SEEK WEEK
FULLERTON
Worship
Pray
Unite
Scripture:
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what He will say to me...” (Hab 2:1)
Habakkuk spent chapter one lamenting to God about the state of his environment. Violence, injustice, destruction, and conflict surrounded Habakkuk and his life. God responds to Habakkuk telling him to be patient and wait, because God will move in Habakkuk’s life. At the end of the second complaint Habakkuk states that he will watch, he will wait, he will look to see what God will say in return.
The city of Fullerton is not removed from violence, injustice, destruction, and conflict. It may not be as extreme as it was in Habakkuk’s life, but it is here in the city. Often as believers, we feel God’s calling for our city and want to charge right into “fixing” the situation. Christians are notoriously problem solvers, fixers, and do-ers. What would it look like to take Habakkuk’s posture to lament, wait, and listen?
We are quick to move because we think that we are the ones who are initiating the solving of the issue or injustice. But the truth is that God has been moving in Fullerton for decades before we moved here, were born, or our church was even established. God’s redemptive plan has already been initiated and is moving in our city. As believers we are called to lament, wait, and listen.
Challenge:
Scripture:
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:14-15)
Jesus had an ability to really see people and not overlook anyone. He saw the image of His father in everyone he came in contact with. It didn’t matter their social standing, their past sins, or the state of their heart, Jesus still chose to see his children. He saw the despised tax collector, Zacchaeus (Luke 19). He saw the woman at the well who was living a life of sin (John 4). He saw Judas, referring to him as “friend,” even as he betrayed the Son of God (Matt 26).
Jesus chose to not only see these children – one’s whom the disciples overlooked and rebuked – but He also says that it’s through their posture and heart that one is to obtain the Kingdom of God. It’s not through power, prestige, or wealth that one enters the Kingdom of God. Instead it’s the innocence, the humility, and a sincere desire to trust and believe in the good Father that allows one to enter the Kingdom.
In Fullerton many youth and children are being robbed of their God given innocence. Whether it’s issues of fatherlessness, abuse, molestation, bullying, or gang involvement, the youth of our city are being forced to grow up too soon and losing some of the characteristics that are crucial to the Kingdom.
Challenge:
Scripture:
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Eph 4:2)
Relationship has always been God’s main thing. In Genesis we see God in relationship with Adam and Eve and the world is as He first intended it. In Genesis 3 we see Adam and Eve sin driving a barrier between them and God. They have to leave the garden and were removed from His uninterrupted presence. But God didn’t give up and just damn humanity to hell. From that moment on, God started His redemptive plan to be back in deep relationship with humanity.
+ In Genesis 12 God chooses Abraham and his family line to reveal to the world who He is.
+ In Exodus 3 God speaks to Moses reuniting a relationship between Him and His enslaved people.
+ God makes a place among His people by dwelling in the tabernacle (Exodus 40).
+ God talks to the Israelites and promises to, “walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.” (Lev 26)
+ John 1 tells us that God wants to be with us so much that He made Himself into man to walk and be among us.
+ And then He goes a step further and decides to give us the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
+ The God of the Garden of Eden is the same God that chooses to reside within in us simply because He wants to be in deep relationship with us.
In Ephesians 4 God gives us a road map of essentials to deep relationship with others. Paul is telling the church of Ephesus to live a life worthy of the calling God has given us. We are called to be in deep relationship with Him and help others to experience the same. In verse 2 Paul lists the perquisites for relationship: humility, gentleness, patience and bearing with one another. All of these elements are encompassed in the way God relationally loves.
There are many residents of Fullerton who are experiencing homelessness. Some of the most important acts of love you can do when engaging our neighbors is to treat them with a God-given dignity. We are called to relationally connect with them not simply “fix” their issue.
Challenge:
Scripture:
"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. (John 1:46)
Philip experienced Jesus, God in the flesh, and ran over to Nathanael to tell him of whom he met. Nathanael’s reaction gives us a lot of insight to the social and cultural norms at that time. Philip states that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfilled prophecy of Moses and the Law. At that word, Nathanael practically blurts out, “Nazareth, can anything good come from there?”
Philip does stop to justify Nazareth, or how the city is actually a place of unknown value. Instead he says “Come and see.”
Check it out for yourself.
Philip was so blown away by the very presence of Jesus that He had to share it with his friend Nathanael.
We often get so absorbed with our own church, our own neighborhood, and our own context that we forget how multifaceted God’s Kingdom really is. God is moving in every community with or without us. He is transforming lives in churches throughout the city.
In Fullerton there is a thought that the south side of the city (south of Commonwealth) really needs the wealth and resources of the north side. The split within the city can sometimes bring about the “you are not one of us” type of mentality.
This is why Philip’s reaction to Nathanael was so beautiful. “Come and see.” See for yourself. Experience it for yourself. See what God is doing on the other side of the city, the other churches, and the other neighborhoods. A holy curiosity was brewing and it got Nathanael to go see who Jesus was for himself.
Challenge:
Scripture:
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” (Psalm 46:4)
The psalmist paints a very vivid picture of the chaos of the world. Mountains are crumbling, falling into the sea. The ocean is roaring, the earth is quaking, everything bad that could happen is occurring. And then the psalmist makes an abrupt turn to a picture of God’s city. It’s a place where God dwells, his very presence resides in the city among His people.
Some believe the “river” depicted in this Psalm is a reference to the Holy Spirit that connects and unites this city. A river that feeds into multiple streams. These multiple streams all reach the city and bring God gladness.
As believers invested in various churches around Fullerton, we are the streams that make glad the city of God. Now, Fullerton is not the New Jerusalem or anything like that, but we are a city that is united by the river, the Holy Spirit. The more we acknowledge this unity and humble ourselves to the work of the Spirit in the city, the more we get to share in the same gladness God experiences.
Each of our individual streams (my church, my small group, me as a believer) all flow from the same source river. Our inability to recognize the unifying source of the river will inevitably dry up our little stream. And the inability to recognize God’s movement in other streams (other churches, other small groups, other believers) the less we see the world as God views it.
It is not one stream that “makes glad the city of God,” instead it’s the “river whose streams make glad the city of God.”
Challenge: