I Don’t Want To Be Trampled To Death At The Gate

Gratitude to Pastoral Team

I would like to express my gratitude to the Pastoral Team (including Desi & Rachel) for their contributions during this past 16.5 months. From pastoral care to small groups, daily broadcasts to the campus renovation, along with enabling me to take a 2.5 month sabbatical, they have been steady and faithful co-workers. I thank each of you.

Special Gratitude to Lela Cooper

I want to extend a special thank you to Lela Cooper in her role as Project Co-manager in the year-long process of renovating our physical campus. I am a force of nature that simply will not stop until a job is done. I am grateful for her patience with both me and the job. Together, we have succeeded. Thank you, Lela.

I Believe(d) in You

I believed in you.

I believed that you were truly Christians that would serve Christ no matter what you faced. I believed that you could and would dig your own wells.

I believed that not only could we bear witness to our larger community by caring for our neighbor and not becoming a super-spreader but I also believed that you were better for the kingdom both alive and well.

A few stopped believing in me. That weighs heavily on me, but I do not apologize for guarding you. I love you. I serve you for Him. Repeatedly I have heard His voice say, Well done. That is enough.

But to all of you who trusted me, who continued to believe in the Pastoral Team, who stayed faithful in giving, in attendance to small groups, and every night you tuned in to the broadcast, I simply say, Thank you!

Review of Years

2015 was a year of great loss for me as I ended a 14 year contribution to Urshan Graduate School of Theology. But in the midst of that loss God began to speak to me and do a work within me.

2016 began a process of realignment for us with the Year of the Plumb Line, followed by the vision casting series of Chase the Lion and the starting of small groups in 2017. The shift from a pastor centric model began in 2018 with the building of the Pastoral Team and the hiring of Russ Faubert, followed by Desi Lugo.

This shift in vision, structure, and operations was all strategically guided by our Master who was aware of what was coming and where he was/is taking us. Without these strategic moves, COVID-19 would have crippled us. Instead, we have learned, innovated, and you have stayed faithful in attendance on our digital campus and in giving (with 2020 and 2021 thus far being in the top three giving years along with 2019 the highest ever giving year).

February 23 - Play (A Prophetic Message from Zechariah 8

God loves Newark UPC! He is pleased with your zealous commitment to his Word. He loves your generosity to his mission. He loves your faithfulness!

God is already planting the seeds of our provision. Everything in his economy is working to provide for us. We have all that we need.

Do not be afraid. Tell the truth. Don’t hide but have courage.

Everything you thought you had to do to have God’s blessing will become easy and light. Fasting and mourning will become rejoicing and play. It is party time!

God is calling people from around the world as they come to the United States, to the Eastern seaboard and to our communities in the greater metropolitan Philadelphia. They will continue to come from nations and cities all over the world. Both poor and weak, rich and powerful they will come seeking our God within our midst.

Those who desire God will seek you out. They will find you. They will sense that you know God and they will want to walk with you.

What is impossible for us is possible for God because through his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

God is already in the pit! God is already strengthening our hands! God is already sharpening our weapons! He is already rescuing us from the lions. Chase those lions, jump into those pits, he is giving you a testimony right now.

Resist temptation! Resist fatigue! Resist disappointment! Resist fear! Resist defeat!

It is not by force nor by strength, but by his Spirit. Return to the joy of knowing him. Return to the joy of his salvation. Return to the simple faith of a child. Return to the carefree life of a child. Return to the life of growing in play. Play again.

Prophetic Word from Dr. Joey Peyton

As I said at the celebration of first Passover (and just as important), This day and this prophetic Word shall live in memorial! In years to come, this day shall be remembered as the day that Newark came into my complete will. This day, shall be remembered as the beginning of all that I promised for the last 40 years. And this day shall be a day of reorientation each year that calls the church to learn, to serve, to love, and to play in the presence of the Creator.

Tongues & Interpretation

Look up! Look up! My redemption draweth nigh. I am coming back for my people. I am coming to seek and to save, but I am also coming to pull away, to separate, to shake. Grab on to me. Depend on me. For a time is coming where I am all you will have but I will be all that you need.

Where We Are Now

Now we return to a renovated campus in which $315,000 has been invested. Nearly $270,000 of that came from the federal government and an insurance company. If someone offered me $315,000 return for an investment of $45,000, I would not hesitate.

I have never been more confident that I heard from the Master when he told me to spend the money. We invested in people and he in return invested in our campus. You cannot out give God.

And now are poised to invest again by Sending Our Own in Desi & Rachel as missionaries to the island nation of Vanuatu. We have sent many missionaries before but never our own. I wonder how God will multiply this gift back to Newark?

Don’t miss the Sending our Own Service on August 22, then Rachel’s ordination on Friday, August 27 and finally our commissioning of the Lugos on August 29.

The Context of Today’s Sermon

I am tired, but not afraid.

I am weary, but confident.

I have never been more alone and yet I am surrounded by his presence.

I know less but am more certain than ever.

I have died and yet in the dying have found life abundant.

It is from this place, these years, and with these prophetic words and promises that I bring you this message today.

The Backstory

The army of Aram was at war with Israel but Elisha kept telling the king of Israel the movements of the army of Aram.

The king of Aram sent a great army to Dothan to capture Elisha.

Elisha’s servant saw this great army and was terrified and confused.

Elisha prayed that the Lord would open his servant’s eyes to see what was really happening.

The Lord did open the servant’s eyes and he saw horses and chariots of fire surrounding the Aramean army.

Then the Lord struck the army blind at the word of Elisha and Israel captured the army.

Then at the word of Elisha, mercy was extended and the Aramean army was sent home.

Later King Ben-hadad of Aram sent his army again. They besieged Samaria the capital of Israel such that they ran out of food and began eating donkey heads, dove dung and their children.

2 Kings 7 NLT

1 Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the Lord! This is what the Lord says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.” 2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!” But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” 3 Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. 4 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.” 5 So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! 6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” they cried to one another. 7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives. 8 When the men with leprosy arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it. 9 Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.” 10 So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!” 11 Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace. 12 The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, “I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city.” 13 One of his officers replied, “We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it will be no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us.” 14 So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. 15 They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. 16 Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that six quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the Lord had promised. 17 The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. 18 The man of God had said to the king, “By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.” 19 The king’s officer had replied, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!” And the man of God had said, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” 20 And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!

Points

It is easy to forget the miracles of the past when faced with the trials of the present.

Leadership matters. And who you choose as your leader can be a life and death matter.

To speak against the word of the Lord is never acceptable nor beneficial.

The word of the Lord usually comes through a human voice.

You will fail and are already dead unless the Lord performs a miracle.

Faith always moves us from the familiar to the unknown, from our comfort zone to risk, from what can be seen to the unseen, from what is to what might be.

Faith never operates in safety.

Without faith, you cannot please God.

We must believe the word of the Lord.

Because he usually sends his word through a human voice, we have an excuse to not believe.

I Have Decided...

to believe the word of the Lord

to risk everything based only on the word of the Lord

failure pursuing the miraculous is better than success pursuing anything less than God’s vision for me

I would rather be a crazy leper than an officer assisting the king

I will not be trampled to death in the gate

When You Do Not Believe the Word of the Lord...

you cling to the past because it is familiar and does not require faith or risk

you choose your preferences over the revealed, Scriptural and spirit-led, direction of the Lord

you become critical of leadership (and you will always have a basis to be critical because God has chosen to speak through humans)

you refuse correction or direction

2 Kings 7:19–20 NET

19 But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” Elisha said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

Would you join me in deciding...

to believe the word of the Lord

to risk everything based only on the word of the Lord

failure pursuing the miraculous is better than success pursuing anything less than God’s vision for us

you would rather be a crazy leper than an officer assisting the king

you will not be trampled to death in the gate

I Don’t Want To Be Trampled To Death At The Gate

I Don’t Want You To Be Trampled To Death At The Gate

The Lord Is Doing This! Are You Going To Step Through The Gate Into The Promise or Are You Going To Be Trampled To Death?