City of Refuge Fellowship

When Jesus first introduced the church in Matthew 16:18 He also made us three promises about the church. The church would be built by Him; the church would belong to Him and the church would not be overcome by the power of hell. These promises are for the Body of Christ at large, but I believe that they are also for each member of that Body (churches) and also each individual person that makes of His glorious Bride. I believe that one of the great and often overlooked keys to walking in the fulfillment of these promises is endurance. The Greek word that is translated as endurance in I Corinthians 13:7 is hypomeno and it’s definition in part is “to tarry behind; to abide, to not recede or flee; to preserve: under misfortunes and trials to hold fast.” Jesus’ promise to the church that “the gates of hades shall not prevail against it” is a promise to endure. There will be battles, there will be difficulties, there will be trials, but the battle is not left up to us and our strength, Jesus has overcome and He has promised that the church will also.

I believe that endurance creates victory and that love is the key to endurance. I Corinthians 13:7 says “Love endures all things.” Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross, “for the joy that was set before Him”. Endurance is not about our strength, our stubbornness or our decision to just “grin and bear” it until something changes. Endurance is all about love. Because of God’s love for me I can trust Him when I don’t understand, I can stand firm when I feel overwhelmed and I can believe when everything around me says that the promise is never coming to pass. I encourage you today, hold fast to the love of God. His love for us endured the cross, endured the grave, endured every sin we have or will commit, endured our foolish ways and our faithless seasons. His love has endured to make us in His image and to call us the sons and daughters of God, trust His love and His Spirit in you to endure through your trials, through your difficulty and through your seasons of refining. Hold tightly to the promises, as part of His church Jesus Himself is building you, He calls you His, taking charge of you and He will not allow the gates of Hell to prevail against you. Maybe it’s too simple, but ultimately, endurance is trusting God’s love enough to believe, at all times, that He will do everything that He has said that He will do; His love never fails.

There are times in our lives in which God creates opportunities for us to trust and depend upon Him in greater measures than ever before. The difficulty we face during these times is that they often appear to us as times of difficulty or even despair. I believe that Elijah endured situations just like this. After announcing to King Ahab that there would be no rain or dew until Elijah announced it, he was immediately sent by God into hiding. In his hiding place he drank water from a brook and ate bread carried to him by ravens each day. After a period of time the brook that Elijah depended upon for water dried up because of the draught that was on the land. At that moment Elijah had the same choices we are often faced with, to trust God and believe that He would lead and provide or to give in to fear and worry and try to create a way to provide for himself.

Elijah chose to trust God, was led by Him to a very poor widow and her son and found that God had chosen to save their lives by bringing Elijah to them. Our closed doors are often simply opportunities to see God open new ones that will bring Him more glory and salvation and freedom to those around us. The key in all of this is being sure that God loves us, that He has a perfect plan for us and ultimately that He is for us. In Romans 8 Paul wrote, after discussing great difficulties and suffering, “If God is for us who can be against us?” I believe that too many of us still see this statement as a question instead of the fact that Paul was trying to convey. God is for us, there does not need to be an if in our hearts, our minds or our speech. Paul was trying to prove a point not create doubt.

Today, whatever you find yourself facing, one thing I know, God is for you. He loves you, He seeks you, He wants you and He will keep His promise to never leave you or forsake you. Be confident in Him, His Word and His character today and know that when your situation changes it is not time for you to make your own way but to hold fast and trust and obey in the way that God has led you to.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Spiritual hunger is something that we have to take an active part in. It is not a gift that is simply given by God, but rather it is a gift that we must take part in, one that we must choose to stir, practice and grow. Fasting is one of the greatest tools we have been given to help us grow in our hunger and thirst.

For many of us, fasting has been presented as a way to get God’s attention. We have thought that if we would fast then God would take notice, or God would move on our behalf, or God would simply be pleased. Isaiah 58, probably the greatest chapter in the Bible on fasting, says in verse 4, “You will not fast as you do on this day, to make your voice heard on high.” I believe that there is a prophetic piece to this passage, God is speaking through Isaiah that fasting would change when the Messiah came, that it would change from a way to try to get God’s attention to a way to give God more of our attention.

In this week’s message I try to present fasting as a gift that will emtpy us of dependence upon worldly things and place our full attention, affection and desire upon God. I pray that God’s Word will speak to your heart and that we, together, might follow Jesus’ example and choose to fast in our bodies and in our souls so that our spirit’s might be fed fully by the presence and Word of God.

In John 3, John the Baptist referred to himself as the “friend of the Bridegroom” and then described that position as one”who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.” In all of John’s life there was something that he sought for. It was not attention, it was not power, it was not acceptance. In many ways it seems that even John was not sure what he was seeking after until he found it, until Jesus came to be baptized. In a moment John found his joy, found his purpose and found his fulfillment. He declares that it is the voice, the presence, the relationship with the bridegroom that fulfilled and completed the joy of his life.

Many of us are searching for purpose, for mission and for a message to change our lives. While all of these things are useful, they pale in comparison to the sound of the voice of the One who loves us with an everlasting love. What set John apart was that he was not chasing after a mission, he was waiting patiently and obediently for the voice of God. I believe that is what sets us all apart. This life is not about missions and purpose, it is about a divinely inspired relationship with the Living God. From that relationship, from the voice if you will, flows things like purpose and mission but without the voice those things become mere attempts at finding joy.

I believe a friend of the bridegroom is one that chooses to find the joy of life in the voice of God. I ask today, what makes you rejoice? When 70 disciples returned to Jesus after being sent out they rejoiced because they had had authority over demons in Jesus’ name. Jesus gave a bit of a rebuke and told them, “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” The joy of our lives can never be tied to our circumstances for they are destined to change, our joy must be found in the presence of God, the perfect, unchanging, everlasting love that is determined by His character and not our feelings or understanding. Again, what makes you rejoice? Where is your joy found? I pray today that we will love Jesus with a love that makes us long for His presence so that our joy might be fulfilled, like John’s, when Jesus speaks.

Isaiah 57:14 says “And one shall say, ‘Heap it up! Heap it up! Prepare the way, take the stumbling block out of the way (remove the obstacles) of My people.’” Each one of us face obstacles in our lives, some are of our own doing, some simply come from living in a fallen world and some are direct attacks of deceit from the enemy of our souls. In the midst of this we all need help, we need the Holy Spirit to lead and direct us and we also need others to come along and strengthen, encourage and even admonish us from time to time. I believe that we are called and created to be those that remove the obstacles from the lives of those around us. I pray today that we will know the truth of who God is and of who He says we are and of how precious His thoughts toward us are. If we are strong in these truths the obstacles of Satan’s lies become easier to remove from our paths and the fulfillment of God’s great purposes for each of our lives become more and more real in each day that we live.

Due to a technical difficulty the audio for this weeks sermon is not available. Below are the notes:

Straight Paths

Isaiah 40:3-5 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’”

Matthew, Mark and Luke all quoted this verse speaking of John as the one spoken of and said that his message was, “Prepare the way for the LORD, make straight paths for Him.”

What do you think of when you consider a straight path? For most of us we think about logistics. A straight line is the shortest distance, the fastest trip, the easiest or most convenient or comfortable. When we speak of this Scripture, of John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord and making a straight path it has nothing to do with ease, speed or comfort. In fact straight paths in your life, in mine and in the lives of those around us have nothing to do with ease, speed or comfort.

Vs. 3 Straight—yashar—to be right, be straight, be level, be upright, be just, be lawful, be smoothing.    

Vs. 4 crooked—aqob—akove—deceitful, sly, insidious/slippery, steep

Vs. 4 Straight—miyshowr-me-shore—level place—uprightness

Vs. 5 revealed—galah—to uncover, remove

So when God speaks of straight paths, it is not about ease, speed or comfort; He is speaking about being right, being clear, being sure, being where we are supposed to be. Even more, straight paths remove deception; they remove wrong mindsets and false beliefs and theories. Straight paths are about discipleship, they are about becoming mature, faithful and strong. 

Hebrews 12:12-13 “Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.”

After Paul’s lesson on discipline he jumps into these verses. Because of God’s discipline, through God’s discipline, thanks to God’s discipline: be strengthened and walk in right paths! God’s desire is to heal what is lame, not to destroy it. So often we believe the lie that says that God sees our sin and wants to destroy it or even us, but the reality is He is doing what is necessary to bring healing. Straight paths are not about making you feel better but rather making you strong and whole and as you were created to be!

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Direct Your Paths

Some of us have lived in constant disappointment because we have believed the crooked place, the deception that said that if we would “acknowledge God” He would give us the paths we hoped for. We don’t acknowledge God so that He will do our will, we acknowledge Him so that we will surrender to His! He is not giving us paths of ease, speed or comfort; He is giving us paths of His order, His guidance, His perfection and His will. The straight path is not always the easiest, the fastest or the most comfortable, but going back to Isaiah 40, it is always the path that leads to men seeing the glory of God!

I Corinthians 3:1-3 “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly (carnal)—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?”

The church in Corinth was divided. They were arguing over who each person followed, some wanted to align themselves with Paul, some with Apollos, some saw the foolishness of this and just aligned themselves with Christ, but still fell into the sin of being divided over the alignments. Paul has to be brutally honest and shares that they, as followers of Christ are still very immature. He says that they are still worldly or carnal which simply means that they are still controlled by human nature, by their emotions, traditions and desires rather than the Holy Spirit. He then twice, in the form of a question says that they are acting like “mere men”.

I think Paul’s point is this; you are not “mere men”. How many times have you said, “I’m still human” or I’m just a man, or I’m just a woman, I’m not perfect. Paul is actually destroying this excuse and hindrance to maturity, when he says, “Aren’t you acting like mere men?” His point is you are acting like something you are not, you are not mere men! Again, addressing our identity, we are no longer “mere men”, we no longer get the excuse that we are weak, He is strong, we no longer get the excuse that we are flawed, we have been washed, we no longer get the excuse that we can’t, He can. We are no longer mere men!

Paul explains what makes us different in verse 16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” We are not mere men because we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are now the Temples of the Holy Ghost, vessels of honor, containers of God’s glory. Paul’s exasperation is this, how can you act like mere men when you are now the temples of the Holy Spirit. I believe Paul was trying to tell them that their actions were not a match for their identity; it was time for them to “walk straight paths” so that they could be seen by the multitudes around them as they are seen by God.  But listen, this is not merely a greater requirement, it is a greater opportunity. It is not merely that God expects more of you now; it is that God has made more available to you.

Vs. 21-23 “All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ and Christ is of God.”      

You don’t need short cuts, you don’t need a faster, easier or more comfortable way, you are created for, called to and equipped to walk in straight paths. We are not mere men, we are not less than, unable or even unsure. Straight paths are all about trust, all about faith, all about maturity and all about love.

I have been talking about our three Biblical mandates, three things that God has laid on my heart for this group and this community for years: Friends of the Bridegroom, Remove the obstacles and Straight Paths. These three things are who we are called to be along with what we are called to fulfill. I believe that they align perfectly with Jesus’ three commandments:

1. Friends of the Bridegroom—love the Lord your God

2. Remove the obstacles—love your neighbor as yourself

3. Straight Paths-Make disciples

Discipleship happens through declaring the ways, the will and the plans of God. God’s plan for your life is perfect, it will not often be easy, it will rarely be fast and it may never be comfortable but it will always be perfect. We must learn to willingly walk in “unhindered obedience” so that we can see God’s will completed in and through us. Ultimately, what is the point of these straight paths? What is the point of taking the right way instead of the easy way? Of taking the right way instead of the fast way? Of taking the right way instead of the comfortable way? Isaiah answered these questions for us, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

Revealed—galah—to uncover, remove

Right now God’s glory is covered; it is often hidden by crooked paths, by deceitful teachings by fleshly longings by uncomfortable circumstances or slow fulfilling promises. Our calling, our straight paths, our directed steps are uncovering the glory of the Lord for those around us. When you follow Jesus’ path for your life, when you follow Jesus, His glory is revealed to those watching your life. Believe me, those watching you are not looking for ease, for speed or comfort, they are looking for the longing of their hearts, for the lover of their souls, for the glory of God. We are not mere men, we are not called to immature, self-centered journeys, and we are the temples of the Holy Spirit, the ambassadors of Christ and the ministers of reconciliation.

I pray that you will join me today in making a declaration to God: I will no longer seek out easy paths, I will no longer pray for fast outcomes and I will no longer crave after comfortable solutions, I will choose the right way, I will wait for the straight path and I will walk in the road that leads to the revelation of God’s glory.         

After 40 years of wandering Israel finally crossed over the Jordan River and stepped foot into their “Promised Land”. The first thing that God told them to do at that point was to circumcise all of the men. This assignment was one that required a step of faith for Joshua and the entire community. They were in enemy territory, by performing this act they would make themselves defenseless. I am sure the assignment was also met with some questions, how would this benefit them in battle, what good was it going to do, what was the purpose? While we can assume what human nature must have stirred up in their minds, all we have record of is obedience. Joshua led the entire nation in obedience to God’s assignment and together they trusted Him to protect them, to lead them and ultimately to provide victory for them.

After the circumcision God revealed the purpose of the assignment, “Today I have rolled away the reproach (shame, disgrace) of Egypt from you.” They had left Egypt more than 40 years earlier, but they still carried the shame of being slaves, the shame of all the ways they were mistreated, abused and overlooked. There are times in our lives when we are delivered from situations but continue to carry the residue, the scars, hurt or shame that the situations caused. Isaiah 53:4 tells us :Surely, he took up our infirmities (both mental and physical) and carried our sorrows”. When Jesus died it was for our sins but it was also for our sorrows. He died to remove sin’s curse but also it’s damage. God’s desire for Israel was the same as it is for you and, that we not only be removed from our past, but that the shame and hurt of the past be removed from us as well.

The difficult part for many of us is that the removal of shame often requires a great step of faith. The Israelites had to trust God enough to make themselves completely vulnerable in enemy territory and obey His assignment. Maybe God has been asking something of you that you feel is just too much. You can’t see how it will benefit or even what it has to do with your calling or the fulfillment of promises in your life. It could be that your obedience in this assignment is what God desires to use to remove the residue of your past. Yes you are already free for the activity, the behavior or the mindset, but God wants you to also be free from the guilt, the shame and the hearache that the past has caused. I encourage you today, obey God, trust Him and step out in faith; today might just be the day in which your shame and hurt are rolled away.

We often talk about reaching crossroads in life, a moment in time in which we have to decide which way to go. There is another place of decision that many of us come to and that is when we can see where we are supposed to be, but we see it from a spot that we have become very comfortable in. The question that often arises is, “How do we get there from here?”

At City of Refuge Fellowship we have arrived at one of those places. It is time for us, as a group of people, as a ministry and as a church to look out over the horizon and see where we are called to be, and even what we are called to be and realize it is no longer far off; it is now time for us to move forward, to allow change and to have faith in God’s ability to transform and use us for His desired glory. After Moses died, God simply told Joshua that it was time to take the camp of Israelites across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. Joshua had followed and learned from Moses, he had been declared in front of all the people as the next leader, he had been the great general that had led the armies ever since they came out of Israel, it was now time for him to simply do what he had been preparing for for over 40 years.

God then tells Joshua three times to “be strong and courageous.” It seems quite clear from God’s instructions that Joshua was prepared, the time had come, God was going before him, but he was going to need strength and courage to fulfill the purpose that God had promised over his life. Things don’t always just “fall into place.” Opposition, obstacles and distractions are not reasons to rethink the plan or change course, they are reasons to bear down, hold tight and follow God’s voice even more closely than before. The will of God will always be accomplished if we are willing to trust Him and obey Him at all times, but trusting and obedience require strength and courage. If you find yourself struggling with God’s will today, pray for strength and pray for courage. He has promised to “never leave you nor forsake you”, but there are season in life in which it takes strong faith and courageous love to believe and trust God’s promises. Be strong and courageous, God will be with you wherever He leads you and He will fulfill everything He has promised, the closer we follow, the more clearly we see Him during the journey.

What do you do when God challenges your faith? In John 6 Jesus asked His disciples to trust Him in a manner that He had never asked before. With very little food and nowhere to buy more Jesus told His disciples to tell the crowd of at least 5,000 followers to sit down and prepare to be fed. They were fully aware that all that Jesus had was 5 loaves of bread and two fish, they were also fully aware that there was no bread that had been ordered or was on it’s way from somewhere else. They were being put in a position to trust Jesus more than ever before. After they seated the 5,000 plus person crowd Jesus gave thanks for the 5 loaves of bread and told the Apostles to feed the crowd with it. I don’t believe that this multiplication happened in an instant, I believe that it happened as the disciples walked in faith, with each portion they gave another appeared, they had to trust Jesus enough to go into the situation with less than they needed and believe that He would provide.

We all face similar situations, times in which God pushes us into situations that we feel completely helpless and even hopless in. Those are not times to find new strength, they are not times to think of a way to help God and they are not times to get offended or hurt and stop following. These are times to see our faith grow, our hope grow and God’s presence in our lives grow. Rodney Whitacre wrote, “God knows the condition of our hearts and sends circumstances that will reveal our hearts to us.” These times of testing and challenge are not so that God can see what we are made of, they are times for us to see our hearts and then to watch God build our faith through our obedience and His presence.

If you are being challenged today, please understand that God is not trying to shake you away, He is trying to shake you nearer to Him than ever before. You can trust Him and He will provide, but He desires more obedience than ever before so that you can see more of His glory that you ever asked or imagined.

In John 8 Jesus said to those who believed in Him, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” We here the last phrase quoted often, “The truth shall set you free”, but it seems to me that the emphasis of Jesus’ statement is not merely on the truth but our knowledge of it. Later in the book of John, Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” So to use Henry Blackaby’s words, “Truth is a person.” Jesus is not merely talking about truth as a principle, a doctrine or a fact, He is referring to Himself as the truth. So His words here are that if we will know Him we will be free.

Freedom from what? The Greek terminology here means freedom or liberty from the dominion of sin. The knowledge of Jesus, even more specifically, a relationship with Jesus creates the reality of our freedom from the dominion or reign of sin. The reality is that many of us, as born again believers in Jesus are free from the dominion of sin, we have been set free by the work of Jesus on the cross, but there is a dramatic difference between being legally free (in the eyes of God our Judge) and living in freedom. I believe that true freedom comes when we believe who Jesus is and who Jesus says that we are because of His great love and work on our behalf. The Apostle Paul wrote that righteousness was imputed to us apart from our works and also that God did not impute sin against us but rather reconciled us to Himself through Jesus. Isaiah 61 says that “He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” We are free, we are righteous, we are holy not by our efforts to push back the flesh and behave righteously but by Jesus’ work on our behalf and God’s choice to impute or credit righteousness to us through Jesus’ work.

I believe today, that if you and I will believe fully in the truth of Jesus’ work for us that we will trust in God’s righteousness in our lives. It is not our behavior that makes us righteous but rather it is our faith in the righteousness of God applied to us that changes our behavior.  Before you and I can ever live lives of truth we must know the truth and from that knowledge, from that relationship freedom will pour out. Knowing Jesus is being righteous, not by our works on His behalf but because of His works for us.