relational grace

Once the issues surrounding building the temple in Jerusalem and who would build it were resolved, David decided to deal decisively with the Philistines. Bringing the war into the Philistine homeland for the first time and after several battles were fought the Philistines would never be a factor again. Israel would now control the major trade route of the ancient world, the Via Maris. 

The only real enemies David now had were three fold. The Aramian Kingdom, the Mobia Kingdom and the Edimi Kingdom (due to transcription challenges, these may not be spelled correctly).  David knew that he had to subdue these Kingdoms in order to control another trade route known as the King’s Highway which connected the Red Sea with Damascus. His kingdom badly needed the income that was paid by the owners of caravans that traveled the trade route. Once this route had been secured it would be of great wealth to David.  

At this time in Israel's history another important person appears that would be destined to play a vital role in Israel's future, and that would be true for many generations to come. The name of this man was Zadduc. He became the high priest of Israel at this point in time and from his loins would be the High Priest of Israel for the next thousand years to come. When the trade routes had been secured the peace came to Israel and David had time to sit down and look back over the past and he had found that he had some unfinished business, some important business. 

One of his obligations was to his blood brother Jonathan. A part of his obligation was this, any of the children born of Jonathan were now his children and the way in which David chose to take care of this child will be the subject of this message.

In this episode Pastor Harris reminds us about the prophesies of Nathan and provides a lot of back knowledge leading into this topic.  More specifically Pastor Harris reminds us that God sent the prophet Nathan to David with certain instructions and a grave warning. That warning was this, just because a temple to God stood in their midst, it did not mean that his presence would always dwell in that temple. Pastor Harris will explain more about this warning in this teaching.

NOTE: To save any confusion, please note that Pastor Harris does indeed tell the story of the tapestries he saw in the vatican.  He told this same story in episode #114 which is also the first episode of the Saga of David series.

Last episode we discussed David’s plan for spiritual renewal for the nation of Israel.  It was a fairly simple plan. He was going to introduce a worship revolution. It was going to be something the Hebrew religion and the world at large had never seen. The plan really focused on the Ark of the Covenant that he considered to be Israel’s greatest treasure. It needed to be transported to Mount Zion, which was formally Mount Moriah, and placed in a tent that would come to be known as the Tabernacle of David.

Here the Ark of the Covenant could be seen by anyone who would like to.  The flaps of the tabernacle would be open and people could see the Ark there.  On top of bringing the Ark to the top of Mount Zion, David had gone about a massive allocation of resources, people and time to create a 24 hour praise and worship experience. He had done this by appointing three men, Asath, Heman, and Ethan to lead a group of 24 thousand men in three different groups of eight thousand each for 24 hour worship.  This continued for 40 years, 40 years of 24 hour perpetual worship with 24 thousand men.

But first, the big problem with this plan was that the worshippers were ready, the tent was ready, the mount was ready… but they didn't have the Ark. The Ark was eight miles west of Jerusalem where it had been for the past 60 years in the house of Abenidad, in the village of Penrith Jerun, and to actually get the Ark from point A to point B was far more complicated than you may have first thought, and that is the topic of Pastor Harris’s message in this episode.

Following the exodus when Israel had come into the land of Canan the priests brought the Tabernacle to the town of Shiloh.  The Tabernacle would remain here for 200 years.  In time, there was a battle with the Philistines over a Hebrew highway. The high priests were in charge of the tabernacle and these high priests were the sons of Eli. When the Israelites were in this battle they wanted the Ark of the Covenant to give them the power to win.  So they sent messengers to go ask the high priests to see if they could have the ark of the covenant with them to have God’s power to win the battle.  As they brought the ark of the covenant out to the battle God did not go with it.  His presence was in the Holy of Holies when the Ark of the Covenant was there and when it was brought out to the battle, it was said that the presence of the Lord had departed from the Holy of Holies.

In this episode, Pastor Harris will teach on how the Ark of the Covenant departed.

Last episode we talked about David and his big battle with the Amalekites in the Negev.  While that was going on with him, the exact opposite was going on with Saul. Saul was encountering Israel's old enemy the Philistines.  They had amassed a massive army and to this point the Isrealites had been successful in defeating them by fighting them off as they had always engaged them in mountainous terrain. But the Philistines had pushed and manipulated the battle so they could fight at the Valley of Jezreel which was flat land.  This was beneficial to the Philistines because they had iron chariots. Any military strategist would say that it looks as if the Isrealites would be slaughtered.  

The reason this battle was so crucial and that Saul had to fight it, was because they were at a place called Beth Shan and if the Philistines were to take this location they would cut Israel in half. This location was too crucial, and Saul was forced to take the Philistines on in open combat, in flat terrain, taking on their iron chariots. It seemed suicidal, God had abandoned Saul for David.  

So Saul turned to a medium.  Saul himself had outlawed the use of mediums. It was outlawed in the law of God, but Saul was driven to the very brink of his insanity by havinfg to hold things together by the giant adversity that faced him having to fight the Philistines.  When he saw this medium, he disguised himself because he knew if the medium recognized him as King Saul that the medium would not consult upon evil spirits.  We know today that spirits guided through mediums are not through the Holy Spirit but are evil spirits. To Saul’s dismay the medium conjures up the spirit of Samual the great profit.  Although Samual had been dead for many years he spoke truthfully  to the situation at hand.  He said that Saul would in fact fight this battle, and Saul, his sons and many of his army would suffer a very tragic defeat.  Saul’s dilemma was over, he looked into the future, the future was clear there was only disaster and death for him and his kingdom. 

Meanwhile David waited back at Ziklag unaware of what was going on.  This is the topic of Pastor Harris’s teaching in this episode.  The death of Saul and the ramifications of that day.

In our last teaching we saw David confront Saul at the Oasis of Ein Gedi, and there we saw a great part of David’s character revealed.  One thing we saw revealed was his boldness, his courage and that he really trusted in God.  He was able to stand up and confront Saul because he believed that God would defend him and that God would be in control. We also saw some of David’s crafiness, and his wisdom and the words that he used. He chose not to kill Saul, and instead he chose to cut a part of his robe off. It showed that he never had any intentions of killing Saul, he always saw him as king.  It showed his humility.  We saw his character revealed through his humility.  He said, “After whom do you pursue Saul?  After a dead dog after a flea”. David is stressing his insignificant and his unimportance in the face of a great king.  We saw Saul respond in a very interesting way.  He said, no not at all, you are not insignificant, you are going to be king someday. It is shocking but it reveals Saul’s insanity and that in times he had moments where he had it all together.  But David knew that Saul would continue to come after him. 

Meanwhile, both David and Saul received a shock because their spiritual mentor, Samuel the profit, had died. David received this news while in the wilderness of Maon, and there had a very interesting encounter with a very beautiful and wise and crafty woman herself named Abigail, and there we will find ourselves in the setting of this episode's topic. 

As we continue on with our second episode of this new Saga of David series I continue to think about episode one and how Pastor Harris focused on Samuel and the strange circumstance he found himself in when it came to anointing the next king of Israel. It was an interesting approach to kicking off a teaching about the life of David.  Similarly, one of the obvious stories from the life of David would be that of his victory over the giant Goliath. However, Pastor Harris chooses to diverge from the standard teaching route and come at it from another unique aspect. Definitely not what I expected, but I was by no means surprised.

This new series is a large and in-depth study of Pastor Harris’s which covers the man after God’s own heart, King David.  As always, Pastor Harris’s approach to the life of David is very unique and we hope will touch the lives of our listeners, teaching after teaching.  This series is over 20 episodes in length and rightfully so, there is so much to learn from the story of David’s life, much more than his run-ins with the likes of Goliath and Bathsheba.  Matter of fact, it can more accurately be defined as a “saga” than simply be referred to as a life story. I’m sure dad knew that far too well, so well that he titled this series very simply, The Saga of David.

This episode wraps up our current series titled “Courage and Confrontation” which follows the life and times of Elijah.  This has been a truly amazing series and has come with God’s perfect timing.  I hope these teachings have encouraged everyone who listens. I have to tell you all, I love this specific episode, I think it really places things into context not only from a ministry standpoint, but as a way to approach various aspects of life. Dad talks about his early days in ministry well before I was born or dad had even made it to Ponca City where he met my mother Crystal.  As always, we would love to hear from you all any way you like, email, facebook, instagram, etc. We love hearing how these messages resonate with you, it encourages us and keeps and energizes us to keep pushing out new episodes and content.

So let’s get into the introduction of our final episode.  Prior to the Prophet Elijah's encounter with King Ahab over Naboth's vineyard, he had been walking through an agricultural area in Israel and he spotted a young man plowing his field. There were eleven teams of oxen plowing in front of this man and he was plowing with a twelfth team of oxen. 

The sensitive spirit of the prophet Elijah instantly saw something in this man so he walked over to the young man and threw his mantle around his shoulders. Elijah would later discover that the name of this man was Elisha, the son of Shaphat. This farmer turned from his team of oxen, and said to Elijah, "Please let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you." Elijah agreed.

What Elisha did at this point was fascinating. He kissed his father and mother, then demonstrated his commitment to following Elijah in that he slaughtered his team of oxen, his sole means of support. Then set fire to his plow and yoke, his secondary means of support. He proceeded to cook the meat of the oxen and shared it with the people of his village and his family so that they could all enjoy one final meal together. Then, he followed Elijah from that point onward, serving him in any way that he possibly could.

That is the last we hear of Elisha for several years. Then, he reappears with Elijah at a place called Gilgal, the place where Israel camped upon first entering the Promised Land. He had seen many things since he had begun to follow Elijah. 

For one thing, he had been with Elijah when King Ahaziah of Israel had sent a captain with fifty men to place Elijah under arrest. He watched as the prophet called down fire from heaven and those men were utterly consumed. He was also present when the king sent another group of fifty to arrest the prophet. Once again, he heard the prophet call down fire from heaven and saw those men consumed. Then, when another group of 50 came, Elisha heard the captain of the group appeal to the prophet to save his life. No doubt, the young prophet heard the voice of the angel of Yahweh, the pre existent Christ, tell to Elijah to save this captain and his men and to go back to Samaria with this captain and confront the King. This was a dangerous proposition, but Elijah did as he was told.

At this point, Elijah was aged. It is time for him to leave this earth, but he has a few things to do before that could occur. For one thing, he would take a quick ministry tour of the area, then, God would take him. This is the background for Pastor Harris’s teaching in this episode.

By now we have all seen that the prophet Elijah was an amazing human being. Even his name is amazing. In the Hebrew language the name Elijah means, "Yahweh is my God." Obviously, his name defined his mission. He sought to demonstrate to his people that Yahweh is not only God but He is the only true and living God

We have seen that at the time Elijah first appeared in Israel, the nation of Israel, as a whole, no longer worshiped Yahweh. They had slowly but surely integrated the worship of the Phoenician God, BA’AL and his female counterpart, Asherah, into their religion through the actions of their king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel. In fact they were were well on their way to making BA’AL the primary God of Israel. As a result of this apostasy, God had brought a severe drought upon the land and He had commissioned Elijah to announce this divine punishment.

The moment Elijah pronounced this divine judgment to King Ahab, he was told by God to flee to a remote location where he would be fed by ravens and drink from a brook. So, Elijah followed the Lord's instructions and after a while, when the brook dried up, the prophet was told to go and find a certain widow who lived in the Phoenician village of Zarephath, and he was to stay with her.  While Elijah was living with this Phoenician woman and her son, God miraculously supplied them with flour and oil.

During the entire length of the drought Elijah was forced to remain in hiding, because he had become the most wanted man in all of Israel. The King and the Queen wanted him dead, and Elijah knew it. After all, in the course of the drought Jezebel had put to death many of the prophets of the Lord. Yet, the man she wanted most seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

So, for three long years, not a single drop of rain fell on the land and for three long years King Ahab and queen Jezebel searched for Elijah to kill him. But things were about to change. God was preparing to order the prophet to make himself known once again, and that will be the subject of Pastor’s sermon for this morning.

Last week we watched as the story that supplied water for the prophet Elijah dried up, and the ravens which brought him bread and meat ceased to appear. It did not take Elijah long to realize that this phase of his life, the training phase, was now over. And as he stood there gazing along the great Wadi Hareet, the voice of God spoke to him again, and this is what God said:

"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."

Without question, this was not the message that Elijah had expected. In fact, it appears that these instructions from the Lord left the prophet shocked and speechless.

Now, Elijah would not have been shocked if God had said to him, "Go to the desert wastes of Paran," or "Go to Mount Sinai, the mountain of my glory." The truth is this: both of these locations were places where God was known to dwell. His holy presence, His KAVOD, His SHEKINAH, was found in those places.

However God did not tell Elijah to go to either the Desert of Paran or to Mount Sinai. Instead God said, “Go to the village of Zarephath.” Why would Elijah be so shocked by that divine directive? There was a reason! Zaraphath was a village in the region known as Phoenicia, which was Gentile territory. In fact, it was as Gentile as it gets.

This village was located in the very heart of the land from which the evil queen Jezebel of Tyre came. It was a demonized land, a land where the god Ba’al was worshiped; a place where Israel’s God was scorned, so this message made no sense to Elijah. He was at war with this Phoenician god and the very last place he thought a man of God should be seen was in the heart of the enemy’s stronghold.

But this much can be said for Elijah; he may not have understood what God had said and what God did at times, but he was usually willing to obey what God told him to do, no matter how difficult it seemed. Pastor Harris will focus on this tendency this morning.

As we continue the Courage and Confrontation series we remember that God had always prepared men to do the work that He calls them to do. In the days of King Ahab of Israel, the situation called for a man like Elijah the Tishbite; an Elijah was ready to do the job; at least in part. The easy part was to march into the throne room of Ahab and to announce to the king, “It ain’t gonna rain no more.” And he did just that!

From there, the task facing the prophet would become far more arduous. He needed more training, and the Spirit of the Lord knew exactly how to prepare Elijah for what was to come. The situation was this: God was displeased with the idolatrous practices of the children of Israel, so He chose to chastise them by sending a great drought upon the land. Baal, the god to whom they had turned was worshiped as the “god of the storm,” so, in sending this drought, God was saying to Israel, “Let’s see if the god of the storm has the power to end a drought that Yahweh had ordained. The dye was about to be cast. 

As Pastor Harris will share, once the announcement of the impending drought was declared, Elijah was told to go hide himself in a deep wadi or canyon in Transjordan. To prepare His man for the coming war, God had called Elijah to go to a place of solitude and isolation, and it was in the best interest of the prophet to obey his God. 

There in the wadi, God met the physical needs of the prophet. God provided abundant water from a spring, and He sent ravens to bring Elijah meat to sustain him. In this God was teaching Elijah to live from His divine hand. Of course, the Lord could have sent angels instead of ravens to minister to Elijah, but God demonstrated to His prophet that He can use even the lowest creatures to do His bidding.

However, eventually the brook in the wadi ran dry and the ravens ceased to come. The prophet lost his supply just when it appeared that he needed them most. But the prophet would find that there is a river which makes glad the city of God; a river that never runs dry, “a well of water that springs up to eternal life.”

This series will be titled Courage and Confrontation. Pastor Harris will follow Elijah the Tishbite.  We will follow him from insignificance and we will watch God take him and turn him into one of the giants of the Biblical era. The Bible will remind us that Elijah was more like us than we could even imagine.  It is important that we all recognise and accept that God can use us all mightily, even despite ourselves.

This series is dedicated to not only the current membership of First United Methodist Church in downtown Oklahoma City.  But to all those who have and continue to love the ministry of First Church over the years, whose lives were changed for the better due to this over century long ministry. I pray that we would be encouraged, and empowered with what Pastor Harris refers to as “a Holy Boldness” to be the new group of Elijah’s that he hoped would appear on the scene and say “Here I stand” and that will refuse to back down. 

This episode marks the final teaching of the Spiritual Gifts teaching series. What a fascinating teaching Pastor Harris has saved for the last. I have to admit I have probably listened to this teaching over five times to fully understand everything Pastor Harris was trying to get across to us.  In this Pastor Harris will cover the nine manifestations of the Fruit of the Spirit. I can’t wait for everyone listening to learn now the Fruit of the Spirit work within us as believers.

I hope everyone has been enjoying this Spiritual Gifts teaching series.  This episode will mark our seventh lesson in this series in which Pasto Harris will continue his teachings on the equipping gifts, which he also refers to as the ministry gifts.  In the last episode her taught us about the ministry gifts of the apostles, the prophets, and the evangelists. In this lesson he will dive deeper into the ministry gifts of the pastors and of the teachers.

In the last four episodes, Pastor Harris has been teaching about each of the spiritual gifts, gifts that he refers to as the “motivational gifts”. In this teaching, he’ll cover the last two of those motivational gifts, which include the gift of administration and the gift of empathy.  It has been great taking a deeper dive into each of these gifts and learning about the intricacies of each.  I know that it has been enlightening for me to cover each gift one by one.

In this teaching Pastor Harris will discuss two more Spiritual Gifts, two that he has categorized as motivational gifts.  One is the gift of servanthood, and the other is the gift of teaching. It really is fascinating to listen to these gift bearer's descriptions.  Hopefully you all are having a similar experience as I am, learning about your own giftings.

As always we hope everyone enjoyed our introductory teaching on the Spiritual Gifts.  I for one am very intrigued with the three categories of gifts that Pastor Harris has provided for us.  Of those three categories I am referring to, one contains 7 motivational gifts,  another contains 11 equipping gifts and another contains 7 manifestation gifts.  I am looking forward to digging into these with Pastor Harris as he unpacks each of the life of this teaching.  In this episode Pastor Harris we review the ins and outs of the motivational gifts answering questions like; when do we get assigned our gifts?  Are some gifts more dominant than others? Can you earn gifts or are there reasons that you would deserve a gift?  Pastor Harris will then cover the first of 7 motivational gifts to us, the specific gift he will cover in this episode will be the gift of prophecy.  

This episode marks the third week of this Advenseries.  It is that time when we remember God’s decision to become a man, and when we look ahead with anticipation to his second coming to establish his kingdom on earth. The magnitude of this first aspect of Advent, God’s decision to become a man is truly incredible. Just think about it! The one true God, the God who brought the world into being by the words of his mouth, chose, decided, willed, to become a human being. Can you imagine?

The facts are staggering. Almighty God willingly chose to put on this corrupt human flesh of ours, choosing to live in one of these bodies of sin. It truly is “mind-boggling.” Then, when we add to all of that the fact that by His own free choice, He subjected Himself to all the limitations that you and I experience, it is difficult for anyone to comprehend.

However, if we think this is difficult for us to understand, imagine how difficult it would have been for the ancient Hebrews to understand. For them, the idea that God would become flesh was the surest lunacy; it was unthinkable. After all, they saw God as being “wholly other,” and the very thought of Him associating with the likes of us, much less becoming man Himself was considered to be blasphemous.

Yet, there were a few men who dared to express such a thought, and this morning, Pastor Harris will point to these special men, and even name them. Their boldness set the scene for that great moment when God became flesh and dwelt among us. 

In this episode we will jump into the second episode of our Advent series this year titled, “The Christ of Christmas”. Pastor Harris will tell us more about the “Little town of Bethlehem” which was made famous by the great Christmas carol that we all have sung so many times. Bethlehem is located some six miles south of the city of Jerusalem near the chief north-south route that links Jerusalem with the town of Hebron. The word Bethlehem means “house of bread” and its significance lies in the fact that it is located in a fertile region characterized by an abundance of grain, especially barley and wheat, thus “house of bread.”

The town was originally called Ephrathah, which means “fruitful.” The first biblical mention of the site is that it was the place where Jacob’s wife, Rachel, was buried after her untimely death, so the city must have existed as early as the time of Jacob and perhaps earlier.

In the prophetic book of Micah, Bethlehem is given its crowning glory. The prophet declares that this village will be the birthplace of Israel’s Messiah. In fact, Micah 5:2 reads as follows:

“But you, Bethlehem, though you were little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting.”

Ever since the first century AD, Bethlehem has been a place of pilgrimage and throughout the following centuries the city has continued to be a sacred site for Christians worldwide. There, we find the very ancient Church of the Nativity, perhaps the oldest church building in existence, which is located in the middle of the town. Beneath this church is a grotto, a cave, and it is here where the Lord Jesus Christ was born. In this teaching, Pastor Harris will be making reference to this cave and to the One who was born here.