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