Rainbows

RAINBOWS



Genesis 9.8-17

In our scripture reading in Deuteronomy this week we read about Moses leading the people of Israel in a renewal of the covenant. (c.29)

This morning we are going back to Genesis, to the first covenant God made. It was just after the flood, Noah and his sons and their wives had come off the ark. God promised that He would never again destroy the earth by water.

Each covenant has a sign:

Old Covenant- circumcision

New Covenant-baptism

Covenant with Noah and his sons- the rainbow

The rainbow is a sign in the sky from God to the earth and it inhabitants.

1. Exactly What are Rainbows?

They are what happens when the sun shines through the rain. The rain acts like a prism and separates the light into different colors.

Let's go back to the first one: Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth." (Genesis 6.6) God destroyed the earth's inhabitants with the flood. People had grown so wicked that God wiped them out. He was grieved that He had created man. But Noah found grace in God's eyes. Noah came out to find everyone he had known save the 7 people on the ark were gone without a trace. Cities were gone. The terrain was different. There were not the birds flying around like before. The animals came out and the earth was starting over in many ways. As wicked as the people were Noah had preached to them. You cannot truly preach to people unless you love them. There was the loss of all theser souls. Like Jeremiah he did not have a single convert.

Rainbows are a symbol of God's love. The Son of God works in our sorrows.

Hallelujah, What a Savior! was written by Philip Bliss

Philip was one of the most prominent hymn writers of the late 1800's He wrote at a time when many hymns were being written. Great moves of God were taking place at that time. The China Inland Mission led by Hudson Taylor was underway. D.L. Moody was going around the world with the Gospel. George Muller was supporting both as well as 10,000 orphans in England. Denominations which formed the evangelical movement were in their seed state.

Bliss worked on a farm growing up and in lumber camps, but eventually he became a music teacher. He sold his first song at age 26 and later worked for a hymn publisher. It was Moody who urged Bliss to become a song evangelist, and so he did beginning in 1874. He wrote Hallelujah What A Savior in 1875. In 1876, while traveling through Ohio, Bliss and his family were involved in a horrible train wreak. He went back into the fiery train to save his wife, bu they both died.

Deuteronomy 29.29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God... Why would this happen to this wonderful write of hymns at age 37, such a young man? I don't know. Yesterday Tim Smuck spoke at the funeral of his 5 week old daughter, Sophie: "My heart is broken, but my faith is not." Bliss hymns are part of the rainbow. Tim's words are as well. Tears shining God's love because the Light is coming through!

2. When are Rainbows Seen?- v.13

Mostly in the evening.

They are seen in the rain (in the storms of life) when the sun peeks through or even fully shines. Beauty comes when God shines through our storms and trials. Bitterness comes when we shut out His light and love.

Psalm 19.1-5- could David have had the rainbow in mind?

The Beauty of the LORD coming t us in our pain.

3. Who Sees Them?

Those who learn to dance in the rain

Those who don't mind getting wet!

Those who look to heaven.

God has Jesus' story in the sky: Creation, His Birth, Ministry, His Death, Ascension and His Return Rainbows remind us that the LORD is faithful to all His Promises.

4. What They Look Like From Heaven.

A ring, an unbroken circle- God looks down from His Throne in love, His Great love, higher than the heavens!

In the storms look for the rainbow!

A Father's Legacy

Deuteronomy 26.1-11

Family History is very interesting. Where we came from personally is part of our story. I can go back to my great grandparents on both sides.  I've been to their graves, been to Ellis Island, with my family, and saw Grandpa Albert Mancini's name engraved on the wall that surrounds it. He turned 8 on the boat from Italy to New York.

A Godly Heritage in a family is a blessing. A father on earth who is part of God's family, whose name is written down in heaven, is a blessing to his family, blessings that even go well beyond the years of his life on earth.

A loving faithful father has children that are blessed.

There is a focus here on Jacob, a confession of faith that as they gave their tithe to the LORD their father was a wandering Aramean.

Let's look closer at this family history, this godly heritage, this influence of faith over hundreds of years that brought about God's Promises in the nation of Israel.

1. The LORD is Faithful to All His Promises. -v.3
the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us...

This act of God was not on the basis of their performance or even their obedience. It was based upon His Word to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is sad how Ishmael and Esau are left out of these promises of the land. God promised it to Abraham and then to his son, Isaac, and then to Isaac's son, Jacob, who had a name change by the LORD to Israel. The generation that went in were receiving God's Promises and Blessings of 100's of year before.

I look at our nation today, how God's Word is being ignored or discarded and the very foundations of family and faith in our society are being eroded. I realize that the blessings from the past, the Promises God made to our forefathers are still intact. We need to heed II Chronicles 7.14 today.

Yesterday as I was going into Southside Hospital to pray with Bob Pawson I saw a mother and daughter of about 7 outside in front of the huge American Flag there. She was trying to count the stars. So I helped her, explained why when Betsy Ross, made the first flag it had white stars on a blue background. I could see the mother was new to our country, the little girl understood and we talked about how the stars are in heaven and how this nation was formed by God.

God's faithfulness to His promises in Israel is the godly influence of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob (none of them perfect but all of them men of faith).

A father's faith influences generations way beyond his time.
Romans 4.13-25
God is saying Abraham's faith was so strong it even has influence today under the New  and Eternal Covenant!
v.17 He (Abraham) is our father in the sight of God in Whom he believed.
The legacy of a father going on for over 4,000 years now.
A father's influence goes on for a long time and on into eternity.

One reason is...

2. God Works Through Families. - v.5
President Ronald Reagan said, "As goes the family so goes the nation." He was right. No nation has held together if the family structure caved in. It is self destructive.

Look at the creation of man, the founding of Israel, the New Covenant and all of them came through families!

These statements, confession of faith, took the father worshiping with the first fruits, the tithe, back over 400 years in the nation/family history.

Go back 400 years in our nation to 1612. Our nation was just getting started and there were families here. The total population in 1610 was 3,800! Yes that right, a population in this land of America was smaller than the population of the Village of Brightwaters! 300 years later there were 76 million and 100 years after that we tripled in size!

We call our founders- the founding fathers. We call our first President, George Washington, the Father of our Nation- this is in the current publications put out by Immigration Services for Citizenship exams!

Finally on this journey of faith... this forming of a Father's legacy...

3. God Brings us to the Place He Wants us in. vs.6-11
A literal place like with this wandering Aramean Genesis 28.10-22
It is also a spiritual position. Where does God wants us to be?
He wants us in:
* A Place of Brokenness Genesis 32.6-7, 22-32, Hosea 12.3-5
* A Place of Being Receptive to His Spirit-v.7 Genesis 35.1-7
* A Place of Seeing Him work wonders.-v.8, Genesis 33.4-5
* A Place of a Servant vs.9-11, Genesis 47.1-10
We can be a blessing when we become a servant of God.

This family was far from perfect. It experiences great stress and sometimes this was a result of their own sins and poor decisions but God was faithful and is to this day to Israel.

Isaiah wrote (27.6) Israel will bud and blossom and fill the world with fruit.
When plants bloom they undergo stress. If our stress is given to God, if  we trust in Him when things seem out of control, if against all hope we hope and stand upon His Promises, we can be used by Him to be a great blessing to others. That is the story of the hymns, many works of art, many missionary stories and the list goes on.

A Father's Legacy is faith in God and His Promises, Obedience to His Will and Joyful loving Service to the LORD Jesus.

That is the legacy that lasts eternally!

Being People Of Compassion

Deuteronomy 24.10-22
Colossians 3.12-17

The most compassionate organization on earth is the Church of Jesus Christ. Throughout its history it has left in its path a string of hospitals, schools, orphanages, homes for unwed mothers, food pantries, clinics, homeless shelters, rehabs and a host of other entities which clothe the naked and feed the hungry and visit the sick and imprisoned.

Some of the criticism leveled at us has been justifiable. There have been sincere, albeit, misguided attempts at times, to do God's Work with less then actions of pure love and desirable results. Over the years there have been hypocrites like Annanias and Saphira, who lied to the Holy Spirit and what church has not had a Judas show up in its history?

Yet, I find myself often going back to the words of Dr. E. Stanley Jones, the Methodist Missionary to India, "The church with all her faults is still the best serving organization on earth. So get in and serve!"

We are to reflect Jesus, our LORD. He is the Head of the Church. We are to have His mind, His attitude. Over and over again we see His compassion in the Gospels:

Mark 1.41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His Hand and touched the man.
Matthew 9.36 When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 15.32 Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, "I have compassion for these people, they have been with Me three days and have have nothing to eat. I do not want to send the away hungry or they might collapse on they way.
Matthew 14.14 When Jesus landed and saw  a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.

We see that Jesus had great compassion- we are to follow Him.

In this section of Deuteronomy we see how Christ fulfilled this and we as His followers, His Body, of which He is the Head are to be. We are called to be people of compassion.

1. To Those In Debt To Us. - vs.10-15
Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

Moses is instructing the people to treat the poor with special grace.
As believers and followers of Jesus we are to have compassion on those in need. Our hearts are to be full of mercy for them.

Romans 13.8 Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.

Give freely even to those who cannot pay you back. We are in their debt.
May the LORD fill us with His Spirit to be full of compassion.

2. Have Mercy on The Extremely Needy. vs.17-18

The alien
The fatherless
The widow
All of these have special needs, emotional needs.

The alien is in a country that is home to us but not to them.
The fatherless literal orphans, also those forsaken by their parents (Psalm 27.10)- many today like that.

Today around the globe the Church ministers to those in each of those groups. Think of the orphanages, the Christian Adoption Agencies.
When World Vision was started in 1950 by Bob Pierce, who attended Pasadena Nazarene College as a young man, he drug his filming equipment all over Asia, particularly through Korea after the war ended, came back tot he US and would go around to churches and show his films and make appeals for people to help and within 15 years World Vision was caring for 65,000 children in 20 countries. He died at 64 years of age in 1978 but the work continues with the two Christian Relief Organizations he began: World Vision and Samaritan's Purse. Franklin Graham was trained to take over when he was dying with Leukemia. Franklin saw a branch of Samaritan's Purse spring up World Medial Mission. Today a doctor can go and serve in a Third World Country on his vacation through them.  Our own denomination, because of the mission work of the past, now has a child sponsorship similar to World Vision, through our missions. You can go to www.nazarene.org and find out about it. You won't hear much about this in the mainstream media this evening but Heaven is recording these things for eternity.

Moses is giving the people God's Word. Remember where you came from, have mercy on those in need. Have compassion. Reach out to those from others places in the world who have come here to America. Show the love of Jesus to those who are fatherless or without a husband.

Beware of this new phenomena called Compassion Fatigue. Jesus dealt with it when He said to His disciples, "Come lets get some rest."

But a great problem facing us is on the other side of the coin...

3. Watch out for Greed!  vs.19-22
Give to people freely. fields, vineyards, olive groves were open to the public for gleaning. If someone was hungry a meal was always available in Israel!
Luke 12.15
These items have spiritual significance. No charge for the things of God.

Be like Christ, Be People Of Compassion.

Encouragement For the Battle

Deuteronomy 20.1-4
Ephesians 6.10-18

There is a definite relationship between these two passages.

It was and is by the LORD, and only by the LORD, that victory is won.

God gave us His Word, in part, because He knew we would all need to be encouraged as we fight the good fight of the faith, contend for the faith,

There is no way I want to minimize the intensity of the battle we are in or in any way underestimate our foe, the enemy of our souls, Satan. I do believe we need to be aware of his schemes. Part of M.O. is to get us to put too much emphasis on his power and his work and not enough on the LORD's. We ought to talk more about heaven and less about how horrible the times are. They are challenging and evil but the LORD is great. How Great Is Our God!!!

We can become weary in doing good. In our struggle against sin we need to fix our eyes on Jesus and not on the roaring lion. Its when a person gets their eyes off Jesus that Satan can pounce on them. Consider Him Who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12.3).

We all need to hear this message! God's Word to the Israelites tells us how to face the enemy. The LORD wants us to be encouraged in Him in this spiritual battle we are in. Let's learn from His Word today.

1. Do Not "Size Up" the Enemy. -v.1
Satan is a formidable foe. He has a well assembled army but by looking at its size can cause us to fear.

I love the account of Elisha in II Kings 6 when the Arameans had "surrounded" him and his servant in Dothan.
vs.15-16 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" "Don't be afraid, the prophet answered, "Those who are with us are more than hose with them."
Moses speaking of the Exodus:
"Do not be afraid of them, because the LORD, your God, Who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you."

For encouragement in this spiritual battle we are in:
Remember past the victories. They can stir our faith, fan into flame the gift of God within us. Reading my journals does that- just this past week I read about Open Hands, the ministry we had among the homeless and destitute of the downtown area of Bay Shore before the revitalization took place. I read how we began by faith, how Joe InFranco came to me in prayer meeting and offered us the building rent free, how Peter Pan gave us gallons of soup, how Bagel Boss donated bagels and we were up and running. It is amazing how this little church was used to help in a substantial way for that season. I read in my journal about the call from the pastor of the largest church (over 100 times larger than us) in the area and how he said, "I want to turn our soup kitchen over to your church. We just hand out food but you guys are caring for the people's souls." Remember the way God has worked in your life!

2. Listen to the Word Of God. -vs.2-3
God's Word speaks to our hearts as we face the enemy.
Psalm 20.7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the LORD, our God.
Psalm 33.17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.

God's Word tells us of His Presence with us, His Almighty Power and His Supreme Authority.
Remember Jesus' words, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me." Matthew 28.18

Finally Be Encouraged in this spiritual battle you are in because

3. The LORD Owns the Battle- v.4
David's words to Goliath and the armies of Israel and the Philistines listening.
It is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD's.
Psalm 33.16-19
The LORD, Our God, is with us.
He fights against Satan.
He gives us victory.

Faith is the Victory!