Face to face, Shoulder to shoulder

Face to face, Shoulder to shoulder

Years ago, I made this my pursuit. I was spending time with God and I felt that He laid this on my mind and heart and the more I thought about it, I realized that this is not just his heart for me, but for every single human being on planet earth and those in space or on Mars.

I have made this my MO my operating system for life, that I would seek to have constant face to face encounters with the living God and work with him shoulder to shoulder. That I would see him, know him, experience his love and attention but also that I would see him and know what he is doing so that I could join in and serve next to him, not working for him but with Him not as a slave obeying but as a Son co-ruling and operating with Him.

This MO really is about how God wants us to live on earth. You see God has had you on his mind since he created you in the beginning. Every human spirit was created right at the start of creation and we were all in him before we ever made our appearance on earth. That means that if you come from him, he wants you back and therefor he wants all of humanity to be saved. Don’t believe anybody that tells you otherwise. God wants you!

But he doesn’t just want you. He wants to live with you or rather you to live with him. God never intended that we should belong to him yet live our own lives. He doesn’t want to join your life, he wants you to join His. You see it’s not about you or me or any other person on this planet, it’s about him and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Somehow we have caused a split between the benefits of salvation and the purpose of our salvation. The truth is the benefits are like percs, they’re not the real issue. The purpose of your and my salvation is the glorification of God and the establishment of his Kingdom on earth. To separate the two is to serve your own concept of Christianity and you need to repent of that. To be saved, yet serve your own ambition is not Christianity. It’s parasitism. Only a parasite gains benefit from another organism yet continues to live it’s own life cycle without giving back.

God’s mission on earth is to establish his Kingdom in the hearts of man who will then join his mission and glorify his name. Off course because He is such an amazing good God it is a real blessing should you choose to bow your knee. God does all this through us, because on earth he has appointed us to be the legal operators. This has alway been God’s way of doing from the very beginning with Adam, through Abraham, and Israel and now the Church.

God want’s us to be both:

Faithful: Seek God’s face so as to encounter him personally and powerfully on a regular basis,
and
Missional: To seek other’s salvation and growth so desperately that you intentionally do everything you do in such a way as to gain opportunity to share God’s plan of salvation with them.
Not saved to live their own lives but the life he intended for them

Let me show you tonight what a missional God we serve.

The old testament is often thought of as being about the beginning and then about Israel and its people and kings etc. But in fact the old testament is not about Israel, it is about a Missional God that want’s all of humanity to serve him and then about Israel’s role in bringing that about. The old testament is full of God’s mission to save humanity because JHWH is missionary God.

God first reveals his missional character by approaching Adam and Eve as the Saving God right after they sinned. Not as the God the Judge but as Savior. And he gives a promise, that in Eve’s seed there will be redemption for mankind.

Then after the flood in which he saves Noah and family he gives a promise that in Shem’ line, one of Noah’s sons, there will be redemption for mankind. From this bloodline came Abraham who received a promise that in him all nations would be blessed and eventually King David and ultimately Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of all these promises.

In the old testament we see God choosing a special nation. But in choosing a nation to be holy unto him he doesn’t reject all the other nations.

Psalms 67:1: May God have pity on us and bless us! May he smile on us. Selah
Psalms 67:2: Then your ways will be known on earth, your salvation throughout all nations.
Psalms 67:3: Let everyone give thanks to you, O God. Let everyone give thanks to you.
Psalms 67:4: Let the nations be glad and sing joyfully because you judge everyone with justice and guide the nations on the earth. Selah
Psalms 67:5: Let the people give thanks to you, O God. Let all the people give thanks to you.
Psalms 67:6: The earth has yielded its harvest. May God, our God, bless us.
Psalms 67:7: May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth worship him.

He establishes Israel’s purpose, to be a mediator between God and other nations.

Ex 19:4-6 You shall be unto me a kingdom of priests. The role of the priest was to intercede for the people. In v4 God emphasizes that the whole earth belongs to him, but that Israel would be a treasured possession, and a holy nation. Set Apart! They were called to be God’s instrument through which all the earth that belongs to him might see his glory and power and effectually begin to worship HIM!

Psalms 86:9: All the nations that you have made will bow in your presence, O Lord. They will honor you.

Isaiah 43:10: “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD. “I have chosen you as my servant so that you can know and believe in me and understand that I am the one who did this. No god was formed before me, and there will be none after me.
Isaiah 43:11: I alone am the LORD, and there is no savior except me.
Isaiah 43:12: I have revealed it to you, I have saved you, and I have announced it to you. There was no foreign god among you. You are my witnesses that I am God,” declares the LORD.

We see in the NT how Paul confers this same identity on the Church!

I Peter 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light

In the new testament times it is no longer ISRAEL who is God’s chosen instrument to show his glory and power, it is the Universal Church of Jesus. It is the born again believers of the earth.

We are God’s instrument for carrying out HIS purposes on earth. Living your own life is far removed from God’s original purpose I wonder if it’s reconcilable with Christianity.

It’s all about him!

Let’s compare the OT and NT instruments that God appointed to show forth his glory to the world.

From this we will find the description of how he wants us to live as Sons of God.

Israel as old testament witness/missionary

Mission as an attractive force. Pulling people towards the blessing
Israel’s witness was primarily in living righteously. When they did, God blessed them and they prospered proving to other Nations that God is with them.

Zechariah 8:22: Many people and powerful nations will come to seek the LORD of Armies in Jerusalem and to ask the LORD for a blessing.
Zechariah 8:23: This is what the LORD of Armies says: In those days ten people from every language found among the nations will take hold of the clothes of a Jew. They will say, “Let us go with you because we have heard that God is with you.”

No-where is Israel explicitly told to go and preach the ten commandments to other nations, and no prophet rebukes them for not doing so when calling out their sins against them.
We do see however that some times, God did send a prophet to a nation commanding them to repent, but this is an exception. We see it in Jonah’s reluctance to obey and resentment when they repented. They weren’t used to being sent out, they were just used to be an example. Sound Familiar????????

Also we see many non Jewish Israelites joining Israel and adopting their customs just to be with God’s presence. Obed-edom wasn’t a Jew but he served God as an Israelite just to be close the God’s presence. His lifestyle of serving God is exemplary of being faithful and missional.

With the life of Jesus we see this type of testimony come to and end.

Jesus says he makes us fishers of men
He says when my spirit comes on you, you will receive power to be a witness to the ends of the earth.
He commands us to GO and make disciples, actively not reactively cause people to become disciples by your example!

In the new testament God’s chosen instrument is us
We no longer testify to God’s greatness by just living holy, we are commanded to preach the good news to all the earth
Mission has become a expansive force. Acts 1:7-8 A face to face encounter with Jesus led to a missional work alongside the Holy Spirit who proved their words with signs and wonders.

The early apostles didn’t quite grasp this at first, because we see them staying in Jerusalem and being faithful to God but still expecting the world to come to them as they continue in their holy living.
Paul becomes the example of the new testament Christian by going out and telling people about Jesus and his kingdom.

II Timothy 1:8: Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord
II Timothy 4:5: But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist

It’s time to get real personal with God and encounter him face to face so that we can go out and work alongside him shoulder to shoulder. That’s the full picture of God’s salvation. It’s always so that you will become faithful and missional. Not just one or the other…
The cure for spiritual numbness, I don’t feel God is close anymore, is to engage in His work. The gut’s to do so, is gained by engaging his presence.

We can continue after tonight to just be faithful to God and to stay stuck in the Old Testament pattern by just being a good example to others. But I have decided to Follow Jesus who said go to all the world and make people my disciples. I have decided to accept that my life is not my own it belongs to God and that I will live my life in such a way that I will get opportunities to talk about God and my faith and my peace.

To know God face to face and to work with Him shoulder to shoulder!

Ephesians 3:10: so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.