Eternally Thankful – Sermon November 27, 2016

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I am reading a challenging book right now in which the author states that true happiness in one’s life comes from a grateful heart. A grateful spirit keeps you from feeling sorry for yourself and this is key;

“the seeds of depression cannot take root in a grateful heart”.

The book of Psalms is wonderful to read in order to find language to thank God for his many blessings.

Psalm 105 starts with the line; “Give thanks to the Lord...” and then verse 2 begins with; “sing praise to him”. The Psalmist is not simply thankful for the blessings, but he is thankful for the attributes of the giver himself. The Psalmist is praising God for all his attributes; his mercy, his kindness, his justice and his goodness. A natural outflow of a thankful heart is worship. Spending time thanking God should always lead to worship as we realize that without his perfect and enduring attributes, we would have nothing.

But verse one and two show us something else that flows out of thankfulness;

1  Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2  Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.

As we are thankful to God, we praise him and then we make known to others what he has done. We tell of all his wonderful acts as the Psalmist wrote. You see if we are thankful to God for what he has done for us, we will be compelled to share the Good news of salvation with those around us. A heart for missions is driven by a heart of gratitude.

Reading the following two verses, we see that the psalmist changes the focus from what God has done, to worshipping God himself.

3  Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 4  Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

We as children of God, can become so wrapped up in what we need from God that we become so focused on the mighty hand of God that we seldom seek the face of God. As we seek the face of God we see his attributes; his love, his mercy, his omnipotence, his glory, his grace, his justice, his wrath – we could go on and on forever listing the glorious attributes of God.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to remember what the hand of God has provided for us and in so doing we begin to praise him as we praise him we declare his attributes. Thanksgiving needs to be public, it needs to be a witness to the goodness of God.

The Psalm continues;  5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

The word the Psalmist uses here for “remember” is not a simple recollection of the facts, but it is to call to mind the wonders God has done and then to dwell on them. It is as if the Psalmist is saying to the reader, slow down, stop what you are doing and hit the pause button, then dwell on what God has done. Much like a day of thanksgiving where we slow down, stop our normal routine and remember the miracles that God has done.

Looking at verse 6 the Psalmist seems to be stating the obvious, by telling the people who they were;  6  O descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.

In essence he is saying; “do you remember who you are?” We as followers of Jesus Christ, we are his chosen ones. We sometimes forget who we are. We have so much to be thankful for because our God, the creator of the universe, calls us his own. The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:9, we are God’s special possession!

This God who calls us his special possession, is also the same God who is over all the earth. There is nothing outside of His control. His ways are perfect and He is our God.

7  He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.

So we see a progression here, the Psalmist begins by thanking God for his blessings, and he progresses to worshiping God for who he is. Then the Psalmist acknowledges that God is working out his eternal plan and judgments over all the earth. The Lord God sent his only son, in order to pay the price for the judgement that was on our heads. Ultimately as we stop and begin to thank God for the blessings in our lives, we are naturally drawn to the greatest gift and blessing of all, the message of the Gospel.

Jesus Christ came to this earth to suffer and die, only to be raised from the dead by the power of God, in order to provide the only way for us to be saved from eternal suffering and to be restored to a right relationship with God the Father.

As we look at our lives in light of eternity, we are drawn to the fact that all we have on this earth, all the many blessings, will one day pass away. Everything we treasure on this earth will one day pass away, only one blessing from God is infinitely more valuable than any other, the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Over the next few weeks we will be focusing our attention of Christmas. It is easy to be drawn away from the greatest gift of all as we focus on buying and giving gifts to each other.

Jesus came for a purpose and that purpose was to suffer and die on the cross, in order that whoever believes in the risen Lord Jesus Christ will have eternal life. That is something we are grateful for today, but we will also be eternally grateful for what God has provided for us.

God and the Election Part 2, November 13, 2016

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Romans 13

Welcome to post election 2016. There is much anxiety in America right now, we see it in our streets and in the media. As the church, how do we navigate these turbulent times? What it really boils down to is the question, where do we place our hope? Do we trust in our government, or do we trust in our God?

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As an immigrant, I have the unusual experience of being a dual citizen. I have a passport from America, and I have a passport from South Africa. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you too have dual citizenship.

The Bible has a number of passages that guide us in our relationship with our earthly rulers. Paul writing in Romans 13 has much to say to us as Christians in 2016.

One of the more challenging verses in the Bible is Romans 13:1. Paul states that every authority has been established by God, and he repeats himself to ensure that the readers would not misunderstand the dramatic statement he was making. This article is too short to try to understand why God would allow rulers like Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and so many other dictators. There is much we don’t and won’t understand this side of eternity. But God is either Lord of all or he is a victim of unexplained circumstances.

I don’t for one minute believe God is reacting to sinful man. God is not the author of evil, neither is he the victim of evil.  God is the creator and sustainer of all things, he knew from the beginning of time who would win the election this past week. God alone is in control and he is not fretting about election results.

Looking at Romans 13:2, any thinking person immediately struggles – are we to obey everything that the government tells us to do, even if it is immoral? These verses written by the apostle Paul are not intended to be an absolute rule demanding unconditional obedience to evil regimes in the world, rather it is a general exhortation for believers to be good citizens of the nation, paying taxes, following the law and playing our part in society. However, when the government requires citizens to go against the stated will and law of God in the Bible, then we are compelled to follow the law of God rather than the law of the government. There are many occasions in the Bible where God approves and even commands disobedience towards the rulers of the land. Look at Esther, Daniel, Peter and the Apostles directly defying the Sanhedrin in Acts 5 by continuing to preach the Gospel as but a few examples.

As we read further in the chapter, it seems that Paul shifts focus entirely and begins to write about loving our neighbor. Paul is going back to the law of God, he started the chapter by writing about the laws of the land, now he is looking at the higher law, the law of God. If this portion sounds similar it is very similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40. Paul confirms this and he ends verse 10 by saying; “Therefore Love is the fulfillment of the law”.

Paul continues in verse 11 by saying; “and do this…” do what? Obey the law of the land, and obey the law of God. Being model citizens of both the land and the Kingdom of God. Why?

Here is the most important verse of the chapter, verse 11 states; “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

Understanding the present time, the times we are living in are truly incredible, history is culminating towards the return of Jesus. What Paul says to the Roman church he says to us, “wake up”, wake up and focus on eternal things. If we have been living in sin, it is time to wholeheartedly live for Jesus Christ and his kingdom. If we have been compromising with the world, we cannot afford to do that anymore. Now is the time to wake up!

You may have been completely isolated and had your head in the sand, but the world around us is scared. There is uncertainty all around, we as followers of Jesus, do not need to live in fear and uncertainty.

As the Church we need to take very seriously the task of praying for our nation. In fact, if we really took seriously God’s word and we really cared for our nation and the world at this time, our prayer meetings will be the most well attended meetings in the church. The church doors would be open all the time as people would be gathering together to pray and ask God for mercy and healing for our land.

The well-known verse 2 Chronicles 7:14, recounts a pivotal time in the history of Israel. As we apply this verse to ourselves, we too are in a pivotal time. Notice that God does not say that if the nation humbles themselves and prays, rather he says “if my people”. We as followers of Jesus Christ need to start the process by humbling ourselves and by repenting of our wicked ways. Paul called on the Roman church to repent in verse 13, calling on the church to commit themselves to holiness and purity. We as followers of Jesus Christ need to set the standard in our own lives.  

Do you have dual citizenship? Are you a citizen of the land and a citizen of heaven? You may say yes, but you are living in fear and uncertainty. As a citizen of heaven, a citizen under Jesus Christ as the king of Kings, you need to repent of fear and begin to display the kingdom of God to those around you, being a light in your community. If we truly grasped the truth of the Word of God we should be the most hopeful and joyful people in the world.

God and the Election part 1 – November 7, 2016

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1 Samuel 8

The day before the elections and people have made the choice to skip voting altogether, because they don’t agree with the principles of any of the candidates. It seems in this nation that many people take for granted the privilege to choose and they don’t even bother to exercise that right. Sadly, history shows us that if you don’t exercise your rights, you are likely to lose them.

Over the last few decades there has been a lot of discussion about the separation of the church and the state. While a don’t believe a pastor should direct the congregation to vote for a specific candidate, I also don’t think that the church should stand idly by and allow corruption and immorality to govern our nation.

DR. Adrian Rogers once said, “the church and state should remain separate institutionally, but the church should be the conscience of the state.

The church is supposed to be the moral compass of the nation, unfortunately the church has spent so much time arguing amongst themselves and debating between denominations, that we have abdicated our voice of morality. Churches and Christians see themselves as poor victims a weak and victimized minority. But Jesus said in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world…” As Christians and as a church, we are Christs ambassadors and when we sit idly by, Satan will continue to destroy this nation.

I came across an interesting quote this week attributed to the 19th century prime minister of England, Benjamin Disraeli.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”

In 1 Samuel 8 the nation of Israel was going through a leadership transition. The great prophet Samuel was getting old and the people began asking for a King. Under Samuel’s leadership, the nation had expanded, their enemies had been subdued and the nation’s surrounding Israel were at peace. But the people were not satisfied, they wanted a king and God gave them what they desired.

The nation of Israel began looking around to the nations around them and asked for a king to be like the other nations (See 1 Samuel 8:5). The people were crying out for a savior, they thought that Samuel would give them a King and he would solve all their problems. On the surface, to ask for a king seemed like a reasonable request, it seemed like Israel was coming of age as a nation and needed to fit the mold of a successful nation. But this request upset Samuel because he realized that the nation had rejected God as their King and were looking for an earthly leader (verse 7).

The problem was not that they wanted a King, the problem was that they were turning their back on God. This nation of God’s chosen people, the people of the promise to Abraham, the same people of the covenant that God made with Moses on Mt Sinai, they wanted to settle for an earthly king to rule over them.

Sadly, in America today we are not much different, we look to a president or the leaders in Washington to solve our problems, instead of turning to the only one who can solve the problems of this nation and the world – Jesus Christ.

Israel had forgotten who they were, they had lost their moral compass. In response God tells Samuel to warn the nation that a king will require from them a heavy burden of taxes, their sons and daughters will be required to serve in his army and in his courts. The burden on the people will be heavy, but yet, they demanded a king. God gave the children of Israel what they wanted, God in his great mercy and wisdom gives nations what they ask for because ultimately God uses the leaders of nations for his purposes.

Even though the people came to Samuel and demanded a King, God chose Saul the son of Kish a Benjamite to be the first King of Israel. We read in chapter 9 and 10 of 1 Samuel, how God chose Saul, who seemed to have amazing leadership skills and potential to be a powerful King. Unfortunately, Saul became a bad king and just as God had said, the nation became his slaves. Bad leaders enslave their people, and that is what Saul did.

We need to prayerfully consider the choice of the election ballot, because as a nation God will give us the president we ask for. As believers we have a divine voting guide, it is the Word of God. Don’t be misled for one minute into thinking that the Word of God does not apply to your choice on Tuesday November 8, it has everything to do with it (see Psalm 119:105 and Proverbs 29:2).

The next president of the United States faces some incredible problems, foreign and domestic terrorism will always be a concern, our economy and national debt is spiraling out of control, the polarization of the nation between liberals and conservatives has reached a boiling point and the next president will have the opportunity to determine the judges on the Supreme court for many years to come.

But as Christians, who are we looking to? If we are placing our hope in the next president, whomever that may be, we will be disappointed. This coming Wednesday God will still be on the throne, he will still be ruling and managing the worlds affairs. God has never needed a king or a president, he raises them up and he puts them down for his purposes.

There are so many issues that we can identify in the world that need fixing, there is no human leader who can possibly solve even some of the nation’s problems Our only hope is in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

There is nothing wrong with being involved in politics or voicing our frustrations with the leaders of our country, but we must view everything from an eternal perspective. As followers of Jesus Christ, this world is not our home, and we must put our trust in Jesus Christ and in no one else. We don’t need a king to be our savior we have Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we get so anxious about the temporal kingdoms here on earth that we forget about God’s eternal Kingdom. (see 1 Peter 2:9-10)