Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this first weekend in November,
I begin with a question for all of us, no matter where you live in the world, or your age or your marital status or your gender: what would it take for your town or city to become a safe, beautiful city where anyone could walk the streets of your city at any time day or night without concern for their safety? What would it take for your city to be clean and attractive and functioning well and affordable in every season of the year?
Yesterday we began looking at a remarkable statement which describes the difference God’s people should be making wherever they live. Isaiah 61:4 says: “They will REBUILD the ancient ruins and RESTORE the places long devastated; they will RENEW the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (Is. 61:4) This was a message received from God by Isaiah the Jewish prophet 2700 years ago and yet it applies today to every city in the world! Does your city need some ‘rebuilding’ or ‘restoration’ or ‘renewal’ for a better future?
Yesterday we began looking at God’s design for how this remarkable promise could become reality in cities all around the world in every generation! Isaiah 61:4 is not a political statement calling for the election or appointment of any particular type of government leader. It’s not a statement endorsing capitalism or socialism or a democracy or a monarchy or a dictatorship as a governing system.
This is a statement describing a people who have had a God transformation in their soul and are flourishing as they live the type of life God has designed us human beings to live… God honoring lives, and how those God honoring lives are impacting their city! But how is this possible in our sin filled, selfish, greedy, hate filled world?
Yesterday we concluded by looking at the promise God made to King Solomon that “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14) Do you hear God’s very clear promise to REBUILD and RESTORE and RENEW a land in RESPONSE to four specific things which the people of that land would do?
* “humble themselves” We understand humility don’t we, my friends? (Prov. 22:4) Humility is the opposite of pride! Look around your city, can you identify the damage pride has caused? When a person humbles themself before God it’s a powerful act of lifting God up to His rightful place of supremacy and lowering ourselves to our rightful place of submission to God.
* Prayer, communication is as essential to a relationship with God as it is to any relationship you have with anyone! What difference would it make if daily conversation with God was a priority for a significant number of people in your city?
* “seek My face” is something we all understand. You have pictures of special people in your home because you love those people and as you look at their faces an emotion of joy and delight wells up inside you. And when you are with the people you love you look into their eyes, you speak with them face to face, you long to see them smile, right? God longs for that with you and me, my friends. But ‘seek My face’ is more than conversation or even relationship, it’s a deep desire to know God well and to discern His guidance, so you can live your life honoring Him.
* “turn from their wicked ways” is authentic repentance. It’s recognizing those things that are contrary to God’s design for your life and recognizing the damage those things are doing to you and other people your life touches. It’s rejecting those things; it’s removing those things from your life. Look around your city, can you see any evidence of people living in ‘wicked ways’ and can you see the damage, maybe even devastation this is causing your city? How would your city change if a large group of people in your city would turn from their wicked ways and live God honoring lives?
Now, in addition to those four specific actions God invites people to engage if they want a changed city, do you remember when God rescued the Hebrew slaves from living as slaves in Egypt, He met with them at mount Sinai and God began their renewal as a people by redefining their IDENTITY. (Ex. 19:5,6) Peter the apostle echoed these words as Peter challenged Christians in the first century Roman empire to see themselves as God’s special people. Peter wrote: ‘You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of HIM who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God!” (1 Peter 2:9)
The rebuilding and renewing of a city begin with the people of that city experiencing a redefining of their identity as they take the action of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and then experience God giving them this 1 Peter 2:9 as a new identity and learning to live in that identity! Now ponder that! What would happen in your city if a significant number of people did that? Perhaps you remember very soon after that redefining of their new identity, God gave His people a new description of how to live. God spoke His 10 Commandments to them. Can you imagine what difference it would make in your city if many people experienced the identity transformation God promises and lived faithfully with those 10 Commandments guiding every aspect of their lives?
A new identity is the result of the transforming work of God in changing every aspect in the life of a repentant person. Paul describes it this way: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come and all this is from God!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) And if you’ve ever met a person who has experienced this total transformation accomplished by God Himself, you can easily understand how a great many people in any city experiencing this transformation, could bring Isaiah 61:3 Renewal and Rebuilding and Restoration to that city.
Oh my, I have so much more, but If we’re going to see this miracle of changed cities actually happen, we need to take this in understandable pieces, so let’s pause here and make sure we understand what God has said to us today! This weekend I challenge you to look closely at your city. Begin making a list of what would change if Isaiah 61:4 began to happen by the power of God, and then ask God to see if He will show you what YOUR part is in this?
Now let’s invite David Wesley to call us to worship with this powerful song celebrating Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of transformation…
Today’s Scripture: Is. 61:4.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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