A review from today’s message out of 2 Kings 2

OUR PLACES OF YOUR FAITH MARKED BY FOUR DESTINATIONS. GOD WANTS TO TAKE YOU TO THE END. THE QUESTION IS WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE WILLING.

1. Vs 1 “from Gilgal” = “rolling”. This is the place:

• That the Israelites spent their 1st night after escaping Egypt.
• Where they celebrated that very first Passover when the blood of the lamb was applied to their sins and they were set free.
• Where they renewed the covenant of circumcision with God AND THEIR REPROACH WAS rolled AWAY.
• FROM WHICH we must start.
  • You need your reproach wiped away. Have you been forgiven yet?Are you free from your own Egypt? Or are you still in a place of uncertainty in your relationship with God?

2. Vs 2 “Bethel”. This is the place:
• That was named by Jacob when God met with him.
• Genesis 35:15 God makes wonderful promises to Jacob here and changes his name from Schemer to Prince.
• “Bethel” means “House of God.” It is communion with God.
• How do I get from Gilgal to Bethel?
o You must obey. You must follow. You must KNOW.
o VS 3 It’s the only way. Your KNOWING is fed by your OBEYING. No obeying, then no moving forward. You are stuck in Gilgal.

3. Vs 4 “Jericho”. This is the place:
• Of Israel’s first great victory. First big battle. Where God knocked the walls of the city down.
• The name means “Its sweet smell”.
• Where your faith results in the victory of others.
• How do I get from Bethel to Jericho? – You must obey. You must follow. VS 5 You must KNOW.

4. Vs 6 “Jordan”
• Name means “the watering place.” Jesus spoke of rivers of living waters flowing out of your belly. Life!!! Power!!!
• This is where Elijah is taken up to a new place of abiding!
• This is the place Jesus was baptized but it is the place where waters were parted in the days of Joshua.
• How do I get from Jericho to Jordan? – You must obey. You must follow. You must KNOW.
Each one of these stages is your choice. The choice is marked by obedience, pursuing God, and KNOWING.

Can I just say that I am so stoked right now about what God is doing???  God is moving on our campuses and working in the lives of so many right now.

Yesterday I thought the worship was so good.  I loved how we ended our service yesterday in doing a couple of different songs. I’m noticing that our hunger as a group is intensifying. I’m noticing that we are desiring to worship the Lord more.  “…many shall see it and fear, and put their trust in the Lord…”

Oh God!!!  Have Your Way! Get glory for Your Son. But please, Lord, do it through us. Make us that bride that You desire. Make us that bride that intoxicates You with our worship. WE ABIDE. GIVE US FRUIT BY YOUR SPIRIT!

To be circumstantially-centered is to be self-centered. I mean really…  Do our circumstances really dictate WHO GOD IS? Is He not the Lord of all and is He not ALWAYS good and righteous and loving? We need to stop perceiving reality in such self-serving and self-centered ways and declare what is true. Our God is perfect and and holy and righteous and sovereign and VICTORIOUS and EVER PRESENT and ALL KNOWING and ALL POWERFUL. We need only to submit to this truth and live it so!  And then we can go in confidence that we have already won!!!

A quotation from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:  “The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become.”

was thinking about this quote in relation to “proclaiming truth over people.” It sounds weird, I know, but I really like it and believe it to be biblical. In ALL of Paul’s epistles he spent the first half of the book speaking of positional truths. In the second half he dealt with the practical living out of these matters (Conditional truths). In other words, declaring the wonderful promises of God to people so that they can become in their condition who they already are in their position. Now this is only true for those who already know Christ. There is no present hope for those without Him. We do this because we see them as God does - Those Christ died to purchase back from the world of lostness. As we do this we confess to what the truth really is. So what is the truth??? I’ll remind you of what we discussed Sunday before last.

We always win. 

2 Corinthians 2:14  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

We should expect more from God.

Ephesians 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

When God is for you, no one can stand against you.

Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Romans 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Romans 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Romans 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Romans 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A couple of wonderful quotations from a couple of deep individuals…

Oswald Chambers: “A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fullness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth.  We have nothing to do with the outflow - ‘This is the work of God THAT YE BELIEVE…’  God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is.”

And another from Miles Stanford which goes along with the above: “The believer who is not aware of his position of acceptance in Christ is caught in the struggle to improve his condition in order to feel acceptable to God. But the believer who abides in the Lord Jesus as his righteousness and acceptance is freed from futile self-effort. Standing in his position, HE TRUSTS CHRIST TO MANIFEST HIMSELF INCREASINGLY IN HIS LIFE. HE IS FREE FROM THE BURDEN OF HIMSELF AND HAS BECOME BURDENED ON BEHALF OF OTHERS. God ‘hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation’ (2Cor. 5:18).’”

Both of these quotations speak of the faith of the individual believer to not worry about OUTCOME. We need only concern ourselves with abiding in Christ and KNOWING/BELIEVING Christ’s life in us and through us. Father, perform the doing of this in each of us. May we believe and know and trust and abide in You.