17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
TFTD: Why not send a comment back to me and tell me what it means for you to be a part of God's family and to be loved unconditionally (let's get a bit of interaction going here)?
Have a great day,
Peter Clark.
John 14:20 (The Message)
At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you.
God assures us that our sins have been forgiven....
Colossians 2:13,14 (The Message)
God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross.
God assures us that we have eternal life....
1 John 5:13 (The Message)
My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.
18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
15 Look at what I've done for you today: I've placed in front of you
Life and Good
Death and Evil.
16 And I command you today: Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God, your God, in the land you are about to enter and possess.
17-18 But I warn you: If you have a change of heart, refuse to listen obediently, and willfully go off to serve and worship other gods, you will most certainly die. You won't last long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19-20 I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Have a great day,
Peter Clark.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
BAD HABIT.....
.....to be slack about meeting with our Christian brothers and sisters.
GOOD HABIT.....
.....to encourage them by our being with them AND our words and behaviour.
GOOD HABIT.....
.....keep looking out for the Day as it comes a day closer every day.
Have a good day,
Peter Clark.
16 A simple life in the Fear-of-God
is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches.
WEALTH CANNOT GIVE YOU WISDOM
Proverbs 16:16 (The Message)
16 Get wisdom—it's worth more than money;
choose insight over income every time.
WEALTH CAN CREATE PRIDE
Proverbs 18:11 (The Message)
11 The rich think their wealth protects them;
they imagine themselves safe behind it.
23 The poor speak in soft supplications;
the rich bark out answers.
WEALTH CAN CREATE TROUBLE
Proverbs 15:6 (The Message)
6 The lives of God-loyal people flourish;
a misspent life is soon bankrupt.
27 A greedy and grasping person destroys community;
those who refuse to exploit live and let live.
WE NEED TO SHARE WITH OTHERS WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN US
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
those who help others are helped.
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
those who help others are helped.
17 He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will reward him for what he has done.
GET RICH QUICK SCHEMES MIGHT LEAVE YOU POOR (AND SOMEONE ELSE RICH)
20 Committed and persistent work pays off;
get-rich-quick schemes are ripoffs.
TFTD: The way to gain wealth is through hard work and faithfulness to the Lord.
4 Sloth makes you poor;
diligence brings wealth.
42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
45"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
Sermon preached at All Saints, Hunters Hill on 30th January, 2010 at 6pm.
James 1:19-20. LISTENING AND DOING
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. (The Message)
Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
We can learn to be slow to wrath by first learning to be swift to hear and slow to speak.
So much of our anger and wrath comes from being self-centered not others-centered.
Swift to hear is a way to be others-centered.
Slow to speak is a way to be others-centered.
It is the idea that we have two ears, and they are open; and one tongue, and that hedged in with teeth and lips.
We must be slow to get angry for 2 reasons:
Firstly, because of the temptation to get angry for no good reason.
Secondly, because we know that God is good.
We are told that our anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
Our anger almost always simply defends or promotes our own agenda.
Verse 21says this
Therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word implanted in you, which can save
This has in mind – living badly.
That is how we are not to live.
We are to get rid of all impurity, putting them far from us.
In contrast to living badly
, we should humbly accept the word of God.
This word is able to save us, both in our current situation and eternally.
The taking on board of God’s word can preserve us even in an impure age.
Spurgeon says this:
“The first thing, then, is receive.
That word ‘receive’ is a very instructive gospel word; it is the door through which God’s grace enters to us.
We are not saved by working, but by receiving; not by what we give to God, but by what God gives to us, and we receive from him.” (Spurgeon)
We see here the spiritual power of the word of God.
When it is implanted in the human heart, it is able to save your souls.
The word of God carries the power of God.
The question is then raised as to how to receive the word of God.
That is answered in verses 22-25
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
THE MESSAGE
22-24Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
We are to be doers of the word, and not hearers only: We must receive God’s word as doers, not merely hearers.
To take comfort in the fact you have heard God’s word when you haven’t done it is to deceive yourself.
Jesus used this same point to conclude His great Sermon on the Mount.
He said that the one who heard the word without doing it was like a man who built his house on the sand,
but the one who heard God’s word and did it was like a man whose house was built on a rock.
This house could withstand the inevitable storms of life and eternity (Matthew 7:24-27).
The person who only hears God’s word without doing it, is like a person who looks into a mirror and immediately forgets what they saw.
The information he received did not do any good in his life.
A healthy person looks in the mirror to do something, not just to admire the image.
Even so, a healthy Christian looks into God’s word to do something about it, not just to store up facts that he will not put to use by being a doer of the word.
If we study the word of God intently, and do it (continue in it), then we will be blessed.
In the ancient Greek language, the word for looks into spoke of a penetrating examination.
Though James stressed doing, he did not neglect studying God’s word either.
We should look into God’s word.
In verses 26-27 there are examples of what it means to be a doer of the word of God.
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
One way to do God’s word is to bridle the tongue.
Another way to be a doer of the Word is in verse 27:
To visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world:
A real walk with God shows itself in simple, practical ways. It helps the needy, and keeps itself unstained by the world’s corruption.
Lot is an example of a man who was spotted by the world.
He started living towards Sodom, disregarding the spiritual climate of the area because of the prosperity of the area. Eventually he moved to the wicked city and became a part of the city’s leadership.
The end result was that Lot lost everything - and was saved as by the skin of his teeth.
I’ll start our question and comment time by asking how do we keep ourselves from being spotted by the world?
