trial; the rest will either sink or sulk, or slink back to the world. Come, my heart, dost thou love thy LORD? Truly? Deeply? Wholly?”

-Charles Spurgeon

As you deepen your love for Jesus, the love that you have for others in the world will follow.  

As you relish in the grace of God expressed at the cross towards you, it will overflow in the grace that you are able to show others.  

It all begins and ends with the love of Jesus. 

Remember that you are more than a conqueror - not solely by the virtue of your love for Jesus, but by the strength of Christ’s love for you, demonstrated at the cross. 

We are not saved by the love we exercise, but by the love we trust. -Richard Lovelace

So again, at the end of the day, when we all stand before God in judgement, these are the questions that will have to be answered. 

Did we meet Jesus at the cross so that he might take the punishment for our sins?

Did we repent of those sins in return to give God our submitted worship?  

Did we love him?

This is what it means to be Christian. 

Second City Church - Be Christian, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Be Christian: To Advance the Gospel

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Be Christian: To Advance the Gospel 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Guest Speaker: Pastor Peter Ahlin

1. What We Believe in the Gospel

 

John 3:16-17 (ESV) 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only  Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish  but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son  into the world to condemn the world, but in order  that the world might be saved through him. 

How my father explained the gospel in four  dimensions: 

(a) BREADTH: For God so loved the world. The  whole world. No one left out of that scope. (b) LENGTH: That He gave His only Son. No limit to  how far He was willing to go. He was willing to  endure every parent’s worst nightmare. (c) DEPTH: That whoever believes in Him. The vilest  sinner. The worst offender. The foulest rebel. (d) DURATION: Should not perish but have eternal  life. For how long is this salvation going to last?  Forever. The only permanent solution. 

2. Why We Share the Gospel 

II Corinthians 5:14-6:2 (NIV) 

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are  convinced that one died for all, and therefore all  died. And he died for all, that those who live should  no longer live for themselves but for him who died  for them and was raised again. So from now on we  regard no one from a worldly point of view. Even  though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do  so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a  new creation: the old has gone, the new is come! All  this is from God, who reconciled us to himself  through Christ and gave us the ministry of  reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to  himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against  them. And he has committed to us the message of  reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s  ambassadors, as though God were making his  appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s  behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who  had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might  become the righteousness of God.  

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive  God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped  you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now  is the day of salvation. 

a. Reconciled through Christ’s death and resurrection (5:16-18a) 

We don’t look at Christ from a worldly point of  view. A great moral teacher. A philosopher. An  important historical figure. A myth. A rebel  against strict Judaism (as Paul once did). Now  we regard Him as the Word made flesh and  dwelling among us, the one in whom if we  believe, we have eternal life and forgiveness of  sins through His name. 

We don’t look at people from a worldly point  of view. We don’t suppose anyone is beyond  saving. Paul knew that anyone who saw him  rubbing his hands together with glee at the  martyrdom of Stephen never would have  assumed he would one day believe. We don’t  look from a worldly point of view anymore, Paul  says. We know that if anyone is in Christ, that  person is a new creation. 

It’s all from God. He is the initiator of this  great reconciliation through Christ. We were  dead in our sins … He made us alive in Christ.  

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  It’s all from God. 

b. Compelled through Christ’s love (5:14-15)

All were utterly dead in sin, but Christ died for  all. Not one of us was sufficient apart from  Christ; not one of us is beyond the reach of the  atoning work of Christ. He died for all. (1 John  2:2) 

If we were utterly dead, so that we had no  hope, and then He rescued us from the  dominion of darkness, we can’t live for ourselves  any longer! We must live for Him who died for  us and was raised again. We owe Him our lives. 

c. Ambassadors on Christ’s behalf (5:18b-5:20)

God has given the ministry of reconciliation to  us. God has committed the message of  reconciliation to us. Jesus was the only perfect  minister this world has ever seen, the only  perfect messenger this world has ever seen, but  He’s finished His work and sat down at the  Father’s right hand. Angels might be more  articulate and more intimidating, but that’s not  the task He’s given them – He has called them instead to be ministering spirits sent to servants  those who will inherit salvation. It is we who are the ministers of reconciliation, the ambassadors  on His behalf. 

What is an ambassador? An official  representative from one nation who travels to another nation, becoming embedded in that  new nation’s culture, but always representing  and never losing ultimate allegiance to the  sending country. We are Christ’s ambassadors,  representing the heavenly country even while  we embed ourselves in the country of earth,  bringing messages of reconciliation as His  emissaries. 

We have the word (the λόγον) of  reconciliation. Missiologist Ed Stetzer put it this  way: “The gospel is the declaration of something  that actually happened. And since the gospel is  the saving work of Jesus, it isn’t something we  can do, but it is something we must announce.  We do live out its implications, but if we are to  make the gospel known, we will do so through  words.” 

And we aren’t just responsible for the content  of the message; we are responsible for the heart.  Verse 20 says God makes His appeal through us;  we implore people to be reconciled to God. We  carry the appeal of the one who wept over  Jerusalem; the one who says I’m standing at the  

door and knocking, please let Me in; the one  who wants all to be saved and to come to a  knowledge of the truth; the one whose love held  Him to the cross at Calvary. This is our mission. 

3. How We Share the Gospel 

a. Speak boldly (the apostles: Acts 5:41-42)

But wait. Didn’t Francis of Assisi say, "Preach  the gospel at all times; when necessary, use  words"? 

Mark Galli, former editor of Christianity Today  and Christian History before that and biographer  of F of S, wrote this:  

“The problem is that he did not say it. Nor did  he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us  something about the spirit of our age.  “First, no biography written within the first  200 years of his death contains the saying. It's  not likely that a pithy quote like this would have  been missed by his earliest disciples. 

“Second, in his day, Francis was known as  much for his preaching as for his lifestyle. “He began preaching early in his ministry, first  in the Assisi church of Saint George, in which he had gone to school as a child, and later in the  cathedral of Saint Rufinus. He usually preached  on Sundays, spending Saturday evenings  devoted to prayer and meditation reflecting on  what he would say to the people the next day. 

“He soon took up itinerant ministry,  sometimes preaching in up to five villages a day,  often outdoors. In the country, Francis often  spoke from a bale of straw or a granary doorway.  In town, he would climb on a box or up steps in  a public building. He preached to serfs and their  families as well as to the landholders, to  merchants, women, clerks, and priests—any  who gathered to hear the strange but fiery little  preacher from Assisi.” 

b. Summon others (woman at well: John 4:28- 29) 

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went  back to the town and said to the people, 29  “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever  did. Could this be the Messiah?” 

c. Share your testimony (once demon possessed  man: Mark 5:18-20; 7:31-37) 

And when He got into the boat, he who had been  demon-possessed begged Him that he might be  with Him. 19 However, Jesus did not permit him,  but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and  tell them what great things the Lord has done for  you, and how He has had compassion on you.”  20 And he departed and began to proclaim in  [a]Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and  all marveled. 

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went  through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and  into the region of the Decapolis.[a] 32 There  some people brought to him a man who was  deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged  Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, 

d. Serve others in love (Dorcas: Acts 9:36-40)

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha  (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always  doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that  time she became sick and died, and her body was  washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda  was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that  Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him  and urged him, “Please come at once!” 39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived  he was taken upstairs to the room. All the  widows stood around him, crying and showing 

him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had  made while she was still with them. 

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he  got down on his knees and prayed. Turning  toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get  up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she  sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped  her to her feet. Then he called for the believers,  especially the widows, and presented her to  them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa,  and many people believed in the Lord. 

e. Show forth God’s power (Paul: 1 Corinthians  2:4-5; 4:20) 

My message and my preaching were not with  wise and persuasive words, but with a  demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that  your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but  on God’s power. 

f. Submit evidence for the truth (Apollos: Acts  18:28) 

When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the  brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote  to the disciples there to welcome him. When he  arrived, he was a great help to those who by  grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving  from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. 

Christ did all of these things. He spoke boldly  that no one could come to the Father except  through Him. He stood up at a feast and loudly  summoned anyone who was thirsty to come to  Him and drink. He testified to John’s friends that  the blind were seeing, the lame were walking,  the lepers were cleansed, and the dead were  being raised. He served His disciples in love by  picking up a towel and washing their feet. He  showed forth God’s power by feeding five  thousand people with a boy’s lunch, calming a  storm, and driving out a legion of demons. And He submitted evidence for the truth in His  consistent fulfillment of Old Testament  prophecy from many hundreds of years before.  When we share the gospel as He modeled it, we  represent Him as ambassadors and appeal on  His behalf with greatest efficacy. 

Lesslie Newbigin said this in The Gospel in a  Pluralist Society:

“To be willing to publish them  is the test of our real belief. In this sense  missions are a test of our faith. We believe that  the truth about the human story has been  disclosed in the events which form the substance of the gospel. We believe, therefore,  that these events are the real clue to the story of  every person, for every human life is part of the  whole human story and cannot be understood  apart from that story. It follows that the test of  our real belief is our readiness to share it with all  peoples.” 

4. How We Live For the Gospel 

Acts 20:22-24 (NIV) 

And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to  Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me  there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit  warns me that prison and hardships are facing  me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to  me, if only I may finish the race and complete the  task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of  testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. 

Paul was, and we should be:

- Led by the Spirit 

- Aware of the risks, dangers, and temptations - Yet unyielding in single-minded commitment 

Conclusion: Respond to the Gospel 

Paul says in chapter 6:1-2 → Now is the time  of God’s favor; now is the day of salvation. NOW  is the only time of which we are certain. James  said we don’t even know what’s going to happen  tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised to us;  now is the time of God’s favor; now is the day of  salvation. If you have never trusted Christ to  save you, to wash away your sins and make you  a new creation, the time is now. Ministering in  His name, we implore you on His behalf – be  reconciled to God. Receive His forgiveness.  Accept His love by faith. 

If you have already trusted Christ, you are now  a new creation in Christ, and you are His  ambassador. You are the one through whom His  appeal goes out to men and women and children  – be reconciled to God. Take this moment to say  to God: Here am I. Send me. Show me how to  share the gospel with those to whom You are  sending me. 

 What’s happening in our nation right now – medically. Socially. Politically. God is looking to  use it to advance His gospel. How will he use  you?

Second City Church - Be Christian, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Be Christian: Heavenly Minded, Earthly Good

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Be Christian: Heavenly Minded, Earthly Good

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Paul’s writings in Colossians 3 almost directly parallels what we saw in Ephesians 4. 

The reiteration of these points of what it means to be a follower of Jesus to a separate congregation means they are to be foundational themes that are non-negotiables. 

Focus: We must learn to be heavenly minded to accomplish God’s earthly good. 

• Heavenly Minded 

• Earthly Good

Heavenly Minded

We must be heavenly minded to enact God’s earthly good in the world.  

Colossians 3:1-4

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”

-Napoleon Bonaparte

Earthly Good

We must obey God’s commands to be of an earthly good that reflects Christ.  

Colossians 3:5-17

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:  sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Compassionate hearts reject shelters of indifference. 

The danger is that if we want, with the opulence that surrounds us, we can by choice remain untouched, disinterested and unaffected by the plight of the world around us.  

The challenge with the western millennial church is understanding that the fact that we are unaffected by situations persistent in our world (poverty, discrimination, etc.) doesn’t mean that God is unconcerned about such issues or that they are not sin.  

It simply means that it is out of my purview and I need to be educated about it to develop the Biblical heart of Christ towards it. 

This is expanding my tent pegs and becoming broader in my scope.  

The problem we’re having today in the public forum is that people are not defining their terms 

And thus people are talking about apples and oranges while ignoring the things about which God actually cares. 

For example:

• Justice does not equal socialism or a propagation of white guilt

• Anti-racism does not mean anti-police or anti-patriotic

However:

• Righteousness does mean holiness in God’s sight 

• And this is that to which the Bible calls people

Being Christian also means that you are determined to be an earthly good by doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

This means that you make it your highest aim to do things the way that Jesus would.  

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither. 

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The word of Christ needs to determine my worldview and my convictions. 

If you don’t study your Bible, you will not know the word of Christ, and thus you will develop a fabricated spirituality. 

“If Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him.”

-Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

Why?

Because we would shape Jesus or any messianic figure according to our momentary preferences, our temporal agendas and what ultimately comes most easily to us.  

The Bible however talks of Jesus going to the cross for our sins and calling his followers do the same by daily denying themselves to be of earthly good.  

It is then that we live in God’s resurrection power and can speak life to a world consumed by sin and death. 

This is the gospel on which we will focus next week. 

Second City Church - Be Christian, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Be Christian: Old Man, New Man

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Be Christian: Old Man, New Man

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: To be Christian we must put off the old man of sin and put on the new man-made to be like Christ. 

• The Old Man

• The New Man

The Old Man

We must recognize the patterns of our old nature and reject habits displeasing to God. 

Ephesians 4:17-32

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 

The old man gives itself allowances for sin. 

“...if God does not exist and there is no immortality, then all the evil acts of men go unpunished and all the sacrifices of good men go unrewarded. But who can live with such a view?  Richard Wurmbrand, who has been tortured for his faith in communist prisons, says,

The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe when man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil. There is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil which is in man. The communist torturers often said, 'There is no God, no Hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.' I have heard one torturer even say, 'I thank God, in whom I don't believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.' He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners.”

- William Lane Craig

The old man looks to justify why sin is acceptable. 

“First we overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalize evil. Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil. Then we persecute those who still call it evil.”

-Father Dwight Longenecker

The New Man

To be Christian, we must commit to putting on the new man and behaving as Christ would. 

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:25-32

The new man is motivated by the redemptive gospel of Jesus Christ. 

“If you want to flip tables like Jesus make sure you are also willing to die on the cross for the people sitting there.”

-Carlos Rodriguez

The new man knows that all reactions and relationships must be viewed through the hope found at the cross of Jesus Christ.  

Second City Church - Be Christian, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Guest Speaker Pastor Reggie Roberson: Seeing God move in disruptions

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Seeing God move in disruptions: From scattering to mattering 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Guest Speaker Pastor Reggie Roberson (kingspark.org)

[Introduction: It is always a privilege and pleasure to share with the Second City church family. Pastor Rollan and B, and are long time friends who are some of the godliest people I know on the planet. God has blessed this church with leaders who have a real vision to display the Kingdom of God in this region and beyond. 

As I have been praying for the church, I am sensing that God wants to encourage us that When the enemy scatters, God is at work so that the church matters. God is using this difficult moment to accelerate his good purposes and good plan for Second City church both for the individual members and the church as a whole.

 ● Gatekeepers in the city 

● Bridge builders in the unrest and polarization 

● Funders of the Kingdom 

● Helps Gift 

● Multiple congregation 

You see, It is of the utmost importance that we perceive what God is doing and we participate in what God is doing. If we don’t we can miss God’s purposes for us and being a part of blessing our city. When the enemy scatters, God is at work so that the church matters. 

Acts 8:1-8 TPT 

Now, Saul agreed to be an accomplice to Stephen’s stoning and participated in his execution. From that day on, a great persecution of the church in Jerusalem began. All the believers scattered into the countryside of Judea and among the Samaritans, except the apostles who remained behind in Jerusalem. 2 God-fearing men gave Stephen a proper burial and mourned greatly over his death. 3 Then Saul mercilessly persecuted the church of God, going from house to house into the homes of believers to arrest both men and women and drag them off to prison. 4 Although the believers were scattered by persecution, they preached the wonderful news of the word of God wherever they went. 5 Philip traveled to a Samaritan city and preached to them the wonderful news of the Anointed One. 6 The crowds were eager to receive Philip’s message and were persuaded by the many miracles and wonders he performed. 7 Many demon-possessed people were set free and delivered as evil spirits came out of them with loud screams and shrieks, and many who were lame and paralyzed were also healed. 8 This resulted in an uncontainable joy filling the city! 

Seeing God move in disruptions: 

From scattering to mattering 

Let’s pray! 

[Comments: Let’s deal first with our perception. This is a critical time in the history of the church. Up until this point, the church was rapidly growing in Jerusalem and Judea. Now the satan, our enemy is using persecution to scatter the church with the hopes that the church will become hopeless and helpless in achieving its purpose. 

I believe that there is a parallel in this passage to what is happening right now. The enemy is using multiple things including the pandemic, social unrest, & economic uncertainty to try to scatter the church so we will become hopeless and helpless in fulfilling God’s purpose. 

Second City, we can not only focus on Acts 8:1 when this great scatter broke out we need to also remember Acts 1:8. Jesus expresses his desire for Samaria to experience the joy of the Gospel. What Satan did not know is that the scatter that took place from the persecution instigated by Satan was used by God to reach Samaria to fulfill Jesus’ desire and plans. 

Knowing this means we can have 

Confidence 

Motivation 

Joy 

Hope & endurance 

Our perception must be that...When the enemy scatters, God is at work so that the church matters. 

For the church to matter when the enemy scatters we not only need to have the right perception, God also wants our participation. 

We participate in Community, with Courage, and through Combat.

Let’s take a deeper prophetic look at this passage: 

COMMUNITY 

We participate in Community, with Courage, and through Combat.

Seeing God move in disruptions: 

From scattering to mattering 

2 God-fearing men gave Stephen a proper burial and mourned greatly over his death.

This scripture tells us that believers who feared God more than men found a way to mourn together. These believers understood their design by God to have people they can mourn with and rejoice with. 

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. We can not experience such pain and loss as we have without having people we can express our feelings and thoughts and process instead of suppressing them or letting our emotions control our lives. 

We must continue to call each other, zoom, facetime, or google meet each other, and not give up on being together. We are created by God for the community and to find a portion of fulfillment in our lives through relationships with other believers. When we allow the enemy’s scattering to isolate us, we become vulnerable to wrong ideas, oppressive emotions, and spiritual bondage. (Disney Hyenas vs. Jaguars) 

No matter how much the enemy tries to scatter the church, we are called by God to figure out a way to continue to be in community with each other. Get in a community group or small group or prayer group- whatever is available even if it is virtual. The church continues to matter when the enemy scatters because we are better together. 

COURAGE 

We participate in Community, with Courage, and through Combat. 

4 Although the believers were scattered by persecution, they preached the wonderful news of the word of God wherever they went. 5 Philip traveled to a Samaritan city and preached to them the wonderful news of the Anointed One. 

Before the enemy brought about scattering by persecution, life looked very different for the people in these two verses. 

These believers were not likely sharing the gospel with those who did not know it. Phillip was helping to serve the church by making sure the church was taking care of widows, and he was not sharing the gospel as he did in verse 5. 

When the scattering takes place, these believers respond with the priceless attitude of courage. They could have dwelled on their current situation and how bad it was. They could have focused on their weaknesses and had a virtual pity party. 

Seeing God move in disruptions: 

From scattering to mattering 

Instead they make a choice to be courageous and overcome personal fears and weaknesses to change. 

They have courage to step out and do something they had not done before. They could have been stuck on how things were before and only lamenting. Because of their courage, they found themselves participating with God making the church matter and impactful. 

The enemy hopes that scattering will make us discouraged and keep us from stepping into new areas of service and greater displays of God’s power. God wants us to go to another level so we can matter more and the city can rejoice. 

Recently, one young man I know pressed past the enemy’s discouragement and courageously acted. When he did, he went to a whole new level, he didn’t digress, he progressed. 

Daniel’s story 

When the enemy scatters, God is at work so that the church matters. We must participate with God by being courageous. 

COMBAT 

We participate in Community, with Courage, and through Combat.  

6 The crowds were eager to receive Philip’s message and were persuaded by the many miracles and wonders he performed. 7 Many demon-possessed people were set free and delivered as evil spirits came out of them with loud screams and shrieks, and many who were lame and paralyzed were also healed. 

Sometimes in a moment of disruption or crisis, we can forget what or who we should be really combating and fighting against. We are fighting the people to grab the last toilet tissue. We are fighting over whether or not we should wear a mask, let kids go to school, our political affiliations, how our church is compared to the other churches we see online. 

Listen if we fight the wrong things then we are distracted and satan and his evil spirits can continue to keep people in bondage and brokenness. Paul wrote to the Ephesians 6:12 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

Seeing God move in disruptions: 

From scattering to mattering 

We need to combat the enemy by letting the word of God cut every chain and deception, despair, and discouragement for which he tries to make us passive. Sometimes, The News, Shows, Social Media are all contributors to the enemy’s rhetoric. 

We need to push back the spirit of division, fear, and despair through persistent prayer. Get the scriptures and start praying and declaring them out of your mouth. 

We combat the enemy by being generous with our money and our serving city, neighborhood, school mates. (House of Mercy) 40-90 families a week. 

We also do combat with the real enemy by sharing the message that Phillip proclaimed which is the gospel: (Rice brooks version) Salvation -sin, sickness, Satan, death, value people inferiority 

(Livestream going into closed nations & young lady feeling the presence of God come into her room when I prayed driving out the depression) When the enemy scatters, God is at work so that the church matters. 

It’s the church that perceives that God is at work during moments of disruption, and who participates with God by being in community, having courage, and combating the true enemy and this brings joy to a city. This where God is leading you to the second city church. 

Seeing God move in disruptions: From scattering to mattering 

Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher. Guest Pastor Reggie 2020

Covenant: Hope for Relationships

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Covenant: Hope for Relationships

Today, we’ll be diving into this reality:  

Focus: We will better understand covenant when we know that it is meant to provide HOPE for all earthly relationships

• Disposable Relationships 

• Covenant Loyalty and Strength

• Hope for Broken Relationships

• Restoration Through Christ

Disposable Relationships

Covenant reminds us that the relationships that God builds are not disposable.  

1 Samuel 26:1-5

Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?” So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him. 

What is God teaching us?  

What can we learn from this Biblical example?

The last time we heard from Saul, he was affirming the call of God on David’s life.  

1 Samuel 24:20-22 

And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.” And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Yet there are going to be people in your life who it seems like are always stirring up trouble for you, even when you just want to be left alone.  

Now, the Ziphites were once again inciting Saul to his murderous campaign against David and his men. 

These were the same ones who were previously attempting to aid Saul against David in I Samuel 23. 

Despite the good David had done as commander of Israel’s armies in service to Saul, the people of Ziph considered David disposable. 

But why was Saul so hellbent against David?

Saul’s heart was in a bad place - self-centered, insecure, jealous and vindictive. 

Because David threatened Saul’s sense of place and identity in the world, David also became a disposable relationship for Saul.  

We need to beware the trap of Saul.

So many people have been having a tough time during the pandemic and begin putting their issues on other people as if they are the cause of the problem.  

This is what Saul did with David. 

Saul didn’t obey God, and focused on David as the threat, the cause of his problems. 

He then considered David disposable as the object of his projected frustrations.  

But when there’s a pattern and a wake of dysfunctional relationships in my life, could it be that I’m the problem?

I need to stop and ask - am I doing something wrong?

*Unbeknownst to David, this would be the last encounter he would have with Saul. 

Very shortly, God would complete his earthly judgment against Saul and he would be killed as a result of battle with the Philistines. 

If David had given up at this point, it would have been too early. 

Through covenant relationships you are aided in finding the strength to continue on.  

Covenant Loyalty and Strength

Covenant allows us to benefit from the strength of loyalty.  

I Samuel 26:6-16

Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab's brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?” And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them. And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Will you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you who calls to the king?” And David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.”

A DEVELOPED SENSE OF LOYALTY IS GREATER THAN A MENTALITY OF TREATING RELATIONSHIPS AS DISPOSABLE. 

What people actually long for is the strength of loyalty found in covenant relationships.  

If this is the case, why are so many people abandoning them today?

Workplace culture today:

No pension

No watch

People feel used, many times abused and then replaced 

They rarely get a “Thank you”

Maybe you’ve felt this way before.  

If so, it is easy to begin to think to yourself, “If this is how the company treats me, and profits are the bottom line, why should I care?”

Yet it is important that you hear this during this time - YOU MATTER - to God, to his people and Christ’s Kingdom purposes. 

Covenant is what illuminates this truth and is the canvas on which loyal allegiances are painted.  

Now why are these covenant relationships so important to experiencing the strength of God?

“Without friends, no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” 

– Augustine

Think about David’s predicament. 

Yet David had Abishai.  

What was so significant about how Abishai related to David so that David was able to experience the strength of covenant loyalty through Abishai? 

Abishai was on T.A.P. and gave David what it takes to be in covenant relationships:

1. TIME 

2. AWARENESS 

3. PROACTIVE AVAILABILITY   

1. TIME

It takes time sowing into the idea of loyalty to reap the strength of covenant relationships. 

You would think it was the other way around, but we say it this way because it is you investing in the value of loyalty that will enable you to develop the covenant relationships you desire. 

As always, you need to look to give it before you receive it.  

*Decide to be loyal and be amazed at the covenant relationships that God begins adding to your life.  

2. AWARENESS 

Awareness comes through relational proximity.

David and Abishai were in the flight (from Saul) and the fight (into the kingship) together.  

They had common concerns and shared experience unto God’s ultimate ends. 

Many times when you’re in the fight with those who have the word in them, have been fasting, been praying, been believing God like David over a long period of time, what they need to hear is that you are with them.  

Being with people of covenant in their time of need is what defines the strength of the relationship.  

When people are in the battle, they need prayers, ENCOURAGEMENT (not always instruction) and the support of presence.  

This is what Absihai did for David. 

The battle is not over just because you forget about it.  

Assume the battle is not over until they tell you it is over proclaiming Christ’s manifested victory. 

3. PROACTIVE AVAILABILITY  

The true mark of Biblical covenant is dependability and availability.  

Biblical Covenant is preserved through the Holy Spirit fruit of faithfulness.

Abishai was continually looking for an opportunity to be involved, not waiting for one to be dumped into his lap. 

So when the call to go into Saul’s camp came, Abishai was dependable, ready to be involved because Abishai remained close enough to David to hear the call and respond to it. 

David experienced the strength of covenant loyalty because Abishai was ready to be a SUPPORT AND BE ON MISSION. 

And in that loyalty, Abishai said, “I’m going to fight with you, fight for you, stand with you and when I am able, be with you.”

By availability, covenant relationships also help us go into the enemy’s camp to take out that which is threatening our walks with God. 

For some of you during this time, it can be as straight forward as needing accountability with the things you are watching, which can be a pollutant your soul. 

Abishai was willing to go with David to the camp of Saul to do this.  

Yet when they got there, Abishai was ready to put Saul to death. 

*How often do people set themselves in resistance against some evil, fail to acknowledge God’s ways, and end up becoming the very thing they were deposing?

David refused to fall into this trap. 

And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.”

Our covenant relationships continually remind us that our God is holy, does things differently and makes men holy.  

He teaches his people to walk in the opposite spirit than the evil we see in the world and look to God for enduring deliverance.  

Hope for Broken Relationships 

Through Jesus, there is always hope for broken relationships.  

I Samuel 26:17-21

Saul recognized David's voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord , saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.” Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.”

The source of broken relationships is stubborn pride where people don’t own up to their faults.  

Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.”

Admitting I am wrong and asking for forgiveness is powerful.  

This is the definition of confession. 

It is the precursor to repentance. 

Repentance is the bridge to restored relationship with God and people. 

It takes humility. 

It needs to be a practice, not a one time event. 

Saul had one last moment where he could have made things right.  

By standing firmly in this place of repentance, Saul could have provided some sort of healing for David, and ultimately saved his own life. 

Unfortunately, Saul continued in his sin until his death. 

This does not have to be your story. There is hope for your broken relationships. 

What fractured covenant has damaged your life and is eating you alive? 

Who do you need to contact and make peace with today?

Restoration Through Christ

God calls us into restorative relationships through Christ

I Samuel 26:22-25

And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.” Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.

We’ve all fallen short at some point and have done damage to the most important relationships in our lives. 

We’ve all broken faith with God and should be disposed of because of our sin. 

Yet like David in Saul’s camp, Jesus comes into our lives to deal with what is killing us. 

Though we deserved death, Jesus walked in the opposite spirit and came to give us life. 

Jesus lived perfectly, spoke wisely and healed graciously.  

Just as David spared Saul on the hill of Hachilah, Jesus went to the cross at Calvary to take the punishment for our sins. 

Because he was sinless, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and through our repentance, gives us another chance to do the right thing. 

And now, Jesus models perfect covenant for us. 

As we follow him, Jesus gives us his time inexhaustibly, he’s aware of our every need and fights for us continuously. 

But how do we walk in this covenant strength of God?  

1 John 1:5-2:2

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus is loyal to us, even in our shortcomings and failures. 

He calls us to treat one another in the same way.  

When we are found in Jesus, our identity and place in the world are eternally secure. 

Let’s give our loyalty to the king whom we can ultimately trust with our days and live in true covenant with the people who call continually upon his name.  

Second City Church - Covenant, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Covenant: God’s Redeeming Plan

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Covenant: God’s Redeeming Plan

The idea of covenant can be a foreign concept in our day, one that has been misunderstood and eroded. 

Yet it is an eternal, heavenly value. 

Covenant is a principle which God uses to build individuals, families, churches, communities, cities and nations.

Examples of covenant with which you may be familiar:

• Business covenants (contracts)

• Alliances between nations (treaties)

• Marriage

• God’s covenant with humanity through the gospel

Focus: We will better understand covenant when we know that it is meant to help preserve the PLAN of God through us. 

• Every Day Discernment 

• Preserving the Covenant 

• God’s Redeeming Plan 

Every Day Discernment

We need to develop eyes to discern what God is doing around us every day. 

1 Samuel 25:1-38

Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’” When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

What is God teaching us?  

What can we learn from this Biblical example?

First, we see that while on the run from murderous King Saul, David and his men continued to do good.  

David came across a family which included… 

• Nabal, who was noted as a spiritually dull, worldly and unconcerned with the righteous ways of God. 

• Abigail, who was noted as discerning and beautiful

In the grazing fields of Nabal, David and his men protected the sheep of Nabal at a time when raiders and thieves could have easily wrought destruction on Nabal’s business.  

This was an act of kindness - an olive-branch from David and his men to Nabal with the only expectation of reciprocated civility.  

The time of sheering was one of work and feasting.  

David and his men were looking to be rewarded for their efforts with food.

Nabal was a Calebite, more than likely a descendant of the man who, along with the Biblical hero Joshua, helped lead the Jewish people to entering the promised land of Israel. 

Nabal should have understood God’s ways, that you honor people for the good that they do from which you benefit, whether it was solicited or not. 

But Nabal’s men called him worthless. 

Why were Nabal’s men calling him worthless?

It wasn’t because Nabal wasn’t rich or a worldly success.  

It was because of Nabal’s character. 

Nabal wasn’t discerning enough to listen to appeals to righteousness.  

Nabal didn’t ask for David’s help and felt he should be left alone.  

Nabal expressed entitlement as if he was owed the good that David and his men did for his flocks.  

As a businessman, Nabal needed to be careful not to reduce everything down to numbers and remember the priority of godliness. 

He did not show any expression of thanks. 

To the contrary, Nabal took the occasion to insult David and his men in their time of need. 

And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”

It was because Nabal was ungrateful - a true shortcoming of our generation. 

Nabal was not discerning enough to know that that with which he had been blessed by God was to be used as a part of God’s unfolding redemptive story.

Nabal’s failings:

1. Nabal had a worldly, self-centered response to the needs of David and his men. 

2. Nabal did not consult God to determine if or how he was to meet that need. 

3. Nabal failed to consider the purpose of his encounter with David. 

4. Nabal refused to submit to his role in God’s bigger plan, helping to keep God’s anointed king and his men supplied on the way to David’s ascension to the throne.   

David was offering covenant peace to Nabal just as Jesus beckons us to follow him into his Kingdom purposes.  

Nabal, however, was not interested in the one who would be made king, just as people act with indifference towards Jesus’ rulership in their lives today. 

So our first lesson is this:

Ladies, when you have a God-fearing man you need to thank Christ in heaven and extol your husband on the regular for being a godly man. 

It is a gift. 

Too many are like Nabal. 

At the same time, men, when you have a God-loving, discerning and virtuous woman like Abigail, you need to thank God in Heaven for her. 

Often she is God’s grace to you helping to save your household in ways that make up for your mistakes and in ways that you don’t even know.  

So how do we preserve the covenants initiated by God?  

Preserving the Covenant

The purposes of God are preserved when we fight to honor the covenants God gives us. 

I Samuel 25:18-28

Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.” When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.” And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.” And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

Somehow, word was getting around that God had anointed David to be the next king of Israel.  

We know this because Abigail acknowledged it. 

It would have therefore been Nabal’s God-fearing responsibility to see if this was true and submit himself to being a part of what God was doing. 

It is no different today than word going out that Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God, has  been anointed king of the earth. 

It is now incumbent that we do our due diligence to confirm and submit to his claims if they are true.  

“Man’s condition ought to impel him to seek to discover whether there is a God and a solution to his predicament. But people occupy their time and their thoughts with trivialities and distractions, so as to avoid the despair, boredom, and anxiety that would inevitably result if those diversions were removed.”

William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics

To his detriment, Nabal rejected the invitation to covenant relationship with David and his men. 

Maybe you have rejected overtures made by godly people in your world trying to further influence you for God’s call on your life.  

This ultimately put Nabal’s entire family in danger, which all sin ultimately does. 

Because of Nabal’s sin, Abigail had to step up. 

There are some of you who will be called to do the same. 

Yet there is a false, unbiblical notion of unity being taught in our churches today.  

God wants us to fight for the covenant of marriage and unity within the family unit, but not at the expense of his word.

Over and over again we see one spouse holding another captive to the detriment of the entire family. 

We need to understand though, that unity in any covenant is subject to our unity with God.  

Choose to obey God’s word even if you do not have agreement. 

And if you have to choose sides, make sure that you choose God’s side first.  

If you are going to fight for unity in your home, first make sure that you are unified with God and his word.   

That’s the best thing you can do for those you love.  

That is why years later, Jesus said:

Luke 14:26-27

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

The heavenly reality is that you love your family best when you love God first, and so preserve all important covenants in your life.  

Abigail had to step up in the midst of Nabal’s sin to make sure that her entire family didn’t perish.  

There are times when you may find yourself in a home where the covenant of God is not being honored.  

If that is the case, always remember that your first covenant is with God and you are obligated to obey him first and above anyone else.  

There may be times like Abigail’s that you must do what it takes to see your family make peace with the anointed king.  

If you have to initiate Bible study, prayer and church participation even when your significant other is not on board, you do so knowing that God will back you up.  

Abigail’s courageous actions diverted the wrath of David and your courageous actions can do the same for your family.  

Pray, teach, live, give and serve like those whom you influence lives’ depend on it -  because their formation in Christ actually does.  

This is how Abigail saved her household.  

This is the truth and we need to have no doubt about it - God will judge our unrepentant sin.  

Though Nabal was wealthy and successful, his unrighteousness caught up with him and it will with you as well if you do not turn to the Lord.  

As is our situation with Christ, if Nabal had responded to David’s original overtures, it would have saved Nabal’s life, and in the future, given him the rewards accompanying friendship with the king. 

Yet Nabal rejected these kindnesses. 

Nabal had a heart attack or stroke when he realized that David and his men were as close as they were to coming and giving Nabal what he deserved.  

Ten days following, God struck Nabal down for his sins and he died.  

That was the sad story of Nabal and the fate of many godless men today.  

Yet David’s story ended differently.  

Why?

David showed the restraint necessary to walk in covenant character.  

How?

David responded to people sent by God to help him preserve his covenant behavior. 

Because life is a marathon and our journey can be longer than we anticipate, there will be definite moments along the way when we are tempted to get off track.  

Think of what that may have been for you recently. 

Has it been bitterness because of all that is transpiring in our nation?

Is it a desire to disengage and seek comfort because of the emotional strain of the pandemic?

Is it the trap of entertainment that is dulling your godly convictions as you spend hours of more time alone and at home?

Because of Nabal’s response, David was tempted to leave his godly trajectory and take vengeance for himself.   

David would have left the path of the covenant life and promises that God had for him. 

But it was David’s relationship with Abigail that would help David and his men maintain this trajectory.  

Abigail was God’s agent to help preserve the covenant promises of God for David and her family.  

We all need covenant relationships to keep us from doing stupid things detrimental to the call of God on our lives. 

You need people whom you give permission to speak God’s word to you, to tell you “no” and to tell you that not all of your ideas are God ideas, that some of them are actually bad ideas.

This is what Abigail would become for David.

So our next take away needs to be this : 

Don’t make life altering decisions before consulting God’s word or the covenant relationships God has given you. 

They are a protection to keep you on course.

Abigail literally kept David and his men from ending Nabal’s life.

We will all have encounters with ungrateful, spiteful, unreasonable people like Nabal, whether in the workplace or in our communities.

David made a vow to take vengeance on Nabal.  

Yet when David was halted by Abigail’s counsel,  David broke his vow and came to repentance. 

What vows have you made in your anger or pain that you need to break so that you can return to the Lord?  

When we allow godly counsel in our lives, it saves us from destructive paths and allows us to return to the righteous covenants of God.  

This is the nature of ongoing repentance that we all need in our lives.

It is when we experience God’s redeeming plan.  

God’s Redeeming Plan

God saves us by redeeming the fractured covenants in our lives through Jesus. 

I Samuel 25:39-42

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

When Abigail lost her husband because of his sin, God had a redeeming plan so that she would not be left alone. 

David represented the redeeming love of Christ. 

David became the leader needed in Abigail’s home and would walk with her into God’s covenant purposes.  

As David with Abigail, Jesus comes as the better bridegroom to provide for, protect and lead those who’ve devoted themselves to him.  

No matter our background, our previous associations or our sins, Jesus comes to redeem us from a life that was headed for destruction.  

Because Jesus was the righteous king that committed no sin, Jesus was able to pay the price for our offenses against God at the cross, and three days later be raised from the dead. 

As David with Abigail, Jesus now gives us the opportunity for forgiveness of sins along with a new name and new life in him.  

As David provided a new home and a new covenant family for Abigail, so God does so for us through his church. 

God’s loving plan in Christ also has the power to redeem covenants that have been broken. 

Whether because of adultery, abandonment or some other sin, God has a history of redeeming covenants that were previously broken through repentance and faith. 

If you are a man or woman like Nabal today, you can learn from Nabal’s example and repent. 

You can put your faith in Jesus’ atoning work for you on the cross, becoming the better man or woman that God has called you to be by his resurrection power.  

You can join our men’s group which is going to be going through the book Kingdom Man - Every Man’s Destiny, Every Woman’s Dream....

As a woman you can sign up for our future women’s precept Bible so that like, Abigail you can in the wisdom and grace of God.  

The church is Christ’s bride whom he will come one day to bring into his heavenly home.   

May we be watching and waiting while walking in the covenant relationships he’s given us to make us ready.  

Second City Church - Covenant, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Covenant: Honoring the Process

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Covenant: Honoring the Process

We must learn to honor the process that God has to bring us into his covenant purposes. 

1 Samuel 24:1-22 

When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats' Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord 's anointed.” So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’? Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.’ See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea! May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.” As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.” And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

What is God teaching us?  

What can we learn from this Biblical examples?

There will be moments in your life when you want to take your own destiny into your hands.  

Most people have some measure of ambition in life. 

Some of it is God inspired.  

Much of it is not.

There is a difference between being anointed to execute a task and having the capacity to steward it well.  

Before God allowed David to become king, he would take David through a process to learn godly leadership.  

Could it be that where you find yourself today is in a similar season of process and character development?

David’s men were ready for him to fulfill a position.  

God wanted David to go through a process. 

Be careful of peers who are trying to puff up your head to the exclusion of God’s wisdom from those who have gone before you. 

In their impatience, our peers, like David’s men, often don’t know what they don’t know or what you need to know to fulfill your call in God successfully. 

David’s men said of Saul when he was in the cave that it was time for David to kill Saul and assume the throne that God had promised David.  

David’s men were looking only to their ambition to interpret the situation and not to the ways of God.  

The ways of God are important because as Moses prayed when leading the Israelites out of their slavery in Egypt,

Exodus 33:12-13 

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”

Meaning God had given Moses a task, but Moses knew he would need God’s favor and ways to fulfill it.  

David had that recognition and we need to have it as well.  

David’s men had the right goal, that David should be made king, but the wrong process.  

Yet David was convicted by the Holy Spirit when he cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, getting close enough to threaten Saul’s life. 

When we don’t trust God in the process, it is sin. 

Why is it sin?  

And better yet, what is sin?  

“What is sin?

It is the glory of God not honored.

The holiness of God not reverenced.

The greatness of God not admired.

The power of God not praised.

The truth of God not sought.

The wisdom of God not esteemed.

The beauty of God not treasured.

The goodness of God not savored.

The faithfulness of God not trusted.

The commandments of God not obeyed.

The justice of God not respected.

The wrath of God not feared.

The grace of God not cherished.

The presence of God not prized.

The person of God not loved.

That is sin.”

John Piper

All of these descriptions are characteristic of us when we don’t trust God in the process as the commander of our destinies. 

Yet David rose above this when he corrected his posture towards Saul after cutting off a piece of Saul’s robe.  

Where did David get such a thought that what he did was in error?  

Why did David come to repentance?

David got this thought from the word of God in which he was commanded to base his convictions. 

Exodus 22:28

“You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.

This did not mean that David agreed with everything that King Saul did as a leader, or even more, that God approved of it.  

God had left Saul, had already pronounced judgment on Saul, and it was only a matter of time before this was seen.  

If David had been willing to forcibly take the kingship by killing God’s anointed in King Saul, David would have set a precedent for the forcible insurrections that we see modeled in godless monarchies throughout history. 

What David was learning was how to trust God through the process. 

This would create in David the character he needed for true leadership blessed by God.  

Psalm 78:70-72

He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance. With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.

What you see in David’s kingship is a recurring theme of success and triumph.

David was able to experience this because God was with him, meaning that David was living in God’s pleasure. 

It would have been a sacrifice of this standing if David forsook the pleasure of God for an expedited ascension to the throne through ungodly means.  

Yet do we truly believe that it is God who exalts one man or woman, and brings another down (Psalm 75:7)?  

Or have we put our ultimate trust in idols of human governments and human scheming to accomplish our ends? 

“Suffering always reveals idols of the heart.” ―James MacDonald, Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling: Changing Lives with God’s Changeless Truth

David would not forsake the process for an idol of position. 

The question is for us:

What idols have times of testing and waiting revealed in our hearts?

Covenant Process and Character

Our covenant relationships help encourage us in God’s order, God’s process, God’s character and God’s timing.  

When we speak of the word character, Biblically it is a term used for that which has been tested by circumstance and proven to be both trustworthy and reliable.  

How does covenant relate to character in the midst of God’s process that we must come to honor?

Covenant provides security while we are being shaped. 

It provides stability while we are being challenged. 

It provides consistent direction when our focus is tested.  

Covenant provides positive and godly accountability to keep us on course. 

In uncertain times it was God’s covenant devotion to David that kept David steadfast while on the run from Saul. 

It was David’s covenant interactions with his men that helped forge the character of God in them all.  

This character helped David and his men, and helps us be grounded in:

1. God’s order which teaches us the healthy dynamics of relationships, including respecting God-given authority 

Whether it be with a parent, a spouse, a coach, a workplace employer or a ruling official, God has order that is to be honored, despite leadership’s imperfections.  

Unless they are telling you to break the commands of God, their leadership is to be respected. 

We must show mercy for others even while we realize there is hope for us.  

This is what David did for Saul, leaving the judgment of Saul in God’s hands.

When challenged to take Saul’s life, David responded to his men saying:

“The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord 's anointed.”

We need to understand that every leader is in process and if God has called you to be one, so are you. 

The question is for character to be formed - 

Have you done the things your leaders have already asked you to do - things that they believe are in order to help develop you?

Our covenant relationships help develop the character of Christ within us. 

David continued to do the righteous thing following the ways of the Lord and leading those he influenced to do the same.  

When you continue to make the difficult, righteous decisions, it creates an atmosphere, an environment for others to rise to godliness as well.  

This is how David’s covenant with his men helped turn them from those who were simply known for being discontent, in debt and in distress to those who would be known as David’s mighty men, extending his Kingdom all across the land.  

It was through David’s covenant with God that he was able to display the Holy Spirit fruit of long-suffering, otherwise known as patience and rest in that trust.  

How do most people come against the authorities that mishandle them?

They do so by cutting their leaders down, little comment by little comment, just as David cut off a piece of Saul’s robe. 

Yet this was this sin from which David turned. 

David encouraged his men to do something different and embrace God’s order.  

David bowed down before Saul to pay Saul homage, respecting Saul’s God-given authority.  

As the people of God, we must develop a CULTURE OF HONOR CULTURE to combat the natural human tendency towards cynism and rejection of healthy authority. 

It is part of God’s redemptive testimony left to be expressed through the church.  

Why is this important? 

Just as we can not love God who we can not see if we can not love our fellow man who we can see (I John 4:20), we are deceiving ourselves to think that we can submit to God’s authority which we can not see if we do not respect the authorities which we can. 

THERE IS A WAY TO SPEAK TRUTH TO POWERS - GOD’S WAY. 

DAVID HAD HIS MOMENT OF SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER SAYING, 

“May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.”

David helped his men honor God’s order by maintaining the delicate balance of being vocal while remaining godly and trusting the Lord to avenge him. 

At the same time, and this is what people often miss, David made his intentions of peace clear to Saul.  

David began by acknowledging Saul’s authority saying, “My lord the king!” and “See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it.”

David continually verbalized the fact that he did not want to be at odds with Saul. 

Thus David did his part to bring character to God’s covenant process. 

2. God’s process teaches us to be fully present and active while waiting waiting for change. 

David was not waiting to be king to act and lead in the character of a godly king. 

The take away for us is this:

Be all in, in the stage and season in which you find yourself as if you will be there forever.  

You may not be, but it provides you the confidence knowing that you gave God your all while He had you there.  

Be sure of this:

Proverbs 12:24

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

You will definitely not be promoted or see better days if you’re doing a half-hearted job where you now find yourself.  

3. God’s character teaches us how to live during the process. 

The process of God helps develop the character Christ in your life.  

We often treat character as optional.  

Character is a non-negotiables to God.

We have 30+ year olds still talking about the pains of adulting. 

Yet the transition of that ship should have sailed a long time ago.  

When it hasn’t, our character can be detrimental and it would have been for David’s men had David not stopped the attempt on Saul’s life.  

“People destroy with their character what they’ve built with their gift unless real transformation has occurred.”

-Graham Cooke

Think of several of the high-profile disruptor  companies over the past couple of years that have had to undergo major overhauls because of the reckless culture the gifted founders created (Wework, Uber, etc.)

It is through tough moments that we see true sanctification in our lives.

This sanctification process is like:

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by F. Scott Fitzgerald 

4. God’s timing teaches us that God will put us in the places that HE wants us when both we and those with whom we are to be in relationship are ready. 

When David did the right thing and offered mercy to Saul, Saul did not immediately turn to what was right. 

Yet God was still working. 

Saul was confronted with and momentarily acknowledged the justice of David’s cause, giving ear to David. 

Saul acknowledged David as more righteous than himself and even affirmed the fact that God would make him king.  

David’s righteousness de-escalated the situation and momentarily softened Saul towards David when Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.

Yet Saul had no come to Jesus moment.  

He did not permanently relent from the pain he was causing David, but merely gave him temporary relief that day. 

As you are in process, you will experience similar things. 

Just remember that God is still working, his promise hasn’t changed, and this is all part of the process.  

The lesson David needed to learn is that it was a matter of timing.  

Trusting in God’s covenant process, David developed the character to make a promise to Saul to the benefit of Saul’s family even while David was waiting on his own conditions to improve. 

We need to learn the same lesson.  

Why? 

Because God is ultimately Lord of the process. 

Galatians 4:4-5 

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The Lord of the Process

For Jesus to truly be Lord of our lives, he must be the Lord of our covenant process. 

Just as David had to learn to wait on the Lord for his promotion, so did Jesus who would be exalted as the ruler of all the earth. 

In the same way, we must allow Jesus to be the Lord of the process to bring us into his covenant promises.  

Though David was the anointed successor of Saul, for a period of time David had to deal with the shortcomings and failings of his predecessor.  

God the Father was using this process to shape David just as the Father used Christ’s condescension to make Jesus a merciful and faithful high priest to fallen humanity.   

Of Jesus, the Scripture said:

Hebrews 2:17-18 

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

And again it says:

Hebrews 5:7-10 

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

The cross of Jesus Christ is where the cave of Wildgoats’ Rocks is realized for us. 

Just as David’s faithful service to Saul was returned with murderous spite, so Jesus is often rejected by a world that he came to heal and save. 

But just as there was a day of reckoning for King Saul, so there will be a day of judgement for every man and woman to give an account to God.  

David trusted in this and was exalted as king while Saul perished.  

By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus has also been declared the eternal, exalted king of the line of David and those who oppose him will be crushed at the culmination of human history. 

Yet just as in the cave of Wildgoats’ Rocks David restrained his vengeance to see Saul go free, so Christ suffered the process of God’s crushing at the cross for our sins, that those who would repent of their rebellion against God might also go free.

Let’s humble ourselves today and so honor the process that will develop the character to bring us into God’s covenant calling and promises.  

Second City Church - Covenant, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

Covenant: Define the Relationship

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Covenant: Define the Relationship

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Why is covenant important? 

Covenant is the basis of all meaningful relationships in life. It clarifies our priorities by distinguishing between those with whom we are to build life vs. those who are merely passerby. Most importantly, covenant is the basis of our relationship with the living God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Just as last week we learned that covenant relationships help catalyze the purposes of God in our lives, today we will see how these covenant relationships help maintain vision to fulfill God’s purposes. 

Focus: We will better understand covenant when we know that it is meant to help maintain our vision in God.  

• Opaque Times

• Defining the Relationship

• Christ our Covenant Vision 

Opaque Times

1 Samuel 23:15-29

David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.” And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord.

David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home. Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.” And Saul said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me. Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning. See therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”

And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.”

So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.

Covenant relationships help us see God clearly during challenging times.  It is easy during challenging times to lose focus, hope and vision for the ultimate high calling that we have in God.  During trying periods we begin to ask questions of ourselves like:

• What is God’s endgame?

• What’s the point of all this suffering and when will it end?

• How do I protect God’s vision for my life and continue in faithfulness?

This is the challenge through which David and his men undoubtedly had to press while being on the run from King Saul.  As David and his men continued their flight, they moved through Ziph, a town in the Judean mountains. Unfortunately, just like the people of Keilah, the people of Ziph were willing to give up David and his men to King Saul.

Here we see yet another difference between those with whom you have covenant and those you do not: People of Biblical covenant see what God sees - what others do not. 

Do you think that the people of Ziph would have been willing to give David and his men up if they truly realized what God was doing - that God was going to make David king? Most people in the world will only treat you with what their natural eyes can see. They will relate to you based on your gender, your ethnicity, your past, your present socio-economic status, your credentials or experience.  

People of covenant, however, have the ability to focus on God’s future prospects and calling on our lives.  The people of covenant invest in you, labor for you and fight for the promise of God in you long before it materializes. Though David’s condition was far worse than in I Samuel 20 when Jonathan and David first renewed their covenant, when Jonathan goes to David in Horesh Jonathan is able to see even more clearly that David will be king. 

Both Jonathan and David were of the family of Saul. Jonathan was Saul’s son and the natural heir to the throne. David was King Saul’s son in law who he brought near (“keep your friends close and your enemies closer”) through marriage to his daughter Michal, but was the God appointed successor to the throne because of Saul’s perpetual disobedience.  

Jonathan acknowledged through his covenant with David the greater covenant - the one God was establishing with David beyond the natural, bringing David to the kingship he promised him. His trust in the Lord (demonstrated in I Samuel 14) enabled him to receive whatever role the Lord had for him, and to encourage David in God’s promises, even when it meant that he would not himself be king. 

When Jonathan said, “I will be next to you,” it meant that Jonathan would be second in rank, but not the heir. How powerful this is when people are released from striving and feeling like they always need to push themselves over and above others!

This allows you to see clearly -  Being able to say, “I am not the top dog.  I am second (or whatever place God has for you)” enables you to fulfill the purpose of God by walking in the STRENGTH OF YOUR ROLE.  

Covenant releases us from the sinful fruit of envy because we are able to walk in the security that God has given us importance and an invaluable contribution through the covenant relationships that he gives us.  

As Aslan reminds us in the Chronicles of Narnia: “You doubt your value. Don’t run from who you are.”

You will not be overlooked by God who establishes covenant with you. 

You will not be forgotten by those whom he’s given you to walk in covenant. 

Defining the Relationship

Covenant relationships need to be intentional to be fruitful.  

The truth is that covenant relationships are based on commitment, not convenience.  However, commitment can be difficult at times and challenging to maintain. Think about the friendships you fell into during college life vs. those in you must work for in adulthood. 

Yet people ask the question, “Isn’t it enough to just be in relationship with the people you’ve always known and with whom you’ve always been familiar?” Is it? Or does God have something more?

God definitely has more for you if your friends have consistently and always been accomplices to your perpetual sin. 

I Corinthians 15:33 (ESV)

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Yet people will also ask, “Why should I have to make effort if we’re supposed to be in covenant? “Shouldn’t things just be organic?”

Loving people over any extended period of time will require sacrifice.  Your number will eventually be called and the requirement will come. Sacrifice is the mark of any covenant relationship. Remember, in the Scripture above, David stayed in the stronghold and Jonathan went home. 

We also see that commitment is expressed at times in unpleasant, but necessary counsel. In I Samuel 20, we see Jonathan telling David truths that he didn’t want to hear that would ultimately save David’s life. Though David served valiantly under Saul, Saul was now turned against David and intent on killing him. Jonathan let David know of his need to flee. He was pointing out the places David didn’t need to go and the people who would harm David by association. 

We all need God appointed people who we trust to do this in our lives. 

If you are not sure that you are in covenant with people, make a covenant to ensure that you have agreed upon purpose in Christ. 

Distinguishing Marks of Covenant:

1. You are intentional with the relationship. You don’t wait for ideal circumstances for covenant to fall into your lap. Jonathan went to meet David at Horesh. 

2. You define the relationship so you both have clear understanding of covenant expectations. 

3. You inconvenience yourself to make it happen. You will have to make ongoing and repeated effort to maintain and reestablish your covenant relationships. Never have a one and done mentality.  “Do you love me?”  “Of course I do. Didn’t I tell you at the altar?”

4. You diligently strengthen one another’s hands in God. You PURPOSEFULLY and regularly remind one another of the PROMISES of God.  This allows you and those with whom you are in covenant to see clearly in the midst of the long fight of faith. This is what Jonathan did for David, reminding David of the certainty of God’s promise to bring him into the kingship despite the optics of his then present circumstances. 

This is important because:

“Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts.”

-Craig Groeschel, Pastor of Life.Church which develops Youversion and the Church online platform

Covenant will also bring you to the word of God to show you that life is not all about you. We see from Saul’s reaction to the people of Ziph that his focus was continually on himself.

He said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me.”

Saul was so removed from the word of God at this point and so warped in his thinking that he felt anyone helping him fulfill his murderous campaign was worthy of God’s blessing and was being loving.  Similarly, by exposing the whereabouts of David and his men, the people of Ziph would have thought that they could curry some sort of favor with Saul for their benefit.  

How true it is that myopic people, even in the midst of sin, can make conversations, focus and relationships all about them. They take from relationships solely for their own ends.  

In many modern relationships, the sad truth is that people can be incredibly self-focused and the relationships can be terribly one sided, even while invoking the name of the Lord.  

Have you been there before - part of conversations where people couldn’t stop talking, usually about themselves, and never asked you one question about your situation?

This is not Biblical covenant.  It is not even good social skill yet it happens all of the time. Biblical covenant is a mutual care for those involved to the benefit of all parties in service of the one true king. 

Christ our Covenant Vision

The crowning of Jesus as the one true king is our covenant vision.  

Ultimately, David was able to persist in faith when he was reminded that God had made a promise to make him king. His covenant with Jonathan helped maintain that vision, being strengthened in the Lord despite the threats on his livelihood. David persisted because God had shown him the end game.  

God’s covenant people are able to do so today as they maintain the heavenly vision - the promise of Jesus being exalted as the resurrected king.  We look forward to being co-heirs with Christ, as he rules over his restored creation.  

In the meantime, God’s covenant with his people means that he will not give us up to permanent destruction or failure. It may be hard to see when you are dealing with the threat of layoffs, the stress of a new business venture, remote work and maintaining the equilibrium of family life at home. 

Yet know that just as Jonathan with David, the covenant that you have with Christ is meant to keep you alive, encouraged, growing and advancing while God works behind the scenes. 

Our covenant relationships continually remind us that our God is a miracle worker. This was seen in the rescue that David experienced at the Rock of Escape. Just as when death was at David’s door God stepped in at the last moment to call Saul away to fight the Philistines, so God is working behind the scenes by the power of his Holy Spirit on behalf of his people today. It is because of Calvary’s cross that God has established covenant with you so that Jesus has become our Rock of Escape. 

On the cross Jesus took the punishment that we deserve, diverting Satan who would come to destroy our minds, bodies and futures because of our sins. 

By Christ’s resurrection from the dead he gives us forgiveness of sins and eternal escape from the death that would otherwise claim our lives.  It is what God’s church will experience, even as we navigate the last days full of uncertainty and threat prior to Christ’s return. 

Matthew 24:3-14 

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Covenant is what God uses to communicate his expectations to humanity. 

Covenant is also the very basis of our access to the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven, including our redemption, the favor that is upon us, forgiveness, present and future healing, justification, sanctification and one day glorification in Christ. Our covenant relationships remind us that Christ is the one whom every tongue will confess and before whom every knee will bow, proclaiming that Jesus is Lord.  This promise is true of Jesus, even during opaque times.  

His sacrifice was perfect - now we make our sacrifices to strengthen one another’s hands in God to win the lost and make disciples to his glory. We maintain this vision until we see Christ, with whom we have covenant, crowned as the one true benevolent King of all the earth. 

Study

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Second City Church - Covenant, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020