2 Samuel 7:29, part3

This is the final part of a series of blogs picking up from yesterday.  We are discussing the prayer we invited people to declare over their own lives.  Many people are accustomed to the idea of praying for others but not themselves.  Then, a step farther, ministering to yourself.  So much of David's writings in the Psalms are examples of him dealing with himself spiritually.  Take for example the beginning of Psalm 103.  He opens with, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!"  He is giving commands to himself...ministering to himself...yes, talking to yourself is Biblical!

The next component of the prayer is breaking.  I was a wrestler in middle school and high school, albeit not a very good one but in looking back to those years, we find a meaningful illustration here.  When you are trying to break free from an opponent, it begins with an act of your will.  You have to resolve in your heart and mind that you will NOT be bound by this person.  That is the step of renouncing from yesterday's blog.  Now however, you must get free.  There is a moment when you separate, when you divide, when you are free.  I believe this is true with us spiritually.  So we prayed, "Father, I break any power this temptation has over me, all control this temptation has in my life!"  In a room where this is happening, you can literally see a change in the countenance of people in the room, beautiful!

Finally, there is a moment of declaration.  Just as in wrestling, once you are free, you have to be committed to not being entangled again in your former patterns of sin, patterns of yielding to certain kinds of temptation.  We won't always succeed but through this prayer and the wisdom of Scripture about accountability, confession, counseling, etc...we find a path forward to continue to battle...even returning to these sorts of prayer encounters when needed.  We prayed, "And I declare, that I am a child of the living God and that Holy Spirit living within me will be the loudest, most dominant influence in my life, living a life that is pleasing to my God!"  Have you ever helped someone move?  What if the friend that rents the fifth floor apartment...and you get the heaviest piece of furniture they own!  You finally get to the place where it is supposed to be placed and the feeling you have when you let go...you literally feel lighter.  So too with the entanglements of temptation and sin.  Freedom is His promise!

In Jesus' Name!

Pastor Fred

2 Samuel 7:29, part 2

Before we continue from yesterday, just a word about today's reading because I LOVE Psalm 29!  Too many people treat Elijah's post Mount Carmel encounter with God as the only text that speaks to the nature of God's voice...it can be still and small but from my study of Scripture, that is the exception!  Check out Psalm 29, but you might want to get some ear plugs...God is noisy!

Okay, back to part 2...here is the prayer we prayed last weekend with people.  Learn this.  Practice this.  Pray this.  I learned it from our involvement with a ministry Cleansing Stream.  I don't fully endorse all their doctrinal positions but the fruit of their ministry is undeniable...even in my own life personally!

First, there is revelation.  Even in today's reading, Psalm 36:9 talks about God being a light.  The nature of God is to reveal.  We used three parables last weekend in Luke 15, formerly known as the lost parables now renamed by City Life as the extravagance parables to bring revelation to our lives about the extravagance of God...and that we have a God given capacity for extravagance but we pervert that ability to serve ourselves selfishly.  The younger son was extravagant (incidentally, that is the meaning of prodigal...it means extravagant) in his pursuit of pleasure and possession.  The older son was extravagant in his pursuit of judgment and punishment.  The father demonstrated extravagance in four virtues which are the opposite of the four excesses of his sons.  The father was extravagant in these ways:  affection, generosity, patience, and mercy.  Revelation exposes the sin in our lives that need attention.

Second, we repent.  1 John 1:9 talks about God's faithfulness in forgiving when we are diligent in confessing.  We challenged people during the sermon at various times to stand and pray with us.  It was a powerful weekend at both campuses!  The repentance part:  "Father, forgive me for feeding this appetite, for feeding my desire for (pleasure, possessions, judgment, punishment)."  You can take that simple prayer, build on it, add you own words, make it your own, pour your heart out to Him!  Taking responsibility is vitally important!  God tell us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that every temptation we face is resistible!

Third, we renounce.  I like this word.  It means to abandon.  I want to abandon any agreements I have made with certain temptations.  Every time I step across a threshold of enjoyment with a moment of temptation, I have given that temptation permission to influence me.  I need to renounce, abandon that agreement.  In James 1:13-15 we read about how the death of sin begins with desire!  I heard an analogy once that illustrates what we do with temptation.  If I were fasting but chose to hold a bite of a donut in my mouth every day just to taste it but never swallow it, I have still enjoyed something I wasn't supposed to enjoy...and eventually, I'm going to swallow!  "Father, I renounce any and all permission that I have given the temptation of (pleasure, possessions, judgment, punishment) to influence my life!"

More tomorrow!

Pastor Fred

2 Samuel 7:29

And now, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you have spoken, and when you grant a blessing to your servant, O Sovereign, Lord, it is an eternal blessing!

But while the eternal blessing of Heaven is only mine through the grace of God once I make a vow of devotion to Jesus, many of the blessings in this life are conditional...just ask Solomon!  The juxtaposition of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes speaks volumes.  Conditional does not negate eternal.  Conditional blessings are "eternally" available to everyone in this earthly life who walks in obedience to "O Sovereign, Lord."  I'm not suggesting that every earthly blessing is conditional.  Grace still lavishes us in this life.  Both exist.

This past weekend we had amazing times of prayer inter-woven during the teaching time to walk people through declarative prayers that set people free from unGodly spiritual influences and entanglements so that they could resume their pursuit of every good and perfect gift from God in this life!  Here's a link (47 Words, part 5)...because you can experience the same break throughs right where you are...you can participate as you listen just as if you had been there!

Tomorrow I'll write about the steps we take to spiritually re-position ourselves:  revelation, repentance, renounce/break, and restoration (this is what you heard and hopefully experienced as you listened to the above link).

Pastor Fred

Psalm 106

In this morning's reading, Chronological Plan (www.biblegatway.com), we open with this Psalm.  A great exercise is to write down every person's name mentioned in the text...let't do that now.

Moses
Aaron
Dathan
Abiram
Phinehas

If you are not familiar with these stories, do some research, find them in the texts being referenced by this Psalm.  Now, here is the questions of reflection, "If God were to insert my name into this Psalm, who would I be?"  It's a pressing questions isn't it!  This is a great way to make sure that when we are reading Scripture that we keep it personal...it's supposed to be personal!

Are you the inconsistent leader like Moses?  Do you have great compassion for the people God has entrusted to you one day and despise their very existence the next?  Do you have moments of standing in great faith one day only to be swallowed up in doubt the next?  Do you act righteously one day and foolishly the next?

How about Aaron?  Are you a crowd pleaser?  Do you follow when you are supposed to lead?  Do you just go along when you know you are supposed to be a voice that says, "No, this is wrong!"  Do you fail to see the importance and the value of your calling because you can only see it in the shadow of someone else?

What about Dathan and Abiram?  Are you a continual voice of contention?  The challenge is that I'm sure they thought they were right!  I'm certain they were certain!  That's the vulnerability of cynicism, never seeing itself...I think Jesus had something to say about that..planks and specs maybe?  Are you the person in the Psalm that just can't stop pointing your finger, disrespectful, dishonoring, angry, looking for people to commiserate with you, always the person drawing people into complaining conversations about others?

Phinehas?  We find his name in sentences sharing space with words like courage and righteous.  If you take the time to find the account involving Phinehas (I'm not going to give it to you because I want you to enjoy the work of the search!) you will find that when no one seemed to know what to do or worse, weren't willing to act...Phinehas is there!

Who are you in the song today?

Pastor Fred

Psalm 133

¹ How wonderful and pleasant it is
    when brothers live together in harmony!
² For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil
    that was poured over Aaron’s head,
    that ran down his beard
    and onto the border of his robe.
³ Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon
    that falls on the mountains of Zion.
And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing,
    even life everlasting.

The key line to this Psalm is in the last line... "And there..." as I believe this designation of "there" is not only about geography.  Is God talking about His promised blessing to Israel?  Most certainly!

But I believe there is more to this Psalm.  I believe "there" is pointing back to the first line... "live together in harmony!"  God is reminding us that when we work for unity, He pronounces blessing, even life everlasting!

I like Robert Morris' definition of blessing and curse.  He simply says that blessing is having supernatural forces at work in your favor.  Curse is having supernatural forces at work against you.  As long as I have God's power, His blessing, at work in my favor, I need not be concerned about anything that is working against me (Romans 8:31)!

However, all throughout Scripture, we are reminded that while there is blessing that comes through divine favor, pure grace, there is also blessing that is positional.  Meaning, that I have to position myself through my choices, my actions, my attitudes, my thoughts, my inaction...if I am going to be in the right place for His blessing.  Psalm 133.  Harmony doesn't happen without great effort...and here God clearly says that there is a blessing that we will not have if we are not unified.

Being unified is a long, long conversation.  But I will share one key to having unity among a group of people.  People must value relationship more than they value being right.  If you are married, you know what I am talking about.  Every argument moves toward reconciliation when both husband and wife come to a place emotionally where their hearts ache to be restored more than their minds demands to be right.  Unity is when a group of people rest in the confidence of knowing that when disagreements come, and they come, that everyone in the room cherishes the relationship of the heart more than the task at hand or the idea in play.

Pastor Fred

2 Samuel 5:3

I love this verse!  "So there at Hebron, King David made a covenant before the Lord with all the elders of Israel..."

There is no leadership that is healthy, Godly, rightly motivated, and in the favor of God unless there is first a covenant relationship among those at the center.  Here are a few factors that I believe make such relationships possible, elements present in the Governance Team at City Life.

When husbands and wives serve together on the core leadership team...deeper, more meaningful relationships are possible.  Otherwise, the leadership team finds itself competing for time and emotional energy with the family of the leaders.  Volitional intimacy or the intimacy that comes through making decisions together is an important part of any marriage.  By serving together as couples, not only does the team's relationship go deeper, it actually becomes another tether of emotional connection for the married couples.

Meaningful convenant relationships are more concerned about the heart of the team than being individually right.  A healthy team believes and is committed to the idea that as an individual, they need the wisdom, input, insight, and challenge that the team brings.  I like the phrase mutual dependency.  Every team member must be sold out to the idea that the other people in the room are NOT an impediment to their ideas and preferences but rather make their ideas and preference better with alternatively unique perspectives.

One more...voting is divisive, consensus is unifying.  A healthy team gives everyone the right to put the foot on the brake until they feel comfortable moving forward.  In order for everyone to fulfill the mandate of presenting a united front outside of the "meeting room" requires giving people time to get comfortable with decisions.  This also requires every individual to be willing to trust the majority voice of the room at times.  Having a break pedal for every person in a car could make for difficult drive in real life!  Patience, grace, lots of listening, prayer, not being in a hurry, and respect win the day!

What does your church's core team look like...I hope it is one of true covenant relationship!

Pastor Fred

Deuteronomy 30:1-19

“In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the Lord your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions. 2 If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you. 4 Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you from there and bring you back again. 5 The Lord your God will return you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will possess that land again. Then he will make you even more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors!

6 “The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live! 7 The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate and persecute you. 8 Then you will again obey the Lord and keep all his commands that I am giving you today.

9 “The Lord your God will then make you successful in everything you do. He will give you many children and numerous livestock, and he will cause your fields to produce abundant harvests, for the Lord will again delight in being good to you as he was to your ancestors. 10 The Lord your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

11 “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach. 12 It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’ 13 It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’ 14 No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.

15 “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. 16 For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.

17 “But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, 18 then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.

19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life…

God