Genesis 1:26(NKJV) 26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over £all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
(Last week was our youth camp here at LWCC. The young people had a great time and the Lord really met them in a wonderful way. Pastor Matt Holcomb of The Door Fellowship in Williamsport, Pa. was here ministering to the youth and we had him stay over for the Sunday morning service. He spoke about “Taking our City” and here are some of my thoughts from his message.)
This week we are looking at the will of God concerning the “city” in which we live. We usually use the term city to describe a geographical location of a certain size. However, many of us do not live in an area classified as a city. I live in a very small town. We live near a small city, but our church draws from an area that includes three small cities as well as a number of towns and villages. For our discussion, I define “city” as the geographic area where a church has been given responsibility of preaching the Gospel. The “city” we are called to take for Jesus is the people in that area.
On Monday, we looked at Joshua and Jericho. The people of Israel were to take that whole land of Canaan and occupy it as their inheritance from God. However, Jericho was the gateway to the Promised Land and they had to take that city before they could do anything else. God gave a special plan for Jericho and Joshua applied that plan and took the city. I want to remind you that the plan for Jericho was not the plan for any other city in Canaan. God has a plan for your city. God has given that plan to the leadership of the local churches he has established there. You and I need to find our part in one of those churches and actively apply the plan of God to our city.
Let me mention one more bit of review. If we are going to take our city for God, we must do it by faith. The plan for Jericho concluded with the people of God lifting a mighty shout before the walls of Jericho. It was not the shout itself that brought down the walls of Jericho. It was the faith behind the shout that brought down the walls of Jericho. Getting the plan for our city is one thing. Acting on that plan is important, but just acting alone will not cause the walls surrounding the lives in our city to fall. It is acting in faith on that plan that will produce.
Today I want to spend a few moments on the foundation of God’s will for our “city.” I believe God has given us our cities as an inheritance. There are many people in our city that do not know that Lord. I believe God has given us the authority to preach the Gospel to them and see them saved. The church of Jesus Christ can and should become the dominant spiritual influence in our region. This authority begins in the Garden of Eden.
There are three places we see the perfect will of God. We see it manifested in an undefiled way in heaven, in the life and ministry of Jesus, and in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man. Today’s scripture tells us one aspect of the perfect will of God. Man was to have dominion over the earth. Under God, man was to be the dominant force in the earth. That is the perfect will of God.
When man committed the sin of high treason and subordinated himself to the devil, that perfect will of God was corrupted. Man turned his authority over to the devil. The devil became the God of this world. (2 Cor 4:4) Whereas it was the will of the Father God that man exercise this dominion under God’s authority and direction, Satan used man’s God given dominion against him. Satan became man’s taskmaster and the ruler of the physical earth. Corruption and death began to take control instead of the life that God intended for the earth.
God’s authority to Adam extended over the whole earth. I believe it was God’s desire that the spiritual conditions in the Garden of Eden eventually extend to the entire world. Had Adam and Eve not fallen, their children could have walked in the same fellowship with God their parents did. They could have extended the Godly dominion that was conveyed upon man in Genesis 1:26 to every corner of the earth. Because of the fall of man and Satan’s acquisition of that dominion just the opposite occurred.
God has given the same dominion over the whole earth the Church that he gave to Adam.
Matthew 28:18-20(NKJV) 18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
We are to preach the gospel to the whole world. How does that relate to our city? Let us look at the outworking of Adam and Eve’s dominion.
Genesis 2:15(NKJV) 15Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
Man’s dominion extended to the whole world, but he could not be in the whole world. He was in the Garden. He was in a local place called Eden and it was in Eden where God called him to walk in that dominion. The church has been given a commission to preach the gospel to every nation. However, you do not live in every nation. You live in a “city.” The Lord has called you to preach to, or have dominion over, a city.
We see that in the Garden of Eden it was the will of God for Adam and Eve to be the dominant spiritual influence over their “city.” They were to “tend” and “keep” the Garden. The word translated “tend” here means to work or till the garden. However, it also carries the idea of keeping the garden bound or enslaving it. Man was called to keep the garden under his will. Of course, that implied that man’s will was subject to God’s will.
The word translated “keep” here means to protect. Man was to protect the Garden from the influence of God’s enemy. Both words imply the need to work. Adam and Eve were to work to enforce the will of God in the Garden and they were to work to protect the environment God had created for their family. That is what we are called to do in our city as well.
What is our responsibility to the city in which we live? We are to work to bring forth God’s will in the city. Paul tells timothy what that will is.
1 Timothy 2:1-4(NKJV) 1Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Second, we must rise up in faith against the enemies Paul reveals to us in Ephesians 6:12 and drive them out of our city. We must protect our city from the devil and his influence so that we may see the will of God accomplished in our city. If each of does this, we will see the world transformed by the Kingdom of God and hasten the return of the true King of Kings, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
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