When we consider how Jesus and the other saints throughout Scripture prayed, it is clear that they understood the process of prayer as one that fuels & strengthens our relationship with God!
When we accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, we have been changed, but we haven’t been perfected yet! That’s Gods work, according to His will and His timing.
Our duty is to yield to God’s hand! He will work in us, but we must allow Him to do that work!
Paul writes this letter while under house arrest – waiting to be tried and sentenced – he was in Chains, most likely to a Roman Praetorian Guard. Yet as you’ll see, He was full of Joy in spite of his circumstance. So, as we journey through Philippians it is my hope that these favourite verses and other familiar lines of this amazing letter will take on their first-century depth and power, in this twenty first-century time that seems to lack joy for so many….
I wonder if our resolutions are too small. What if we resolved that Christ would be our center? That He alone would fill the hole we try to stuff with everything this world offers? The relationship we seek to build and hold fast to would be with God? Would our resolutions to read the bible more, attend church more often even attend a study or two, become more organic and not just another “to do” list? I can’t help but think this is the wisdom that we find in Ecclesiastes.
Tonight, we will journey through the scriptures telling of the birth of our Saviour… Immanuel – God with us and together we will sing some of the favourite Carols of the Season – thanks for joining us. One quiet, darkened candle stands waiting. Four thousand years of waiting in cold, desolate sadness. Waiting for the advent of a Saviour – the promised One – the fulfillment of our longing.
Christmas Day Service at First Baptist Church in Kingsville, Ontario.
There is great joy in the Christmas season, and it’s good to embrace and celebrate that joy. It is certainly hard to find the right balance in our lives to savour and experience that joy. But to those of you who find yourselves driven by obligation and busyness and guilt in this season, it’s OK to stop, and say no, and pause and embrace a part of the season that brings you personal happiness.
For many of us, peace sounds like a long way off. A good idea. A nice thought for the holidays. Something we long for. If this is where you find yourself today, let me encourage you that Jesus shows up when the storms of life threaten our peace and hope and joy. He is there with us when all seems lost and the way forward is totally unclear.
For many of us, peace sounds like a long way off. A good idea. A nice thought for the holidays. Something we long for. If this is where you find yourself today, let me encourage you that Jesus shows up when the storms of life threaten our peace and hope and joy. He is there with us when all seems lost and the way forward is totally unclear.
As Richard Stearns begins the last of the Chapters of his book, “The Hole in Our Gospel,” he writes the following: “So far, I have spent twenty-two chapters arguing the case that there is a hole in our gospel and that, as a result, we have embraced a view of our faith that is far too tame. We have, in fact, reduced the gospel to a mere transaction involving the right beliefs rather than seeing in it the power to change the world. I have painted a picture of a world aflame with violence, poverty, injustice, disease, corruption, and human suffering—a world in need of revolution. But I have also attempted to make clear from Scripture that the whole gospel—the very social revolution Jesus intended as His kingdom unfolded “in earth as it is in heaven”—has been entrusted to us, those who claim to follow Christ.”
The person or the Church that uses what they have (be it much or little) to serve the Lord. Let us encourage you along with our Lord Jesus this morning because some of you need to hear this. You may not think you are much in the eyes of the world around you but be faithful to God with what you have. “You have kept my word.” Jesus says. You may feel small and maybe even despised by the culture of the day, but we can still be obedient to God and be faithful to Him and be an overcomer for Him. There are a lot of famous and flashy Christians who have not “kept my word.” I promise you that obeying the Word of God is a far greater achievement than being famous or flashy in Kingdom work.
The Bible has a lot to say about the difference between a benefit that is only temporary and one that lasts forever. When each of us came into this world, the fact of the matter is that we brought nothing into it, and it is certain that we can take nothing out with us – nothing material, that is. When we stand face to face before Jesus, like we discussed last week, the size of the bank account that our relatives are fighting over won’t make a bit of difference to him. What will make a difference is our righteous character – remember the righteous have a place prepared for them.
