Sermon Central
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Dont Settle For Less Than Zion
Contributed by Ian Johnson on Aug 6, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: It took a battle to get into Zion and it cost David dearly It will cost us to get into the presence of the Lord But in order to gain all that the Lord has for us we must push on to Zion!
Don’t settle for less than Zion.
If we look at the Children of Israel we can see our own journey into all that God has for us. In fact in the book of Hebrews it says that all that happened to Israel in the OT is a shadow of the new.
This morning there will be people at every stage of the Journey that we will look at, but the heart of God is to see His Children make it into Zion. The challenge for us all is to keep moving into all that He has for us.
There are stages in the journey we will look at quickly before looking at moving into Zion.
1) Captivity in Egypt
2) Crossing the Red Sea.
3) Freedom but wandering in the wilderness
4) Entering the promised land
5) Entering Zion
1) Captivity – Egypt speaks to us of the World system, our non Christian life
Even when Israel was in captivity they had the promise given to Abraham – so we have a promise that if we will do as God asks we will be set free from the world. John 1:12.
There was a promise given to Abraham that Zion would one day be given to the fruit of his loins.
Genesis 15:18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
It was Mt Mariah that Abraham took Isaac his only son, and it was there that God provided a sacrifice lamb this mount was to become Zion.
God called His people out of Egypt in the same way He calls his people out of the world!
The Children of Israel looked back to Egypt in the early part of the journey
A) Meat in Egypt
B) Water in Egypt
C) Security in Egypt
The next step: Crossing the Red Sea.
Speaks to us of Baptism in water. In all my years as a Christian and as a Pastor I have seen the wonderful holding power of Baptism.
It says that once you cross over there is no turning back
You are buried with Christ... Egypt is lost to us.. Even if we go back at this point you will never again find satisfaction in Egypt. There’s no good fighting it go on to Zion.
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
3) The testing of our faith in the wilderness
The Children of Israel were tested in the wilderness for forty years, their lives were laid bare by the pressure of the wilderness experience.
All the time in the wilderness builds the fruit of the spirit in our lives.
The testing came in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. It was the Lord Cloud and fire!
4) Entering into the Promised Land.
This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.. the fullness of the promise we find new freedom to witness to find the Lord in prayer and to hear His voice in the promised land.
But!
There is one more step.. Moving into Zion. This is a step that the Children of Israel didn’t take either, because it was comfortable just living in the Promised Land. But I want to tell you there is much much more!
Moving into Zion speaks of moving into His very presence into the Holy of holies. The dwelling place of God. A place where we can have communion with His spirit.
Israel didn’t move into Zion because of the Jebusites!
Joshua 15:63 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
Judges 1:21 But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
We need to understand why the Jebusites held out the Children of Israel for so long!
1) They were Cananites and therefore they worshiped Baal. False authority and false government
2) The Spirit of the Jebusite condemned and tramples underfoot and defiles (Put down and control) this spirit is as work in the church today and is preventing the Church from moving on to Zion
