Lead Pastor: Rollan Fisher
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Lead Pastor: Rollan Fisher
There is a Promise Of Return
When we return with all of our heart and all of our soul
God returns us too His promises
A reiteration of the law of God given in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
' “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. '
Moses is preparing the people to come out of their wanderings and into the promised land.
There is a promise of return
They did not believe the promises of God
They did not obey the commands of God
They wanted to return to the familiar slavery in Egypt
Only Joshua and Caleb in there generation went into the promised land
Even Moses didn’t enter the promised land
Deut 28-29 God gave commands accompanied by blessing and cursing
Obey and be blessed (God’s favor)
Disobey and be cursed (God’s resistance)
Deut 30 God knows our tendency to stray and drift in forgetfulness, bringing about cursing.
One of those curses was being scattered among the nations (diaspora)
When we return with all of our heart and all of our soul (vs 3)
Promise of returning from scattering.
Promise of mercy.
Promise of restored fortunes.
Israelites: A physical land
Us in Christ: Freedom from sin, fear, lack, and more.
No matter how far we’ve been scattered He can bring us back. (vs 4)
Separated in heart, mind
We are blessed when we obey God fully.
Heart and soul (will, emotions), mind (thoughts).
Vs 6- God will cut away attachments to things destroying us and killing us. Generational sins and habits he will deliver us from. When we come back with all our heart he will do a work in our families multi-generationally.
Vs 7 - God puts the curse on the demonic forces oppressing us. God will be an enemy to our enemies.
Vs 8 - Freedom to obey and become prosperous in our soul and then the work of our hands, the fruit of our womb and the ground. God DELIGHTS in prospering his people.
God returns us to his promises
This is a prescription for changing seasons. For emerging.
The Great Physician’s prescription: Love Me, turn to Me, and commit to obeying my Word with all your heart and soul.
Heart means ‘affection’.
Q: Survey your affections. Where do they lie? Have you given your heart and affections to Christ? Your mind and thoughts to Christ? Your emotions? Are you committed to obeying ALL of God’s commands? Have you been scattered, how?
Pray: God, forgive me of not loving you by trusting and obeying you wholeheartedly. Help me to take you at your perfect Word. Help me to obey Your Word, believe Your promise, and give you my whole heart. Thank you Jesus for making a way for me to start again by your sacrifice for me on the cross. Help me Holy Spirit live in wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ all my days. In Jesus name, Amen.
Action: Ask God to show you where you’ve been scattered in your mind, heart, and soul. Repent of where you missed the mark. Commit to God’s grace in Jesus Christ to help you obey His Word that He may bring you back into his favor.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Associate Pastor: Cole Parleir
What is Palm Sunday?
According to Crosswalk, “Palm Sunday was the first day of Holy Week leading up to the Jewish holiday of Passover. Jesus rode on a donkey through the town of Jerusalem on His way to conquer death and bring us life through His sacrifice on the cross.”
—Emma Danzey
What does God want to do for us at 2CC?
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2 ESV
https://bible.com/59/rom.12.1-2.esv
God wants to renew our minds regarding what it means to be truly “obedient”, blessed”, and “triumphant”.
PRAY
Truly Obedient
Truly Blessed
Truly Triumphant
God is going to do this as we focus on the account the Bible calls the ‘Triumphal Entry”.
Scriptures: Luke 19:28-48
“And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying,
“Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’”
So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives— the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying,
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them,
“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”
Luke 19:28-48 ESV
https://bible.com/59/luk.19.28-48.esv
Obeying God’s Word is what it means to be truly obedient.
Obeying my idea or peer pressure of what it means to be godly is NOT true obedience.
We must know God’s Word to obey God’s Word.
As we read the account of Jesus entering into Jerusalem we see him obeying the commands of God as they had been written.
God had made his command for the promised Messiah known through the prophet Zechariah where we read:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Zechariah 9:9 ESV
https://bible.com/59/zec.9.9.esv
Jesus fulfilled this command in the obtainment and riding of the donkey colt.
Jesus could have chosen to enter Jerusalem in a much more convenient manner. Instead, he chose the inconvenient route of fulfilling the prophetic word spoken of God’s chosen Messiah.
Jesus did this to confirm his calling and identity as the Messiah by
TRULY obeying God’s Word rather than the expectation of the crowd.
Let’s talk about expectations.
Jesus already had a 3 year reputation as a miracle worker and preacher with rumors of his miraculous birth floating around I’m sure. Now he is fulfilling Messianic scripture ridding on a donkey into ‘The City of The Great King’.
Riding in a donkey meant different things to the crowd members. The Israelites looking for the Messiah would have recognized the donkey as fulfilled prophecy and grown in their faith.
They celebrated Jesus’ entry with palm branches signaling their expectation of a military deliverer from Roman occupation.
Yet they didn’t see the whole picture. God had such bigger plans!
Even though they didn’t see the whole picture they still laid down their branches and cloaks in an act of submission.
“Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.””
2 Kings 9:13 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/2ki.9.13.esv
The Romans didn’t recognize what was happening because if they knew Jesus was being welcomed as king they would have intervened.
It was imperative for Jesus to truly obey God’s Word In order for God’s plan of saving us from sin and death to come to pass. If Jesus had compromised by taking up a sword and a war horse he may have mustered an army to overthrow Roman oppression for a while, but the sinful human heart would have still prevailed in the end.
You and I have visions and ideas of what it looks like for us to please and serve God.
The truth is that God has revealed what pleases Him in His Word, the Bible.
Jesus was confirming his God chosen identity as the Messiah through truly observing and fulfilling God’s Word concerning the Messiah.
In the same way you and I also confirm our calling as children of God as we truly obey God’s Word and rely on His promises.
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:3-11 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/2pe.1.3-11.esv
As children of God we have a shared calling to a holy life here and now in preparation of the Kingdom.
Jesus has called his disciples to obey all He commanded and to teach others to obey his commands as well. This is our shared calling that confirms our shared salvation and entrance into God’s eternal kingdom.
Jesus had a unique calling as the Messiah that would save the world from sin and earth. You and I also have a unique calling to bring about God‘s purposes in the earth.
In order to bring about God‘s purposes that were prepared in advance for you to fulfill you must truly obey God‘s commands that are specific for your life and calling. Jesus has set you free from the power of sin so that you can walk with him.
When you choose to truly and fully obey God‘s commands you will know what it means to be truly blessed.
To be blessed is to be like God.
What do I mean? You and I were created in the image of God.
This is our destiny. This is why Jesus came. So that you and I could could be forgiven of our sins, reconciled to God, and empowered to walk in righteousness.
Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is the righteous one. Jesus is the one whom God the Father says “with you I am well pleased”. Jesus is truly blessed. He is the one we are to obey and imitate as his disciples.
This is who Jesus calls blessed:
““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Matthew 5:3-12 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/mat.5.3-12.esv
Let me ask you: are you blessed? Do you want to be blessed?
Jesus exemplified all of these for us. To be his disciple is to share in his suffering so that the world may know his salvation.
To embrace this kind of blessing and suffering as we walk with Jesus is what it means to be truly triumphant.
Why was Jesus’ entry ‘triumphant”?
Despite the amiss expectations of the crowd and even the disciples, he marched intentionally and adamantly toward the cross for the salvation of those who would believe in him later.
As the son of God Jesus had all authority over legions of angels.
He could have stopped the suffering and crucifixion at any moment. Instead, He chose to love us by becoming a sacrifice for us.
By loving us in this way he has truly triumphed over mankind‘s biggest enemy: sin and Satan.
He has truly triumphed over mankind‘s biggest fear: death.
This is why in the kingdom of God every tear will be wiped away.
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/2co.2.14-16.esv
Will you except Jesus’ triumphant victory at the cross in your place today? If so please pray with me.
Second City Church - Associate Pastor: Cole Parleir 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Behind Closed Doors
Help Believing
True Life after Death
Jesus comes behind our closed doors to strengthen us in our hour and areas of need.
John 20:19-31
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him,
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The disciples locked themselves behind closed doors for fear of the repercussions for the years they had spent associated with the now crucified Jesus.
We don’t need to hide our discouragements, pain or struggles from God.
Jesus enters into our weakness to strengthen us and deliver us from our fears.
How so?
Publicly, Thomas would have seemed to have it all together.
He was one of Jesus’ hand-selected twelve apostles, had seen and performed signs, wonders and miracles while leading others to faith in Christ.
Yet behind closed doors, Thomas had doubts with which he needed to deal, which left unchecked could derail the rest of his life and ministry in the Lord.
Thomas’ struggle was unbelief.
Yours may be something else.
This is important because...
*What we do behind closed doors is who we truly are.
“People will eventually begin to relate with you as they do behind closed doors.”
-Rollan Fisher
*In what area of your life have you been closed off to or hiding from God?
If you’ve been wandering, now is your time to come back!
God grants aid to those who need help believing the good news of Jesus.
Jesus came to remind Thomas that what we see on the surface is not the whole story of what God is doing.
We don’t see it all, but the word of God gives us a picture of what God is doing behind the scenes.
Give it some time.
*If it seems like something is dead, wait three days and see what God is doing.
We can always start by receiving encouragement from the testimony of others.
You don’t have to have yet experienced something for it to be true.
The Bible records Thomas receiving the affirmation of being able to touch the wounds within Jesus’ resurrected body.
Yet are there reasons for us to believe today?
First, you need to know there are reasons to believe the Biblically recorded, historic testimony, of Jesus Christ’s sinless life, miracles, crucifixion and resurrection from the dead.
“The Old Testament records the preparation for the coming of the Messiah. The Gospels record the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord. The book of Acts records the propagation of the gospel (the good news) concerning Jesus Christ. The Epistles (letters) explain the gospel and its implications for our lives. The book of Revelation anticipates and describes the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His eternal kingdom. From beginning to end, the Bible glorifies Jesus Christ and centers on Him. Its Christ-centeredness is one of its wonderful features.”
-Josh McDowell
Thus we don’t need to be rash in our decision making regarding if there is a God and, if so, who he is and what he is up to without first looking into these historic facts.
Why?
Because in the testimony of the Bible, we see that....
“there is an important difference between the apostle martyrs and those who die for their beliefs today. Modern martyrs act solely out of their trust in beliefs that others have taught them. The apostles died for holding to their own testimony that they had personally seen the risen Jesus. Contemporary martyrs die for what they believe to be true. The disciples of Jesus died for what they knew to be either true or false.”
-Gary R. Habermas, The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus
“Historians employ a number of common-sense principles in assessing the strength of a testimony. Here are five of those principles:
1. Testimony attested to by multiple independent witnesses is usually considered stronger than the testimony of one witness.
2. Affirmation by a neutral or hostile source is usually considered stronger than affirmation from a friendly source, since bias in favor of the person or position is absent.
3. People usually don't make up details regarding a story that would tend to weaken their position.
4. Eyewitness testimony is usually considered stronger than testimony heard from a second- or thirdhand source.
5. An early testimony from very close to the event in question is usually considered more reliable than one received years after the event.”
-Gary R. Habermas, The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus
Thus these truths need to anchor us:
1. He’s working. God is still working behind the scenes even when death has been pronounced.
2. Wait for it. I need to remember what Jesus said and wait for his appearance.
3. Why? Resurrection life is always the result when we look to Jesus.
There can be true life after death for those who actively put their trust in Christ.
Part of our faith is believing the truth of who Jesus is.
The other is believing that we can be different because of that truth.
This is the power of the resurrection.
Jesus ministered this way:
Mark 1:14-15
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Just as Jesus lived in resurrection life with the nail holes in his hands and side, so we can live in the resurrection life of Christ despite our scars.
No matter what you’ve experienced, because of the cross of Jesus Christ, that which was your sin and shame has been paid for.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that God continually brings dead things to life.
John 20:30,31
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The clear lesson of Easter is that Jesus proved with power that He is the unique Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.
“Many people entertain the idea that Christianity, like almost any other religion, is basically a system of beliefs - you know, a set of doctrines or a code of behavior, a philosophy, an ideology.
But that's a myth.
Christianity is not at all like Buddhism or Islam or Confucianism.
The founders of those religions said (in effect), 'Here is what I teach. Believe my teachings. Follow my philosophy.' Jesus said, 'Follow me' (Matthew 9:9).
Leaders of the world's religions said, 'What do you think about what I teach?' Jesus said, 'Who do you say I am?' (Luke 9:20).”
-Josh McDowell, Don't Check Your Brains At The Door
Believe the good news of Christ’s resurrection today and experience true life after death.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
No Need to Lie
No Need to Keep Up
Everything You Need is Found in Jesus
PRAY
You do not need to lie to get ahead in the world.
Commandment #9:
Exodus 20:16
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
This is a pretty self-evident command but let’s dig a bit and find modern application.
Be truthful, not spiteful, regarding your neighbors.
In our world it seems that people will do anything to get ahead or to press their agendas.
However, you don’t need to lie about yourself to push yourself forward or tear others down falsely to get where God is going to take you.
This means do not lie about anyone, whether maliciously or merely for your personal benefit.
Bearing false witness against someone is an assault on their reputation and future interactions with the world.
This is especially true in the world of cyber-bullying, cancel culture and online defamation.
God commands that we steward the reputation of others carefully and never let out in impetuous anger that which we can not take back.
In fact Jesus said this:
Matthew 12:36-37
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Tell the truth.
When you tell the truth about someone or a situation, you are able to experience the joy of knowing you can sleep well at night.
Choosing not to lie is freeing because you do not have to keep up with what you said or remember to whom you said it, because what you communicated was simply true.
When the truth is communicated in love, you equally know that while you are not involved, the seeds that you’ve sown are still working for your neighbor’s good.
You are free from having to cover your tracks and conversations because your integrity allows you to say the same thing about people when they are in front of you as when they are absent.
We’ve all had enough frienemies.
In friendships, on social media, in the workplace and in the home, we should be those who are looking to build others up, not tear them down.
Don’t buckle to the pressure of self-preservation, selling others out to save your own skin when telling the truth may cost you something.
God will back the man or woman of integrity.
Proverbs 28:18
Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.
Be faithful, not fearful, as you testify about God.
Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
It cost Jesus to come and bear truthful witnesses about his Heavenly Father, the state of the world before him, the consequences of sin and the judgment to come.
In doing so, however, it led to our faith, forgiveness and freedom.
We need to do the same for others when testifying about the cross of Jesus Christ and the redemption of God.
When we are truthful about God by faith, not only does it lead to others’ salvation, but God is able to supernaturally back us with his favor (Hebrews 11).
You do not need to have what others do to experience true joy.
Commandment #10:
Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
Remember, in each of these commandments, God is trying to set you free.
God does not owe you a particular sized home, spouse with certain measurements, type of career or number of checks on your bucket list.
God is always more concerned with saving a man or woman’s eternal soul than fulfilling their modern, entitled vision of manifest destiny promoted in our media.
God does, however, enjoy blessing his children as they obey His commandments so that they can enjoy his goodness and be a blessing to others (Genesis 12).
What I’ve noticed in our world is that we need to be both sensitive and aware during challenging times.
People need to make sure that their disdain for others’ successes are not covetousness disguised as righteous indignation.
How can you tell the difference?
*If you would be happy if you were in someone else’s shoes, but are unhappy that someone else is now enjoying what you desire for yourself, then that is envy, not justice for which you long.
Carnal jealousy and ungodly rivalries always produce a wanton soul (Galatians 5:20).
Selfish ambition breeds discontent that will never allow you to rest in the life of promise that God intends for you.
What causes coveting?
Beyond greed, it is our modern battle with the idea of self - derived not from God but from society’s value placed on self-actualization.
The daily frustration and disappointment that people feel comes from an imagined sense of who they thought they should be, what they should do or what they should accomplish.
Yet who told you these things?
If it was not God, it can actually lead to slavery.
And in the quest to fulfill a self-created dream, we can reject the everyday life, relationships and opportunities that fulfill God’s
Kingdom narrative for us with Christ, rather than ourselves, at the center.
This type of “keeping up with the Joneses” can enslave us and distort our lives.
As Dr. Timothy Keller continues to relate in his book, Counterfeit Gods,
“...counterfeit gods come in clusters, making the idolatry structure of the heart complex...Sin in our hearts affects our basic motivational drives so they become idolatrous, “deep idols.” Some people are strongly motivated by a desire for influence and power, while others are more excited by approval and appreciation. Some want emotional and physical comfort more than anything else, while still others want security, the control of their environment. People with the deep idol of power do not mind being unpopular in order to gain influence. People who are most motivated by approval are the opposite - they will gladly lose power and control as long as everyone thinks well of them. Each deep idol - power, approval, comfort, or control - generates a different set of fears and a different set of hopes.
“Surface idols” are things such as money, our spouse, or children, through which our deep idols seek fulfillment. We are often superficial in our analysis of our idol structures. For example, money can be a surface idol that serves to satisfy more foundational impulses. Some people want lots of money as a way to control their world and life. Such people usually don’t spend much money and live very modestly. They keep it all safely saved and invested, so they can feel completely secure in the world. Others want money for access to social circles and to make themselves beautiful and attractive. These people do spend their money on themselves in lavish ways.
Other people want money because it gives them so much power over others. In every case, money functions as an idol and yet, because of various deep idols, it results in very different patterns of behavior.
The person using money to serve a deep idol of control will often feel superior to people using money to attain power or social approval. In every case, however, money-idolatry enslaves and distorts lives.”
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters (page 64-65)
The Bible reminds us, however, that on the other side of God’s commandments, including, “do not covet”, are His blessings and freedom.
How is this so?
We are filled with joy when we are able to “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15).
When I can congratulate someone else for their success and be content to fulfill my stewardship before the Lord, I am truly free.
*I do not need to covet when I know that God will take care of me.
The beauty of God is that his principles work for everyone who would believe his good news and employ his principles.
It does not mean there will not be obstacles because of the sin and fallenness of our world, but it does mean that God’s favor and blessing are stronger.
Let’s get practical.
This is the hope that we have in God:
Proverbs 14:23
In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.
Remember that Jesus is the God who opens doors that no man can shut and shuts doors that no man can open (Revelation 3:8).
God will give me the exact measure I need so that my heart might maintain worship and fulfill his purposes.
This is why Agur son of Jakeh wrote by the Holy Spirit:
Proverbs 30:7-9
Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Joy is a product of thankfulness.
When we are ungrateful or feel entitled to something that we did not receive, we are soured in our souls.
Nothing pleasant happening to or for us ever fills the void.
When we maintain God’s perspective that what we ultimately deserve is punishment for our sins, death and hell, then everything that we receive is a cherry on top and a product of grace.
This transforms every good thing in my life to a gift for which I am truly grateful.
It is in this way that I am freed of coveting and am content to ENJOY everything that the Lord has graciously given me, whether it be a gift, or the product of my own labors.
I know that it all comes from the Lord and I don’t need what another man or woman has to be happy.
You will experience true joy when you begin to embrace all that you’ve been given In Jesus.
John 6:25-35
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Everything that you need for abundant life and godliness is truly found in Jesus.
God wants to give us joy in that which he’s entrusted to us.
Choosing to be content is freeing because it allows us to finally rest in the truth that we can actually be happy in what God had lovingly given us.
True joy begins and ends with the Lord.
God allows life to show us that no experience, no lover, no number in your bank account, no title, no measure of power or control will ever be able to substitute for the joy that is found satisfied in a relationship with Jesus.
We can learn now or later, but we will learn.
*When we learn that Jesus is our great reward, we are free to accumulate in life to be a blessing, not to be happy.
This is the great justification of the call to worship Jesus alone, our champion.
He is the one who stood in proxy for fallen humanity to do battle at the cross against sin and death at the cross and so save all who would come to the judge through the merits of Christ’s sinful life alone.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
The commandments of God remind us that God is a consuming fire, burning up what is detrimental and lighting a flame for what will be eternally life-giving to us.
God’s Word is ALWAYS SUPERNATURALLY DERIVED, with PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
This means that God’s commands are the every day ways to love and worship Him while looking out for the benefit of others, as well as your own.
More than a means to simply cross your will, God’s commands lead to the created world’s, humanity’s and your personal good.
Both commandments seven and eight have to do with how much we feel like we have vs. how much we think we need to be satisfied.
This is, in effect, God starting to get into your stuff.
Remember, in each of these commandments, God is trying to set you free.
Partner
Possessions
Perfect Satisfaction in Christ
God wants to be at the center of your desires.
Commandment #7:
Exodus 20:14
“You shall not commit adultery.”
We realize that many of the commands of God now seem counter-cultural.
However, Jesus gave this clear instruction:
Matthew 5:17-20
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now let’s speak about adultery.
According to Jesus, adultery is not just a physical interaction, but it begins in the heart.
*It is closer to home and involves the trappings of what is offered as every day entertainment.
Can there be adultery in singleness?
Matthew 5:27-30
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
What does it mean to gouge out our eyes or cut off our hands?
It means to cut off your access to any habit or relationship that would cause you to sin.
A good Lenten goal may be abstaining from some of the normal entertainment, social media or otherwise and see how your pipes get cleaned.
King David, the Second king of Israel who had his own failings with adultery, said this:
Psalm 101:1-4
I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music. I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.
It is when he did not practice this command that he inevitably fell with Bathsheba.
Do not sacrifice God’s convictions for the sake of entertainment.
We know that it is a struggle when you are inundated with a culture bent against Biblical purity.
However, God is holy and will fight for you and strengthen you to walk in the freedom of holiness.
God makes a good promise when he says this:
1 Corinthians 10:12-14
Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
In God, our many spiritual and physical infidelities can be redeemed, so that there is hope for marriages and psyches that have been damaged by sin.
2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
Singleness of devotion to God frees you from the entrapments of the world that spring from trying to please others (I Corinthians 7).
*Purity is freeing because it allows us to focus on cultivating the very relationships that God is looking to bless.
Adultery in marriage
We have compassion for those who’ve been through the pain of adultery and a message of hope for those who've been involved in such sin.
We know that it is a serious matter since marital unfaithfulness is the only legitimate justification that Jesus sites as a reason for divorce (Matthew 19:1-12 - though things like abuse are a further discussion).
If that is the case, why do people commit adultery?
Amongst many reasons, people often site dissatisfaction in their relationships.
Because of the relational dynamics with their significant other, those who commit adultery feel like they are withering from some form of neglect or missing something that they feel like they are due.
When those in this situation feel like cultivating their present field won’t work, they look for easier pastures.
This too, however, can be a form of idolatry, where we have chosen the promise of an emotional or physical savior over our devotion to God and our spouses.
Yet idols are deceiving since the devil, who is the father of lies (John 8:44) is making empty promises through them.
*Always remember it is easier to love people at a distance and those that you don’t really know.
Think about the club scene.
The great tragedy is we idealize people we see only on social media, or with whom we have minimal interactions.
We neglect and villanize the people we actually do life with, those that we live around and those in our own homes.
It is easier to think well of someone when you don’t have to interact with them regularly.
It will always be the case that when you do, you see their shortcomings and their imperfections - their sins.
Think about a vanity mirror.
The only reason you think so well of people you put on pedestals is because you are not close enough to them.
And in this distortion, you place judgment on, criticize and become dissatisfied with those with whom you actually have the opportunity to have relationship.
This is the great trap of the devil - the greener pasture syndrome.
It happens in marriages, friendships, churches and workplaces all of the time.
You have too many options and convince yourself you have connections that you simply do not.
In the meantime, you end up neglecting the land God’s actually given you.
This is not love.
It is fantasy.
In the case of marriage, adultery, having “a little something on the side”, seems like a viable way out - but should you take it?
“An idolatrous attachment can lead you to break any promise, rationalize any indiscretion, or betray any other allegiance, in order to hold on to it. It may drive you to violate all good and proper boundaries. To practice idolatry is to be a slave.”
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters
Let’s talk about sex
Too many people feel dissatisfied with their intimate lives because of what they watch online, thinking their lives are supposed to simulate the fabricated portrayals that they see on the screen.
People grab for greater highs that can never be satisfied until a violation of some sort occurs.
God wants to protect you from this while blessing you with holy fulfillment.
It is not your spouse’s responsibility to keep you from sin.
If you are married, your body is not your own, though is to be treated by your spouse with respect, gentleness, consideration and honor (I Corinthians 7).
Your intimacy should not be limited to sex, but it is given by God in marriage for procreation, our pleasure (Song of Solomon) and protection.
It is the responsibility of the spouse to love God and not commit adultery, even if the other is in the sin of withholding sexually.
Sin is not condoned as a response to sin.
There will be different seasons of ups and downs in life, times that you feel closer or less connected to your spouse.
However, in every season, God has given marriage to be a place of safety, security, encouragement and protection as you are passing through these varied times.
Deeming your relationship unsatisfying emotionally, sexually or even financially does not give you permission to look outside of the covenant to have your needs met.
The first place we go in all things is to God in his Word and prayer to have our soul (mind, will and emotions) filled in Him.
From that place of renewed strength we have hope to cultivate our marriages for the good, even as there may be suffering as you wait on that change.
This, too, is participating in the sufferings of Christ.
Times of infirmity are an example of why you need self control.
But is there prolonged hope?
*Enjoying the life within which you’ve found yourself can be realized when you learn to patiently and persistently cultivate that which God has entrusted to you.
There is hope for you in your marriage - that you’ll be able to thrive in your communication, intimacy and purpose together as you submit all three of these things to Jesus.
When you meet God in each of these areas, it fills you to understand that your fidelity to your spouse who you can see is to be a reflection of your faithfulness to the Lord who you can not see.
Fidelity is about loving God before and even above you love your spouse.
By loving God who is unchanging, you gain a deeper appreciation for your spouse who will forever be changing (whether spiritually as they become more like Christ, physically or mentally as they age).
Adultery is quenched by the fear of the Lord and an active cultivation of the relationship that you have with your spouse.
You don’t have to steal that which God wants to provide.
Commandment #8:
Exodus 20:15
“You shall not steal.”
In the very real and no judgment event that you’ve fallen on hard times, please do not feel like you need to steal to meet your needs.
If you or someone you know is dealing with food scarcity or basic needs of clothing and shelter not being met, there are various loving church ministries with whom we partner throughout the city that can help meet those practical needs while you look to get back on your feet.
Please reach out and let us know.
*People often steal when they are convinced that they do not have enough (or there is no help for their situation).
We don’t want to steal from other people or from God.
When you understand God as your provider, you know that every need will be met as you are diligent to follow His commands, working hard and stewarding his resources according to his commands.
When God is your source, you will not steal because you know that you can not ultimately keep that which God does not bless.
We want to first make sure that we are not robbing God.
In the book of Malachi, God shared a curious Scripture when he said:
Malachi 3:7-12
From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
This is explained well when we understand our New Testament dynamic in Christ:
“‘I’ll tell you why you don’t see the tithing requirement laid out clearly in the New Testament. Think. Have we received more of God’s revelation, truth, and grace than the Old Testament believers, or less?’ Usually there is uncomfortable silence. ‘Are we more ‘debtors to grace’ than they were, or less? Did Jesus ‘tithe’ his life and blood to save us or did he give it all?’ Tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position of giving away less of our income than those who had so much less of an understanding of what God did to save them.”
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, Hodder and Stoughton, 2009, pg 62.
Dr. Keller went on to say:
“Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they are guilty of it.”
-Timothy Keller
The Old and New Testaments have about 800 Scriptures combined regarding wealth, including verses on savings, investments, income, tithing, offering, spending, running a business, family budgets, etc.
Jesus spoke about money about 25% of the time because it has and will always be such a big issue in your life.
Jesus' teaching ultimately comes down to your perspective regarding money, its source, and whether or not you trust God to instruct you about what to do with it.
Yet it is not just about our giving, it is also about how we execute our work.
Especially in things like the remote pandemic work, “do not steal” means making sure that you are in integrity, working the hours for which you are being paid and not undercutting from your employer.
It means remembering that you are working for the Lord, not people and your reward will come from God.
This also allows you to achieve while reinforcing the proper boundaries of placing God and his commands first.
Colossians 3:22-25
Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
God knows our needs and there are so many promises regarding his provision in the Scripture.
When you have God as your source, you have greater faith, encouragement and ingenuity for righteous provision because you know that it is the Lord who gives you the power to produce wealth when you do things His way.
Deuteronomy 8:18
You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
*Giving God and others what they are due is freeing because we know that we have God’s backing to bless that which we entrust to him.
We do not have to steal because we have an inheritance from the Lord as a reward for obeying his commands.
You can live a truly satisfying life with Jesus at the center.
In Jesus, not only was the wrath of God satisfied for our sins against our holy God, but he became the existential solution to our souls’ need for satisfaction.
Because everything into which I sow for Jesus will last forever, I know that my greatest loves will endure and my soul will be eternally satisfied in Christ.
Perfect Satisfaction in Christ regarding:
Relationships - eternal, ever-living family (Mark 10:28-31)
Health - eternal vitality (I Corinthians 15)
Provision - eternal treasure (Matthew 6:19-24)
Purpose - eternal responsibility and reward (Revelation 1-3)
Pleasure - eternal joy (Psalm 16:11)
Soul Gratifying Worship - eternal life, intimate knowledge of and fellowship with God (John 17:3)
And so the cross of Jesus becomes a beautiful thing to me because in it, not only did he fully satisfy the wrath of God, but he opened the door to which all true needs can also ultimately be satisfied in me when I obey his commands, whether now or in the life to come.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
It Starts in the Home
It Affects Every Relationship
The Commands of a Perfect Father
We will better understand God’s gospel of grace when we learn to honor our parents.
Commandment #5:
Exodus 20:12
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
This commandment is the bridge between loving God and loving people.
The relationship that we have with our parents is meant to be the first and most shaping relationship that we have in our early development.
Amongst other things, parents are to be our first:
Caregivers
Instructors
Source of Definition and Stability
Authority
*This is important because what we learn from our parents, whether consciously or subconsciously, affects how we perceive God.
Parents were given by God to be the first earthly reflection of our Heavenly Father.
The reality is, no matter how godly our parents are, they will be imperfect.
God knew this when he gave the command and expects us to honor them anyway.
Honoring someone does not mean agreeing with everything that someone does.
Honor means that you accept the object of honor within the same human frailties that you have and treat them with the same grace that you have received from the Lord.
When you are a child, obedience is expected.
Earthly parents set a foundation of relationship with God.
It is the authority that we can see to be a practice for obedience to the authority of God that we can not see.
1 John 4:19-20
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
When you are an adult, honor means valuing and speaking well of your parents even as you obey your Heavenly Father in what you think, say and do.
Because of the damage done by sin, our relationship with our parents and perspectives of God can both be distorted, in need of renewal.
The Word of God provides a way to a better response.
*It shows us that our parents may not be perfect, but this does not disqualify them from receiving your honor, just as our sin does not prevent us from receiving God’s agape love.
Why is it the first commandment with a promise?
It does not matter how old you are or how removed from an active relationship you find yourself.
*When we refuse to honor our parents because of their shortcomings, we are ultimately the ones who end up bound in our souls, destined to either repeat or overcompensate for their visible sins.
The honor that you show for your parents will directly affect your relationship with your Heavenly Father, and if you have children, the honor that they replicate towards you.
Practicing Honor:
Understand their shortcomings with a Biblical worldview, that your parents, just like the rest of humanity, are fallen creatures in need of a Savior because of sin
Pray for their salvation if they are still living and share the gospel of their own redemption when able
Identify any positive qualities that you can encourage and for which you can thank God
Love them with demonstrations of respect (in interaction), value and kindness. The cost may be great but your absorption of sin will allow you to better understand both the sufferings and love of Christ.
The same is true for relationships outside of the home.
We will have better relationships with others when we learn to lay down the offenses that we carry against them.
Commandment #6
Exodus 20:13
“You shall not murder.“
Matthew 5:21-26
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
The truth is when we don’t forgive others, we are the ones who remain in bondage while the offenders are allowed to go about their lives, possibly never giving our condition a second thought.
When we hate or hold animosity towards people in our hearts, God counts it as murder.
The reason why is that the meditations of your heart are the precursors of all human activity.
Whatever we allow to grow in our hearts, whether for good or ill, whenever given the opportunity, we will find ways to fulfill.
This is equally true of altruism as it is of evil which we would undertake more readily if we thought there were the possibility of indulgence without consequence.
We have the humility needed for better relationships when we embrace the forgiveness of a perfect Heavenly Father.
Matthew 5:43-48
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Really, it comes down to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Can we forgive those who have wronged us and can we choose to reconcile with those who’ve offended us?
Well, because of the cross of Jesus Christ, through the gospel of God’s grace, you can.
Some people find it hard to forgive themselves for their past or wrongs that they have done.
You will experience the forgiveness of the Lord when you offer others the pardon that Jesus has first offered you.
Remember, all of the commands of God reflect God taking us out of slavery into the freedom of new life in Him.
-Bob Goff
And so am I 😆.
-Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
You Can’t Just Slap His Name on It
Sabbath Rest
True Rest in Christ
You Can’t Just Slap His Name on It
Exodus 20:7-11
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Taking God’s name in vain means treating what is revered as mundane, what is to be holy as common.
Commandment #3:
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
1. You don’t want to dishonor God who is our uncreated, all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful deity using His name without reverence or as a pejorative.
Yet it cuts deeper than this on a daily basis for us.
2. You can not just attach the name of God to anything that you choose to do.
This is taking God’s name in vain and cuts against the essence of being a disciple or servant of the Lord.
The detriment of this is it not only reduces a healthy fear of the Lord in our hearts, but it also strips our existence of the holiness that is to permeate all aspects of our lives.
*This was at the heart of King Saul’s disobedience to the Lord and God’s subsequent rejection of Saul as king of Israel (I Samuel 15).
When we are followers of Jesus, our LIVES ARE NO LONGER OUR OWN. WE ARE TO NO LONGER DO WHAT WE WANT, WHERE WE WANT, WHEN WE WANT WITH WHOM WE WANT.
2 Corinthians 5 shows us that when we were bought back from death by Jesus, that our lives moving forward are no longer about us.
They are about Christ, his glory and then our good.
Our lives have to be laid out in that order to be eternally significant and that for which you receive an enduring reward.
2 Corinthians 5:15
and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
The essence of being a disciple is learning to deny YOURSELF, pick up your cross daily and FOLLOW JESUS.
We follow Jesus through God’s written commands and Holy Spirit directives fulfilled alongside the people to whom God has attached you.
We don’t want to be those who miss the ways of the Lord because our minds are focused more on God blessing our comforts rather than His Kingdom purposes in our lives.
Mark 8:31-38
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
So how do we make sure that we are not taking God’s name in vain?
You pray about everything
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
You have accountability with covenant believers helping to shape your life
John 21:18-19
18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Sabbath Rest
*The commands of God lead to a life-giving existence.
Commandment #4:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The Sabbath was designed to teach us to trust and find our rest in God.
-Charles Spurgeon
Each Sabbath, by pausing their work, the Israelites were expressing their trust in God as their source of provision and defined significance.
Consider these promises.
Leviticus 25:18-22
“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.
Matthew 6:31-33
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
The Sabbath is meant to be a time of worship where we are not finding identity merely in our work, but in the God who brings significance to our work.
*When we honor the Sabbath, we are reaffirming the fact that work is meant to be worship unto God rather than work being that which we worship.
Each Sabbath we are pressing a reset button allowing God to once again reorient our lives around His Word and Kingdom purposes.
It is here that we are each reminded of our divine purpose affirming God’s commands as healthy boundaries to provide necessary direction to our pursuits and outlets for our resources.
*Being a disciple of Jesus affects the decisions that we make on a daily basis, where the rubber meets the road.
How does this help free us from common trappings?
There are only twenty four hours every day.
Lose the extra stress - God will never call you to do something which he doesn’t give you the time or discoverable provision to fulfill.
God will never “call you” to something that requires you to break his commandments to fulfill.
If you feel like you don’t have enough time in the day to obey the commands of God, the issue is that your days are being filled with things God has not called you to do.
You can not serve two masters.
Trust the Lord - it leads to your peace, prosperity, God’s glory and Kingdom good.
*One is not sacrificed for the other, but it does begin with sacrifice.
Reference Andy Stanley’s book - Choosing to Cheat
True Rest in Christ
True rest is ultimately found in Jesus Christ.
True rest means that we are freed to no longer be driven by the tyranny of the urgent, #YOLO or #FOMO motifs.
True rest in Christ means that we work hard for our provision, but we do so with boundaries recognizing that our needs will ultimately be met by the hand of a caring Heavenly Father.
Because of Christ’s sacrifice at the cross, you no longer have to work your way to God or his salvation, but rest in Jesus’ finished work for you.
And with this we subsequently find rest in our soul’s from the burden of trying to forge an identity, significance or ultimate success in life outside of God’s loving plan.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
It is with the Ten Commandments that God’s covenant with the Israelites began.
Ancient rabbis identified 613 separate commandments throughout the entire Law of Moses, which consisted of the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Ten Commandments are the principles upon which the 613 Laws are based.
The first four focus on man’s relationship with and reverence towards God, with love for God as their ultimate theme (Deuteronomy 6:5).
The latter six give instruction regarding man’s relationship with other human beings, exhorting us towards the “golden rule” (Leviticus 19:18).
*In essence, in the Ten Commandments, you see the two greatest commandments to which Jesus referred given practical application (Matthew 22:35-40).
Where God Belongs
Distorted Images
True Freedom
When God is not first in our lives, we will be enslaved to lesser, harsh things.
All that God requires of us is predicated on the fact that He heard our cries of desperation (whether silent or loud) just as He heard the Israelites’ cries when they were groaning in slavery.
The Israelites were in bondage in Egypt.
We were in our slavery to sin and the resultant consequences.
Exodus 20:1-6
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The first commandment deals with who or what god has priority in your life.
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
When gods are mentioned in Scripture, it was referring to any manner of rulers that lorded over people’s lives.
The question is what has received the priority of your time, attention and affections before and above Jesus?
What has that produced and why is it detrimental?
*The commands of God always place Jesus first in your life for your good.
People deceive themselves to believe that they experience greater freedom without the commands of God.
However, from anger and hatred to insecurity and fear to lust and an inability to forgive, without Christ, we are all enslaved to the frailties of our carnal fallen nature.
Ironically, all of the commands and law of God are meant to truly set humanity free.
James 1:25
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Distorted images of God enslave rather than free us.
Whereas the first command deals with God’s place as priority, the second deals with idolatry and what we are in fact, serving.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,”
Though all of humanity was made in the image of God, today we are encouraged to reshape God in our own image, according to the whims of our changing culture, reflecting our preferences and the loudest voices in a distorted society.
This is the essence of idolatry.
*An idol is made whenever we substitute God’s direct, self-revelation and commands for a caricature of God we remake in our preferred image.
The damage done is palpable personally, relationally and societally.
To that point, in his 2009 publication Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters, Timothy Keller states:
Yet the good news is that at this point we see God’s jealousy enter in.
God’s jealousy is for our benefit.
He will not be reduced to a caricature in any extreme nor be hijacked for any human cause.
He is jealous not only for his own honor, but jealous to keep us from harm because of his love for us.
A life of disobedience brings about generational curses, where we and others are damaged by the idols that we worship.
A life lived in obedience to God brings generational blessings.
It is only through the cross that Jesus redeems and redirects family histories to bring us from generational curses into generational blessings.
When we serve God as He’s revealed Himself rather than as we’d like to remake Him, it leads to our freedom.
*The commands of God lead to true freedom.
John 8:31-36
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
*Think about it.
When has anything that you’ve ever put before God ultimately turned out for your enduring good?
Career? Your physical appearance and looks? Romantic relationships? Finding identity in the success of your children?
Ultimately we become obsessive about these things, they become task masters to us, and we end up in slavery to them in our souls.
*Idolatry always takes more from us than it gives.
It offers false hopes and promises that are temporary at best and must be fed constantly to simulate life.
Jesus, however, invites you into his finished work where you are freed to neither hunger nor thirst for fleeting pleasures in your soul.
Life in Christ always gives more than we can ever repay.
-Billy Graham
*When we serve God first and before all things, everything important in our lives is put in their right place and in the right order so that rather than being life-draining, they might be life-giving.
This is true freedom.
This is where we’ll pick up next week.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Cole Parleir
Today we are going to talk about love in the life of a believer.
My prayer is that when we are finished today you will have a concrete standard for love as defined by God so that you can build a life of eternal significance and success in God's freedom and favor.
When you hear the word ‘love’ what comes to mind?
If you are like most people this word probably brings up many different pictures or feelings without one universal standard.
This is not the way it should be.
This is because we are surrounded by counterfeits and half truths regarding love. These counterfeits come from many different sources. Some of these sources are overtly sinister while others are simply confused or hurt, thereby perpetuating the cycle they've fallen prey to.
Genuine or counterfeit dollar bill?
It's important that we understand the true value of love, faith, and wisdom. In order for the value of these to have their effect in our lives we must discern if we have the genuine article in our possession and not counterfeits.
Look at this dollar bill.
How do you know if it's genuine legal tender and able to buy you something? You must know what real legal tender looks like.
We come to recognize counterfeits by devotedly studying the real thing, NOT by studying counterfeits.
So, let's spend a little time studying what God has said in His written Word, the Bible, about his gifts of genuine love, faith, and wisdom.
Scripture Background of 1 John 4:7-21
Who is John?
One of the 12 disciples specially denoted as "The beloved disciple". He walked with Jesus during his earthly ministry first hand witnessing love, faith, and wisdom in action. He's the disciple whom Jesus entrusted to take care of his mother Mary at his crucifixion. He along with Peter were the first 2 of the 12 apostles to see the empty tomb after Jesus's resurrection from the dead in power. He wrote the Gospel of John, the letters with his name sake, and the last book of the Bible: Revelation.
Who is he writing 1 John to?
He was writing to Christians who were falling prey to Gnosticism and other schisms that were perverting the true Gospel, which he was a first hand witness to.
Why is John writing this letter to them?
John is writing to remind people of the truth of God’s love in Jesus Christ, who Jesus is, and what He has done and is doing to not only redeem and save, but to preserve those whom he has snatched from the fires of hell. He wants the readers to stand firm in the truth that they may be confident on the day of judgement when Christ returns to save those who are waiting for him.
Summary of the letter
The ESV study Bible puts it this way “…the letter is not a list of dos and don’ts. It is rather a manifesto of “Done!"" echoing Jesus on the cross when he declared “It is finished!”
1 John 4:7-21 ESV
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
1 John 4:7-21 ESV
What are the concrete things God is imparting to us in his Word today?
To give God's genuine pure love, you must first have received it.
"Beloved" is used 3 times in this chapter alone to address the believer that's being warned of counterfeit loves.
You must personally know in an experiential way God's holy and pure love for you. There is no replacement for experiencing God's love. No person can you give what only God has.
Any love you give not sourced from God is incomplete and tainted. It will always be laced with some selfish motive that will rear it's ugly head when an expectation on the object of love is not met.
To my single friends: if you are out their looking for love the best thing you can do is focus on God's love for you. This is studying the original so you can discern when the counterfeits show up with big smiles, smooth words, and deep pockets. This will help you live single without regrets. Also, this will prepare you to love properly the spouse God is preparing for you, not expecting them to provide for you what only God can.
God is love, but love is not God.
God is the definition of love. Anything presenting itself as “love” but is devoid of God, rejects God, or doesn't follow his ways, is a perversion at best that will disappoint you. It's demonic at worst and will kill, steal, and destroy you.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 ESV
The easiest thing to turn into an idol is another human being. This is because all humans are created in God's image with a heart that needs love, as well as a capacity to give love.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
But when that God given need for love is not sourced from God, this good thing becomes a God thing: a.k.a- an idol. Idols promise to give you life but only return hurt and death. This is why God wants you free from idols and counterfeits. He wants to give you pure life.
Where have you received your definition of love up until this point?
Usually it’s our parents, our family, our community, our classmates, our politics, and our culture or society through media.
Because humanity is created in God’s image all of these outlets have some correct aspects of God’s love on display. But because these persons and institutions are not God they fall short of displaying God’s glory to our sincerely love hungry hearts.
Jesus is God's love manifested among us.
True love is revealed in the Son of God Jesus Christ. himself.
"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
God's love is sacrificial and not self servíng.
God's love gives life because it covers a multitude of sins that seperate us from Him.
God's love is undeserved.
How do we confirm our status as God's beloved?
Confessing and accepting Jesus Christ as the son of God and savior of the world is accepting God’s love because Jesus is God’s love made manifest.
What does love look like? Jesus
What does love sound like? Jesus
What does love accomplish? Salvation
Love can not be purchased.
It can only be given.
Love cannot be repaid. It is priceless. To attempt to repay it only diminishes its affect in your life.
“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.” - Song of Solomon 8:7 ESV
Love can not be forced or coerced.
It can only be freely given and accepted.
This is chain breaking good news for all of us that have been manipulated by counterfeit loves!
"First, it is impossible to pay God back for all the grace he has given us. We can’t even begin to pay him back. . . . Second, even if we succeeded in paying him back for all his grace to us, we would only succeed in turning grace into a business transaction. If we can pay him back, it was not grace. (Godward Life, 36)"
-http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-comes-after-thanksgiving
So, how can we be free from counterfeit loves?
Come into the truth of God’s love and light: Jesus Christ.
““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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.””
John 3:16-21 ESV
Now how do we show our gratitude and love God since He has no needs? We allow His Holy Spirit to work in us to live according to his ways. Jesus said if you love me you will obey me. You'll be my disciple.
Disciples are simply people abiding in God’s love in Jesus Christ and sharing that love with others by telling them the news that:
Vs 19 we love because He first loved us.
A world full of love is a world full of Christians; little Christ’s who have accepted God’s love in Christ Jesus and are sacrificially sharing God’s love in word and deed through the Gospel.
Illustration
Eveliz and the flower resurrection
You know if a plant is truly dead by pouring some water on it. If if it revises it was just dormant due to neglect and not dead.
In the same way we share the love of God in the gospel of Christ to see spiritually “dead” lives revived.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
The Look of Love
The Labor of Love
Redeeming Love
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
God is all powerful “El Shaddai” - “Almighty” (Genesis 35:1-15)
Luke 9:51-56
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.
Because God is Almighty, he transforms our struggle into purpose.
The God we serve is Yeshua (Luke 1:26-35)
In His name He reveals His salvation.
God’s salvation is given to us through his favor (grace), and he enables us to be part of the grand narrative of the redemptive story.
As opposed to English, there were at least four distinct words for love in the Greek language.
Storge - represented familial fondness; liking someone through familiarity, as they find themselves bonded by chance.
Philia - represented deep friendship, as in the strong bond existing between people who share common values, interests or activities.
Eros - represented the idea of sexual passion and desire.
Agape - represented selfless charity; the kind that exists regardless of changing circumstances.
-Peter Bromberg
The real test of our modern Christian worship (who or what are we actually worshiping)
Is God worthy of my love (devotion and obedience) when I don’t get what I want?
Are others to expect my love (commitment and care) when they disappoint or offend me?
Love must be sincere.
— G. K. Chesterton
Now I’m a Marvel fan, so you know I enjoy a sci-if world.
However, the problem with our generation’s overconsumption of media is we live in a world of fantasy fear over practical, real-time faith, hope and love.
Choose love over fear:
Demonic fear has to do with what could happen and imagined scenarios of harm.
Love has to do with the people you actually know, the days that you actually live and the opportunities to do good that you actually have.
THIS is the only life for which God will hold you responsible - obeying his commands in real time.
Not the fantasy worlds or dangers we looked to avoid.
Proverbs 12:11
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.
Proverbs 26:13-16
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.
In Christ, we get to transition from would could be, might be and is coming for me to what I am destined to see as I choose Him.
Stop living in the unknowns.
Proverbs 11:25
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.
Proverbs 21:21
Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.
We will reap what we sow.
Galatians 6:7-10
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
-Tony Evans, Our God is Awesome: Encountering the Greatness of Our God
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The Reason for Hope
Hope in the Midst of Suffering
Why Hope Springs Eternal
The reason that we can have hope in life is because we have seen and trust the goodness of God.
Definition of Hope
Hope is Biblically defined as an often pleasurable anticipation and a confident expectation of good.
Hope is the internal desire for things to be better and the spark that tells us that things can, in fact, be different.
Hope is based on the good that God has shown of Himself in the world and has been testified to in Scripture.
Jesus let us know that God is a kind miracle worker and that all things are possible to those who believe.
When you have seen the goodness of God in one area, you can have hope for it in another, even if you’ve only experienced it through the testimony the Scripture or others offer.
These testimonies invigorate hope:
FOR HEALINGS
FOR DELIVERANCE FROM OPPRESSIVE SPIRITS
FOR GOD TO GIVE YOU A FAMILY OR ADD TO THE ONE YOU ALREADY HAVE
FOR MIRACLE PROVISION
FOR A REDEFINED PURPOSE AFTER ALL THAT YOU’VE BUILT HAS BEEN SHAKEN OR ALL THAT YOU’VE PURSUED HAS FEELS LOST
FOR RENEWED STRENGTH AND DIRECTION
FOR THE SALVATION OF FAMILY MEMBERS, FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS and BELOVED CO-WORKERS
These are all things worthy of Biblical hope based on the track record of God.
Benefits of Hope:
Hope stabilizes
Hope energizes
Hope gets us out of bed with expectation in the morning.
This is why King David, knowing God as a faithful, loving shepherd would speak,
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This phrase “follow me” literally had the implication that God’s goodness would find and chase down the one who was submitted to the Lord as one of His beloved sheep, because of God’s goodnesss, not our own.
Yet interestingly this terminology also followed the fact that David, and those who would follow, would
“walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4)
and that God would
”prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” (Psalm 23:5)
Thus the hope that God intends for his people to have is not in the absence of suffering, but in the midst of it.
Hope can be challenged, but God can meet us there.
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
*SUFFERING COMES IN MANY FORMS, AND SOMETIMES, AS IN THE CASE OF ABRAHAM AND SARAH, THE SUFFERING WAS IN THE WAITING.
The fact can not be ignored, but needs to be highlighted - that between God giving Abraham the promise and Isaac, the son of the promise, arriving on the scene, there would be a period of twenty-five YEARS.
THIS IS WHERE TO MAINTAIN CONTINUED HOPE, WE MUST LEARN TO LEAN, NOT ON OUR OWN STRENGTH, BUT ON THE STRENGTH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHOSE FRUIT PRODUCES THE POWER OF LONG-SUFFERING (PATIENCE) WITHIN US.
This is how Abraham and Sarah learned endurance connected to the promise of God.
Though they took detours along the way (Egypt, Hagar and Ishmael), the long process of waiting on Isaac would eventually develop the character (the quality of being tried, tested and found usable) needed in them to walk in the purposes of God.
And so their journey would become the bedrock for living a life of hope in God.
It offers encouragement to us today as we wait on such things as:
Marriage
Children
Provision
Promotions
Healings
Salvation of family, friends, classmates, neighbors and co-workers
The return of Jesus Christ
On what things are you waiting in hope today?
In what ways do you need help enduring?
In what ways is God using this waiting to produce character in you?
How is Biblical hope exercised?
Whether it’s true or not, while we wait in hope, it can feel like the lament of Psalm 88
Psalm 88:1-18
O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
*When you have no other place to go and you still keep coming back to the place of worship and back to the place of prayer, this is Biblical hope being expressed in Christ.
Hope was expressed on the part of the Psalmist because despite their FEELINGS, they kept going to God and calling Him the God of their salvation.
When we put our hope in Jesus, we are putting our faith in El Roi (Genesis 16:1-16) “The God Who Sees”
This is because he is a compassionate God and never forgets your pain.
God sees us when no one else does and brings redemption out of our suffering.
God is also Jehovah Jireh “My Provider” (Genesis 22:1-19)
God is always looking to redeem, meaning buy back, what was lost.
God saw our deepest need (sin), he provided the solution (the perfect Lamb), and now we can be at peace when we ask for our daily bread (daily needs).
*Into the isolation of the pandemic God wants to pour His love.
What is our hope in the midst of suffering?
God Sees the Unseen
God Calls Us Into His Purposes
God Gives Us Sure Promises
*This is why we, like the Psalmist, can continue to seek God even when it seems like the current end of our song is darkness.
Condemnation tries to creep in when you don’t feel right.
The devil, the accuser, tries to weigh you down.
The Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, lets us know that we can be both honest with God about our condition because of the state of our sufferings and filled with a hope that God sees and acknowledges at the same time.
Why this process?
God uses our sufferings to produce endurance, character and true hope within us.
God utilizes our sufferings to help us cement us in the fact that He, through His Son Jesus is the source, guardian and fulfillment of all truly satisfying and enduring hope.
“God can not give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
-CS Lewis in Mere Christianity
This of course is not speaking of the fact that you can not find joy in things outside of God, rather, that you won’t find the ultimate, enduring joy and happiness for which we all long outside of him.
Every attempt to do so is a fleeting quest.
This is the message of Ecclesiastes.
God, in His love, will allow whatever is necessary to help us realize this.
We rediscover a capacity to hope again through meditating on God’s great love for us expressed in Jesus.
NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCE, IN CHRIST, RESURRECTION LIFE IS ALWAYS PART OF THE STORY, WHETHER PRESENTLY OR IN THE LIFE TO COME.
This is why hope springs eternal.
The hope that God gives is one that never ends.
The only hope that ultimately fulfills is found in the life eternal that Jesus offers.
Hope can be challenged, but hope can also be renewed.
The gospel of Christ gives us the context for all of human suffering and ultimate glories in Him.
We begin with God’s design and our initial invitation to a blessed life.
We encounter the consequences of sin and fallen humanity (Jesus enters into this with His earthly life and ministry).
We go through the stages of grief and loss responding to what could of and should have been (Jesus comes alongside of us, keeping us afloat by teaching us the endurance of Gethsemane).
Christ comes to our aid restoring our hope in the midst of suffering, while building our character (Jesus became our salvation at the cross of Golgotha).
We reengage the mission of God with the hope of our resurrection from the dead (following in the train of Christ at the empty tomb).
Because of the ultimate glories for which we are destined in Christ, the love that God pours out in our hearts gives us hope for our situations and gives us strength to once again engage others with the same hope.
“The glory of the Christian life is that we have a hope that overwhelms grief. It doesn’t eradicate it. It sweetens it. It overwhelms it.”
-Timothy Keller
“The happy ending of the Resurrection is so enormous that it swallows up even the sorrow of the Cross.”
-Timothy Keller
This means for the Christian, no matter how dark it gets, you are always on a trajectory for things to get better as you stay grounded in the hope of Christ and His resurrection life.
Even as we know that things sometimes get worse (the cross) before they get better (the empty tomb), because we know the culmination of Christ’s story, we also know the end of ours.
Let’s once again meet Jesus at the cross to receive the hope of his resurrection life as we wait on Him to fulfill all of God’s good promises.
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
-unknown
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
The Nature of Faith
Faith and Unity
Faith and the Blessing of God
Faith = Trust
Romans 1:1-6Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
Ephesians 4:1-6
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
-John Calvin
Psalm 133
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.
They are unified around that which:
1. God institutes
2. GOD blesses (people don’t always agree)
3. That which leads to LIFE ABUNDANT here AND ETERNAL LIFE to come
Philippians 1:27-30
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Pastor Rollan Fisher
How does God instruct us to move forward?
With faith, hope and love
*In our day, we need to redefine our terms to understand what God means when He introduces the vital qualities of faith, hope and love.
Today, we’re going to talk about faith.
Romans 4:13-25
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead ( since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
God’s promises towards us are made to us because of God’s goodness, not our own.
The promises that God makes us are entered into as a product of grace - God giving us what we don’t deserve rather than what we do.
God gives life to things that have died and calls into existence those things which did not exist.
Faith is not a denial of reality. It is a realization that God is greater than our present reality.
Faith is counting God’s word as true and acknowledging His ability to do what He’s promised in His word and that He's spoken to us by the Holy Spirit.
We are counted righteous and enter into the life of God when we take God at his Word and put our trust in Him.
We enter into Jesus’ righteousness, the forgiveness provided by His substitutionary work at the cross and are justified at the judgement when we put our faith in Him.
By faith in God, all things are possible!!!
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021
Associate Pastor Cole Parleir
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.
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.
- 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)
- Pastor and Evangelist F.B. Meyer
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
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
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
Looking for Answers
Finding the God Who Cares
Jesus at the Temple
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.
-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.
-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.
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?
-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.
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
-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.
-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!
Second City Church - Joy to the World, Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020
Pastor Rolan Fisher
Following the Signs
With Special Revelation
To the Feet of the King
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.
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:
-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?
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.
-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?
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:
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.
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:
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
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.
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
Pastor Rollan Fisher
What are you waiting for?
Joy in the waiting
What is God 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.
-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.
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.
-Rick Warren
Why?
-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?
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.
