Sermon Notes, September 25, 2016
Rev.
Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry started a new sermon series, based on the book Kings and Presidents:
Politics and the Kingdom of God by Timothy R. Gaines and Shawna Songer
Gaines. This week’s sermon is titled
“The Pattern of Two Worlds.”
Pastor
talked about feeling out of place, and he used the move to Simi Valley as a
child to illustrate how he was out of his element, but was still expected to
live his life as usual. The Israelites
were out of their element when the Babylonians who invaded Israel took them out
of their natural environment. Although
they were taken from their homes, they were allowed to “live life as
usual.” They were allowed to worship God
the way they always had; except life was anything but usual!
The
scripture basis for this sermon is 2 Kings 2:7-15, the story of Elisha and
Elijah just before he was taken by the Lord.
Elijah’s cloak was important to the story. Besides protecting him from the wind and
rain, it was a way people identified him.
It was a symbol of his authority.
In verse 9 Elisha requested a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit; it
was a request to become Elijah’s successor.
He wanted to be the one to carry on Elijah’s ministry as leader to the
prophets. However, this was not Elijah’s
decision to make: it was God’s! The only
thing Elijah could do was tell Elisha how God would make His decision. Because his motives were pure, God granted
Elisha’s wish. He didn’t want to gain
power or wealth through his position as the leader to the prophets; he only
wanted to accomplish more for the Kingdom of God.
Elijah
was taken up to Heaven in verse 11.
He is the second person to be taken up into Heaven without dying, the
first being Enoch in Genesis 5. It
appears that the prophets were unable to see, or understand, that God took
Elijah, so they formed a search party to look for the body. When they were unable to find the body, their
faith in God and His choice of Elisha as their next leader was strengthened.
The first testimony to Elisha’s authority
as Israel’s chief prophet under the authority and power of God is in verse
14. Elisha took Elijah’s cloak and
struck the water with it, as Elijah did, and the water parted, as it did for
Elijah. This confirmed Elisha’s
appointment as Elijah’s successor.
When
it comes down to it, this is a story of the changing of the guard, the
passing of the mantel from one leader to another. In a few short weeks we are going to go to
our designated polling places and practice our civil duty as citizens of the
United States. We are going to take part
in choosing our next commander-in-chief.
And as we do, it is important that as Christians, we cast our ballot
prayerfully. We need to push aside all
the media hype and seek God in our decision.
We need to understand the patterns of two
very different worlds. One world is
the world of kings, and the other world is the world of the Kingdom of
God. These two worlds coexist, but they
are very different from one another. The
world of kings fears times of change and discontinuity. On the other hand the world of the Kingdom is
able to see God’s faithfulness pass from generation to generation. He is faithful when we’re thriving and when
we’re falling apart. Sure things change,
but His faithfulness stays the same! In
the world of kings, history is written based on who wins and who loses. In the world of the Kingdom the story is
written based on God’s faithfulness. In
the world of kings, leaders are chosen based on who overpowers or dominates the
other opponents. In the world of the
Kingdom the leaders are chosen based on whom the Holy Spirit rests upon. They are part of God’s plan. We may not like it, but they are part of
God’s plan. And by voting, we take part
in His overall plan as well!
So
what are we to do with this information?
We live in a very different world than the one we lived in as
children. Not only is the world
different, but so is the church. In the
church we have Christians representing both sides of the political aisle.
We
need to be prayerfully seeking God’s direction, and turning off the sound bites
that are trying to pull our decision their way.
We
need to understand that we are meant to live for the Kingdom and not for kings
of this world!
We
need to understand that God has everything under control. He loves His people better than any king or
president can. He sees the bigger
picture and knows what is best. And
nothing can separate us from His love and care.
Romans 8: 28 says that “…we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.” And Romans 8:38 & 39 says
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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