Zion

Hebrews 12: 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abe




Zion:


What is Zion? and who are in Zion?

First time Zion is mentioned in

2 Samuel 5:7
6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, “You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,” thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).


In this place , Zion, David built his city, this is also called city of David, also called city of God.

In this city, the throne of David is established. and in this city, God promised that Son of David rules.

Israelites lived all over the places around Jerusalem, but God loves Zion.


Psalm 87:2,3

His foundation is in the holy mountains. 
2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God! Selah

You can be in many places, but God loves you in Zion. Amen.

in Psalm 87, it is said of Zion

V 5

And of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her;
And the Most High Himself shall establish her.”
6 The Lord will record,
When He registers the peoples:
“This one was born there.” Selah

When people who are born again and took baptism, it is said of those people that this one is born in this Church and God will establish.

My springs are in you. - Your springs should always be in Church.

that means your every blessing should be because you are established in Church.

I live a beautiful life because I am plugged into the Church.

I am away from sin, because i live in the company of saints.

I am prospering because the hand of God is upon me and am plugged into the Church.

My relatives are my brothers and sisters in Christ, because am plugged into Church.

All the springs should be in Zion(Church).

When Isaac was digging the wells, springs came up. 
Always in fathers camp. David was keeping fathers sheep.

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Now that we have all our springs in Zion, how we should be?

Happily take rest , take it easy.

Amos 6

Woe to you who are at ease in Zion,
And trust in Mount Samaria,



These people are in Zion, the problem is they trust in Mount Samaria.

Although they live in Zion, they come to Church, they hear all the teaching, but they trust in Mount Samaria.

what is Mount Samaria? Immeditaely we should be reminded of John 4.
Samaritan woman says our fathers worshipped on this mountain.
Shemor mountain was purchased by omri, king of israel. 



John 4:

19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews

Samaritan worship:  The problem is they do not know what they worship

There might be many people in Sunday worship singing songs, 

there will be another batch who will be looking at the phones.

you will find people singing the songs who do not know what they are singing, they don't connect to it,
To worship you I live, to worship you i live i live i live  and they go out and live as if they want.

There will be few remnant when they sing, their tears flow out, the Holy Spirit God  touches them, they repent and say Lord i have lived for myself all these days, but Lord now i live to worship you. these people know what they worship. 

These are the people who worship God in truth and spirit. They cannot stay quiet, they go , they share gospel and they are concerned about brothers and sisters in Christ( not about dress and gadgets).

All others  who trust in mount Samaria, they are at ease.

And Amos says - Woe to you who are at ease in Zion and they trust in mount Samaria.


Amos v 6 - But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

Nehemiah when he heard the Jerusalem walls are broken and burnt, he cried and fasted and went and spoke to the king.
He was not at ease. He did not think that , oh i am in kings palace, i have good salary, why to worry if Jerusalems walls are broken or burnt.

Ease is because of food and idleness

4 v 4 Who lie on beds of ivory,
Stretch out on your couches,
Eat lambs from the flock

v 5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments

Ezekiel 16: 49

49 Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness

How do we get into ease?

Esther 4:

13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

There were 127 provinces where jews were living were going to be affected because of the decision that king made due to haman.

and Mordecai when he learned of this, he cried greatly and tore his clothes. then he sent this message to Esther to talk to king about this, but the Esther said, no one can enter the kings inner court without his permission or else they would die.

and listen to Mordecais words.

v 14. if you remain silent at this time,  relief and deliverance will arise for the jews from another place, but you and your father house will perish.

What is Esther's crime for getting perished? any murder, theft, adultery,lies? Only thing is remaining silent.

If we remain silent when we have to talk , then there is a danger of perishing.

Esther was a godly woman. she was holy, she was blameless, she even trained the maid servants to fast and pray.

Proverbs 26:4,5

4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
Lest you also be like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
Lest he be wise in his own eyes.

Have burden for Church.

Are you at ease?
Did you finish paying off your loans, did you finish your studies, did you get green card? are you at ease?

2 kings 5:26
is it time to gather all these things?

Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? 

Because Mordecai left kingdom clothes and wear sack clothes, Mordecai was able to save so many jews.


----Phineas wife
----Uriah
----elijah and 7000

Psalm 129

Affliction

Did you come to Church today with some kind of fear in you? some hidden fear which you cannot share with others because you took a stand for Christ.

This psalm takes away all kinds of fears, because this psalm shows the love of God.
and the bible says there is no fear in Love.

This is talking about Israel - and if you see history of Israel , they have been going through persecution.

There was no other  nation in this world that went through persecution like this.
Israel survived Pharaoh,survived Greeks, survived Roans, survived Hitler, Survived all arab countries around them.

When we take a stand for God, we definitely some form of affliction.

But the enemy can not prevail against us. The Word says
Psalm 121:4 he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep

Even if you look at the Church history,  right from the early church we see persecution.
when all the early believers were joyfully worshiping Lord Jesus, suddenly persecution broke out and believers were scattered and went to Antioch and then they started sharing the Word.

Remember, every form of persecution ( whether its at workplace, neighbors and even at own families) is an opportunity to share the gospel.


when apostles were speaking in the name of Jesus, they questioned why are you speaking in the name of Jesus and Peter said we would obey God rather than man.

Then gamaliel said few interesting things.
1) theadus rose up and 400 followers and after he was slain all the group dispersed.
2) judas of galilee rose up and all people left after he perished.

if it is form God,
Remember, whenever something is from God, enemy cannot prevail against it.
Church is from God. and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.


Today, are you going through affliction because you are believer in Christ.
because you said you are a christian is there an affliction?

In Matthew 5:11
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 Ultimately, the enemy cannot prevail against God.


In every moment of history, there are people who truly believed in God. There is always a remnant who truly worshipped God and although they faced persecution, the Church survived., enemy could not prevail.


 V8 -

Neither let those who pass by them say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you;
We bless you in the name of the Lord!”

What most people say or do,we also do that.
Remember when you involve God into your conversation, it carries lot of importance.
For example, when you say Praise the Lord, you have to know that you are not saying hello.
You are indeed praising God.
Sometimes we are so much habituated, and say many things. we say God bless you.
when you bring God into picture whole conversation changes.
do you mean it?


Genesis 27:30
30 Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”

33 Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

38 And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

Issac once he blessed that is it. he didnt say okay God bless you also.
But he said no more blessing.

Psalm 128

V1. Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.

Fear of the Lord. 

Fear of the Lord - Because you love God, you love what He loves ( Righteousness) and you hate what He hates ( that is evil)

Who Walks in His ways.

Walking -  is mentioned many times in the Lord.

Your walking is always guided by some counsel.
Many people take the experts advice and walk accordingly. if you are looking for a job, you will take the counsel of a

2 When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.n expert in that job.

Psalm 1 says - Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of ungodly.

if you go by your own counsel, your emotions might come into play - Always take counsel of godly, run by pastor, run by brother or sister.

Enoch specialty is that he always walked in the counsel of God.



V4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.

1) Work.

First thing is - you will happy with what your work.

There are many people in this world who cannot enjoy what they do.

They always think my job is too stressful , wish i had the other person job.

there is this story of a small boy in a remote village, he is playing in the fields and one day he saw an aeroplane flying little lower above the field and he was excited and was saying to himself - wish I could fly an aeroplane, wish i would be going around all the places in this aeroplane.The pilot looking down to the fields and small boy thought and remembered his days as kid how we was playing in the fields, and now he is sick and tired of being a pilot and he says wish i could go back to the fields.

So neither the boy in field is happy nor the the pilot in the skies is happy, everyone wants to live others lives.

 

v2 When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

when you Fear the Lord, you will be happy with what you are doing.

Statistics say heart attacks are more common on Mondays because of the stress that is generated because of the work, blessed are the pastors who take off on monday.

Some people earn but its like a pocket with holes. 

Haggai 1:6

“You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.

V12

12 “Then the trees said to the vine,
‘You come and reign over us!’
13 But the vine said to them,
‘Should I cease my new wine,
Which cheers both God and men,
And go to sway over trees?’

V9

9 But the olive tree said to them,
‘Should I cease giving my oil,
With which they honor God and men,
And go to sway over trees?’

Psalm 127

Unless the Lord builds
Unless the Lord guards

This shows us that It should be the Lords doing.
Any work if it originates with man, it is vain.

Any thing in Christian life should begin with the Lord and end with Lord.

As Pastor always says don't call anyone or anything good if God is not involved.
If a person is called good

Genesis 11:1-3
11 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 

The people said Let us make , let us build
They want to make the bricks, they want to build the city.

you see their words and their intentions.
words - are of Pride, boast.
any time you don't confess Jesus - there is a pride.
see their actions - they are building it.
and their intentions - verse 4 - let us make a name for ourselves.

Whenever you do a work, without involving God, it becomes a confusion.
Today you see many people saying i am really confused what to do.
Your confusion is because God is not involved.

But look at Abraham -
Wherever he went he built an altar first. If there is anyone who taught this world to give to God it is Abel and Abraham.

And look at Hebrews 11:10
 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Do wait for Gods doing in your lives.

V3
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.


Aquila and Priscilla - They were established by Paul and now they started speaking Word of God to Apollos,

Acts 18:
24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 


They had grown in their ministry and finally there is a Church formed in their house.

19 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.